Taking this figure to represent the human Principles and planes of consciousness, then [pg 557] 7, 6, 5 represent respectively, Shiva, Vishnu, Brahmâ, Brahmâ being the lowest.
Shiva is the four-faced Brahmâ; the Creator, Preserver, Destroyer, and Regenerator.
Between 5 and 4 comes the Antahkarana. The triangle represents the Christos, the Sacrificial Victim crucified between the thieves: this is the double-faced entity. The Vedântins make this a quaternary for a blind: Antahkarana, Chit, Buddhi, and Manas.
Manvantaric Aspect of Parabrahman and Mûlaprakriti.
[N.B.—The number of Rays is arbitrary and without significance.]
Perceptive life begins with the Astral: it is not our physical atoms which see, etc.
Consciousness proper begins between Kâma and Manas. Âtmâ-Buddhi acts more in the atoms of the body, in the bacilli, microbes, etc., than in Man himself.