ill
possible for him by his actions to hasten or delay his progress along the
Path which he is treading.

That first Initiation corresponds to the matriculation which admits a man
to a University, and the attainment of Adeptship to the taking of a degree
at the end of a course. Continuing the simile, there are three intermediate
examinations, which are usually spoken of as the second, third, and fourth
Initiations, Adeptship being the fifth. A general idea of the line of this
higher evolution may be obtained by studying the list of what are called in
Buddhist books "the fetters" which must be cast off--the qualities of which
a man must rid himself as he treads this Path. These are: the delusion of
separateness; doubt or uncertainty; superstition; attachment to enjoyment;
the possibility of hatred; desire for life, either in this or the higher
worlds; pride; agitation or irritability; and ignorance. The man who
reaches the Adept level has exhausted all the possibilities of moral
development, and so the future evolution which still lies before him can
only mean still wider knowledge and still more wonderful spiritual powers.

Chapter IX

THE PLANETARY CHAINS

The scheme of evolution of which our Earth forms a part is not the only one
in our solar system, for ten separate chains of globes exist in that system
which are all of them theatres of somewhat similar progress. Each of these
schemes of evolution is taking place upon a chain of globes, and in the
course of each scheme its chain of globes goes through seven incarnations.
The plan, alike of each scheme as a whole and of the successive incarnation
of its chain of globes, is to dip step by step more deeply into matter, and
then to rise step by step out of it again.

Each chain consists of seven globes, and both globes and chains observe the
rule of descending into matter and then rising out of it again. In order to
make this comprehensible let us take as an example the chain to which our
Earth belongs. At the present time it is in its fourth or most material
incarnation, and therefore three of its globes belong to the physical
world, two to the astral world, and two to the lower part of the mental
world. The wave of divine Life passes in succession from globe to globe of
this chain, beginning with one of the highest, descending gradually to the
lowest and then climbing again to the same level as that at which it began.

Let us for convenience of reference l