274 ROSICRUCIANCOSMO-CONCEPTION
Revolutions of the Earth Period.
During the first three and one-half Revolutions Mars
held sway, polarizing the iron, preventing the formation of
the red blood and keeping the Ego from immuring itself in
the body until the latter had attained to the requisite degree
of development.
During the last three and one-half Revolutions Mercury
will operate to extricate the Ego from its densest vehicle by
means of Initiation.
Incidentally, it may be noted that, as Mars polarized the
iron, so Mercury has polarized the metal bearing its name
and the workings of that metal will show very well this
tendency to take the dense body away from the spirit—to
liberate the latter from the for mer.
That dread disease, syphilis, is an example of conditions
where the Ego is fettered and immured in the body to a
particularly cramping extent. Sufficient mercury relieves the
condition, lessens the hold of the body upon the Ego and
leaves the latter to that comparative freedom within the
body, which the normal person enjoys. But on the other
hand, an overdose of mercury causes paralysis, thus taking
the dense body from the man in an improper way.
The Lords of Mercury taught man to leave and re-enter
the body at will; to function in his higher vehicles
independent of the dense body, so that the latter becomes a
cheerful dwelling house instead of a closely-locked prison—
a useful instrument instead of a clogging fetter.
Therefore occult science speaks of the Earth Period as
Mars-Mercury, and so it may be said truly that we have been
in Mars and are going to Mercury, as taught in one of the
occult works previously mentioned. It is also true, however,
that we have never inhabited the planet Mars, nor are we to