Higher and Immortal Self of man. But the Angel is not the same as the Higher Self which it is destined to awaken.

Every man has his Guardian Angel whose duty it is to follow and guide him, from one incarnation to another. Esoterically, these Angels are called “Sons of Life,” and their element is the Air.

Above the Angels are the Archangels, the Asuras of Hinduism, who rule the souls of nations. Fire is their element, and occult tradition looks upon them as the most active agents in the general life of humanity, whose main lines and movements are traced and guided by them.

Above the Archangels reign the Archai, the Spirits of Personality and Initiative, whose role may be defined by giving them the title, “The Beginners.” For it was they who gave the first impulsion to the Archangels in the Saturnian and Solar periods. It is they who preside over all human movements and revolutions, and over the entry upon the world scene of great personalities who change the face of history.

Such is the first group of Spiritual Powers that rise above man, and that may be called the chief group of workers in the planetary laboratory, because their ardent and complex influence reaches both to the depths of matter and to the secret places of human individuality.

Above these comes the second triad of Powers—the Devas of the Hindus. Dionysius the Areopagite has named them the Virtues, Dominions and Principalities. In them we see the rulers and ordainers of the whole planetary system. Intermediaries between the inferior and superior Powers, these sovereign spirits are nearer to Divinity than to man.

They might be called the “Infallibles,” for they cannot, like the Archangels, descend into matter; neither can they, like them, love man to whom they gave the breath of life. It is these Powers who create in space the planetary spheres where the forces of the Infinite are precipitated. They hold the balance of the whole system, and establish its form. They are the Elohim of Moses, and the Creators of the earth.

Far above all human conception or imagination rises the third triad of Powers in the ascending order.