In this section is presented a comprehensive system of the Universe, a system of development by progression, not evolution.
This system takes in the Universe in its entirety, in its largest divisions and in its smallest parts; it shows the place of the human body in relation to the physical universe, and of the human in relation to his Triune Self and the Supreme Intelligence of the Universe; and, finally, Consciousness, the ultimate One Reality.
The system is all-inclusive; yet it is compact, logical and easy to apprehend or imagine. It can be tested by its scope, by its unity, by its simplicity, its analogies, its interrelations, and by the absence of contradictions.
Current classifications, such as God, nature, and man; body, soul, and spirit; matter, force, and consciousness; good and evil; the visible and the invisible, are insufficient; they are makeshifts, not parts of a system, yet these various entities and things have each a place in the vast scheme, but what place has not been shown.
This system shows a Universe which consists of nature-matter and intelligent-matter, and Consciousness which is the same in both kinds of matter. Matter differs in the degree in which it is conscious. All matter as units on the nature-side is conscious, but merely conscious, each unit being conscious as its function only;
all matter on the intelligent-side at least can be conscious that it is conscious;
that is the distinction between the units of unintelligent nature-matter and of intelligent-matter.
The purpose of the Universe is to make all units of matter conscious in progressively higher degrees, so that nature-matter shall become intelligent-matter; and, further, so that intelligent-matter shall increase in being conscious until ultimately it becomes Consciousness.
The purpose of the Universe may be comprehended by distinguishing beings, that is, units of the elements, elementals, out of the mass of matter, as they progress through the various stages or states in which matter is conscious. The progression of these nature units is accomplished while they are on ground which is common to all nature units.
In the world of birth and death the common ground is the human body.
The human body is on the lowest degree of the physical plane of all the worlds and spheres. The units of the matter of the world of birth and death are kept circulating through, or in contact with, human bodies. By means of this circulation all physical acts, objects, and events are brought about.
In order to understand the human body and its relation to this complex Universe and the relation of the doer in that body to the nature-side and to the intelligent-side of the Universe, it is well to examine the Universe as a whole and in all its parts. In the following propositions certain words are given specific meanings; they are used for lack of more adequate terms, for example:
fire, air, water, earth, for the spheres; and light, life, form, physical, for the worlds and planes.
The spheres, worlds, and planes have each an unmanifested and a manifested side; the unmanifested side permeates and sustains the manifested, (Fig. I-A,B,C). In the diagrams they are shown as an upper and a lower half. Let it be understood that the point of coincidence of the spheres, worlds, and planes is their common center, and not at the lowest part of the circles. The diagrams are drawn as they are in order to show relations, which cannot well be done with a set of concentric circles.
