English
A Bushman in the British Museum would not be so far from being able to avail himself of all the resources around him, as a human being after death just qualified to touch the spiritual plane, would be unable to take advantage of its infinite possibilities. We have seen how on the astral plane itself, matter is already infinitely more plastic to the influence of thought and will than the grosser matter we have to deal with on the physical plane. It may seem somewhat strained language to speak of the matter of the astral plane when it is wholly beyond the reach of our present senses nor capable, as far as we know, of affecting the most delicate instruments of the physical laboratory, but it is material, as truly as gold or iron are material, to the senses adapted to its perception. And on the THE SPIRITUAL PLANE. 243 Devachanic plane again the thought of the universe has taken manifestation in matter, though this, in its turn, will be beyond the range of the astral senses for those on intervening levels. Nor, indeed, are the various phases of material nature entirely disconnected the one from the other, they melt as it were, the one into the other like the colours of the spectrum. The principle on which this transition is accomplished has even been discerned by those occult students who have advanced a certain distance on the upward path of evolution. The molecule of physical matter is utterly beyond microscopic reach in the direction of the infinitely little and constitutes the finest manifestation of physical matter whose characteristics can be discerned by phy- sical means. But our molecule of physical matter is a congeries of ultimate physical atoms, and the ultimate atom itself constitutes the ether of the ‘physical plane and is still of the phvsical plane. although already bevond the reach of any instrument of research designed up to the present time. That ultimate physical atom, however, is found to be itself a highly complicated structure, consisting of atoms of astral matter. ‘These atoms in turn, we may feel sure, from reasoning and the analogies of nature, are themselves constituted of similar aggregations of Devachanic matter. A great region of thought is opened out in connexion with this branch of superphysical science, before we begin to get touch with the nature of force on each plane. Force, it is sometimes said, 7s matter, although the expression in that bald shape is not calculated to convey any acceptable idea to the mind, but the matter which it 244 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. is, is in all cases the matter of a superior plane. Astral matter may become force on the physical plane, or to express the idea with greater precision, may become the vehicle of force on the physical plane, and Devachanic matter in the same way may become the vehicle of a force on the astral plane. Vehicles of force on the Devachanic plane are of a potency in inverse ratio to their tenuity, because they become the souls, so to speak, of forces on the lower planes, and this thought may suggest one of the ways in which a capacity to exercise consciousness on the Devachanic plane becomes a priceless privilege for a human being still in life, who ascends to that plane not for the sake of bathing in its blissful sensations but for the purpose of accomplishing results that may benefit his fellow creatures. We are in contact here with ideas so far out of touch with commonplace thinking, that it is not easy to render such results as I am now referring to intelligible in everyday language. They would have to do largely with engendering states of mind on the part of the people towards whom the good intention might be directed. Conventional thinking is apt to confine its attention to external conditions of well-being or suffering. It leaves the internal condition to take care of itself through entire ignorance concerning the invisible influences for good and evil by which it may be assailed. The Adept will often be enabled to recog- nise these as by far more important than the relatively evanescent circumstances that make for good or evil physically. In that way by help rendered from the Devachanic plane to people in this life, the whole THE SPIRITUAL PLANE. 245 current of their spiritual evolution, carrying with it innumerable Karmic developments that, amongst other effects, will materially qualify even the physical plane well-being of future lives,;—may be modified in an important degree. Foremost, therefore, in endeavouring to form some notion of what the opportunities of the Devachanic plane are like for advancing pupils of the Adepts who may be enabled to reach it in conscious- ness during life, we may set the opportunities of taking an early part in the spiritual work of that plane—with which the entities reaching it in the normal course of existence between two earth lives have nothing to do. Nor is such spiritual work, however difficult itself to appreciate from the ordinary mundane standpoint, the subtlest in its nature of that which the enlightened occultist having access to the Devachanic plane is enabled to undertake. For those to whom the whole after life is at best a vague hypothesis enshrouded with doubt, we may seem to be venturing indeed beyond the limits of the knowable in discussing the question of beneficial influence that may be brought to bear on those who have actually passed through the gateway of death. But the modern theosophic student, vividly alive to the fact that death is but a change of state, is enabled to get a clear view of much that passes in the later state—as, for one thing, the account I have already given of the normal Devachanic vision will have shown. And one thing he is enabled to see has reference to the curious bearing in some cases on the character of the Devachanic vision of a possible condi- tion of things I will now attempt to explain. 246 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. Suppose a deceased person has been attached during life to some one who has got on, along the path of occult development, sufficiently to assign him a part in his own subjectively created Devachanic vision. In ordinary cases the real individual consciousness of the friend concerned would not be engaged in the process. But if that friend is capable of activity on the Devachan plane, the situation is very different. He may then, at will, at any time, actually vivify and animate the living picture of himself in the vision, so that such picture becomes himself, and is thus capable not merely of reflecting the thoughts concerning him evolved by its creator, but of conveying his own independent thoughts. Thus the deceased person in the midst of the bliss of his normal Devachan derives the advantage of new spiritual teaching from his friend, and may actually get on in this way along the great highway of evolution beyond the degree to which the efforts of his previous life had directly conduced. And the pro- gress so made becomes assimilated with his true Ego, never to be forfeited. This condition of things, let me add for the benefit of any reader who may fancy it an infringement, in favour of the person so influenced, of the laws of Karma, is not such an infringement really. It is the Karma of his attachment to and affection for a fellow being on a higher level of spiritual advancement than himself. And in some measure the law just described holds good in reference to people who, without being so highly developed as to be able to function freely on the Devachanic plane during life, are nevertheless developed THE SPIRITUAL PLANE. 247 spiritually to a degree which enables them uncon- sciously to vitalise the ideal image of themselves which the Devachanic thinker has evolved. The scientific explanation of this possibility has to be sought for in very subtle explanations concerning the unity, on higher planes, of all truly spiritual natures, but into that obscure region of occult metaphysics it is hardly necessary to diverge just here. At all events, the occult student, who may not yet regard himself as ‘on the path’ as a regular disciple—and thus provided for as regards the future on principles which differ from those regulating the Devachanic life of the normal majority—may derive a good deal of satisfaction from the possibility just referred to. Supposing his spiritual fervour to gravitate strongly in the direction of some great Adept, of whom he knows by repute and in the exaltation of whose nature he has an appreciative trust ; even though the time may not be ripe for him to enter distinctly on the path of initiation, his Devachanic experiences will be glorified by the presence of that great Adept in his Devachanic vision, under circum- stances in the reality of which there is no conceivable flaw. From his teaching he may not be in a position to derive, so far, all that may come to him in that way at a later stage of his growth, but the relationship so established will be one which nothing but his own serious degeneration in later lives will ever again interrupt. Meanwhile,—one cannot say everything, in endea- vouring to explain occult mysteries, all at once,—I have not yet touched on a question that will naturally 248 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. suggest itself,—in connexion with the aspect of the Devachan plane for those who penetrate it at will,— to everyone who attempts to picture their experiences in his own mind. What does the place look like >— or as there is no “ place’”’ to be considered in the mundane sense of the term—what does Nature look like regarded from that point of view ? This brings me into relation with a very important branch of the subject,—the sub-divisional aspects of the Devachan plane.