rosicrucianU.com | ||
Simplified Scientific Christianity |
Human embryology is the history of man from the fertilization of the ovum until birth from the womb. As absorbingly fascinating and far-reaching as this subject is, when we combine it with occult embryology (which reveals the work of the angelic hosts) it becomes, perhaps, the most majestic of sciences, worthy of the profound study of every spiritual aspirant and academic scientist.
Protoplasm has been termed the great mystery of nature. Protoplasm and chromatin are the two basic elements of physical life. Biologists and bacteriologists have disputed as to which is the more ancient, with later investigations favoring chromatin. The occult investigator, who is able to study the mysteries of life beyond the realm of the visible, understands that this finding is true.
The word protoplasm was first used in 1846 and was applied only to substance within vegetable cells. This same substance in animal cells was termed sarcode; later the word protoplasm came into general use as applying to the mysterious life substance which constitutes the principal portion of a cell, whether vegetable or animal.
Protoplasm is an almost colorless jellylike substance. When highly magnified, it is seen to consist of a fine meshwork in which lie a number of small granules of protein, starch, oil, and various other substances scattered throughout.
The protoplasm of a living cell generally contains two or more irregular spaces filled with fluids that change and merge into one another as the protoplasmic mass rotates. These are termed vocules, and they vary in different types of cells; some contain loosely packed protoplasm and a great deal of liquid, while others have denser protoplasm. In young cells of growing tissues the protoplasm is generally very close and granular.
Each cell lives its own individual life within its own cell walls, a part of which is the definite and orderly rotation of its protoplasmic content. The nucleus, attached by filaments of protoplasm to the cell-wall, tends to remain the stationary center of the cell. No material scientist has ever been able, even upon the most minute examination, to differentiate between the life processes of vegetable and animal life. This knowledge is reserved for the investigator who approaches its mysteries with a reverence like unto that of a minister kneeling before an altar in prayer. The qualifications for a deeper understanding of life processes are always clean hands, a pure heart, and a mind filled with reverential awe for the infinite love and wisdom embodied in the Divine Plan.
Spiritual truth must be spiritually discerned, declares Paul. There are innumerable hosts of invisible beings who aid in bringing life into activity on the physical plane. To know when and how the protoplasmic cell will evolve into plant, animal, or man requires, first of all, the ability to read in God's Cosmic Picture Book, where one may study the Archetypal Pattern and observe the working hosts of Invisibles who are aiding in the great evolutionary scheme of the universe.
Nowhere, perhaps, in all the course of human evolution does the law of harmony and rhythm manifest itself more beautifully or more exactly than in the marvelous and complicated processes of cell life.
The majority of growing tissue cells undergo a very elaborate process of change and transformation termed mitosis or karyokinesis. In the concentrated granules in the nucleus is imbedded a substance of strange and subtle power. It possesses no distinctive shape until the cell is ready to divide. Then it arranges itself in long skein-like filaments which later, in response to unseen forces, begin to bend and curve and to assume a horseshoe shape. This subtle substance is known as chromosome (colored matter).
The principal point of interest in all this complicated process is that each species of plant and animal life has its own specific and fixed number of chromosomes and that each species duplicates the same rhythmic motion in cell division.
The evolutionary status of development appears to set its signature upon these differentiations. In certain life forms just entering the animal life wave, as, for instance, in a lowly worm, the number is two. A lily, on the other hand, having reached well nigh a perfect attainment in the flower kingdom, sets its signature in thirteen chromosomes. A human being bears evidence of his status in a mark of forty-eight.
While the chromosomes are individualizing themselves inside the cell, the protoplasmic substance is shaping itself into two faintly gleaming white star-like centers. Emanations like streamers of light radiate from these two starry centers which have assumed positions similar to the north and south poles of a miniature universe, the starry emanations representing the global longitudinal lines.
By rhythmic motion the harmony of the spheres is duplicated in this marvelous "dance of the elements within the cells." The curved and bent chromosomes now unfurl and range themselves along this global formation so they compose its horizontal line, grouping themselves along its equator. Then each chromosome splits in half and begins to move along the longitudinal starry lines, one half toward the north pole and the other toward the south. Here, at each of the poles, the chromosomes and protoplasmic substances are again united. Gradually the thread-like filaments of the chromosomes become less conspicuous as they are resolved into nuclei which surround themselves with a membrane. The protoplasm continues to dance in stately circular motion, and then two cells are born. Each cell now contains a carefully divided half of both the chromosome and protoplasmic content of the original cell.
A cell possesses the power of absorbing oxygen and nutrition, of rebuilding and renewing itself, and of casting off waste or effete matter. In addition, each cell possesses a certain degree of consciousness. Thus, an aggregate of cells produces a certain massed cell consciousness capable of marked and wonderful transformation when guided by a competent and trained mentality. Herein may be found a key to complete body renewal.
A general summary of biology's position may be stated thus: "All living things are but a series of modifications and extensions of one single plan of structure, and all have the same ultimate substance, the mysterious semi-fluid network of protoplasm, as a physical basis of life, and the equally mysterious nuclear substance of chromatin which presides over the movements of protoplasm and is the physical basis for the phenomena of heredity." That which is inherited is not character but merely certain conditioning factors influencing it. Only the physical form is inherited. Temperament, mental capacities, talents, character — these all belong to the individual Ego and are capable of infinite diversification and expansion in accordance with the Ego's development.
Physical construction of three-dimensional life-forms manifests in a specialized threefold manner, namely, protoplasm, the seed ground (feminine); chromatin, the motive power (masculine); and the cell or new life formed by the operations of masculine and feminine. All living things are a manifestation of the positive and negative potencies of God. God, Fire, is ever moving upon the Waters to create forms.
Protoplasm is composed of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon, occult properties of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth, and the elements of all visible manifestations. Protoplasm constitutes the visible substance of the cell; chromatin, the visible center of heredity. (Again, by heredity is meant the tendency of an organism to reproduce characteristics of its progenitors.) The development of physical life is due to the unfolding of energies taken into the body through the direction of chromatin. The evolution of life is the evolving of these energies.
The cell is the lowest stage of individuality known to modern biology. Two of the most important parts of the cell are cytoplasm or the main body, and the nucleus or center of life which is imbedded in it. Again, the masculine and feminine work together to produce the nucleolus, the third or energy aspect of the Holy Trinity in body-building.
The discovery that every living thing is a single cell or an aggregation of cooperating cells and cell products is the most important biological discovery of modern times. One of the simplest of single-cell animals is the amoeba. When this creature reaches the stage where growth ceases it divides into two amoebae. Each descendant possesses half the substance of the parent; this process continues until a colony is complete. Material science is at a loss to explain the reason for this division. The occultist perceives that the life impulse of each cell is a fusing of the principles which we know as the masculine and feminine polarities in man, as Fire and Water in nature. On the physical plane these forces do not operate in a perfectly equalized relationship; hence, the inevitability of division. These processes are a reflex of the workings of Aries and Taurus, masculine and feminine Zodiacal Hierarchies, respectively. After the division is effected, the life process comes under Gemini, the third Zodiacal Power, the sign of separateness and division. Apartness is the path to individualization on the material plane.
The number seven, embodying the trine of spirit placed upon the cross of matter, is a fitting symbol for the workings of the physical body. It is the power of this number which the Celestial Hierarchies have employed most frequently in constructing the marvels of the human body. Physiology enumerates the seven chief processes of body-building as follows:
Furthermore, a cell is a cosmos in miniature, with seven principles or, spiritual correspondences:
Madame Blavatsky says that seven is a word for students and a query to the profane. Why, she asks, should there be such a strange, repetition of the number seven in the anatomical structure of man? Why should the heart have four lower cavities and three higher divisions answering so aptly to the septenary human principles separated into two groups, the higher and the lower? Why do the seven nervous plexuses of the body radiate seven rays? And why seven distinct layers in the human skin?
In the nucleoli are two distinct conditions: a denser portion in which the true germinal nucleoli float freely. The Spirit of God ever moves on the face of the Waters to create. Whether it be the building of a universe or the fashioning of the most minute cell in an infinitesimal body, the divine process is the same throughout.
There are certain interior strata of the Earth which reflect various life processes manifesting upon its outer surface in the human, animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms. It is only as the scientist becomes sufficiently spiritualized to contact the inner workings of nature that her secrets may be revealed to him. Patterns for all cell division are to be found therein, "stepped down from the heaven worlds under Scorpio, Lords of Form.
Each cell is a creative thought of God in manifestation. Every organ in the body is composed of a number of cells possessing intelligence and, in health, moving rhythmically around a central sun or cell possessing a higher degree of intelligence, Thus, every organ is a small scale solar system. The life of a cell is approximately ten days. As a student comes to realize that all matter is amenable to the power of thought, he will understand how complete regeneration of the body may be realized through controlling its cells by the force of mind. "All things are possible to him that believeth. "
Evolution is truly God's handwriting on the wall of time, where both past and future development of man are engraved by the Celestial Hierarchies and he who learns the secret wisdom may read.
Madame Blavatsky has compared the embryo evolving in its prenatal sphere, the individual in his family, the family in the state; the state in mankind to the earth in our system, the system in its central universe, the universe in the cosmos, and the cosmos in the One Cause. She concludes with the paraphrase:
The most remarkable of all principles discovered by embryologists is called the Recapitulation Doctrine. In the course of his development, every individual recapitulates his ancestral history. Each generation repeats the structural forms of previous generations in the order in which they successively appeared. However, each form appears a little earlier in each succeeding generation. Only thus can time be provided for the introduction and unfoldment of new and higher characteristics. The development of the embryo is "a condensed and abbreviated repetition of the human race."
By the end of the first month, the embryo has assumed a plantlike appearance; the esophagus, stomach, and intestine look like a long vine. Later there is the recapitulation of the bird stage; still later, the animal; and finally, the Ego fashions its permanent physical form. In both plant and vegetable kingdoms, useless vestiges of early organs are encountered. An unborn whale has rudimentary teeth; dwarfed limbs have been discovered in the embryo of certain large snakes; an embryonic frog is limbless and gill-breathing; and a chick of three to five days' development has four slits on the side of its neck. Similarly, a human embryo of from three to five weeks has several gills slits which later become the eustachian tube.
More than one hundred and eighty of these vestigial structures have been discovered in the human body, indicating the way in which its physical form has developed. The pattern for the Recapitulation Doctrine is held in the Memory of Nature, and is reproduced by the Lords of Form in chromatin cells.
Each human body has its origin in a single cell. Although myriads of cells are required to make a body, only those which originate in an ovum can ever become a proper temple for the habitation of an indwelling Spirit. In order that life may become manifest the ovum and sperm cells must unite in such manner that there is a complete fusion between the nuclei of sperm and cell.
The initial impulse of life force, released upon the Earth by the Hierarchy of Aries, is set into operation here, together with the forces of Taurus which gave the first impress of form. The ensouling of form by the incoming Spirit was instituted by Gemini. These three stellar Hierarchies gave the initial archetypal pattern for human manifestation. As the three former Hierarchies have passed into higher spheres of work, the work itself has been taken over by other Administrators. Leo now governs the life impulses, Scorpio the form, and Virgo the Ego which is to become indwelling.
As the cleavage proceeds by which the original egg-cell is divided into a many-celled embryo, the cells are arranged into a single-layer spherical mass called blastula. In the egg a chief axis is usually recognized; the ends of this axis are termed the poles of the egg and are designated as vegetal and animal poles. In practically every egg there is a trace of yolk. The tendency of the yolk is to accumulate toward the vegetal pole while the nucleus veers toward the animal pole.
Throughout nature the interweaving of cosmic forces projected by the masculine and feminine poles not only produces life but results in its continuously progressive manifestation in form. The vegetal pole represents the feminine principle; the animal, the masculine. The feminine operates through the yolk; the masculine, through the nucleus. The mystic marriage of the two polarities of spirit is evidenced many times throughout the embryological development.
In the fusion of sperm and egg after the process of karyokinesis, the dance of the chromosomes previously described takes place with this difference: the two cells, instead of separating, remain together and repeatedly divide. This division continues until there is a group of active cells termed a morula. This is the beginning of the embryo. Embryonic cells grow and divide with such rapidity that within a period of approximately forty days the embryo is the size of a grain of corn and the infinitesimal baby already possesses a miniature head and back. The developing child is termed an embryo until the end of the second month; after that time it is known as a foetus.
The form-building of the animal and human kingdoms is under the supervision of Scorpio, the Lords of Form, Mineral and plant life work is accomplished by Angels, the Hosts of Aquarius. The Lords of Scorpio work only with those forms sufficiently evolved to possess a desire body.
Evolution is a great celestial ladder extending from Earth to Heaven, leading from a crystal to God. Every life-form, under guidance of great superphysical Beings, is gradually climbing this ladder, round by round and life by life. "A thousand years is with the Lord as a day." Microscopic research indicates no permanence of any particular mode of reproduction. Any single organism goes through many metamorphoses in its evolutionary cycle. In some of the earlier cycles, reproduction is produced by building; later, by cooperation of two beings of opposite sex.
In the Kabbala Moses states that it requires both Earth and Water to make a man. The infinitesimal nucleus of man is composed of the same elements as is the stone. We may say, therefore, that during the first four weeks of the development the embryo resembles a stone (mineral); in the second month it becomes plant-like, composed of thin layers enclosing a liquid; in the third month it begins the formation of certain protuberances that are to become organs, and by which it becomes animal-like; and in the fourth month it enters definitely upon the human stage of its development.
Alchemically, these four "kingdoms" equate with the four, astrological elements; for in each kingdom of life, one principle predominates over the others. The mineral kingdom is the element Earth (form); plant kingdom, Water (vital force); animal kingdom, Fire (feeling and desire); finally, Man is Air (mind), for in him mind is the ruling principle. Man alone is a Son of Air and close kin to the Celestial Hierarchies, a condition reflected zodiacally in the "Sign of the Son of Man," Aquarius, and in the two mercurial signs also represented by human figures, Gemini and Virgo.
As the four kingdoms of evolutionary life are recapitulated in the embryo's first four months, so, too, are the chief distinguishing characteristics of the Four Great Races. Reproduction of the First Race (Polarian) was by fission; the Second Race (Hyperborean) was hermaphrodite; the Third Race (Lemurian), oviparous; the Fourth Race (Atlantean) propagated itself by cooperation of male and female.
The pelvis is formed of the sacrum and the two innominate (nameless) bones. This pelvic casket in the female contains the sacred creative organs: ovaries, uterus, and the Fallopian tubes. The ovum travels from the ovaries to the Fallopian tubes and there meets and fuses with the male seed. The pelvis, containing the Holy Grail Cup of the body's generative system, is a reflex of the Grail Cup formed within the bones of the skull and composed of the pineal and pituitary glands together with the Pons Varoli or "Tree of Life."
The most important of the feminine creative organs are the small. groups of cells which produce the egg cells. These are two in number, called the ovaries. The masculine creative organs which produce the sperm, called testes, are also two in number. In the male these organs are extended and lie close together in the scrotum. In the female they lie deep within the body near the hip bones, at the back of the waist line, and are several inches apart. It is largely due to the difference in position of the creative organs that the demarcation of sex may be noted in prenatal growth. During early months of development the male organs are also internal, but later take their place externally.
Each sex carries the organs of its opposite polarity in miniature as a reminder of long past evolutionary cycles when all living beings were hermaphrodite (Hermes-Aphrodite), possessing both sexual attributes equally developed. At a certain stage of the antenatal cycle, under the workings of the Virgo-Scorpio Hierarchies, certain hormones are produced which cause the latency of one sex and growth of the other. This is done in accordance with records of the Cosmic Scroll and to meet karmic requirements of the Ego.
Spermatozoa are produced in the testes of the male. The female produces numberless ova of which only one or two are available normally for impregnation. This work of the creative organs is stimulated by lunar influences, beginning when the Moon enters the sign of conception and attaining its fruition as it reaches the opposition sign.
Each spermatozoon consists of a single minute cell; however, its shape is so specialized that its parts are referred to as head, body, and tail. This male cell possesses remarkable powers of individual movement. It is the only cell of the entire human body comparable to the active living uni-cellular organisms of lower life grades. By means of its elongated tail the spermatozoon swims in liquid as does a fish in water.
An ovum, on the contrary, gives no sign of life until it is awakened by fusion with the masculine sperm. Once the ovum, with its nucleus and protoplasm, is surrounded by spermatozoa, one of the latter penetrates the protoplasm of the egg and unites with the nucleus of the egg cell. In this fusion of male and female life essences Fire and Water unite. The miracle of miracles occurs. The forces of heaven and earth are blended. An immortal Spirit descends td resume physical embodiment.
Nowhere in all human development is there a more graphic representation of the operations of Cosmic Wisdom than in the outworking of archetypal patterns during the prenatal period. In a few weeks are developed structures which took the race millions of years to evolve. During the first month of embryological development the Moon reflects a tenuous outline of the etheric body-pattern which is to serve as a model for the plastic embryo-in-the-making.
At the end of the second week the ammion allantois and rudiments of the embryo appear. At this time the Moon has reached a place opposite that occupied by the Sun at conception and its influences become particularly potent. The embryo now measures about one-twelfth of an inch in length. The stem of the allantois becomes the navel string.
It is interesting to note the development of the brain in connection with the vertebral column, the cerebrum being the last organ to develop. This is readily recognizable as being in perfect line and sequence with evolutionary progress, for the higher faculties are of the most recent acquisition. The cerebrum belongs to the work of the present or Fifth Creative Day. The elongated embryonic structure, with a groove-like channel that later becomes the spine, bends inward at the upper terminal initiating formation of brain and spinal marrow.
The influence of the Moon is especially marked in the building of vertebra structure, and later is equally important in relation to its normal functioning in the human body.
In the second month Mars plays additional influences upon the developing embryo. The head now shows pronounced growth; also the limbs. Sex glands appear by the end of the sixth week. In the beginning these organs show no structural difference, but microscopic examination reveals definite demarcations. Female organs are larger and more rounded than those of the male. By the end of the second month the embryo has developed definitely as male or female.
In the third month the forces of Mercury become active. Work during this period is concerned primarily with that most intricate of all body mechanisms, the nervous system. Here is to be found the principal seat of past development and future evolution. The longitudinal line or segment faintly outlined in the first month now expands into three minute vesicles; the first and third of these sacs again divide into five. The walls of these sacs will develop later into the brain, and the sacs will form the ventricles of the brain. The remainder of this segment will form the spinal cord, which in initiatory work is to become the alchemical laboratory of the body through which the forces of Mercury and its higher octave Neptune will turn base metals into gold, as the Ego gains celestial wisdom for building that temple not made with hands, but which is eternal in the heavens.
Development during the fourth month is under the Sun. Very wonderful becomes the work of the heart and its linking with the microscopical etheric body. Under the impulses of the Sun the developing organism shows its first signs of life.
The original cell from which the human body develops is the radiant nucleus emanated by the Lords of Flame (Hierarchy of Leo), and lit is this shining receptacle of light which becomes the heart center in the body temple — that center which is the first to live and the last to be extinguished when the physical body has served its purpose. The beginning of the heart is a single tubelike structure. It grows so rapidly that it is forced to bend and fold, assuming almost an S shape. This rapidly changes until a four-chambered organ develops. When the embryo is approximately two inches long, the heart, with its connecting vessels, is completely and perfectly formed.
During the fourth month the spinal cord is as long as the vertebral column, but during succeeding months the column grows more rapidly than the cord. At birth the cord reaches only to the third lumbar vertebra; from that vertebra to the end of the column the cord is but an extended terminal filament.
During the fifth month, under the forces of Jupiter, the work is concerned principally with the intricacies of the circulatory system. Many interesting variations occur in the embryological development of the structures of both the heart and blood vessels, showing how great are the changes which have been made in man's body since be evolved from a water-breathing into an air-breathing creature. Widely differing vestiges of valvular heart construction have been discovered, even those belonging to animals no higher than the frog. This is pertinent to occult embryology as it proves the Ego's alertness (or lack of it) in learning its lessons of body-building. Here are found pioneers and laggards as in all other grades of evolving life.
The earlier part of the sixth month, under Venus, shows formation of well-developed skin and hair; later, the beginnings of eyebrows, eye lashes and the first signs of fatty substances under the skin.
In the seventh month, under the concreting forces of Saturn, the skull takes form and the bones assume definite shape. There are now beginning definite manifestations of karmic influences on bodily development.
The bony structure tends to bind the Ego to the materialistic vibrations of Earth, so it sometimes happens that a highly advanced Ego will evade this dense Earth bond by what is termed a "premature birth" and come into physical incarnation as a seven-month child.
One who is born under this astral signature responds more readily to inner-plane vibrations than is normal so is generally considered a "sensitive."
The work of the sixth month under Venus is definitely furthered in the eighth month under Uranus. In addition, the developing physical organism is brought into closer relationship with its etheric pattern and the nervous system is set to rhythms of the etheric, so that spiritual development may at some future time become more easily accessible under Uranian impacts.
The ninth and birth month responds to the vibratory rhythms of Neptune, planet of divinity, under whose influence the Spirit is ushered into Earth existence.
The work begun under Mercury in the third month is completed in the ninth month. At birth all cells of the nervous system are present. The new-born child will develop no new brain cells, but certain structural changes will take place in nerves which control the motor mechanism.
With the ninth month there occurs a full interplay of all planetary forces necessary to the human organism. The. living, breathing child is now born into a new phase of evolutionary experiences upon the objective Earth plane.
Bronchial clefts, a remnant of specific stages of fish life, develop in the embryo about the end of the third week. Since the human being has evolved lungs as a means of breathing he has no further need for these gill-clefts and so they do not break through. By the end of the sixth week they have entirely disappeared so far as outer appearance is concerned. The manner in which these gills develop into the intricacies of the human throat is one of the marvels of embryological and anatomical study. One of the most wonderful things in connection with the whole divine physiological scheme is the fact that although for nine months the embryo has been growing in liquid and is, therefore, unable to breathe, at the moment of birth it begins to use its lungs, and their use never ceases until the last breath when physical life is ended.
At the first cry the karmic signature is set upon the Earth-life just beginning. The Ego receives its starry baptism which conditions it for its incarnate pilgrimage. A seer can observe this process in the etheric structure of the organism, where it can be seen that the first breath carries the karmic and planetary record by way of the lungs to the seed atom in the third ventricle of the heart. Here it is inscribed indelibly as part of the Ego's cosmic record of the ages.
Mme. Blavatsky, in The Secret Doctrine, tabulates the development of the embryo as a "condensed and abbreviated repetition of the evolution of the race."
1. Fission (a) as seen in the division of the homogeneous speck of protoplasm into two parts as the amoeba. (b) Division of the nucleated cell in which the cell-nucleus splits into two sub-nuclei which either develop within the original cell or burst it and multiply outside as independent entities. First Root Race.
2. Budding (a) A small portion of the parent structure swells out at the surface and parts company with the original body, growing to the size of the original organism as in the sea-anemone, for instance. Second Root Race.
3. Spores(a) Single cell thrown off by parent organism which develops into a multicellular organism reproducing features of the latter; e.g., bacteria and mosses.
4. Intermediate hermaphroditism. Male and female organs inbering in the same individual; majority of plants, worms, and snails. Second and Early Third Root Races.
5. True sexual union. Late Third Root Race. The embryonic face in its different formations and growth offers an interesting verification of the above tabulation. In the early part of the second month's foetal development, the contour of the face is fishlike; later it assumes a more animal-like appearance; at the beginning of the third month the face decidedly suggests a Third Root Race recapitulation.
To summarize briefly: through the male organs, known As spermaries, operates the masculine or Fire Principle of God, to produce minute cells, the spermatozoa. Through the female organs, the ovaries, operates the feminine or Water Principle of God to produce ova or eggs. The blending of these two forces — Fire moving upon the Waters to create-produces fertilization, a secret process, the supreme miracle of heaven and earth.
When the radiant Fire-force within the seminal fluid enters the mother's body it is white; by the expiration of the first seven-day period it has transformed to blue; at the end of the second seven-day interval it is yellow; at the conclusion of the third seven-day period it is red. The twenty-one days of this transmutation process is a time of great opportunity and responsibility for both the expectant mother and the incoming Ego, and it is an interval of which material science admits it knows nothing.
Science informs us that though a human ovum is only about 1/125 of an inch in diameter, it has a volume almost thirty-five thousand times that of the sperm. The feminine functions are molding and building; hence, a greater power is required than for the masculine. We also, learn that every chromosome of maternal origin in an ordinary cell has an equivalent mate derived from the male parent. The orgaiism. producing the union of the two germ cells is potentially dual in nature. This is one of the most striking facts in embryology.
The Father-Mother Principle of God manifests in all creation; it operates in the development of a cell as in the formation of a solar system. The nucleus of every cell is a blending of Fire and Water. This union produces a new being — the Trinity in Union.
The twenty-four chromosomes are centers of attraction for the positive and negative aspects of the Twelve Zodiacal Hierarchies who aid the evolution of man and planet. Science is even now speculating as to the possibility of changes in both appearance and form by changes in the number of chromosomes.
Life and its processes are the sublime mystery of the ages! It has been so ever since that long-past day when God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul (Genesis 11:7).
Man has lost all memory of the workings of this process. The reason for this loss is given by Paul in Ephesians 4:18: "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart."
Paul also points the way by which man may regain close, conscious touch with divine life processes and come again into companionship with celestial Beings who are in constant, loving attendance upon Egos living in the physical realm, those about to incarnate and those who are passing beyond this veil of dust and tears. lie writes in Colossians III:1-4:
"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on. the right band of God. Set your affection on things above. not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory."
Nucleus — Central portion of cell.
Cytosome — Peripheral cell-body.
Cytoplasm — The protoplasm of the cell exclusive of the nucleus (the substance of cytosome).
Centrosome — A minute protoplasmic body found in the cytoplasm, less often in the nucleus, of any animal and some plant cells, which takes an important part in mitosis. (At one side of nucleus is small ground, surrounded by denser area of cytoplasm.)
Linin — The substance of the achromatic fibrous network of a cell nucleus. (Threads of faintly staining material traverse it in every direction and form a net-work.)
Chromatin — A protoplasmic substance in the nucleus of cells, which stains deeply with basic stains. Chemically, it consists largely of proteid compounds of nucleic acid. (Densely stained strands of this network in irregular granules or patches.)
Chromosomes — One of the small bodies, ordinarily definite in number in the cells of a given species, into which the chromatin of a cell nucleus resolves itself previous to mitosis. (The coils in nucleus break up into segments in preparation for division. These segments are chromosomes.)
Protoplasm — Masculine; Chromatin — Feminine.
Simple or direct cell divisions — when nucleus constricts in the middle and the two halves separate into two bodies.
Mitosis or indirect cell divisions — involves profound changes or rearrangement of the nuclear contents. The ordinary process by which the cells of plants and animals multiply, involving typically, in successive steps, the segregation and equal division of the chromosomes, formation of daughter nuclei at the poles of a spindle of radiating fibers, and growth of a new cell wall through the center of the spindle.
Plasmosome — The true nucleolus of a cell as distinguished from a karyosome. Small spheroidal. body, differing in its staining reactions from chromatin.
— Corinne Heline
|
Contemporary Mystic Christianity |
|
This web page has been edited and/or excerpted from reference material, has been modified from it's original version, and is in conformance with the web host's Members Terms & Conditions. This website is offered to the public by students of The Rosicrucian Teachings, and has no official affiliation with any organization. | Mobile Version | |