BOOK I — THE PREPARATION OF MIND
Thoth, to André
I
André: You told me that imagination is distorted when the elemental powers are imbalanced. What are these powers?
Thoth: Four principles through which the human being knows, lives and acts.
André: Fire, Air, Water and Earth.
Thoth: These are their names when the powers of nature are understood within one order.
André: Are they substances within me?
Thoth: If they were substances, you would search your body for flames, winds, rivers and soil. They are principles that become human according to the body through which they act.
II
André: In which body do the elements principally reside?
Thoth: Each of your bodies contains them in its own manner.
André: Are there, then, three Fires, three Airs, three Waters and three Earths?
Thoth: There is one principle of each element, expressed as mental faculty, astral quality and physical function.
André: Does the element descend from one body into another?
Thoth: You imagine the bodies as floors of a house. They occupy the same human life in different ways. What is understood mentally, lived astrally and enacted physically may be one elemental act.
III
André: Show me this in Fire.
Thoth: In the mental body, Fire becomes will: the power to begin and direct. In the astral body, it becomes ardour, courage, anger or consuming passion according to its condition. In the physical body, it becomes heat and active force.
André: Is will itself Fire?
Thoth: It is the manner in which the principle of Fire becomes a mental faculty. Do not confine the principle to one of its expressions.
André: And Air?
Thoth: As a mental faculty, it distinguishes and understands. Astrally, it gives movement, lightness and adaptability, or distraction when unstable. Physically, it lives through breath and motion.
IV
André: What of Water and Earth?
Thoth: Water becomes feeling in the mental body, sympathy and desire in the astral body, and fluid life in the physical body. Earth becomes consciousness and continuity in the mental body, stability and persistence in the astral body, and structure in the physical body.
André: These expressions seem different from one another.
Thoth: Their difference is why the bodies must not be confused. Their relation is why the bodies must not be separated.
André: Then a single principle may be clear in one body and troubled in another.
Thoth: You may understand what you cannot yet feel, feel what you cannot sustain, or act in a manner contrary to both.
V
André: Is this why a truth may be understood and still fail to change a person?
Thoth: Understanding in one body does not complete the act in all three.
André: Can the mental body be balanced while the astral body is not?
Thoth: It can possess a correct relation in thought while the soul answers through fear, desire or habit. The physical body may then repeat what both have condemned.
André: Which body speaks for the person?
Thoth: Whichever one acts while the others remain unable to join it.
VI
André: Is the soul mirror meant to reveal this division?
Thoth: It reveals how the elemental principles have become character.
André: Is it a record of virtues and vices?
Thoth: It may use those names, but its purpose is not moral accusation. It shows where a power serves the whole human being and where it acts as though it were the whole.
André: Is imbalance always an excess?
Thoth: It may be excess, weakness, suppression, displacement, or a power acting through one body while refused by another.
VII
André: If I strengthen what is weak and restrain what is excessive, will the elements be balanced?
Thoth: You may improve their proportions and still leave them acting separately.
André: Is equilibrium not an equality among them?
Thoth: Four voices equally loud do not yet speak one word.
André: What, then, completes equilibrium?
Thoth: The four act as one within Akasha.
VIII
André: Do the elements cease to differ when they act as one?
Thoth: If they ceased to differ, there would be one element repeated four times. Fire still gives direction, Air distinction, Water living relation and Earth continuity; but none completes an act apart from the others.
André: How does this appear through the three bodies?
Thoth: The mental faculty, astral quality and physical function answer one another. You no longer will what the soul refuses, feel what the body cannot bear, or perform what the mind does not recognise.
IX
André: Is this why the bodies must be prepared before the assumption of a Godhead?
Thoth: A Godhead cannot be received harmoniously by a human being who divides its quality into contrary acts.
André: What occurs if the mental body receives while the astral body resists?
Thoth: Knowledge may appear without becoming life. If the soul receives while the physical body cannot sustain it, the experience may be intense without becoming stable. Each body must give the divine quality the form proper to it while remaining one with the others.
André: Does equilibrium itself bring the Godhead?
Thoth: It makes harmonious habitation possible. It does not decide who will inhabit.
X
André: You said the four act as one within Akasha. Is Akasha a fifth element?
Thoth: If it were merely a fifth, it would stand beside the four. You have asked about that within which the four can become one.
André: Is it prior to their distinction?
Thoth: Ask what can contain their distinction without being divided by it.
André: How may the human mind enter this without mistaking emptiness for Akasha or its own image for a presence?
Thoth: Clear space is not enough. You must discover how it receives a living image.
