170 R The Secret Liji of Nature
As Leadbeater puts it: "In Freemasonry we invoke the aid of non-
human entities-the inhabitants of the subtler planes, who are thor-
oughly accustomed to deal with and control the forces belonging to
their respective levels. We call rather upon beings at our own state or
slightly above it, and they bring with them assistants from the kingdom
of the nature spirits and even of the elementals." (To Leadbeater, ele-
mental~ differ from nature spirits in that they are "half-conscious crea-
tures" often merely the transient thought-forms of devas.)
As soon as the lodge is declared open-the Master Mason and his
officers having marched in a circular procession to lay out the thought-
form of a temple, mocking up the lower part of the "cella" or interior
chamber, shutting in the whole of the lodge's mosaic pavement and
charging it with magnetism-a call is issued to summon the nature
spirits and with them their angelic superiors.
Specific questions addressed to each of the Masonic officers act,
says Leadbeater, as a call to a deva of the particular type required, who
immediately presents itself and acts as a captain of the nature spirits
and elementals, who next gather round. Not only the nature spirits but
also the elemeiltals apparently respond to the invocation employed in
this closely condensed formula or opening. "As the call reverberates
throughout the different kingdoms of nature, it lets devas, nature spir-
its, and elementals know that an opportunity is about to be offered
them... and they greatly rejoice to respond."
That much of what transpires in a modern Masonic initiation is
solely ritual and symbolic appears not to diminish its effect, according
to Leadbeater: "The fact that thousands of Masons have asked the ap-
pointed question without the faintest idea of producing an effect in
unseen worlds has not deprived them of angelic assistance, which, if
they had known of it, would have astounded them beyond expression,
and probably even terrified them."
Yet it is through these deva representatives of the various officers
that the building of the thought-form and the outpouring of the force
is meant to be accomplished. As the ceremony proceeds, various nature
spirits are described as manifesting "to make the walls of the temple
both thicker and higher while greater Beings reinforce its magnetism