Sabian Mysteries - A path of training for spiritual seekers

 Source: https://www.jamesburgess.com/

---

SABIAN SYMBOLS are studied using the methods taught within Sufism, an ancient school of spiritual teachings, and from the original material of the masters, Elsie Wheeler, Marc Edmund Jones and Dane Rudhyar. LINK THE ELVEN STAR METHOD is a high-level training for experienced, committed spiritual seekers, and uses Sabian Symbols, Sufi ideas and the 7 Words System to reach soul-level self-awareness. LINK THE 7 WORDS SYSTEM is directly derived from Sufism and cuts to the heart of any matter to show its essential structure; this system has been applied to comment upon the interpretation of the Sabian Symbols in modern terms. LINK PATH TO HAPPINESS is an advanced course of spiritual evolution, embracing all the above material and going deeply into self-purification through spiritual practice. LINK.  BEGINNERS' ASTROLOGY - a series of articles and short videos that cover the various topics that are of special interest to those at the early stages of their studies in astrology. LINK

The secret to mental control

 Source: https://www.iamuniversity.org/the-secret-to-mental-control/

We live and move and have our being in a sea of thoughts. Given our current point in evolution – we are still mostly emotionally polarized – we do not so much consciously produce constructive thoughts as unconsciously engage in vagrant thoughts floating around in the surrounding thought atmosphere.

Mind is mental substance. Our mental body is a portion of that omnipresent mind substance that is available to each one of us to be creative and produce. However, most of us don’t use this substance to be consciously creative. Most of us are rather used by it. Thoughts from the surrounding thought atmosphere come to us and will often torment us. We pick up an unsupportive thought and spend hours engaging it or fighting it, without even realizing it. As a result, the outer world determines our inner world (when it should be the other way around).

The Soul is not the master of its instrument. The instrument is the master of the Soul.

Our current evolutionary goal is for each and everyone of us to become Soul-aware in the here and now, to identify with the Soul (and Spirit) and to use our bodies, from the inside out, for an evolutionary purpose in service of Spirit and humanity. So, to reach this goal we need to start getting serious about mental mastery and control.

Now, if we want to get serious about mastering and controlling our mind, how should we proceed?

Well, we may start the process of mental mastery and control (which is a science in and of itself) by beginning the practice of concentration. This is something we can do throughout the day. We don’t need to put aside time to practice concentration (even though that would be a good idea indeed). As you engage in some work during the course of the day, just give it your full attention and focus on whatever you are doing to the exclusion of everything else. This is concentration. Concentration is to be present and focused.

When we focus on something, when we give it our full attention, there is no waste and no friction, there is just the efficient use of energy. When we are concentrated and focused on some work and do it with all the love and light and devotion in our heart (!), then vagrant thoughts in the surrounding thought atmosphere are automatically being repelled by our force field (our aura).

When we lovingly and joyfully concentrate on some work, our mind is actively engaged – and doing the work with love and joy in our heart, we are actively engaged in a high-vibratory work of love, no matter how mundane the activity may appear. When we are actively engaged in a work of love, we make our force field positive to the environment, which means: the low-vibratory environment can’t get into our high-vibratory force field.

However, when we sleepwalk through life with no goal and no purpose, we make our mind negative and passive to the environment, which means: we’ll soak in whatever is floating around in the surrounding thought atmosphere.

The first leads to mastery, the latter leads to victimhood.

The secret to mental mastery and control is to deliberately become mentally active in service of love and light and wisdom.

The Spiritual Hierarchies and Their Reflection in the Physical World

 

By Rudolf Steiner

Source: https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA110/English/APC1928/SpiHie_index.html

Ten Lectures by Rudolf Steiner Ph.D., given in Düsseldorf, April, 1909. The Spiritual Hierarchies and Their Reflection in the Physical World is published in German as: Geistige Hierarchien und Ihre Widerspiegelung in der Physischen Welt. Tierkreis, Planeten, Kosmos. These lectures take us into the exalted regions of the spiritual world, illuminating the actions of the spiritual beings in the kingdoms of nature and in the planetary and zodiacal spheres, and explaining the task allotted to humanity in the continuous evolution of this hierarchical world.

CONTENTS

	Cover Sheet
	Synopses
	Lecture 1	April 12, 1909
	The ‘Plan of the World’ always existed. Primeval world wisdom — The Holy Rishis. Mystery Schools — Stanzas of Dzyan. Rosy cross. The Western Rishis. The Christ Impulse. Buddha and Christ. Explanation of Pain and Death — Healing. The Vision to the Stars and its meaning in olden days compared with now. Dionysius the Areopagite. The Hierarchies — Angels to Thrones and Saturn. The Bhagavad Gita.
	Lecture 2	April 12, 1909
	The Elements. Warmth is twofold, inward and outward. Fire separates light from smoke. Light is invisible. Our duty and power to release the world bewitched. During man's life he is a place of transition for elemental beings. Bhagavad Gita does not in quoted passage refer to the human self, but to the elementals. Elemental messengers of higher hierarchies. First Class are the fire elementals bound in air, water, earth. Second Class: day and night elementals released by man's activity and chained by his sloth and callousness The Third Class: elementals of the waxing and waning moon are released by optimism and chained down by discontent. Fourth Class: the summer and winter elementals are released by piety and chained by materiality.
	Lecture 3	April 13, 1909
	Earth, Moon, Sun, Saturn. Angels, Archangels, Archai. Saturn — a realm of invisible warmth. Herakleitos. On Saturn inner warmth becomes outer warmth. Production and dissolution of warmth; inhalation and exhalation of warmth — exhalation as fire; resemblance to expansion and contraction in breathing. The Rishis teaching: fire, sucked in becomes the Ego of the Archai. The Archai beginning to leave the exhaled warmth outside without re-inhaling it leads to manhood consciousness, objective consciousness and consciousness of self. Saturn dissolved by the Thrones. Pralaya or night. The karma of the Archai on Saturn brings ancient Sun into existence. Warmth divides into light and smoke or air. Archangels appear on Sun and secure a habitation. They have an inner body of warmth inherited from Saturn which divided into an inner body of light and an outer body of smoke. Exhalation, the Suns day; inhalation, the Suns night. On Sun, the warmth eggs of Saturn are hatched and pictures with inner life are produced, which were the densest bodies used by the Archangels.
	Lecture 4	April 13, 1909
	The eggs of warmth on Saturn were created by the thought of the Archai; now-a-days thought goes no further than the astral. Evolution is a system proceeding from taking and to giving. On Saturn the Thrones gave their own warmth to the Archai, similar to the silkworms. The Archai gave personality to the warmth. The expansion of the Archangels. They are met by Cherubim. In the Sun-nights when in the atmosphere light has left the air, in the air the Cherubim reflect the figure which becomes the germ of the animal kingdom. The Zodiac.
	Lecture 5	April 14, 1909
	Old Saturn was as large as a globe having as its centre the sun of to-day and reaching as far as present Saturn. Evolution from Saturn to Vulcan. The Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones come from an earlier solar system. They have been in the vicinity of the highest godhead of all, namely the Trinity. Seraphim receive the ideas of the Trinity, Cherubim ponder over them, Thrones transform them into action. These are called the first three-fold Hierarchy. The work of the second threefold hierarchy described. The Spirits of Wisdom transformed old Saturn to old Sun and condensed Saturn to such a size that when it became Sun, it was of a size that would have its centre in the present Sun and reach as far as the present Jupiter. The planets are boundaries of the ancient worlds. The Spirits of Motion condensed the old Sun to a watery globe called Moon, whose size from the present Sun as its centre would reach to the present Mars. The creation of Moon was different from the others, it implied later a splitting into two globes so that the Sun contracted and was surrounded by another body, in the orbit of the present Mars, and in the periphery of the original single body. The origin of Evil and the Fight in Heaven. The Planetoids.
	Lecture 6	April 15, 1909
	Uranus and Neptune are quite different from the others. The Ptolemaic and Copernican systems. The names of the Planets Mercury and Venus have been interchanged. The range and mission of the Angels, Archangels, Archai, Spirits of Form, etc. The Sons of Venus or Mercury incarnated in Lemuria or Atlantis to become the teachers of men. The Sons of Venus were Spirits of Personality, Dyani Buddhas who guided humanity in Lemuria. The Sons of Mercury guided nations and races, they are the beings of Mercury.
	Lecture 7	April 16, 1909
	Habitations and nature of the Hierarchies (continued). Physical body of an Angel is in water, etheric and astral body of an Angel are in air and fire Spirits of Personality from Astronomical views, descended to Lemuria and ensouled the physical body Archangels from Mercury, descended into Atlantis and inspired the physical and etheric bodies. Oracles. Manu the Sun-Oracle. The Rishis In Post-Atlantis, Angels descended from Moon and ensouled physical, etheric and astral bodies.
	Lecture 8	April 17, 1909
	Jupiter or Sun Eagle or Scorpion. Saturn's rings. Mars or Ancient Moon. Aquarius the Waterman. Earth, Taurus the Bull, Chaldea, the ‘I am’, the voice and propagation.
	Lecture 9	April 18, 1909
	Saturn, Sun, Moon are repeated at the beginning of the Earth. The Saturn and Jupiter of to-day. The Milky Way. Our World System is not round but bean shaped. The origin of a planet. The Zodiac and the animal forms of man's body formed on old Saturn. The Giant Ymir. Adam Cadmon of the Kabbala. If you want to understand the centre, investigate the circumference. The formation of worlds is the preparation of karma. As in big things so in small — so in the nations. The time described when one person takes on the karma of a nation. Hermes. This happens on every planet. From taking we advance to giving, e g, the Thrones, etc. It is greater to give than to receive. Man's development in Kamaloka. The astral must be spiritualised before we can see into the spiritual worlds. When the astral body is completely transformed the etheric body becomes a counterpart of it. This is Nirmana Kaya when no remnants are left in the astral world. Zarathustra penetrated the astral body of Hermes Dharmakaya.
	Lecture 10	April 18, 1909
	Leonardo's ‘Last Supper.’ Goethe. Cologne Cathedral. Matter contracts towards a central point and then disappears but reappears at the circumference. We cannot grasp this so long as our mind remains in the space of three dimensions. Uranus and Neptune have nothing to do with the creation of our world and their Moons are retrograde. Uranus, and later Neptune withdraw during the Mars development. All that lies outside us was generically called Ouranos — the Heavens. Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones are the only beings that have the direct light of God, and have had it from the beginning. The second Hierarchy see God only in His revelations. Masked priests in the Mysteries endeavoured to test, frighten, and lure the Neophyte. Between Jupiter and Mars adverse Spirits of Motion create obstacles in evolution. Some of the Angels refuse to be tempted and they join with Sun. Luciferic beings impress into the astral body of Lemurians the results of the fight in the Heavens. The Angels are the first to have the possibility of error and of evil and free will. Michael and the Dragon. The Bull of Mithra. The Spirits of Motion were ordered to throw themselves athwart evolution. During Lemuria, Atlantis, and later, the Ego was in a cloud but assailed by Luciferic Angels. Other Angels, and Archangels then came to help and guide man. They descended into the physical, etheric and astral and a being was prepared to receive the Ego. The Ego and the blood of Moses and Jesus of Nazareth. Christ never interfered with man's free will. He did nothing to propagate theory. He did not act by teaching but by His deeds and death. St. Paul. Lucifer cannot enter the Ego. The Advent of Christ. The redemption of Luciferic powers makes man stronger. It is the Truth that makes free, from this comes Love. Love can only come through Freedom. Arch-messengers or Archangels perform the tasks allotted them but man will fulfil his own task. Man will be the Hierarchy of Freedom and Love.

The Science of the 7 Rays

 Source: https://www.totalenlightenmentstore.com/the-science-of-the-seven-rays/

Seven Rays = Seven Principles | Principles = universal & eternal

A Principle is a universal potential. Principles are universal and eternal. They are the very Being and Essence of Spirit. Principles are the Divine Mind in operation. In intuitive philosophy they are also known as Rays. The Seven Rays are Seven Principles.

We each are centers of individualization for the Divine Spirit. This is why man is said to be made in the image and likeness of God and to be a reflection of His very own Being. Spirit being the formless Principle of Life, the likeness cannot possibly be in the outward form. The likeness between Spirit and man can only be of a mental kind. The word man comes from the Sanskrit manas meaning mind. The individual mind (man) is a concentration of the Universal Mind into individual consciousness. In other words: the mind of man is a miniature reproduction of the mind of God. The mode of man’s mind differs from the mode of Spirit’s mind in that the former is directed towards the individual and particular whereas the latter is directed towards the universal and general, but in quality they are identical. What is universal in Spirit becomes individual in man because man is nothing less than the replication, in individuality, of all that which Spirt is, in universality. Principles are universal; man differentiates (specializes) these universal undifferentiated principles by channeling them through his very own consciousness in order to meet particular needs.

Second Ray of Love = Principle of Expansion into Ever Fuller Life

The prime motive and purpose of the Spirit of Life is to create individual lives and envelop them in an adequate surrounding so that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:8-10, KJV). In other words: love is Spirit’s desire for Spirit’s creation to expand into an ever greater fulness of a joyous life.

Fear is the inversion of the principle of expansion leading towards ever greater contraction and limitation. By engaging the thought of fear, we are giving substance to that which has no real substance in itself thereby creating the thing we fear and making it real to us even though it does not exist in the Mind of God. FEAR = false evidence appearing (!) real. Limitation and contraction (to the point of death) have no existence in the Mind of the Ever-Expanding Spirit. Man’s job is to use the creative power of thought affirmatively, that is towards ever greater expansion and fulness of a joyous life.

*Affirmation = moving forward towards expansion | *Negation = moving backward towards contraction

First Ray of Will, Power & Purpose = Centralizing Principle

Spirit’s motive is eternal expansion towards ever greater joy, abundance, health, wealth, in short: towards an ever fuller joyous life. Will is the centralizing Principle, keeping the imagination centered in the right direction; the right direction being that of ever greater expansion of health, joy, abundance. Remember: that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. The purpose of imagination is to form the spiritual prototype (=thought) so it may externalize in matter (=thing). The function of the will is to keep the imagination centered on images of expansion and ever greater fulness.

Inverted will is the misuse of our will in service of fear. Will used affirmatively in service of love (eternal expansion) enables us to go forward into a fuller life. Will used negatively in service of fear (limitation) makes us going backwards in life and leads towards ever greater contraction.

Third Ray of Active Intelligence = Principle of Intelligence

The Principle of Intelligence is inherent in the Principle of Life. Thanks to the involution of Spirit into substance, a universal intelligence to which we might give the name atomic intelligence subsists throughout nature. The opposite pole of atomic intelligence is individual intelligence. The mark of intelligence is responsiveness; the mark of individual intelligence is selection and initiative. For man to move out of the Fourth Kingdom (man) into the Fifth Kingdom (Soul) he has to take the initiative and engage in a process of intelligent growth. The process of intelligent growth involves first the recognition of these principles that constitute our very own being and second the active cooperation of atomic and individual intelligence. The function of intelligence lies in specializing the principles in a way that leads to an expansion of the individual life. To specialize a principle means to facilitate special conditions for the operation of the principle so as to produce new, broader, more expanded experiences that will transcend our past experiences.

Ignorance of the principles and laws of nature is the inversion of the Principle of Intelligence. Ignorance leads towards ever greater contraction and limitation. Intelligence leads towards every greater expansion into an ever fuller life.

Fourth Ray of Beauty = Principle of Harmoniousness | Alpha & Omega

While Spirit is the formless principle of Life, it needs a form to express itself. The vehicle is the form in which the principle functions. The only appropriate form for love to express itself adequately is beauty. Beauty is characterized by the perfect proportions of the parts making up the whole. Beauty is perfect harmony and harmoniousness. The function of beauty is to adequately manifest love in ever greater and greater perfection.

Our invisible thought forms a spiritual prototype which reproduces itself in outer visible conditions. Thoughts are seeds. Inherent in the seed is a self-expansive vitality producing the result.

Thought = Alpha. Thing = Omega.

Everything has its origin in a thought (=Alpha of conception) and finds its completion in the expression of that thought in form (=Omega of completion). The thing exists in the thought and the thought expresses in the thing. While thought is absolute (=independent of time and space), the thing is relative (=dependent of time and space); and the thing is, for that reason, subject to the law of growth and gradual development.

Disproportion and incompletion are the inversion of the principle of beauty and omega. Disproportion leads towards contraction. Proportion allows the harmonious expansion of the indwelling life towards ever greater expansion.

Fifth Ray of Knowledge = Principle of Primary Causation

Man is the creative center of his own world. Our thought has creative power. Every cause has an effect. Thought = cause. Condition = effect. Thought = invisible. Condition = visible. All visible things have their origin in invisible thought. There is no way to escape the law of cause and effect except by the Principle of Knowledge which puts the subject of cause and effect into proper perspective and order:

Primary causation = initiating a new series of cause and effect = thought is independent of conditions

Secondary causation = conditions/circumstances are regarded as cause = thought is contingent on conditions

Man in the Fourth Kingdom works on the plane of secondary causation only and does neither understand why he is surrounded by the circumstances he is in nor that his very own (!) creative thought power is forever externalizing conditions. As a result we keep going in circles where one limitation leads to the next. The awakened man ready to enter the Fifth Kingdom works on the plane of primary causation where thought is not contingent on any conditions and has one purpose only: eternal expansion into an ever fuller life of glory and joy. The awakened man disregards the world of circumstances (= world of effects) altogether and lives on the plane of pure thought, the plane of primary causation.

Secondary causation is the inversion of the principle of primary causation. Secondary causation leads towards contraction and limitation because effects are mistaken for causes. Primary causation leads towards ever greater expansion.

Sixth Ray of Idealism = Principle of Ideas & Idealism

The plane of primary causation is the plane of pure ideas. When we form an ideal pattern (=thought image) by the power of our thought we initiate first cause as far as the thing is concerned, and having moulded first cause into the desired form we can await the externalization of the thought with joyous expectation. Ideally the ideal patterns we form are aligned with the greater Divine Ideal of man. In this way we are using the principle as it is Divinely intended: towards ever greater expansion into a fuller life. The Divine Ideal of man is to move out of our humanity (Fourth Kingdom) into our Divinity (Fifth Kingdom); to expand our identity from I am body to I am Soul. The Fifth Kingdom is our Divine Ideal. Ideally we prepare ourselves to enter this Kingdom. The proper preparation lies in imagining ourselves as beings of pure light, love and glory. Soul is the evolving consciousness. Christ is the perfected consciousness. Christ embodies the ideal manifestation in the individual of the Principle of Life. Let this be the ideal and pattern by which we may be forever guided.

The inversion of the principle of idealism is identification with the reflection (idol worship). The ideal is real. The outward manifestation is a mere reflection. Replace idol worship with ideal worship and you will be forever moving forward in life.

1 = Mineral Kingdom | 2 = Plant Kingdom | 3 = Animal Kingdom | 4 = Human Kingdom | 5 = Soul Kingdom

Seventh Ray of Freedom = Principle of Liberty according to Law

The evolutionary goal of man is to move out of the Fourth Kingdom (man) into the Fifth Kingdom (Soul). The whole purpose of life is to break free from the wheel of rebirth in the human kingdom. Our goal is nothing less than perfect liberty.  Perfect liberty is attained by living our life in alignment with the Principles and Laws of Life. The inverted use of the creative power of thought holds us in the bondage of the wheel whereas its proper use guides us into eternal liberty. Perfect liberty is the realization that man is literally a focal point in which the Spirit of Life expresses Itself. It’s the realization that in expressing Spirit we express ourselves, that I and the Father are one; and that since the prime moving motive of Spirit is to expand into ever greater glory, joy and ecstasy, for all of eternity life will be getting better and better, lighter and lighter, fuller and fuller.

The inversion of the principle of liberty is bondage. The thought that holds us bondage is the thought that we are just a body and that one day we will die. The thought that sets us free is the realization that man’s constitution is threefold – Spirit (Monad | Father), matter (body | Holy Spirit), consciousness (Soul | Son) – and that I and the Father are one.

And thus the circle closes. Principles are the Divine Mind in operation. Man is the reproduction, in individuality, of these same principles. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. The Seven Rays or Seven Principles represent our ideal of perfection. The word perfection comes from the Latin and literally means to make complete, to finish, to bring to full development. The number seven is the numerical equivalence of complete manifestation because it combines the three (spiritual factors) and the four (material factors). The number seven – including the involution of Spirit into matter and the subsequent evolution of matter into Spirit – represents the finished whole. This is why it is said that God created the world in Seven Days. The Seven Days are the Seven Principles. The Seven Principles are an instruction in how to use the creative power of our thought as it is Divinely intended to.

And so in conclusion I would like to invite you to make a commitment here and now to dedicate each one of the sevens days of the week to one of the Seven Principles so as to weave their essence into your very consciousness and so you, too, may become perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.

Day	Ray
Monday is Willpower Day	Use your willpower to keep your imagination centered on the formation of spiritual prototypes (thoughts) of expansion.
Tuesday is Love Day	Use the creative power of your thought affirmatively, i.e. always moving forward towards ever greater expansion into a fully joyous life.
Wednesday is Intelligence Day	Initiate intelligent growth by finding new ways to specialize the universal principles through the cooperation of individual and atomic intelligence.
Thursday is Beauty Day	Transcend the illusion of fear and return your mind to the truth of love so as to manifest forms of sublime beauty and perfect proportion.
Friday is Knowledge Day	Work on the plane of primary causation, the plane of pure thought where thought is free, and learn to think in unison with Divine Mind.
Saturday is Idealism Day	Prepare yourself for entrance into the Fifth Kingdom by imagining yourself embodying the Divine Ideal of pure light, love and glory.
Sunday is Liberty Day	Celebrate having gained freedom from the wheel of rebirth through the application of Divine Law leading you to the realization that I and the Father are one.

Since these Seven Principles play such a fundamental role in our life we have created a number of services around the Seven Rays to help create awareness for their existence. Please read the introductory educational write-ups of the pertinent product descriptions below. They each highlight another aspect of the workings of the Seven Rays. Namaste, Gloria

By accepting the idea of Good and Evil, the inverted working of fear is introduced

Think of the Seven Rays as seven primary differentiations of energy or seven types of energy that have been IMPRESSED by Source with seven specific intentions. Our job is to work with these divinely impressed energies and EXPRESS their inherent Divine intent in the lower atmospheres of the Soul: thinking, feeling and acting. But here is what happens: when we intuit abstract divine ideas, which are the origin and source of all the thoughts we think, we distort the divine idea according to our point in evolution. Since we as a human family are only beginning to realize that we live in a world of energies and due to the so-called fall of man which might be defined as the failure of the lower mentality to realize that God is love we naturally end up misusing the energies at our disposal by inverting them. By accepting the idea of Good and Evil, the inverted working of fear is introduced. Inverted energy is imprisoned energy leading towards ever greater contraction. Imprisoned energy needs to be released, freed and returned to Source, to ever greater expansion. This is accomplished by drawing the imprisoned energy into its Soul opposite.

The root of every problem in the world lies in man’s affirmation of negation, that is: in the inverted use of the creative power of thought

The goal of man is to step out of our humanity and into our Divinity. The root of every problem in the world lies in man’s affirmation of negation, that is: in the inverted use of the creative power of thought, in this way giving substance to that which as a principle has no existence. Good = using the creative power of thought towards ever greater expansion. Evil = using the creative power of thought towards ever greater contraction. This is why there is a higher and lower expression of each of the Seven Rays and why we need to transcend the lower and affirm the higher if we wish to consciously step into our Divinity. The Seven Rays complete our ideal for the perfect development of our consciousness. Affirmations help us to reach our evolutionary goal by formulating it: this is how we make universal principles personal. Once our evolutionary goal is clearly formulated, we can go about embodying it. To make affirmations work, we have to (1) step into the divine idea of the affirmation by contemplating and appropriating it, (2) clothe it into mental substance, (3) make it magnetic by charging it with emotional force, and then (4) ground it on Earth via a planned service activity. The science of affirmation is all about the conscious thinking I assuming an affirmative position: affirmative in the sense of the Soul becoming the positive (active, impressing) polarity in relationship to the negatively polarized (passive, being impressed upon) substance of the bodies.

The term hierarchy simply denotes the ladder of life

The term hierarchy, often misunderstood, simply denotes the ladder of life. The ladder of life has infinite rungs. There are kingdoms on the rungs below us (with a more limited level of awareness than man; i.e.: mineral, vegetable, animal) and kingdoms on the rungs above us (with a more expanded level of awareness than man; i.e.: Kingdom of Awakened Souls or Enlightened Masters).  As far as man is concerned, our evolutionary goal is to advance into a Soul-conscious species. In this way we move out of the Fourth Kingdom (man) into the Fifth Kingdom (Soul). Mineral, vegetable,  animal, man and an awakened Soul are equally alive, however, what differentiates one from the other is their level of livingness. Livingness is measured by intelligence. Intelligence manifests itself by responsiveness.  By calling on the Awakened Souls of the Fifth Kingdom, in our reaching out, we stretch ourselves, we expand our consciousness. Our invoking them acts as a magnetic pull or positive pole of magnetic attraction through which we may bridge the gap (in continuity) between the two Kingdoms. We expand our awareness from I am man to I am Soul and we evoke the energy potential of the Seven Rays, latent within our Soul, into outer expression.

We live in two worlds simultaneously: visible and invisible

We live in two worlds simultaneously: visible and invisible. Think of an ashram as a group consciousness that is held together by a common divine purpose. The visible outer plane correspondences of the invisible inner plane ashrams are political groups (First Ray), educational institutions (Second Ray), communication centers (Third Ray), art collectives (Fourth Ray), scientific communities (Fifth Ray), religious organizations (Sixth Ray) and business hubs (Seventh Ray). Think of the aura as a sphere of influence which we each create around the nucleus of our Soul. We may deliberately link up our individual magnetic field with the greater magnetic field and energy vortex of these seven centers in this way quickening the vibratory frequency of our aura and impressing it with the divine intent inherent in the Seven Rays.

Soul is consciousness capable of awareness

Soul is consciousness capable of awareness. Our current evolutionary goal is to become Soul conscious in our brain awareness. Becoming Soul conscious means expanding the awareness of the conscious thinking I from I am body to I am Soul. The conscious thinking I is the Soul imprisoned in the form nature (body), unaware of itself. The conscious thinking I, unaware of itself, is linked with its prototype, the Overligthing Soul that is aware of its identity, via the so-called consciousness thread. Consciousness is magnetic. When the incarnated consciousness reaches up to the Overlighting Soul via invocation asking for immaculate attunement with the higher consciousness it magnetically pulls down the Overlighting Soul, and as the Overlighting Soul responds it magnetically lifts up the incarnated consciousness. This way the Divine merger is brought about in our brain awareness and continuity of consciousness attained.