Satan, that black and hideous being, is not a product of our world, and him neither human shape nor physical body was ever given.

Coming to this earth from another, now in pralaya, he arrived as chief and almost sole survivor of his dark company; one since recruited from human kind. As an astral entity, he at once began to prey upon our earliest races. This from two causes, one easily seen, to wit, pure malignity; the other deeply occult, and requiring explanation. Debased Kama and selfish, obdurate personal will were his dominant principles, in fact his life as a self-conscious entity. Such gross principles are of course perishable, the higher triad - atrophied in him - being necessary to real immortality.

How to prolong his astral and kamic life was a problem solved in a way worthy of Satan's devilish cunning. He became a vampire feeding on what in man corresponds with his own perverted principles. Henceforth he strove to reduce the human race to his own level. Imagine him desperately active in a cycle of mature world Karma, and we account for the horrors of the war now passed through. In a large view, our common enemy was unwittingly the instrument of Justice to every nation involved, all of whom were more or less guilty as history shows. The Pisces Avatar came at the time of a judgment more circumscribed. The fall of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jewish people, though momentous to themselves, were not then important events, however large appearing in subsequent history.

Touching further upon the past and the present of humanity's old adversary, let it be said that while in former times his acts were inspired by fear and hatred, those of to-day are born of desperation, since for him the descent of the Major Avatar means greatly enfeebled powers during a thousand years; after which the force generated by the Avatar will subside gradually for another thousand years Of one fact we are assured, Satan cannot survive the rise of the sixth root race, because the principle of Buddhi, therein resident, will act as poison on his principles, unless he retire to some restricted department of the sub-astral plane.

Virtually this will be the chaining of Satan mentioned in Revelation. Undoubtedly the inception of the sixth sub-race is a menace to his activity.

The kamic principle of gross desire cannot endure contact with the buddhic principle of pure compassion: hence the coming of the Major Avatar arouses the ire of the entire dark host. Least of all this host, can the Prince of Darkness enter the presence of the Prince of Light. So Satan incites his company to aggression. Only with those of the human species who most resemble him, has he personal contact. War's unspeakable horrors in every age originated in his attempt to increase numerically the victims of his dreadful vampirism.

As for Satan's followers, each according to his rank becomes an astral ghoul who imperils the reincarnation of his victims. This for two reasons: first, because these victims are drained of necessary vitality, and, second, because gradually they lose human shape and intelligence, thus becoming nondescripts, or, rather, reversions to, types now extinct on our globe. Nevertheless the good Law does not cut off such beings for, by a merciful provision, they are to be transferred to a planet of as yet low development, though of lofty destiny. This planet is known to Astrologers as the higher Venus, and as such to Initiates, because with almost Divine Wisdom it rescues, and sets securely on a low rung of the long ladder of life, those whom other evolutions have failed to reclaim.

Since the dawn of the twentieth century, the world more and more has been in that wave of spiritual energy which precedes the re-embodiment of the Aquarian Avatar. As the result of this influx, the virtuous are increasingly incited to virtue, while the wickedness of multitudes is reaching that culmination which means their disappearance from our evolution. The beneficial effects of this general weeding out will be realized in succeeding centuries. On the other hand, the buddhic wave is energizing great multitudes to noble deeds of self-sacrifice.

H.