This law links itself to the third law, that of Disintegration following the connection that always exists between the atmic and the physical plane. The Law of Disintegration controls the fivefold destruction of forms in the five lower worlds, and the Law of Death controls similarly in the three worlds. It is subsidiary to the third law. The Law of Sacrifice is the Law of Death in the subtle bodies, whilst what we call death is the analogous thing in the physical body. This law governs the gradual disintegration of concrete forms and their sacrifice to the evolving life, and is closely linked in its manifestation with the seventh Ray. This Ray is the one that largely controls, that manipulates, that geometrizes and that holds sway over the form side, governing the elemental forces of nature. The physical plane is the most concrete exemplification of the form side; it holds the divine life imprisoned or [597] enmeshed at its densest point, and it works at this time in line with the seventh law. In a mysterious way this law is the reverse side of the first, or the Law of Vibration. It is Vulcan and Neptune in opposition, which is as yet an almost incomprehensible thing for us. The densest form of expression on the physical plane is after all but a form of synthesis; just as the rarest form of expression on the highest plane is but unity or synthesis of a finer kind. One is the synthesis of matter, and the other the synthesis of life.

This law governs the seventh chain in each scheme; each chain having achieved the fullest expression possible in the scheme, comes under the Law of Death, and obscuration and disintegration supervenes. In a cosmic sense and analogy, it is the law that governs the coming in of pralaya at the end of a system. It is the law that shatters the cross of the cosmic Christ, and places the form of the Christ within the tomb for a period of time.