MAN AND THEMETHOD OFEVOLUTION 139
eighteen to twenty-one days, the Ego remaining outside in
its desire body and mind sheath, yet always in close touch
with the mother. Upon the expiration of that time the Ego
enters the mother's body. The bell-shaped vehicles draw
themselves down over the head of the vital body and the bell
closes at the bottom. From this time the Ego broods over its
coming instrument until the birth of the child and the new
earth life of the reincarnating Ego commences.
BIRTH OF THE DENSE BODY
The vehicles of the new-born do not at once become
active. The dens e b ody is helpless for a long time aft er birth.
Reasoning from analogy we can readily see that the same
must be the case with the higher vehicles. The occult
scientist sees it, but even without clairvoyance reason will
show that this must be so. As the dense body is slowly
prepared for the separate, individual life within the
protecting cover of the womb, so the other bodies are
gradually born and nurtured into activity, and while the
times given in the following description are but
approximate, they are nevertheless accurate enough for
general purposes and show the connection between the
Microcosm and the Macrocosm—the individual and the
world.
In the period immediately following birth the different
vehicles interpenetrate one another, as, in our previous
illustration, the sand penetrates the sponge and the water
both sand and sponge. But, though they are all present, as in
adult life, they aremerely present. None of their positive
faculties are active. The vital body cannot use the forces
which operate along the positive pole of the ethers.
Assimilation, which works along the positive pole of the
chemical ether, is very dainty during childhood and what