Birdlip, February 21, 1942
THE LAW OF SEVEN
THE SUN OCTAVE
Part IV.To-day we will speak of the small octave between the Sun
and the Moon. This octave created by the Intelligence of the Sun
sounds three notes on the Earth, La, Sol, Fa, which represent the living
machine called Organic Life on Earth, of which Man is a part. At
present we will not speak of the meaning of the different notes of this
small octave. What must be first understood is that Man does not
appear in the great octave of creation but in the little side octave pro-
ceeding from the Sun. Man is a special creation within the Ray. Let
us now try to grasp why Man appears and why the small octave is
necessary.
The reason why the Intelligence of the Sun creates this small octave
is to fill the gap or place of "missing semi-tone" between Fa and Mi in
the Great Ray, due to the nature of the Law of Seven. Unless something
were created at this point the force passing down the Ray from the
Absolute could not pass freely to the Earth and Moon. A shock is
necessary at this point owing to the nature of the Law of Seven. This Law
governs the order of creation and brings about conditions at certain
points where something must be added in the nature of a shock. The Law
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of Seven is therefore sometimes referred to as the Law of the Shocks.
Understand this clearly: certain shocks are required at certain points
in the unfolding or progress or evolution of anything.
The Intelligence of the Earth or the Planets is not great enough to
create anything to act as a shock at this point. The Intelligence of
the Sun is needed. But the Sun, in creating the small octave, has two
objects which it is essential to grasp and distinguish between very clearly.
One object is to create a sensitive transmitting machine between the
great Notes Fa and Mi in the Great Ray to enable the force to pass to the
Earth and Moon at the termination of the Ray. From this point of view
Organic Life, including Man, exists only for the purposes of the Ray
and its creation is due to the nature of the Law of Seven, which causes
certain difficult or narrow places to appear in the order of creation. If
this were the only object Man's situation would be one in which as a
part of this transmitting machine he must always serve the Ray and its
evolution, which takes place over immense periods of time.
The other object is connected with the Sun itself. In creating the
small octave, the Sun is not merely creating on behalf of the Ray itself
to fill a missing place, but is also acting for itself. The Sun wants something
apart from the needs of the Ray of Creation. It is here that the possibilities
of Man are found. Let us now think of this idea which it is of such
fundamental importance to understand in this Work. The Intelligence of
the Sun wants something for itself in creating Man on Earth, quite apart from
the necessities of the Great Ray. What does it want? It wants Man to
ascend from the level of the Earth to the level of the Sun. For this reason
it creates Man as something incomplete, as an unfinished being. In what
sense incomplete?
In regard to being a part of Organic Life, serving the purposes of
the Ray of Creation he is complete and nothing more is required of him
than the life he ordinarily leads. He is capable of living on Earth as he
is. He is then said (in the Work) to serve Nature. But in regard to his
real origin from the Octave from the Sun he has another destiny locked up
in him. In regard to this destiny Man is unfinished, incomplete, because
the Intelligence of the Sun has created him for another reason and has
put in him, apart from what is necessary to serve Nature, other
powers and possibilities. That is, Man has in him far more than is necessary
for the purposes of serving Nature. In speaking of Nature here what is meant
is all Life on Earthall that we see around us on the Earth, the life of
plants, animals, trees, fishes, and also the life of mankind, with all its
struggles, all the killing, pain, birth and death, which, all
together, make up this perpetual-motion machine called Organic Life
created by the Sun to transmit influences from the upper to the lower
part of the Ray of Creation.
In regard to the second object of the Sun, Man is created on the
Earth as incomplete in order that he may develop up to the level of
being represented by the Sun. It is in this sense that Man is said in the
Work to be a self-developing organism. Man is thus an experiment of the
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Sun, placed on the Earth. He can remain asleep and serve Organic Life:
or he can awake and serve the Sun. If he had been created with the
same being and intelligence as the Sun he would not be on Earth. Man
has therefore two explanations. He is created to serve Naturethat is,
to be part of Organic Lifeand in this sense it is not in the interests of
Nature that Man should develop and so cease to serve Nature. But
Man is also created to develop himself, until he reaches the level of the
Sun. If you will make the effort to think, if you will really try to under-
stand the meaning of the Ray of Creation and the Octave from the Sun,
many inexplicable and apparently irreconcilable things will become clear
to your mind. That is, you will be able to begin to think rightly about
life on Earth, and of Man's situationthat is, of your own situation.
* * *
Part V.Speaking in an external way about the Ray of Creation, it is
quite obvious that physical life on Earth depends on the physical Sun.
But for the physical light and heat of the Sun no life on Earth could
exist. Every green leaf, every blade of grass, every form of the algae
floating in the sea, is a minute solar machine, that receives energy from
the Sun and by its means manufactures from air, water and minerals,
food-substances upon which all animal creation feeds. But when we
speak of the Intelligence of the Sun we are speaking of another light
seen only internally by the mindthe light of Intelligenceand so we
are speaking of the Ray of Creation in an internal sense as a vertical scale
of intelligence and being of increasing excellence as we ascend it. In
this respect, the Intelligence of the Sun is divine in relation to the
Intelligence of the Earth. In the vast evolution of the Ray itself, on
inconceivable scales of time, the Intelligence of the Earth may reach the
level of the Sun. This is not necessarily guaranteed. The Earth may die
having attained nothing. In the same way the Moon may or may not
reach to the Intelligence of the Earth. We cannot see the Sun or Earth or
Moon as beings, as intelligences. One reason is that we see them as cross-
sections of themselves, as mere circles in the sky, just as two-dimensional
beings whose world was limited to a large sheet of paper would see a
man only where he cut their planenamely, as a circle, as a slice of the
man, such as we see in a book of Anatomy. But from the standpoint
of this system the Moon is a growing and developing being and in time
may attain to the same level of being as the Earth. Then, near it, a
new Moon will appear and the Earth will become its Sun. At one time
the Sun was like the Earth and the Earth like the Moon. And earlier
still the Sun was like the Moon. The Work teaches that the whole
Universe is evolving, and this means that our Ray, with our Moon, our
Earth, Planets and Sun, is evolving, as well as all the infinite number of
other Rays. But parts of our Ray may fail, at the allotted period of time,
to have reached the necessary stage of development and so will be
destroyed. As was said, if the evolution of Man depended on the evolution
of the total Ray of Creation itself that reaches us, his chances would be
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remote. In so far as Man is part of Organic Life and Organic Life serves
the purposes of our Ray, his evolution would be held back until all the
processes of the cosmic evolution of the Moon and Earth, and of the
Planets and the Sun above us, had been fulfilled. But Man has other
chancesspecial chanceswhich are due to the small octave from the
Sun in which he is created, for Man is specially created. In this small
octave he can rise or fall. He can reach the level of the Sun or fall to the
level of the Moon. Fully developed Manthat is, Man No. 7has
reached the Intelligence of the Sun. He has attained his full develop-
ment and is under only 12 laws, so for him there is freedom. For all
freedom is gained by rising in the vertical scale of creation and so
passing under fewer laws. And at the same time No. 7 Man has attained
immortality on the scale of the life of the Sun. You have heard already
many times that there are different levels of Man. To speak of Man is
not enough. Which Man do you mean? People living on Earth can
belong to very different levels. Just as there are different levels of Man
so are there different levels in the Universe regarded as a vertical scale
of being or scale of intelligence. The Intelligence of the Sun is divine to
us on the Earth. The influences of the Sun reaching us through the small
octave are of a higher order than are those of the Planetary World
which are again higher than those at the level of the Earth or those com-
ing from the Moon beneath us. A man can be under the influences of
the Sun or the influences of the Planets, or the Earth or the Moon. And
for Man there is a certain possibility of making a choice of influences
in other words, of passing from one influence to another. For example,
if a man begins to struggle with negative emotions, he begins to pass
out of one of the influences of the Moon. If a man remembers himself,
he begins to pass first under Planetary influences and eventually under
the influences of the Sun. But he must learn to make an inner choice
and to do so he must know a great deal about himself and about different
"I"s in him and about parts of centres. The influence of the Sun reaches
Higher Centres. But when a man lives in mechanical parts of centres
he is under far lower influences. You must understand one thing:
it is impossible to become free from one influence without becoming
subject to another. All work on oneself consists in choosing the influence
to which you want to subject yourself, and actually falling under this
influence. And here, by long observation, you must know what you
want in this respect.
* * *
Part VI.The machine called Organic Life on Earth not only transmits
forces down the Ray of Creation, but creates within itself certain forces
which pass to the growing Moon and assist in its development. The
Moon feeds on Organic Life, apart from receiving forces passing down
the Ray. For example, all useless suffering on Earth is food for the
Moon, such as negative emotions. Pain is food for the Moon and for
this reason it is sometimes said that Organic Life is a pain-factory. Pain
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and death feed the Moon and a certain quantity is required. For this
reason sacrifices were initiated in past ages by those who understood.
Many things could be said here, taking Organic Life only from the
point of view of a machine inserted at a particular point in the Ray for
a particular purposenamely, to serve the Ray. For you must under-
stand that Man has no significance in the Ray itself save as a part of
Organic Life. But in regard to the Sun, which creates him, Man has the
greatest significance if he chooses to find it. Here there is a door open
to himnot leading up the gigantic Ray itself, but up a separate ladder
beside it. This is one meaning of the parable of the Prodigal Son: Man
can return to the Father.
Many other significant things are said in the New Testament that
are connected with the Sun-Octave. You have already seen that the
Sun wants something for itself in creating Man on Earth. Man is not
created only for the purpose of the Ray, but is created for the purposes
of the Sunas an experiment in self-evolution. Unless this self-evolution
of Man is fulfilled in sufficient numbers the Sun will not receive what it
wants and will not be satisfied. Let us take one out of the many parables
in this connection in the Gospels:
"A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard; and he
came seeking fruit thereon, and found none. And he said unto the
vinedresser, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this
fig-tree, and find none: cut it down; why doth it also cumber the
ground? And he answering saith unto him, Lord, let it alone this
year also,, till I shall dig about it and dung it: and if it bear fruit
thenceforth, well; but if not, thou shalt cut it down."
(Luke: XIII vi-ix)
Do not try to understand this parable literally. Understand it
psychologically and you will see that it means that Man has certain
possibilities which can come to fruition and, unless some fruit is produced,
Man will be cut off.
* * *
Part VII.All that has been said so far, however briefly, about the
creation of the Universe, through the action of the Law of 3 and the
Law of 7, and about the octave from the Sun, should make it impossible
now for any of you to say: "If there is a God, why does he allow things
to happen on the Earth as they do?". But you will have to make your
own effort of thought in connection with all that has been said about
creation, and the tremendous ideas and massive diagrams given, to
answer that question clearly and strongly from your new understanding.
For unless you can arrange your thoughts on this question which is so
baffling and such a stumbling-block to the vast majority of people,
the right connections in your mindin your Intellectual Centrewill
not be made. According to an ancient saying "God must be justified."
Looking round on life you will find this difficult if you do not understand
creation. You will not see the difficulties and restrictions involved in
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creation inevitably, nor the doors left open, and so you will secretly
harbour a feeling difficult to define but negative in character that is
capable of shutting you from every higher development of the under-
standing. You must get things the right way up in your mind and you
cannot do so unless you realize the conditions and limitations of creation.
The difficulty is that even when people come in contact with esoteric
teaching they will not listen to it, or if they do, they do not understand
it or really see what it means and take hold of it themselves, as one takes
hold of a rope. We have only to look sincerely at ourselves to realize
how difficult it is to work and how much we sleep. Yet the real, most
intense meaning of Man on Earth lies in this Octave from the Sun into
which he can grow internally and come under other influences. In
our case we must subject ourselves to the influences of the Work and
obey them. Once mankind loses all connection with the Intelligence of
the Sun, it will inevitably be destroyed, and that is perhaps especially
the danger to-day. And it is the same thing on the scale of an individual
man. Once he loses contact with the better 'I's in himself, once he loses
all faith, all meaning, all affirmation, all deeper understanding, he
destroys himself. And when life assumes evil forms a man easily weakens.
But if the Work is built up in his mind so that he thinks from it about all
things in life, nothing can weaken him.
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