the worlds are tenary in their constitution, so also is man. He has on the physical plane (1) a physical body, the dense or visible portion of which is com posed of solids, liquids and gases, and the etheric portion thereof is formed of the four subdivisions of ether. Pervading these is (2) vitality, derived from the sun and specialized by the etheric part. On the astral plane he has (3) an astral or desire body. And on the lower four levels of the mental plane he has (4) a mind body. These four principles constitute the personality, or what is often called the lower quaternary. On the three upper levels of the mental plane he has (5) a causal or higher mental body, the storehouse of all his experi ences, past, present and future; on the Buddhic plane, (6) a buddhic or bliss body, wherein the inherent unity of all life is directly perceived, not as an intellectual concept, but as a sublime experience, and on the nirvanic plane he has (7) a nirvanic or Atmic body, the body of abso lute reality. These last three constitute the Reincarnating Ego, the individuality, the soul which lives and grows throughout the period of solar manifestation. The other two planes may be termed the planes of the Self, or pure spirit. The matter of the various planes of nature entering into the composition of man's sundry bodies is vivified with the involving life of the monadic essence, the law of whose progress is to sink deeper and deeper into matter, while the law of the evolution of the Self using these bodies as vehicles of his consciousness is up ward and out of matter. This apparent opposi tion of forces in man gives rise to the usual ideas concerning his lower and higher natures, and explains the meaning of evil. One's de sires, thoughts and emotions are not himself, but the changing phantasmagoria of the living essence of his lesser vehicles which it is his business to learn to control and purify, until they become perfect instruments for his use,— for the real man within is none other than the changeless, eternal Self.
When the human Egos began their long pil grimage of incarnations they at first took bodies on planets other than the one on which we now live. There are in our solar system seven plane tary schemes of evolution, each the realm of a planetary Logos, and they are called, in the order of their distance from the sun, (1) the Neptune scheme, (2) the Uranus scheme, (3) the Saturn scheme, (4) the Jupiter scheme, (5) the Earth scheme, (6) the Venus scheme and (7) the Vulcan scheme. Each scheme consists of a chain of seven planets and each proceeds on independent lines, there being no intermingling of their activities during their normal course. The first and fifth of this series have each three physical planets, the others one each. The two physical planets of the first scheme besides Neptune are as yet unseen by the telescope. The two of the fifth, in addition to our earth, are Mars and Mercury. The non physical planets in the schemes are of the mat ter of the astral and mental planes. Each scheme of evolution is worked out by means of seven Manvantaras or periods of manifestation, each manvantara consisting of seven Rounds, each round consisting of seven World Periods (following each other on seven planets in suc cession) and each world period consisting of seven Root Race Periods, any one of the latter covering periods of millions of years. The
present humanity on this planet has passed four times around the planets of its chain, and through a fraction over four root race periods. The last planet occupied by us during the pres ent round was Mars and the next will be Mer cury. The two root races next before the present fifth root race of this planet were the Atlantean and the Lemurian races. The fifth root race has thus for developed as far as its fifth subrace and it stated that the beginnings of a new subrace, the sixth, may be found to-day in America.
Reincarnation and Omitting all mention of the interesting career of the reincar nating egos through theprimigcnous condi tions of the first three rounds of our own plane tary chain and even of the first four root races of this present fourth round, it will suffice to show that among the undeveloped subraces of the present fifth root race reincarnation takes place within a brief period after the death of the body; that after each death there is a stay of more or less duration on the astral plane followed quickly by another physical incarna tion. Later on as the life experiences bring greater growth to the incarnating soul, when he has developed some of the finer emotions, his stay in the invisible world is prolonged by an additional period in a specially protected and blissful region of the mental plane called udevachan,° the heaven world. Here his stay is proportional to the degree of his nobler earth experiences, usually lasting, for the average man of substantial attainments who has lived to a good age, about 15 centuries. Upon the ending of this devachanic life there remains only the reincarnating ego, the lower bodies constituting the personality having disin tegrated on their respective planes; but the principles or qualities animating them have meanwhile left their impress upon the ego. In sending forth his next personality the action of the ego is colored and limited by the stamp• upon it of these characteristics developed by the previous personality, so that the new per sonality begins his life cycle at the highest stage of growth reached by the previous one. This process of reincarnation goes on in "the three worlds° for vast periods of time, not on one planet alone, but on many, as the human life wave passes from one to another — from one whose life processes have begun to wane to another more fitted to be the field of higher human possibilities, until. at length the end is attained for which all manifestation seems to have been caused — the perfect growth of the soul, the enfoldment of all his potential divinity. The ethical law which governs the conditions of our lives, physical and supra-physical,. is called Karma, and it is ineradically operative in Reincarnation. It may be defined as the law of action and result. By virtue of the operation of this law, effects which cannot be ascribed to any immediate cause may be traced to causes existing in other incarnations of the same ego, thus establishing one's ultimate, personal re sponsibility for whatever may befall him. Furthermore, owing to this law, one may and does at each moment of his present life pro duce by his own actions, feelings and thoughts definite effects in the subtler order of things, resulting in conditions for his next earth life wholly of his own making.