Chapter XV. PLANETARY OCTAVES

BEFORE considering the effect of Uranus and Neptune in the various signs and houses it may be expedient and illuminating to study their relations to Venus and Mercury which are their lower octaves. That such a relationship exists has been .sensed by various astrological authors who by speculation and observation have learned a great deal about these two planets and what they have brought out does great credit to their sagacity, but not having had the benefit of esoteric training it is not to be wondered at that they have become confused on certain points which we shall now explain so that students of the esoteric philosophy may see how these explanations dovetail into the general philosophy of the Western Wisdom School, and thus bear out the statement that Uranus is the higher octave of Venus and Neptune the higher octave of Mercury.

The Western Wisdom teaching of the Rosierucians states that man-in-the-making was plant-like and bi-sexual during the Hypoborean Epoch and thus able to create from himself without the necessity of having co-operation from anyone else. But at that time he was without a brain and unable to think,

therefore in the Lemurian Epoch the angels directed one-half of the sex force upward to the part which is now the head and used it for the formation of the brain and larynx. The process is plainly traceable in the antenatal development of the foetus which accounts for the intimate relation between the sex organs, the larynx and the brain, observable in the change of voice which takes place when the boy reaches puberty and the mental disability which follows the unrestrained abuse of the generative function. Thus it may be said that the sex function whereby new bodies are created in the physical world, and become our physical children, is closely connected with the brain and larynx which man uses to conceive the children of his brain and mind and give them vocal expression by the larynx. It is a matter of common knowledge to astrologers that man is incited to perform the generative function of the begetting of physical children by the love-ray of Venus ; likewise that the ray of reason emanating from Mercury is responsible for the begetting of the children of mind and their vocal expression by the larynx, so that both Mercury and Venus are creative in their functions, one upon the physical plane, the other upon the mental plane.

Mercury is usually associated with reason and intelligence ; to him is ascribed rule over the cerebrospinal nervous system, wrhich is the medium of transmission between the embodied spirit and the world without. Thus as Neptune signifies the sub- and

superhuman intelligences who live and move in the spiritual realms of the universe, but who work with and upon us, so Mercury indicates the human intelligence focused upon the terrestrial, physical world wherein we live from birth to death. Therefore it may be said that Neptune is the octave of Mercury, but there is a deeper sense.

Reference to a textbook of anatomy or physiology will show that lengthwise fissures in the spinal cord divide it into three parts which enclose a hollow tube. Each of these columns is ruled by one of the Hierarchies in closest touch with us: the lunar, martial and mercurial; one or the other predominating, according to the stage in evolution of the individual. In the spinal canal the rays of Neptune kindle the spinal spirit fire whereby the human spirit is enabled to pierce the veil of flesh and contact the worlds beyond; this vision is colored according to the column of the cord most actively excited. In the childhood days of mankind the creative force which is now turned outwards to build ships, houses, railways, telephones, etc., was used inwardly to build the organs of our body, and as the surrounding physical world is photographed upon the table of a camera obscura, so the spiritual world was reflected in the spinal canal. There man beheld the first lunar God Jehovah, whose Angels were his first tutors. Later a part of the Angels who, under the leadership of Lucifer had rebelled against Jehovah and who are now exiled on the planet Mars forced entrance to the spinal cord

of man and incited him to abuse of the generative function. The spiritual inner vision of mankind faded when "their eyes were opened and they saw they were naked," then they lost touch with the higher self; they saw only the person, and the docile creature of Jehovah was soon transformed to a savage and a brute under the impulses of the Lucifer Spirits, the hierarchy of Mars, but by their promptings man has also learned to conquer material obstacles, to build outwardly and become architect of the world.

To counteract the unmitigated selfishness bred by the Martian Angels, and to make mankind humane, our Elder Brothers from Mercury, human like ourselves, whose high state of evolution required the high vibration generated and prevailing in close proximity to the Sun, were required to invest the spinal cord of man also, and through their labors civilization has taken on a different form, mankind is again beginning to look inwards.

At the present time the left cerebral hemisphere is governed by Mercury, and the pineal gland, its higher octave, is ruled by Neptune who also has dominion over the spinal canal which is the avenue whereby one pole of the creative energy was originally turned upward for the building of the brain.

, The ray of Neptune carries what occultists know as the Father fire, the light and life of the Divine Spirit, which expresses itself as will. This it focuses in the voluntary nervous system of the physical body

governed by its lower octave Mercury which acting through the left brain galvanizes the body into speech and action, expressing the will of the indwelling spirit.

By this diversion of the creative energy the human being ceased, as already said, to be a physical hermaphrodite, a complete creative unit, and was then compelled to seek a mate in order to propagate the species. Therefore the Son, the Cosmic Christ, focused the love-ray of the Life Spirit upon Uranus, (ruling the pituitary body), who transmits it to the vital body where Venus, the lower octave of Uranus gives it expression in propagation and growth.

Between the Divine Spirit and Life Spirit on the one hand and their counterparts, the physical and vital bodies, on the other hand, is the Human Spirit ruled by the Sun, and its counterpart, the desire body, ruled by the lesser light, the Moon. But this is debatable ground contested by Jupiter and Mercury on the one side, Saturn and Mars being on the other.

The ray of Uranus is gradually forging a second spinal cord by drawing the lower love-ray of Venus upward and transmuting it to altruism, conquering for it the dominion over the sympathetic segment of the present spinal cord and the right cerebral hemisphere now ruled by the passionate hierarchy of Mars, the Lucifer Spirits. This work has been completely accomplished by the Adepts, therefore they have no need to marry for each is now a complete creative unit on both the spiritual and physical

planes, having turned the bi-polar creative force, masculine and feminine, upward through the double spinal cord, illuminated and raised in potential energy by the spinal spirit fires of Neptune (Will) and Uranus (Love and Imagination). This creative energy conceives in the twin hemispheres of the cerebrum, ruled by Mars and Mercury, a vehicle fit for the expression of the spirit, which is then sent out and objectified in the world by the spoken creative word.

This is the secret of how the Adepts form a new body without going through the womb, and some day all humanity will attain to this standard of perfection as spiritual hermaphrodites, then we shall no longer be " a little lower than the angels ' ' who create by similar methods but we shall be higher than they are now for we shall then have the reason and intellect which they lack, in addition to the complete creative power.