In Search of the Miraculous

half of these laws, we should be subject to the laws of the sun (twelve laws) and consequently one stage nearer still to the Absolute. If, again, we could free ourselves from half of these laws, we should be subject to the laws of the starry world and separated

by only one stage from the immediate will of the Absolute.

"And the possibility for man thus gradually to free himself from mechanical laws

exists.

"The study of the forty-eight orders of laws to which man is subject cannot be

abstract like the study of astronomy; they can be studied only by observing them in

oneself and by getting free from them. At the beginning a man must simply understand that he is quite needlessly subject to a thousand petty but irksome laws which have

been created for him by other people and by himself. When he attempts to get free

from them he will see that he cannot. Long and persistent attempts to gain freedom

from them will convince him of his slavery. The laws to which man is subject can only

be studied by struggling with them, by trying to get free from them. But a great deal of

knowledge is needed in order to become free from one law without creating for

oneself another in its place.

"The orders of laws and their forms vary according to the point of view from which

we consider the ray of creation.

"In our system the end of the ray of creation, the growing end, so to speak, of the

branch, is the moon. The energy for the growth, that is,

for the development of the moon and for the formation of new shoots, goes to the

moon from the earth, where it is created by the joint action of the sun, of all the other planets of the solar system, and of the earth itself. This energy is collected and

preserved in a huge accumulator situated on the earth's surface. This accumulator is

organic life on earth. Organic life on earth feeds the moon. Everything living on the

earth, people, animals, plants, is food for the moon. The moon is a huge living being

feeding upon all that lives and grows on the earth. The moon could not exist without

organic life on earth, any more than organic life on earth could exist without the

moon. Moreover, in relation to organic life the moon is a huge electromagnet. If the

action of the electromagnet were suddenly to stop, organic life would crumble to

nothing.

"The process of the growth and the warming of the moon is connected with life and

death on the earth. Everything living sets free at its death a certain amount of the

energy that has 'animated' it; this energy, or the 'souls' of everything living—plants,

animals, people—is attracted to the moon as though by a huge electromagnet, and

brings to it the warmth and the life upon which its growth depends, that is, the growth

of the ray of creation. In the economy of the universe nothing is lost, and a certain

energy having finished its work on one plane goes to another.

"The souls that go to the moon, possessing perhaps even a certain amount of

consciousness and memory, find themselves there under ninety-six laws, in the

conditions of mineral life, or to put it differently, in conditions from which there is no escape apart from a general evolution in immeasurably long planetary cycles. The

moon is 'at the extremity,' at the end of the world; it is the 'outer darkness' of the

Christian doctrine 'where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

"The influence of the moon upon everything living manifests itself in all that

happens on the earth. The moon is the chief, or rather, the nearest, the immediate,

motive force of all that takes place in organic life on the earth. All movements,

actions, and manifestations of people, animals, and plants depend upon the moon and

are controlled by the moon. The sensitive film of organic life which covers the earthly

globe is entirely dependent upon the influence of the huge electromagnet that is

sucking out its vitality. Man, like every other living being, cannot, in the ordinary

conditions of life, tear himself free from the moon. All his movements and

consequently all his actions are controlled by the moon. If he kills another man, the

moon does it; if he sacrifices himself for others, the moon does that also. All evil

deeds, all crimes, all self-sacrificing actions, all heroic exploits, as well as all the

actions of ordinary everyday life, are controlled by the moon.

"The liberation which comes with the growth of mental powers and faculties is

liberation from the moon. The mechanical part of our life depends upon the moon, is

subject to the moon. If we develop in our-

selves consciousness and will, and subject our mechanical life and all our mechanical

manifestations to them, we shall escape from the power of the moon.

"The next idea which it is necessary to master is the materiality of the universe

which is taken in the form of the ray of creation. Everything in this universe can be

weighed and measured. The Absolute is as material, as weighable and measurable, as

the moon, or as man. If the Absolute is Cod it means that God can be weighed and