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open upon the same terms as laid down by the Lord of the World in Atlantean days. These terms will be stated in the last chapter of this book. The door between the human and animal kingdoms will again be opened during the next great cycle, or "round" as it is called in some books, but as this is several million years away from us at this time, we are not concerned with it.

      3. It was also decided to make the line of demarcation between the two forces of matter and spirit clearly defined; the inherent duality of all manifestation was emphasised, with the aim in view of teaching men how to liberate themselves from the limitations of the fourth, or human kingdom, and thus pass on into the fifth, or spiritual. The problem of good or evil, light or darkness, right or wrong, was enunciated solely for the benefit of humanity, and to enable men to cast off the fetters which imprisoned spirit, and thus achieve spiritual freedom. This problem exists not in the kingdoms below man, nor for those who transcend the human. Man has to learn through experience and pain the fact of the duality of all existence. Having thus learnt, he chooses that which concerns the fully conscious spirit aspect of divinity, and learns to centre himself in that aspect. Having thus achieved liberation he finds indeed that all is one, that spirit and matter are a unity, naught existing save that which is to be found within the consciousness of the Planetary Logos, and—in wider circles—within the consciousness of the Solar Logos.

      The Hierarchy thus took advantage of the discriminative faculty of mind, which is the distinctive quality of humanity, to enable him, through the balancing of the pairs of opposites, to reach his goal, and to find his way back to the source from whence he came.

      This decision led to that great struggle which distinguished the Atlantean civilisation, and which culminated in the destruction called the flood, referred to in all the Scriptures of the world. The forces of light, and the forces of darkness, were arrayed against each other, and this for the helping of humanity. The struggle still persists, and the World War through which we have just passed was a recrudescence of it. On every side in that World War two groups were to be found, those who fought for an ideal as they saw it, for the highest that they knew, and those who fought for material and selfish advantage. In the struggle of these influential idealists or materialists many were swept in who fought blindly and ignorantly, being thus overwhelmed with racial karma and disaster.

      These three decisions of the Hierarchy are having, and will have a profound effect upon humanity, but the result desired is being achieved, and a rapid hastening of the evolutionary process, and a profoundly important effect upon the mind aspect in man, can already be seen.

      It might here be well to point out that, working as members of that Hierarchy are a great number of beings called angels by the Christian, and devas by the oriental. Many of them have passed through the human stage long ages ago, and work now in the ranks of the great evolution parallel to the human, and which is called the deva evolution. This evolution comprises among other factors, the builders of the objective planet and the forces which produce, through those builders, every form familiar and unfamiliar. The devas who co-operate with the Hierarchical effort, concern themselves, therefore, with the form aspect, whilst the other members of the Hierarchy are occupied with the development of consciousness within the form.

      The Three Departments of the Hierarchy

       Table of Contents

      We have already dealt with the subject of the founding of the Hierarchy upon earth, and we saw how it came to be, touching likewise upon certain crises which have occurred, and which still affect events in the present time. In dealing with the work and aims of the personnel of the Hierarchy, it will not be possible to state what those aims have been, nor to consider in detail who the active personalities have been during the past millennia of years since the Hierarchy came into existence.

      Many great Beings from planetary and solar sources, and once or twice from cosmic sources, have at times lent Their aid and dwelt briefly upon our planet. By the energy which flowed through Them, and by Their profound wisdom and experience, They stimulated earth's evolutions and brought the purposes of the Planetary Logos so much the nearer to completion. Then They passed on, and Their places were taken by those among the members of the Hierarchy Who were willing to undergo a specific training and expansion of consciousness. In turn these adepts and Masters had Their places filled by initiates, and thus constantly has there been opportunity for disciples and highly evolved men and women to pass into the ranks of the Hierarchy, and thus constantly has there been a circulation of new life and blood, and the coming in of those who belong to a particular period or age.

      Some of the great names during the later periods are known to history, such as Shri Sankaracharya, Vyasa, Mahommet, Jesus of Nazareth, and Krishna, down to those lesser initiates, Paul of Tarsus, Luther, and certain of the outstanding lights in European history. Always have these men and women been agents for the carrying out of race purpose, for the bringing about of group conditions, and for the furthering of the evolution of humanity. Sometimes they have appeared as beneficent forces, bringing peace and contentment with them. More often have they come as agents of destruction, breaking up the old forms of religion and of government in order that the life within the rapidly crystallising form might be set free and build for itself a newer and a better vehicle.

      Much that is stated here is already well known, and has already been given out in the different occult books. Yet in the wise and careful enunciation of collected facts, and their correlation with that which may be new to some students, comes an eventual synthetic grasp of the great plan, and a wise uniform realisation as to the work of that great group of liberated souls who, in utter self-abnegation, stand silently behind the world panorama. Through the power of their will, the strength of their meditations, the wisdom of their plans, and the scientific knowledge of energy which is theirs, they direct those force currents, and control those form-building agencies which produce all that is seen and unseen, movable and immovable in the sphere of creation within the three worlds. This, coupled to their vast experience, is what fits them to be the agents for the distribution of the energy of the Planetary Logos.

      As has already been stated, at the head of affairs, controlling each unit and directing all evolution, stands the KING, the Lord of the World, Sanat Kumara, the Youth of Endless Summers, and the Fountainhead of the Will, (showing forth as Love) of the Planetary Logos. Co-operating with Him as His advisers are three Personalities called the Pratyeka Buddhas, or the Buddhas of Activity. These four are the embodiment of active intelligent loving will. They are the full flowering of the intelligence, having achieved in an earlier solar system that which man is now striving to perfect. In earlier cycles in this system They began to demonstrate intelligent love, and from the standpoint of the average human being They are perfect love and perfect intelligence, though from the standpoint of that Existence Who embraces even our planetary scheme in His body of manifestation, that love aspect is as yet but in process of developing, and the will is only embryonic. Another solar system will see the will aspect come to fruition, as love will mature in this.

      Standing around the Lord of the World, but withdrawn and esoteric, are three more Kumaras, Who make the seven of planetary manifestation. Their work is to us necessarily obscure. The three exoteric Buddhas, or Kumaras, are the sumtotal of activity or planetary energy, and the three esoteric Kumaras embody types of energy which as yet are not in full demonstration upon our planet. Each of these six Kumaras is a reflection of, and the distributing agent for, the energy and force of one of the six other Planetary Logoi, the remaining six spirits before the Throne. Sanat Kumara alone, in this scheme, is self-sustaining and self-sufficient, being the physical incarnation of one of the Planetary Logoi, which one it is not permissible to state, as this fact is one of the secrets of initiation. Through each of Them passes the life force of one of the six rays, and in considering Them one might sum up Their work and position as follows:—

      1. They each embody one of the six types of energy, with the Lord of the World as the synthesiser and the embodier of the perfect seventh type, our planetary type.

      2. They are each distinguished by one of the six colours, with the Lord of the World showing forth the full planetary colour, these six being subsidiary.

      3. Their work is therefore