CHAPTER XXI.

THE LAW OF SEVEN AND THE LAW OF UNITY.

In a curious old book of Arcane Teachings we find the sevenfold idea carried out with great wealth of detail, particularly as regards the Seven Cosmic Laws which regulate the Universe, at all events so far as humanity on earth has yet discovered them. These Seven Laws are enumerated in the following definite order:

1. Law of Orderly Trend, under the operation of which order is universally made manifest from the groupings of atoms in the formation of the minutest organism to the arrangement of planetary bodies in the constitution of gigantic Solar Systems.

2. Law of Analogy, through the operation of which we can trace a perfect agreement, or exact correspondence, between all forms of manifestation in whatsoever direction we may investigate. What is true of Matter is likewise true of Energy and Mind. The great Hermetic axiom, “As above, so below,” is revealed through the changeless operation of this everywhere-to-be-discovered law. An ancient Arcane axiom, “Ex Uno disce Omnes” (By the discovery of one, learn thou of all) applies throughout esoteric or occult teaching to all those diverse but intimately inter-related planes of Nature concerning which so much is written in the popular Theosophical literature of to-day.

3. Law of Sequence, in which is included all activities grouped under the general heading “Cause and Effect.” This is the Karmic Law, the basis of Lex Talionis, or Law of Retaliation, which certainly does manifest itself throughout the Universe, despite the frantic endeavors of humanity to evade its operation. Nothing can occur by chance, there must be an efficient precedent for every consequent; nothing stands alone, therefore no act can be rightly looked upon as isolated.

4. Law of Rhythm, through the incessant working of which depends the variety manifested in the Cosmos. Everything is perpetually vibrating. To understand how to regulate vibration is to possess the Key to relatively unlimited power.

5. Law of Balance, by means of which is found the true explanation of equilibrium, or compensations. To understand the working of this Law is to know the secret of Power and Poise.

6. Law of Cyclicity, which causes all things to move in Circles. Teachers of Arcane Science tell us that the wise and strong convert circles into spirals, and therefore instead of moving continually round and round, they rise in spirals, thus accomplishing those wonderful achievements which mark off Adepts or Initiates from the multitude of their contemporaries.

7. Law of Opposites, which is universally expressed in male and female, thesis and antithesis. In the knowledge of this law is to be found the great magical secret of regeneration which is essentially identical with transmutation and transubstantiation. The practical object and boundless result of understanding and applying these Seven Laws (or to speak still more accurately, seven manifestations of One Law) is to enable those who have attained this Knowledge to accomplish Magnum Opus through the joint activity of the will and intellect of the operator. Herein lies the Key to an actual demonstration of those transcendent abilities which are so largely claimed by many modern teachers who, though their theories are sound and excellent, do not as a rule succeed in making any very startling demonstrations of unusual power over environment.

The four following aphorisms are worthy of the deepest consideration:

1. The One Law is.

2. There is naught higher or elder than the One Law.

3. The One Law is Absolute, beyond Time, Space and Change, transcending the Three Principles and Seven Laws.

4. The One Law is the Efficient Reason of All-Things.

To consider these four aphorisms deeply and in detail would necessitate very profound study and the expenditure of much time and mental energy, but any student who will devote time and solitude to such deep and profitable meditation will surely be amply repaid both as regards mental illumination and increased ability to govern circumstances. The doctrine of Determinism taught in Arcane Philosophy is quite at variance with Fatalism, Pessimism and all other abnormal and corrupted systems which have owed their origin to garbled and distorted views concerning the operation of the changeless order of the Universe. No special event is divinely predetermined, foreordained, or predestined, but there is a sequence of causes and effects which no human power can vary. It is our reliance upon this very steadfastness of Nature which renders scientific progress possible, for without reasonable certainty that we shall reap according to our sowing there could be no rational engagement in any branch of enterprise.

Among the strikingly unique expressions employed by teachers of Arcane Philosophy, we find not the familiar Ex Nihilo nihil fit (out of nothing is made nothing) but Ex Nihilo Omnis fit (out of No-Thing all things are formed). This No-Thing of the Alchemists signifies original Cosmic Substance, unparticled, undifferentiated, from which all expressed objects proceed and into which they will at some time and in some way return. Such archaic teachings as these, coming from the wise instructors of our race in times of old, harmonize at every point with all those marvelous and fascinating scientific revelations which characterize the vigorous enterprise of the present (twentieth) century. What, we may well ask, is meant by Matter when modern scientists declare that, to the best of their knowledge, it is but a combination of ions or electrons? What, again, we may enquire has become of the stupid old materialism which was more difficult to grasp than even the wildest theological fantasies, if mind and life are traceable in all discovered substances from protoplasm to the human frame? Substance, Motion, Consciousness, are the three Principles we encounter everywhere. We are living not in a dead but in a living, not in an unconscious but in a conscious universe in which death is only change of expression and birth but assumption of some new garment.

As we are properly far more intensely interested in our human development and in the exercise of dominion over our environment than in any abstruse or abstract dissertations concerning the constitution of the Universe, we only follow the path of wisdom when our studies of the profound Mystery of Universal Law lead us to apply the truths we intellectually grasp to the constant betterment of our actual conditions.

For many centuries in India mighty philosophic concepts have been tacitly admitted by multitudes who have altogether failed to make practical application of the philosophy contained in Upanishats, Bhagavat-Gita, and other holy treatises venerated, often superstitiously, but seldom made use of in the only way which leads to the elevation of a nation. Western “hustle” together with Eastern laissez faire make an excellent combination, but one without the other is so unbalanced that it must inevitably lead to stolid resignation to a supposed inevitable or else to frantic hysterical endeavors to force results without regard to the orderly working of evolutionary development.