Chapter VIII
OF THE STATE OF MENTALITY – OF THE COMING OF THE LAST EJECTED FREE INTELLIGENCES – OF ARG-ALIF WITH HIS ARMIES AND OF THEIR FORMATIONS – IE, AD-AD AND THE SEER
I
During that time, the Former had formed all the matter that was proper for formation from the state of Essence and he had left the ones who were clothed and enveloped with invisibility as if they had not crossed the state in which they rested. Extending himself, then, into the fourth state of matter proper to permanent individual formation, he rested with his Second Formation after having clothed him with the degree of matter where they had entered.
While the Second Formation was resting in the sleep of assimilation, the great Former attracted into the sphere of sustentation the most rarefied and radiant matter of this state named the state of Mentality and, having penetrated this matter of his own pathotic, spiritual, intellectual and vital forces, he formed, by means of IE, two beings in his own similitude, perfectly similar an in perfect affinity.
II
As the great Former was penetrating with his own forces the matter in accordance with its capacity for reception, the second banned entered hurriedly into this state, enveloped themselves with the most perfect rarefied and radiant matter of this density, and left gain with swiftly.
The great Former ceased to penetrate the remaining matter and waited with his three formations in the sphere of sustentation.
III
At a certain epoch, Arg-Alif and the two thirds who had remained with him penetrated into this State of Mentality, accompanied by two thirds of the Formations. Here they found no matter suitable for their envelopment; they nonetheless enveloped themselves and although they retained their primary form, they were disfigured because of the inferiority of the matter. The began to envelop their formations of matter which was even less evolved; but, after doing so, they could not bear the sight of these rather ugly beings which they had created. On the order of Arg-Alif, these envelopments were disintegrated and the matter with which they were made was returned to the collective.
Thus exteriorised by violence, these formations returned to the state of Essence and the third of the companions of Arg-Alif who had not followed him held council.
— “We perceive that penetrating with our own forces matter improper to the formation of beings in our similitude and that forming individual beings dissimilar to ourselves with such matter is to violate the law of charity. By doing so, we localise our forces into matter which we should be left to evolve and perfect itself so that, in the future, it would proper for formations in our similitude.”
Consequently, they withdrew their forces; first the intellectual force, then the vital force, and returned the materiality with which these beings had been formed to the collective matter, in the germinative state of the Essence.
They experienced a certain unease. Perhaps, they were telling themselves, we violated the law of Charity by depriving these beings of the individuality that we had forced them to receive. This unease then became anxiety; they decided to leave their current dwelling and join their fellow beings in the expansion.
Upon entering into the state of Mentality, they saw Arg-Alif and his companions clothed with the inferior matter which disfigured them and which darkened the splendour of their auras. They wanted to return but, looking towards the center, they were not able to perceive the state from which they had come because it was veiled of invisibility. They therefore also enveloped themselves, as best they could, and stayed with their fellow beings in the State of Mentality.
When they had completely assimilated their material envelope, Arg-Alif proposed that they extend themselves once again. They accepted joyfully as they were incapable of influencing the materiality here and of evolving or perfecting the one with which they were enveloped. “Whatever happens to us in the expansion”, they told themselves, “nothing can be worse than the current state of stagnation.” And they extended themselves into the exterior expansion of the mixed matter.
The Great Former, waking his two Formations, said to them:
“You are equal and coexistent; it is your duty to establish yourselves, one in the State of Light which delimits, from the center, the State of Essence, and the other in the State of Mentality where you were formed. Like the more rarefied and denser Intelligences, you can preside over the State of Essence which is eminently the state of formation, until the epoch when the one to whom the kingdom belongs will himself take power.”
He made one of them pass across the State of Essence, in a sphere of sustentation, to the State of Light, or Intelligence in permanent form, which is the second state of permanent form. The formation then took the road to the East that was guarded by the four times nine which the Great Former had crafted with matter touched by the First Emanation. He was welcomed joyfully.
The three times twelve, who resembled the First Emanation, surrounded the sphere of sustentation with a double circle; the smaller interior on was formed of twelve beings; the exterior larger one, of twenty-four beings. Everywhere the Formations of the Great Former went, they were followed by the twelve and the twenty-four.
IV
The great Former conversed with IE. He said to him, “Since there is confusion in the formations and that, not only the Free Intelligences, the banned and those who banned them, but also, and especially, the hostile Being, have the power to emanate and form, it is important that the State of Essence be watched and guarded. Also, we have sent two Formations: one into the State of Light and the other into the State of Mentality, so as to watch from both sides the State of Essence which is the center of material formation. My desire is that, in the sphere of sustentation, you take the State of Essence as your own domain and that you pass at will from state to state, by exteriorising yourself as you can, or by resting in passivity, as it is for you that we have formed all that could be formed. The supremacy over all of the states of materiality where the individual formation is found is yours.”
IE was overtaken by a profound sadness.
“I understand,” he said, “the necessity of staying in the state of Essence, since there is confusion; however I moan, because I though I would always be close to you.”
— “We are one,” replied the great Former. “ As I am one with the Attribute of Justice of the Cosmic Cause, as that Attribute is one with its Origin, so also you are one, for ever and ever, with me. I in you as individual being, and you in me as cosmic being. Who could separate us against our will?”
— “Where will you go when you leave here,” asked IE.
— “I will always remain where you are because we are one. At this time, I go into the immensity of the mixed matter in order to prepare the way for you. Do not be sad, my beloved, I will return and, together, we will finish what we started.”
— “In truth,” said IE consoled, “there is no separation for those who are one in the Pathotism, since each is always present for the other and thought always answers thought; whereas those who are closest can be the farthest in all else.”
IE fell into a refreshing sleep.
During that time, the Great Former penetrated his whole being with his own pathotic, spiritual, intellectual and vital force, and give him of his own power.
Upon his awakening, he told him:
“I gave you as much as I could of all that I am and of all that I possess; I have enveloped you, as with a coat, of my aura of power and protection with which you will be able to perpetually protect yourself, your Emanations and your Formations.”
The love the Great Former had for his Formation was profound; he blessed him while telling him:
“Enter now into the special sphere of sustentation that I have prepared for you.”
IE did so and the sphere, centralising, brought him to the centre of the state of Essence where the First Banned were veiled in invisibility.
This sphere was of a transparent sapphirine splendour, surrounded by a silvery mist that was veiled by another sapphirine splendour. Around it was a veil of golden light; sapphire and gold joined together had the appearance of emerald.
While the sphere shone thus in the middle of the State of Essence, other veils formed around it in spherical shapes. The first one was blue, like the one from the State of Mentality, the second one a pink topaz color and the third one carmine; further away a very large sphere was formed and it surrounded the central sphere with its veils; this one was blue, pink topaz, carmine and crimson.
Ad-Ad, in the form he had taken (the one which the seer had abandoned), approached veiled of invisibility. While looking at the large exterior sphere, he saw that the crimson veiled the carmine, the carmine the pink topaz, and the pink the blue; like the darker blue of mentality was veiling the gold of the State of Essence, the gold was veiling the sapphirine splendour, the sapphirine splendour was veiling the silvery mist, and the silvery mist was veiling the sapphirine brightness.
In a state of rest, he continued to look at the large exterior sphere; after a moment, he sentiented that the sapphirine light was veiling a colorless transparency. He then sentiented that these nine circles veiled what seemed to him like a void. A short while after, he saw seven transparent interior veils that also hid that which seemed to be empty, but that which he sentiented of was very little compared to that which was eluding his sensitivity.
As he was about to rest once again, in order to penetrate that which was invisible to him in his current state of rest, IE said to him:
“Do not pass alone from state of rest to state of rest, as those who do so, from the lesser to the greatest, reach a period of rest where duality is essential for their safety, their sustentation and their protection.”
— I see a marvellous thing” said Ad-Ad; “an exterior sphere, which seems to contain everything, surrounds you.”
— “What you have seen,” answered IE with happiness, “is the aim of our aspirations.”
— “I do not understand the significance of your words well, but I will reflect upon it. I took the form with which I am enveloped from a certain seer for whom Arg-Alif had made it. Those who want to attain a goal must be in order; I would therefore like to be able to return this form to the one to whom it belongs.”
— “If it is the case,” said IE, “come out of this form and enter into the aura that surrounds this sphere.”
Ad-Ad did so. IE enveloped him in his aura of protective power and, attracting him into the sphere of sustentation, clothed him.
Ad-Ad fell into the sleep of assimilation.
The seer, who had been sent out into the exterior density at the suggestion of Ad-Ad, was suffering in his state of mentality; he said to one of his companions with whom he was in affinity:
“Earlier I heard these words in my mentality: “Rest in sleep so that the form into which you were not able to re-enter may be returned to you.” Help me and fortify me.”
During his sleep, the seer disappeared suddenly. His companion went with haste to Arg-Alif and told him everything.
— “Do not be troubled,” replied the chief; “it is Ad-Ad, in his invisibility, who is returning to the seer that which was stolen from him. Ad-Ad did not eject himself; only the just can judge with justice and know what is just or unjust in this occurence.”
They went silently to the place where the seer was resting. The invisibility had disappeared and the seer was clothed with the form that had been prepared for him in haste; but this form was glorious, embellished and surrounded by a sphere that was almost transparent.
The one who had stood watch by the seer and who loved him marvelled at this. “Why do you marvel at this?” Arg-Alif said to him. “Has this form not enveloped Ad-Ad?” And he withdrew.
The Free Intelligences who were with Arg-Alif greeted the seer by asking him:
“Are you for or against us?
— “During my rest,” he answered, “something like a dark transparency gathered around me which shed light upon and reflected for me many things which I had not understood until then; I am now against no being of the Great Former whose origin is the Cosmic Cause; but I am against anyone who, through his action or voluntarily, would want to weaken, strip and disfigure his formations.”
— “Nonetheless,” said Arg-Alif, “it is essential that we know if you are with us, or with Ad-Ad, or with those who were last banned, of whom Orme is the greatest.”
— “I was formed a Free Intelligence and free I remain. I am with all the Free Intelligences and I take position against anything that is against them.”
Not only, thought Arg-Alif, does he have the body that was taken by Ad-Ad, but he also has his nature.
Subsequently, many of those with Arg-Alif, who were gentle and peaceful, wanted to take the seer as their master but he answered them:
— “Follow no chief, unless it is by necessity. The divine light of your origin which is within you is the only one you should follow. Thus will the Formations be one with their Former.”
While IE remained in the State of Essence, one of the two special emanated and clothed Formations was still in the state of Light or intelligence in permanent form, surrounded by the Twelve and the Twenty-Four glorious beings.
The great Former had remained passive for a time in the State of Mentality with the other Formation when Arg-Alif and his fellow beings had undone the inferior formations who were not in their own similitude.
The Great Former was preparing to exteriorise himself anew when he received the seer into the sphere of sustentation where he shaped and sustained his Formations. He told him:
— “You have the form glorified and embellished by Ad-Ad and you partake of his nature. You are not responsible for what has happened to the Free Intelligences, since you are of the passivity; besides, you have endurance and humility. Would you like, for a while (until the time when IE is again with me as before), to follow me everywhere I go, so that through you I may touch the densities of matter as we extend ourselves?”
— “Happily,” answered the seer.
— “The voluntary service which you will render as representative of my Second Formation while waiting for him to take back his place will be related to Ad-Ad.”
— “In all justice it must be thus, as it is he who prepared for me this form by leaving in it a part of his own forces which blend with my own and supply that which I am lacking. Nevertheless, I am but myself and the question begs to be answered: will I suffice to this task?”
— “Be as useful as you are humble; if there is an insufficiency, I will make up for it.”
When Arg-Alif and his fellow beings arrived at the exterior limit of the State of Mentality, they only found, in the expansion before them, unclassified mixed matter; they were incapable of sentienting it.
Arg-Alif searched in vain for the seer to try to send him again into the density that spread out before them; so he then chose a few amongst the more sensitive beings but they refused to obey him, remembering what had come to pass.
“How they must have suffered,” he thought, “the ones we ejected into the immensity of the mixed matter!”
Then he summoned the ones with whom he had the most affinity.
— “We must enter into the expansion before us,” he told them. “Whereas Ad-Ad and the first ejected are invisible in the state of Essence, we have found no trace of those who were banned the second time; it is essential that we know where they are and what they are doing; it is ever more necessary given that Orme is not tough like Ad-Ad, but always ready to resist and fight against all injustice. Consequently, each time he meets us, he will struggle against us.”
“Since none of you want to enter into the exterior density, the only thing left to do is to penetrate into the expansion myself.”
— “If you enter into it, you will be able to sentient nothing,” objected the friend of the seer. “I have meditated deeply on this subject as on many others. Without a sphere of sustentation, which we do not possess, or without the protective aura of a being possessing power and the knowledge, such a penetration is ineffective and dangerous.”
“To act in a usefully manner, we must beforehand envelop ourselves with this density of mixed matter, capable of being in rapport with the density where we are entering. The one who wants to know all that is knowable about non-classified mixed matter must be able to take on, at will, all the constituents of these densities. If there existed a being capable of doing this, he would have to leave behind the forms which he had taken in the mixed matter when he returned to the place from which he had left; who know by which beings these could be taken over during that time?”
“Has this not already occurred with the one causing our unrest and our worry wearing the form abandoned by the First Emanated before the latter had time to undo it?”
Arg-Alif understood this reasoning and sought another means. “Orme and his fellows beings,” he said, “could not have enveloped themselves with invisibility; since we have not encountered them nor even noticed them, they must be in the expansion before us. Can we not do what they did?”
— “They were ejected by violence,” observed one of them.
— “By uniting our forces we have pushed them forth; by uniting our forces we can go forward ourselves and meet them face to face, equal against equal.”
— “Enough violence,” several of them said. “Let us instead try to rest so that we may ask the one who formed us, if it is possible, what we must do.” Arg-Alif and the ones who shared his opinion did not want to yield.
— “We will do what you want,” said the others, “not because we share your opinion, but to avoid a new division. It is better to suffer together than to get ahead of calamities that we do not know.”
Upon Arg-Alif’s order, they threw themselves into the expansion of non classified mixed matter, enveloping themselves in haste, as they could. And then, a gloomy sadness took hold of them as they noticed that the most evolved part of the mixed matter had already been used and that, once again, even though they retained the similitude of their Former, they no longer had the beauty, sparkle and glory of form.
Arg-Alif, seeing that most of his fellow beings were overcome by pain, and that the most feeble were falling asleep out of weariness, addressed the leaders assembled around him with these words:
— “The ones who were ejected the second time used for their own envelopment all that was best and most perfect in this matter.”
— “We are not very far from the place from which we came,” said one of them, passive and sensitive, who was sleeping; “we are simply in another degree of mentality. I see around us that which is visible to me in sleep.”
— “Is everything not visible?” asked Arg-Alif.
— “No; a great part of it is veiled with invisibility.”
— “Ad-Ad has taken these under his protection,” said Arg-Alif to the Chiefs. But a few thought: “The troubling being told us: “you have cast out the First Emanated!” It is perhaps the First Emanated and not Ad-Ad who thus veiled the ones who were last ejected.”
Arg-Alif, seeing that those who had fallen asleep out of weariness were incapable of regaining energy, surrounded them with a radiant light so that this radiance could veil them. He then told the Chiefs:
— “There is no doubt that the ones who remain have suffered, and that they were incapable of continuing their involuntary descent without continuous loss. Ad-Ad must have stopped their fall and veiled them thus.
As the Chiefs remained silent, he continued:
“For us, who are capable of it, there is but one way: to keep extending ourselves until we meet Orme and the greater beings who are with him.”
Again they extended themselves, clothing themselves with the degree of density of the state of soul.
There they found no species of individual formation. However, they noticed that, as in the preceding states, there was loss and imperfection in the matter that remained. They infused some of their force into the imperfect matter, as their capacities permitted, so that no other being would be able to use it; but they emanated neither intelligence nor vitality.
They realised that it was necessary, in order to maintain the banned ones within their limits, to place guards in this state where there were no emanations nor formations and where matter lacked intelligence and vitality.
But the chief was worried because his guests could no longer increase their numbers by giving birth to emanations in their own similitude and because their numbers were diminishing.
While he was reflecting in rest, the one who had remained in the state of Essence came, with all of the Free Intelligences who were too weak to follow the chief into the expansion, and told him:
“I restored to the State of Essence the forces it was lacking; I perfected the Emanations there, and I came here with the ones who gained strength.”
— “Good,” replied the Chief, “but where did you find this intelligence and this vitality?”
— “In the Essence, the source of which is in the center of my self.”
— “Please take my place then,” said Arg-Alif; “you are more perfect than I am.”
— “No; what I have told you stays between us and I remain among you as a servant.”
They exited together and enveloped themselves in the expansion. They discovered that the materiality was deficient and that the intelligence and vitality were depleted, and that subsequently, this materiality could only serve for inferior Formations, dissimilar to themselves. It is for this reason that they abstained, knowing that the Banned of the second epoch had crossed this materiality and had enveloped themselves with it.
— “Would you,” asked the Chief, “be able restore what is missing in this state and in the imperfect state which we left?”
— “I would not be able to do it as the present time, because my forces are depleted for the moment.”
— “If so, it is useless to remain here; we will penetrate the mixed matter which is even denser. And, upon his words, all of those who were able to do so extended themselves with him. Tired from their race, the two interlocutors and their entourage rested.”
Soon after, the one who came from the State of Essence went forth. When Arg-Alif woke up, the latter told him: “I saw the whole region before us depleted; we would not be able to find anything with which to adequately envelop ourselves”. Arg-Alif then thought that the last Banned had taken their position in the exterior expansion, in the Nervous State, and that they had depleted the usable materiality.
“It is over,” said the Chief lowering his head; “our road is cut off! Who knows who will prevail upon the invisibility or of the radiance?”
They then took position in the first degree of the Nervous State, facing what seemed for them to be a gaping abyss which they could not cross with in current forms.
Tired of waiting, a few proposed that they envelop themselves as best they could and cross the abyss with inferior forms; but the wisest amongst them objected.
— “How could we fight the army of the Banned and take the victory with inferior forms?”
— “Let no one abandon the form which we received from the Cosmic Cause,” said the one who came from the State of Essence to his partisans who were discussing the situation.
They conserved their density and rested in the sleep of the Alifa, because the one they trusted had said: “We have the same origin as the Banned and this Origin will manifest itself in everything, as we perfect it all. Since the Pure Spirit in Passivity is perfect in itself, the Cosmic Cause perfects itself by perfecting the materiality.”
As he was talking in his sleep, the Chief asked him: “How can you rest in sleep while inside, light and darkness reign and outside, there is an abyss between us and the army of the Banned?”
— “Rest also,” was the reply, “so that when the moment of action comes, you are not lacking in forces.”
He retired and fell asleep among his fellow beings while four of them watched over him.
A short time later, they saw above the one who came from the State of Essence a light and a protective shadow; gradually the light increased and the shadow thickened.
— “It is the radiance and the shadow of our Origin, the Second Emanated of the Attribute of the Cosmic Cause,” they though. And they called him IE: the Essence, because it came from the State of Essence.
During the whole epoch in which IE rested, he remained silent in all of the states and degrees of being, imploring seven times his Former in with these words: “Help us in justice!”
Amongst those who watched over him, there were two whose clairaudience was so perfectly developed that they heard the call of IE.
“IE is calling out to the Cosmic Cause;” said one of them, “not in its entirety, but to one of its Attributes, Justice, and he is right, even though each part is in the whole.”
And the clairaudients heard these words that seemed to come out of the Shadow: “It is thus that the causes develop that which is WITHOUT CAUSE, the Origin its Origin!”
— “IE,” said Arg-Alif, “is talking to his Former who is also ours.”
— “No;” said the clairaudient, “IE is talking to the Attribute of the Cosmic Cause which is pre-eminent in Justice.”
— “By which name may he be known?” they asked; “as there are many gods and many lords.”
— “By the name of Brah,” replied Arg-Alif.
After a long period of time, meaning after seven million seven thousand seven hundred and seventy periods of alternating radiance and shadow, the watchers noticed that IE was no longer there and that the radiance was no longer showing.
While Orme, the Chief of the last Banned and his companions were on watch, as per their habit, close to the gaping Abyss that extended between them and those who had ejected them, the chief of the Seers spoke and said:
“I see what is like a light and a shadow, alternating; it seems like it is a spherical form crossing the abyss and approaching us.”
But the sphere disappeared.
Orme thought: “It is Ad-Ad, Eminent of Eminents, who comes to visit us and to help us extend ourselves into the beyond; he has veiled himself by making his aura invisible.”
— “What is the color of the light and shadow you saw?” asked the chief to the Seer.
— “Dark purple and radiating white.”
A being more powerful than Ad-Ad is crossing, thought the Leader.
A short time after, a great light and an intense heat, followed by deep obscurity and a great cold, passed above him. He wanted to see but he could not.
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