Knowledge of Life Two
4. THE MOTION ASPECT
4. THE MOTION ASPECT
1An old esoteric symbolic saying was that ”everything consists of vibrations”. This ”everything” is infinitely typical of one-track conceptual thinking, which must always make every concept absolute in order to grasp it as thing by itself. The saying wanted to intimate that everything is in some kind of motion and that motion is caused by energies.
2The cosmic energies pouring through every atom keep everything in motion and through this cosmic motion hold the atoms together in their given forms. It is quite another thing that these cosmic energies originally consist of primordial atoms.
3It is motion that works change, produces everything, upholds everything, and finally dissolves everything and makes that phenomenon possible which we call evolution (biological or consciousness evolution).
4As regards consciousness development some people use the expression “conquer the consciousness of higher kinds of matter”. In the planetary hierarchy, the formulation “appropriate higher kinds of energy” is preferred. The matter aspect is relegated to the subconscious. The consciousness aspect with omniscience in the various worlds becomes familiar bordering on trivial. It appears so insignificant that it almost disappears, which the Oriental in his paradoxical language expresses by “it does not exist” or “is an illusion” (or some other “symbolic” saying, in any case almost insufferable for Western thinking with its demand for exactitude).
5The motion aspect with its dynamic energies in the process of manifestation makes itself felt as the one essential. Energy, force, will is what moves things forward and upward. It is life itself. Everything else is stagnation. It turns knowledge into faculty to an ever greater extent.
6Without energy there would be no cosmos and no development. It is true that omniscience plans, but energy realizes. The matter aspect is of importance in so far as consciousness is dependent on matter and on the quality of the tool for its expression. Without matter there is neither consciousness nor energy.
7The relative order of the three aspects is: 1) motion (will), 2) consciousness, 3) matter.
8The West has discovered the matter aspect; India, the consciousness aspect. The will aspect remains to be discovered.
9Finality in nature is the result of coaction between all the three aspects.
10Finality in history (the history of human consciousness development through millions of years) is predominantly a work of the consciousness aspect.
11The motion aspect (energy aspect, will aspect) such as it expresses itself in the individual consciousness has been given a great number of names: physically the urge of selfpreservation (will to live); emotionally (lower) desire, (higher) aspiration; mentally expedient motive, causally expedient and purposeful self-realization (in accord with the Law); essentially the realization of unity, etc., in ever higher kinds of consciousness. The term “will” has also been used in all these different contexts.
12The lack of words in language to denote the unknown realities that esotericians deal with has always made it exceedingly difficult for esotericians to make the esoteric knowledge of reality and life comprehensible to the uninitiated. They have been forced to resort to all manner of symbolic locutions, which of course have always been misinterpreted by the uninitiated. Then it is quite natural that the exoteric authorities, who believe themselves able to judge everything, starting from their limited systems of thought (the one “infallible” basis of judgement), have used the opportunity to bring these symbols into ridicule (when they have not distorted them).
13To the esoterician, the whole of existence is, with respect to consciousness, a gigantic process of development from actual unconsciousness to final omniscience. Originally unconscious, the striving after ever higher kinds of consciousness and (when insight has been acquired) ever higher kinds of consciousness of unity or consciousness of community (as a necessary condition of omniscience) becomes dominant, and all the means consciousness finds to be an outlet of the universal energy are directed at the realization of the meaning and goal of life, as they are seen.
14Most people have probably experienced how poor language is (and how it becomes even more watered-down through the abuse of ignorance) when it comes to express emotional consciousness phenomena. The scientist avails himself by formulating his own terminology. It is worse for the esoterician, since the uninitiated are unable to grasp what is described. In their plight, esotericians have had recourse to old “religious” or “spiritual” designations that are completely watered down, and so doing have managed to give their presentations even more the appearance of quasi, have made it even more difficult for seekers to comprehend it, and increased the confusion of ideas.
1Of the three aspects of reality, the motion aspect, energy aspect, is the one that has been given least attention. The planetary hierarchy asserts with vigour that the energy aspect is the most important. It is the energies that effect all events, all changes. Without energy, man could not think for thinking is a process, a manifestation of energy. The clearer the thought, the greater the mental energy. That energy seeks an outlet in action. Mankind’s total disorientation and restless hunt for various chimaeras has to a heightening degree effected agitation and stress and even become the cause of a many kinds of new diseases. It is of little avail that medical science finds cures against them. New ones will constantly appear, for the energies must have an outlet in some manner. This is a factor that research must pay especial attention to, and it will revolutionize traditional ways of looking at things. One more proof that the esoteric knowledge agrees with reality.
2With each higher atomic kind the motion aspect, energy aspect, will aspect is ever more dominant. With each higher kingdom the will to unity, the collective will is ever more powerful, ever more penetrating. According to the law of freedom, it cannot (may not) be forced upon anyone, cannot be allowed to have a disturbing effect on the individual’s selfacquired ability of freedom (power). It is there, however, can be perceived ever more distinctly, even if it cannot be identified, be clearly apprehended until at the causal stage (when a contact with the world of Platonic ideas is achieved).
3This is not at all any new teaching but the one that was at the bottom of the teachings of Buddha as well as Christos. With the almost total lack of knowledge of reality and understanding of life prevalent (still concerning about 99 per cent of existence) it was not possible to formulate it differently than was done. This has nowadays been made possible through the permission to publicize esoterics.
4Using religious locutions you can express the matter thus: the secret of “will” is revealed when mankind becomes conscious of its godhood, enters into unity, into the common, lawful will of life.
5The basic erroneous view of philosophy and even of occultism hitherto (you hesitate to use the word ”esoterics”) is the overemphasis of the consciousness aspect. Knowledge is not the essential thing. It is certainly necessary, but the motion aspect is the essential, the understanding of, and the ability to purposively use, the energies of consciousness expressions, for it is these that make realization possible.
1All life is change in all respects, in all the three aspects in all the envelopes. This is the fact that has given rise to many esoteric sayings: everything is motion; everything consists of vibrations; everything is energy, etc. Mankind has no idea of this, and even to science this fact is little more than a vague theory. If man could follow this course of events and adapt to it in every moment, his problem of life would be solved. Instead he tries by all means to counteract change, as perversely as possible, as usual. The discovery of rhythm in whatever happens is of course a step in the right direction, but it is a long way to go from there to the rhythm in all phenomena of life.
2Among the many fundamental reality ideas there are in hylozoics particularly two would revolutionize everything in human life if they were rightly understood. The one is the insight that dynamis is omnipotence, and the other is that consciousness always utilizes dynamis and does so to an increasing extent with each higher world until in the highest world it can build a cosmos.
1The saying, occurring all too frequently, that we can “control” the forces of nature, should be scotched at once. We can use a few of them. But not even god can “control” one single force. The forces of nature, dynamis acting in matter, can be utilized through a knowledge of the laws of nature. People have apparently been seized with some imaginative delirium on account of the most recent discoveries of physical science.
2Our envelopes can to a certain extent be compared with electric machines that convert energy received into work. Whence this universal energy comes, how it comes, and the purposive manners in which to use it rightly, is a series of unsolved problems, and most of them will remain unsolved until mankind has reached the stage of ideality and cannot possible abuse the power afforded by such a knowledge.
3The so-called atomic scientists try to explore how to utilize the latent energy found in molecules by dissolving lower molecular kinds so that they change into higher kinds. But they cannot comprehend how these lower molecules are formed, until some time in the future they humble themselves to study esoterics. It seems impossible for them to acknowledge that their dogmas are fictions. New generations are needed who gradually see that the old scientific hypotheses are fictitious. In that way new hypotheses are constructed which become new dogmas. Despite their constant setbacks over the centuries, they keep to their hypothesis method. There would be no reason for saying anything about it, unless they “had faith” in their hypothesis method and were constantly making new dogmas out of their assumptions.
4According to esoteric astrology all kinds of energies (the energies of medicines, for instance) can be classified according to their zodiacal sign, planets, departments, depending on analogous vibrations. When the pertaining laws some time will be generally known, everything we undertake, manufacture, etc., will be started under purposive circumstances. It depends on mankind and the understanding of the leading authorities when such knowledge will be given out. As long as everything unknown is met with the superior contempt of ignorance, mankind will be without knowledge. Collective responsibility is no empty expression.
5The esoteric saying about the “rhythm of existence” has been picked up by uninitiated. (You may very well use the expression “uninitiated” about those who lack the knowledge of hylozoics, even if it does not refer to the initiation into an order.) Of course, conceited faith in individual judgement was at once ready to explain and imagination to make something out of it. They arrange systems in which they allege they establish the physical, emotional, and mental rhythms of individuals. The reliability of such calculations is not greater than that of ordinary horoscopes cast by exoteric astrologers. When the esoteric knowledge becomes more widespread, the faith in all exoteric calculations will steadily weaken. There is reason to be on your guard against others, too, who give themselves out as “initiates”. The black lodge is working efficiently, and its agents are, strange as it may sound, more efficient. “The children of the world are wiser than the children of light.”
1The esoteric knowledge, as far as it concerns the matter and consciousness aspects, is no secret knowledge that should be kept away from people, if they were capable of conceiving it rightly. It is quite another matter with the facts of the motion aspect. The knowledge that affords power is not for those who abuse power so totally injudiciously and recklessly ever since childhood. Whenever a child has the opportunity to tyrannize, the barbarian appears. And that makes itself felt in most people all through their lives. We have every reason to “pray to god to save us” from all people with power without responsibility and sanction.
2“All is energy” is certainly an illogical, factually incorrect, but particularly expressive saying, current in circles of disciples. Energy exists everywhere, for matter is energy, when once you know the laws and methods. The scientific and technological methods of supplying energy (fossil fuels, nuclear energy, electricity) imply an enormous waste with energy and appears to the esoterician as the most incurably clumsy roundabout way. But as long as mankind consists of “bandits” (precisely, if someone of them gains sufficient power), the energy aspect of existence must remain a mystery.
3Dynamis acts in every primordial atom, monad. Since the whole cosmos is composed of primordial atoms, it might be said that “everything is energy”, of course in quite another sense than nuclear physicists believe, namely that “matter dissolves into energy”.
4Apparently there are many people who find it amusing to “play with thoughts” and imagine things. They could try to solve the riddle how it is that science has not yet managed to solve the problem of energy, whereas energy is the most readily available of all available things. What would be the fate of mankind, if everyone could avail himself of energy without limit, if every bandit and idiot could blast the planet to smithereens? It is obviously so well arranged that we can understand the old woman who said, “It’s nice to know that it is as it is, for how would it else be?” She realized that it could be worse but not very likely better. When man is to rule, then we know what will happen. The historical epochs end with total catastrophes. The knowledge is not intended for mankind at its present stage of development.
1Everything changes on account of the never-ending (thus law-determined) action by energies from all directions. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that science has not yet explored more than a millionth part of total reality, as it is ignorant of 48 out of the 49 worlds. Science has millennia of work to do before the matters and material energies of the physical world have been explored.
2All material forms are shaped, change, dissolve, and are reshaped. The rebirth of everything is an inevitable phenomenon, since no material forms can in the long run endure the wear and tear of cosmic material energies. Everything is subject to the law of transformation, since everything is in motion and it is motion that makes possible the composition of matter and the continuance of aggregates. Nothing can or may stand still. If motion ceased for the fraction of a second, the cosmos would degenerate into chaos.
3The fact that the whole of existence is a gigantic process of development implies, from the cosmic point of view, a continuous modification of the motion aspect, the adaptation of the cosmic energies to the law of development with constantly new factors. In systemic and planetary respect, this concerns only the seven lowest atomic worlds, the worlds of the three triads. Transformation is most noticeable in the matter aspect of the first triad, in the consciousness aspect of the second triad, and in the motion aspect of the third triad. In the cosmos the three aspects enter into a higher synthesis with the energy aspect as omnipotence, the collective beings of the cosmic kingdoms in a cooperation that goes without friction and complies with the Law.
1Dynamis is absolute omnipotence (omnipotent and inexhaustible). The individual (in higher kingdoms) has inexhaustible power to the extent that he gains access to dynamis. In the absolute sense, this is possible only in the highest cosmic kingdom. In lower kingdoms (lower than the highest one), omnipotence is limited and “cosmic energy” is accessible within the framework of “cosmic consciousness”. Additional energy is supplied to the individual to the extent that this is needed. In each (higher) kingdom there is a group of particular dynamicians (Sanskrit: nirmanakayas) whose exclusive function is to supply higher cosmic energy to those in lower kingdoms.
2In the first Swedish edition of PS dynamis was termed “will”, since that concept was wellknown thanks to Schopenhauer’s philosophy. Properly speaking, “blind will” is a contradiction, even though we use energies without understanding it and without knowing their nature.
3Dynamis acts in every primordial atom. Its only possibility of acting is in and through primordial atoms (monads), which are able to affect other primordial atoms. All kinds of energies thus originate from monads. Probably, this primeval fact is at the bottom of the universal idea of god as a person. In their ignorance of the three aspects of existence, of the consciousness aspect as the one single cosmic total consciousness, of collective beings as the only possible form of existence in the cosmic worlds, of the Law as the common movement pattern of everything in the cosmos lest the cosmos will degenerate into chaos, in their ignorance of all this they made god a personal magnitude and then an arbitrary power as well. The interstellar (cosmic 36–42) energies from collective beings in those worlds are directed to and assimilated by the representatives of various kinds of collective beings in the solar systemic government from where they are conveyed to the planetary governments. All the kinds of cosmic energies that are to be assimilated and used within the solar system thus pass through collectives of monads (primordial atoms), divided into seven departments (cosmic, systemic, planetary) like the cosmic “energies”.
4In the esoteric literature there is often mention of these collective beings as individual beings. What is meant by this is the highest developed monad in a collective being as an exponent of this collective. You must clearly understand that individual monads cannot possible handle cosmic “energies”, but these must be shared among the monads of collective beings that have perfectly learnt to control their coordinated functions.
5A problem for the uninitiated: How could these facts be comprehended by a mankind that lacked the most elementary ideas about reality and also was unable to take in these ideas? Esoteric teachers are immensely handicapped, since they must adapt to the comprehension of their pupils. How could the pupils understand such things as are beyond all human experience? The teachers are compelled to adapt their mode of presentation to the ruling fiction systems, which are sanctified by tradition and which as time goes on become more or less ineradicable dogmatic systems, insurmountable obstacles to the emotionalist who must have mentalized emotional molecules to comprehend and cannot think mentally, cannot assimilate mental molecules in his brain cells.
1The total energy (dynamis) certainly is a blind force, acting mechanically. But the cosmos is a purposive reality, and those who shaped it have as their only purpose sought the realization of the consciousness development of the primordial atoms (monads). So doing they have been forced to do their utmost to utilize mechanically acting omnienergy as the basis of all motion in the universe (which could be called an emergency), trying to put into it the highest possible degree of finality. It is obvious to esoteric understanding that the philosophers would never manage to solve that problem, no more than any of the other basic problems of reality. This requires other instruments and other possibilities of experience than mental consciousness and physical experiments.
2It was to this plan, made by the highest cosmic kingdom when shaping the cosmos, that the gnosticians gave the symbolic name the “will of god”, an expression which the theologians have managed (as always) to misinterpret dreadfully. When will people learn to see their own inability to solve the problems of life? Why must they drivel about things they are totally unable to judge? And so doing idiotize the masses!
3It is important to learn to distinguish between the material energies of the matter aspect and those of the consciousness aspect. Those of the matter aspect work with the molecular kinds. Those of the consciousness aspect pass through the atomic kinds. According to the planetary hierarchy this is the difference between knowledge and wisdom.
4Minerals, vegetables, and animals are dominated by the energies of the matter aspect acting mechanically, and even mankind is still in a similar condition. Only when men come to know and rightly use the energies of life acting with finality, will another condition be obtained on our planet. The lower kingdoms serve mankind just as the higher ones do. Only mankind refuses to serve any other than itself and considers that everything exists for its sake, which is its most fundamental mistake. Men exist to help the three lower natural kingdoms and to assist the planetary hierarchy with the development of human consciousness and with the purposive service also of lower kingdoms. That truth is probably incomprehensible to most people; so great is the self-blind self-absorption of human beings. They have not even learnt to live in peace with each other. But then it looks like it does on this planet of sorrow.
5The forces acting mechanically are the real cause of all the disease existing in all the four natural kingdoms. This is an esoteric axiom which of course is rejected by the learned. It will take a long time before science will be able to ascertain this or to accept this information as an esoteric fact and a hypothesis to work with. They have already been able to ascertain that disease occurs in the vegetable kingdom. But they have not been able to find the ultimate cause of this phenomenon, only the most obvious ones.
1The forces that individuals have at their disposal are not their own but all forces derive their origin from the highest world. The energies that the individual has at his disposal are the ones that he knows how to utilize (as long as it lasts).
2What shapes, maintains, develops our solar system is an inconceivably great current of material energies from the cosmic worlds, a current which in every moment pours through all the different atomic kinds and thereby indirectly also the molecular kinds. We are totally dependent on these cosmic energies. If those who are able to think at all and not only parrot what others have said would duly heed this fact and think the matter through (that is what is esoterically meant by “meditation”), then many problems would be solved which otherwise lack a requisite basis and remain articles of faith.
3The effect of dynamis in every primordial atom is directly proportional to the capacity for consciousness as well as to the coefficient of involvation, two factors that are dependent on each other. The effect of dynamis in some atomic kind is sufficient to dominate lower kinds of matter but not the matter of the atomic kind concerned, and so energy must always be drawn from the next higher atomic kind. This means that the monad must receive help from a higher world to develop its consciousness. Therefore, the cosmic motion aspect is largely a work of the highest cosmic kingdom, since the monads’ own power is not sufficient for consciousness expansion.
4The misconception of the pertaining problems has of course entailed the common distorted ideas about individual helplessness in all situations of life and all the other theological superstitions. It would be a blessing if theologians stopped trying to solve problems that are beyond human powers of comprehension, problems that they find in ancient scriptures and believe they understand, problems that the authors of the scriptures misunderstood as well. The Buddha tried (in vain, of course) to clarify that the answers of the problems of life are not to be found in any sacred scriptures, since the esoteric knowledge is esoteric. It might be added that in all essentials esoterics will always remain esoteric. The true knowledge is only for those who are able to apply the laws of life with unfailing precision and do so in kingdom after kingdom. The knowledge of life belonging to a higher kingdom is not for lower kingdoms. We are given to know as much as is necessary to our own orientation in life but the knowledge that can be abused does not go along with it. Apparently men have a long way to go yet, until they comprehend even that much: that learning is not wisdom. “Cobbler, stick to your last!” What that means is something that only esotericians have been taught yet. Stop speculating! Everything that is not based on facts, on sufficient facts, on finally established facts and last on the total number of facts cannot be exact. When will mankind have learnt this fundamental principle? When will the learned have learnt it? When they have, all their learning and cleverness will go down into the slop-pail. Exaggeration? Certainly, and yet it must be said and cannot be said too often until esoterics has been accepted as a working hypothesis.
1The law of cause and effect is the name of the manner in which dynamis brings about unshakably firm constant relations (laws of nature) in the composition of matter and on account of the nature of primordial matter.
2The very composition of matter in accordance with the potentiality of matter and the finality of events in nature is the work of the individuals of the highest cosmic kingdom.
3The purposive fundamental laws of course are based on the law of nature. But in addition there are in every cosmic world accomodatory laws that must adapt to the nature of the atomic kind and also change according as the cosmic purpose is attained in the cosmic processes of manifestation.
4The cosmic energies that the planetary government adapts to the planetary processes of manifestation (with constant modifications according as the monads adapt to and rightly use the laws of life) are temporary laws and should not be described as laws to avoid confusion of ideas.
5The worlds are built out from “above”, from the highest world, and in the last analysis all processes of manifestation are directed from there. The task of higher kingdoms is to supervise the processes in lower kingdoms, to direct the cosmic energies purposefully so that the meaning of existence, which is consciousness development, is realized. All energies originally come from higher kingdoms. The whole of evolution runs without friction to the extent that individuals in lower kingdoms utilize these energies purposefully (in accordance with laws of nature and laws of life). Otherwise friction is obtained. And those are the original causes of “all evil in the world”.
6The formation and dissolution of solar systems and planets, of all material forms, are the result of cosmic material processes; involvation, involution, and evolution.
7Biological evolution demonstrates to us the origin and development of organisms.
8The esoteric “world history” affords us knowledge of the development of atomic consciousness throughout the various natural kingdoms.
9All processes of matter, all events, are determined by seven different kinds of cosmic energies, which in fixed cycles pour through everything in nature. In history those cycles make up the true historic epochs of some 2500 years.
1All energy phenomena, energy expressions, in the cosmos, in solar systems, planets, and even in the envelopes of man, are intermittent phenomena, everything according to the “rhythm of life”, the “law of periodicity”. If science in its conceited self-sufficiency had not rejected astrology as superstition, it would have been able to explain that phenomenon.
2If scientists had the faintest idea of their immense ignorance of reality, they would not be so darned cocksure about things they are in no position whatsoever to judge. It would not be out of place to underline the esoteric axiom that astrology is the fundamental discipline. What is meant here is not, of course, what present-day astrologers are occupied with, or that distortion which increasingly more of them call “esoteric astrology”. Astrology is a discipline of the fifth natural kingdom and has not yet been allowed for publication. When this will be the case, the present astrology will go down into the slop-pail. Like theology, philosophy, it is a speculation on the basis of too few facts and so fictitious.
3The law of periodicity is of the greatest importance and has been little heeded as yet. The etheric envelope is vitalized by five energy currents acting for 24 minutes at a time. And the similar is true of the other envelopes and energies. An unsurveyable multitude of factors make themselves felt (zodiacal vibrations, planetary vibrations, world vibrations, department vibrations, atomic and molecular vibrations, envelope vibrations, etc.) in almost all respects. The individual ignorant of esoterics understands nothing of this, makes constant mistakes and misjudges countless situations and states because of this ignorance. Those who have got a clear idea of what the law of periodicity means find it easier to endure those states of “dryness”, listlessness, powerlessness, dreariness, melancholy, etc., which everybody may cyclically experience after they have seen what this can be due to. The esoterician’s understanding of these expressions of the law of periodicity teaches him by experience to control the states originating from it, so that he becomes independent of the periods of ebb and flow flowing through his envelopes. Before he has received a knowledge of the periodicity of the energies and can always understand what the states of his envelopes depend on, it proves very helpful to him to realize that he is not his envelopes and that he must learn to become independent of them. The ignorant all too easily falls a victim to these states and does not know how to “keep his mental balance”. The esoterician, who knows that “energy follows thought”, thinks the thoughts that make him sovereign in relation to his envelopes.
1According to esoterics, time and everything in time consists of alternate periods of activity and passivity. This is true of the individual as well as of the whole cosmos. When the “cosmic night” (the universal pralaya) sets in, the cosmos does not dissolve. The manifestational matter once formed, with the monads in their envelopes of atoms and molecules, their aggregates and worlds, remain in their natural kingdoms once attained (certainly in a dormant condition), until a new cosmic day will dawn. Sufficiently many monads, who have attained the highest divine kingdom – there cannot exist any cosmic night for them –, supervise that manifestational matter is retained in its material forms and natural kingdoms. Involution is a condition of evolution, since involution supplies the material needed by evolutionary monads for their evolution. A constantly new supply of primordial atoms from the primordial manifestation (“chaos”) is necessary to make up for those leaving (the departure of the highest gods from the cosmos).
1There are as many different kinds of energies as there are molecular kinds and atomic kinds. When speaking about higher and lower kinds of energies, these could most simply be denoted with mathematical designations instead of being given various names that do not tell anything but almost always confuse. Besides, the same is true of all the three aspects of reality. The terminology can be simplified enormously and facilitate understanding, if understanding is possible at all.
2All energy in our cosmos comes from the highest cosmic world and consists of a neverending current of primary primordial atoms that pour down through the 49 cosmic atomic worlds and return to the highest world in an eternal circulation. The directing is done by individuals in the highest cosmic kingdom. This three-, seven-, and 49-fold differentiated energy in the molecular matter of the solar systems is directed by the highest collective beings within the solar systems in constantly changing cycles in accord with the law of periodicity (rhythm) necessary to the pertaining matter.
3Since lower kinds of matter are composed of higher kinds, lower kinds of energies consist of higher kinds. In studying this it is to be noted that composition coarsens matter and reduces the energy effect enormously.
4A fundamental axiom in esoterics is that all kinds of energies are threefold in nature, a discovery that remains to be made by science. One of the three dominates. Of the two other the one has a positive, qualifying action; the other, a negative, eliminating action.
5Energy, appearing to sight as motion, appears as sound to hearing in those perceptive organs that in the causal self correspond to the “five senses” of the organism. The great musicians educate themselves unconsciously to become masters of sound, a path for them into reality. They speak to each other by means of tones, a language that is unintelligible to others. A symphony is to them what a spectacle is to the “uninitiated”. This appears so obvious to them that Richard Strauss, for instance, could in all naivete express the fear, concerning one of his pieces of music, lest he had too indiscreetly portrayed a well-known person. Knowing about this it is easier to understand how a disciple could be advised by his teacher to let the tonal masses of symphonies break down a certain obstacle in his personality to the reception of essential (46) energies.
1Esoterics teaches that the visible world “is not a principle”, which means that it and everything in it is incapable of self-activity, that it is a result of energies of higher worlds (including the physical etheric world), that it has become automatized.
2The esoterician must learn to discover those material energies that are able to act through the chakras of the different envelopes and learn to use them in the right way. In so doing, the disciple of the planetary hierarchy receives all the necessary directions but it is up to him to “do everything himself”. For him, “life” subsequently equals energy and expenditure of energy.
3It is important to realize that all envelopes in every moment are penetrated by all kinds of atomic and molecular energies. Only those can become conscious that concern the molecular kinds activated by the self (48:4-7 and 47:6,7). These different kinds of matter, energy, and consciousness can easily cause chaos in the waking consciousness, until the self has learnt to observe them, identify them, and control them.
4In times of national psychoses, the whole nation can be submerged in waves of emotional vibrations and elementals. For the individual it then becomes ever more difficult to see clearly.
5When the vibrations of the self eventually become stronger than the vibrations from without (largely directed by mass thinking), the self is able to learn to control them. At the stage of ignorance (the stage of illusions and fictions) the results are not very successful. But when the self has acquired the requisite knowledge and experience, this finally produces the self-determined, harmonious man invested with common sense.
6The energies issuing from the departments of the planetary hierarchy pour down through the worlds of man. The effect of these in the individual depends on which departments his envelopes belong to and how active the envelope centres (indicating the level of development) can be. The effect is individually different.
7It would be interesting to study the different patterns of behaviour resulting from the activity of the different departmental energies in the different envelopes on the different levels. A causal self must be able to do so if he is to acquire the qualifications of a teacher.
8We assimilate food that is converted into energy. We attract ideas that supply the envelopes with emotional and mental energy and enable the activity of these envelopes. What the brain apprehends of these “ideas”, however, is the result of physical-etheric energy. A great portion of the activity of the mental envelope is part of our superconsciousness, and the pertaining mental molecules never reach down to their proper brain-cells where they can be apprehended, since all higher matters and consciousnesses penetrate all lower ones.
9When the individual reaches a higher level, so doing increases his understanding and changes his behaviour, this means that the etheric envelope assimilates other kinds of energies.
10When the causal energies begin to penetrate into the personality, they often counteract the work of the personality, which fact beginners often find difficult to understand.
11Every man has his own individually characteristic vibrations. These have a raising effect on a lower environment and a lowering effect on a higher one. They certainly have an effect. It is a good reaping to be able to consort with higher beings. Regrettably this all too often means missed opportunities. Those who voluntarily choose lower beings are more easily dragged down. A spiteful environment harms everybody.
12There are different kinds of magnetism, either attractive or repulsive one. The right frame of mind for the reception of attractive emotional magnetism is the feeling of happiness and, and for mental magnetism, joy.
13“Blood is a particular sort of sap.” That is Goethe’s paraphrase of the esoteric fact that “the blood is the life”. Blood conveys energy to all the cells of the body like the sap of plants. Probably, it will take some time yet, before this fact is realized and recognized by science. There are many other facts it has to ascertain before this one. It could be given those facts for nothing by esotericians. But pride is deep-rooted. Science imagines that there was no knowledge before it, since theologians were grotesquely ignorant and bereft of common sense.
1The will is the central feature of the motion aspect: The individual’s power to make us of dynamis, which brings about events. The motive for action affects the will. The greater the knowledge of reality and of the laws of life, the more rational is the intended purpose. It is characteristic of common sense that it strives after simplification. The simplest thing is the most difficult of everything, both in understanding and realization.
2Man is not given to know what will is. Instead, he calls everything possible “will”. So much can be said that will is that portion of the omnipotence of primordial matter which the individual has acquired the potential of using and which therefore determines his level of development.
3The will can be defined as the power to realize. In man, this is selfishly determined, but becomes, as evolution performs its beneficent work, increasingly consonant with the laws of life and oriented to the good of all, the good of the whole. Also in higher kingdoms, there is an unceasing adaptation to the ever greater possibilities that manifest themselves with increasing knowledge of the Law as it expresses itself in ever higher worlds.
4“Will” is practically the ability to realize, to put insight into action. Knowledge has no great value, if it does not lead to anything. Knowledge entails responsibility. The planetary hierarchy, which gives us knowledge, does not do it to make people sleep better. The hierarchy casts no pearls. Anyone who does not understand their value loses opportunities of development not only for one incarnation. There is a literal competition for a suitable nation, a suitable “caste”, a suitable cultural environment, a suitable family.
5All motion, all consciousness expressions, are expressions of “will” of some kind, if by will is meant only energy.
6In the concept of “will” two chief elements can be discerned: the energy expression and the motive. Since the meaning of existence is the consciousness development of all monads, this requires the unanimous co-operation and mutual service of all monads (in contrast to the self-assertion of everybody). The planetary hierarchy by “will” means the good will in agreement with the purpose of life. Any other will leads to a war of all against all. Like all esoteric truths this one is immediately obvious. But they must not be that simple. Everything must be complicated and be made incomprehensibly profound so that acuity will have opportunities to show off its ingenuity, ingenuity its acuity. History and everyday life teems with such ones.
7However, the planetary hierarchy’s view of the will occasions some writers to call the three kinds of consciousness of the second triad as well as those of the third triad “will” and even to disregard the matter and consciousness aspects. To these authors, the will has become the one essential thing.
8The greatest power in all life is the purpose when it is in accordance with the Law and the meaning and goal of existence. This is what the esoterician calls “will”. What men call will is the energy of purposefulness, however misdirected it be. The esoterician’s will presupposes a knowledge of reality and the ability to put this knowledge into action in all expressions of life. In this sense it is only in the third triad that the will can manifest itself. Before then, it has been able to express itself as energy only. According to esoterics, the word “will” cannot be used at all in worlds 47–49. And a radical distinction is made between the kinds of energies of the second triad and those of the first triad, not merely because energies always manifest themselves differently in different worlds but also because energies in higher worlds act with greater finality, or purposefulness.
9There are as many kinds of will and consciousness as there are kinds of matter (main kinds and subdivisions, atomic kinds and molecular kinds), as many kinds of will as there are different kinds of active consciousness. Desire triggers emotional energy, a rational motive triggers mental energy. In both cases the will makes up the dynamics, the initial energy. In the present mankind, emotional will has the strongest expression, since emotional consciousness is the most active kind of consciousness. That is the reason why certain theosophists call it will proper. It appears that the esoterician wants to reserve the term will to denote the motive of essential consciousness, a motive guided by a true knowledge of reality and the laws of life. The original esoteric designation of will referred to activity in accord with the meaning and goal of life.
10So-called scientific determinism, which implies a denial of so-called free-will, is a mistake that is as basic as divine arbitrariness in religion. Original determinism has of course been misinterpreted, as usual. It meant something totally different from the proclamations of philosophic and scientific ignorance. It intended that so-called free-will is dependent upon motives and is determined by the strongest motive. True, it is dependence and as such a certain bondage. Bondage disappears, however, when it is realized that the individual himself can make any motive whatsoever the strongest one. The motives that unconsciously determine his actions are partly among those which he has acquired in previous lives and which now exist in his subconsciousness, partly among those which he has acquired in his new incarnation through education and conditioning by his environment, influences that generally idiotize him.
11To exoterists (those who lack esoteric knowledge), the “will” has always been a mystery, since only esoterics can explain that reality. It was found, however, that emotional will manifests itself as either attraction or repulsion and that mental will always is determined by the strongest motive. According to the planetary hierarchy, the will of the first self is determined (not free). But it maintains that the will of the second self is “free”, for this will presupposes a knowledge of the Law (in its worlds, 45–49) and applies it “without friction” (cannot come into conflict with the Law, which would otherwise result in lack of freedom). This is the explanation of “free-will”, that seed of contention of all ages. As usual in such cases, there was a misconception of an esoteric fact by the uninitiated.
12The perfect first self (the monad centred in the mental molecule of the first triad) is sovereign in the worlds of man (47–49) in respect of consciousness as well as energy, the second self rules sovereign in worlds 45–49, and the third self in the solar system (43–49).
1All consciousness expressions are at the same time energy expressions that have inevitable effects according to the law of cause and effect. How do people use this energy?
2The fact that the daydreams of imagination do not lead to action is the best proof that they are bereft of energy. People deceive themselves with their beautiful theories. The consciousness expressions that do not trigger energy lack seriousness, application of will, intensity and so are largely useless. Intellectualism, overemphasizing learning as the one essential thing, is one more example of true ignorance of life. Development is a result of energy. Life is energy and where energy is lacking there is no life worthy of its name.
3Thoughts are things. Above all, thoughts are energies. People have not the slightest idea of these two facts. It is not to be wondered at that mankind is the victim of its almost total ignorance of life.
4Involutionary atoms are no lifeless things but have passive consciousness. And this passive consciousness is affected by the active consciousness of all evolutionary beings. The energies that mankind handles come under this category.
5If the atoms in the microorganisms flying about in the air are activated by human repulsive vibrations of hate they can find expression in the manner called epidemics, and that in a great number of varieties. New kinds of disease will always arise as long as the consciousness expressions of mankind are repulsive.
6The esoterician knows that he handles energies and that these must produce effects. Therefore he should also be alive to the fact (and this is important) that when he purposefully directs his energies to the service of life, he sets in motion a current of energy acting in the same direction and influencing circumstances. Life will prove to come up to his assurance and he will be freed from fear and worry about the future.
1Those who have esoteric knowledge know that they always work with energies, since every consciousness expression is at the same time material energy. Every thought and feeling has its effect. The realization of this fact makes it easier to understand that the law of cause and effect makes itself felt also in relation to consciousness. If you add to this the facts that the mental is the highest kind of matter that the individual works upon, and that each higher kind has a greater energy effect, then you realize that thought is the foremost factor of reaping. This also explains the gnostic expression, “man is what he thinks”, will in future incarnations become what he thinks in this one.
2To have self-acquired knowledge (the only kind of knowledge that cannot be lost) it is necessary to have attraction to the thing you want to know. In esoterics, this has been symbolically expressed in the saying, “love is the path to god” (esoterically: the law of attraction). It is the energy that activates the “contact mechanism” and enables consciousness to identify itself with the consciousness content of the thing demanded. It is not sufficient to study the outer form (the matter aspect), but it is necessary to contact that life which strives to find expression in the form. The first lesson to be learnt by the esoteric researcher is “never to judge by appearances”, for that is bound to be deceptive. It is also said to be the most difficult lesson to learn. The second lesson bears on the fact that deficiencies in his own “contact mechanism” yield wrong results.
3Knowledge consists of mental molecules charged with energy. If these energies do not have their natural outlet through purposeful activity, they take other outlets to the detriment of the individual. The higher the kind of matter, the greater the energy effect. That is a thing to be pondered on by those who want to enjoy their acquisition of knowledge in pleasant tranquillity. This egotist individualism is the cause of the multitude of the neuroses of our time.
4At first, a thing is apprehended as an idea, then in its concrete formation, thereupon in its relations to the requisite energy and the laws of motion, finally the material energies can be directed so that the effect will be as intended.
5Action and reaction are equal and exchangeable in all worlds.
6“The mysteries are revealed, not primarily by the reception of information anent them and their processes, but by the action of certain processes, carried out within the etheric body of the disciple; these enable him to know that which is hidden; they put him in possession of a mechanism of revelation and make him aware of certain radiatory and magnetic powers or energies within himself which constitute channels of activity and modes whereby he may acquire that which it is the privilege of the initiate to own and to use.” (D.K–Kleinias)
1Where man is concerned, “development” does not consist in the mere acquisition of higher kinds of consciousness. The real problem is that of being able to rightly use the energies that follow the kinds of consciousness. Those energies must have an outlet. Ignorant man handles forces the modes of action and effect of which he does not suspect. For example, the energies pouring into the etheric envelope reach the organism as well. If they are not put into purposeful activity, there is a risk of overstimulation. The possibility of storing them in energy supply depots is limited. And there is always a risk that they may discharge unexpectedly. Many diseases in the organism are results of frictions brought about by vibrations.
2If energies do not have their outlet, the result is partly disease in the organism, partly vitalization of the chakras below the diaphragm, since these chakras are the active ones. Chakras above the diaphragm are the only ones to make common sense and life in accord with the laws of life possible, and those chakras are extremely seldom influenced. Thus it is not strange that mankind is still at or near the stage of barbarism. It lacks the knowledge of reality, which essentially is the knowledge of energies. Thought is the greatest source of energy and is able, if used purposefully, to achieve what ignorance still calls a “miracle”. Matter is the basis of consciousness and the material that is acted upon to function as energy. The knowledge of the material energies and the possibility of consciousness to use them was called “magic” in the esoteric knowledge orders, a word that has been idiotized as have most words.
3All knowledge is abused. And this for several reasons, not merely the inability to rightly apply facts or individual selfishness, but also because ideas are simultaneously energies, which man does not suspect exist and cannot rightly use. Energies must have their outlet, and often the consequences are deplorable.
1Every consciousness expression involves expenditure of energy. Such as people handle their envelopes, the result is an uncontrollable waste of energy. The energies pouring in drain away just as when water is poured through a sieve. Also brain and nerve cells are exposed to unnecessary tear. This is prevented by concentration, which prevents waste and stores energy.
2The esoteric axiom, “energy follows thought”, can be extended to “energy follows attention”, for it is by attention that energy pours out into the envelopes and into the environing worlds. Attention is the activity of the self. Attention equals the concentration of consciousness. And this concentration (the uninterrupted keeping of attention) upon a certain content of consciousness or object is the prerequisite of meditation. “Living in the present” can be practised only by the man who has acquired the faculty of control of consciousness of self-directed attention. The beginner makes the error of “tensing” himself, becoming “intense”, which affects his nerves, brain, and blood circulation. It is necessary to be completely “relaxed” at concentration as well as meditation. Before you have learnt this, all concentration will be tiresome. Subsequently it will become automatized habit, and “distraction” (divided attention) will be rather a strain.
1Esoterics does not only want to afford us a knowledge of reality but also to show us how we shall be able to develop consciousness, precisely what is the meaning of existence.
2Esoterics is not only a science. It is also an art of living. It shows us how we should live in order to develop our consciousness. This knowledge becomes, if it is not put into living life, not only a dead knowledge but a hindrance to development. It may be news to the “uninitiated” that knowledge entails the responsibility for right use of this knowledge. They might understand it, however, if they are informed about the fact that ideas are energies that act destructively if they are not made to act constructively.
3According to the law of self-realization, the individual himself must seek, he himself must find, he himself must realize. The knowledge he receives is instructions and is to be grasped as an aid to helping himself. Life is an experimentation with forces. Anyone who follows the instructions does not need to risk experimenting at random and with a destructive result. And the results attained confirm the correctness of the instructions.
4Those who with a one-pointed purposefulness want be serious about self-realization may find this more or less difficult depending on their stage of development and bad reaping. Those who are at the stage of humanity have already reached such high vibrations that the exertion is quite insignificant for them. At lower cultural levels, the exertion of keeping a high vibrational scale can entail a total lack of balance. Repulsive qualities can take over command at times and drag the self down from its vibrational height.
5The “development” of the monad (its attainment of ever higher worlds) is connected with its ability to control the energies of the envelopes. It is the individual’s business to acquire the pertaining abilities automatically by self-discipline. When this has succeeded to some percentage and he has understood his sharing in the collective and therefore the necessity of living for others, he receives the facts that enable him to discover and apply the methodical procedures.
6“Everything is energy” does not in the least mean that existing energy is at the individual’s disposal. The ascension through the worlds consists in solving problems of energy in an unbroken series.
1Western philosophy has not yet seen that all consciousness expressions are simultaneously energy expressions. They have thought (guessed, supposed, the only activity that the ignorance of reality is good for), that thought is something subjective only or, at the most, a molecular movement in the brain without any other effect. Thought is a consciousness expression creating forms in mental matter (producing a mental elemental). When mankind some time will have acquired a knowledge of the energy resources of mental consciousness, then the “problem of energy” is solved in the physical world.
2The knowledge of the pertaining methods was called magic by the ancients. That knowledge will remain esoteric until the whole mankind has reached the stage of humanity and learnt to see that freedom is power and the condition of true power is understanding the responsibility connected with power. Our present mankind is not in a position to see this.
3There is nothing that mental matter cannot achieve in physical matter when mental matter is used as energy and is directed by objective mental consciousness according to the laws of mental matter.
4The higher the molecular kind, the stronger the pertaining energy. This is even more so as to the atomic kinds. The energy of the mental molecular kinds is more than a thousandfold mightier than that of the so-called atomic bomb. Thank goodness, people have no knowledge of those energy laws and the method of handling the energies. All the same, the collected mental energy of mankind can act as destructively as the forces of nature, and it does so without any human being even suspecting the origin. The planetary hierarchy is content to point this out. It is up to mankind to make the necessary discoveries some time in the future. At that time, however, about half of mankind will have reached the stage of culture and the other half will have been transferred to another globe.
1It is typical of the conceit of human ignorance that whenever a man has acquired qualities and abilities beyond the normal ones he believes he is a remarkable phenomenon. It is infinitely typical that when a Steiner, a Martinus, etc. have become clairvoyant they believe they possess “cosmic consciousness” and have become omniscient. They have solved all problems and can give verdicts on everything.
2Omniscience is relative. In the absolute sense, it is true only of those in the highest cosmic world, since they have a knowledge of the three aspects of reality and their expressions in all the 49 cosmic atomic worlds. They alone are able to discover, for example the primordial atoms in the physical atom. They alone have a knowledge of all the laws of nature and life in the whole cosmos.
3The kind of omniscience we ascribe to the 45-selves in the fifth natural kingdom, for example, concerns the relative omniscience that is possible for a consciousness that is able to discover the compositions of primordial atoms in the three lowest atomic worlds (47–49). The energies of each higher atomic kind dominate those of all the lower atomic kinds. This has the effect that a 45-self, for instance, can handle the compositions of physical matter in a way that ignorance calls “magic”. The higher the atomic kind whose energy is utilized in lower worlds, the more perfect is the product, since it is in better agreement with the final ideal product (the “absolute”), which could be produced by individuals in the highest cosmic world who could manipulate primordial atoms. Those in lower kingdoms must be content with the possibilities of the pertaining insight and the resources that are in the energies of the atomic kinds available.
1The esoteric saying, “everything is energy”, expresses the fact that the universal energy of dynamis works everything in everything, and that, as a consequence of this, everything is motion.
2“Everything moves” or “everything is energy” or “everything consists of vibrations” or “higher matter is energy for lower matter” all express the same idea. When you have once understood you also see that the motion aspect is the essential one of the three aspects of reality. “Everything consists of atoms” means that everything is energy. It means that everything is effects of causes. Just as it is said that man is an aggregate of atoms, so it can be said that he is an aggregate of energies and that true understanding is gained only when you have seen this. The life of mankind (in political, social, economic, cultural, etc. respect) is an interplay of energies. To perceive these and to derive the effects to the right causes affords the true understanding of “events”. Life does not consist of circumstances but of the activity of energies.
3“Energy (vibrations) follows thought”. Right thought in agreement with reality is an essential factor for further development. Illusions and fictions have in the long run a disorganizing effect on all our envelopes with their three aspects, thus in respect of matter, activity, and consciousness.
4“Name and form” are synonymous terms in the esoteric doctrine. In order to understand this you must have a knowledge of “the law of vibration” about which knowledge was formerly acquired in the genuine esoteric knowledge orders (there have always been many spurious ones) but which nowadays is imparted only to disciples of the planetary hierarchy.
5Fire and ether are symbolic, sound (49), mental energy (47), superessential energy (45), and manifestal energy (43) are esoteric terms for kinds of energy that are particularly closely related. They remain esoteric until the so-called human beings some time in the future have become human beings.
The above text constitutes the essay The Motion Aspect by Henry T. Laurency. The essay is part of the book Knowledge of Life Two by Henry T. Laurency. Copyright © 2002 by the Henry T. Laurency Publishing Foundation.