The second basic idea is that the response of the etheric vehicle of all forms and its capacity to appropriate, to utilize, and to transmit are dependent upon the condition of the centers, of the chakras, as they are called in the East. These include not only the well known seven major centers but numbers of lesser vortices of force, as yet unnamed and unknown in the occident. It is dependent also upon the quality of the etheric vehicle, upon its aliveness, and also upon the interlacing network in which the centers have their place, and which in its entirety is called "the web" or the "golden bowl". If this is clear of impediments and of sediment, and if its channels are not clogged then the circulating rays, energies and forces can find an easy medium and can circulate unimpeded throughout the entire body. They can then utilize those centers which are responsive to their vibrations, and can be passed on and through to forms in other or the same kingdoms in nature. Here lies the secret of all scientific and occult healing. Healers are experimenting with the etheric body and yet little real knowledge is theirs. They know little or nothing of the centers in their own body through which the magnetic or other currents must flow; they are unaware of the condition of the etheric centers of those they seek to heal and of the nature of the forces they wish to employ. All they can do is to discipline their lives, and so control their appetites that they build a clean body and provide clear channels for the passage of forces from and through themselves to others.

The third concept to be noted is that forms are, as yet [291] primarily responsive to the forces which reach them from other forms on the planet, to the seven basic types of energies emanating from the seven planets, and also to the life-giving solar ray. All forms in all the four kingdoms respond to these many forces, to these seven energies and to the one ray. The human family are responsive also to other energies and to solar rays, - all however colored by the force generated within the solar ring-pass-not.

The work of the occultist and of the aspirant is to arrive at an understanding of these forces and so learn their nature and their use, their potency and vibratory rate. He has also to learn to recognize their source and be able to differentiate between forces, energies and rays. For the beginner a clear distinction can be made between forces and energies by appreciating the fact that personalities affect us through the forces emanating from their form aspect, but that these same personalities, purified and aligned, can be transmitters of the energies of the soul.