190 The Law of the Rhythmic Breath 



cies. It is Mercury's rod that pricks the con- 

 science and would ever extend its support in the 

 struggle against wayward impulses. When you 

 fully understand the entire office of the Sushumnd, 

 this will be quite plain. 



Both the density and the swiftness of Mercury 

 are accounted for, or explained, by the Tattvic 

 state of Prdna when in the Sushumnd. Of course 

 it is the same in the macrocosm as in the microcosm, 

 only on a vaster scale. Though apparently quies- 

 cent during the moment of conjunction, the quies- 

 cence is but seeming. The concentrated energy 

 of the Tattvas through their closely compacted 

 atoms in the united currents as they meet in the 

 Sushumnd produces a state of extreme density. 

 During concentration, when alone the higher office 

 of the Sushumnd is called into activity, the velocity 

 of the vibrations is stimulated to an inconceivable 

 speed. 



(Six months after this study of Mercury's influ- 

 ences was first set in type, I had the extreme grati- 

 fication of finding the following corroboration of 

 my belief. Alchemists knew " Mercury has to be 

 ever near Isis [the moon] as her minister, as with- 

 out Mercury neither Isis nor Osiris [the sun] can 

 accomplish anything in their great work." Secret 

 Doctrine, Vol. i, p. 388). 



Curiously enough, we have in the rise of mercury 

 in a thermometer a perfect symbol of the rise of the 



