The Secret Doctrine Volume 3.pdf

a clairvoyant looking at the brain of a living man may almost count, see with the
spiritual eye, the seven scales, the seven shades of light, passing from the dullest to
the brightest. You touch your hand; before you touch it the vibration is already in the
aura of the pineal gland, and has its own shade of colour. It is this aura which causes
the wear and tear of the organ, by the vibrations its sets up. The brain, set vibrating,
conveys the vibrations to the spinal cord, and so to the rest of the body. Happiness
as well as sorrow sets up these strong vibrations, and so wears out the body.
Powerful vibrations of joy or sorrow may thus kill.
The Heart
The septenary disturbance and play of light around the pineal gland are reflected in
the heart, or rather the aura of the heart, which vibrates and illumines the seven
brains of the heart, just as does the aura round the pineal gland. This is the
exoterically four- but Esoterically seven-leaved lotus, the Saptaparna, the cave of
Buddha, with its seven compartments.
Astral and Ego
There is a difference between the nature and the essence of the Astral Body and the
Ego. The Astral Body is molecular, however etherealized it may be: the Ego is
atomic, spiritual. The Atoms are spiritual, and are for ever invisible on this plane;
molecules form around them, they remaining as the higher invisible principles of the
molecules. The eyes are the most Occult of our senses; close them and you pass to
the mental plane. Stop all the senses and you are entirely on another plane.
Individuality
If twelve people are smoking together, the smoke of their cigarettes may mingle, but
the molecules of the smoke from each have an affinity with each other, and they
remain distinct for ever and ever, no matter (Page 578) how the whole mass may
interblend. So a drop of water, though it fall into the ocean retains its individuality. It
has become a drop with a life of its own, like a man, and cannot be annihilated. Any
group of people would appear as a group in the Astral Light, but would not be
permanent; but a group meeting to study Occultism would cohere and the impression
would be more permanent. The higher and the more spiritual the affinity, the more
permanent the cohesion.
Lower Manas
The Lower Manas is an emanation from the Higher Manas, and is of the same nature
as the Higher. This nature can make no impression on this plane, nor receive any: an
Archangel, having no experience, would be senseless on this plane, and could
neither give nor receive impressions. So the Lower Manas clothes itself with the
essence of the Astral Light; this astral envelope shuts it out from its Parent, except
through the Antahkarana which is its only salvation. Break this and you become an
animal.
Kâma
Kâma is life, it is the essence of the blood. When this leaves the blood the latter
congeals. Prâna is universal on this plane; it is in us the vital principle, Prânic, rather
than Pranâ.
Self-Hood
Qualities determine the properties of “Self-hood.” As, for instance two wolves placed
in the same environment would probably not act differently.
The field of the consciousness of the Higher Ego is never reflected in the Astral Light.
The Auric Envelope receives the impressions of both the Higher and the Lower
Manas, and it is the latter impressions that are also reflected in the Astral Light.
Whereas the essence of all things spiritual, all that which reaches, or is not rejected
436