Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul - Esoteric Psychology I - Section II

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Esoteric Psychology I - Section Two - II. The Rays and the Kingdoms in Nature

1. The Mineral Kingdom

Influence: The seventh ray of organization and the first ray of power are the dominant factors.
Results: The evolutionary results are radiation and potency, a static potency, underlying the rest of the natural scheme.
Process: Condensation.
Secret: Transmutation. The Treatise on Cosmic Fire defines this as follows: "Transmutation is the passage across from one state of being to another through the agency of fire."
Purpose: To demonstrate the radioactivity of life.
Divisions: Base metals, standard metals, precious stones.
Objective agency: Fire. Fire is the initiating factor in this kingdom.
Subjective agency: Sound.
Quality: Extreme density. Inertia. Brilliance. [224]

Students must remember that we are not dealing with the elements and atoms, as we study this kingdom. They are the substance out of which all the mineral forms are made. But we are dealing with the mineral forms as they manifest in the concrete world. We are considering the tangible and objective world. The internal constitution and geometrical formation of the minerals do not come under our subject matter. This is not a scientific treatise, as usually understood, but a study in quality and consciousness as they affect the form aspect. Much, if not nearly all that exoteric science has posited regarding the mineral kingdom can, for ordinary uses, be accepted as relative fact. But two points should be considered, and they are:

The consciousness aspect of the mineral world.
The transmutation of forms by fire in that kingdom, leading to an ultimate radiation.

The best known example of the effect of the initiation of the mineral by fire can be seen in the great transition and transformation, allotropically brought about, from the carbon stage to that of the perfect diamond. A further qualitative stage can be seen as the radiation or the throwing off of rays, as in radium.

That there are three stages in the evolutionary processes in the mineral kingdom must be borne in mind, and these (though apparently unrelated to each other from the angle of modern science) are nevertheless subjectively and essentially part of a tremendous inner process. These stages are the correspondences in the mineral kingdom to the stages of animal consciousness, of self-consciousness, and of the radiant group consciousness of the soul. There is a fourth stage of potency or of organized expressed power, but this lies ahead, and is the analogy in this kingdom to the life of the Monad, as expresses in the solar consciousness of the initiates of high degree. [225]

Just as science has discovered the ninety-two elements so that the list of the possible elements is relatively complete, so eventually science will have arranged the progressive tables which will show the three stages of the life cycle of every mineral leading from the static mineral stage, such as carbon, through that of the crystal, semi-precious stone and precious stone to that of the radioactive substance. In the determining of this development it is impossible for man as yet to see the relations, for the cycles covered are so vast, the action of the fire in these tremendous periods so varying, and the recognition of the intermediate stages so difficult, that aught that I could say would but feed amusement and incredulity. But two basic premises can be laid down:

That the many mineral substances fall naturally into seven main groups, corresponding to the seven subdivisions of the influencing rays, those of organization and power.
That only in those world cycles when the seventh ray is in manifestation, and therefore supremely powerful, do certain hidden changes take place in these seven groups. These are the correspondences, in the mineral evolution, to the seven initiations of man.

At these times there is an increased radiatory activity. This can be noted at this time in the discovery of radioactive substance, as the incoming ray increases its potency, decade by decade. A certain amount of radiation is basic and fundamental in any world cycle. But when the seventh ray comes in there is an intensification of that radiation, and new substances appear to come into new activity. This intensification leaves the entire mineral kingdom, as a whole, more radioactive than before, until this increased radiation becomes in its turn basic and fundamental. As the seventh ray passes cyclically out of [226] manifestation a certain measure of inertia settles down on the kingdom, though that which is radiatory continues its activity. In this way the radiation of the mineral world steadily increases as the cycles come and go, and there is necessarily a paralleling effect upon the higher three kingdoms. People today have no idea what effect this radiation (due to the incoming ray) will have, not only upon the surrounding mineral world but on the vegetable kingdom (which has its roots in the mineral kingdom), and upon men and animals in lesser degree. The power of the incoming cosmic rays has called forth the more easily recognized radioactivity with which modern science is now concerned. It was three seventh ray disciples who "interpreted" these rays to man. I refer to the Curies and to Millikan. Being themselves on the seventh ray, they had the necessary psychic equipment and responsiveness to enable them intuitively to recognize their own ray vibration in the mineral kingdom.

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