"Bear in mind, O Chela, that within the known spheres naught is but light responsive to the Word. Know that that light descends and concentrates itself; know that from its point of chosen focus, it lightens its own sphere; know too that light ascends and leaves in darkness that which it - in time and space - illumined. This descending and ascension men call life, existence and decease; this We Who tread the Lighted Way call death, experience and life.

Light which descends anchors itself upon the plane of temporary appearance. Seven threads it outward puts, and seven rays of light pulsate along these threads. Twenty-one lesser threads are radiated thence, causing the forty-nine fires to glow and burn. Upon the plane of manifested life, the word goes forth: Behold! A man is born.

As life proceeds, the quality of light appears; dim and murky it may be, or radiant, bright and shining. Thus do the points of light within the [469] Flame pass and repass; they come and go. This men call life; they call it true existence. They thus delude themselves yet serve the purpose of their souls and fit into the greater Plan.

And then a Word sounds forth. The descended, radiating point of light ascends, responsive to the dimly heard recalling note, attracted to its emanating source. This man calls death and this the soul calls life.

The Word retains the light in life; the Word abstracts the light, and only That is left which is the Word Itself. That Word is Light. That Light is Life, and Life is God."

The manifestation of the etheric body in time and space has in it what has been esoterically called "two moments of brilliance." These are, first, the moment prior to physical incarnation, when the descending light (carrying life) is focused in all its intensity around the physical body and sets up a rapport with the innate light of matter itself, to be found in every atom of substance. This focusing light will be found to concentrate itself in seven areas of its ring-pass-not, thus creating seven major centers which will control its expression and its existence upon the outer plane, esoterically speaking. This is a moment of great radiance; it is almost as if a point of pulsating light burst into flame, and as if within that flame seven points of intensified light took shape. This is a high point in the experience of taking incarnation, and precedes physical birth by a very short period of time. It is that which brings on the birth hour. The next phase of the process, as seen by the clairvoyant, is the stage of interpenetration, during which "the seven become the twenty-one and then the many"; the light substance, the energy aspect of the soul, begins to permeate [470] the physical body, and the creative work of the etheric or vital body is completed. The first recognition of this upon the physical plane is the "sound" uttered by the newborn infant. It climaxes the process. The act of creation by the soul is now complete; a new light shines forth in a dark place.

The second moment of brilliance comes in reverse of this process and heralds the period of restitution and the final abstraction of its own intrinsic energy by the soul. The prison house of the flesh is dissolved by the withdrawing of the light and life. The forty-nine fires within the physical organism die down; their heat and light are absorbed into the twenty-one minor points of light; these, in their turn, are absorbed by the major seven centers of energy. Then the "Word of Return" is uttered, and the consciousness aspect, the quality nature, the light and energy of the incarnating man, are withdrawn into the etheric body. The life principle withdraws, likewise, from the heart. There follows a brilliant flaring-up of pure electric light, and the "body of light" finally breaks all contact with the dense physical vehicle, focuses for a short period in the vital body, and then disappears. The act of restitution is accomplished. This entire process of the focusing of the spiritual elements in the etheric body, with the subsequent abstraction and consequent dissipation of the etheric body, would be greatly hastened by the substitution of cremation for burial.