The Causal Body and the Ego - Canadian Theosophical Association

The Causal Body and the Ego by Arthur E. Powell
CHAPTER VII
THE ATTACHMENT OF THE ATOMS
II LOWER TRIAD
The spiritual Triad, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, having been formed, the warmth of the stream of Logoic life
arouses within it faint thrillings of responsive life. After long preparation, a tiny thread, like a minute
rootlet, a golden coloured thread of life sheathed in buddhic matter, proceeds from the Triad.
This thread is sometimes called the Sutratma, literally the Thread-Self, because, the permanent particles
will be threaded on it like beads on a string. The term however, is used in various ways, but always to
denote the idea of a thread connecting separate particles. Thus it is applied to the reincarnating Ego, as
the thread on which many separate, lives are strung: to the Second Logos, as the thread on which beings
in His Universe are strung; and so on. It thus denotes a function, rather than a special entity or class of
entities.
From each spiritual Triad appears one of these threads, which at first wave vaguely in the seven great
streams of life. Then , each of them is anchored, just as happened in the case of the Higher Triad, by the
agency of the Devas to a mental molecule, or unit as it is usually called, this being a particle of the fourth
mental sub-plane, i.e.., The highest level of mental plane.
Around this mental unit, are gathered temporary aggregations of elemental essence of the Second
Elemental Kingdom, scattering and regathering, over and over again. The vibrations of the essence
gradually awaken the mental unit into faint responses, these again thrilling feebly upwards to the seed of
consciousness in the Triad, producing, therein vaguest internal movements.
The mental unit cannot be said to have always round it a form of its own, for there may be several of
many mental units plunged into a given aggregation of essence, whilst other aggregations of essence
may have only one mental unit in them, or none at all.
Thus, with inconceivable slowness, the mental units become possessors of certain qualities: i.e.., they
acquire the power of vibrating in certain ways, which, are connected with thinking, and will at a later
stage make thoughts possible.
In this, they are helped by the Devas of the Second Elemental Kingdom, who direct upon them the
vibrations to which they gradually begin to respond, and surround them with the elemental essence they,
the Devas, throw off from their own bodies.
Furthermore, each of the seven typical groups is separated from the others by a delicate wall of monadic
essence - atomic matter ensouled by the life of the Second Logos—the beginning of the wall of the future
Group-Soul.
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