We shall endeavor now to carry this study to the very frontiers of human understanding. Fragmentary as certain teachings are in the form in which they have been given to us, they are nonetheless very much alive in the power they contain to lift the human consciousness above its limitations into those realms of pure thought wherein it can breathe the air of spiritual freedom.
We have laid the foundations for this new aspect of the study in all that has gone before, and we are now equipped to take wing in imaginary flight into the spaces of space and make straight for the heart of the Spiritual Sun. Having left our organs of sense behind, we are no longer hindered by the reports of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. We may well laugh out ourselves for having believed what our senses once told us about the Sun, the Planets, and the spaces within the Solar System. Understanding somewhat better the nature of the physical Sun, we perceive the Solar Splendor of the Divinity at its heart, and we can understand to a degree the teaching of the Ancient Wisdom which tells us that everything is alive and that each star within our galaxy is but a unit in a living organism, the heart of which is the Boundless itself.
Since even in our flight we must attach names to things, we have learned to call the Heart of the Universe by the name of Brahman, in which dwells our own great Solar Divinity which goes by the name of Brahma. Indeed, this is the name given to the Divinity at the heart of any star; that is why we say that within the divine essence of Brahman there are myriads of Brâhmas.
Our imagination can lead us no farther than to a contemplation of our own Brahma, however; and as we make our flight to his home at the heart of the Sun, we see is family of Planets in a new light. As explained before, each planet that we see is but the visible representative of a cluster of Globes, such cluster forming what we have learned to call a Globe Chain, or a Planetary Chain.
Because we are now seeing with a larger vision, we are going to imagine a number of these clusters located in the sky within the general vicinity of the Primary Globes which we recognize as the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and so on. The word primary is used merely to indicate that these are the words with which we entered upon our study of the several planetary chains. As far as this present study is concerned, we are going to number the Sacred Planets as 7, leaving further expansion of the teaching to the intuition of the student.1
Astronomy teaches, quite correctly, that the Sun is the center of the Solar System, and, confining itself as it does to the phenomena of the physical universe, it scorns any reference to Astrology. The Ancient Wisdom is equally impatient with pseudo-astrology, which is often used for mere fortune-telling by astrologers who know little if anything about the nature of the Universe and of Man and cannot really relate the two. In fact, so little is known of the implications of the relationship between a human being and the planets that one could hardly expect anything more from modern Astrology than the form it usually takes.
All that has gone before in these studies may be called an introduction to Esoteric Astrology, even though nothing has been said about the Signs of the Zodiac, planetary aspects and all the other terms that are used in casting horoscopes. Here we have attempted to delve into the inner structure of the Solar System and to discover the foundation upon which the superstructure of enlightened Astrology could be built. Such a science would not be a hit-or-miss affair but would carry with it and confer upon the genuine astrologer's immense knowledge, and hence enormous power for good. The time may come when we shall discover some of the all-important keys. In these lines of study, everything seems to fall into place at the right time, and we must move forward step by step.
It is significant that everyone sees the universe as though he were at the center of it. It is no wonder then that the early astronomers thought that the universe was gencentric; and this is the viewpoint still assumed by Astrology. Astronomically it is all wrong, but from another standpoint, there are certain keys to truth which can be discovered in the geocentric viewpoint. It goes back to the idea explained previously that we see the entire universe as a gigantic illusion, and we must guide our mundane lives by the physical illusions which frame our earthly existence. Knowing that the Earth spins on its axis does not make us feel its motion; and we still govern our lives by the apparent rising and setting of the sun.
So in this next step in our study we are going to adopt the geocentric viewpoint as we lift the spiral diagram from Fig. 11 and superimpose it upon a diagram of the Solar System. The orbits of the planets are of course drawn around the Sun as they should be, but the spirals (which do not represent orbits) will be superimposed, and the central starting point of the curves will be the Earth itself. These spirals may now be thought of as connecting curves or pathways joining the orbits of the various heavenly objects. See Fig. 12. Naturally this cannot be laid out to scale; as a matter of fact this is never attempted in portraying the solar system in the textbooks. The shapes of the evolute and the involute are also necessarily altered as well, but this detracts not all from the ideas that are to be set forth. In these matters we are dealing with ideas and not with exactness in form.
We are ready now to identify the circles taken from Fig. 11, having modified their relative sizes, as explained, in order to show the following interesting results:
This division of the planets into the two groups is done here on the basis of our studies which have brought to us the understanding that there are certain of the planets known as the Sacred Planets, and that these belong to a closely knit group bound together by karmic ties of destiny. It is very significant that the seven circles derived from the Tetraktys should of themselves bring about this separation of the planets into the two groups.
It is virtually impossible to tell anything briefly about the Sacred Planets because any understanding of them involves a foundation of teaching that would fill volumes. Suffice it to say that it is these particular planets that are involved in the processes of Initiation. They are also the group of planets that had a very special part to play in the building of the seven Globes of the Earth Chain, as explained earlier.
For the time being let us say that the outermost of the circles represents the Sun itself, in a mystical sense — not viewed as a star at the center of the Solar system, and of insignificant size as compared with the orbits of the planets, but rather as that mighty field of many forces which encompasses the entire Solar System. In the Eastern Philosophy this is referred to as the “Egg of Brahma” and includes everything within the Solar System, worlds invisible as well as those which are recognizable to our senses.
Now if we list these celestial objects in the order in which their orbits have been touched by the circles, we find that we come face to face with a remarkable clue to the Mysteries, to be found in the days of the week. It had better be mentioned first of all that the roman gods were associated with the days of the week, as were also the Scandinavian gods. The English names point to the Scandinavian mythology, whereas the names in French and Spanish point mainly to the Roman mythology. However, there is a direct correspondence between the Gods themselves as portrayed in the Scandinavian and in the Roman mythologies. They are really the same Gods but with different names, according to the races which honored them.
First of all, we shall give the English and the Scandinavian names for the days of the week, then the names of the Scandinavian Gods from which they are derived, and finally the names of the “Seven Sacred Planets.”
| Monday | Mådag | Manen | Moon |
| Tuesday | Tisdag | Tiw (God of War) | Mars |
| Wednesday | Onsdag | Wotan | Mercury |
| Thursday | Torsdag | Thor | Jupiter |
| Friday | Fredag | Freya | Venus |
| Saturday | Lördag | ? | Saturn |
| Sunday | Söndag | ? | Sun |
The French and the Spanish names of the days of the week are also very interesting; these will be given with the corresponding Roman Gods which are also the names of the Sacred Planets:
| French | Spanish | Gods and Planets |
| Lundi | Lunes | Luna, the Moon |
| Mardi | Martes | Mars |
| Mercredi | Miércoles | Mercury |
| Jeudi | Jueves | Jupiter |
| Vendredi | Viernes | Venus |
| Samedi | Sábado | Saturn |
| Dimanche | Domingo | Sun |
Notice that due to the Christian influence and customs, the correspondences break down for the names of Saturday and Sunday, although the English words for these two days quite evidently correlate with Saturn and the Sun.
One branch of the more advanced studies deals with the Law of Correspondences. In this study we find that there are occult correspondences between colors, musical tones, the planets and the signs of the Zodiac, the cosmical elements, the principles of the human constitution, the days of the week, and other things as well. A very small glimpse of this remains even to our day in the names of the days of the week.
It is with full knowledge that one exposes oneself to ridicule showing in writing or speaking that he takes these ideas seriously. Nor can he make a good case for himself by demonstrating an acceptable basis for this study. And of course H. P. Blavatsky was ridiculed, as have been other exponents of the Ancient Wisdom. This is one reason for caution in the exposition of these ideas; it is useless to attempt to explain them to unsympathetic minds.
The fact remains that there is an occult language, and these teachings are the letters of the alphabet. As students we are privileged to learn the letters, and if we apply ourselves to the primary lessons, we may even learn to spell a few simple words. However, it is not possible for us yet to use the words of the occult alphabet to form really constructive sentences. The mystic process of Initiation confers upon the Initiate the power and the right to work creatively with the occult language; his true work is beyond the ridicule of the world for the simple reason that it is unknown. We students are in the interesting position of having, on the one hand, the unspeakable privilege of setting down the teachings for those who will listen and, on the other hand, the well-night thankless task of trying to explain matters that sound incredible if viewed by the standards to which the world is accustomed. Nevertheless we feel that we are amply rewarded if but one or two will listen and understand.
One point of contact with the people that we would reach is the fact that in all the great religions there are stories (usually accepted literally by the adherents of those religions) that would be considered unacceptable to the mind that requires everything to be weighed against logic. The simple statement of the Christian belief that God created Man in his own image is a case in point. If we wish to analyze this with the brain mind, we might ask: Which man? Which Nation? Was it early man? Was it modern man? A religious thought breaks down before a barrage of such questions. But we miss the principle of the teaching in the act of framing these questions. Physical man was never meant. The saying is a deeply mystical one, full of esoteric meaning and strictly in line with the teachings of the Ancient Wisdom.
The mystical approach is all-important and should not be abandoned just because it cannot be evaluated on logical grounds. It is the only basis on which the teachings to follow can be accepted. It establishes a footing that can neither be proved nor disproved. It appeals to certain faculties that go far beyond the brain-mind; without these we find ourselves confronted by an impenetrable wall, a barrier to our further progress.
That is why we are taking an imaginary flight through the spaces of the Solar System. No modern scientific device is carrying us. We are propelled by another power — that power which speeds the great rivers of lives from planet to planet, and from planet to Sun. We have become a part of those rivers. They are streams of consciousness in the truest sense of the word, the vital streams which are the Solar blood, vitalizing the vast organism which we call the Solar System. These streams nourish not merely the physical globes which we recognize with our senses, but all of the Globes of all the Planetary Chains. That is why with our awakened vision we see them all; and the sight is wonderful beyond telling. The diagram that we have used is nothing more than an aid, even though it carries in its very outlines potent keys. If we wished, we could expand it to take in the still deeper teachings which will be briefly explained in the following chapter.
Of what are these living streams composed? In part, of the many classes of life-atoms of which this section of the book is treating. It is not the whole story of course, but it is sufficient to carry out our theme, and the wonder of it is that it ties in with the studies of these geometrical figures which form the basis of Mathematical Symbolism.
1 There is one aspect of our studies that can become quite confusing. So we emphasize here whate has already been explained in earlier chapters: We number the Gloabs of the Chains sometimes though they were seven and sometimes as though they were twelve, depending upon the level of study we are undertaking at the time. It is much like the case of a young student learning arithmetic who is told that some day he will learn other methods of working with numbers, and that the higher branches of mathematics are know as Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus, and so on. This does not make his arithmetic wrong; it merely means that this is the aspect of mathematics that he can best grasp at this time. Similarly with the teaching of the Planetary Chains: To speak of the Globes as being seven in number is not wrong: but a further advancement in the study brings other factors into the picture, and the Globes not counted among the seven are of such a different character that there must be no confusion between the lower seven and the upper five.
Thus, while we are not going into any great detail as yet, nevertheless we should become accustomed at this time to recognize that these clusters of Globes that we imagine to be in the sky in the vicinites of the Planets that we see, are in every case composed of 12 Globes. Not only is this true to the deeper teachings, but it fits in perfectly with the mathematical aspects of Symbolism as developed in this book.