(28) So truly does advanced modern scientific thought recognize the nature of vibrations, that the axiom is announced that "The difference in things consists entirely of difference in vibrations." This axiom is akin to the ancient occult aphorism that "Things manifest differences according to their rate of vibrations." So, it is seen, all human investigation tends to prove the truth of the old occult axiom that "Everything vibrates." IV. The Principle of Rhythm The Principle of Rhythm manifests that universal regular swing or time-beat which is apparent in all the manifested world, from its highest to its lowest manifestation. The ancient occult axiom "Everything beats time" expresses this fundamental fact of the Cosmos.

(31) The term "periodicity" so often employed in connection with the subject of Rhythm, means "state of occurring or recurring at fixed intervals of time." Every phenomenal thing manifests periodicity, by reason of the presence and activity of the Principle of Rhythm. Every phenomenal thing has its own rhythmic beat, or measure of periodicity. All scientific investigation tends to corroborate the ancient occult axiom: "Everything beats time." A leading scientist has said: "Rhythm is a necessary characteristic of all motion. Given the co-existence everywhere of antagonistic forces—a postulate which is necessitated by our experience—and Rhythm is a necessary corollary. All motion alternates—be it the motion of planets in their orbits, or ethereal corpuscles in their undulations—be it the cadence of speech, or the rise and fall of prices—it became manifest that this perpetual reversal of motion between limits is inevitable." The atoms in their vibrations manifest Rhythm. The swing of the planets and the whirling of the earth manifest Rhythm. The rise and fall of the tides manifest Rhythm. The swing of the pendulum is interrupted Rhythm. Completed Rhythm is represented only by a completed revolution or circular movement—uninterrupted Rhythm always manifests as a complete movement in an orbit. But inasmuch as the centre between the two extremes is, itself, moving in response to a higher order of Rhythm, we see at last that all completed Rhythm manifests as a spiral—a circular movement which at the same time is moving forward.

(33) A writer has said of an important fact concerning Rhythm in our emotional states: "Nothing swings beyond the limit of its extremes—nothing can pass beyond its rhythmic limits. Consequently, if a thing swings far in one direction, it swings back equally far in the other. Its reaction is in the measure of its action, though in an opposite direction. If its swing is great, its extremes are widely apart—if the swing is small, then the extremes are close together. The pendulum illustration may be applied to the phenomena on all planes. A short beat of the metronome allows the rod to move only a short distance each way—the long beat admits of a wide swing. And, in the same way, those who suffer keenly also enjoy keenly, while those whose natures admit of but little suffering are also incapable of more than a limited capacity for enjoyment. A pig suffers little, and enjoys but little; while a highly organized, sensitive individual suffers the torments of emotional and mental hell at times, while at others he mounts to the heavenly emotional and mental realms. The pendulum swings as far in one direction as in the other." In some of the higher teachings of the Rosicrucians the student is instructed in the application of the Principle of Rhythm to the mastery of his emotional states and feelings. The essence of this secret teaching is that the wise, perceiving the inevitable reaction following action, the ebb tide following the high tide, manage to escape the consequences of the reaction by rising to their higher realms or planes of consciousness just before the time of the backward swing of the emotional pendulum, thus allowing the reactionary movement to be manifested only on their lower planes of consciousness while the Ego dwells serenely on the upper plane.

(35) The following interesting quotation from a writer on the subject serves to bring out some of the main points concerned in the consideration of the activities of this particular principle: "Cyclicity is akin to Rhythm, and arise by reason of it. All events tend to move in cyclic trend—in constant circular movement. The Law of Cyclicity manifests in the universal tendency of things to swing in circles. Cyclicity is the outgrowth, or more complex form, of Rhythm. The primal manifestation of Rhythm is action to-and-fro in. a straight line or path—a movement backward and forward between two extremes or poles of action. This would be the invariable movement if the particular force manifested were the only manifestation of force or energy in that particular field of the Cosmos. But when the swinging pendulum (free to move in any direction) is subjected to the conflicting attractions and repulsions of other manifestations of force and energy, then there is manifested the universal tendency toward the circular trend—the tendency to convert the straight path of the swing into a circular path or cycle. The action and reaction, the attraction and repulsion, arising from the conflict between the force of the rhythmic swing in a straight line on the one hand, and the attractive and repellant forces from without, on the other hand, tend to swing the moving thing in a perfect circle around a central point, axis, or pivotal centre. And these conflicting forces are in operation through the Cosmos, and the manifestation of Cyclicity may be noticed on all planes. There is ever the evidence of the cyclic trend of things and events—the tendency to move in circles. The electrons in the atoms move in circles, just as do the planets around the sun, and just as does the sun move around some other centre in space.

(32) By the Principle of Rhythm day is followed by night, and night by day. Summer and winter alternate in their appearance. Sleeping and waking alternate. Work and rest exchange places. Involution is followed by evolution, and evolution by involution. All changes proceed according to rhythmic order and sequence. The conduct of mankind is regulated by Rhythm. Fashions in dress, in taste, and in feeling, all come and go, and come again. Everything "comes back" in time. Races rise and fall, and then rise again, again to fall. The course of empire wends its way in cyclic procession around the earth. History repeats itself. Even our emotions have their tidal movements.

(30) In all Rhythm there is recurring motion, change, and activity; action or motion in opposite directions; alternations between the opposite poles of action or motion; and a regular interval of time between the alternating actions or motions. In all phenomenal change or motion there is to be always found the existence of two opposite extremes between which the rhythmic change or motion is manifested. Rhythmic change and motion proceed by alternating swings between these two extremes, with a regular period of time elapsing between each beat, swing, or impulse in either direction. The period of "time" between the two alternating impulses constitutes the rhythmic rate, degree, or beat—its rhythmic measure of periodicity.

(34) A writer, speaking along the lines just mentioned, has said: "The masters taught that by an understanding of the Principle of Rhythm man could escape many bewildering and perplexing changes in his emotional states and feelings. * * * They called this the Process of Neutralization, the operations of which consisted of raising the Ego above the vibrations of the ordinary conscious plane, and on to the higher. This was akin to rising above a thing and allowing the thing to pass beneath one. The occult masters, and their advanced students, polarized themselves at the positive pole of a particular emotional state, and by a process of "refusing" or "denial" they managed to escape the effects of the swing of the emotional pendulum to the negative pole of that emotion. All individuals who have attained any degree of self-mastery really proceed in this same manner, though usually unconsciously and without a true understanding of the law they are operating. By refusing to allow their negative mental and emotional states to manifest in them, they really 'neutralize' them, and cause them to pass under them on a lower plane of consciousness. The advanced occultist, however, proceeds consciously and deliberately to this end, and acquires a degree of balance, poise, and power almost incredible." The further the student penetrates in his investigations, along the lines of the physical, the mental, or the spiritual, the more will he become convinced of the truth of the ancient occult axiom: "Everything beats time." V. The Principles of Cycles The Principle of Cycles manifests that universal circular direction of process or progress which is apparent in all the manifested world, from its highest to its lowest manifestation. The spirit of this principle was expressed in the ancient occult axiom: "Everything proceeds in circles." It is apparent to all careful thinkers and investigators that all progress or procession of things or events follows the path of the circle. All things, physical, mental, and spiritual manifest the cyclic or circular trend. World and atoms, the Cosmos and man, all are under this law. This principle is understood more clearly when we understand that a completed and uninterrupted manifestation of Rhythm results in the completion of a circular movement—therefore the circular or cyclic trend of things is really closely allied to the Principle of Rhythm, and both Rhythm and Cyclicity are closely allied to the Principle of Vibration.

(46) Sometimes there is a rapid change and shift on the scale of the opposites. Love is quickly transmuted to hate; the best friends and most ardent lovers become the bitterest enemies. And, on the other hand, persons who originally detest each other frequently become ardent lovers after a time; and old enemies, when reconciled, frequently become the closest friends. The swing is often as far in one direction as was its former swing in the opposite direction. Up changes to down, as the earth revolves; and hot becomes cold when the vibrations are changed. This also applies to hard and soft, tenuous and solid, etc., the conditions depending entirely upon the rate of vibrations and relative positions of the particles of the matter of which the things are composed. Moreover, constant emphasis or activity of one opposite frequently leads to a manifestation of the other opposite. We often fly to the other extreme of feeling and action, when we have over-emphasized the former emotional states. We get tired and disgusted with one set or condition of things, and feel a desire to fly to the opposite condition or set. Too much of a good thing often causes us to dislike it. Likewise, if we travel far enough west, we finally reach the extreme east, and vice versa. If we travel far enough north, we pass the pole and find ourselves proceeding south. At the North Pole, no matter in what direction we may travel, we always find ourselves travelling south; while at the South Pole, we can travel north only, no matter which way we may step out.

(38) A writer has said of this: "The Ego may convert the circle of its life-motion into an advancing and rising spiral, which while carrying him around the life circle will at the same time raise him a stage higher at each turn. The Mountain of Attainment, around which winds the Spiral Path, is travelled only in this way. Around and around the Pilgrims travel, seemingly retracing their steps but in reality constantly mounting upward. By advancing the Central Point, by means of the Will , the wise and the strong convert the Circles into Spirals, and thus advance and attain. This, indeed, as the old aphorism states, 'is one of the highest forms of Mental Alchemy.'" The further the student penetrates in his investigations, along the lines of the physical, the mental, or the spiritual, the more will he become convinced of the truth of the ancient occult axiom that "Everything proceeds in circles." VI. The Principle of Polarity The Principle of Polarity manifests that universal fact of "the pairs of opposites," or "the antinomies," which is apparent in all the manifested world, from its highest to its lowest manifestation. The spirit of this principle was expressed in the ancient occult axiom: "Everything has its Opposite, which is the other pole of its manifestation." The Principle of Polarity may be stated as follows: "All phenomena manifest polarity, or opposite and contrasted sets of qualities, properties, or powers, operating in opposite and contrasted directions." The ancient philosophers made this one of the chief features of their teachings, under the name of "The Opposites," "The Pairs of Opposites," or "The Antinomies," according to the usage of the respective schools. They held that every phenomenal thing possesses and manifests these pairs of opposite qualities, properties, and powers. They also held that each and every set of polarized opposites constitutes a unity consisting of a reconciliation and balancing of the opposing poles. They also held that every phenomenal thing, itself, is one of a pair of polarized opposites which, together, constitute a greater unity; and so on, either to infinity or until the opposites find final reconciliation and harmony in an Infinite Reality.

(3) The truth may be resumed in this way:

There is a lowest power of the Soul, a nearest to earth, and this is interwoven throughout the entire universe: another phase possesses sensation, while yet another includes the Reason which is concerned with the objects of sensation: this higher phase holds itself to the spheres, poised towards the Above but hovering over the lesser Soul and giving forth to it an effluence which makes it more intensely vital.

The lower Soul is moved by the higher which, besides encircling and supporting it, actually resides in whatsoever part of it has thrust upwards and attained the spheres. The lower then, ringed round by the higher and answering its call, turns and tends towards it; and this upward tension communicates motion to the material frame in which it is involved: for if a single point in a spheric mass is in any degree moved, without being drawn away from the rest, it moves the whole, and the sphere is set in motion. Something of the same kind happens in the case of our bodies: the unspatial movement of the Soul- in happiness, for instance, or at the idea of some pleasant event- sets up a spatial movement in the body: the Soul, attaining in its own region some good which increases its sense of life, moves towards what pleases it; and so, by force of the union established in the order of nature, it moves the body, in the body's region, that is in space.

As for that phase of the Soul in which sensation is vested, it, too, takes its good from the Supreme above itself and moves, rejoicingly, in quest of it: and since the object of its desire is everywhere, it too ranges always through the entire scope of the universe.

The Intellectual-Principle has no such progress in any region; its movement is a stationary act, for it turns upon itself.

And this is why the All, circling as it does, is at the same time at rest.

(1) [This chapter is supplementary to ch. v.] "The sky turns round; the earth stands still; sun and moon pursue one another. Who causes this? Who directs this? Who has leisure enough to see that such movements continue? "Some think there is a mechanical arrangement which makes these bodies move as they do. Others think that they revolve without being able to stop. "The clouds cause rain; rain causes clouds. Whose kindly bounty is this? Who has leisure enough to see that such, result is achieved? "Wind comes from the north. It blows now east, now west; and now it whirls aloft. Who puffs it forth? Who has leisure enough to be flapping it this way or that? I should like to know the cause of all this." Wu Han Chao said, "Come here, and I will tell you. Above there are the Six Influences and the Five Virtues.

(45) We may consider the emotional states of Love and Hate as another illustration of the same principle; surely these two emotions seem irreconcilable and impossible to harmonize. But let us see! At the one end of the emotional scale of Love-Hate we find intense love, then descending on the scale we find varying and gradually lessening degrees of love. Then we find the balanced point of indifference, which seems to be neither love nor hate, but which in reality is the subtle balancing of the two emotions. Then descending the scale we find a faint degree of aversion or dislike; then a series of gradually increasing degrees of dislike, until finally real hate is met with, and so on until we reach the degree of intense and extreme hate. Yet all are seen to be but degrees on the same emotional scale of Love-Hate.

(13) Of phenomena of this sphere some derive from the Kosmic Circuit and some not: we must take them singly and mark them off, assigning to each its origin.

The gist of the whole matter lies in the consideration that Soul governs this All by the plan contained in the Reason-Principle and plays in the All exactly the part of the particular principle which in every living-thing forms the members of the organism and adjusts them to the unity of which they are portions; the entire force of the Soul is represented in the All, but, in the parts, Soul is present only in proportion to the degree of essential reality held by each of such partial objects. Surrounding every separate entity there are other entities, whose approach will sometimes be hostile and sometimes helpful to the purpose of its nature; but to the All taken in its length and breadth each and every separate existent is an adjusted part, holding its own characteristic and yet contributing by its own native tendency to the entire life-history of the Universe.

The soulless parts of the All are merely instruments; all their action is effected, so to speak, under a compulsion from outside themselves.

The ensouled fall into two classes. The one kind has a motion of its own, but haphazard like that of horses between the shafts but before their driver sets the course; they are set right by the whip. In the Living-Being possessed of Reason, the nature-principle includes the driver; where the driver is intelligent, it takes in the main a straight path to a set end. But both classes are members of the All and co-operate towards the general purpose.

The greater and most valuable among them have an important operation over a wide range: their contribution towards the life of the whole consists in acting, not in being acted upon; others, but feebly equipped for action, are almost wholly passive; there is an intermediate order whose members contain within themselves a principle of productivity and activity and make themselves very effective in many spheres or ways and yet serve also by their passivity.

Thus the All stands as one all-complete Life, whose members, to the measure in which each contains within itself the Highest, effect all that is high and noble: and the entire scheme must be subordinate to its Dirigeant as an army to its general, "following upon Zeus"- it has been said- "as he proceeds towards the Intelligible Kind."

Secondary in the All are those of its parts which possess a less exalted nature just as in us the members rank lower than the Soul; and so all through, there is a general analogy between the things of the All and our own members- none of quite equal rank.

All living things, then- all in the heavens and all elsewhere- fall under the general Reason-Principle of the All- they have been made parts with a view to the whole: not one of these parts, however exalted, has power to effect any alteration of these Reason-Principles or of things shaped by them and to them; some modification one part may work upon another, whether for better or for worse; but there is no power that can wrest anything outside of its distinct nature.

The part effecting such a modification for the worse may act in several ways.

It may set up some weakness restricted to the material frame. Or it may carry the weakness through to the sympathetic Soul which by the medium of the material frame, become a power to debasement, has been delivered over, though never in its essence, to the inferior order of being. Or, in the case of a material frame ill-organized, it may check all such action upon the material frame as demands a certain collaboration in the part acted upon: thus a lyre may be so ill-strung as to be incapable of the melodic exactitude necessary to musical effect.

(17) After discovering the operation of certain principles in one thing we may safely reason by analogy based upon the assumption that these principles exist in other things on a higher plane, and thus discover the nature of the unknown " x ." Thus the occultist reasons that there is Law and Order manifest on every plane of being; that there is a Principle of Vibration manifest on every plane of being; that there is a Principle of Rhythm manifest on every plane of being; that there is a Principle of Cycles manifest on every plane of being; that there is a Principle of Polarity manifest on every plane of being; that there is a Principle of Sex manifest on every plane of being. And the further that human investigation is pushed into the Unknown, the greater is the proof of the existence of these Cosmic Principles reasoned out by the ancient occultists upon the fundamental basis of the Principle of Correspondence.

(16) I. The Principle of Correspondence The Principle of Correspondence manifests in a certain correspondence or analogy or agreement between manifestations of the various planes of activity in the Cosmos. It is indicated by the old Hermetic aphorism: "As above, so below; as below, so above," and by the Arcane axiom: "Ex Uno disce Omnes," or "From One know All." The Rosicrucians, and other ancient occultists, hold that the laws governing the nature and activity of the amoeba, likewise govern the nature and activity of man and beings higher than man. What is true of matter is true of energy and of mind. The occultists make a practical application of this universal principle, in the direction of studying the unknown by means of the known, with the knowledge that the same laws govern each. Thus, just as the solar system may be known by means of studying the atoms and molecules, so may the higher planes of being be studied by an examination of the lower planes in manifestation before us.

(3) If this principle is the Authentic Existent and holds unchanging identity, does not go forth from itself, is untouched by any process of becoming or, as we have said, by any situation in place, then it must be always self-gathered, never in separation, not partly here and partly there, not giving forth from itself: any such instability would set it in thing after thing or at least in something other than itself: then it would no longer be self-gathered; nor would it be immune, for anything within which it were lodged would affect it; immune, it is not in anything. If, then, not standing away from itself, not distributed by part, not taking the slightest change, it is to be in many things while remaining a self-concentrated entire, there is some way in which it has multipresence; it is at once self-enclosed and not so: the only way is to recognise that while this principle itself is not lodged in anything, all other things participate in it- all that are apt and in the measure of their aptitude.

Thus, we either cancel all that we have affirmed and the principles laid down, and deny the existence of any such Nature, or, that being impossible, we return to our first position:

The One, numerically identical, undistributed, an unbroken entire, yet stands remote from nothing that exists by its side; but it does not, for that, need to pour itself forth: there is no necessity either that certain portions of it enter into things or again that, while it remains self-abiding, something produced and projected from it enter at various points into that other order. Either would imply something of it remaining there while the emanant is elsewhere: thus separated from what has gone forth, it would experience local division. And would those emanants be, each in itself, whole or part? If part, the One has lost its nature, that of an entire, as we have already indicated; if whole, then either the whole is broken up to coincide point for point with that in which it is become present or we are admitting that an unbroken identity can be omnipresent.

This is a reasoning, surely, founded on the thing itself and its essential nature, not introducing anything foreign, anything belonging to the Other Order.

(33) The Circuit does not go by chance but under the Reason-Principle of the living whole; therefore there must be a harmony between cause and caused; there must be some order ranging things to each other's purpose, or in due relation to each other: every several configuration within the Circuit must be accompanied by a change in the position and condition of things subordinate to it, which thus by their varied rhythmic movement make up one total dance-play.

In our dance-plays there are outside elements contributing to the total effect- fluting, singing, and other linked accessories- and each of these changes in each new movement: there is no need to dwell on these; their significance is obvious. But besides this there is the fact that the limbs of the dancer cannot possibly keep the same positions in every figure; they adapt themselves to the plan, bending as it dictates, one lowered, another raised, one active, another resting as the set pattern changes. The dancer's mind is on his own purpose; his limbs are submissive to the dance-movement which they accomplish to the end, so that the connoisseur can explain that this or that figure is the motive for the lifting, bending, concealment, effacing, of the various members of the body; and in all this the executant does not choose the particular motions for their own sake; the whole play of the entire person dictates the necessary position to each limb and member as it serves to the plan.

Now this is the mode in which the heavenly beings must be held to be causes wherever they have any action, and, when. they do not act, to indicate.

Or, a better statement: the entire kosmos puts its entire life into act, moving its major members with its own action and unceasingly setting them in new positions; by the relations thus established, of these members to each other and to the whole, and by the different figures they make together, the minor members in turn are brought under the system as in the movements of some one living being, so that they vary according to the relations, positions, configurations: the beings thus co-ordinated are not the causes; the cause is the coordinating All; at the same time it is not to be thought of as seeking to do one thing and actually doing another, for there is nothing external to it since it is the cause by actually being all: on the one side the configurations, on the other the inevitable effects of those configurations upon a living being moving as a unit and, again, upon a living being thus by its nature conjoined and concomitant and, of necessity, at once subject and object to its own activities.

(41) Whenever we see a phenomenal quality, property or characteristic, a state or a condition, we are fully justified in assuming the existence of an opposite to it, which opposite thing will be found to act in the opposite and contrasted direction to it. This is an infallible and invariable rule of phenomenal existence.

(4) And if all things in motion desire, not repose, but ever to make known their own proper movement, even this is an aspiration after the Divine Peace of the whole, which preserves all things from falling away of their own accord, and guards the idiosyncrasy and moving life of all moving things unmoved and free from falling, so that the things moved, being at peace amongst themselves, and always in the same condition, perform their own proper functions.

(50) The first Principle (viz. the Darkness) takes the fierce and sudden Fire-flash; and so when the re-comprehended Will, in the first Will of the first attracted Darkness of the Harshness, discovers itself, and breaks the Darkness in the Flash, then the harsh dark Fire-flash remains in the first Will, and stands over the Heart, in the Gall, and kindles the Fire in the Essences of the Heart. 5 1. And the second Principle retains its Light for itself, which is the pleasant Habitation, which shines there, where the Darkness is broken, [or dispelled,] wherein the courteous loving Virtue, and the Pleasantness arises, from whence the Shriek [or Crack] in the strong Might becomes so very joyful, and turns its forcible Rushing into a joyful Trembling; where then the Fire-flash of the first Principle sticks to i it, which causes its Trembling. But its Source [or active Property] is Pleasantness and Joy, that cannot sufficiently be described; happy are they that find it [by Experience.]