Are you interested in knowing more about Triangles? What is it? How does it work? Want to get involved?

Three people using the energies of light and goodwill in creative visualisation can set up an increasingly powerful flow of energy for planetary healing.

If you live in Adelaide or are just visting, you are most warmly welcome to come to an information evening:
On – Wed February 22, 2012
From – 5.30 to 6.30pm
At – The Box Factory Community Centre, 59 Regent St South, Adelaide, South Australia

contact Caroline for more info: +61 0417 830 411 & see right sidebar, ‘Triangles Meditation’ on the front page of this website.

In the centre of the will of God I stand.
Naught shall deflect my will from His.
I implement that will by love.
I turn towards the field of service.
I, the Triangle divine, work out that will
Within the square and serve my fellowmen.

*The network of triangles being created in etheric substance around the planet. Image courtesy of Lucis Trust

The really creative acts are represented by some sort of dying to the world. By a separation from the world, a penetration to some source of power, and a life-enhancing return with the power to bestow boon on our fellow man.

Joseph Campbell, ‘The Hero With A Thousand Faces’.

‘Art is an alchemical process by which the artist must first sacrifice the personality as an isolated unit so that she can become, at least partly, an emissary or transmitter for group feeling. Thus art becomes an alchemical process by which the artist is slowly transformed and redeemed, and in so doing, redeems others.’
(Liz Greene, ‘Saturn’, p 139)

Where Am I?
Many of us are searching for our place in the Sun: for our unique sense of identity – our own brilliance that will give our life purpose and meaning. This search is never straightforward, and although we may have journeyed to both sides of the Sun, we still haven’t found what we’re looking for. There’s another place; somewhere different. It’s a place we’ve never been before. It’s the place we’re now ready to find.

If you think about the Sun what do you imagine – warmth, love, light, healing, growth, a suntan? Yes, the Sun’s a lighted wonder in our sky. We all love to bask in its brilliance. But of course, like everything in life, it has its other side: drought, dryness, barrenness, death, fires, and skin cancer. This is the dark side of the Sun.

We can be like the bright Sun, always lit up in wonder at the beauty of life. We’re the people who refuse to see the negative side of anything; who always seem optimistic, smiling, buoyant, ready to scatter ourselves hither and thither like the Sun’s warm rays. We’re the ones who choose to dedicate our life to others, often it seems, at our own expense. We never seem to quite have a handle on this business of physical plane living. We rely on the applause of others to give us meaning, and love the emotional roller-coaster of our relationships and feelings. Yet we seem to sabotage opportunities to learn and move on – to be more grounded. We are in love with love, living with the fairies in wonderland.

Then there those of us who are permanently driven to achieve – for ourselves first – then for our family and others. We are like the other side of the sun: dry and barren in our desire to succeed, at whatever cost we’ve set for ourselves. We’re focussed on turning our intelligence and mental powers to get – money, status, possessions – as if we need them to give us our sense of identity. We despise diversity, preferring our one-pointed devotion to our cause, career, or pursuit of happiness for our selves. We’ve clearly mapped our course, intellectualising every step of the way. Nothing’s left to chance or fate. We have a well developed control of the material world, and understand how to manipulate it to our own ends. We have a powerful mind and we value it as our most useful tool for getting what we want. If our life seems empty, in its one-pointedness, and denial of any reality beyond the five-senses, then we’re okay with that.

So there are two sides to the Sun – and groups of people to match. We’ve all known people who embody these traits, including ourselves. Like the bright side of the Sun, we can exude, endless heat, light, and too much loving brightness into our search for our purpose. On the other side of the Sun, we can be darkly focussed, cool, calm, endlessly intellectualising our life and our purpose.

We don’t have to demonstrate the extremes of the two sides – Twinkle toes or Svengali – to know the confusion and suffering wrought by our two warring selves.

The Practical Magician
What’s the solution to this endless seesaw? To sit in the middle of course.
When we’re ready. When we’ve exhausted our search. When we’re tired of the endless pull of the opposites, we stumble on a third alternative. It’s the solution, but, as with all magical stories, there’s a trick. It asks that we step out of our identification with either of the two selves and turning back, look at them from a new perspective. We become the observer, instead of the actor.

It’s a form of *practical magic. And we’re the practical magician. Why? Because we’re learning to merge both sides – the practicality of the intellect with the creativity of the emotions – to create something more enduring and beautiful. This place of merger is the place of true magic. It’s the place we’ve been looking for. It’s the bringing together of the inner and outer; the heart and the mind, to create something new. Like the Sun, when it shines its fire in perfect harmony with the other elements – water, wind, earth – the solution is about union. We find our unique purpose by uniting the two warring sides of ourselves. By honouring thought and feelings; head and heart; mind and emotions. This is the gift of cooperative relationship. Whether it’s within ourselves, between two people, or in a group, a perfect day happens when all elements are in equilibrium to create something that is tangibly magic.

To create that magic day, we start with ourselves. This may sound difficult, and it is. Consider the immense task of the charioteer, holding two powerful steeds in a perfect working relationship, and you have a sense of the challenge. If we can achieve this balance between our two selves, we need all the steely, task-oriented resolve of the intellect, working collaboratively with the inspired, visionary drive of the aspiring emotions. This is the mythological quest of the spiritual warrior, combined with the fertile creativity of the goddess. This is the opportunity being offered now, to us all. As we travel our path, guiding our duelling sides towards a more harmonious union, we find opportunities to contribute in collaborative relationship with others. This is the basis for the new group work of practical magic. First we find the magic within ourselves, and then we attract others to us. We work together, each contributing our own unique skills, perspective and understanding, to create a world that honours the practical magic in the everyday of our lives.

Suggestions for cultivating practical magic:
• Read inspiring literature
• Talk with inspiring people who are practical idealists
• Get involved in activities that excite and challenge
• Join a group that uses structured meditation for planetary healing
• Practice creative visualisation for healing others and the planet
• Read literature on how to be a practical idealist
• Work with others on a collaborative group task
• Join a discussion group on practical action for positive change

*What is practical magic? Article coming soon.

This month we’re celebrating the Christ’s Festival, also known as World Invocation Day. This festival falls in the sign of Gemini which surprisingly perhaps is referred to as a force which produces the changes needed for the evolution of the Christ Consciousness. This consciousness is love and this force of love always equals the demand for change.(1)

Gemini is also the symbol of duality. It is a channel for the second ray energy of Love-Wisdom which underlies all life in our world and the Universe. This energy is cohesive, it’s magnetic and attractive, it draws everything to itself to create bigger and better forms. Whether an atom of matter or a person made up of many atoms, this second ray of love keeps all forms together until its job is done and death intervenes.

In the astrological zodiac, this energy of attraction or love, causes the pairs of opposites to eventually merge into a unity. This means that if we’re a Leo with a strong sense of our individuality, we must also learn about the universality of our polar opposite sign of Aquarius. Then we become an individual with a powerful capacity to embrace the universal in all we think and do. This is the same for all signs until, under the Gemini influence, all 12 are blended into six signs.

Gemini is part of the Mutable Cross, known as the cross of change, presenting the many changes we need to reorient ourselves onto the spiritual path, to follow our soul and make it our master. Each year the sun passes through this sign we are given the opportunity to change ourselves in line with our soul’s intention for this lifetime. Part of this process is learning to serve, and the other is to gain wisdom. Love-wisdom, the keywords for Gemini and the Christ consciousness.

In ‘The Labours of Hercules’ by Alice Bailey (2), we read that Hercules was given the task of finding the golden apples of wisdom. Much as he struggled to find them, he wasn’t able to until he temporarily forgot his search, dropping his own plans to rush to the aid of his friend Atlas. The giant was staggering as he carried the weight of the burdens of the world on his shoulders. Hercules willingly took the burden from Atlas upon his own shoulders, freeing his friend, who immediately went to the garden where the tree of golden apples grows. Atlas plucked two apples, representing the combination of knowledge and understanding, and brought them to Hercules. We learn from this labour that only by serving do we truly love, and only by loving do we translate knowledge into wisdom – this is the gift of June and Gemini.

This festival of Gemini follows from the two previous months – the Aries Festival of Easter and the risen Christ, and the Taurean Festival of Buddha and the will-to-good brought to us at Wesak. The Christ’s Festival is also known as World Invocation Day. This festival was begun in 1932 and is supported globally by many different groups and organisations. It was started to help establish right human relations on earth by spreading the idea of goodwill as love-in-action, a tangible, meaningful way of thinking and living the energy of the Christ consciousness.

The key to World Invocation Day is the use of the Great Invocation. When we use the Great Invocation, we invoke, focus and then express the transformative energies available to use via Gemini and the Mutable Cross. The energies of Light, Love and Power are invoked by us each time we use the Invocation, finding in us, a channel through which they can pour out the redemptive healing needed by our planet, humanity and the three kingdoms in nature.

We need light to show us the way ahead and to unveil the vision of a new civilisation; we need love or goodwill to help us relate to each other with more gentleness, insight and wisdom, and we need the power expressing as the will-to-good, to help us make conscious choices so that we can become more aware of what we’re each here to do.

Using the Great Invocation in a group intensifies these energies because the Ray Two of Love-Wisdom unifies the group members into a vortex of force, intensifying and channelling the higher energies as they flow through our group and into the world.

World Invocation Day is also called the Christ’s Festival because, from the time of Wesak in May when they were brought close to the earth by the Buddha, Christ has held them in custody until the next full moon in June. The Christ presides over the spiritual Hierarchy, a great group of souls known as Masters – humans both male and female who have triumphed over, or mastered, matter. These humans have been through every experience, surmounted every difficulty and merged their soul and personality – merged the 12 signs of the zodiac into the six– so that they now function as a unity of soul and spirit, no longer needing a personality. They have gained the right to serve the divine Plan, and they stand as our brothers ready to assist us whenever we show the courage and willingness to grasp the cross of change and transform our lower self into a clearer expression of the Christ consciousness of the soul.

Now at the full moon in Gemini, the Christ and the Hierarchy focus the energies of light, love and power ready to pour them into humanity. Gemini is the sign of the twins and as we struggle, following in the footsteps of the Masters, to bring more light and love into our personality, we are redeeming our lower selves bringing them under the direction of our true master, our soul. Then, like Hercules, by aspiring only to serve and love humanity and the world, no matter what the cost, the apples of wisdom are freely given to us. As the personality, known as the ‘other self’ wanes, the light of the soul grows and glows, and we become a beacon of light around whose glow others may warm themselves.

Using the Great Invocation everday, we’re adding our contribution of light, love and power to the Hierarchical effort to channel the healing, redemptive forces so needed in our planet at this time.

The seed thought for Gemini is: “I recognise my other self and in the waning of that self, I grow and glow.”

1. Alice Bailey, ‘Esoteric Astrology’ p. 345
2. Ibid ‘The Labours of Hercules’ p. 54-76

The Wesak Festival is is the second of twelve spiritual festivals held at each full moon throughout the year. According to Alice Bailey, these festivals will become the new world spirituality, incorporating all faiths across all cultures, races and times.

These festivals celebrate the ageless wisdom, held in custody for us as mysteries behind a veil of apparent illusion, until we collectively demand for the truths to be revealed.

The first of these festivals was held at the April full moon in Aries. Here we celebrated the energies of renewal, resurrection, new beginnings, creativity, and the potential triumph of love and light over the forces of death and darkness.

Now we’re in May and the full moon of Taurus, celebrating the Will-to-Good channelled by the Buddha into humanity as light or illumination. This festival is celebrated as Wesak because it is there, in the Himalayan Wesak Valley, so legend tells us, that the Buddha returns each year to bless humanity.

The energy of the Will of God, known also as Sanat Kumara, the Lord of the World, is passed to the Buddha at the moment of the full moon. This force is so powerful, that the Lord Buddha needs the assistance of the Christ and the assembled spiritual Hierarchy, to act as a channel, a vortex, to step down this energy so that it can be received by those gathered in this sacred ceremony.

The Christ, channelling the love of God, and the Buddha, channelling the light of God, work together at this moment. The gathered Hierarchy use sound and rhythm, chanting certain mantrams with slow, measured movements to form a funnel. Geometrical figures form in the matter of the higher planes, creating channels of contact into which anyone – human or deva – can reach for blessing.

On the day of the full moon, in group meditation we can join with those in the Wesak Valley, and all over the world, in the invocation of these energies of love and light. Our united thought and invocation will create a vortex of force, channelling these energies into the physical plane, helping to heal and transform ourselves, and all planetary kingdoms and forms on Earth.

The seed thought for Taurus is: ‘I see and when the Eye is opened, all is light’.

May 2011

What is the new materialism? Sounds like new age jargon and a fancy way of re- imaging the same old iniquitous structures?

If we are willing to take a little time to look deeper we can avoid a superficial dismissal of this phrase, and discover a whole new way of looking at the science of money, economics and our relationship with the natural kingdoms in nature – particularly the mineral kingdom.

With the incoming seventh ray steadily gaining power, there is a growing realisation of the divinity that exists within the visible, tangible world of the human, animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms.”1
In the books based on the Ageless Wisdom teachings, written by Alice Bailey, the Tibetan Master DK tells us that, “the sign of man’s spiritual unfoldment lies in his ability to include in his consciousness not only the so-called spiritual values and the power to react to soul contact, but also to include the material values, and to react divinely to the potencies which lie hidden from him in the custody of the other forms of divine life, found in the three sub-human kingdoms.”2

What potencies lie hidden in the most concrete and materialised of all: the mineral kingdom? We are familiar with the phrase, money is concrete or crystallised prana. If we drill down we find that prana is, “the life-essence of every plane in the sevenfold area which we call the cosmic physical plane,” 3and the “sumtotal of the cosmic energy”. 4
This means that gold and silver; coins, notes; plastic cards, figures on a computer screens, stocks and shares, bonds and derivatives; are all essentially pranic substance. The prana of atomic substance is governed by the first systemic Law of Vibration, and the third Cosmic Law of Economy – the adjuster of all to the best possible advantage. Under the Law of Vibration atomic matter moves and rotates, and on the seventh or lowest plane of the mineral kingdom, its vibration is, “slow, clogged and lethargic,”5 hence the need to build finer matter as evolution proceeds.

While the Ageless Wisdom teaching tell us that, “The aim of evolution for us is love dominated by intelligence – or intelligence dominated by love”, and the radiation of love-wisdom, we also find that the purpose for the mineral kingdom is crystallisation, and the radiation of colour, light, and electromagnetism.6,7 We can see that the human and mineral kingdoms share a similar purpose in radiation. Both kingdoms respond to fire, heat and pressure to reveal light and beautiful radiance – whether of a diamond or a world server.8

We also find that the mineral kingdom’s evolutionary task is to form, “the central or turning point in the degrees of the ‘Monadic Essence,’ considered as an evoluting energy,”9 sitting in the fourth place between the three involutionary and three evolutionary kingdoms above – mineral, plant and animal. Again humanity shares a similar task with the mineral kingdom as mediator – both situated at a turning point between the three lower and three higher kingdoms.

Since February, 2008, the first ray’s destructive and transformative power of Pluto,10 channelling change, darkness and death entered Capricorn. We are told that, “Capricorn connotes density, firm foundations, concretisation, the mountain of karma that holds down the struggling soul, or the mountain of initiation which must eventually be climbed and surmounted”.

“In this particular world cycle it is Capricorn which is producing the moment of crisis – a crisis of initiation plus a crisis of destruction (related primarily to the mineral kingdom) paralleled by a crisis of mental perception, precipitated by Mercury focussing the fourth ray of harmony through conflict. It is this mental perception plus world participation in the “crumbling of the mountain load of karma” which heralds the vision of the new day from the top of the mountain. 11
To assist humanity at this time of dismantling, we know that “…the Lord of the seventh ray is taking over the control of affairs and the ordered working out of the Plan, so as eventually to restore stability to the planet and give the incoming Aquarian influence a stable and extended field in which to work.” 12

As the most concrete expression of power and order, the mineral kingdom is the foundation of the ordered physical structures of planetary life.13 The creation of money, and the mineral kingdom are keys to help humanity deepen its understanding of planetary purpose as it expresses through each atom of matter, to better assist in the manifestation of the new world of order and beauty on Earth.

Libra rules the whole mystery of, and the creation and production of, money.19 Through the relation of the three aspects of the third divine manifestation – law, affinity and concrete energy – money is created.
In Esoteric Astrology we are told that money will unveil the secret of the mineral kingdom when the activity of Venus in Taurus, Libra and Capricorn is better understood,14demonstrating the karma and destiny of this kingdom.15
We also know that Libra is the sign that helps us understand money as concretised energy as the externalised symbol of the bringing together of spirit and matter on the physical plane.16 It’s interesting that the Romans called the pound the Libra (£). 17

Libra rules balance with its keynote, “I choose the way that leads between the two great lines of force,” and the development of discrimination by using the fifth ray to discern the real.18
We also find that Taurus governs the mineral kingdom – the ‘diamond-eye’ or consciousness of the buddha20 and that, “the radiation of the mineral kingdom steadily increases as the cycles come and go”. When the seventh ray more strongly manifests we are told that certain changes take place in the mineral kingdom on seven levels conforming to the seven subdivisions of the influencing rays.21

So we have Capricorn, Libra and Taurus, all ruled by Venus as the, “source of the intelligent mind, acting either through desire (in the early stages), or love (in the later stages). In Taurus this means the mind expressing itself through intelligent desire, for that is the goal of knowledge for ordinary man. In Libra, the point of balance or equilibrium is attained between material personal desire and intelligent spiritual love, for the two qualities of cosmic desire are brought to the fore in the consciousness in Libra and balanced one against the other. In Capricorn, it stands for spiritual love, expressing itself perfectly when the work in Taurus and Libra has been accomplished.22

As Humanity, governed by the fourth ray of harmony through conflict takes the battle into the densest matter facilitated by Pluto’s visit in Capricorn, perhaps the fifth energy of the discriminating mind, ruled by Venus, will gradually force a clearer revelation of the beauty and power available to humanity to create, as a group, the envisoned goal.23
We often hear that it’s the love of money that’s the root of all evil,24 but perhaps it’s rather the desire for things and the use of the third ray of active intelligence to think prana into forms to satisfy desire that is evil. History shows us the effect of desire for things, in the ingenious methods employed by human minds in creating money to transact the products of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms.25

By crystallising the energy of Active Intelligence into money, attracting the slow, lethargic vibrations of devic substance through selfish and separative thought motives, human intelligence has served the old materialism built on the illusion of separateness. The new materialism of spiritual values based on the fact of oneness and brotherhood26 will attract a faster, more evolved vibration of matter and, “The greater the realisation and expression of love, the freer will be the inflow of money and resources for the work.”27

It’s human desire that has clogged the channels of the flow of atomic substance known as the divine circulatory flow, rather than money. The Divine Circulatory Flow is akin to the free circulation of all that’s needed in human bodily terms. It is the “free interchange, free sharing, free circulation of all that is required for right human living (which) will characterise the world to be.”28 It’s love as the will-to-good, that holds the key to clearing the planetary arteries so that resources can flow for the highest good of the greatest number. We are told that need, love and magnetic power are the three things required to attract money.29

The prana flowing from the sun permeates the planetary etheric vehicle and then enters humanity through the etheric vehicle, colouring it with individual quality before transmitting it to the lesser lives in the human body. Similarly, prana is transmitted from the planet to every atom in manifestation demonstrating the interconnectedness of all kingdoms.30
As humans use thought to create, so is prana crystallised, harshly grasped with intentions stemming from the astral realm, forming the devic substance into items and money which are then cornered for human use. The flow of prana is no longer free to flow, resources are not shared, and human pain, suffering and ecological destruction is the result.
By using the fifth ray mind – the revealer of reality – humanity is gradually seeing more clearly, the fact of brotherhood and oneness revealing the principle of sharing as a practical, and moral, necessity.

Using the divine energy of the creative imagination, humanity can consciously relate physical need and physical supply in service of the soul and Logoic Purpose.31

By consciously monitoring our thoughts so that nothing is desired for the separated self, we can assist the mineral kingdom in its purpose, direct prana to spiritual activity, and further humanity’s purpose as radiator of divine purpose and redeemer of matter in the three lower kingdoms. Then by dispelling the illusion of separateness the resources founded upon the mineral kingdom will be used to create the new structures, institutions, and belief systems that will shape our New Age.

Like Hercules’ labour in Aquarius, the river of resources that now flows into dead-ends of material over-abundance and congestion, will be re-directed to cleanse outmoded practices and institutions. Humanity will no longer be subject to the arbitrary patch-up strategies known as the business cycle, in its attempts to prevent the boom-bust, inflation-recession cycles of an out-of-balance circulatory flow. As the Law of Economy is permeated with the Second Cosmic Law of Love, it will act to make, “perfect each atom of time and each eternal period, and (carry) all onward, upward and through with the least possible effort, with the proper adjustment of equilibrium, and with the necessary rate of rhythm.”32

As harmony emerges from conflict, humanity begins to consciously direct the seventh ray of magic and ceremonial order to build the structures that will better reflect the divine consciousness in all forms and substance. These structures will express the new materialism, based on the Principle of Sharing in recognition of the oneness of all humans with the three natural kingdoms. As we work individually and in our groups, to usher in the new global and economic financial order, we are using our creative imagination for the benefit of all.

References:
1. Lucis Trust, Three Spiritual Festivals, 2010.
2. Bailey, A. Esoteric Psychology I , p. 230-231
3. Telepathy & the Etheric Vehicle, p. 155
4. The Light of the Soul, p.218
5. A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 575
6. Esoteric Psychology I, p. 413
7. Theosophy. Science and the Secret Doctrine: The “Atoms” in the Kingdoms, Vol 24, No 7, p. 303
8. Bailey, A. Esoteric Psychology I,p.230
9. Blavatsky, H. The Secret Doctrine, Vol 1, p. 176
10. Bailey, A. Esoteric Astrology, p. 187
11. Ibid, p. 437
12. Esoteric Psychology I, p. 228
13. Ibid, p. 228
14. Esoteric Astrology, p. 245
15. The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, p. 60
16. Esoteric Astrology, p. 244
17. Bernstein, P. The Power of Gold, John Wiley & Sons, Canada, 2000
18. Bailey, A. Labours of Hercules, p. 131
19. Esoteric Astrology, p. 246
20. Esoteric Psychology I, p. 230
21. Ibid, p. 225
22. Esoteric Astrology, p. 244-245
23. Ibid, p. 448
24. Timothy, 6:10 The Bible
25. Bailey, A. Esoteric Psychology II, p. 192
26. The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, p. 645
27. Ibid, p. 334
28. Ibid, p. 128
29. Ibid, p. 334-335
30. A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 102
31. Esoteric Astrology, p. 246
32. A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 568

The New Group of World Servers is a term used to describe all those who are working to create positive change. First coined by Alice Bailey in her books on the Ageless Wisdom, this group has no organisation, leader, headquarters or manifesto. They are an organism or network of individuals and groups who use positive thought, meditation, visualisation and directed, intelligent activity, to manifest the new civilisation and culture on earth.

The creative visualisation below is a simple yet effective way to be part of this group work in channelling healing, spiritual energies into the group and the world.

FIVE O’CLOCK LINK UP

5 pm local time is a moment in the day when those
who seek to be of world service invoke the energies
available for their work through a quiet and brief
inner recognition and alignment and the use of this
mantram:

May the Power of the one Life pour through
the group of all true servers.
May the Love of the One Soul characterise
the lives of all who seek to aid the Great Ones.
May I fulfil my part in the One work through
self-forgetfulness, harmlessness and right speech.

For more information go to Lucis Trust.

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
William Blake

The words of a poet like Blake speak directly to our heart; they call forth the ‘yes!’ factor.
Why, when we know that a world is found in a grain of sand, and heaven is held in a wildflower, do we forget it on a daily basis?
It may be because at some stage on our evolutionary journey, we separated spirituality and science. This was quite possibly a necessary stage in our development as a human species, but encouragingly, things are again changing. It’s not unusual to see people classified as ‘mainstream’ talking nicely to their dogs, hugging a tree or asking a crystal for guidance.

This way of thinking is sometimes called hylozoism, (from the Greek: hylo means matter, and zo is life).
For me it means that every speck of dirt, every blade of grass, each animal and human, is alive. If it’s true that everything is made of matter, then it’s also alive or has ‘zo’. This is also called prana – the sun’s life-giving energy.
So far, so logical, based on our definition of hylozoism. But the next step into Blake’s dreamy realm is more challenging.

Can we accept that the life in all things: all matter, all plants, all animals and people, is sacred? And that the word ‘sacred’ means the ability to sacrifice to something other than ourselves.
Yes, it’s true. Sacredness isn’t just about being beautiful and untouchable. One dictionary definition says it is the, ‘reverent dedication to some person, purpose, or object’. During the Piscean age out of which we are moving, sacred was generally viewed as something or someone ‘out there’ – transcendent – like God and some saints. Now things are changing.

The newly emerging Aquarian age is our age. It’s the new paradigm that we can choose to shape, in anyway we want, for our children and the future. According to the Ageless Wisdom texts, this Aquarian age carries different qualities from the old Piscean age.
It’s pretty obvious that the main difference is in how we view our relationship with our planet and the other kingdoms on it. With all due respect to those who have gone before – they did a great job of establishing a transcendent religion as the dominant paradigm – but now we need an imminent spirituality.

This means, a way of viewing the world that makes each of us spiritual beings, divine, sacred and therefore responsible.
No more blaming god for the interruptions to our earthly fun. Now it’s all on our shoulders.
If, as the wisdom teachings tell us, both ‘spirit’ and ‘matter’ are sacred in the new age, what do we do with this information? This wasn’t my conditioning or education, yet a significantly different mind set is being thrust into my lap.
I’m a practical person, although given to bouts of idealism: Well I actually swing from “I’m going to make lots of money, to I just want to live as simply as possible”. I’m not unusual am I? I hear this struggle going on in so many hearts and minds. And that’s because we’re all caught in this tectonic plate shift. That’s why it’s called ‘seismic’, because it’s really big and important.

So being conditioned to be sensible, pragmatic people we want to maintain some of the order inherent in the status quo, while all around us we see that the old mind set of ‘matter is not sacred’, has created an inequitable and unsustainable world.
Like Blake, many of us know instinctively, intuitively or by logic, that the rock, water, earth, and air upon which we depend, exist with reverent dedication to the sustaining of the plants and animals on which we also depend.

These ‘lower kingdoms’, like the regular rising and setting of the sun, provide us with often taken-for-granted sustenance, and the enjoyment we rely on to make earth life sometimes a fun place to be. Imagine life without a warm rock to lay on in the sun, a flower to smell or a cat to caress.
If we really think about this it’s a huge sacrifice for the lower kingdoms to exist for our use, and I reckon that makes the humblest rock, sacred. But are humans sacred? Do we readily, even joyfully, sacrifice to something higher than ourselves as do the rocks, grass, flowers and animals?
Blake hit the nail on the head:

“He who mocks the infant’s faith
Shall be mock’d in age and death.
He who shall teach the child to doubt
The rotting grave shall ne’er get out.”

We’re all sacred, but we aren’t yet conscious of it. In my view, if we doubt it, we’re sealing our own fate. There’s no god to rescue us, only our own sacredness.
There are many who think like me. We’re striving to be more conscious and aware in our minute-to-minute, day-to-day thinking and actions – we’re working on manifesting the sacred in our everyday life. We’re teaching our children to believe – not in a saving grace out there – but in our own inherent goodness. It stands to reason that if all planetary life is sacred, then the planet is too, and quite likely everything else in the universe. But that’s another story.

Learning how to be sacred means, as Buddha advised, being mindful. We ask ourselves: How am I using all these resources available to me? Am I conscious when I pick a plant for my salad, pat a dog, choose how to dispose of a house spider, or spend my money?
How we use our money is often the most difficult challenge we face in our daily attempts to live sacred lives. Whether plastic card or computer screen blip it’s all money. These tools of convenient exchange only represent the sacred energy, the sacrificial willingness to serve us – whether from the mineral kingdom in coins; from the plant kingdom in notes, or in an etheric form as electronic computer numbers.

A simple question I try to ask myself is: How can I best honour this sacrifical energy as it moves through my hands and my thoughts: Am I adding something of value to the sacredness of life? Is this decision helping to create positive change in the world?
In my case I often fail miserably. Buying things; the lure of the transient pleasures often prove more attractive. But we creative change makers are heroes; we’re courageous because no matter how many times we fail in our attempts to live up to the demands of our soul, we get up and try again – we’re constantly striving to live a sacred life.

I believe that the sacred in life isn’t the ‘don’t touch or it will break’ type sacred. It’s more like, the constant, reliable sense that essentially, it’s all good. Life constantly offers us renewed opportunities; no matter if we forgot our vows to forgo that retail therapy.
We may never be saints, and who’d want to? I reckon life can be pretty good anyway when it’s lived with a view to the sacredness in each moment. Then those momentary flashes of wonder and bon- homie that are often helped along by a good coffee or especially nice glass of wine (or even beer), seem to appear of their own accord. Like when you smile at the audacious way a pigeon walks on a busy road, at the endless motion of the rain as it dances on the pavement, or the way the big tree seems to hug you back.

With these fits of reality comes a clarification of our purpose – we’re clearly part of something that’s beautiful and definitely sacred. Perhaps our purpose is to dedicate our brief journey on earth to revealing our own sacred nature – our capacity to give with reverent dedication, to some project, business, person, or cause that contributes in ways often unmeasurable, to the revelation of the sacredness of all life.

God appears, and God is light,
To those poor souls who dwell in night;
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.
William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

The present-day hero is sustained by the realization that from no earthly quarter can he expect cooperation. When he says, ‘I will not abandon the field of battle,’ he already finds new strength. We are ready to provide the strengthening current in accordance with the firmness of his decision not to abandon the battle.1

Our history is filled with warriors and heroes across all cultures and over all time – human and supernatural, fighting the darkness to rescue into our world the Light and Consciousness of Life. The heroes’ journey is our story. It’s a journey back to our source and along the way we discover the truth and do our duty as best we can know it.

From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.2

It can be enlightening to read stories of those warriors past and present, who have and are, helping to clear the path. “Some believe that precise knowledge is the crown of thought; but it would be more correct to say that legend is the crown of thought.” 3

What is Evil?

Mythologist Joseph Campbell says that, “It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation.”4 Perhaps the crown of thought and the secret opening are both names for that place where we each act to seal the door of evil. And what is evil?

One definition for evil is, “that good which we should have left behind, passing on to greater and more inclusive good”5 or, “The domination of spirit (and its reflection, soul) by matter is what constitutes evil.”6 Even that which was good and desirable in previous times may now be an outmoded good turned evil. The deeds of the hero frequently include slaying the boon-givers of the past. “A god outgrown becomes immediately a life-destroying demon. The form has to be broken and the energies released.” 7

The ancient wisdom teachings tell us that matter is a shadow, the garment of God/ the Source which veils the causal life or reality behind. “Here lies the mystery of maya, and here is to be found the secret of illusion.” 8 Is matter evil? Perhaps only when it tries to, or is allowed to, control spirit, then it is evil. So evil’s a tricky, chameleon-like force that changes over time. At one time it was a good, but after its use-by-date, it becomes evil or no longer relevant.

Electric Stories

Cutting edge thinkers are utilising the abstract mind to bring together mythology and astrophysics to reveal the hero ideal of old, clothed now in the electric universe of plasma, lightning and thunderbolts. In his book, “Thunderbolt of the Gods”, David Talbot suggests that, ‘only a few thousand years ago the terrestrial sky was ablaze with electrical activity.” In his book he shows the link between primitive cave paintings, “devoted to the utterly fantastic: cosmic serpents and dragons, winged bulls in the sky, mountains, towers, and stairways reaching to the center of heaven, “sun” disks with heaven-spanning wings, cosmic “ships” sailing about the sky,”9 and plasma science.

He explains that in the early days of human evolution, it was recorded that, “a great serpent or dragon attacked the world, bringing darkness and universal detestation. A legendary warrior then set out to engage the monster in direct combat.” He had a magical weapon, fashioned by gods or divine assistants who turned the tide of battle, vanquishing the monster. The warrior, “defeated chaos and saved the world from catastrophe.”10

This is the ancestral warrior, and it’s comforting to know that the same battle between the forces of darkness and light are still occurring in the sky above and in the earth all around us, right now. Talbot says that, ‘the essence of the divine thunderbolt was etheric…plasma discharge formations appearing above the ancient witnesses (which) readily inspired such fabulous interpretations.”11

Cosmic Dragons

In the Secret Doctrine, Helena Blavatsky suggests that the dragons are, “the turbulent confused principles in Chaos, brought to order by the Sun-gods or creative powers,” and that this is the “War in Heavens”.12

Our battle, like the ancient warrior, is to ward off evil in the form of confused, imperfect matter, rescuing from it the good, the beautiful and the true. We are raising the quality of matter to a more truly beautiful expression of itself. By thinking of the sacred and aspiring to the good; by rejecting that which was once good but is now no longer appropriate to us, we master the art of the battle. We are learning how to raise the vibration of the substance of matter – the atoms of our bodies, and the atoms that constantly dance around us. By using our mind power, our thoughts, we are gradually liberating the spirit, the soul within. We are re-enacting the heavenly battle, using the thunderbolt of the higher mind13 to defeat the chaotic, random lower vibrations of matter, healing/saving ourselves and by extension, helping to heal the world.

“The nation that ascends, dreams of heroes. But for the worn-out nation the idea of a hero seems wearisome and pointless. Though this nation may be showered with gold, though its conceit still may be impassioned, it will be unfit for podvig (Russian term for a selfless heroic act). The dreams and ardour of real daring have passed out of the walls of the nation that knows only reason.”14

Cutting edge science is tapping into the archetypal vein in humanity that dreams of magnificence, transcendence, courage, and beauty. In black and white science is demonstrating what occultists have long known: that stories, like anything in life, are electric. A continuous process of electromagnetic interactions between spirit and matter: between electrons (negative charge or matter) and protons or spirit (that something that gives energy to matter – its positive charge) to create neutrons or the son/soul (the neutral charge). This electricity is called Fohat by Occultists.15

Plasma Universe

That’s why the scientists, pushing aside the garment of god to reveal plasma as the linking, connecting stuff in an electric universe, are also spiritual warriors. They are battling the forces of inertia in matter to find what lies behind; what animates the electrons carrying them through the cosmos as suns, stars, comets and planets relate, create, destroy and live out their own awesome story.

They are showing us the consciousness within all life – plasma – “a collection of positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons, together with the remaining non-ionized or neutral atoms or molecules”. Plasma is the fourth and most abundant state of matter (the other states are solid, liquid and gas). It forms at high temperatures, allowing the bonds between atoms to loosen and move freely. Space is filled with plasma and the freely moving electrons in plasma are excellent carriers of electric currents.16

This plasma or ether as it’s also called, is like the soul of all forms. Without it life could not exist because there would be no relationship and communication across space and time.

Building a bridge from the concrete to the higher mind motivated by the love of their work, these scientists are drawing forth the intuition. As they forge ahead into the dragon’s lair, the unknown realm of deepest, darkest matter, their urge to serve protects them like the archetypal magical helmet and shield of all good warrior legends.

Liberating Ourselves

For some, the battle is very obvious and very physical. It’s with the forces of drought, disease, famine and war. For others who live in zones of greater abundance and peace, the battle is more internalised. It’s here, in the middle-class affluence that the dragon lurks, veiled by the illusion of comfort and security.

The constant challenge facing the spiritual warrior is the struggle with the forces of inertia, “the dragon to be slain …is precisely the monster of the status quo.” 17 Paradoxically, this is the hardest battle, calling on the best warriors the human race has yet produced. It’s the call to fight the veils of illusion, glamour and materialism. Where to start? With our selves.

Our task, is to each create our own personal story akin to the cosmic drama. In so doing we are participating in the majesty and magnificence of all heroic legends – the liberation of light from darkness; of the real from the unreal; and of the perfection that lies within the substance of matter.

Alice Bailey argues that matter is imperfect. “This imperfection is the evil latent in matter…this evil being non-existent in the perfect whole. It’s the cycle of distress resulting from the conflict between the perfect and imperfect, that causes the evolutionary urge and manifestation. The drive to liberate the perfect from the bonds of matter is the effect of evolution.18

To do battle with the dragons of chaos we need to intensify the vibration within the matter of our own bodies, raising the temperature of the atoms, so that the electrons vibrate faster enabling them to move freely. Then they are better conductors of electricity throughout our body bringing better flow of energy and health, and intensifying our positive radiation out into the environment and to others.

If our bodies are composed of imperfect matter, then the story we weave is one of conflict, crisis and surrender as chapter by chapter, we fight the battle between the coarse vibration of our lower self and the faster more refined vibration of our higher self. Eventually we liberate the illumined serpent of wisdom, the higher mind or love-wisdom, from within the primordial dragon of darkness and chaos.

This is our journey around the wheel, liberating the imperfect substance of our bodies as we go. Daily we enact the heroic quest of liberating by learning to think, live and serve in ways that serve something greater than ourselves. With every thought we are acting the role of Sun-god or creative power, setting up vibrations that affect the matter around us, for all is interconnected.

We are resonating more with our own soul’s purpose, our holy grail. As our consciousness attains to broader concepts of what love, wisdom and knowledge means, we build a bridge between spirit and matter. We realise the magnificent responsibility we each have to use our every thought and intention to choose what and how we will think because we know that every thought creates a domino effect in the vibrations of matter.

Ride The Tiger

We’re part of an electrical interplay on Earth which is reflected in the lightning, thunderstorms, and auroras, in our sky; and the cosmic drama of planets, suns and stars in near and far off galaxies. All are part of the hero’s journey; part of the warp and weft of the attraction and repulsion that goes on continuously between atoms, as spirit and matter combine to create the consciousness of soul.

“…the Occultists…regard physical nature as a bundle of most varied illusions on the plane of deceptive perceptions (and) recognise in every pain and suffering but the necessary pangs of incessant procreation: a series of stages toward an ever-growing perfectibility, which is visible in the silent influence of never-erring Karma or abstract nature… Stagnation and death is the future of all that vegetates without a change. And how can there be any change for the better without proportionate suffering during the preceding stage? ”19

It seems that storytelling has and is intrinsic to our ability to make sense of our world and our lives. We do it everyday in our little, mundane lives, and what is the media if not a giant storytelling machine? All life is the result of an electro-magnetic interchange within the substance of matter. Humanity loves, or perhaps has a fatal attraction to, conflict and crisis, facilitating the pain and suffering necessary if we are to birth harmony, order and beauty in our lives. Viewed from an atomic through to a cosmic level, conflict, crisis and its resolution into harmony seems to be the way of all life in our dual universe. As the saying goes, “ride the tiger”20.

The human story of conflict leading to birth and redemption change over time as we function with increasing mental sophistication. Campbell reminds us that, “Mythology is defeated when the mind rests solemnly with its favourite or traditional images, defending them as though they themselves were the message that they communicate. These images are to be regarded as no more than shadows…”.21 The form of the myth reflects the consciousness of the storyteller, the characters in the story and the audience. From different perspectives, we are each all these things.

Who is the Ring Bearer?

We may ask, ‘who will lead us in our quest; who is the ring bearer?’ And in times past we would have looked to one who rose from the crowd to serve and save. Who is leading the heavenly quest? What causes our sky to constantly enact the tremendous stories of crisis and conflict lying behind the gorgeous shows of colour and light of auroras, or the dizzyingly exciting lighting and thunder displays? We only know that we are part of a much bigger play than the microcosmic one played out on Earth. We are the ring bearer. As we move into the Aquarian age, this is a collective quest, a cosmic task and Creative Change Makers – those on the cutting edge of their disciplines; those walking the road less travelled – lead the charge.

Myths dismantle edifices, tear down veils and call us all to face the dweller dragon on the threshold so that we, the personality-soul, can release spirit from the thraldom of matter. Here is the plasma-filled electric universe alive with dragons of un-redeemed creative power, chaotic until tamed by the love-wisdom of the higher creativity. With our lower, concrete minds we can easily analyse, dissect and quantify vibrating, atomic matter. Only by applying the higher mind fuelled by love and wisdom to the task, are we able to cooperate with those who guide us.

As we align ourselves with this Universal Mind, we unfold our relationship with these guides of humanity. They are referred to as the ‘Spiritual Hierarchy’ or as ‘Masters’. They have walked the same path but before us, fought the dragons as we do now, and they remain on Earth, in some form, to help us continue the fight. They are the hidden guides, our supernatural patrons, always there at critical moments to offer the magical weapon, the secret word of power or the sudden insight.

When we, today’s warriors, have proved ourselves ready and willing to learn the ways of the battle and to stay with the fight, then will the ancient secrets be placed in our hands.22

“When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.”23 Like every warrior of old, we must undergo many tests to ensure we are ready to handle such power. Service is the primary training tool used by all who seek to serve humanity and the Plan.

We see this repeated throughout the warriors’ tale: sharing the load, giving loving service, shunning reward. We see the same fact repeated in the depths of space. Electric currents circulate through plasma which is like the divine circulatory flow in space. This is mirrored in the ether which surrounds us and our planetary life, and is again reflected in the blood flow through our human body. Space plasma is charged with Life, the electric spark that’s carried, in service, by the plasma throughout the known universe. It’s like the cosmic Soul distributing cosmic Life to all forms and atoms in space.

As above, so below. We are a microcosm of the cosmic Soul, and whether macro or micro we’re all cosmic in our heroic task of staying with the battle; of staying with the sometimes Atlas-like task, of liberating spirit from matter. We discover that we are the hero, symbol of, “that divine, creative and redemptive image which is hidden in us all, only waiting to be known and rendered into life.”24

Doing our duty, we know we are fulfilling our destined task, in helping to defeat the dragon of chaos as we journey back to sit at the sacred feet of the one who sent us forth.

References:

1. Agni Yoga, Agni Yoga Society, New York, 1929, sutra 290
2. The Great Invocation, stanza four.
3. Agni Yoga, sutra 19
4. Campbell, A. The Hero With A Thousand Faces, Paladin, Great Britain, 1993, p. 3
5. Bailey, A. The Rays and the Initiations, Lucis Trust, New York, p. 132
6. Bailey, p.147
7. Campbell, p. 338
8. Bailey, A. A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, Lucis Trust, New York, 1962, p. 624
9. Talbot, D. Thunderbolt of the Gods, Mikamar Publishing, Oregon, 2005, p. 31
10. Talbot, p. 32
11. Talbot, p.41
12. Blavatsky, H. The Secret Doctrine, Vol II. The Theosophy Company, Los Angeles, 2004, p. 386
13. Campbell p. 87
14. Agni Yoga, 46
15. Blavatsky, H. The Secret Doctrine, Vol I. 2004, p. 111 also see http://education.jlab.org/qa/atom.html
16. Thornhill, W, and Talbot, D. The Electric Universe, p. 4,29
17. Campbell, p. 337
18. Bailey, A. Esoteric Healing p. 295
19. Blavatsky, H. The Secret Doctrine, Vol II .p. 475
20. Evola, J. Ride the Tiger: A Survival Manual for the Aristocrats of the Soul,
Inner Traditions, U.S. 2003
21. Campbell, p. 270
22. Bailey, A. A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 615
23. Campbell
24. Ibid, p. 39