Therefore it is with regard to this stage of our career that the Bible lays so much stress on the conflict between the Spirit and the Flesh—­it is a fact in the course of our evolution, and the purpose of the Bible is to teach us how to move forward along the Ascending Arc of the Circle of Being, so as to build up individualities which will be able to use the tools of Intelligence and Will in the great work of Evolution, both Personal and Cosmic.

Now what is shown diagrammatically as the Ascending Arc of the Circle of Life is the Return from its lowest point, or the Full Consciousness of Personal Distinctness, gained through the Material Body, back to its highest point or the Originating Life itself.  This is the truth embodied in the parable of the Prodigal Son.  It is a Cosmic truth, and this return journey is technically called by the Green name “Anaktorion.”  It is the Rising-again, that is from matter to Spirit, and is the Resurrection Principle.

But what is accomplished by the journey of the Ego round the Circle of Life?

A New Centre of Intelligence and volition is established; from this the Creative Word of Power can be spoken—­a Complete Man has been brought into existence, who can take a free and intelligent part in the further work of Creation, by his understanding of the interaction between the Law and the Word.  The “Volume of the Sacred Law” lies open before us, and the Vibratory Power of the Word to give effect to it is the “Blazing Star” that illuminates its contents, and so we become fellow-workers with the Great Architect of the Universe.

For these reasons it appears to me that our self-recognition in a physical body is a necessary step in our growth.  But why should the reconstruction of a physical body be either necessary or desirable?  The answer is as follows: 

Obviously self-recognition is the necessary basis for all use of those powers of selection and volition by which the Impersonal Law is to be specialized so as to bring to light its limitless potentialities; and self-recognition means the recognition of our personal Distinctness from our environment.  Therefore it must always mean the possessing of a body as a vehicle, by means of which to act upon that environment, and to receive the corresponding reaction from it.  In other words it must always be a body constituted in terms of the plane upon which we are functioning.  But it does not follow that we should always be tied down to one plane.

On the contrary, the very conception of the power of the Word to specialize the action of the Law, implies the power of functioning on any plane we choose; but always subject to the Law, that if we want to act on any particular plane in propria persona, and not merely by influencing some other agent, we can only do so by assuming a body in terms of the nature of that plane.  Therefore, if we want to act on the physical plane, we must put on a physical