Ascending and Descending Processes

Ascending and descending processes, Robert Earl Burton, Fellowship of Friends, FourthWayToday.org, Natassa Cavalli

Three forces combine to create ascending and descending processes. What are these?

According to the Law of Three, three natural forces arise from Uncreated Light, the Absolute. These three forces create, in turn, the chain of everything existing. In the Fourth Way, they are called the active or creative force, the passive or material force, and the mediating or catalytic force. Depending on how they interact, both ascending and descending processes emerge.

The Descending Process of Growth, Incarnation, Multiplication 

In high school I first became impressed by the Law of Octaves, studying inorganic chemistry. I remember that from the 19th century the efforts to systematically classify the periodic elements coalesced after the calculation of their atomic weights. The research aimed to correlate the physical and chemical properties of the elements with their atomic weights. In ranking the elements by atomic weight, researchers discovered that the properties of the elements are different in the first seven elements. But starting with the eighth element, the properties of the elements are repeated. The eighth element has the same properties as the first, the ninth with the second, the tenth with the third, and so on. From the 17th element onwards, there are anomalies in the ranking. 

The periodicity of the properties of the elements, in this arrangement, was called the Law of Octaves.

The development of the Ray of Creation from the Absolute to created things is an example of growth. The process descends in that the highest principle, the Life force, enters matter, a lower force. And in this way, life takes on form. Form is lower than the starting point, Life. 

For more about the six processes, see our issue https://fourthwaytoday.org/category/six-processes/.

Ascending Processes – Transformation, Refinenent, Purification

A man who struggles to balance the energy of his lower centers begins to awaken his soul. His soul functions as the energetic or active force, while his spirit plays the role of the passive force and welcomes the energy of the soul. His essence is the catalytic third force, transmuting the physical and chemical elements of his whole organism. Such a man is usually the product of a conscious school. He works with his companions to develop himself. He divides his attention and saves his energy.

His effort is to detach himself from his mechanical center of gravity and give weight to the practice of his work for his ascending transmutation.

According to the Law of Octaves, lateral octaves come in between the mi-fa and the si-do vibrations. Because of this natural phenomenon, a man may deviate from his aim. He has to remember the Life in himself and transform emotional shocks, in view of a new compelling octave upwards.

The more the objectivity of his spirit expands, the more he realizes his place in the cosmic enneagram and eagerly wants to escape to the realm of the sun.

This man who remembers the Law of Three and the Law of Octaves understands that Uncreated Light is as merciless as the darkness of inertia. He attracts the light and invokes work ‘I’s to unite with the Hydrogen 12 and 6 of his higher centers. He needs divine guidance and he has it.