Space and substance are synonymous terms; substance is the aggregate of atomic lives out of which all forms are built. With this the Treatise on Cosmic Fire largely dealt. [106] This is both an occult and a scientific truism. Substance is, however, a soul concept, and is only truly known to the soul. Therefore, after the fourth initiation, when the work of the soul is accomplished and the soul body fades out of the picture, only the quality which it has imparted in substance is left as its contribution - individual, group or planetary - to the sumtotal of manifestation. All that remains is a point of light. This point is conscious, immutable and aware of the two extremes of the divine expression: the sense of individual identity and the sense of universality. These are fused and blended in the One. Of this One the divine Hermaphrodite is the concrete symbol - the union in one of the pairs of opposites, negative and positive, male and female. In the state of being which we call the monadic, no difference is recognized between these two because (if I can bring such ideas down to the level of the intelligence of the aspirant) it is realized that there is no identity apart from universality and no appreciation of the universal apart from the individual realization, and this realization of identification with both the part and the whole finds its point of tension in the will-to-be, which is qualified by the will-to-good and developed (from the consciousness angle) by the will-to-know. These are in truth three aspects of the divine will which exists in its perfection in the solar Logos and finds a medium of expression through the planetary Logos. This will is therefore working out in seven ways, via the living qualities of the seven planetary Logoi Who express Themselves through the seven sacred planets; They are preoccupied with the endeavor of bringing all the forms of life within the orbit of Their influence up to the same measure of recorded recognition and of registered existence. It will be obvious to you, consequently, that on each of the seven sacred planets one aspect of the divine Will will be dominant.

This is the significance of Space - the field wherein states of Being are brought to the stage of recognition. When that stage has been reached and the Knower, the Soul, is fully aware and fully conscious, then there enters [107] in a new factor which also affects space - though in a different way - but which is related to the monadic Life. That factor is Time. Time is related to the will aspect and is dependent upon the dynamic life, self-directed, which produces persistence and which demonstrates persistence in that dynamic focus of intention by periodic or cyclic appearance.

From the angle of the Will or the Father, these appearances in time and through space are so small a part of the experience of the living Entity Whose life is lived on planes other than the physical, emotional or mental, that they are regarded as no life. To understand this, I would remind you again that we must seek to understand the sum total in the light of the part, the Macrocosm in the light of the Microcosm. That is no easy task and is necessarily most limited.

We could paraphrase the last two sentences of this fourth rule as follows: The evocation of the will involves identity with the larger purpose. The little will of the little lives must be merged in the larger will of the whole. Individual purpose must be identified with group purpose, which is as much of the purpose of the Whole or the One Life as the little life can grasp at any given point in time [108] and space. It is in this sense, esoterically understood, that time is an event - which philosophy now points out, groping towards an expression of the initiate consciousness.