Ponder on this!

You will note therefore how peculiarly this Earth on which we live is suited to the development of the incarnating sons of God. Man comes forth, as do all lives within the radius of influence of a solar system, upon the inspiration of love, expressed in wisdom. Love is not a sentiment. Love is the great principle of attraction, of desire, of magnetic pull, and (within our solar system) that principle demonstrates as the attraction and the interplay between the pairs of opposites. This interplay provides every needed grade or type of unfoldment for consciousness. Conscious response is first made to the most potent and to the densest kind of attraction in matter, that of the mineral kingdom. Dense as it is, and heavy as is that type of vibration, it is nevertheless an expression of embryonic love. Response again comes, with greater facility and more true awareness and sensitivity, in the next kingdom, and the consciousness of the vegetable world emerges. But this too is love. It responds more freely and reacts to a far wider range of contacts in the animal kingdom, and the basic instinctual desires emerge and can be recognised. They, in due time, become the motivation of the [Page 337] life, yet still it is only the love of God which is manifested. It is love between conscious life and conscious form; it is love between the pairs of opposites, leading to an eventual synthesis or marriage; it is relationship between the basic dualities; it is not sentiment but a fact in a great natural process. Always there is the emerging glory and radiance of a growing love, until we come to the human kingdom wherein love enters another plane. Then responsiveness and sensitivity and human sentimental reaction develop into a rudimentary mind. The consciousness of loving and being loved, of attracting and of being attracted, enters through the door of the intelligence and expands into the human state of awareness. Pleasure and pain become definite factors in unfoldment, and the long agony of humanity commences. Love then is seen in its naked selfishness, but also its potential glory can be sensed. Love or attractive desire then attracts to itself that which it feels it needs, but later, that is changed into what it thinks it should have, and this, in time, is transmuted into that which it knows is the divine non-material heritage of a son of God. Ponder on these last few words, for in the true understanding of love as feeling, love as thinking, and love as aspiration will come a clarification of man's problem and his liberation from the thralldom of the lower loves into the liberty of love itself, and into the freedom of the one who possesses all things, and yet desires nothing for the separated self.

The magnetic pull of that which is desired is modified on our planet by the personality ray of our particular planetary Logos. This is the Ray of Active Intelligence, and of selective Adaptability. Just as every cell and atom in the human body is modified and conditioned by the egoic ray and the ray of each of the inner bodies, so every cell and atom in the body of the planetary Logos is conditioned and modified [Page 338] by His outstanding ray influence, in this case, His personality ray. In this conditioning influence is found a clue to the distress and agony and pain in the world today. The planetary Logos of our Earth is primarily conditioned by a cosmic ray, to be sure, but not by His egoic ray. Perhaps in this condition may be found the reason (or one of the reasons) why our Earth is not one of the seven sacred planets. On this I need not enlarge, but it was necessary to call attention to this great determining factor, the third ray, which is the personality ray of our planetary Logos.

This ray brings in the factor of discrimination through mental activity, and this, in its turn, balances the so-called love nature, and it is in truth the cause of our evolutionary growth. The life in forms passes through discriminative and selective activity from one experience to another in an ever widening scale of contacts. It is this Ray of Intelligent Activity which dominates man at this time. Human beings are largely centred in their personalities; they are "egocentric," in the terminology of the psychologist, which recognises the integrating principle of the ego (in many cases) but does not yet recognise the overshadowing ego or soul, except under such a vague term as "the superconscious". We have therefore a humanity engrossed by a tremendous activity and demonstrating everywhere a vital discriminating and intellectual interest in all types of phenomena. This tendency to be active will go on increasing and intensifying until the Aryan race will merge into the coming major root-race, for which we have as yet no name, though we recognise that in that race the intellect will serve the intuition. Human activity is now regarded as having reached an incredible speed and intensity of vibration, yet from the angle of the world Knowers it is only just beginning to express itself, and is relatively feeble as yet. The growth of the tendency to vital speed can [Page 339] be noted if history is studied, and the pace at which man now lives, and the complexity and the many dynamic interests of his life, may be compared with those of the average man two hundred years ago. The last twenty-five years of man's history have shown a tremendous speeding up as compared with conditions fifty years ago.

The reason for this increase of intelligent activity and rapidity of response and contact is to be found in the subjective fact that humanity is with great speed integrating the three aspects of human nature into a unity, called personality. Men are steadily becoming personalities, and unifying into one expression their physical, emotional and mental aspects; hence they are more able to respond to the ray of the integrated personality of the One in Whom they live, and move, and have their being.

Speaking therefore in terms of man's life problem, we might state that it is affected potently by the two major influences which beat upon the human kingdom, the cosmic ray of the solar system, the Ray of Love-Wisdom, and the cosmic ray of the planet, which is the personality ray of the planetary Logos, the Ray of Active Intelligence or Adaptability. Man might be defined as a unit of conscious life, swept into tangible expression through the discriminating love of God. Through his life experiences he is presented with innumerable choices which gradually shift from the realm of the tangible into that of the intangible. As he attracts, or is attracted by, the life of his environment, he becomes increasingly conscious of a series of shifting values, until he reaches that point in his development when the pull or the magnetic attraction of the subjective world and the intangible mental and spiritual realities are more potent than the factors which have hitherto enticed him on. His sense of values is no longer determined by:

[Page 340]

1. The satisfaction of his instinctual animal nature.

2. The desires of a more emotional and sentimental kind

which his astral body demands.

3. The pull and pleasures of the mind nature, and of intellectual appetites.

He becomes potently attracted by his soul, and this produces a tremendous revolution in his entire life, regarding the word "revolution" in its true sense, as a complete turning around. This revolution is happening now, on such a universal scale in the lives of individuals in the world, that it is one of the main factors producing the present potency of experimental ideas in the world of modern times. The attractive power of the soul grows steadily, and the pull of the personality weakens as steadily. All this has been brought about by the process of experiment, leading to experience; by experience, leading to a wiser use of the powers of the personality; by a growing appreciation of a truer world of values and of reality, and by an effort on man's part to identify himself with the world of spiritual values and not with a world of material values. The world of meaning and of causes becomes gradually the world in which he finds happiness, and his selection of his major interests and the use to which he decides to put his time and powers are finally conditioned by the truer spiritual values. He then is on the path of illumination. I have sought to express the effects of these two major ray influences in terms of mysticism and of philosophy, but in very truth all that I have here said could be expressed scientifically and in terms of scientific formulas, if man were mentally equipped to appreciate them. But this is not yet possible. All these ray vibrations, no matter which they may be, can eventually be reduced to formulas and to symbols.

[Page 341]

Reaction to environment, sensitive response to the ray influences which govern and express themselves through the forms which compose man's environment, a growing power to discriminate between energies and forces, a slowly developing sense of values (which sense is the one which eventually dispels illusion and glamour and reveals reality), and a shift of the discriminating interest away from the worlds of tangible experience, of emotional life and of mental interest,— all this expresses the effect of the interplay between the two rays of the solar system and of the planet. These, intermingling, pour through and affect mankind.

One of the most difficult things with which the Masters are today confronted is to prove to man that the old and recognised values and the tangible world of phenomena (emotional and physical) must be relegated to their right place in the background of man's consciousness, and that the intangible realities, and the world of ideas and causes must be, for him, in the immediate future, the main centre of attention. When man grasps this and lives by this knowledge, then the glamour which now holds the world will disappear. If you ponder on this you will recognise how the great crisis of 1914-1918 did much useful work in smashing the glamourous material security in which men were living, and in destroying much of their instinctual and sensuous selfishness. The group is beginning to be recognised as of major importance, and the welfare of the individual is important just in so far as the unit is an integral part of the group. This will not eventually destroy initiative and individuality. It is only in our initial experiments, and through our inexpertness in the use of the discriminating faculty, that we are, as yet, making such sad mistakes. This process of destroying the world illusion has been going on on a large scale ever since; in every country, through the various experiments which are going forward [Page 342], the glamour is breaking down and the truer values of group welfare, of group integration, and of group progress are emerging. The sense of insecurity which is such a distressing aspect of the present upheaval is due simply to this destruction of the old sense of values, to that dispelling of glamour which reveals at present an unfamiliar landscape, and to the fear and instability which man feels when he comes up against the world "Dweller on the Threshold." This has to be broken up and destroyed, for it blocks the way to the new world of values. The great thought form which man's greed and materiality have built, down the ages, is being steadily demolished, and mankind is on the verge of a liberation which will take him on to the Path of Discipleship. I refer not here to the final liberation, but to that liberation which comes from a free choice, wisely used and applied to the good of the whole, and conditioned by love. Note that I say, "wisely used." Wisdom, actuated and motivated by love, and intelligently applied to world problems, is much needed today and is not yet to be found, except among the few illumined souls in every nation,—in every nation, I say, without exception. Many more must love with wisdom and appreciate the group aspiration before we shall see the next reality to be known and to emerge out of the darkness which we are now in the process of dispelling.

3. The Ray of the Fourth Kingdom

We now touch briefly upon an obscure and difficult subject, and one that will appeal primarily to those types who work with the Law of Correspondences. Esotericists must remember that every kingdom in nature constitutes a totality of lives. Every atom in every form in nature is a life, and these lives form the cells of a Being's body or vehicle of manifestation. There is a Being embodied in every kingdom [Page 343] in nature. Just as the myriads of atomic lives in the human body constitute a man's body of expression and form his appearance, so it is with the greater Life informing the fourth kingdom in nature. This appearance—as are all appearances—is qualified by some particular ray type, and is determined also by the vital principle or spirit aspect. Thus every form is composed of innumerable lives, which have in them a preponderance of some ray quality. This is an occult platitude. These qualified lives produce a phenomenal appearance, and thus constitute a unity, through the influence of the integrating principle, which is never absent.

The ray which governs the sum total of the human kingdom is the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict. It might be symbolically stated that the egoic ray of the Life which informs the human family is this fourth ray, and that the personality ray is the fifth ray of knowledge through discrimination,—the Ray, as it is called, of Concrete Knowledge or Science Harmony through conflict, and the power to achieve knowledge through discriminating choice—these are the two rays or major influences which sweep through humanity as a whole, and drive it forward towards its divine destiny. They are the predisposing factors upon which a man may count and infallibly depend. They are the guarantee of attainment, but also of turmoil and temporary duality. Harmony, expressing itself in beauty and creative power, is gained through battle, through stress and strain. Knowledge, expressing itself eventually through wisdom, is attained only through the agony of successively presented choices. These, submitted to the discriminating intelligence during the process of the life experience, produce at last the sense of true values, the vision of the ideal, and the capacity to distinguish reality behind the intervening glamour.

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You are neither behind the point of perfection nor are you advancing toward it. You are at the point of perfection and it is from there you must understand your self from.

http://illuminedmindedawakenings.blogspot.com/

Extract from a Tibetan

EXTRACT FROM A STATEMENT BY THE TIBETAN

Suffice it to say, that I am a Tibetan disciple of a certain degree, and this tells you but little, for all are disciples from the humblest aspirant up to, and beyond, the Christ Himself. I live in a physical body like other men, on the borders of Tibet, and at times (from the exoteric standpoint) preside over a large group of Tibetan lamas, when my other duties permit. It is this fact that has caused it to be reported that I am an abbot of this particular lamasery. Those associated with me in the work of the Hierarchy (and all true disciples are associated in this work) know me by still another name and office. A.A.B. knows who I am and recognises me by two of my names.

I am a brother of yours, who has travelled a little longer upon the Path than has the average student, and has therefore incurred greater responsibilities. I am one who has wrestled and fought his way into a greater measure of light than has the aspirant who will read this article, and I must therefore act as a transmitter of the light, no matter what the cost. I am not an old man, as age counts among the teachers, yet I am not young or inexperienced. My work is to teach and spread the knowledge of the Ageless Wisdom wherever I can find a response, and I have been doing this for many years. I seek also to help the Master M. and the Master K.H. whenever opportunity offers, for I have been long connected with Them and with Their work. In all the above, I have told you much; yet at the same time I have told you nothing which would lead you to offer me that blind obedience and the foolish devotion which the emotional aspirant offers to the Guru and Master Whom he is as yet unable to contact. Nor will he make that desired contact until he has transmuted emotional devotion into unselfish service to humanity—not to the Master.

The books that I have written are sent out with no claim for their acceptance. They may, or may not, be correct, true and useful. It is for you to ascertain their truth by right practice and by the exercise of the intuition. Neither I nor A.A.B. is the least interested in having them acclaimed as inspired writings, or in having anyone speak of them (with bated breath) as being the work of one of the Masters. If they present truth in such a way that it follows sequentially upon that already offered in the world teachings, if the information given raises the aspiration and the will-to-serve from the plane of the emotions to that of the mind (the plane whereon the Masters can be found) then they will have served their purpose. If the teaching conveyed calls forth a response from the illumined mind of the worker in the world, and brings a flashing forth of his intuition, then let that teaching be accepted. But not otherwise. If the statements meet with eventual corroboration, or are deemed true under the test of the Law of Correspondences, then that is well and good. But should this not be so, let not the student accept what is said.

AUGUST 1934

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You are neither behind the point of perfection nor are you advancing toward it. You are at the point of perfection and it is from there you must understand your self from.

http://illuminedmindedawakenings.blogspot.com/

Individualization III

Through the active work of the two rays above discussed, we find the fourth ray producing eventually in man the appearance of the intuition. The fifth ray is responsible for the development in him of the intellect. Here again we find appearing in man his great gift of synthesis and his prerogative [Page 322] of unification, for—as earlier said—he blends in himself the qualities of three kingdoms in nature, including the one before and the one after his own.

1. The kingdom of souls..........................Intuition.

2. The human kingdom............................Intellect.

3. The animal kingdom............................Instinct.

Hence his problem, and hence his glory. We might also say that through the union of the positive intuition and the negative instinct the intellect is born, for man repeats in himself the great creative process as enacted in the universe. This is the inner creative side of consciousness, just as we have the outer creative side in the creation of forms.

Process:

In the human family, owing to the presence within the human physical form of a thinking entity, called by us the Soul, the procedure followed in order to produce conscious control is that of adaptation. All forms in the three lower subhuman kingdoms are also subjected to the process of adaptation, but that is a group adaptation to environment, whereas in humanity we have the adaptation of the individual to his environment. The person who works consciously and intelligently at adapting himself to that situation and those conditions in which he finds himself is relatively rare. Conscious adapting of oneself to circumstances is the result of evolutionary development. The stages by which man arrives at this capacity may be enumerated as follows:

1. That unconscious adaptation to his environment of the man who is primarily an unintelligent animal. Low grade savages are in this class, and many purely agricultural peasants who have not been subjected to modern education. The man at this stage is little better than an animal and is governed entirely by instinct.

[Page 323]

2. An unconscious adaptation to environment carried on by the man who is beginning to evidence some faint flickers of mental perception. This is partly instinctual and is based on a growing self-love. There is more of the "I" consciousness in him, and rather less of group instinctual awareness. You find this growing self-realisation in the low grade slum dwellers, for instance, and in the petty criminal who is instinctual enough and bright enough to live by his wits and to show quickness in reactions and deftness manually. It is the stage of animal cunning.

3. A conscious and purely selfish adapting of oneself to the environment. In these cases, the man is definitely aware of his motives; they are consciously thought out and recognised, and the man makes "the best of his circumstances". He forces himself to live as far as possible harmoniously in his surroundings. In this there is really good motive, but principally the man is governed by a desire for comfort—physical, emotional and mental—to such a degree that he will discipline himself into such a condition that he fits wherever he may be and can get on with anyone.

4. From this stage on the differentiations become so numerous that they are difficult to follow, being mixtures of pure selfishness (developed often to the nth degree), of a growing recognition of the group, of an awakening realisation of the right of other people to a similar degree of comfort and harmony, and of a steady effort to adapt conditions of character and personality life, so that the purely selfish interests do no real damage to others, until we arrive at...

5. The average really good man who is struggling to adapt himself to his surroundings, to his group relations and responsibilities in such a way that some measure of love [Page 324] can be seen. I refer not here to that instinctual love for family and children and herd which men share in common with the animals and which often breaks down when the loved individuals assert themselves. The tie is not strong enough to hold, and the motive is too selfish to resist the pull. I refer to that motivated love which recognises the rights of others and consciously strives to adapt itself to those recognised rights whilst tenaciously holding on to the rights of the personality.

6. Then we have the work of adaptation as carried on by the aspirants of the world who are theoretically convinced of their group relation, of its paramount importance, and of the need of every personality to develop its powers to the fullest capacity in order to bring real value to the group and to serve adequately the group need. In true esotericism, there is no such motive as "killing the personality", or of disciplining it to such an extent that it becomes a dead poor thing. The true motive is to train the threefold lower nature, the integrated personality, to the highest demonstration of its powers, latent or developing, in order that those powers may be brought to the helping of the group need, and the personality of the aspirant may be integrated into the group. Thereby the group life is enriched, the group potency is increased, and the group consciousness is enhanced.

What is therefore to be seen going on in the life of the true aspirant today (his developing recognition of group responsibility) can also be seen going on in groups, in organisations and nations. Hence the many experiments. A process is going forward whereby these groups, large or small, are being subjected to a housecleaning, to a discarding of the rubbish of old and worn-out ideas, and to a period of disciplining and training [Page 325] which must precede all real group life. When this process is over, we shall have these groups approaching each other in a new and real spirit of cooperation, of religious fusion, and in an international attitude which will be new indeed. Then they will have something of a surer and greater value to offer to the whole. Within all these groups which are struggling towards this newer realisation and integration, and which express what we might call "the sixth stage of adaptation,", are those who are already at the seventh stage.

7. Here we have complete unselfish adaptation to the group need and purpose. Those who have reached this point in their evolution are decentralised as regards their own personality life. The focus of their mental attention is in the soul and in the world of souls. Their attention is not directed towards the personality at all, except in so far as is needed to force it to adhere to group or soul purpose. These servers who are expressions of soul radiance and attractive power are knowers of the Plan, and in every organisation they constitute the new and slowly growing group of World Servers. In their hands lies the salvation of the world.

8. The final group in this scale of adaptation is that of the higher initiates, the perfected Elder Brethren and Great Companions. They are perfectly adapted to Their personalities, to each other and to world conditions; but as a group They are learning how to adapt the forces of nature, the energies of the rays and the potencies of the zodiacal signs to the world need and the world demand in a practical manner and at any particular time. It is here that the work of the disciples of the world, and of the higher types of aspirants, proves helpful [Page 326] as a field of experiment, and it is in the new group of World Servers that the process of adaptation goes on.

I have endeavoured to outline these stages of the process of adaptation in terms of consciousness, viewing the subject therefore philosophically and psychologically. It should be remembered that this process, as it goes on in consciousness, produces (surely and inevitably) corresponding changes in mechanism and structure, and in sense perception through the apparatus of the body. On these changes I lay no emphasis in this treatise, for they are beautifully dealt with by modern science, which is steadily forging ahead in the right direction. I lay the emphasis upon consciousness as the pre-disposing factor, and on the developed sense of awareness which produces an inner demand for improved equipment. The improving of equipment as a result of the demand of consciousness is the secret of the evolutionary impulse, down the ages. This inner demand in man awakens the centres, and the awakening of the centres determines the response of the endocrine system, governs the nervous system in its threefold capacity, and also the blood stream. Thus the outer form or mechanism is ever an indication of the point of evolution of the inner subjective and spiritual man.

The Secret:

This is called, in esotericism, "the secret of translation". I might bring the general concept underlying those words down to the intelligence of the average student by telling him that when a man really understands the elevating power of the aspiration, he can begin to work with the secret of translation. Students must lose sight of the foolish and erroneous idea that aspiration is really an emotional attitude. It is not. It is a scientific process, governing evolution itself. [Page 327] When given free scope and duly followed, it is the mode par excellence whereby the matter aspect, or the whole personality, is "raised up into heaven". The effect of continued aspiration, when followed by right action, is to bring about three things:

1. A stimulation of the higher atoms of the three bodies.

2. The discarding, as a result of this stimulation, of those atomic substances which (when present) occultly hold the aspirant down to earth.

3. The increasing of the magnetic attractive power of the higher atoms, which draw to themselves atoms of high vibration to take the place of those of low vibration. One point I should like to make here, in order to correct an almost universal wrong mental attitude. Right atoms of high vibration are attracted into a man's body or bodies by the power of the united attraction of the atoms already present, and not primarily by the will of the soul, except in so far as that will acts upon the high grade atoms already present and responsive.

Aspiration is an activity of an occult and scientific nature, and is instinctual in substance itself. This point needs emphasis when instructing groups.

It is an interesting side-light thrown upon the phenomena of aspiration that the power to levitate the body, which is so oft today the subject of psychic interest and research, is dependent upon having produced a peculiar alignment of the personality through aspiration and an act of the will. It presupposes in the three bodies a certain percentage of atoms of the adequate vibrations and lightness.

This secret of translation is the underlying cause of the caste system, and caste is a symbol of translation. In the last analysis, souls pass from caste to caste as they "translate" [Page 328] their bodies. The clue to the translation is to be found in the fact that no act of translation ever involves one body alone, and no "passing on and up" into another dimension, into another state of consciousness and another "caste," ever takes place unless an alignment has been produced between (for instance):

a. The physical body and the emotional body.

b. These two and the mental body.

c. These three and the soul.

d. These four and the group of World Servers.

In these four alignments we have the esoteric parallels of which the outer caste system is the prostituted symbol. Ponder on this, for the caste system is universal in the world. It is when the third alignment has been truly accomplished and when the light of the fourth constituent to the relationship dominates the inherent light of the other three, that the objective of man's evolution is reached. This brings us to the point next to be considered.

Purpose:

This purpose is the Transfiguration. This is the esoteric goal set before humanity. This was the tremendous event which was enacted before humanity by the greatest of all the sons of God in His Own Body, Whom I and all true disciples regard as the Master of all the Masters, the Christ. What shall I say about this culminating event for which the entire personality of man waits? This third great initiation marks a crisis in the initiatory work, and produces a further synthesis experienced in the life of the spiritual man. Up to the third initiation, man has been occupied with the process of fusing soul and body into one unity. After the third initiation (and owing to an event which takes place) man is [Page 329] oriented towards, and becomes occupied with, a further fusion in consciousness, that of spirit-soul-body. I speak of a fusion in consciousness. The unity is ever there, and man in evolution is really becoming aware of that which already exists.
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You are neither behind the point of perfection nor are you advancing toward it. You are at the point of perfection and it is from there you must understand your self from.

http://illuminedmindedawakenings.blogspot.com/

Individualization II

Introductory Remarks

I HAVE now dealt with one of the basic problems confronting the race at this time. I interpolated my comments on the subject of sex at that particular point because it made a fitting conclusion to our study of the rays in connection with the animal kingdom.

Man is a living entity, a conscious son of God (a soul) occupying an animal body. Here lies the point. He is therefore in the nature of a link, and a far from missing link. He unifies in himself the results of the evolutionary process as it has been carried on during the past ages, and he brings into contact with that evolutionary result a new factor, that of an individual self-sustaining, self-knowing aspect. It is the presence of this factor and of this aspect which differentiates man from the animal. It is this aspect which produces in humanity a consciousness of immortality, a self-awareness and a self-centredness which make man truly to appear in the image of God. It is this innate and hidden power which gives man the capacity to suffer which no animal possesses, but which also confers on him the ability to reap the benefits of this experience in the realm of the intellect. This same capacity, in embryo, works out in the animal kingdom in the realm of the instincts. It is this peculiar property of humanity [Page 312] which confers upon it the power to sense ideals, to register beauty, to react sensuously to music, and to enjoy colour and harmony. It is this divine something which makes of mankind the prodigal son, torn between desire for the worldly life, for possessions and experience, and the attractive power of that centre, or home, from which he has come.

Man stands midway between heaven and earth, with his feet deep in the mud of material life and his head in heaven. In the majority of cases his eyes are closed, and he sees not the beauty of the heavenly vision, or they are open but fixed upon the mud and slime with which his feet are covered. But when his open eyes are lifted for a brief moment, and see the world of reality and of spiritual values, then the torn and distracted life of the aspirant begins.

Humanity is the custodian of the hidden mystery, and the difficulty consists in the fact that that which man conceals from the world is also hidden from himself. He knows not the wonder of that which he preserves and nourishes. Humanity is the treasure-house of God (this is the great Masonic secret), for only in the human kingdom, as esotericists have long pointed out, are the three divine qualities found in their full flower and together. In man, God the Father has hidden the secret of life; in man, God the Son has secreted the treasures of wisdom and of love; in man, God the Holy Spirit has implanted the mystery of manifestation. Humanity, and humanity alone, can reveal the nature of the Godhead and of eternal life. To man is given the privilege of revealing the nature of the divine consciousness, and of portraying before the eyes of the assembled sons of God (at the final conclave before the dissolution) what has lain hidden in the Mind of God. Hence the injunction before us today (in the words of the great Christian teacher) to possess in ourselves "the mind of Christ." This mind must dwell in us and reveal itself [Page 313] in the human race in ever greater fullness. To man is given the task of raising matter up into heaven, and of glorifying rightly the form side of life through his conscious manifestation of divine powers.

To portray adequately the wonder and the destiny of the human kingdom lies beyond my powers or the power of any human pen, no matter how great a man's realisation may be, or his response to the beauty of God's world. Divinity must be lived, expressed and manifested, to be understood. God must be loved, known and revealed within the human heart and brain, in order to be intellectually grasped.

The hierarchy of mystics, knowers and lovers of God, are manifesting this revealed truth in the world of the mental plane and of the emotional plane today. But the hour has now come when the manifestation of this reality can, for the first time and in truth, manifest itself on the physical plane in an organised group form, instead of through the instrumentality of the few inspired sons of God who have, in past ages, incarnated as the guarantee of the future possibilities. The Hierarchy of Angels and of Saints, of Masters, Rishis and Initiates, can now begin to organise itself in material form on earth, because today the group idea is rapidly gaining ground, and the nature of humanity is being better understood. The Church of Christ, hitherto invisible and militant, can now be seen slowly materialising and becoming the Church visible and triumphant.

This is the coming glory of the Aquarian Age; this is the next revelation of the evolutionary cycle, and such is the task of the immediate future. The true drama of this triple relationship (of which physical sex, as we have seen, is but the symbol) will be enacted on a large scale in the life of the modern aspirant during the next fifty years. We shall see what is called symbolically "the birth of the Christ," or the [Page 314] second birth, taking place in many lives, producing on earth a large group of the spiritually new-born. They will be those who have brought together, consciously and within themselves, the two aspects of soul and body, and thus have consummated the "mystical marriage". The aggregate of these individual happenings will produce a group activity of an analogous kind, and we shall see the emergence on the physical plane of "the body of the Christ," and the appearance of the manifested Hierarchy. This is what is happening today, and all that we see going on around us in the world is but the pangs and the travail which precede this glorious birthing.

We are now in the process of this consummation. Hence the difficulty and agony evidenced in the life of every true disciple who—embodying in himself symbolically the two aspects of father-mother, spirit-matter, and having nurtured the Christ child through a period of gestation—is now giving birth to the Christ, within the animal stable and in the manger of the world. In the sum total of the general accomplishment will the entire group achieve and the Christ again appear on earth, incarnated this time in the many and not in the one personality. Yet each member of the group is a Christ in manifestation, and all together present the Christ to the world, and constitute a channel for the Christ force and life.

It is indeed and in truth from glory to glory that we go. The past glory of individualisation must fade away in that of initiation. The glory of the slowly emerging self-consciousness must be lost to sight in the wonder of the group consciousness of the race, and this the foremost thinkers and workers today most ardently desire. The glory that can be seen faintly shining in humanity, and the dim light which flickers within the human form, must give place to the radiance which is the glory of the developed son of God. Only [Page 315] a little effort is needed, and the demonstration of a steady staying power, to enable those who are now on the physical plane of experience to evidence the radiant light, and to establish upon the earth a great station of light which will illumine the whole of human thought. Always there have been isolated light bearers, down the ages. Now the group light bearer will shortly be seen. Then shall we see the rest of the human family (who respond not yet to the Christ impulse) having their progress facilitated towards the path of probation. The work will still be slow, and much yet remains to be done; but if all the aspirants of the world and all the disciples at work in the world today will submerge their personal interests in the task immediately ahead, we shall have what I might pictorially call the opening of a great station of light on earth, and the founding of a power house which will greatly hasten the evolution and elevation of humanity, and the unfoldment of the human consciousness.

There has been for long in esoteric circles much idle and oft foolish talk anent the ray upon which a man may be found. People are as ignorantly excited over being told which is their ray as they are over the portrayal of their past incarnations. The "new teaching on the rays" vies with astrology in its interest. Like the Athenians, men are always searching for the novel and the unusual, forgetting that every new truth and every new presentation of an old truth carries with it the onus of increased responsibility.

However, it is interesting to trace parallels, and it is becoming obvious to the careful student that the emergence of the teaching on the rays has happened at a time when the scientist is announcing the fact that there is naught to be seen and known save energy, and that all forms are composed of energy units and are in themselves expressions of force. [Page 316] A ray is but a name for a particular force or type of energy, with the emphasis upon the quality which that force exhibits and not upon the force aspect which it creates. This is a true definition of a ray.

The Rays and the Races

We have been told in the past teaching of the Ageless Wisdom that a human being is a triple aspect of energy, and that he is essentially a trinity, as is the Deity. We speak of him technically as Monad-ego-personality. We define him as spirit-soul-body. I should like to point out here that in studying the human family as a unit and as a whole, it also will be discovered to be essentially a Monad, with seven egoic groups, within which all souls (in incarnation and out of incarnation) find their place, and with forty-nine corresponding racial forms through which the seven groups of souls cyclically express themselves. All souls work out their destiny in all races, but certain types predominate in certain racial forms. Where, then, is to be found any reason for racial predilections or antipathies? In the realisation of the truth that we all, at some time, experience incarnation in all racial forms will come the knowledge that there is only unity. The subject may be clarified if we tabulate the teaching and the ray relationship to the races as follows:
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You are neither behind the point of perfection nor are you advancing toward it. You are at the point of perfection and it is from there you must understand your self from.

http://illuminedmindedawakenings.blogspot.com/

Individualization

B. Individualisation

It is of course apparent that the effect of the interrelation existing between animals and men is to produce in the former that step forward which is called individualisation. This event is a consummation of the process of transfusion, and indicates the appearance of the three divine aspects in a unit of life in form. A son of God, a Lord of dedicated and directed Will, is born, and the third divine principle of purposive energy is fused with the other two and brings about an entire reorganisation within the animal form. As esotericists have long pointed out, individualisation is a great planetary experiment, and when it was instituted it superseded the earlier method, employed upon the Moon, wherein the urge to reach out and on (called aspiration where man is concerned) was the method employed. This really means that, when the evolving life within the form had reached a certain stage of growth in sentiency and awareness, and the inner urge was adequately strong, the life forced itself into contact with another stream of divine expression, with another major ray manifestation. This union of various activities caused a new being to emerge into manifestation. This is the basic truth lying behind the ideas put out at this time and classified under the general term "emergent evolution." It governs still in many departments of nature, and used to govern the appearance of human beings upon the planet. The urge and the development are from within the [Page 259] organism itself, and are the result of growth, of a reaching out and of an expansion.

But the method usually employed at this time is in the nature of a great second ray experiment. This involves an activity from without, from above, from a higher or from the divine side, if such a use of relatively meaningless words can avail to depict the process. The urge or push in this case does not originate from the lower two expressions or earlier fusions of divine energies. It is the higher aspect of divinity which takes the initiative and which, through a stimulation applied from without, causes a response from the life in form. Hence the process is really in the nature of an initiation.

The animals which individualise are, in every case today, the domestic animals, such as the horse, the dog, the elephant and the cat. These four groups of animals are at this time in the "process of transfusion", as it is occultly called, and one by one the life units are prepared and brought to the door of that peculiar initiatory process which we call—for lack of a better term—individualisation. They wait in that condition until the word goes forth that that door may be passed which will admit them to

"...the triple way that leads to the dual road, by treading which they stand at last before the golden door. This final door ushers them upon that Path which is the one, alone and single, and disappears into the Light".

Old Commentary.

The factors which determine individualisation are several in number, and some of them might be enumerated as follows:

1. The response of the instinctive nature of the animal to the mental atmosphere of the human being, or beings, with which it is surrounded.

2. The outgoing love and interest of the people to which [Page 260] the animal is attached by the bonds of affection or of service.

3. The ray impulses which are active at any time. These are, amongst others:

a. The ray of the animal itself. Elephants are upon the first ray; dogs are expressions of the second ray; the cat is a third ray life manifestation, and the horse is sixth ray. Animals upon other rays are not yet ready for individualisation. *

b. The ray of the particular person or persons with whom the animal is associated.

c. The ray or rays of a particular periodic cycle.

I could give you the techniques with which the guardians of the races and kingdoms work when seeking to bring about individualisation, but of what purpose would it be and what use would such information serve? Each ray affects the units found upon it at such a crisis as individualisation in a manner differing from any other ray; each ray finds its point of prime contact through one or other of the centres in the etheric bodies of animals and men. It must be remembered in this connection that, in the animal, four centres are functioning, and three are present but latent in their effect and use. The process followed is that each ray works or pours its energy through one or other of the centres in the etheric body of that Entity Who informs an entire kingdom in nature, and then through that particular centre galvanises the individualising unit into the needed activity. Later, when the ray effects, psychologically speaking, are better understood, and the centres, with their seven ray vibrations, have been more deeply studied, it will be found that through a particular centre and along a particular ray vibration, forms of life and centres of consciousness can be contacted and known. This [Page 261] applies to all forms in all kingdoms, subhuman or superhuman. One of the first ways in which man is learning this truth is through the discovery of that vibration—emanating from a particular Master—which produces a reaction in himself, and which calls forth a response. Thus he is enabled to find out upon which ray his soul is found and to which ray group he should be attracted. This is of importance to the aspirant, and should be considered more carefully than has hitherto been the case, for by it the aspirant determines the nature and the quality of his soul type, and of the centre through which he (occultly speaking) goes out upon the Path. He discovers likewise the group of forms and of lives with which he is linked, to which he must render service, and by which he can be served.

The relation of the rays to the centres in the average aspirant might be classified as follows:

1. Head centre Ray of Will or Power First Ray.

2. The Ajna centre Ray of Concrete Knowledge Fifth Ray.

3. The Throat centre Ray of Active Intelligence Third Ray.

4. The Heart centre Ray of Love-Wisdom Second Ray.

5. The Solar plexus Ray of Devotion Sixth Ray.

6. The Sacral centre Ray of Ceremonial Magic Seventh Ray.

7. Base of Spine Ray of Harmony Fourth Ray.

These rays and their corresponding centres warrant most careful study. They are comprehensive and revealing. Note, for instance, that at this time the seventh ray governs and expresses itself through the sacral centre, that which controls the sex life and the building of forms of expression. Therefore it swings now into activity and pours through this particular centre in order to organise and produce the appearance of those new forms through which all life in the new cycle (astrologically understood and periodically and cyclically understood) may express itself. Thus it was necessary for the sex life to be controlled by this type of energy [Page 262] in order to bring about the needed changes, and hence also one of the great results of the influence of the incoming seventh ray has been the increase in the mental interest in sex. A study also of the ray influences in this present historic period, and their relation to the rays, will reveal the accuracy and suggestiveness of the above ray tabulation.

The relation of man to the animals is, as we have seen, physical, emotional and increasingly mental. Each race of men, in its turn, and working under the ray influences, produces definite effects upon the three subhuman kingdoms. Through humanity, when the great experiment of individualisation was initiated, the energies or ray influences from the superhuman kingdoms were focussed and the great function of humanity began, which is the transmitting of the ray forces cyclically. Though the six-pointed star is, at this time, the symbol of the creative work (viewing the work as a whole), the downward pointing triangle, balanced on an upward pointing triangle, will some day present a truer picture of the creative and preserving function of the fourth kingdom.

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You are neither behind the point of perfection nor are you advancing toward it. You are at the point of perfection and it is from there you must understand your self from.

Animal Kingdom

3. The Animal Kingdom

Influences The third Ray of Active Intelligence or of Adaptability is potent in this kingdom and will express itself increasingly as time goes on, until it can best be described as "animal one-pointedness." Then, at this point and cyclically, the sixth Ray of Devotion or Idealism can make its pressure felt as the urge towards a goal, and thus produce a relation to man which makes of him the desired goal. This is to be seen through the medium of the tamed, the trained and the domestic animals.

Results In the one case we find the third ray producing the emergence of instinct, which in its turn creates and uses that marvellous response apparatus we call the nervous system, the brain, and the five senses which lie behind and which are responsible for them as a whole. It should be noted that, wide as we may regard the difference between man and the animals, it is really a much closer relation than that existing between the animal and the vegetable. In the case of the sixth ray, we have the appearance of the power to be domesticated and trained, which is, in the last analysis, the power to love, to serve and to emerge from the herd into the [Page 252] group. Ponder on the words of this last paradoxical statement.

Process This is called concretisation. In this kingdom we have for the first time a true organisation of the etheric body into what are called by the esotericist "the true nerves and the sensory centres." Plants also have nerves, but they have in them nothing of the same intricacy of relation and of plexus as we find in the human being and in the animal. Both kingdoms share the same general grouping of nerves, of force centres and channels, with a spinal column and a brain. This organisation of a sensitive response apparatus constitutes, in reality, the densification of the subtle etheric body.

Secret This is called transfusion, which is a very inadequate word to express the early blending, in the animal, of the psychological factors which lead to the process of individualisation. It is a process of lifegiving, of intelligent integration and of psychological unfoldment, to meet emergency.

Purpose This is called experimentation. Here we come to a great mystery, and one that is peculiar to our planet. In many esoteric books it has been stated and hinted that there has been a mistake, or a serious error, on the part of God Himself, of our planetary Logos, and that this mistake has involved our planet and all that it contains in the visible misery, chaos and suffering. Shall we say that there has been no mistake, but simply a great experiment, of the success or failure of which it is not yet possible to judge? The objective of the experiment might be stated as follows: It is the intent of the planetary Logos to bring about a psychological [Page 253] condition which can best be described as one of "divine lucidity". The work of the psyche, and the goal of the true psychology, is to see life clearly, as it is, and with all that is involved. This does not mean conditions and environment, but Life. This process was begun in the animal kingdom, and will be consummated in the human. These are described in the Old Commentary as "the two eyes of Deity, both blind at first, but which later see, though the right eye sees more clearly than the left". The first dim indication of this tendency towards lucidity is seen in the faculty of the plant to turn towards the sun. It is practically non-existent in the mineral kingdom.

Divisions First, the higher animals and the domestic animals, such as the dog, the horse and the elephant.

Secondly, the so-called wild animals, such as the lion, the tiger, and the other carnivorous and dangerous wild animals.

Thirdly, the mass of lesser animals that seem to meet no particular need nor to fill any special purpose, such as the harmless yet multitudinous lives found in our forests, our jungles and the fields of our planet. Instances of these in the West are the rabbits and other rodents. This is a wide and general specification of no scientific import at all; but it covers adequately the karmic divisions and the general conformation into which these groupings of lives fall in this kingdom.

Objective agency Fire and Water,—fierce desire and incipient mind. These are symbolised in the animal power to eat and drink.

Subjective agency Smell or Scent,—the instinctual discovery of that which is needed, from the activity of ranging forth for food and the use of [Page 254] the power to scent that food, to the identification of the smell of a beloved master and friend.

Quality Tamas or Inertia,—but in this case it is the tamasic nature of mind and not that of matter, as usually understood. The chitta or mind-stuff can be equally tamasic.

The two problems which are of immediate concern to mankind in relation to the animal kingdom are:

The problem of human relations and responsibility. The problem of animal individualisation.

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You are neither behind the point of perfection nor are you advancing toward it. You are at the point of perfection and it is from there you must understand your self from.

http://illuminedmindedawakenings.blogspot.com/

Vegetable Kingdom

2. The Vegetable Kingdom

Influences The second Ray of Love-wisdom, working out in a vastly increased sensibility.

The fourth Ray of Harmony and Beauty, working out in the mineral harmonization of this kingdom throughout the entire planet.

The sixth Ray of Devotion or (as it has been expressed symbolically in The Ancient Wisdom the "urge" to consecrate the life to the Sun, the giver of that life," or again, the "urge" to turn the eye of the heart to the heart of the sun.

Results These work out in the second kingdom as magnetism, perfume, colour and growth towards the light. These words I commend to you for your earnest study, for it is in this kingdom that one first sees clearly the glory which lies ahead of humanity:

a. Magnetic radiation. The blending of the mineral and vegetable goals.

b. The perfume of perfection.

c. The glory of the human aura. The radiant augoeides

d. Aspiration which leads to final inspiraton.

Process Conformation, or the power to "conform" to the pattern set in the heavens, and to produce below that which is found above. This is done in this kingdom with greater pliability than in the mineral kingdom, where the process of condensation goes blindly forward.

Secret Transformation. Those hidden alchemical processes which enable the vegetable growths in this kingdom to draw their sustenance from the sun and. soil, and to "transform" it into form and colour

Purpose Magnetism. That inner source of beauty, loveliness and attractive power which lures to it the higher forms of life, leading the animal forms to consume it for food, and the thinking entities to draw from it inspiration, comfort and satisfaction of a mental kind.

Divisions Trees and shrubs.

The flowering plants.

The grasses and the lesser green things which do not come under the other two categories. A group of vegetable growths which are found under the general heading of sea growths.

Objective agency Water.

Subjective agency Touch.

Quality Rajas or activity.

[Page 234] It is not my intention to give in this treatise what the reader can discover in the academic textbooks of our colleges. It is not my work to parallel the information found in the exoteric teachings and theologies of our modern sciences. I seek to indicate the synthesis which underlies the whole, and to point out the continuity of consciousness which can be noted by the esotericist. In so doing the part is seen to be integrated in the [Page 235] sum total, in a manner different to that which can be seen when considering the form. It is the world of causes with which we are primarily concerned, and even when we consider and study that which we include under the heading of "results", it is as they demonstrate as initiated causes that we best arrive at their significance. It is as we grasp the radiatory potency of the mineral kingdom that we can begin to investigate the base of the evolutionary ladder and grasp the first steps taken by the life of God, through the medium of manifested forms. If, at the close of this writing, the student can grasp somewhat the meaning of those symbolic words,—Radiation, Magnetism, Experiment, Transmutation and Realisation,—and can understand that they embody the purpose and goal of each of the five kingdoms in nature with which we are basically concerned, then the emerging reality of consciousness will be seen, and the prevailing synthesis will be grasped.

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You are neither behind the point of perfection nor are you advancing toward it. You are at the point of perfection and it is from there you must understand your self from.

Human Relationship to animals

A. Human Relations to Animals

Only a few hints can as yet be given, and those must be along the line of information anent the rays at work in both kingdoms. The two problems, particularly the second one, are of vast intricacy, and would require many volumes to be properly elucidated. Right exegesis is not yet possible, nor could man yet understand.

The first point to be emphasized in connection with human responsibility in relation to the animals is that the animal world embodies two divine aspects, two divine principles, and two major rays are concerned with their expression or manifestation. These two aspects are found also in man, and it is along these two lines, which man shares in unison with the animals, that man's responsibility and work lie, and through the use of these two aspects of divine energy will he realise his task and carry it to completion. The same divine activity and the same divine innate intelligence are found in the form aspect of both kingdoms. They are inherent in matter itself. But this third Ray of Divine Intelligence functions more potently and influences more powerfully in the animal kingdom than in man. This is an item of information not hitherto given out.

[Page 25]

The second ray is of course present in its form-building aspect, as herd instinct and as the basis of the sex relation among animal bodies. It is found performing a similar function among human beings, and along these two lines of energy will the points of contact be found and the opportunity to assume responsibility. Yet it should be noted that, in the last analysis, animals have more to give men than men have to give animals, where these particular powers and functions are concerned. In the human family another divine aspect is found functioning. which is that of the will, of directed purpose, of planned objective, and of intelligent design or plan. These qualities are inherent in man, and constitute an aspect of the divine mind not found actively present in the animal, as a rule. However, as the animal kingdom comes increasingly under human influence and the steady trend towards domesticity makes itself felt, we shall see emerging a measure of purposive objective; and one means towards this end is to be found in the turning of the animal's love and attention towards his master. In this illustration some of the responsibility of man to the animal world is expressed. The domestic animals have to be trained to participate in the action of applied will. This, man seems as yet to interpret as the will of the animal to love his master, but it is something deeper and more fundamental than the satisfying of man's love to be loved. The true and intelligent training of the wild animals, and their adaptation to the conditions of ordered living, are part of the divine process of integrating the Plan and of producing an ordered and harmonious expression of the divine intent. It is through the power of thought that man will eventually bridge the gap existing between the animal kingdom and man, and it must be done by man's directed, controlled thought, controlling and directing the animal consciousness. It is not done through the evocation [Page 256] of love, fear or pain. It is intended to be a purely mental process and a unique mental stimulation.

The relation of the animals to man has been purely physical in the long past ages. Animals preyed upon men in the days when animal-man was but little removed from them. It is oft forgotten that there was a stage in human development when animal-man and the existent forms of animal life lived in a much closer relation than today. Then, only the fact of individualisation separated them. It was, however, an individualisation so little realised that the difference between the mindless animal (so-called) and infant humanity was scarcely appreciable. In those distant aeons, much transpired which has been lost in the dark silence of the past. The animal world was then far more potent than the human, men were helpless before the onslaughts of the animals, and the devastation wrought by animals upon early animal-men in mid-Lemurian days was terrible and appalling. Little nomadic groups of human beings would be completely wiped out, age after age, by the powerful animal life of the period, and though instinct taught the animal-men to take certain precautions, it was an instinct but little removed from that found in their enemies. It was only as the millenia of years passed away, and human intelligence and cunning began to assert themselves, that humanity became more powerful than the animals and in its turn devastated the animal kingdom. Up until two hundred years ago the toll of life exacted by the animal world from the human, in the forests of the western continents, in Africa, in the primeval lands of Australia and in the islands of the tropic seas, was incalculable. This is a fact often forgotten in the sentimentality of a moment, but it lies at the root of man's cruelty to animals. It is but the inevitable karma of the animal kingdom working out. The question must be viewed from a larger scale than has hitherto been the case, and its true historic [Page 257] values must be better understood before man can intelligently decide what constitutes his problem of responsibility and how it should be met and solved.

In Atlantean days the purely physical relation was tempered by an astral or emotional relation, and the time came when some of the animals were swept within the orbit of human life and were tamed and cared for, and when the first of the domestic animals appeared. A new era began, wherein certain of the animals evoked affection from certain humans, and a new influence was brought to play upon this third kingdom in nature. This started during a cycle when the second ray and the sixth ray were both functioning simultaneously, and wherein their major and their lesser cycles coincided. This is a rare occurrence, and when it happens the guardians of the race seize the opportunity to produce major results or to inaugurate new moves whereby the divine Plan may be more rapidly developed. To offset the fear found in humanity as a whole (as far as the animal world was concerned), the opportunity was offered by the guardians of the race to bring men and animals into a closer relation, and because a cycle was present in which love and devotion were pouring upon, into and through all forms, a good deal of the fear present was offset. Since that time the number of the domestic animals has steadily increased. The relation between the two kingdoms is now dual-physical and emotional.

To this there has been added, during the past two hundred years, a third relation, that of the mind. The mental power of humanity will, in the last analysis, be the controlling factor, and through its means the three subhuman kingdoms will be brought under the control of man. This has been happening with great rapidity in the mineral kingdom and in the vegetable kingdom. It is not yet accomplished where the animal kingdom is concerned, but the process is rapidly going forward [Page 258]. Not much progress will be made during the incoming seventh ray cycle, though as law and order and rhythm are imposed upon the planet, and as chaos gives place to organisation, we shall see those areas on the planet wherein the animals still rule increasingly lessened, and certain species will die out unless they are preserved in sanctuaries.

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You are neither behind the point of perfection nor are you advancing toward it. You are at the point of perfection and it is from there you must understand your self from.

http://illuminedmindedawakenings.blogspot.com/

Sex and Discipleship

Sex and Discipleship

What interest me and get my curiosity is this material comes from the mid 30s and is now becoming true as it was predicted. Jonathan

I want to write a word on the subject of sex in the life of the disciple. There is much confusion in the minds of aspirants on this matter, and the injunction as to celibacy is assuming the position of a religious doctrine. We are often told by the well-meaning but illogical that if a man is a disciple he cannot marry, and that there is no real spiritual attainment unless a man is celibate. This theory has its roots in two things:

First, there has ever been a mistaken attitude in the East towards women. Secondly, in the West, from the time of Christ, there has been a tendency towards the monastic and conventual conception of spiritual life. These two attitudes embody two mistaken ideas, and lie at the root of much misunderstanding and at the heart of much evil. Man is no better than the woman, nor woman than the man. Yet many thousands regard women as embodying that which is evil and that which is the basis of temptation. But God has from the beginning ordained that men and women should meet each other's needs and act as complements to each other. God has not ordained that men should live herded together, away from women, or women away from men; and both of these great systems have led to much sexual abuse and to much suffering.

The belief that to be a disciple necessitates a celibate life and complete abstinence from all natural functions is neither correct nor desirable. This can be proved by the recognition of two things:

The first is that if divinity is indeed a reality and an expression of omnipotence and omnipresence as well as omniscience, and if man is essentially divine, then there can be no condition possible wherein divinity cannot be supreme There can be no sphere of human activity where man cannot [Page 305] act divinely and wherein all functions cannot be illumined by the light of pure reason and divine intelligence. I deal not here with the specious and devious argument that that which normally and by all right-minded people is regarded as wrong must be right because of man's inherent divinity. That can be but a loose excuse for wrong-doing. I speak of sexual relations of the right kind, within the permit of the spiritual law as well as the law of the land.

Secondly, a life that is not normally rounded out till all the functions of its nature—animal, human and divine—(and man is all of these three in one body) are exercised, is frustrated, inhibited, and abnormal. That all cannot marry in these days is true, but that fact does not negate the greater fact that man has been created by God to marry. That all are not in a position where they can today live normal and full lives is equally a consequence of our present abnormal economic conditions; but this in no way negates the fact that the condition is abnormal. But that an enforced celibacy is an indication of a deep spirituality, and a necessary part of all esoteric and spiritual training, is equally false, abnormal and undesirable. There is no better training school for a disciple and an initiate than family life, with its enforced relations, its scope for adjustments and adaptability, its demanded sacrifices and service, and its opportunities for the full expression of every part of man's nature. There is no greater service to be rendered to the race than the proffering of bodies to incoming souls, and the giving of attention and educational facilities to those souls within the home limits. But the whole condition and problem of the family life and of child-bearing have been distorted and misunderstood; and it will be long before marriage and children assume their rightful place as sacraments, and longer still before the pain and suffering consequent upon our mistakes and on the misuse of the sexual [Page 306] relation have disappeared, and the beauty and consecration of marriage and of the manifestation of souls in form supersede the present wrong grouping of ideas.

The disciple and aspirant upon the Path, and the Initiate upon his "Lighted Way," have no better training ground therefore than the marriage relation, rightly used and rightly understood. The bringing of the animal nature under rhythmic discipline, the elevation of the emotional and the instinctual natures upon the altar of sacrifice, and the self-abnegation required in the life of the family are tremendous purificatory and developing potencies. The celibacy required is that of the higher nature to the demands of the lower, and the refusal of the spiritual man to be dominated by the personality and the demands of the flesh. The attitude of an imposed celibacy upon the equipment of many a disciple has led to much prostitution and to many perversions of God-given functions and faculties; and even where there has not been this distressing condition, and where the life has been sane, consecrated and sound, there have frequently been undue suffering and much mental distress and disciplining, before unruly thoughts and tendencies could be controlled.

It is of course true that sometimes a man may be called to some particular life wherein he is faced with the problem of celibacy, and is forced to abstain from all physical relations and to live a strictly celibate life, in order to demonstrate to himself that he can control the animal and instinctual side of his nature. But this condition is frequently the result of excess and licence in a previous life, which necessitates stringent measures and abnormal conditions in order to offset and rectify past errors and give the lower nature time to readjust itself. But again it is no indication of spiritual development, rather the reverse. Forget not that here I am dealing with the special case of self-applied celibacy, and not with the present [Page 307] world-wide condition wherein, through economic and other reasons, men and women are forced to live without a natural and full life expression.

The sex problem must, in the last analysis, be solved in the home and under normal conditions, and it is the advanced people of the world and the disciples of all degrees who must thus solve it.

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You are neither behind the point of perfection nor are you advancing toward it. You are at the point of perfection and it is from there you must understand your self from.

Sex in the New Age

2. Sex in the New Age

Prophecy is ever a dangerous thing, but a forecast, a drawing out of present general tendencies, is often possible.

During the next two hundred years the old influences under which we have been living will gradually die out, and the new potencies will make their presence felt. Three things we are told will characterise the coming Aquarian age, and they will be made possible through the influence of the three planets governing the three decanates of this sign. First, we shall have the activity of Saturn, producing a dividing of the ways and a proffering of opportunity to those who can avail themselves of it. We shall have, therefore, a period of discipline and a cycle wherein choices will be made, and through these discriminating decisions humanity will enter into its birthright. This influence is now being strongly felt.

Then, later, we shall have, through the influence of Mercury in the second decanate, the pouring in of light, of mental and spiritual illumination, and a truer interpretation of the teaching of the Lodge of Messengers. The work of the first decanate will enable many to make those choices and efforts which will enable them to raise the lower energies into the higher centres, and to transfer the focus of their attention from below to above the diaphragm. The work of the second decanate will enable those who are thus ready to fuse the personality and the soul, and thus, as I earlier [Page 293] pointed out, the light will shine forth and Christ will be born within them.

During the third decanate we shall see the rule of Brotherhood inaugurated, and Venus controlling by intelligent love; the group and not the individual will be the important unit, and unselfishness and cooperation will steadily take the place of separativeness and competition.

In no department of life will these coming great changes show more potently than in the attitude of man towards sex, and in the readjustment of the marriage relationship. This new attitude will gradually come about as the slowly developing science of psychology comes into its own. As man comes to understand his own threefold nature, and as the nature of consciousness and the depth of his own subconscious life are more truly grasped, there will take place, gradually and automatically, a change in the attitude of men towards women and of women towards their destiny. This needed change will not be the result of legal measures, or of decisions by the people's representatives to meet the disasters of the hour; these changes will come slowly, as the result of the intelligent interest of the next three generations. The young people now coming into incarnation, and those who will come during the next century, will prove themselves well equipped to handle this problem of sex, because they can see more clearly than the older generation, and will think in wider and larger terms than is common today. They will be more group-conscious and less individualistic and selfish; they will be more interested in new ideas than in the ancient theologies, and will be freer from prejudice and less intolerant than are the bulk of the well-meaning people of today. Psychology is only just come into its own, and only now is its function beginning to be understood; in one hundred years time, however, it will be the dominating science; [Page 294] and the newer educational systems, based on scientific psychology, will have completely superseded our modern methods. The emphasis in the future will be laid upon the determining of a man's life purpose. This will be brought about through an understanding of his ray, through an analysis of his equipment (and of this, vocational psychology is the faint first beginning), through a study of his horoscope, and through giving him a sound grounding in mind control, as well as training his memory to the impartation of information. The processes by which he can integrate his personality and raise and purify his living qualities will receive careful attention, and all to the end of making him group-conscious and useful to his group. This is the factor of importance. Synthesis, physical purity, decentralisation and group good will be the keynotes of the teaching imparted. Emotional control and right-thinking will be inculcated, and where these are present a knowledge of spiritual realities will be automatically acquired and the life subordinated to the group purpose. Man's relations to others will then be intelligently directed, and his relation to the other sex will be guided not only by love and desire, but by an ordered intellectual appreciation of the true significance of marriage. The above applies to the intelligent, well-intentioned majority whose standards will have developed as the decades pass, so that they will embody the dreams and ideals of the most advanced visionaries of today. The unthinking, the idle and the stupid will still be found, but evolution proceeds apace and order is on its way.

What laws will be enacted for the control of the people on this difficult subject of sex I cannot say; what the marriage laws will be it is no part of my purpose to foretell; how the legislatures of the nations will deal with the problem remains to be seen. I am not interested in speculation.

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But I can and I shall put down for you here the basic premises which will underlie the best thought of the future on the subject of sex and marriage. These premises are three in number; when they are understood and grasped, and when they are integrated into the thought of the period, forming the basis of all recognised standards and consistent living, then the details as to how and where and when will take care of themselves.

1. The relation of the sexes and their approach to the marriage relation will be regarded as a part of the group life and as serving the group good; this will not be the result of laws regulating marriage, but a result of education in group relations, service and the law of love, as understood practically and not just sentimentally. Men and women will know themselves as cells in a vital organism, and their activities and outlook will be coloured by this realisation. It will be regarded as a fact in nature and as a product of past evolutionary cycles, and not be looked upon as a theory and a hope, as is the case today. What is best for the group, and what is needed to promote the efficiency of a unit in the group, will be the points considered. Men will increasingly live in the world of thought and understanding, and not so much in the world of ill-regulated desire and of animal instinct; the love of men for women and of women for men will be more truly present than is now the case, for it will not be so purely emotional, and it will be based also on intelligence.

As the creative urge is turned upwards from the sacral centre to the throat, man will live less potently in his physical sexual urges, and more consistently in his creative expression. His physical plane life will proceed along normal lines, but it is necessary for men to realise that the manner in which man today satisfies his sexual nature is abnormal and unregulated, [Page 296] and that we are on our way to a wise normality. The craving for selfish pleasure and for the satisfaction of an animal urge, which is instinctually right when regulated and devastatingly wrong when prostituted purely to enjoyment, will give place to a mutual decision by both of the parties concerned. The decision will meet a natural need in a right and suitable and regulated manner. Today one party or other is usually sacrificed, either to an undue abstinence or to an unseemly profligacy.

2. The second rule is based upon the point of evolution, and for its right fulfillment necessitates the true integration of the personality. This rule might be expressed as follows: True marriage and right sexual relation should involve the marriage of all three aspects of man's nature; there should be a meeting on all three levels of consciousness at once—the physical, the emotional and the mental. A man and a woman, to be truly and happily married, must be complements to each other in all the three departments of their nature, and there should be a simultaneous union of all three. How seldom is this the case, and how rare it is to find! There is no need for me to elaborate in this direction, for this truth is obvious and has oft been voiced. Later, but not for a long while yet, we shall see marriages which will be based upon the point of development of the integrated personality and only those will meet each other in the sacred marriage ritual who have reached the same point in the work of transmuting the lower into the higher centres; a marriage will be regarded as undesirable and the parties ill-mated where one is living the life of the purified personality above the diaphragm, and the other the life of the intelligent animal below the diaphragm. Finally some few will choose their mates from amongst those in whom the Christ has been born again, and [Page 297] who are giving expression to the Christ life. But the time is not yet, except for the rare and the few.

3. The third governing principle will be the desire to provide good and fair and healthy bodies for incoming egos. This is not possible today, under our ill-regulated system of co-habitation. The majority of the children who are born now have come accidentally into being or are not wanted. Some few, of course, are desired, but even in these cases, that desire is usually based on reasons of heredity, property to be passed on, an old name to be perpetuated, an unfulfilled ambition to be satisfied; yet the day of ordained and desired births is drawing nearer, and when it comes it will make possible the more rapid incarnation of disciples and initiates. Right preparation will take place prior to any fulfillment of the sex urge, and souls will be attracted to their parents by the urgency of those parents' desire, the purity of their motives and the power of their preparatory work.

When these three motives are carefully studied, and when men and women mould their physical plane relationship to each other upon their group responsibilities, upon their union with each other on all three planes simultaneously, and upon the offering of opportunity for incoming souls, then we shall indeed see a restoration of the spiritual aspect of marriage. We shall see the coming in of that era when goodwill will be the outstanding characteristic, and wherein selfish purpose and animal instinct will fade into the background.

3. Some Suggestions for the Present Cycle

I have been occupied with indicating a situation which at present exists, and in pointing out an ideal one which lies ahead, but which is not as yet possible. This is valuable, but it leaves a gap in our thought which requires filling. The question now arises which is capable of formulation in the [Page 298] following terms: given the accuracy of my presentation of the present appalling conditions, given the possibility of an ultimate approximation to the presented ideal in a distant future, is it possible at this time to take steps which will eventually lead to the necessary adjustments in the department of sex? It most certainly is, and my answer takes the following form.

When certain basic postulates, four in number, have been presented and kept before the mind of the public, they will finally lead to such an education of public opinion that the needed activities will follow. But the first step is the education of the public, and their grasp of the four essential laws. Any correction of present conditions will come as a growth from within humanity itself, and not as the imposition of a ruling from without. The training of the public consciousness must therefore go steadily forward, and thus we shall lay the foundation for the later changes.

I should like here to remind you that the coming three generations (in which I include the present one of boys and girls) will bring into incarnation a group of people who will be well equipped to lead humanity out of the present impasse. This fact warrants remembrance, and is often forgotten. There are always those at every epoch in human history who are able to solve the problems which arise, and who are sent in for that very purpose. This sex problem, in the last analysis, is a temporary one, little as you may think it today, and it grows out of a basic mistake,—out of the prostitution of man's God-given faculties to selfish physical ends, instead of their consecration to divine purposes. Man has been swept and carried off his feet by his instinctual animal nature, and only a clear and clean mental understanding of the real nature of his problem will be strong enough to carry him forward into the New Age and into the world of [Page 299] right motive and right action. Man has to learn and deeply grasp the fact that the main purpose of sex is not the satisfaction of the appetites, but the providing of physical bodies through which life may express itself. He has to understand the nature of the symbolism underlying the sexual relation, and by its means grasp the scope of the spiritual realities. The Law of Sex is the law of those relations whereby life and form are brought together in order that divine purpose may be seen. This is a fundamental law of creation, and it is true, whether one is dealing with the informing Life of a solar system, with the birth of an animal, or with the appearance of a plant from a seed. "Sex" is the word we use to cover the relation which exists between that energy we call "life" and the aggregate of force units through which that energy expresses itself and builds a form. It covers the activity which takes place when the pairs of opposites are brought together, and by means of which they become at-one and produce a third reality. That third reality or result bears witness to their relation, and another life in form is seen. You have always, therefore, relation, at-one-ment and birth. These three words deal with the true significance of sex.

But man has prostituted the truth, and the real significance has been lost. Sex now means the satisfaction of the male desire for sensuous pleasure, and the assuaging of a physical appetite through the prostitution of the feminine aspect to that desire and appetite. This relation leads to no result as intended, but to a momentary second of satisfaction, and all of it is confined to the animal nature and the physical plane. I am largely generalising and would remind you that there are exceptions to all generalisations. I should also like to add that no one must here think that I hold the masculine aspect as responsible for our present problem when I say that man uses woman for his pleasure. How can I mean this, when I [Page 300] know that every human being is cyclically either a man or a woman; that the men of today have been women and the women have been men in previous lives? There is no sex, as we understand it, where souls are concerned; it is only in the form life that sex exists. Only in the process of differentiation for the purposes of experimentation does the incarnating spiritual man occupy first a male body and then a feminine, thus rounding out the negative and positive aspects of the form life. All the race is equally guilty, and all must be equally active in the process of creating the correct conditions, and in bringing order out of the present chaos.

Therefore, the first postulate which must be laid down, and to which the general public must be educated, is that all souls incarnate and re-incarnate under the Law of Rebirth. Hence each life is not only a recapitulation of life experience, but an assuming of ancient obligations, a recovery of old relations, an opportunity for the paying of old indebtedness, a chance to make restitution and progress, an awakening of deep-seated qualities, the recognition of old friends and enemies, the solution of revolting injustices, and the explanation of that which conditions the man and makes him what he is. Such is the law which is crying now for universal recognition, and which, when understood by thinking people, will do much to solve the problems of sex and marriage.

Why will this be so? Because when this law is admitted as a governing intellectual principle, all men will tread more carefully the path of life, and will proceed with greater caution to fulfill their family and group obligations. They will know full well that "whatsoever a man soweth, that will he also reap," and that he will reap it here and now, and not in some mystical and mythical heaven or hell; he will have to make his adjustments in the life of every day upon earth, which provides an adequate heaven and a more than adequate [Page 301] hell. The spreading of this doctrine of rebirth, its scientific recognition and proving, is fast going forward, and during the next ten years it will be the subject of much attention.

The second basic postulate was enunciated for us by Christ when he told us to "love our neighbor as ourselves." To this we have paid, as yet, but little attention. We have loved ourselves and have sought to love those we like. But to love universally and because our neighbor is a soul as we are, with a nature essentially perfect and an infinite destiny, this has always been regarded as a beautiful dream to be consummated in a future so distant, and in a heaven so far away, that we may well forget it. Two thousand years have gone since the greatest expression of God's love walked on earth and bade us love each other. Yet still we fight and hate and use our powers for selfish ends, our bodies and our appetites for material pleasures, and our efforts at living are, in the mass, primarily directed towards personal selfishness. Have you ever considered what the world would today be if man had listened to the Christ and had sought to obey His command? We should have eliminated much disease (for the diseases originating in the misuse of the sex function underlie a large percentage of our physical ills, and devastate our modern civilisation), we should have made war impossible, we should have reduced crime to a minimum, and our modern life would be an exemplification of a manifesting divinity. But this has not been the case, and hence our modern world conditions.

But the new law must, and will, be enunciated. This law can be summed up in the words: Let a man so live that his life is harmless. Then no evil to the group can grow out of his thoughts, his actions or his words. This is not negative harmlessness, but of a difficult and positive activity. If the above practical paraphrase of the words of Christ were universally promulgated and practically applied, we should have [Page 302] order growing out of chaos, group love superseding personal selfishness, religious unity taking the place of fanatical intolerance, and regulated appetites instead of licence.

The two laws I have proclaimed, and the two postulates I have above enunciated, sound like platitudes. But platitudes are the universal and recognised truths, and a truth is a scientific pronouncement. The moulding of the life by these two recognitions (the Law of Rebirth and the Law of Love) would save humanity and rebuild our civilisation. They are probably too simple to evoke an interested recognition. But the power lying behind them is the power of divinity itself, and their recognition is simply a question of time, for evolution will force the recognition at some distant date. The forming of an earlier recognition lies in the hands of the disciples and thinkers of the present age.

The third basic law underlying the solution of our modern problems, including that of sex, grows normally out of the other two laws. It is the Law of Group Life. Our group relations must be seen and acknowledged. Not only must a man fulfill in love his family and national obligations, but he must think in the wider terms of humanity itself, and so bring the Law of Brotherhood into expression. Brotherhood is a group quality. The young people who are now coming in will come into life equipped with a much deeper sense of the group, and with their group awareness much more fully developed than is now the case. They will solve their problems, including the problem of sex, by asking themselves when situations arise of a difficult nature: Will this action of mine tend to the group good? Will the group be hurt or suffer if I do thus and so? Will this benefit the group and produce group progress, group integration, and group unity? Action which fails to measure up to the group requirements will then automatically be discarded. In the deciding of problems, the [Page 303] individual and the unit will slowly learn to subordinate the personal good and the personal pleasure to group conditions and group requirements. You can see, therefore, how the problem of sex will also yield to solution. An understanding of the Law of Rebirth, a good-will towards all men, working out as harmlessness, and a desire for group goodwill will gradually become determining factors in the racial consciousness, and our civilisation will adjust itself in time to these new conditions.

The final postulate which I seek to emphasize is that the keeping of these three laws will lead necessarily to an urgent desire to keep the law of the land in which a particular soul has incarnated. That these man-made laws are inadequate I well know, and it is needless to point this out. They may be, and are, temporary and insufficient to the need. They may fail in their scope and prove inadequate, but they do, in a measure, safeguard the little feeble ones, and will be regarded therefore as binding upon those who are seeking to help the race. These laws are subject to change as the effect of the three great laws makes itself felt, but until they are wisely altered (and this takes time) they act as a brake on license and on selfishness. They may also work hardship. This none can deny. But the hardships they bring are not so evil in their nature nor so lasting in their effects as would be the result of their removal and the consequent inauguration of a cycle of law-less-ness. Therefore, the server of the race cooperates with the laws of the land in his daily life, working at the same time for the removal of the injustices they may produce and for the bettering of the legal impositions upon mankind in his country.

In the recognition of these four laws,—of Rebirth, of Love, of the group. and of the Land,—we shall see the salvation of the race.

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You are neither behind the point of perfection nor are you advancing toward it. You are at the point of perfection and it is from there you must understand your self from.