第57章

Every molecule of matter is the outward form, the center of which, is the incarnating spirit, in some degree of progress.Man's physical organism is a system of life and development for countless billions of them.So the Earth, in its functional expression as the womb of Nature for the outward expression of Man, is only so in a material sense.HE IS PRIOR TO THE PLANET.He (Man) is only the offspring of the planet by virtue of his material body being a part of the substance of the Earth.This life is a stage, only, of his material journey; and, just as Man's body is continually throwing off useless dead matter and replacing the same with new life, so, too, the countless organic forms of Earth are hourly returning to the ground from which they sprang, and new forms, rising from the same dust, are taking their places.

Here, then, is the sum total: First is revealed to us the grand Astral Man, the Zodiac being the outward idea or form, the Sun and his system the vital functions thereof.The Earth, apart from its functional expression or place, is also an individual.Man, apart from forming a molecule of the planetary womb, by comparison, is also an individual.And, lastly, every molecule of Man's organism is also, in reality, an individual, and small only by comparison with the human frame.And as there are the high Solar Archangels of the Sun, and a chief amongst these seated upon his throne of fire, so there is an Archangelic Chief of the Earth, surrounded by descending degrees of wisdom and power to Man, who also, in his turn, stands as the Deific center and chief of his being, his soul being the sphere of consciousness, which, when united to the feminine soul, constitutes the Angel of Life, Eternal.Down still we go, and find that this Divine scale of life and being is, from the lowly molecule, system upon system climbing,sphere upon sphere, upward and onward, forever, evermore, and all eternity cannot bring nearer the end of Man's glorious immortality.