The Theosophical Society,
The Writings of C
Charles
Webster Leadbeater
(1858
– 1934)
The Mystic Chord
by
C
First published 1909
In
connexion with the vision of which I gave an analysis
on p47, questions have
been asked by several as to the method by which a
person at a distance of some
thousands of miles can be instantly found by a
trained clairvoyant. Apparently
this remains somewhat of a mystery to many, so I
will endeavour to give an
explanation of the plan commonly adopted, though it
is not easy to put it quite
plainly. A clear expression of super-physical
facts cannot be achieved in
physical words, for the latter are always to some
extent misleading even when
they seem most illuminative. Man's various forces
and qualities, manifesting in
his bodies as vibrations, send out for each vehicle
what may be called a
keynote. Take his astral body as an example.
From
the number of different vibrations which are habitual to that astral body there
emerges a sort of average tone, which we may call the keynote of this man on
the astral plane. It is obviously conceivable that there may be a considerable
number of ordinary men whose astral keynote is practically the same, so that
this alone would not suffice to distinguish them with certainty. But there is a
similar average tone for each man's mental body, for his causal body, and even
for the etheric part of his physical body; and there
have never yet been found two persons whose keynotes were identical at all
these levels, so as to make exactly the same chord when struck simultaneously.
Therefore the chord of each man is unique, and furnishes a means by which he
can always be distinguished from the rest of the world.
Among
millions of primitive savages there may possibly be cases where
development is as yet so slight that the chords are
scarcely clear enough for
the differences between them to be observed, but
with any of the higher races
there is never the least difficulty, nor is there any
risk of confusion. Whether
the man be sleeping or waking, living or dead, his
chord remains the same, and
he can always be found by it. How can this be so,
it may be asked, when he is
resting in the heaven-world, and has therefore
no astral or etheric body to emit
the characteristic sound? So long as the causal
body itself remains, it has
always attached to it its permanent atoms, one
belonging to each of the planes,
and therefore, wherever he goes, the man in his
causal body carries his chord
with him, for the single atom is quite sufficient to
give out the distinctive
sound.
The
trained seer, who is able to sense the chord, attunes his own vehicles for the
moment exactly to it, and then by an effort of will sends forth its sound.
Wherever
in the three worlds that man who is sought may be, this evokes an instantaneous
response from him. If he be living in the physical body, it is quite possible
that in that lower vehicle he may be conscious only of a slight shock, and may
not in the least know what has caused it. But his causal body lights up
instantly - leaps up like a great flame, and this response is at once visible
to the seer, so that by that one action the man is found, and a magnetic line
of communication is established. The seer can use that line as a kind of
telescope, or if he prefers he can send his consciousness flashing along it
with the speed of light, and see from the other end of it, as it were. The
combination of sounds which will produce a man's chord is his true occult name;
and it is in this sense that it has been said that when a man's true name is
called he instantly replies, wherever he may be. Some vague tradition of this
is probably at the back of the idea so widely spread among savage nations, that
a man's real name is a part of him, and must be carefully concealed, because
one who knows it has a certain power over him, and can work magic upon him.
Thus
also it is said that the man's true name is changed at each initiation, since
each such ceremony is at once the official
recognition and the fulfilment of a
progress by which he has, as it were, raised
himself to a higher key, putting an
additional strain upon the strings of his
instrument, and evoking from it far
grander music, so that thenceforward his chord
must be sounded differently.
This
name of the man must not be confused with the hidden name of the Augoeides, for that is the chord of the three principles of
the Ego, produced by the vibrations of the âtmic, buddhic and mental atoms, and the Monad behind them. In
order to avoid such confusion we must keep clearly in mind the distinction
between two manifestations of the man at different levels. The correspondence
between these two manifestations is so close that we may almost consider the
lower as the repetition of the higher. The Ego is triple, consisting of âtmâ, buddhi, manas,
three constituents each existing on its own plane - the âtmâ
on the nirvânic, the buddhi
on the buddhic, and the manas
on the highest level of the mental.
This
Ego inhabits a causal body, a vehicle built of the matter of the lowest of
the three planes to which he belongs. He then puts
himself further down into
manifestation, and takes three lower
vehicles, the mental, astral and physical
bodies. His chord in this lower manifestation is that
which we have been
describing, and consists of his own note and those
of the three lower vehicles.
Just
as the Ego is triple, so is the Monad, and this also has its three
constituents, each existing on its own plane; but in this case the three planes
are the first, second and third of our system, and the nirvânic
is the lowest of them instead of the highest. But on that nirvânic
level it takes to itself a manifestation, and we call it the Monad in its âtmic vehicle, or sometimes the triple âtmâ;
and this is for it what the causal body is for the Ego. Just as the Ego takes
on three lower bodies (mental, astral, physical), the first of which (the
mental) is on the lower part of his own plane, and the lowest (the physical)
two planes below, so the Monad takes on three lower manifestations (which we
commonly call âtmâ, buddhi,
manas), the first of which is on the lower part of
its plane, and the lowest two planes below that.
It
will thus be seen that the causal body is to the Monad what the physical body
is to the Ego. If we think of the Ego as the soul of the physical body, we may
consider the Monad as the soul of the Ego in turn. Thus the chord of the Augoeides (the glorified Ego in his causal body) consists
of the note of the Monad, with those of its manifestations, âtmâ,
buddhi, manas.
It
must of course be understood that the chord cannot be accurately considered as
sound in the sense in which we use that word on this plane. It has been suggested
to me that an analogy which is in some respects better is that of the
combination of lines in a spectrum. Each of the elements known to us is
instantly recognisable by its spectrum, in whatever
star it may appear, no matter how great the distance may be - so long as the
lines are bright enough to be seen at all. But the chord of which we have been
speaking is not actually either heard or seen; it is received by a complex
perception which requires the practically simultaneous activity of the consciousness
in the causal body and in all the lower vehicles. Even with regard to ordinary
astral perception it is misleading (though practically unavoidable) to speak of
'hearing' and 'seeing'. These terms connote for us the idea of certain
sense-organs which receive impressions of a well-defined type.
To
see implies the possession of an eye, to hear implies the existence of an ear.
But no such sense-organs are to be found on the astral plane. It is true that
the
astral body is an exact counterpart of the physical,
and that it consequently
shows eyes and ears, nose and mouth, hands and feet,
just as the latter does.
But
when functioning in the astral body we do not walk upon the astral
counterparts of our physical feet,
nor do we see and hear with the counterparts
of our physical eyes and ears. Each particle in an
astral body is capable of
receiving a certain set of vibrations - those
belonging to its own level, and
those only. If we divide all astral vibrations into
seven sets, just like seven
octaves in music, each octave will correspond to
a subplane, and only a particle
(in the astral body) which is built of matter belonging to
that subplane can
respond to the vibrations of that octave. So 'to
be upon a certain subplane in
the astral' is to have developed the sensitiveness
of only those particles in
one's astral body which belong to that subplane, so that one can perceive the
matter and the inhabitants of that subplane
only.
To
have perfect vision upon the astral plane means to have developed sensitiveness
in all particles of the astral body, so that all the subplanes
are simultaneously visible. But even though a man has developed the particles
of one subplane only, if those are fully developed he
will have on that subplane a power of perception
equivalent to all of our physical senses. If he perceives an object at all, he
will in that one act of perception receive from it an impression which conveys
all that we learn down here through those various channels which we call the
senses; he will simultaneously see, hear, and feel it. The instantaneous
perception which belongs to higher planes is still further removed from the
clumsy and partial action of the physical senses. In order to see how the chord
helps the clairvoyant to find any given person, it must also be understood that
the vibrations which cause it are communicated by the man to any object which
is for some time in close contact with him, and therefore permeated by his
magnetism.
A
lock of his hair, an article of clothing which he has worn, a letter which he
has written - any of these is sufficient to give
the chord to one who knows how
to perceive it. It can also be obtained very
readily from a photograph, which
seems more curious, since the photograph need not
have been in direct contact
with the person whom it represents. Even untrained
clairvoyants, who have no
scientific knowledge of the subject, instinctively recognise the necessity of
bringing themselves en rapport with those whom
they seek by means of some such objects.
In
the case of the vision described last month the letter which led to the
investigations was the link with the writer. It is not necessary for the seer
to hold the letter in his hand while examining the case, or even to have it
near him. Having once held the letter and sensed the chord, he is able to
remember it and reproduce it, just as any one with a good memory might remember
a face after seeing it once. Some such link as this is always necessary to find
a person previously unknown. We had recently another case where a man had died
somewhere in the Congo, but as no photograph of him was sent by the friend who
wrote about him, it was necessary first to seek that friend (somewhere in
There
are, however, other methods of finding people at a distance. One which is very
effective requires higher development than that just described. A man who is
able to raise his consciousness to the atomic level of the buddhic
plane there
finds himself absolutely in union with all his
fellow-men - and therefore of
course among the rest with the person whom he seeks.
He draws his consciousness up into this unity along his own line, and he has
only to put himself out again along the line of that other person in order to
find him. There are always various ways of exercising clairvoyance, and each
student employs that which comes most naturally to him. If he has not fully
studied his subject, he often thinks his own method the only one possible, but
wider knowledge soon disabuses him of that idea. Search this site
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