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Home Preface 5 Planes of Existence Introduction Five Planes of Manifestation A to Z Contact Related Information BIBLE VERSES |
CHARIOT OF THE SUN, WITH FOUR HORSESA symbol of the celestial causal-body, or World-soul on the buddhic plane, inter-related with the activities of the quaternary. "The four Elements are the steeds of the Great Chariot of all things. The course of the first Winged Horse is beyond the limits of heaven itself. This Steed transcends the rest in beauty, greatness, and speed, and shines with purest brilliance. Its resplendent coat is dappled over with sparks of flame, the stars, and planets and the moon. Such is the Steed of Fire. The second Horse is Air. Its colour is black; the side turned towards its shining mate is bright with light, but that in shade is dark. In nature it is mild, and more obedient to the rein; it is less strong than Fire, and slower in its course. The third is Water, slower still than Air; while Earth, the fourth of this great Cosmic Team, turns on itself, champing its adamantine bit. Round it its fellow Steeds circle as round a post. And this continues for long ages, during which the Cosmic Team work steadily together in peace and friendship. But after many ages, at a certain time, the mighty Breath of the first Steed, as though in passion, pours from on high and makes the others hot, and most of all the last. And finally the fiery Breath sets the Earth Horse's mane ablaze. In the suffering of this cosmic passion the Earth causes such distress to its neighbour Steed and so disturbs its course, that exhausted by its struggles it inundates the Earth with floods of sweat. .. But at the end of the world's age a still stranger mystery is wrought: a Divine Contest takes place among the Steeds; their natures are transformed, and their substances pass over to the mightiest of the Four. It is as though a sculptor had modelled four figures in wax, and melted them down again, and remade then into one form. The One Element becomes omnipotent, and finally in its triumph is identified with the Charioteer Himself." - DION CHRYSOSTOM. The "Great Chariot of all things" is said to be the "most perfect vehicle," which signifies its archetypal nature as containing the perfection of all qualities, and the pattern types of all forms. It is the buddhic causal-body, the same as the "Boat of Rā." It is served by the quaternary, or "four great elements,"—buddhic (fire), mental (air), astral (water), and physical (earth), representing the four lower planes of manifestation. The fifth or atmic plane is the plane of the Higher Self, the "Charioteer." The "Winged Horse of Fire" is the same as the Holy Spirit (Buddhi), and contains the spiritual egos, or Divine sparks (stars of heaven), and centres of consciousness (planets, moon) for the mental plane. Its "speed" refers to its high rate of atomic vibration. The "Horse of Air" is black, to signify that the higher mind is un-manifest to the lower mind which is dark from ignorance and illusion. But the higher mind is "bright with light" from above. The mind is "mild," that is, it is stimulated into activity by either the lower or higher emotions, and is obedient to higher or lower rulers. The "Horse of Water" signifies the desire-nature of the soul, slower to spiritualise than the mind. The "Horse of Earth" signifies the physical brain and body at the foundation of the evolutionary soul-process, the pivot round which the higher activities turn. During the enormous period of involution there is no strife in nature; it is the "golden age" when all the qualities are brought to perfection, and pronounced "very good." But after a period of cessation from activity, a pralaya of "rest," there is a fresh spiritual out-pouring from Buddhi, which rouses the life-forces of the planes below, and starts evolution from the physical nature, the proto-plasmic body being the lowest vehicle. Then the bodily activities stimulate the more or less latent astral organisation of sensation, instinct, and desire, which re-acts to bring about physical adaptation. At the end of the cycle of life, the lower planes of the soul become purified and perfected: their natures therefore are spiritualised and transmuted, and are resolved again into the higher element buddhi. Finally, as the lower planes have merged into the higher, and victory is achieved, the omnipotent buddhi is withdrawn into the Atman and becomes one with the Self Triumphant. |
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