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This 27 minute video is based on A Treatise on Cosmic Fire by Alice Bailey. The video was produced in 2015 by Alignment Media (theagelesswisdom.net).
Although this book was one of the first to be written by Alice Bailey in collaboration with the Tibetan Master Djwhal Khul, it is probably the most timeless, profound and least understood.
Alice Bailey tells us the book provides the “psychological key to cosmic creation.” As AAB herself wrote in her Unfinished Autobiography, p. 236-237:-
Another revolutionary thing that the Tibetan did was when He dictated the contents of A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. In this book He gave what H.P.B. prophesied He would give, the psychological key to cosmic creation. H.P.B. stated that in the 20th century a disciple would come who would give information concerning the three fires with which The Secret Doctrine deals: electric fire, solar fire and fire by friction. This prophecy was fulfilled when A Treatise on Cosmic Fire was given out to the public.
The book was first published in 1925. AAB continues,
This book concerns the fire of pure spirit or life; the fire of the mind that vitalises every atom of the solar system and creates the medium through which the Sons of God develop. It also concerns the fire of matter producing that attraction and repulsion which is the basic law of evolution, and holding forms together so as to provide vehicles for the evolving life and later, when they have served their purpose, repulsing those forms so that the evolving lives can move on their way to higher evolution.”
If you are new to the Alice Bailey books, this is not the easiest book with which to begin your study. You may find it helpful to read the comments from reader reviews on amazon.com. These comments include such suggestions as:-
- “This book was written for the training of the Soul and not the personality.”
- “It should be read through even if not completely understood at the moment of reading.”
- “Not for the beginner on the path.”
For students of A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
References to The Secret Doctrine
Before writing A Treatise on Cosmic Fire under dictation from the Tibetan, Alice Bailey herself studied The Secret Doctrine by H.P. Blavatsky, and was taught by personal students of HPB. (See An Unfinished Biography p.138).
A tangled history of editions and page numbers
A Treatise on Cosmic Fire (TCF) includes numerous references to The Secret Doctrine (SD). However, if you wish the page number references to be meaningful, you need to be aware of the following. The page references given in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire are to the Third Revised Edition of The Secret Doctrine, which is no longer in print. (See p.xvi of TCF). This Third Revised Edition of SD which Alice Bailey and the Tibetan referenced included revisions and additions to the original publication made by Annie Besant after HPB’s death. This revision lost popularity and approval within the Theosophical Society and is no longer in publication. Later editions of SD reverted to being copies of the First Edition and have very different page numbers! If you wish to look up the references given in TCF, you will need to use a concordance which allows you to work out what the page numbers in the Third Edition (as given in TCF) have become in today’s copies of SD which are reprints of the First Edition.
Download a copy of the Concordance to the SD contributed by a student. This concordance allows you to look up a page reference given in TCF which will be listed under “Third Edition 1893” and find the corresponding page number in today’s copies of the Original Edition of SD. For example, a reference in TCF to page 88 of SD Volume I would correspond to page 58 in today’s copies of the Original Edition Vol I.
See also:-
- Online copy of the book www.lucistrust.org/online_books/a_treatise_on_cosmic_fire_obooks
- Methods used in producing “A Treatise on Cosmic Fire” (from An Unfinished Autobiography)
