66 ROSICRUCIANCOSMO-CONCEPTION
composition of the desire body. The feelings of animals and
the lowest human races are almost entirely concerned with
the gratification of the lowest desires and passions which
find their expression in the matter of the lower Regions of
the Desire World. Hence, in order that they may have such
emotions to educate them for something higher, it is
necessary that they should have the corresponding materials
in their desire bodies. As man progresses in the school of
life, his experiences teach him, and his desires become purer
and better. Thus by degrees the material of his desire body
undergoes a corresponding change. The purer and brighter
material of the higher Regions of the Desire World replaces
the murky colors of the lower part. The desire body also
grows in size, so that in a saint it is truly a glorious object to
behold, the purity of its colors and its luminous transparency
being beyond adequate simile. It must be seen to be
appreciated.
At present the materials of both the lower and the higher
Regions enter into the composition of the desire bodies of
the great majority of mankind. None are so bad that they
have not some good trait. This is expressed in the materials
of the higher Regions which we find in their desire bodies.
But, on the other hand, very, very few are so good that they
do not use some of the materials of the lower Regions.
In the same way that the planetary vital and desire
bodies interpenetrate the dense material of the Earth, as we
saw in the illustration of the sponge, the sand and the water,
so the vital and desire bodies interpenetrate the dense body
of plant, animal, and man. But during the life of man his
desire body is not shaped like his dense and vital bodies.
After death it assumes that shape. During life it has the
appearance of a luminous ovoid which, in waking hours,