258 ROSICRUCIANCOSMO-CONCEPTION
Our Sun could not become a Sun until it had sent out
from itself all the beings who were not sufficiently evolved
to endure the high rate of vibration and the great luminosity
of the beings who were qualified for that evolution. All the
beings upon the different planets would have been
consumed had they remained in the Sun.
This visible Sun, however, though it is the place of
evolution for Beings vastly above man, is not by any means
the Father of t he ot her planets, as material science supp oses.
On the contrary, it is itself an emanation from the Central
Sun, which is the invisible source of all that is in our Solar
System. Our visible Sun is but the mirror in which are
reflected the rays of energy from the Spiritual Sun. The real
Sun is as invisible as the real Man.
Uranus was the first planet to be thrown off from the
nebula when its differentiation began in Chaos, at the dawn
of the Earth Period. There was no light but the dim light of
the Zodiac. The life that left with Uranus is of a rather
backward strain and is said to evolve very, very slowly.
Saturn was next differentiated. It is the field of action
for the life which is at the stage of evolution corresponding
to the Saturn Period. This planet was differentiated before
the ignition of the nebula and (like all nebulae when passing
through their Saturn Period of evolution) was not a source of
light, but a reflector.
Jupiter was differentiated shortly afterwards, when the
nebula had become ignited. The heat of Jupiter is not so
great as that of the Sun, Venus or Mercury, but on account
of its immense bulk, it is capable of retaining its heat and
thus remains a suitable field of evolution for very advanced
beings. It corresponds to the stage which will be reached by
the Earth itself in the Jupiter Period.
Mars is a mystery, and only a limited amount of