THEOREM OF THE SEVEN CENTERS*
Everything from rocks to thoughts is permeated with life. This affirmation stems from the first hypothesis, which says that Space is the container of Life. Not a single point of the Universe is separated from Life, because nothing isolates it from the rest.
This is an assumption of solemn importance; and one would say that it penetrates slowly into the human consciousness.
However, although living, not everything is a unitary entity. Grains of sand have no personal identity, and similarly rocks broken off from mountains or drops in the ocean. The same can be said of many sentiments and fleeting thoughts, of many impulses and manufactured objects, and of all those things which, though useful and graceful, are like clouds in the sky. They are all alive but indefinite, without a personal name or autonomy of life and purpose; they are moreover numerous, varied and widespread, to the point of favoring that positivist concept that life is an incidental privilege of a few entities.
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What distinguishes living things without autonomy from those which have their own life is the absence of an organized, self-sufficient structure, such as to make them real creatures instead of simple creations.
The latest Teachings given explain the question in these terms: in autonomous, individual lives seven spatial centers exist, distributors of qualified energy to the various organs, which are distinct but interrelated, simple or complex. These centers constitute the supporting, organizing and unitary structure. Where this system of centers does not exist, life is present and active, but has no conscious identity.
This concept is new, at least for Westerners, and illuminates the whole problem. To recognize the venerable presence of an independent, creative and evolving Entity, it is sufficient to look further into it for the presence of a septenary complex of centers, which can take the most diverse forms without changing its own law or its coordinating function.
This is a theorem that can be applied to both minimum and maximum Systems.
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Through lack of experience we are not always capable of distinguishing, finding and identifying the centers. With the help of oriental wisdom they are easily traced in man – but how can they be discovered in a nation? Or in humanity as a whole? Or in a thought-form? It has to be recognized that the theorem of the seven centers, at present, is a beautiful device that is not yet able to be used effectively.
Modern man is already capable of admitting that a deep, well-constructed thought and one of many formless, inattentive thoughts are very different in their order and mental power. But where is the difference?
In the West the idea of seven centers as the universal structure of conscious life is a new idea, which still has to mature in human hearts. In the near future they will be identified in their various manifestations and inner action, and not only in the forms of individual life and with evident autonomous capacity, but also in the complexes of energy and in the most comprehensive communities. This is a sufficient motivation for accepting the theorem of the seven centers as a hypothesis and experimenting with it now, in the most varied fields, in order to put its truth and law to test.
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The question to be answered, according to this introduction, concerns the general theme of this study and cannot be avoided: is the Solar System a coordinated whole, autonomous and living, as believed in the East, or a number of inanimate objects, held together by mechanical laws, as taught in the West?
The answer in this case is simple, despite the magnitude of the theme. In the Solar System there are, in fact, seven centers, called sacred planets or Luminaries, whose names and Rays[1] are known in addition to their commonly known astrophysical parameters. It may therefore be considered as a cosmic Being, equipped with Life’s seven primary Functions, immersed in its Space and neatly active and vibrant.
It is remarkable that man and the Solar System share an analogous psychic structure in spite of enormous formal differences. Even without taking into account the dimensional differences (which the proportions reduce to nothing) in the first case, the septenary order is evident, visible, shining, while the form is indefinite and greatly changeable; in the second, the form is perceptible and the psychic centers are hidden from sight.
The Solar System, according to the above theory, is a real spatial or cosmic individuality – just as man is – and, like man, is endowed with loving intelligence tending towards a goal, which it pursues by creating, in a unified way, its always improving organization.
These hypotheses are sufficient for trying out a new path leading to further knowledge of the great divine Creature. It is also presumed that each Luminary has at its disposal seven centers and as such is an autonomous Being of cosmic life. It has not yet been verified, nor can it be done for now, but the presence on Earth of those centers confirms the assumption: the four kingdoms of nature, the Hierarchy, Shamballa and the Logos itself.
The few forces, knowledge and skills available do not allow us to hope for great results from this investigation, which will be incomplete and coarse. However, if the reading of these pages impresses in the heart the new vision of the Solar System as a great cosmic community, palpitating with life, energy, thought and loving purpose, it would already have contributed to a mental rebirth, and it would be a great outcome. In these studies the quantities do not count, but rather the doses of truth, each of which is infinite.
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From the Teaching we learn that the seven Luminaries are the following; each one being responsible for a Ray in the context of the System:
1 – VULCAN First Ray
2 – JUPITER Second Ray
3 – SATURN Third Ray
4 – MERCURY Fourth Ray
5 – VENUS Fifth Ray
6 – NEPTUNE Sixth Ray
7 – URANUS Seventh Ray.
Three other planets have been identified up to now by the astronomers:
8 – EARTH Third Ray
9 – MARS Sixth Ray
10 – PLUTO First Ray.
but these are not considered to be sacred. They could be compared to students, admitted to the great Solar University, engaged in training but not yet graduated.
Of all these, Vulcan is unknown to modern science, though it does suspect the existence of a tenth planet due to certain anomalies noted in the motion of the various celestial bodies of the System.
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The theorem of seven centers is an introduction to the idea of a proportional relationship between all living entities of any order or level, guaranteed by the same sevenfold structure of their vital organization, and, as far as this study is concerned, between the terrestrial man and the Solar Man.
Thus, in a practical and not simply theoretical sense, it begins to dawn on man that he is an inalienable part of a whole and that this involves responsibilities and duties. He discovers that his major responsibility – spiritually speaking – is not to hinder, in his seven centers, first the great flow of love from the seven planetary centers and then the free flow of life from the seven solar centers.
The previous phrase is a free translation of a passage of the Tibetan Master (“A Treatise on Seven Rays”, vol. 5, page 154). There is described with admirable concision and simplicity the sevenfold hierarchy of the seven as it concerns the human being, wherever he may have his temporary abode.
ONLY SEVEN LUMINARIES
The seven Luminaries named above are the only ones considered in this work: this does not mean that the others are to be disregarded, but that they are subordinate to the seven greater ones, whose destiny and dictates they undergo. They have a decisive role only locally. When the hypotheses introduced here are more solid and the sum of knowledge more advanced, it will not be difficult to include them in the list of solar centers and to take them into account in calculations, research and forecasts; in particular, this will be done for the Earth.
For the present, attention is centered on the seven Luminaries, which are responsible in our System for the seven Rays of the vital divine quality. If this contrasts with the current and centuries-old astrological method, which takes accurate account of celestial bodies such as Mars and the Moon, this research may be considered to be halfway between astronomy and astrology, without being called one or the other, so that it does not copy their procedures. They depart from different premises and aim to a higher purpose: they follow therefore different courses.
THE SOLAR STAR
The seven Luminaries form a six-pointed star, referred to here, simply, as the solar star [2] …
The entire study concerns the solar star, its two triangles, its movements, its rhythms and the orbits of its vertices.**
THE ACCURACY OF CALCULATIONS
The considerations treated here require few, uncomplicated calculations, but it is as well to touch on the subject of their exactness, which has deep implications; in common use the idea has assumed distorted significance and importance.
As far as calculations go it is a general, rooted conviction that the realm of exact measures is the physical world, in fact science in general abstains from measuring intangible objects, for example the tension of any feeling. Such a conviction is projected globally onto the formless, imperceptible world which the senses do not reveal, which is generally considered, when its existence is admitted, to be the real realm of the vague, imprecise, indefinite and debatable.
Here we begin from the opposite position, that the spiritual is the exclusive domain of exactness, of absolute precision without error, the realm where neither imprecision or compromise exist. Following this point of view, the concrete world (from thought-forms to emotions to physical phenomena), because of the illusions caused by false intellectual, psychic and sensory perceptions, is the field where imprecision is the rule and uncertainty reigns.
A similar reversal of position is necessary to eliminate harmful mental assumptions, which are totally unjustified, never demonstrated and even without a logical basis.
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The figures assumed here as a starting point regarding the periods of rotation of the Luminaries do not coincide with those provided by science. The differences are listed below:
| Period of rotation | |||||
| Luminary | Official | Assumed | Percentage difference | ||
| Mercury | 87,97 days | 90 days | +0,98% | ||
| Venus | 227,4 days | 225 days | -1,00% | ||
| Jupiter | 11,86 years | 12 years | +0,99% | ||
| Saturn | 29,46 years | 30 years | +0,98% | ||
| Uranus | 84 years | 84 years | – | ||
| Neptune | 164,8 years | 168 years | +0,98% | ||
As can be noted, the differences from the official dates are minimum, about one per cent, and, most importantly, they are all in the same order of greatness.
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One might talk at length about the scientific data. For the aforementioned reason they cannot be exact, but only approximate “enough”. But there is a second reason, of a different nature and of equal importance, which concerns the evaluation of astronomical cycles.
The spiritual and geometrical law governing the evolutionary motion is the spiral. If cycles had a beginning and end that coincided, one could not speak of progress of any kind and, as a consequence, living forms would not exist. By the law of the spiral the manifested life is always new in every phase or beat of any cycle and this is demonstrated in the fact that (whether science knows it or not) beginning and end always coincide in the formless world, that is, of exactness, of Fire, and never in that of appearances, concrete or subtle, which are subject to change and progress.
The distance between the beginning and end, in every kind of phenomenon, is a parameter that varies with the level of consciousness of the entity that manifests through it itself and signals its major or minor evolutionary step, which is also variable according to its phase of development. In fact, evolutionary motion can and must be accelerated. A constant, uniform pace of progress is not sufficient to avoid stagnation and, consequently, death.
Such statements carry us far and deserve to be studied in depth: they concern a primary law, not yet recognized by official science. Here, however, it is appropriate to limit the study to the case in question and to recognize that the astronomical data are not entirely credible, because (among other things) they completely ignore the spiral law. It is possible that a part of those inaccuracies that appear are due to its action.
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The difference in statistics pointed out in the preceding list is not a simple, arbitrary rounding off, made to facilitate calculations, which here in any case are few and all elementary. The reason is very different and needs to be highlighted:
The parameters assumed here as a basis for calculating solar cycles and rhythms are proportional with each other, that is, they are based on harmonics.
Whoever has a clear concept of the creative power of sound will easily understand the importance of the correlation occurring between the movements of the Luminaries; as we have seen, in order to be noted this requires only a slight correction of the official astronomical data, which in any case is already imperfect.
Here is a series that groups all the sound relationships between the periods of revolution of the seven Luminaries, based on the data taken from the previous table. They are indicated according to the musical notation in use and arranged for increasing frequencies:
A first comment to this result[3] is that the whole of the Solar System – limited to its major centers and with regard to their periods of revolution – is in a harmonious structure somewhat similar to a musical scale. The vision of an order emerges (which Kepler intuited and sought), of a creative nature connected to the laws of sound and therefore based on harmony and beauty.
THE BREATH OF THE LUMINARIES
This topic has already been dealt with on another occasion (see commentary on Infinity 2, par 1-2)[4], but here it is found in its specific context and it seems fair to re-examine it. Everything is based on a proposition of the Master of Agni Yoga:
Each turn of the planet accumulates energy.
(INF. 2, par.1)
This phrase is fundamental in understanding the Solar System’s energetic economy. In Space infinite energy currents of various potential, quality and level, circulate. Each Luminary, following its own orbit, crosses their flows, regulated by cosmic magnetism, which is divine love. Moreover, rotating around its polar axis, it exposes its entire surface to solar radiation, in an alternating but perfectly balanced way. This movement determines the daily cycle, a minimum unit of rhythm, but a fundamental one for the evolution of all its creatures.
These movements and alternations allow the Luminaries to extract from solar Space, each in its own fashion and measure, the qualified energy by which its forms of life are nourished. If the planet stopped rotating, they would perish with it.
From this these considerations may be deduced:
- – The rotary movement is for the planet the equivalent of what breathing is for man and many other living forms.
- – The true cause of energy taken from Space through rotation is the cyclic alternation, mutable but regular, of light and shadow, or positive and negative. The planet “breathes” because the two spatial polarities are in harmonious exchange, as in a pendulum.
- – Celestial bodies without an autonomous rotation are dead, true decaying corpses, and it is useless to suppose that they can support forms of life. The Moon is the most obvious example. Its rotation is not autonomous, but driven by that of the Earth around its own orbit. It is therefore dead.
- – The fact that the Sun, placed at the center of the System, rotates, guarantees the possibility of life to all similarly rotating forms of its community. Moreover, this reveals its dependence on another greater stellar Centre, as yet not clearly defined by science. The Sun also reveals its surface to a higher Light in an alternate and regular way. The Sun breathes.
- – In breathing, the planets draw from solar Space the energies that flow there: the Sun, in its turn, draws these from a vaster, higher environment, and concentrates and distributes them.
The Luminaries are definitely Centers, each one bearers of countless minor centers, and from what has been stated it can be deduced that any center, as such and no matter what is its hierarchical position, must:
- Rotate on its axis in a regular, stable way.
- Revolve around a greater center.
- In the absence of either of these movements, that center, unable to nourish itself, could no longer receive, accommodate and elaborate life and would eventually die out and be extinguished.
A Center rotates only if it is switched on, that is, alive and pulsating. The rotational motion (which actually proceeds in a spiral) is a characteristic of Fire.
