Three Great Outpourings

[ARTICLE UNDER CONSTRUCTION]
[ARTICLE UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

General description

In the process of the development of our universe, the third member of the Trinity first exercised His portion of the divine power in preparing the world of matter; then the second Person put forth His energy, and that was the beginning of the evolution of conscious life.

Three aspects of the Logos

In his book Man Visible and Invisible, C. W. Leadbeater wrote:

Man is the resultant of an elaborate and beautiful evolu­tionary scheme, and that in him three streams of divine life may be said to converge. . . . Religions agree in describing the Deity as threefold in His manifestation, and it will be found that the soul of man is also threefold.
It will, of course, be understood that we are speaking now not of the Absolute, the Supreme, and the Infinite (for of Him naturally we can know nothing, except that He is), but of that glorious Manifestation of Him who is the great Guiding Force or Deity of our own solar system - who is called in our philosophy the Logos of the system. . . . As He shows Himself to us in His work the Solar Logos is undoubtedly triple - three and yet one, a religion has long ago told us.

Three Great Outpourings

Each of the three Aspects or Persons or Manifes­tations of the Logos has an especial part to play in the preparation and development of the soul of man. What these parts are we shall endeavor to make clear by the help of the diagram. The horizontal subdivisions indicate the planes, and above them will be seen three symbols belonging to the series described by Madame Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine. The highest represents the First Aspect of the Logos, and bears only a central dot, signifying the primary manifestation in our system. The Second Aspect of the Logos is symbolized by a circle divided by a diameter, showing the dual mani­festation which is always associated with the Second Person of any of the Trinities, while the lowest circle contains the Greek Cross, one of the most usual symbols of the Third Aspect.

First Outpouring

C. W. Leadbeater explains:

The outpouring which comes first in time is from that principle of our Logos which corresponds to the mind in man, though of course on an infinitely higher plane. This is usually spoken of as the Third Logos, or Mahat, corresponding to the Holy Ghost in the Christian system--the "Spirit of God which broods over the face of the waters" of space, and so brings the worlds into existence.

It is from the Third Aspect that the first movement towards the formation of the system comes. Previous to this movement we have in existence nothing but the atomic state of matter in each of the planes of nature, none of the aggregations or combinations which make up the lower sub-planes of each having yet been formed. But into this sea of virgin matter (the true Virgin Maria) pours down the Holy Spirit, the Lifegiver, as He is called in the Nicene Creed; and by the action of His glorious vitality the units of matter are awakened to new powers and possibilities of attraction and repulsion, and thus the lower subdivisions of each plane come into existence. It will be seen that this is symbolized in the diagram by a line descending from the lowest circle straight through all the planes, growing broader and darker as it comes, to show how the Divine Spirit becomes more and more veiled in matter as it descends, until many are quite unable to recognize it as divine at all. Yet the living force is nevertheless there, even when it is most strictly confined in the lowest of its forms.

This outpouring produces the many differentiated elements, but no higher structures yet:

The First Outpouring, typified by the Greek cross, prepares the world for the reception of life; it brings into being the material elements, but not bodies formed by their combination. We might have oxygen and hydrogen produced by this outpouring, but not their combi­nation, water; for combination of the elements into bodies of ever-increasing complexity of organized structure and function is the work of the Second Outpouring of the divine life or power.

Atoms are still evolving under the influence of this outpouring:

At present we are in the fourth round, and only four of these orders of spirillae; are as yet in activity, so that even the very physical matter in which we have to work is very far from having unfolded its full capacities. This mighty process of atomic evolution, which interpenetrates all else and yet moves on its way absolutely independent of all conditions, is ever being carried steadily on by the wonderful impulse of that first outpouring from the Third Aspect of the Logos.

Second Outpouring

C. W. Leadbeater explains that, "In the course of involution the Second great Outpouring of divine Life descends from the Second Logos into the matter already vivified by the Third Logos." He adds:

Very slowly and gradually this resistless flood pours down through the various planes and kingdoms, spend­ing in each of them a period equal in duration to one entire incarnation of a planetary chain, a period which, if measured as we measure time, would cover many millions of years. This flood is symbolized in Plate III by the line which, starting from the second of the circles, sweeps down the left-hand side of the oval, gradually darkening as it approaches its nadir. After passing that point it commences its upward arc and rises through the physical, astral and lower mental planes until it meets the third great outpouring, which is typified by the line starting from the highest circle and forming the right-hand side of the great oval. . . It will be observed that at different stages of its descent it is called by special names. As a whole, it is often spoken of as monadic essence, more especially when clothed only in the ultimate matter of the various planes; but when on its downward course it energises in the matter of the higher part of the mental plane, it is known as the First Elemental Kingdom. After spend­ing a whole chain-period[4] in that evolution, it descends to the lower or rupa levels of the same plane, and there it ensouls the Second Elemental Kingdom for another chain-period. Its next aeon is spent on the astral level, where it is called the Third Elemental Kingdom, or very often simply elemental essence of the astral plane. At both of these stages it is very intimately connected with man, as it enters largely into the composition of his various vehicles, and influences his thought and action.

On the downward arc of its mighty curve this monadic essence simply aggregates round itself the different kinds of matter on the various planes, so that all may be accustomed and adapted to act as its vehicles; but when it has reached the lowest point of its destined immeshing in matter, and turns to begin the grand upward sweep of evolu­tion towards divinity, its object is to develop consciousness in each of these grades of matter in turn, beginning of course with the lowest. Thus it is that man, although possessing in a more or less latent condition so many higher principles, is yet for a long time at first fully conscious in his physical body only, and afterwards very gradually becomes so in his astral vehicle, and later still in his mind-body.

The monadic essence ensouls the matter of the sub-planes below it on each plane or division of a plane, and thus forms the Elemental Kingdoms. It is the same life that goes on into the mineral kingdom, and then begins to ascend, and proceeds through the vegetable and animal kingdoms until, upon its junction with rays from the life of the First Logos, human beings are formed.

Third Outpouring

It is only when in the highest of the domestic animals [the monadic essence] reaches [the lower mental] stage that the possibility of the third out­pouring comes within measurable distance. For this third wave of divine life can descend of itself no lower than our buddhic plane, and there it seems as it were to hover, waiting for the development of fit vehicles to enable it to come down one step further and be the individual souls of men. The phrase sounds strange, but it is difficult to express accurately in human words the mysteries of the higher life. . .
From that monadic essence is formed the causal body - that resplendent sphere of living light into which the still more glorious light from above descends, and by means of which that divine spark is enabled to express itself as a human indi­viduality. . . . It must be remembered that without the preparation of this vehicle to act as a connecting link the immortal individuality of man could never come into being

In his book Hidden Life in Freemasonry, C. W. Leadbeater speaks of,

. . . The life from God that flashes into it [the causal body of man] in the Third Outpouring from the First Logos, at the moment of individualization, which makes the animal into a human being, not perfected yet, of course, but capable of perfection.

The third outpouring of the divine life, which comes from the first aspect of the Logos, and makes within each man that distinctive "spirit of the man which goeth upward" . . . towards the divinity from which it came. This third wave of life is represented by the band on the right in Plate III, and it will be noticed that in this case the outpouring does not become darker or more materialized as it proceeds. It appears to be unable of itself to descend lower than the Buddhic plane, and there it hovers like a mighty cloud, waiting for an opportunity of affecting a junction with the second outpouring, which is slowly rising to meet it. Although this cloud seems to exercise a constant attrac­tion upon the essence below it, yet the development which makes the union a possibility must be made from below.

The third outpouring which descends from the highest Aspect of the Logos differs from the others in that it is in no way clouded by the matter through which it passes, but retains its virgin purity and splendour un­tarnished. It will be noted that this out­pouring descends only to the level of the buddhic plane, and that the link between the two is formed by a triangle in a circle, representing the individual soul of man--the reincarnating ego. Here the triangle is contri­buted by the third outpouring and the circle by the second.

It is only in the presence within him of this third outpouring of the divine life that man possesses an absolute guarantee of his immortality. . . . A time will come, so we are told, though to our intellect it may well seem unthinkable - the time of the universal rest, called in the East the night of Brahma - when "all things visible and invisible" will be re-absorbed into That from which they came; when even the Second and Third Logoi themselves, and all that is of their essence, must for the time sink into sleep and disappear. But even in that period of universal rest there is one Entity who remains unaffected; the First, the Unmanifested Logos, rests still, as ever, in the bosom of the Infinite. And since the direct essence of this, the divine Father of all, enters into the composition of the spirit of man, by that almighty power his immortality is absolutely assured.