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
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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