(32) IV. The Plane of the Animals Here, once more, we discover that there is no fixed dividing line between the adjoining Planes of Consciousness. Just as the Mineral Consciousness is closely blended into the Plant Consciousness, as we have seen, so is the Plant Consciousness closely blended into the Animal Consciousness. In fact, in the lowly forms of animal life it is almost impossible, at times, to state positively whether the particular form under consideration is a plant or an animal. Forms which science formerly considered "animal" are not placed in the category of "plant-life;" and other forms which science once held to belong to the plant-kingdom are now placed in the category of animal-life. The occultist recognized that these disputed forms dwell in the region in which the two respective planes blend and intermingle as has been stated before in these pages.

(14) The Process of Evolution once begun, it proceeded rapidly. Higher and higher in the scale of manifestation rose the Things—in spiralic process, each spiral rising above the one beneath it, and yet each proceeding apparently in a circle, as do all proceeding things. In due time the first signs of the mineral kingdom began to show themselves, building upon the basis of the sub-mineral forms of matter. In the mineral kingdom began to manifest higher forms of life and mind—for, as the occultists know well, the minerals possess both life and mind in a certain degree. And then later appeared the first signs of plant life—forms but slightly above those of certain crystals.

(18) The distinction between the plane of the Plant Soul and that of the Animal Soul will become more apparent and clear as we proceed to consider the phenomena of the latter.

(20) That Life is present in plant-life scarcely anyone is disposed to question, though there seems to be a desire to deny Consciousness and intelligent activity in the case on the part of the orthodox scientist. But the more advanced of the workers in the ranks of modern science do not hesitate to positively assert the presence of conscious intelligent activity in plant-life, and vigorously support their contention by logical argument backed up by incontrovertible facts gleaned in their laboratory experiments. These scientists hold that the presence of the phenomena of nutrition, reproduction, and of physical and chemical change due to adaptation is proof positive of the presence of vital intelligence within the organism in which the former are manifested.

(4) Now, on the man who proposes the question denying that plants are animals, we shall show that he affirms what contradicts himself. For, having defined the animal by the fact of its nourishment and growth, but having asserted that a plant is not an animal, it appears that he says nothing else than that what is nourished and grows is both an animal and not an animal.

(2) Earth hath, moreover, always many changes in its species;—both when she brings forth fruits, and when she also nourishes her bringings-forth with the return of all the fruits; the diverse qualities and quantities of air, its stoppings and its flowings ; and before all the qualities of trees, of flowers, and berries, of scents, of savours—species. Fire [also] brings about most numerous conversions, and divine. For these are all-formed images of Sun and Moon ; they’re, as it were, like our own mirrors, which with their emulous resplendence give us back the likenesses of our own images.

(24) Still higher in the scale we find certain species of plants manifesting true Psychoses, or acts pertaining to thought processes , although the latter are of a comparatively low order as compared to those manifested by the higher forms of animal life. With this class of manifestation the average student is not so well informed, and, therefore, it has been thought well to direct your attention in the following pages to these fascinating phenomena of plant-life. We think that a careful consideration of the facts now about to be presented to the student will bring to him a clear realization of the presence of actual conscious activity in the kingdom of the plants, and will cause him to accept the statement of that eminent authority, Professor Bieser, who has said: "While we believe that the intelligence of man, animals and plants is essentially the same in kind, we know that it differs enormously in degree and form. Even among men this degree of intelligence varies, but this is because some individuals by nature see but a little more clearly their needs than others, and live under more favorable circumstances—that is all!" Dr. J. E. Taylor, an authority on the subject of plant-psychology says: "Perhaps one reason why plants are usually denied consciousness and intelligence is because in the structure of even the highest developed species we find no specialized nervous track along which sensations may travel, or where they can be registered as in the case of the ganglia and brains of the higher animals. But it should be remembered that none of the creatures sub-kingdom of the Protozoa (the lowest of the grand divisions of the animal kingdom) possess nervous structures, whilst many of the next more highly organized animal sub-kingdom, the Coelenterata, have no trace, and the rest but a feeble development. Yet we do not deny these lowly organized animals a dim and diffused consciousness, or even the possibility of their structures being so modified that they can profit by experience, and thus develop that accumulated experience of their kind that we call 'instinct.'" Darwin, speaking of the wonderful sensitiveness of the root-tip of plants says: "It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the tip of the radicle thus endowed, and having the power of directing the movements of the adjoining parts, acts like the brain of one of the lower animals ; the brain being seated within the anterior end of the body, receiving impressions from the sense organs, and directing the general movements." Professor Cope says: "We can understand how by parasitism, or other means of getting a livelihood without exertion, the adoption of new and skillful movements would become unnecessary, and consciousness itself would be seldom aroused. Continued repose would be followed by subconsciousness, and later by unconsciousness.

(17) The chief distinction between the intelligence and consciousness of Plants and Animals is that the former manifest almost entirely along the lines of instinctive or unconscious mentation, while the latter manifest in a steadily increasing degree purpositive and deliberate conscious activity. In the processes of the human body we find a large proportion of those performed clearly along the lines of the instinctive, unconscious vegetable kingdom. These processes come under the control and direction of the Plant Soul. They are performed on the Plane of Plant Consciousness just as truly as are the processes of the ordinary types of plant life. Some of these processes are very complex—but so are the processes involved in the life of the ordinary plant.

(25) Such appears to be the history of the entire vegetable kingdom." Dr. J. C. Arthur, in his interesting work entitled "The Sagacity and Morality of Plants," says: "I have tried to show that all organisms, even to the very simplest, whether plant or animal, from the very nature of life and the struggle for its maintenance, must be endowed with conscious feeling, pleasure and pain being its simplest expression. I have been told in Java, as one walks through a tangle of sensitive plants, they will drop down in their deprecating way for yards on either side, as if suddenly aroused into life, only to be again transformed into lifeless sticks by some unseen power. * * * The physical basis of life, Protoplasm, is the same for plants as for animals. The first differentiated or modified form of this we meet is the curious animalcule called Amoeba. As we watch its movements we cannot refrain from ascribing to it some dim consciousness of the life it leads. But amoeboid structure is common even in the lowest kinds of plants, and amoeboid movements can be seen in some of its tissues. Witness also the habits and intelligent movements of the zoospores of sea-weed and many other Algae, and the locomotion of the antherozoa of mosses, ferns, etc. Not many years ago these objects were classed as animals, and nobody doubted these so-called animals behaved consciously and intelligently. * * * Nothing can be more marked than the likes and dislikes of plants. Human beings can hardly express the same feelings more decidedly. There is perhaps even a 'messmateship' among plants, which inclines species to prefer to grow in company. Hosts of common plants perform actions which, if they were done by human beings, would at once be brought into the category of right and wrong. There is hardly a virtue or a vice which has not its counterpart in the actions of the vegetable kingdom . As regards conduct in this respect, there is small difference between the lower animals and plants." One of the most elementary manifestations of consciousness , and conscious action, in plant life is what has been called "the gravity sense," or the sense by which the plant recognizes the "up and down" direction of growth. The germinating seed always sends its roots downward, no matter how the seed may be placed in the ground. This cannot be held to result merely from the action of gravitation, for the sprouts move upward and away from the centre of gravity just as truly as the roots move downward and toward it. Experiments have proven that this "sense of direction" is as much a true sense as that of any of the special senses of the lowly animal life-forms. The experiment has been tried of turning around a sprouting seed, the result being that in a day or so the roots will be again found to be turning downward and the sprouts turning upward. A French botanist, named Duhamel, once placed some beans in a cylinder filled with moist earth. After they had begun to sprout, he turned the cylinder a little to one side. The next day he turned it a little further in the same direction. Each day he would turn it a little more, until finally it had described several full circles. Then he took out the plant, and shaking off the clinging earth, he found that the beans’ roots and sprouts had described circles—two perfectly formed spirals being shown, one of the tiny roots and the other of the tiny sprouts. The roots in their constant endeavor to move downward had formed one perfect spiral, while the sprouts in the constant effort to rise upward had described another perfect spiral. No amount of effort will cause the roots of a plant to grow upward, or its sprouts to grow downward. Each, root and sprout, has its own "sense of direction" to which it faithfully and invariably responds. In the same way, and from a similar cause, the tendrils of climbing plants will faithfully move toward the nearby support, and if they are untwined they will return during the next night to the old support, if possible. Moving pictures, carefully prepared, and taken over a long period, show that the movements of these tendrils to be akin to the movements of the limbs of an animal—the feelers and graspers of the octopus for example.

(1) First he appeared in the class of inorganic things, For years he lived as one of the plants, Remembering naught of his inorganic state so different; And when he passed from the vegetive to the animal state He had no remembrance of his state as a plant, Except the inclination he felt to the world of plants, Like the inclination of infants towards their mothers, Which know not the cause of their inclination to the breast, Or the excessive inclination of young disciples The disciple's partial reason comes from that Reason,

(27) Many students are doubtless familiar with the instance of the "sensitive plants" which exhibit a marked degree of sensibility to touch. Many insect-eating plants manifest an equally high degree of sensitiveness, though of course in a different direction. The leaves of the Venus' Fly Trap fold upon each other and thus capture the unfortunate insect which has been tempted into the trap by the sweet juice which appears upon the leaf as a dainty bait. The folding of the leaves follows the alarm given by the three sensitive bristles or hairs which act as feelers which sense the presence of the insects. Bits of earth, or raindrops, are recognized as "not-food" by these feelers, and no closing of leaves result from their presence on the leaves. Other plants are very sensitive to degrees of light, and they close at certain hours, the time varying according to the species of the plant. It was formerly held that this sensitiveness to light was merely a chemical response to the presence of light, but recent experiments have shown that such plants, when placed in a dark room, will continue this closing for several days, in a gradually lessening degree, thus indicating the presence of a "habit" within their consciousness, which "habit" indicates the presence of "mind" even more forcibly than does the closing itself. Certain ferns will wither if their fronds are touched too often.

(47) For in the divine pomp go forth likewise all manner of sprouting and vegetation of trees, plants and all manner of fruit; and every one bears its own fruit, yet not in an earthly quality and kind, but in a divine quality, form and kind.

(4) Will not, therefore, he who surveys this conspicuous statue of the Gods, thus united to itself, be ashamed to have a different opinion of the Gods, who are the causes of it, so as to introduce among them sections, and separations, and corporeal-formed circumscriptions? I, indeed, should think, that every one would be thus disposed. For if there is no ratio, no habitude of symmetry, no communion of essence, nor a connexion either in capacity or in energy, between that which is adorned and the adorning cause; if this be the case, there will neither be found in the world a certain extension according to interval, nor local comprehension, nor partible interception, nor any other such like connascent equalization in the presence of the Gods [with mundane natures]. For in things which are of a kindred nature, according to essence and power, or which are, in a certain respect, of the same species, or homogeneous, a certain comprehension, or conservation, may be discovered. But in such things as are entirely exempt from all mundane wholes, what opposing circumstance, or transition through all things, or partible circumscription, or local comprehension, or any thing else of this kind can justly be perceived? I think, therefore, that the several participants of the divinities are of such a nature, that some partake of them etherially, others aerially, and others aquatically; which also, the art of divine works perceiving, employs adaptations and invocations, conformable to such a division. And thus much concerning the distribution of the more excellent genera into the world.

(32) Indeed they honoured, prayed to, or worshipped the sun and stars for gods, but knew not how these were created or came to be, nor out of what they came to be: For they might well have thought that that which proceeded from somewhat, and that that which created this, must needs be older and higher or greater than all the stars.

(31) Professor Bieser says: "Another plant showing irritability when touched, and possessing the faculty of finding and raising water by means of a long, slender, flat stem or tube, is a variety of orchid discovered by E. A. Suverkrop, of Philadelphia, several years ago. This plant grows upon the trunks of trees hanging over swampy places along the bank of the Rio de la Plata and streams of the neighborhood. When this orchid is in want of water, the slender stem gradually unwinds until it dips into the water. Then the stem slowly coils around and winds up to discharge upon the part of the plant from which the roots spring the water which it has sucked up into its hollow space or tube within its interior. Sometimes when water is absent from directly under this plant, the stem moves first in this direction and then in another, in its search for water, and finally finding the water it performs the process above described. If this plant is touched while the stem is extended it acts much like the sensitive plant (mimosa), and the stem coils up into a spiral more rapidly than when it is lifting water." The experiments of that wizard of plant-life, Luther Burbank, give us many illustrations of the manner in which the "mind" in the plant will respond to changed environment, and to take advantage of improved conditions thereof in the direction of adapting itself thereto. No one can study the works of modern botanists, or work long among plants, without discovering for himself many facts serving to prove that there is not only Life among the plants, but also sufficient mind to serve the purposes and needs of the existence of the plant. Some scientists have thought it possible that by changing the environment of the plant sufficiently, in the direction of calling out latent possibilities of mental action, it is probable that plants may be evolved which would approach in their mental activity that of the lower forms of animal life, if not indeed exceed the latter.

(44) But the light of the meekness of the sun qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with the pure Deity; but the heat cannot comprehend the light, and therefore also the place of the sun remaineth in the body of God's wrath, and thou must not worship, nor pray to nor honour the sun as God, for its place or body cannot apprehend the water of life, because of the fierceness in the sun. The highest Ground of the SUN, and of ALL the PLANETS.

(25) Now if we consider rightly of the sun and stars, with their corpus or body, operations and qualities, then the very divine being may be found therein, and we may find that the virtues of the stars are nature itself.

(5) That the disturbance which below is made By exhalations of the land and water, (Which far as may be follow after heat,) Might not upon mankind wage any war, This mount ascended tow'rds the heaven so high, And is exempt, from there where it is locked. Now since the universal atmosphere Turns in a circuit with the primal motion Unless the circle is broken on some side, Upon this height, that all is disengaged In living ether, doth this motion strike And make the forest sound, for it is dense; And so much power the stricken plant possesses That with its virtue it impregns the air, And this, revolving, scatters it around; And yonder earth, according as 'tis worthy In self or in its clime, conceives and bears Of divers qualities the divers trees; It should not seem a marvel then on earth, This being heard, whenever any plant Without seed manifest there taketh root. And thou must know, this holy table-land In which thou art is full of every seed, And fruit has in it never gathered there.

(2) Moreover, the lations of the stars approximate to the eternal circulations of the heavens, not only locally, but also in powers, and the irradiations of light. But these are moved conformably to the mandates of the celestial Gods. For the most pure, agile, and supreme part of the air, is adapted to be enkindled [ i. e. is most inflammable], so that when the Gods assent, it is immediately set on fire. And if some one thinks that certain effluxions of the celestial bodies are imparted to the air, his opinion will not be discordant with what is frequently effected by the divine art. The union, also, and sympathy of the universe, and the simultaneous motion of the most remote parts, as if they were near, and belonged to one animal, cause these signs to be sent from the Gods to men in the most luminous manner, primarily, indeed, through the heavens, but afterwards through the air.

(9) Now the Lord, having come alone into the intellectual world, enters by His sufferings, introduced into the knowledge of the Ineffable, ascending above every name which is known by sound. The lamp, too, was placed to the south of the altar of incense; and by it were shown the motions of the seven planets, that perform their revolutions towards the south. For three branches rose on either side of the tamp, and lights on them; since also the sun, like the lamp, set in the midst of all the planets, dispenses with a kind of divine music the light to those above and to those below.