Footnote 23: A planet runs through its grand period of life from a formless nebula to a globe, which solidifies into a planet with or without satellites. It is involution as long as the planet is in process of formation; but when matter begins to manifest, the first step in evolution is taken, which goes on from protoplasm to man. Then comes the blooming-time, when this flower of space will scatter its seeds, as did the huge planet once revolving between Jupiter and Mars. Where once was unity, light and power, we have now a confused mass of asteroids moving in eccentric orbits. This was not merely the experience of a planet, but was a tragedy of the solar system; and in it the extremity of individualism finds exemplification. The mind of humanity is broken and divided in a corresponding manner. Both represent the fluid side of nature, and are correlated to the soul on the downward spiral. No one claims that the ego contacts through the animal kingdom, but the soul of desire may. When the latter does so, it is lost—until brought back on the upward spiral by aspiration and harmony, where it becomes one with Divinity. Footnote 24: City of Mexico. Footnote 25: Cholula was to the primitive Americas, what Jerusalem is to the Christian; Mecca, to the Mohammedan; Benares, to the Brahman. Footnote 26: Gautamozin—meaning son of Guatama—was the nephew of Montezuma, and the spiritual leader of the Aztecs at the time of the conquest. He was the last hierophant of the Brotherhood of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec Messiah. He defended Mexico City and was tortured and slain by Cortez. The statue erected in his honor in the Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City, is one of the finest monuments on the North American continent. Footnote 27: All the heroes and ideal men of primitive times were sun-gods. Buddha was the shining one. Zoroaster (zoe, light; aster, star); was called the glittering one. The Son of Man came clothed in the glory of the sun. When the padres attempted to teach the natives of America the story of Jesus, they exclaimed: “El Dorado!” Such at least is the Spanish translation of what they called their own spiritual leader. Footnote 28: History of the Conquest of Mexico. Footnote 29: Esoteric students everywhere understand that California is one of the occult eyes of the world, because it still retains the magnetism of pre-historic times, never having been visited by the ice ages nor the flood, and only in recent geologic reckoning being partially purified by fire. Its Sanscrit name is Kali (time) and purna (fulfillment). Footnote 30: Yermo and Yermina are diminutives and corruptions of Guillermo, the Spanish for William, and are in common use among the natives of Mexico and the neighboring states. Footnote 31: Chas. Piazzi Smyth, at Teneriffe. Footnote 32: Von Humboldt at Teneriffe. Footnote 33: Calaveras skull, Smithsonian Institution.