14

III

THE CENTRAL SUN¹

The original, self-existent, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent productive power, the soul of all existences, is throned in a central sphere, the circumference of which is the boundless universe, and around this the sidereal systems revolve in silent sublimity and harmony.² This power is what mankind call Deity, whose attributes are love and wisdom, corresponding with the principles of male and female, positive and negative, creative and sustaining. The first goings forth or outbirths from the Great Celestial Centre are spiritual or vital suns, which give birth to natural suns, being those that are cognisable by the outward senses of man. These again become centres, or mothers, from which earths are born, each minutest particle of which is infused with the vivifying spirit of the parent formator. The essences of heat or fire—electricity, galvanism, magnetism—are natural manifestations of that produc-

¹ See Discourse entitled The End of the World in Morning Lectures, 1865, p. 59 et seq.
² In another place, and referring presumably to Divine Prototypes, it is said that the Central Sun contains inconceivably vast universes. While the highest angelic intelligence can never hope to comprehend the infinite wealth of Divine Perfections, it is possible to understand analogically the constitution and operations of the Great Centre by the study of other centres nearer to our own situation. The fact of a physical sun—originating, actuating and governing all around it—is an illustration, within its own measures, of the Spiritual Central Sun.—Views of our Heavenly Home, p. 118.

15

The Central Sun

tive energy which is the vitalising Cause of all existences. It pervades all substances and animates all forms.

The great spiritual and eternal truth which it is necessary for man to know and realise before he can know himself and be happy is that all manifest substances are expressions of an interior productive cause, which is the spiritual essence. The mineral kingdom is an expression of motion, the vegetable an expression of life, the animal an expression of sensation, while man is an expression of intelligence. The planets in our solar system are a perfect expression of the sun from which they sprang. The various combined bodies and planetary systems in the universe are a perfect expression of the Great Sun of the Univercoelum. The Great Sun is a perfect expression of the Spiritual Sun within it; and the Spiritual Sun is a perfect expression of the Divine Mind, Love, or Essence.¹ The Spiritual Sun is thus the centre and cause of all material things. It is a radiating sphere or atmosphere of the Great Eternal Cause, an aroma, a garment of the more interior essence—the Divine, Creative Soul.² The material universe is a perfect representation of the spiritual universe, in which nothing exists but what is everlasting and infinite. The whole material system is the body of the Creative Soul, and the Spiritual Essence has unfolded and manifested itself in a material form. This form is the order and wisdom of the Divine Mind.

Light and Love constituted the first development of the Spiritual Sun, and That was Light and Life incon-

¹ Once more therefore love is the centre of the universe, as it is said elsewhere to be the centre of man's own inner life, described as a substantial principle, an element as real as light or electricity—the seed-fountain of affection, volition and intellect.—The Great Harmonia, Vol. V, pp. 27, 28.
² This paragraph to the end of the sentence here indicated is taken from A Stellar Key to the Summer Land, pp. 118, 119.

16

The Harmonial Philosophy

ceivable, which became illuminated space itself.¹ Yet space is not limited, neither could it transcend the expansive illuminations of the Great Spiritual Sun. When the universe was completed, order and form reigned omnipresent throughout the whole Univercoelum. Such was the grand and stupendous development of the Great Spiritual Sun—this having developed the material Sun, and this the expanded universe. So therefore—far and beyond the countless constellations—throbs the heart of life and animation. Its pulses flow to the circumference of all planetary existence. This Heart is God, the centre of all that is.

Previous to the present structure of the universe—when inconceivable realms of immensity were channels through which flowed an ocean of formless materials—the Infinite Spirit was manifested only as a principle of motion. Incessant, unrestrained, unchangeable, omnipotent action was the first manifestation of Deity. It must not be apprehended that God was otherwise then than organised Intelligence, but there were no media sufficiently unfolded for a higher operation of the creative principle, except motion only. Nor must it be inferred that God is subject to the identical laws of association, progression and development which proceed from Him and operate in all things. These laws are expressions of the Creator's habits, the constitutional tendencies of His Divine Nature. The God of the universe is not a being of development or growth. He is a fixed Fact; a fixed Principle, a fixed Heart of perfection and infinite Intelligence; but He displays the attributes of His being in successive and endless series and degrees, each unfolded in progressive and harmonious order.

The great vortex of Celestial Intelligence—nucleus of

¹ The manifestation of light and life of course postulates space, and so also does any process of becoming, but it will be understood that the seership of Davis was apart from any training in philosophy.

17

The Central Sun

omnipotence, centre of love, flower of wisdom—is the irresistible magnet which draws upward the human soul. It is the sensorium of the Divine Mind, the central spring of all action and vitality, the fount of magnificence and perfection. He lives through all things, but more especially in the Great Spiritual Sphere¹ or Sun of the universe. God is the Soul of that universe, which is therefore the body of God and a perfect representative, or bold and clear expression of the interior Divine Mind, even as the human form is an express likeness of the quality of its interior soul.²

¹ In the first testimony of Davis the Central Sun is identified with the Great Positive Mind, and is termed the Fountain, the Great Illuminator, unchangeable and eternal, governing all existence. Whatsoever is subordinate to this Mind is negative in respect thereof, the manifest creation included.—See The Principles of Nature, p. 40. It is on the basis of this sentiment that Davis speaks frequently of Nature—understood, however, in a certain archetypal sense—as a Divine Mother, the Deity being Divine Father, thus postulating an ineffable state of spiritual marriage between them.
² It is said also that the Centre of the Universe is a Sun around which all spirits revolve, as planets about their primary.—Answers to Ever-Recurring Questions from the People, p. 93.