to
activity on earth.

In order to understand a Sacrament, it is necessary that we should
definitely recognise the existence of an occult, or hidden, side of
Nature; this is spoken of as the life-side of Nature, the
consciousness-side, more accurately the mind _in_ Nature. Underlying all
sacramental action there is the belief that the invisible world
exercises a potent influence over the visible, and to understand a
Sacrament we must understand something of the invisible Intelligences
who administer Nature. We have seen in studying the doctrine of the
Trinity that Spirit is manifested as the triple Self, and that as the
Field for His manifestation there is Matter, the form-side of Nature,
often regarded, and rightly, as Nature herself. We have to study both
these aspects, the side of life and that of form, in order to understand
a Sacrament.

Stretching between the Trinity and humanity are many grades and
hierarchies of invisible beings; the highest of these are the seven
Spirits of God, the seven Fires, or Flames, that are before the throne
of God.[328] Each of these stands at the head of a vast host of
Intelligences, all of whom share His nature and act under His direction;
these are themselves graded, and are the Thrones, Powers, Princes,
Dominations, Archangels, Angels, of whom mention is found in the
writings of the Christian Fathers, who were versed in the Mysteries.
Thus there are seven great hosts of these Beings, and they represent in
their intelligence the divine Mind in Nature. They are found in all
regions, and they ensoul the energies of Nature. From the standpoint of
occultism there is no dead force and no dead matter. Force and matter
alike are living and active, and an energy or a group of energies is the
veil of an Intelligence, of a Consciousness, who has that energy as his
outer expression, and the matter in which that energy moves yields a
form which he guides or ensouls. Unless a man can thus look at Nature
all esoteric teaching must remain for him a sealed book. Without these
angelic Lives, these countless invisible Intelligences, these
Consciousnesses which ensoul the force and matter[329] which is Nature,
Nature herself would not only remain unintelligible, but she would be
out of relation alike to the divine Life that moves within and around
her, and to the human lives that are developing in her midst. These
innumerable Angels link the worlds together; they are themselves
evolving while helpi