manifest changes within that substance in order that it may be Conscious. It must do this constantly and perpetually, else it becomes Unconscious. When it is remembered that states of consciousness are always accompanied by corresponding material and physical changes—that thoughts become brain-things—then we can see the explanation of the constant change in the physical world, which we call natural phenomena.
The Aphorism also says: "Consciousness always produces Activity, and manifests Motion." Modern psychology also bears out this statement. Prof. William James has brought out this point most forcibly in his works. He says, among much else on the same subject: "All Consciousness is Motor"; also: "Using sweeping terms and ignoring exceptions, we might say that every possible feeling produces a movement, and that the movement is a movement of the entire organism, and of each and all its parts.…In short, a process set up in the centres reverberates everywhere, and in some way or other affects the organism throughout, making its activities either greater or less." Is it not plain that, granted the existence of the Cosmic Will in its aspect of a World-Brain, then every state of consciousness within it must produce activity and motion within it; and must also manifest the corresponding physical and material changes in its substance and organic structure? Does not this, coupled with the fact that consciousness depends upon constant change, give us, in the words of the Aphorism, "the explanation of the phenomena of the involution and evolution of the Cosmos, with all the incident! thereof? Does not this explain to us the workings of the Law of Sequence?
This then is the cause behind the involution and evolution of the Cosmos as told by Modern Science. In awakening into Consciousness the World-Brain creates centres of material shape and form within itself. Then by slow degrees more complex form, and combinations appear. Upon the created worlds appear the material appropriate for the manifestation of organic life. Then Life, as we know it, appears. Then higher forms come. Then man. Then, as on certain of the worlds, being much higher in the scale than man, appear. And then on, and on, and on, ever in an ascending scale of Life and Being; shape and form; combination and degree.
In the World-Brain, there are many planes of consciousness, just as there are in your own brain-mind. There are the instinctive planes, and those still below—the sub-conscious, and those above—and the super-conscious, and other stages of which man does not as yet dream. Just as the various brain-cells perform their several functions, varying in the degree of importance and function—so do the various centres in the World-Brain play theirs, in the same varying importance and degree. Each is a part of the All. And there is a relationship and interdependence between all. None is alone and separate. Separateness is an illusion. All is One. The part played by Man—by You—in this great Cosmic Drama, will be considered in the succeeding parts of this series of lessons. Therein will be taught the lesson of "Man, Know Thyself!"
In considering the World-Brain, do not make the mistake of the average student, in thinking merely of this speck of dust called the Earth, as being all that is included in the Cosmos. In the Cosmos are contained an infinitude of infinitudes of universes; of suns, and planets. Space itself must be exhausted before the universes are exhausted. Number itself must be exhausted, before their number is exhausted. Remember, they are the products of Infinity, and consequently their number, degrees, and variety is infinite in extent and possibility.
Nor, should you make the mistake of explaining of the Cosmos in the terms of Time, except as a convenience in thinking. Conceptions of finite time or space have no place in the consideration of the Cosmos—that is, the mind is unable to think of a period of time sufficiently great to cover even one phase of the Cosmic Process. The Cosmic Day is unthinkable in figures. The highest figures possible to the mind of man would not represent the year-periods involved in a single second of the Cosmic Day. We are still in the Dawn of the Day, and yet that which men would call an Eternity has passed in the present Cosmic Day. Thought fails us. We are dealing in terms of Infinity. The Symbol is ∞.
In this lesson we have heard the answer to the Ultimate Question of the "Why" of the Cosmos. We have seen that that Answer is "Necessity and Law." It is the Law of the Cosmos that the Cosmic Will should desire and will to live; and, that in order to live, Consciousness (the "livingness of Life") is necessary; and that in order to gain consciousness, continual and constant change is an actual necessity. And this constant change produces the phenomena of the Manifest Cosmos. In a nutshell: The Cosmos manifests in order to Live—and it Lives because Life is a Necessity of its nature under the Laws, and subordinate to The Law. This is the Arcane Answer to the "Unanswerable Question" of the philosophers of the schools.
And in the Arcane conception of the World-Brain of the Cosmos, we have another great fundamental truth stated in simple terms, and by a familiar symbol. The human-brain has its analogy in the World-Brain. In this Arcane Teaching we may understand the principles of the embodiment of mind in matter, and the action of mind upon matter by means of energy. Compare this Teaching of the World-Brain with the teachings of science, in its phases of Inorganic Evolution, and Organic Evolution, and see how the Teaching throws light on the whole process. See how there is ever a mental action preceding the physical manifestation. Desire ever precedes function, shape and form. Mind is always embodied in substance. Substance always contains mind. The building of the crystal; the growth of the animal form from the single cell; the evolution of the chicken from the creative cell in the egg; all these are manifestations of physical action, structural change, and substance moving in response to mental inner causes. From One, know All. The Law of Analogy is ever manifest in the Cosmos—"As Above, so Below; as Below, so Above."
The conception of the Cosmic World-Brain also throws much light upon many phases of mental, psychic, and occult phenomena, in which the world is now taking such a decided interest. If Thoughts become Things in the Cosmic Brain, then following the Law of Analogy it is possible for Thoughts to materialize in Things on other planes of activity. The same principle is involved—the principle of mental creative activity. This is the Secret of Mentalism. This is the Key to Psychic Phenomena. This is the Explanation of Occultism. With a Cosmos, mental in its nature, with energy and substance; matter and motion; all receptive, responsive, and plastic and obedient to Mind—what cannot be accomplished by those who understand the Laws of Mentalism? With Will as the great creative power in the Cosmos—what is not possible to him who understands the Art of Willing. With Desire as the great Creative Energy, can we not see why Desire should be harnessed, controlled, directed, guided, mastered and employed in our lives, careers and destinies?
Apply these various conceptions of the Arcane Teaching to the various philosophical and metaphysical problems which have puzzled you—and see how many tangles it straightens out; how many inharmonies it reconciles; how it brings order out of the chaos of conflicting theories, dogmas and teachings. The Arcane Teaching is a Disturber of teachings—but it is also the great Reconciler. It is the Chemical of Truth, which clears the waters of Thought.
Lesson III. The Life of the Ego
Lesson VII. The One and the Many.
Lesson IX. Survival of the Fittest.
Lesson VII. The One and the Many.
WE NOW invite you to consider the important philosophical problem of The One and The Many, as explained by the Arcane Teaching. In the philosophies which hold that The One Life is the Absolute, this problem is unexplainable, for it is impossible to conceive of the Absolute, which is immutable and indivisible, changing and dividing itself into parts, or apparently doing so. With the recognition of the fact that the Cosmic One Life is not the Absolute, but is under Law, then the difficulty