Such is the acervulus cerebri.
This brilliant “sand” is the concretion of the gland itself, so say the Physiologists. Perhaps not, we answer. The Pineal Gland is that which the Eastern Occultist calls Devâksha, the “Divine Eye.” To this day, it is the chief organ of spirituality in the human brain, the seat of genius, the magical Sesame uttered by the purified will of the Mystic, which opens all the avenues of truth for him who knows how to use it. The Esoteric Science teaches that Manas, the Mind Ego, does not accomplish its full union with the child before he is six or seven years of age, before which period, even according to the canon of the Church and Law, no child is deemed responsible.[835] Manas becomes a prisoner, one with the body, only at that age. Now a strange thing was observed in several thousand cases by the famous German anatomist, Wengel. With a few extremely rare exceptions, this “sand,” or golden-coloured concretion, is found only in subjects after the completion of their seventh year. In the case of fools these calculi are very few; in congenital idiots they are completely absent. Morgagni,[836] Grading,[837] and Gum[838] were wise men in their generation, and are wise men to-day, since they are the only Physiologists, so far, [pg 507] who connect the calculi with mind. For, sum up the facts, that they are absent in young children, in very old people, and in idiots, and the unavoidable conclusion will be that they must be connected with mind.
Now since every mineral, vegetable and other atom is only a concretion of crystallized Spirit, or Âkâsha, the Universal Soul, why, asks Occultism, should the fact that these concretions of the Pineal Gland, are, upon analysis, found to be composed of animal matter, phosphate of lime and carbonate, serve as an objection to the statement that they are the result of the work of mental electricity upon surrounding matter?
Our seven Chakras are all situated in the head, and it is these Master Chakras which govern and rule the seven (for there are seven) principal plexuses in the body, besides the forty-two minor ones to which Physiology refuses that name. The fact that no microscope can detect such centres on the objective plane goes for nothing; no microscope has ever yet detected, nor ever will, the difference between the motor and sensory nerve-tubes, the conductors of all our bodily and psychic sensations; and yet logic alone would show that such difference exists. And if the term plexus, in this application, does not represent to the Western mind the idea conveyed by the term of the Anatomist, then call them Chakras or Padmas, or the Wheels, the Lotus Heart and Petals. Remember that Physiology, imperfect as it is, shows septenary groups all over the exterior and interior of the body; the seven head orifices, the seven “organs” at the base of the brain, the seven plexuses, the pharyngeal, laryngeal, cavernous, cardiac, epigastric, prostatic, and sacral, etc.
When the time comes, advanced students will be given the minute details about the Master Chakras and taught the use of them; till then, less difficult subjects have to be learned. If asked whether the seven plexuses, or Tâttvic centres of action, are the centres where the seven Rays of the Logos vibrate, I answer in the affirmative, simply remarking that the rays of the Logos vibrate in every atom, for the matter of that.
In these volumes it is almost revealed that the “Sons of Fohat” are the personified Forces known in a general way as Motion, Sound, Heat, Light, Cohesion, Electricity or Electric Fluid, and Nerve-Force or Magnetism. This truth, however, cannot teach the student to attune and moderate the Kundalinî of the cosmic plane with the vital Kundalinî, [pg 508] the Electric Fluid with the Nerve-Force, and unless he does so, he is sure to kill himself; for the one travels at the rate of about 90 feet, and the other at the rate of 115,000 leagues a second. The seven Shaktis respectively called Para Shakti, Jñâna Shakti, etc., are synonymous with the “Sons of Fohat,” for they are their female aspects. At the present stage, however, as their names would only be confusing to the Western student, it is better to remember the English equivalents as translated above. As each Force is septenary, their sum is, of course, forty-nine.
The question now mooted in Science, whether a sound is capable of calling forth impressions of light and colour in addition to its natural sound impressions, has been answered by Occult Science ages ago. Every impulse or vibration of a physical object producing a certain vibration of the air, that is, causing the collision of physical particles, the sound of which is capable of affecting the ear, produces at the same time a corresponding flash of light, which will assume some particular colour. For, in the realm of hidden Forces, an audible sound is but a subjective colour; and a perceptible colour, but an inaudible sound; both proceed from the same potential substance, which Physicists used to call ether, and now refer to under various other names; but which we call plastic, through invisible Space. This may appear a paradoxical hypothesis, but facts are there to prove it. Complete deafness, for instance, does not preclude the possibility of discerning sounds; medical science has several cases on record which prove that these sounds are received by, and conveyed to, the patient's organ of sight, through the mind, under the form of chromatic impressions. The very fact that the intermediate tones of the chromatic musical scale were formerly written in colours shows an unconscious reminiscence of the ancient Occult teaching that colour and sound are two out of the seven correlative aspects, on our plane, of one and the same thing, viz., Nature's first differentiated Substance.
Here is an example of the relation of colour to vibration well worthy of the attention of Occultists. Not only Adepts and advanced Chelâs, but also the lower order of Psychics, such as clairvoyants and psychometrists, can perceive a psychic Aura of various colours around every individual, corresponding to the temperament of the person within it. In other words, the mysterious records within the Auric Egg are not the heirloom of trained Adepts alone, but sometimes also of natural Psychics. Every human passion, every thought and quality, is indicated [pg 509] in this Aura by corresponding colours and shades of colour, and certain of these are sensed and felt rather than perceived. The best of such Psychics, as shown by Galton, can also perceive colours produced by the vibrations of musical instruments, every note suggesting a different colour. As a string vibrates and gives forth an audible note, so the nerves of the human body vibrate and thrill in correspondence with various emotions under the general impulse of the circulating vitality of Prâna, thus producing undulations in the psychic Aura of the person which result in chromatic effects.
The human nervous system as a whole, then, may be regarded as an Æolian Harp, responding to the impact of the vital force, which is no abstraction, but a dynamic reality, and manifests the subtlest shades of the individual character in colour phenomena. If these nerve vibrations are made intense enough and brought into vibratory relation with an astral element, the result is—sound. How, then, can anyone doubt the relation between the microcosmic and macrocosmic forces?
And now that I have shown that the Tântric works as explained by Râma Prâsad, and other Yoga treatises of the same character which have appeared from time to time in Theosophical journals—for note well that those of true Râja Yoga are never published—tend to Black Magic and are most dangerous to take for guides in self-training, I hope that students will be on their guard.