70 The Law of the Rhythmic Breath

" Know thyself," is to learn the nature of these

hidden forces, the Tattvas, whose ceaseless activities,
governed or misgoverned, make us what we
are.
The varying effects of the different Tattvas in
their activities within the physical body are as dissimilar
as their characteristic qualities; and, therefore,
the predominance of certain ones, even when
that condition is normal, is unfortunate, and their
excess is baneful. It is through the freedom of
the will that you can control and correct the forces
generated in your body, and draw to you the beneficent
ones you desire.
The characteristic form, features, and coloring
complexion, hair, and eyes which distinguish
human beings one from the other, are due to the
particular permutations of the Tattvas, which, on
the gross plane of their activities, make up the
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The Law of the Rhythmic Breath - E. A. Fletcher.txt
component elements of different physiques. Their
mental influence is, of course, equally important
and individual (the physiological being, in fact,
its reflection), the opinions formed, the bent of
every mind being due to the bias given to it by the
prevailing elements, or Tattvas.
This individuality, stamped by the Tattvas, is
determined by the color that is, the vibration
of the planet under which one is born. This
fact gives us the scientific basis for astrology,
every planet being the center of a specific Tattvic
The Universality of the Tattvas 71
influence just as are the ganglia of the nervous
system. This agrees with and explains the puzzling
tenet of Hermetic philosophy, " As it is
above, so is it below," and shows the close parallelism
between the microcosm and the macrocosm.
Always an acknowledged truth, modern science has
yet to point out the first coincidence. The Tattvic
vibrations corresponding thus with the planets
necessarily vary in force according to their movements;
every planet, and therefore the force of
vibrations emanating from it, being modified in
manifold ways according to its nearness to or remoteness
from a sympathetic or a dominating sister
orb. Much more concerning these correspondences
will be developed in later chapters. It could
not be so well understood now. It suffices to state
here that every activity in man is a microcosmic
reflection of macrocosmic activity.
This Tattvic influence is the energy, working
by the same law, throughout the kingdoms, mineral,
vegetable, and animal of this vast universe.
Their myriads of permutations furnish the diversity
which charms us, and their invariability that
ever-recurring unity of action that baffles the physicist
with amazing paradoxes.
In the process of evolution, every Tattva,
though retaining its essential primary qualities

(the properties already described as differentiating

one Tattva from another see table of