The difficulty in believing this process of child conception lies in the ignorance which now prevails in the minds of most people of the modern world, especially in those of Westerners, as to the origin of conception, as to how conception takes place. The prevailing idea, formed from the teachings of imperfect modern science, is that it is the male seed itself planted in the female soil that begets and develops into the child. No greater fallacy can exist than this idea. Modern science is progressive, and in the process of time that progress will surely open its eyes to the true fact in regard to this matter. It will then find that it is the invisible germ hidden inside the seed, the subtle form of organism encased in the thickened juice of the tree which the seed is, that develops into the shoot and the tree and not merely the juice itself. This subtle organism enters into the forming bud from outside. Without this incoming subtle organism no seed can germinate, neither does a seed germinate, as is well known, of which the germ has been destroyed. Similarly, no conception can take place without a disembodied soul—a human germ—entering the human seed when planted in the human soil. The juice of the seed and the juice of the soil form but the physical body of the child. The astral body, which is encased in this physical body, comes from without to dwell in that seed and leaves the developed physical body at death, which is nothing but the total disorganization of the physical body. The astral body never dies unless it is destroyed by bringing about absolute equilibrium of the three Cardinal Attributes, which form the Ego of man, through spiritual development. I have treated this subject more fully under the heading of "Reincarnation." The length of the Silver Age proper is 3,000 divine years, equal to 1,080,000 human (lunar) years with the two Twilight (the Junction and the Degeneration) Periods, of 108.000 years each, in addition. SECTION VII. THE CASTE SYSTEM.