will convey to the earnest student a meagre understanding of the lowest aspects of the divine purpose. The wonder of the idea staggers human imagination. If this is a statement of fact, and if these ideas are but the expression of still deeper and more beautiful cosmic purposes, may not the goal be realized as being far beyond human computation, when its lowest expression embraces the highest intuitive and abstract concepts of which the most elevated human consciousness is capable? I commend this thought to your deep consideration.

It will be apparent, therefore, why it is the energy of the fourth ray which is related to this Law of Sacrifice, and why in this fourth planetary scheme and in our fourth globe, (the Earth globe) so much emphasis is laid upon this Law of Sacrifice, "the Law of those who choose to die." The fourth ray [92] of conflict (conflict with a view to eventual harmony) is at present not one of the manifesting rays, yet - in the light of the larger cycle - this ray is a major controlling factor in our earth evolution and in the evolution of our solar system, which is one of the fourth order. The realization of this may indicate why our little planet, the Earth, is of such apparent importance in the solar system. It is not simply because we choose to think so and thus feed our own arrogance, but it is so primarily because the fourth ray of conflict and this first law are - in time and space - dominating factors in the fourth kingdom in nature, the human kingdom. Our planet, the fourth in the series of divine expression with which we are associated, has a peculiar relation to the position of our solar system in the series of solar systems which constitute the body of expression for The One About Whom Naught May Be Said.

The sacrifice of the solar angels brought the fourth kingdom in nature into being. The "returning nirvanis" (as they are called in esoteric literature), with deliberation and full understanding, took human bodies in order to raise those lower forms of life nearer to the goal. These were and are ourselves. The "Lords of Knowledge and Compassion and of ceaseless persevering Devotion" (who are ourselves) chose to die in order that lesser lives might live, and this sacrifice has made possible the evolution of the indwelling consciousness of Deity. This consciousness, having worked its way through [93] the subhuman kingdoms in nature, needed the activity of the solar angels to make further progress possible. Herein lies

1. Our service to God, through sacrifice and death;
2. Our service to other souls, through deliberate self-sacrificing purpose;
3. Our service to other forms of life in other kingdoms.

All this involves the death and sacrifice of a Son of God, a solar angel, for, from the angle of Deity, descent into matter, manifestation through form, the taking of a body, extension of consciousness through the process of incarnation, are all occultly considered to be death. But the angels "chose to die, and in dying, lived." Through their sacrifice, matter is lifted up into Heaven. It is this theme which fills the pages of The Secret Doctrine, and which is discussed in greater elaboration in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. The sacrifice of the angels, the death of the Sons of God, the immolation of the mystic Christ, the crucifixion in time and space of all living entities, called souls - this is the theme of those books. This is the mystery hinted at in the world of Scriptures, and this is the secret of the ages, which is only discovered by the souls of men as each of them enters individually into conscious relation with his own soul and discovers that which he has joyously done in the past, and so arrives at the realization of that supreme sacrifice which he made with deliberation in the early dawn of time itself and which, at some point in his career as a soul on earth, he consciously and symbolically re-enacts for the benefit of other souls, in order to hasten their progress towards their goal. Then comes a life wherein, in some form or another, he portrays or works out within himself, but also before the watching world, that great symbolic drama which we call