The Continuity Between All Events

Cause and Effect deals merely with “events.”

An “event” is “that which comes, arrives or happens, as a result or consequent of some preceding event.”

No event “creates” another event. But is merely a preceding link in the great orderly chain of events flowing from the creative energy of THE ALL.

There is a continuity between all events precedent, consequent and subsequent. There is a relation existing between everything that has gone before, and everything that follows.

A stone is dislodged from a mountain side and crashes through a roof of a cottage in the valley below. At first sight we regard this as a chance effect, but when we examine the matter we find a great chain of causes behind it.

In the first place there was the rain which softened the earth supporting the stone and which allowed it to fall; then back of that was the influence of the sun, other rains, etc., which gradually disintegrated the piece of rock from a larger piece; then there were the causes which led to the formation of the mountain, and its upheaval by convulsions of nature, and so on ad infinitum.

Then we might follow up the causes behind the rain, etc.

Then we might consider the existence of the roof.

In short, we would soon find ourselves involved in a mesh of cause and effect, from which we would soon strive to extricate ourselves.

A man has:

• 2 parents
• 4 grandparents
• 8 great-grandparents
• 16 great-great-grandparents, etc
• 40 generations have millions of ancestors.

Soot Example

So it is with the number of causes behind even the most trifling event, such as the passage of a tiny speck of soot before your eye.

It is not easy to trace the bit of soot back to the early period of the world’s history when it formed a part of a massive tree-trunk.

This tree was afterwards converted into coal, until it became the speck of soot that got into your eye through a chain of events.

That soot also led to the ink in this text which caused the typesetter to do his work.

This then caused the proofreader to do his work.

This caused you to read this work and arouse certain thoughts in your mind, and in those of others.

This in turn will affect others, and so on, beyond the ability of man to think further.

This is all from the passage of a tiny bit of soot.

This shows:

• the relativity and association of things
• “there is no great; there is no small, in the mind that causeth all.”

If a man had not met a certain maid, away back in the dim period of the Stone Age—you who are now reading these lines would not now be here.*

If the same couple had failed to meet, we who now write these lines would not now be here.

The very act of writing, on our part, and the act of reading, on yours, will affect not only the respective lives of yourself and ourselves, but will also have a direct, or indirect, affect upon many other people now living and who will live in the ages to come.

Every thought we think, every act we perform, has its direct and indirect results which fit into the great chain of Cause and Effect.

We do not wish to enter into a consideration of Free Will, or Determinism, in this work, for various reasons.

Among the many reasons, is the principal one that neither side of the controversy is entirely right-in fact, both sides are partially right, according to the Hermetic Teachings.

The Principle of Polarity shows that both are but Half-Truths the opposing poles of Truth.

A man may be both Free and yet bound by Necessity, depending on:

• the meaning of the terms
• the height of Truth from which the matter is examined.

“The further the creation is from the Centre, the more it is bound; the nearer the Centre it reaches, the nearer Free is it.”

The majority of people are the slaves of heredity, environment, etc., and manifest very little Freedom.

They are swayed by the opinions, customs and thoughts of the outside world, and also by their emotions, feelings, moods, etc. They manifest no Mastery, worthy of the name. They indignantly repudiate this assertion, saying, “Why, I certainly am free to act and do as I please—I do just what I want to do,” but they fail to explain whence arise the “want to” and “as I please.”

What makes them “want to” do one thing in preference to another; what makes them “please” to do this, and not do that?

Is there no “because” to their “pleasing” and “Wanting”?

The Master can change these “pleases” and “wants” into others at the opposite end of the mental pole. He is able to “Will to will,” instead of to will because some feeling, mood, emotion, or environmental suggestion arouses a tendency or desire within him so to do.

The majority of people are carried along like the falling stone, obedient to environment, outside influences and internal moods, desires, etc., not to speak of the desires and wills of others stronger than themselves, heredity, environment, and suggestion, carrying them along without resistance on their part, or the exercise of the Will.

Moved like the pawns on the checkerboard of life, they play their parts and are laid aside after the game is over.

But the Masters, knowing the rules of the game, rise above the plane of material life, and placing themselves in touch with the higher powers of their nature, dominate their own moods, characters, qualities, and polarity, as well as the environment surrounding them and thus become Movers in the game, instead of Pawns-Causes instead of Effects.

The Masters do not escape the Causation of the higher planes, but fall in with the higher laws, and thus master circumstances on the lower plane.

They thus form a conscious part of the Law, instead of being mere blind instruments. While they Serve on the Higher Planes, they Rule on the Material Plane.

There is no such thing as Chance. The blind goddess has been abolished by Reason.

Everything is governed by Universal Law. The infinite number of laws are but manifestations of the One Great Law-the LAW which is THE ALL.

Not a sparrow drops unnoticed by the Mind of THE ALL.

But this does not mean that Man is but a blind robot.

Man may use Law to overcome laws. The higher will always prevail against the lower, until at last he has reached the stage in which he seeks refuge in the LAW itself.