The Ductless
(Endocrine) Glands
Their Role and Rulers
It is well known to the esoteric astrologer that the human body has an
immense period of evolution behind it and that this splendid organism is the
result of a slow process of gradual up-building which is still continuing and
will make each generation better than the previous until in some far distant
future it shall have reached a stage of completion of which we cannot even
dream. It is also understood by the deeper students that in addition to the
physical body man has finer vehicles which are not yet seen by the great
majority of human beings, though all have within them latent a sixth sense
whereby they will in time cognize these finer sheaths of the soul. The
occultist speaks of these finer vehicles as the "vital body," made of ether,
and the "desire body," made of desire stuff, the material whence we draw our
feelings and emotions, and with the addition of the "sheath of mind" and the
physical body these complete what may be termed the personality which is the
evanescent part distinct from the immortal spirit that uses these vehicles for
its expression. These finer vehicles interpenetrate the dense physical body as
air permeates water and have particular dominion over certain parts thereof,
because the physical body itself is a crystallization of these finer vehicles
in the same manner and upon the same principle that the soft fluids of a
snail's body gradually crystallize into the hard and flinty shell which it
carries upon its back. For the purpose of this dissertation we may say broadly
that the softer parts of our bodies which we commonly call flesh may be
divided into two kinds, glands and muscles. The vital body was started in the
Sun Periiod. Crystallization from that time on in that vehicle has developed
what we now call glands and to this day they and the blood are the special
manifestations of the vital body within the physical vehicle, and therefore
the glands as a whole may be said to be under the rule of the life-giving Sun
and the great benefic, Jupiter. For it is the function of the vital body to
build and restore the tone of the muscles when tense and tired by the work
imposed upon them by the restless desire body which was started in the Moon
Period. The muscles are therefore ruled by the wandering Moon, which is the
present vantage point of the angels, the humanity of the Moon Period, and by
the impulsive and turbulent Mars, where the so-called "Fallen Angels," the
Lucifer spirits, dwell; that is to say as a whole, for the student must
carefully note that individual glands and particular groups of muscles are
under the rulership of other planets as well. It is as when we say that all
who live within the United States of America are citizens of that country, but
some are subject to the laws of California, others to those of Maine.
We know the Hermetic axiom, "As above, so below," which is the master key to
all mysteries, and as there are upon the Earth, the macrocosm, a great many
undiscovered places, so also in the microcosm of the body do we find unknown
countries that are a closed book to the scientific explorers. Chief among them
has been a small group of the so-called "ductless glands," seven in number,
namely:
The Pituitary Body, ruled by Uranus. The Pineal Gland, ruled by Neptune. The
Thyroid Gland, ruled by Mercury. The Thymus Gland, ruled by Venus. The Spleen,
ruled by the Sun. The two Adrenals, ruled by Jupiter.
They have a great and particular interest for occultists, and they may be
termed in a certain sense "the seven roses" upon the Cross of the body, for
they are intimately connected with the occult development of humanity. Four of
them, the Thymus Gland, the Spleen and the two Adrenals, are connected with
the personality. The Pituitary Body and the Pineal Gland are particularly
correlated with the spiritual side of our nature and the Thyroid Gland forms
the link between. The astrological rule over these seven glands is as follows:
The Spleen is the entrance gate of the solar forces specialized by each
human being and circulated through the body as the vital fluid, without which
no being can live. This organ is therefore governed by the Sun. The two
Adrenals are under the rulership of Jupiter, the great benefic, and exert a
calming, quieting and soothing effect when the emotional activities of the
Moon and Mars or Saturn have destroyed the poise. When the obstructive hand of
Saturn has awakened the melancholy emotions and laid its restraint upon the
heart, the Adrenals' secretions are carried by the blood to the heart and act
as a powerful stimulant in its effort to keep up the circulation, while the
Jovial optimism struggles against the Saturnine worries or against the impulse
of Mars, which stirs the desire body into turbulent emotions of anger,
rendering the muscles tense and trembling, dissipating the energy of the
system; then the secretion of the Adrenals comes to the rescue, releasing the
glycogen of the liver in a more abundant measure than usual to cope with the
emergency until the equipoise has been again attained, and similarly during
whatever other stress or strain. It was the knowledge of this occult fact that
prompted the ancient astrologers to place the kidneys under the rulership of
Libra, the Balance, and in order to avoid confusion of ideas we may say the
kidneys themselves play an important part in the nutrition of the body, being
under the rulership of Venus, the Lady of Libra, but Jupiter governs the
Adrenals, with which we are now particularly engaged.
Both Venus and her higher octave, Uranus, govern the functions of nutrition
and growth, but in different ways and for different purposes. Therefore Venus
rules the Thymus Gland, which is the link between the parents and the child
until the latter has reached puberty. This gland is located immediately behind
the sternum or breast bone; it is largest in ante-natal life and through
childhood while growth is excessive and rapid. During that time the vital body
of the child does its most effective work, for the child is not then subject
to the passions and emotions generated by the desire body after that comes to
birth at or about the fourteenth year. But during the years of growth the
child cannot manufacture the red blood corpuscles as does the adult, for the
unborn, unorganized desire body does not then act as an avenue for the martian
forces which assimilate the iron from the food and transmute it into
hemoglobin. To compensate for this lack there is stored in the Thymus Gland a
spiritual essence drawn from the parents, who are symbolized by Venus, the
ruler, and with this essence provided by the love of the parents the child is
able to accomplish the alchemistry of blood temporarily until its desire body
becomes dynamically active. Then the Thymus Gland atrophies and the child
draws from its own desire body the necessary martian force. From that time,
under normal conditions, Uranus, the octave of Venus, and ruler of the
Pituitary Body, takes charge of the function of growth and assimilation in the
following manner:
It is well known that all things, our food included, radiate from themselves
continuously small particles which give an index of the thing whence they
emanate, its quality included. Thus when we lift the food to our mouth a
number of these invisible particles enter the nose and by excitation of the
olfactory tract convey to us a knowledge pof whether the food we are about to
take is suitable for this purpose or not, the sense of smell warning us to
discard such foods as have a noxious odor, etc. But besides those particles
which attract or repel us from food by their action upon the olfactory tract
through the sense of smell, there are others which penetrate the sphenoid
bone, impinge upon the Pituitary Body and start the Uranian alchemistry by
which a secretion is formed and injected into the blood. This furthers
assimilation through the chemical ether, thus affecting the normal growth and
well-being of the body through life. Sometimes this Uranian influence of the
Pituitary Body is eccentric and therefore responsible for strange and abnormal
growths which produce the unfortunate freaks of nature we occasionally meet.
But besides being responsible for the spiritual impulses which generate the
before-mentioned physical manifestations of growth, Uranus, working through
the Pituitary Body, is also responsible for the spiritual phases of growth
which aid awakened man in his efforts to penetrate the veil into the Invisible
Worlds. In this work it is, however, associated with Neptune, the ruler of the
Pineal Gland, and it will therefore be necessary, in order to properly
elucidate, that we study the functions of the Thyroid Gland, ruled by Mercury,
and of the Pineal Gland which is under the domination of his higher octave,
Neptune, simultaneously.
That the Thyroid Gland is under the rule of Mercury, the planet of reason,
is readily realized when we understand the effect which the degeneration of
this gland has upon the mind, as shown in the diseases of Cretinism and
Myxedema. The secretions of this gland are as necessary to the proper
functioning of the mind as ether is to the transmission of electricity, that
is to say, upon the physical plane of existence where the brain transmutes
thought into action. Contact with and expression in the invisible worlds
depends upon the functional ability of the Pineal Gland, which is altogether
spiritual in function, and is therefore ruled by the octave of Mercury,
Neptune, the planet of spirituality. But Neptune operates in conjunction with
the Pituitary Body ruled by Uranus, the planet of wisdom, as has already been
stated.
Scientists have wasted much time in speculation upon the nature and function
of these two little bodies, the Pituitary Body and the Pineal Gland,but
without avail, and principally because, as Mephistopheles says so
sarcastically to the young man who wants to study science under Faust:
"Who e'er would know and treat of aught alive Seeks first the living spirit
thence to drive; Then are the lifeless fragments in his hand; He lacks, alas!
the vital spirit band."
No one can really and truly observe the physiological functions of any organ
under such conditions as exist in the laboratory, on the operating table, or
in the dissection or vivisection chamber. To arrive ar an adequate
understanding one must necessarily see these organs exercising their
physiological functions in the living body, and that can only be done by means
of the spiritual sight. There are a number of organs which are either
atrophying or developing; the former show the path we have already traveled
during our past evolution, the latter are finger-posts, indicating our future
development. But there is still another class of organs which are neither
degenerating nor evolving; they are simply dormant at the present time.
Physiologists believe that the Pituitary Body and the Pineal Gland are
atrophying because they find these organs more developed in some of the lowest
classes of life, such as worms, but as a matter of fact they are wrong in
their ideas; these organs are only dormant. Some have also suspected that the
Pineal Gland is in some way connected with the mind, because it contains
certain crystals after death, and the quantity was much less in those who were
mentally defective than in people of normal mentality. This conclusion is
right, but the Seer knows that the spinal canal of the living is not filled
with fluid; that the blood is not liquid, and that these organs have no
crystals in them when the body is alive; these assertions are made with full
knowledge of the fact that the blood and the spinal essence are liquid when
drawn out of the physical body, living or dead, and the contents of the
Pituitary Body and the Pineal Gland appear crystalline when the brain is
dissected; but the reason is similar to that which causes steam drawn from a
steam boiler to condense immediately upon contact with the atmosphere, and
molten metal drawn from a smelter's furnace to crystallize immediately upon
withdrawal therefrom.
All these substances are purely spiritual essences when inside the body;
they are then ethereal and the substance in the Pineal Gland, when seen by the
spiritual sight, appears as light. Furthermore, when one Seer looks upon the
Pineal Gland or another who is then also exercising his spiritual faculties,
this light is of a most intense brilliancy and of an irridescence similar to
but transcending in beauty the most wonderful play of the Northern Lights, the
Aurora Borealis. It may also be said that the function of this organ seems to
have changed in the course of human evolution. During the earlier epochs of
our present stay upon the Earth, when man's body was a large, baggy thing into
which the spirit had not yet entered, but was there only as an overshadowing
presence, there was an opening in the top and the Pineal Gland was within it;
it was then an organ of orientation, giving a sense of direction. As the human
body condensed, it became less and less able to endure the intense heat which
prevailed during that time and the Pineal Gland gave warning when the body was
brought too near one of the many craters and active volcanoes which were then
erupting the thin Earth crust, thus enabling the spirit to guide it away from
these dangerous places. It was an organ of direction which operated by
feeling, but feeling has since been distributed over the skin of the whole
body, and this is an indication to the occultist that some day the senses of
hearing and sight will also be similarly distributed so that we shall both see
and hear with our whole body and thus become still more sensitive in those
respects than we are now.
Since then the Pineal Gland and the Pituitary Body have become temporarily
dormant to make man oblivious to the invisible world while he learns the
lessons afforded by the material world; but the Pituitary Body has manifested
the Uranian influence sporadically in abnormal physical growth, producing
freaks and monstrosities of various kinds, while Neptune, working also
abnormally through the Pineal Gland, has been responsible for the abnormal
spiritual growth of medicine men, witches, and mediums of spirit controls.
When they are awakened to normal activities these two ductless glands will
open the door to the inner worlds in a sane and safe manner, but in the
meantime the Thyroid Gland, ruled by Mercury, the planet of reason, holds the
secretion necessary to give the brain balance.
In the future the ductless glands are destined to play a prominent role;
their development will accelerate evolution greatly, for their effects are
mainly mental and spiritual. We are now nearing the Aquarian Age; the Sun is
therefore beginning to transmit the highly intellectual vibrations of this
sign which accounts for the intuitions, premonitions and telepathic
transmission now so prevalent. In the final analysis these phenomena are due
to the awakening of the Pituitary Body, ruled by Uranus, the lord of Aquarius,
and every passing year will make them more manifest.
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