Monday, 18 November 2024

The Divine Hermaphrodite

Giuliana P. | January 18, 2024 | 4. Model

There is a magnetic bond that connects Mercury (4th Ray) to Venus (5th Ray), a bond that leads the enlightened Mind and the loving Mind to intertwine so deeply as to delineate that synthetic unity between Reality and form, between Being and becoming, between the One and the manifold, that reveals, in a play of infinite symmetries, the pattern and texture of Manifestation. (1)
“… The Four, being the centre, being the lord of symmetries, cannot do anything if the Five does not reveal them by lending it its dualism. Therefore the dualism that could be considered as an energy that deceives, seen from the threshold of the Temple, is instead an energy that expresses. And we could not admire the harmonies and symmetries that the Four composes if the Five with its dualism did not represent them!” (2)

Myth, the mighty voice of the eternal, reminds us that Mercury and Venus gave birth to Hermaphroditus, who, unique example in all Greek mythology, was a representative of both sexual genders at the same time.
“Now Mercury is called Hermes, and Venus, Aphrodite, and thus their conjunction in man on the psychophysical plane gives him the name of the Hermaphrodite, or Androgyne. The absolutely Spiritual Man is, however, entirely disconnected from sex.” (3)

Other sources, e.g. Ovid, tell of the beautiful Hermaphroditus who inflamed the nymph Salmacis with love, but she was rejected by the young man. The nymph waited for the boy to bathe in a lake to embrace him, wrapping herself around him and praying to Zeus that she might forever be united with her beloved and never be separated from him. Her ardent wish was granted and the two became one body with both sexes.
This mythological figure, in addition to the suggestions that see in the coexistence of the sexes in a single creature the power of fertility, recalls the figure of the perfect man who was able to unite in himself the human and divine aspects and represents the coincidentia oppositorum, the perfect union of opposites, that rediscovered unity that makes man a citizen of both earth and heaven, also echoed in the narration we find in Plato’s Symposium. (4)
This ‘nostalgia for wholeness’ or ‘longing for the One’ urges man to search: mind and heart reach out together to regain the lost unity and, step by step, internally rebuild that garden of perfect beauty where all separations vanish and the Union can shine.
A union which, as the myth once again confirms, is also expressed by the image of Ouroboros, the serpent that turns on itself in the guise of a circle and which, like the Hermaphrodite, represents completeness, the universal globe, the Whole which reveals itself through a perfect form.

Following Madame Blavatsky’s lead, we then see another aspect in the figure of the Hermaphrodite, namely that original male-female duality in a single numinous expression that connoted many of the ancient depictions of the deity and thus expressed the completeness and integrity of the One:
“Nevertheless, one finds the Hermaphrodite in the scriptures and traditions of almost every nation; and why such unanimous agreement if the statement is only a fiction? (…) Behold the imperishable witness to the evolution of the Human Races from the Divine, and especially from the Androgynous Race—the Egyptian Sphinx, that riddle of the Ages! Divine Wisdom incarnating on Earth, and forced to taste of the bitter fruit of personal experience of pain and suffering, generated on Earth only under the shade of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil—a secret first known only to the Elohim, the Self-Initiated, “Higher Gods.” In the Book of Enoch we have Adam, the first Divine Androgyne, separating into man and woman, and becoming Jah-Heva in one form, or Race, and Cain and Abel—male and female—in its other form or Race—the double-sexed Jehovah, an echo of its Âryan prototype, Brahmâ-Vâch. After which come the Third and Fourth Root-Races of mankind—that is to say, Races of men and women, or individuals of opposite sexes, no longer sexless Semi-spirits and Androgynes, as were the two Races which precede them. This fact is hinted at in every Anthropogony. It is found in fable and allegory, in myth and revealed Scriptures, in legend and tradition. For, of all the great Mysteries, inherited by Initiates from hoary antiquity, this is one of the greatest. It accounts for the bi-sexual element found in every Creative Deity, in Brahmâ-Virâj-Vâch, as in Adam-Jehovah-Eve, also in Cain-Jehovah-Abel. (…)
The “Divine Hermaphrodite” is, then, Brahmâ-Vâch-Virâj; and that of the Semites, or rather of the Jews, is Jehovah-Cain-Abel.
(…) But there are myths which speak for themselves. In this class we may include the double- sexed first creators of every Cosmogony. The Greek Zeus-Zên (Æther), and Chthonia (the Chaotic Earth) and Metis (Water), his wives; Osiris and Isis-Latona—the former God also representing Æther, the first emanation of the Supreme Deity, Amun, the primeval source of Light; the Goddess Earth and Water again; Mithras, the rock-born God, the symbol of the male Mundane Fire, or the personified Primordial Light, and Mithra, the Fire-Goddess, at once his mother and his wife; the pure element of Fire (the active, or male principle) regarded as light and heat, in conjunction with Earth and Water, or Matter (the female or passive element of cosmical generation). All these are records of the primeval divine Hermaphrodite.” (5)

The figure of the Hermaphrodite also foreshadows the fulfilment of the future union between human and devic evolutions.
The two evolutions are currently only juxtaposed and not fused together. “In the three worlds the two lines of evolution parallel each other, and must not be consciously one. In the planes of the Triad they are known as a unity, producing the Divine Hermaphrodite, or the Heavenly Man,—the self-conscious human units embodying the three aspects of divinity, while the conscious deva units embody the divine attributes. The two, blended together, form the body of manifestation, the centres and substance of the Heavenly Man.” (6)

“It is in the vegetable kingdom that we find one of the first and temporary approximations between the evolving human Monad, and the evolving deva Monad. The two parallel evolutions touch in that kingdom, and then again follow their own paths, finding their next point of contact on the fourth or buddhic level, and a final merging on the second.” (7)

“Further, the two great evolutions (human and deva) find their group unity on the buddhic plane, and portions of both hierarchies blend and merge so as to form the body of the divine Hermaphrodite. Earlier, at certain fixed points, they may temporarily approximate each other. On the buddhic plane definite and permanent alliance may be seen.” (8)

This future glory sees the One shining forth in the fullness of its power also through its parts which, after the evolutionary journey, can contribute to rebuild its substantial fabric with Intelligence and Love.
The Divine Hermaphrodite is precisely this great Being, planetary and solar and cosmic, which in itself manifests the pair of opposites and in this divine unity guarantees the fecundation and generation of the manifested world.
Life and Space, Father and Mother, unite, though they had never been separated, in the fullness of their manifesting power, merge into the One Fire that is the image of the infinite creative capacity of the Absolute, intertwine, and with them all creatures that live in their breath, in an embrace of Light.

“When Father approaches Mother, that which will be taketh form. The union of the two concealeth the true mystery of Being. When the two great devas seek each other, when they meet and merge, the promise of life is fulfilled. (…) Herein lies the key to the mystic marriage, and to the student of occultism much may be revealed through the study of these pairs of opposites; it will cause the revelation of the process (in time and space) whereby this union and its fruit is consummated, and the resultant creation of the divine Hermaphrodite is seen upon His Own high plane.” (9)

This triumphant glory is also envisaged as the outcome of conscious human participation in the building of the cosmic Temple, and finds in the energies of Mercury and Venus the necessary fire for this undertaking of Communion, knowing that “absolute Reason and the perfect Heart are one and the same Source.” (10)

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1 – Today we celebrate the conjunction, according to the heliocentric perspective, between Mercury, Lord of Harmony and Beauty, and Venus, Lady of the Golden Proportion, in the First Sector of Scorpio. On this occasion the Formula “I resonate with hierarchical Harmony” resounds, urging everyone to raise their consciousness, in the Light of Love, to unite it with the one of the Masters.
2 – E. Savoini, Commentary to the Mysteries, unpublished paper
3 – Helena P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. III
4 – In the Symposium, Plato has the playwright Aristophanes tell of the existence of a third gender that partakes of both sexes. This gender was not a child of the Sun like men, and not a child of the Earth like women, but a child of the Moon. The myth relates that self-sufficient completeness made humans so arrogant that they planned to climb Mount Olympus and so Zeus was forced to separate each of them into two halves, one male and the other female.
5 – Helena P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Anthropogenesis
6 – Alice A. Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 663
7 – Ibidem, p. 589
8 – ibidem, p. 328
9 – Ibidem, pp. 671-2
10 – Agni Yoga Series, Infinity I § 300

Deva Evolution

Adriano N. | November 19, 2024 | 1. Purpose, 2. Field, 3. Plan, 4. Model, 5. Manifestation, 7. Order

Today we celebrate the conjunction, according to the heliocentric vision, of Mercury/Hermes, Lord of Harmony and Beauty, and Venus/Aphrodite, Lady of the Golden Proportion, by publishing this article on devic evolution: “… the two great evolutions (human and deva) find their group unity on the buddhic plane, and portions of both hierarchies blend and merge so as to form the body of the divine Hermaphrodite. Earlier, at certain fixed points, they may temporarily approximate each other. On the buddhic plane definite and permanent alliance may be seen.” (Alice A. Bailey – A Treatise on Cosmic Fire /328-29)

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Devas…. [are] the sum total of the energy of substance and of substance itselfI. (Alice A. Bailey – A Treatise on Cosmic Fire /620)

The sumtotal of human and deva units upon a planet make the body vital of a planetary Logos, whilst the sumtotal of lesser lives upon a planet (from the material bodies of men or devas down to the other kingdoms of nature) form His body corporeal, and are divisible into two types of such lives:

a. Those on the evolutionary arc, such as in the animal kingdom.
b. Those on the involutionary arc, such as the totality of all elemental material forms within His sphere of influence. All the involutionary lives, as earlier pointed out, form the vehicles for the spirit of the planet, or the planetary entity, who is the sumtotal of the elemental essences in process of involution. He holds a position (in relation to a Heavenly Man) analogous to that held by the different elementals that go to the make-up of man’s three bodies, physical, astral and mental, and he is—like all manifesting beings—threefold in his nature, but involutionary. Therefore, man and devas (differentiating the devas from the lesser Builders) form the SOUL of a Heavenly Man. Other lives form his BODY. […] One group manifests the fire of matter, the other group the fire of mind, for the devas are the personification of the active universal mind, even though man is considered manasic in a different sense. Man bridges in essence; the devas bridge in matter. (Alice A. Bailey – A Treatise on Cosmic Fire /301-02)

Working as members of that Hierarchy* are a great number of beings called angels by the Christian, and devas by the oriental. Many of them have passed through the human stage long ages ago, and work now in the ranks of the great evolution parallel to the human, and which is called the deva evolution. This evolution comprises among other factors, the builders of the objective planet and the forces which produce, through those builders, every form familiar and unfamiliar. The devas who co-operate with the Hierarchical effort, concern themselves, therefore, with the form aspect, whilst the other members of the Hierarchy are occupied with the development of consciousness within the form. (Alice A. Bailey – Initiation, Human and Solar /36)

[* The Hierarchy might be considered as the aggregate on our planet of the forces of the fifth kingdom in nature. This kingdom is entered through the full development and control of the fifth principle of mind, and its transmutation into wisdom, which is literally the intelligence applied to all states through the full conscious utilisation of the faculty of discriminative love. (Alice A. Bailey – Initiation, Human and Solar /21)]

The agents of the divine will

To understand more fully the function of the deva forces, a man must arrive at some understanding of the forces in his etheric body which, in their turn, are the consequence of his point of attainment—an attainment demonstrated by his astral (emotional) and mental natures and activities. These indicate his point of development.

The devas are the agents of the divine will because they are a consequence of the point of attainment of our planetary Logos as He exists outside the seven planes of our sphere of existence, the cosmic physical plane. They are conditioned by His cosmic astral and mental vehicles. In a definite sense, they are the agents of the Universal Mind, even though they are not mental as we understand that term.

They are sometimes regarded as blind forces, but that is only because they get their inspiration from levels of divine awareness outside the range of the human consciousness, no matter how high, or when used in its widest connotation.

Their controlling Agent in manifestation is the Triangle of Energy to which we give the name the “Three Buddhas of Activity”. They are therefore closely connected with the third aspect of divinity. They are essentially the “eye within the Triangle”—a most familiar symbol to many today. They are the expression, in activity, of the “All-Seeing Eye”; through their agency God sees, and through them and the energy directed through them, He directs the creative process. They are under the complete control of the three Buddhas of Activity, Who are the cosmic Prototypes of the Lords of the three major rays, but not in the sense usually understood when the rays are considered in their relation to man. They are the correspondence of these three rays and are responsible for the entire manifested universe, but only within the orbit of the third aspect, the expression of the Universal Mind.

They come from the cosmic mental plane, just as the energy—distinctive of the second aspect—comes from the cosmic astral plane. God is mind. God is intelligent functioning. God is creative activity. These are the qualities of the deva evolution. God is love. God is relationship. God is consciousness. These are the three qualities of the Christ evolution. This latter evolution is carried on within the created sphere of influence of the third aspect. God is life. God is fire. God is pure being. These are the qualities of the spirit aspect, the omnipotent aspect of Deity. All these three aspects focus themselves and find an outlet for expression upon the levels of the cosmic etheric planes and upon the levels of the etheric planes known to humanity in the three worlds. The Law of Correspondences is infallible, if rightly approached and applied. (Alice A. Bailey – Rays and the Initiations /179-180)

The true builders

The building devas are the Ah-hi, or Universal Mind. They contain within their consciousness the plan logoic, and inherently possess the power to work it out in time and space, being the conscious forces of evolution.

They not only embody the Divine Thought but are that through which it manifests, and its actuating activity. They are essentially motion. The lesser builders are more particularly the material form which is actuated, and in their cohorts are the substance of matter (considering substance as that which lies back of matter).

They are that which produces concretion and which gives form to the abstract. The terms “rupa” and “arupa” devas are relative [Rupa, with form or body; Arupa, formless or bodiless. – Generally speaking, the term rupa is applied to all forms in the three worlds whilst the term arupa is applied to all forms through which existences manifest on the four higher levels of the solar system and the abstract levels of the mental plane], for the formless levels and the formless lives are only so from the standpoint of man in the three worlds; the formless lives are those which are functioning in and through the etheric body of the Logos, formed of the matter of the four higher planes of the system. From this point of view the mental plane provides an interesting consideration:—its three higher subplanes are positive, and centralise the positive force of the plane. This focussing of the positive affects the negative substance of the four lower planes and brings about likewise:

The formation of force centres on the causal levels, those force centres being egoic groups in their various divisions.
The concretion of substance, or the building of the dense physical body of the Logos.

On the physical plane of the solar system an analogous process can be seen taking place as regards the physical body of man, or his concrete manifestation. In his case, the fourth subplane is the focal point of positive force. On that plane are located the etheric centres of man, which have, in the evolutionary process and in the work of force direction, a relationship to his physical body similar to the relationship which groups of Egos on the mental plane have to the dense physical body of the Logos. This is a profound occult hint.

In the words “prana and the etheric body” (or life force and form) we have the key to the mystery of the solar and lunar pitris, and a hint as to the place of the physical body in the scheme of things. (Alice A. Bailey – A Treatise on Cosmic Fire /615-17)

The Devas of fire – the Greater Builders

I have divided the groups of devas and elementals into evolutionary and involutionary Builders—those who are in themselves positive force, and those which are negative force, the conscious and the blind workers.

[…] The greater Builders are the positive aspect of substance or of electrical phenomena whilst the lesser Builders are the negative aspect.

Two types of force are represented in the activities of these two groups and it is their interaction and interplay which produces Light, or the manifested solar system.

Their sumtotal is substance in its totality, the intelligent active form, built for the purpose of providing a habitation for a central subjective life.

They are also the sumtotal of the Pitris, or Fathers of mankind, viewing mankind as the race itself, the fourth kingdom in nature, the Heavenly Men in physical manifestation. This is a most important point to emphasise. These deva activities in relation to Self-Consciousness (which is the distinctive characteristic of humanity) can best be studied in the large, or through the consideration of groups, of races, and of the life of the scheme, the manifestation of one of the Heavenly Men.

When the student brings his study of deva work down to the terms of his own individual life he is apt to become confused through too close a juxtaposition.

The greater Builders are the solar Pitris, whilst the lesser Builders are the lunar ancestors. I would here explain the occult meaning of the word “ancestor”, as used in esotericism. It means literally initiatory life impulse. It is that subjective activity which produces objectivity, and concerns those emanatory impulses which come from any positive centre of force, and which sweep the negative aspect into the line of that force, and thus produce a form of some kind. The word “ancestor” is used in connection with both aspects.

The solar Logos is the initiatory impulse or Father of the Son in His physical incarnation, a solar system. He is the sumtotal of the Pitris, in the process of providing form. The union of Father (positive force) and Mother (negative force) produces that central blaze which we call the form, the body of manifestation of the Son. A Heavenly Man holds an analogous position in relation to a planetary scheme. He is the central germ of positive life or force, which, in due course of time, demonstrates as a planetary scheme, or an incarnation of the planetary Logos. A man similarly is the positive life or energy which, through action on negative force, creates bodies of manifestation through which he can shine or radiate.

[…] The lesser Builders are the negative aspect and are swept into action in group formation through the play of positive force upon them, or through the action of the conscious Minds of the system. I Costruttori minori sono l’aspetto negativo, e sono trascinati in azione in formazione di gruppo dall’influenza della forza positiva, o dall’azione delle Menti coscienti del sistema. (Alice A. Bailey – A Treatise on Cosmic Fire /612-14)

The Fire Elementals – the Lesser Builders

It will be apparent now that in our consideration of the deva Builders, great and small, of the solar system, we have hitherto practically confined ourselves to those who are the functioning agents in the three worlds of human endeavour. We have dealt briefly with the Builders on the evolutionary arc, the greater entities who either have passed through the human kingdom, and therefore have left that stage of evolution behind them in earlier cycles, or are at this time the “solar agents” of human manifestation. All these forms of divine existence represent—in their own place—aspects of positive force. We come now to the consideration of the lesser builders in the three worlds, those who represent the negative aspect of force, being on the involutionary arc, and who are, therefore, the recipients of energy and influences. They are worked upon by energy, and through the activity of the greater Builders are forced into different directions in space, being built into the differing forms. The energy that works upon them, as is well known, emanates from the second aspect, and in their totality they form the great Mother.

[…] Students should remember that we are dealing with involutionary substance, or atomic matter. This atomic matter is living substance, each atom being a tiny life palpitating with the vitality of the third Logos. These lives, being negative energy, are responsive to their polar opposite, and can (under the Law of Attraction and Repulsion) be built into forms which are the expression of the second aspect. Eventually the forms themselves become in their turn negative, and responsive to still another type of force, becoming recipients of the life of the first Logos when the fourth or human kingdom is reached.

This Treatise seeks to prove, that in the fourth kingdom the three fires meet:

Fire by friction, or the negative Brahma Aspect, the third Aspect.
Solar Fire, or the positive negative Vishnu Aspect, the second Aspect.
Electric Fire, or the positive Shiva Aspect, the first Aspect.

Man in the three worlds, consciously or unconsciously, recapitulates the logoic process, and becomes a creator, working in substance through the factor of his positive energy. He wills, he thinks, he speaks, and thought-forms eventuate.

Atomic substance is attracted to the enunciator. The tiny lives which compose that substance are forced (through the energy of the thinker), into forms, which are themselves active, vitalised and powerful. What man builds is either a beneficent or a maleficent creation according to the underlying desire, motive, or purpose.

It is essential that we endeavour to make practical what is here to be imparted, as it is useless for man to study the groups of lesser builders, their functions and their names, unless he realises that with many of them he has an intimate connection, being himself one of the great builders, and a creator within the planetary scheme. Men should remember that through the power of their thoughts and their spoken words they definitely produce effects upon other human beings functioning on the three planes of human evolution and upon the entire animal kingdom. The separative and maleficent thoughts of man are largely responsible for the savage nature of wild beasts, and the destructive quality of some of nature’s processes, including certain phenomena, such as plague and famine.

It is of no value to man to know the names of some of the “army of the voice” unless he comprehends his relationship to that army, unless he apprehends the responsibility which is his to be a beneficent creator, working under the law of love, and not impelled to the creative act through selfish desire, or uncontrolled activity.

Physical Plane Elementals.

It should be remembered that the devas we have been considering are the originators of impulse, and the manipulators of energy in their own degree, and on their own plane. In connection with them are to be found, therefore, the recipients of force, or the multitude of lives of an elemental nature which form the sumtotal of the matter of a plane. These are swept on waves of energy, through the impulse of the Breath, and as the result of vibratory action, into all forms as we know them on the physical plane.

Therefore, in connection with manifestation on the physical plane the devas may be divided into three groups:

The transmitters of the will of God, the originators of activity in deva substance. These are the greater builders in their various groups.
The manipulators of the initiated energy. These are the myriads of workers with force who transmit the impulse in their turn to the elemental essence. They are the builders of lesser degree, but are on the evolutionary arc as are the first group.
The recipients of force, the sumtotal of the living substance of a plane. These lives are passive in the hands of the builders of greater degree.

The three groups to be considered are:

The elementals of densest matter.
The elementals of liquid matter.
The elementals of gaseous matter.

We must bear in mind as we study these three groups that we are not concerned with the transmitters, but with the manipulators and with the recipients of energy. (Alice A. Bailey – A Treatise on Cosmic Fire /887-90)

Life and evolution of devas

We will consider now the etheric levels of the physical plane or the four highest subplanes of the physical plane. These etheric levels are but gradations of physical plane matter of a rarer and more refined kind, but physical nevertheless. They are termed in most textbooks:

The first ether, or atomic matter.
The second ether, or sub-atomic matter.
The third ether, or super-etheric matter.
The fourth ether, or simply etheric matter.

The fourth ether is the only one as yet recognised by scientists, and is the subject of their present investigations, little though they may realise it.

On the atomic subplane are the permanent physical atoms of all humanity and the appropriated atoms of the deva kingdom. The devas do not develop as do the human race. They reincarnate in groups, and not as individuals, though each group is composed of units, and has nothing of the nature of the involutionary group soul. The group soul on the involutionary path and that upon the evolutionary are unlike; one is passing on to differentiation and is composed of entities animated by one general life; the other has differentiated, and each entity is a separate unit of the one life, complete in itself, yet one with the whole.

There are many types of life to be contacted on the four etheric levels, but we can only concern ourselves at present with the deva life, remembering that the deva evolution is of equal importance to that of the human. These devas are many in number, are of involutionary and evolutionary nature, and of all grades and types.

[…] Devas of all kinds and colours are found on the physical etheric levels, but the prevailing hue is violet, hence the term so often employed, the “devas of the shadows”. With the coming in of the ceremonial ray of violet, we have the amplification therefore of the violet vibration, always inherent on these levels, and the great opportunity therefore for contact between the two kingdoms. It is in the development of etheric vision (which is a capacity of the physical human eye) and not in clairvoyance that this mutual apprehension will become possible. With the coming in likewise of this ray will arrive those who belong thereon, with a natural gift of seeing etherically.

Children will frequently be born who will see etherically as easily as the average human being sees physically; as conditions of harmony gradually evolve out of the present world chaos, devas and human beings will meet as friends.

As the two planes, astral and physical, merge and blend, and continuity of consciousness is experienced upon the two, it will be difficult for human beings to differentiate at first between devas of the astral plane, and those of the physical. At the beginning of this period of recognition, men will principally contact the violet devas, for those of the higher ranks amongst them are definitely making the attempt to contact the human. These devas of the shadows are of a dark purple on the fourth etheric level, of a lighter purple, much the same colour as violet, on the third etheric level, a light violet on the second, whilst on the atomic subplane they are of a glorious translucent lavender.

[…] Thus in the service of humanity in some form or another lies attainment for these physical plane devas. They have much to give and do for humanity, and in time it will be apparent to the human unit what he has to give towards the perfecting of the deva kingdom. A great hastening of their evolution goes forward now coincident with that of the human family. (Alice A. Bailey – A Treatise on Cosmic Fire /910-14)

Angels will come closer to mankind

It might be of interest here to point out that when He comes Whom angels and men await, and Whose work it is to inaugurate the new age and so complete the work He began in Palestine two thousand years ago, He will bring with Him some of the great Angels, as well as certain of the Masters. The angels have ever been active in Biblical history, and will again enter into the lives of human beings with more power than has lately been the case. The call has gone out for them again to approach humanity, and with their heightened vibration and superior knowledge unite their forces with those of the Christ and His disciples for the helping of the race. They have, for instance, much to communicate anent colour and sound, and the effect of these two forces on the etheric bodies of men and animals and flowers. When what they have to impart is apprehended by the race, physical ills and sickness will be offset. The group of violet angels or devas who work on the four etheric levels will be especially active and they will work in the four main groups of men who are in incarnation at any given time. Four rays dominate at any period, with one of the four more potent than the other three. You have this idea symbolised in the four castes in India and you will find also that these four castes are found universally throughout the planet.

These four groups of angels are a band of servers, pledged to the service of the Christ, and their work is to contact men and to teach them along certain lines.

a. They will teach humanity to see etherically, and this they will do by heightening human vibration by interaction with their own.
b. They will give instruction in the effect of colour in the healing of disease, and particularly the efficiency of violet light in lessening human ills and in curing those physical plane sicknesses which originate in the etheric body.
c. They will also demonstrate to the materialistic thinkers of the world the fact that the superconscious world exists and that angels and men who are out of incarnation and possess no physical bodies can be contacted and known.
d. They will train human beings in the knowledge of superhuman physics so that weight shall be for them transmuted. Motion will become more rapid, speed will be accompanied by noiselessness and smoothness, and hence fatigue will be eliminated. In the human control of etheric levels lies the overcoming of fatigue and the power to transcend time. Until this prophecy is a fact and recognised as such, the meaning of the above words will remain obscure.
e. They will teach humanity how rightly to nourish the body and to draw from the surrounding ethers the requisite food. Man will concentrate his attention upon the etheric body and the work and health of the physical body will become increasingly automatic.
f. They will also teach human beings as individuals and as a race to expand their consciousness to include the superphysical. In the accomplishment of this, the separating web (the veil of the temple) which divides the physical plane from the unseen world will be recognised as a fact in nature by the scientist. Its purpose will be acknowledged. Eventually it will be destroyed, by man discovering how to penetrate it. The date is imminent. (Alice A. Bailey – The Externalisation of the Hierarchy /508-9)

Wednesday, 6 November 2024

The Law of Sacrifice

Source: https://blog-en.theplanetarysystem.org/2024/02/17/the-law-of-sacrifice/

Among the seven laws of soul or group life that reveal to us how to serve the demands of the Plan of evolution in a more powerful and purposeful way, we examine in depth today* the first of these Laws, the Law of Sacrifice, which is associated with the 4th Ray of Harmony through conflict, and is therefore particularly related to the 4th Human Kingdom and the 4th Creative Hierarchy.

The Law of sacrifice.

… This law of sacrifice, which is the first of the laws to be grasped by the human intelligence, and is therefore the easiest for man to understand (because he is already governed by it and, therefore, aware of it) came to its first major expression during this slowly disappearing age, the present age, the Piscean age. This law has always been functioning and active in the world, for it is one of the first of the inner subjective laws to express itself consciously, and as an active ideal, in human life. The theme of all the world religions has been divine sacrifice, the immolation of the cosmic Deity through, the process of universal creation, and of the world Saviours, by Their death and sacrifice as a means of salvation and eventual release and liberation.
… this dominant world law governs the appearing and the disappearing of universes, of solar systems, of races and of nations, of world leaders and world rulers, of incarnating human beings and of revealing Sons of God.
Let us see if we can interpret or define the true significance of this law, which is in reality the expression of a divine impulse, leading to a defined activity, with its consequent and subsequent results and effects…

a) THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LAW OF SACRIFICE

It means the impulse of giving. The whole secret of the doctrines of “the forgiveness of sins” and of the “at-one-ment” lies hid in this simple phrase. It is the basis of the Christian doctrine of love and sacrifice. Hence the emphasis laid, in the Piscean Age and through the influence of Christianity, upon just these two things,—forgiveness and atonement.
That man, as usual, distorted and misinterpreted the teaching and the truth, and that it fell, as does all else at present, under the glamour and illusion of the astral plane, plus the Piscean influence, is true. Man’s thought dominated and distorted the ideal and produced such a damnable doctrine as the elect of God, the chosen of the Lord, or the sole people to benefit by the sacrifice and death of the great Son of God, and who pass, due to the merits of that vicarious death, into a state of bliss in heaven, simply because of an emotional choice, which ignores millions of those who have made no such choice, nor had the opportunity to do so. The symbolic activity of the great Teacher of Nazareth will be properly understood and its significance will be properly appreciated only when group implications are more carefully studied, the meaning of sacrifice and of death come into their rightful place in the human consciousness, and the law of giving, with all that that entails, is correctly understood and applied. Those who thus sacrifice are:

The Solar Deity who gave His life to the universe, to the solar system, to the planet, and the manifested worlds consequently appeared. The cosmic Deity has likewise done the same… It was His impulse, His will, His desire, His incentive, His idea and purpose to appear. The creative act then took place, and the process of manifestation began its cyclic evolutionary existence. The Cosmic Christ was crucified upon the cross of matter, and by that great sacrifice opportunity was offered to all evolving lives in all kingdoms of nature and in all created worlds. Thus they could progress. The work, in space and time, and the stupendous march of living beings towards an at present unrealised goal, began… All that the intelligent human being can grasp as he looks back over the history of the planet (as far as modern history can give it to him) is that there has been:

Progress in the human power to be conscious.
A growing and paralleling refinement of the forms of life in the various kingdoms of nature.
An intensification of conscious activity, on a developing scale of rapid living, that tends constantly to transcend time as we know it.
An expanding realisation of progress from one dimension to another, until today we talk in terms of a fourth dimensional state of consciousness and can grasp the fact that five or six dimensions are beautifully possible.
An increasingly scientific control of the elements in which we live, and of the forces of nature. Today we talk in terms of air mastery just as five hundred years ago (when such a thing was deemed impossible) they talked in terms of the mastery of oceans. We are offsetting the gravitational pull of the earth so that we can “fly into the face of the sun”.
From the instinctual life of sense consciousness in material forms, we have progressed to the intellectual life of self-conscious human beings and to the intuitive realisations of those who are beginning to function as superhuman entities.

All this has been brought about as the result of the determined, conditioned activity of a Great Life, Which chose to make a major sacrifice and to be crucified upon the cardinal Cross of the Heavens, and thereby pass through a cosmic initiation…
It will be apparent, therefore, why it is the energy of the fourth ray which is related to this Law of Sacrifice, and who in this fourth planetary scheme and in our fourth globe, (the Earth globe) so much emphasis is laid upon this Law of Sacrifice, “the Law of those who choose to die”.
The fourth ray of conflict (conflict with a view to eventual harmony) is at present not one of the manifesting rays, yet—in the light of the larger cycle—this ray is a major controlling factor in our earth evolution and in the evolution of our solar system, which is one of the fourth order. The realisation of this may indicate why our little planet, the Earth, is of such apparent importance in the solar system. It is not simply because we choose to think so and thus feed our own arrogance, but it is so primarily because the fourth ray of conflict and this first law are—in time and space—dominating factors in the fourth kingdom in nature, the human kingdom. Our planet, the fourth in the series of divine expression with which we are associated, has a peculiar relation to the position of our solar system in the series of solar systems which constitute the body of expression for The One About Whom Naught May Be Said.

It must never be forgotten that this fourth ray of conflict is the ray whose energies, rightly applied and understood, bring about harmony and at-one-ment. The result of this harmonising activity is beauty, but it is a beauty that is achieved through struggle. This produces a livingness through death, a harmony through strife, a Union through diversity and adversity.

The sacrifice of the solar angels [the Fourth human Hierarchy] brought the fourth kingdom in nature into being. The “returning nirvanis” (as they are called in esoteric literature), with deliberation and full understanding, took human bodies in order to raise those lower forms of life nearer to the goal. These were and are ourselves. The “Lords of Knowledge and Compassion and of ceaseless persevering Devotion” (who are ourselves) chose to die in order that lesser lives might live, and this sacrifice has made possible the evolution of the indwelling consciousness of Deity. This consciousness, having worked its way through the subhuman kingdoms in nature, needed the activity of the solar angels to make further progress possible. Herein lies:

Our service to God [to the evolutionary Purpose], through sacrifice and death;
Our service to other souls, through deliberate self-sacrificing purpose;
Our service to other forms of life in other kingdoms.

All this involves the death and sacrifice of a Son of God, a solar angel, for, from the angle of Deity, descent into matter, manifestation through form, the taking of a body, extension of consciousness through the process of incarnation, are all occultly considered to be death. But the angels “chose to die, and in dying, lived”. Through their sacrifice, matter is lifted up into Heaven. It is this theme which fills the pages of The Secret Doctrine, and which is discussed in greater elaboration in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. The sacrifice of the angels, the death of the Sons of God, the immolation of the mystic Christ, the crucifixion in time and space of all living entities, called souls—this is the theme of those books… Then comes a life wherein, in some form or another, he portrays or works out within himself, but also before the watching world, that great symbolic drama which we call: The Sacrifice of a World Saviour.

This is the theme of the historical romance of all those great Sons of God who down the ages, have arrived at an understanding of the significance of the divine purpose of God, of the Word incarnated through a planet, of those solar angels who are themselves, the Word incarnate through a human form. Whether they enact this drama, as did the Christ, so as to present to man the symbolism of death and sacrifice, or whether they enact this drama, as did the Buddha, so as to demonstrate to man the sacrifice and death of personal desire (to mention only two of the manifested Sons of God, the Christ and the Buddha), the theme remains the same,—the death of that which is lower in order to release that which is higher, or—on a larger scale—the death of that which is higher in the order and scale of being, in order to release that which is lower.

But the lesson needs to be learned (and it is the lesson which man is now engaged in learning) that death as the human consciousness understands it, pain and sorrow loss and, disaster, joy and distress, are only such because man, as yet, identifies himself with the life of the form and not with the life and consciousness of the soul, the solar angel, whose awareness is potentially that of the planetary Deity, Whose greater awareness (in His turn) is potentially that of the solar Deity. The moment a man identifies himself with his soul and not with his form, then he understands the meaning of the Law of Sacrifice; he is spontaneously governed by it; and he is one who will with deliberate intent choose to die. But there is no pain, no sorrow, and no real death involved.
This is the mystery of illusion and glamour. From these two imprisoning factors all World Saviours are free. They are not deceived. It is well, in passing, to point out here that in the New Age, we shall enlarge our concept of this term World Saviour. At present we apply it predominantly to those souls who emerge upon the teaching ray, the second or Christ ray. They enact the drama of salvation. But this is an error, due to the overpowering emotional glamour of the Piscean Age. This astral influence has its roots in the past Atlantean civilisation, which preceded ours. In that age, the astral body was the subject of attention. Much that happens today, and which may develop, has its roots in that aspect of energy. Seeds sown at that time are now brought to flower. This is very good and necessary, even if distressing in experience.
But the World Saviours must be recognised as coming forth to serve the race, with sacrifice of some kind along many lines and in many forms. They may be great rulers, or dictators, politicians, statesmen, scientists and artists. Their work is the work of salvage, of restitution, or renovation and revelation, and, through the sacrifice of themselves, they accomplish it. As such, they must be recognised for what they are. Now they are misunderstood, misinterpreted, and judged by their mistakes more than by their aims. But they are dedicated souls. They rescue; they lift; they integrate; they illumine; and the net result of their work, from the angle of ultimate history, is good.

This Law of Sacrifice and the impulse to give can also be traced throughout every kingdom in nature. It is typified for us in the basic sacrifices which take place between the various kingdoms. The essential qualities of the minerals and chemicals of the earth are an instance in point. They are needed by other forms of life and are donated to man through the medium of the vegetable kingdom and through the water which he drinks, and thus, even in the first and densest kingdom in nature (whose consciousness is so far removed from ours) does this process of giving hold good.
But the tracing of this Law of Sacrifice in the subhuman kingdoms is not possible here, and we must confine our attention to the world of human living and consciousness.

b. THE WORK OF SALVAGE OR SALVATION

The Law of Sacrifice means also salvage and underlies all the evolutionary processes and particularly does this emerge into clear significance in the human family. The instinct to betterment, the urge to progress (physical, emotional and intellectual), the effort to ameliorate conditions, the tendency to philanthropy which is so rapidly taking hold of the world, and the sense of responsibility which does make men realise that they are their brother’s keeper, are all expressions of this sacrificial instinct. This factor, though not unrecognised by modern psychology, is of far wider significance than has yet been realised. This instinctual tendency is the one that itself governs the Law of Rebirth. It is the expression of a still greater factor in the creative process. It is the major determining impulse which impelled the Soul of God Himself to enter into form life; which impels life, upon the involutionary arc, to progress down into matter, producing thus the immanence of God. It is that also which drives humanity forward into its wild struggle for material well-being. It is that too which urges man eventually to turn his back upon the “world, the flesh and the devil”, as the New Testament puts it, and orient himself to the things of spiritual import. The prodigal son sacrificed the Father’s home when he chose to wander forth into the far country. He wasted and sacrificed his substance through the use he made of the experience of life on earth, until he had exhausted all his resources and there was naught left but the eventual sacrifice of what he held so dear, but had discovered to be so unsatisfying. For these things of lesser values, he had sacrificed the higher values, and had to return again whence he came. Such is the life story of all the sons of God who came into incarnation, as given to us under the symbolism of the Bible. But the theme in all the world Bibles is the same.

This urge to sacrifice, to relinquish this for that, to choose one way or line of conduct and thus sacrifice another way, to lose in order eventually to gain,—such is the underlying story of evolution. This needs psychological understanding. It is a governing principle of life itself, and runs like a golden pattern of beauty through the dark materials of which human history is constructed. When this urge to sacrifice in order to win, gain or salvage that which is deemed desirable is understood, then the whole clue to man’s unfoldment will stand revealed. This tendency or urge is something different to desire, as desire is academically understood and studied today. What it really connotes is the emergence of that which is most divine in man. It is an aspect of desire, but it is the dynamic, active side and not the feeling, sensuous side. It is the predominant characteristic of Deity.
It is of interest, however, for students of esotericism to note that this urge to salvage and to sacrifice in order to redeem works out in different ways in the different planetary schemes. Each Ray Lord of a scheme, manifesting through a planet, expresses this urge in varying ways, and each expression is so different from the others that it is hard for a human being to do more than sense that method which exists on our own particular planet. Initiates know that the varying psychological characteristics of the ray Lives condition most peculiarly the method of expressing sacrifice, during the course of manifestation. The great stream of living energy which is manifesting itself in our Earth scheme of evolution is conditioned by a temperament, an attitude and an orientation that is that of a “Divine Rebel”. It is only rebellion that produces pain and sorrow, but this rebellion is inherent and innate in the Deity of our planet Himself, the “One in Whom we live and move and have our being”.
It is, therefore, a tendency greater than the individual unit. …

The same conditions which blend the Law of Sacrifice with pain and sorrow and difficulty are found also on the planet Mars and on the planet Saturn. They are not found on the other planets… our Earth is not a sacred planet. [that is to say it still expresses the Ray of Personality, not yet that of Its Soul].

Evolutionary patterns of Third Ray

Saturn, Mars and our Earth constitute, in a curious esoteric manner, the personality of a stupendous ray Life, Whose energy is that of the third Ray. There are, as has been stated elsewhere, seven sacred planets but ten planetary schemes, and in three cases, (those of the three major rays) three planets constitute the personality of each ray Life. Some esoteric thinkers believe that there are twelve planets to be considered in our solar system, and there is a basis for their conclusion. The personality of this third ray Life functions through the following planets:

The mental body expresses itself through the medium of the planet Saturn.
The astral body expresses itself through the planet Mars.
The physical body expresses itself through the planet Earth.

The potency of this Life is such that He requires three complete schemes—all three closely allied and interdependent—through which to express Himself. Uranus, Jupiter and Venus are similarly allied in order to manifest or express a great Life [whose energy is that of the Second Ray]…

Only three planetary schemes are aware of pain and sorrow as we understand those terms; none of them know it so well or feel it so much as does our planetary Logos.
Pain and sorrow are the result of rebellion, and of divine discontent. The instinct to betterment, based on discontent, has necessarily involved the planetary temperament or attitude which recognises the dualities.
There is a stage to be reached in the human consciousness, where that which lies behind the dualities—the stage of essential oneness—can, and will be recognised.
When this takes place, the consciousness of our humanity will then merge with that underlying consciousness of the whole, which recognises no pain or sorrow and has, therefore, slipped out of the realisation which predominantly governs the consciousness of the three great Lives in our solar system [Earth, Saturn and Mars].
It is this dimly sensed truth which lies behind the highest type of metaphysical thought… and the emphasis laid by Christianity and the esoteric schools upon the at-one-ment.

This instinct towards betterment through sacrifice is itself diverse.

There is, first of all, the instinct towards individual betterment, which leads to selfishness, to a grasping, and to an orientation of the materially-minded towards material possessions.

There is, secondly, the instinct towards an ameliorating of the conditions of other people, first from a selfish motive (the avoiding of personal distress at the sight of suffering), and secondly, through pure, disinterested service, which is a quality of the soul.

There is, finally, the active application and the complete sacrifice of the lower separated self through the power to “stand in spiritual being” which necessarily infers that one has reached that state of consciousness which transcends what may be called, symbolically the “Earth, Saturn and Mars” state of consciousness.
Let it not, however, be forgotten that the contribution to these three great planetary Lives, as They embody pre-eminently the Law of Sacrifice, through pain and rebellion, is a major contribution to the whole, and greatly enriches the sum total. The units of divine life and the atoms of electrical energy who pass through these three planetary schemes are subject to them in order to acquire that psychic sensitivity which would otherwise be impossible. Only those units of life who are coloured predominantly by the third ray of activity pass for any length of time through these three schemes. A hint is here conveyed as to the prevalence of third ray Monads among the sons of men. The ray of active intelligence, expressing itself through the seven ray types, is above everything else the ray upon which the majority of human monads will, particularly, at this time, be found. We shall, therefore, find the following psychological types colouring the bulk of our humanity, and the ray of active intelligence expressing itself through:

Will, evoking divine purpose.
Love, expressing divine quality.
Intellect, as the reflector of the Intuition.
Conflict, producing harmony.
Knowledge or science, leading to radiance.
Idealism, establishing the divine pattern.
Ritual or organisation, manifesting Deity.

… The Law of Sacrifice, therefore, can never be eliminated in our Earth scheme, as far as the human and subhuman reactions to sorrow and pain are concerned, nor can it be eliminated on the planets Saturn and Mars. It is relatively unknown in the other schemes. Bliss and Sacrifice are synonymous terms as far as our solar Logos is concerned, and also for the majority of the planetary Logoi. This must be remembered.

A touch of this freedom from the limitations of pain and sorrow can be found among the more advanced sons of men on Earth, who know the ecstasy of the mystic, the exaltation of the initiate, and the exquisite agony of sacrifice or of any feeling which is carried forward to the point of sublimation.
When this point has been reached, the mechanism of suffering and the ability to register sensuous perception is transcended, and momentarily the man escapes on to the plane of unity. Here there is no pain, no sorrow, no rebellion and no suffering. When the living, vibrating antaskarana or bridge is built, this “way of escape” becomes the normal path of life. Escape from pain is then automatic, for the centre of consciousness is elsewhere. In the cases mentioned above, and where the antaskarana is not a consummated, established fact, the tiny thread of the partially constructed “way of escape”, under tremendous pressure and excitation, shoots forward like a quivering band of light, and momentarily touches the light that is the Self. Hence ecstasy and exaltation. But it does not last, and cannot be consciously recovered until the third initiation has been taken. After that the “way of escape” becomes the “way of daily livingness” (to translate inadequately the occult and ancient phrase). Then pain is steadily transcended, and the pairs of opposites—pleasure and pain—have no longer any hold over the disciple.

All this constitutes the theme of esoteric psychology and, when rightly understood, will explain:

The Saturnian influence in human life.
The cessation of rebellion, or the ending of the Martian influence.
The building of the antaskarana, which releases the man from the control of personality life.
The evocation of the group consciousness.
The consequent negation of pain and sorrow.
Entrance into Nirvana, and the beginning of the real Way.

The Law of Sacrifice means also:

c. THE RELINQUISHING OF GAIN

This is the basic theme of The Bhagavad Gita. In that treatise on the soul and its unfoldment, we are taught to “perform action without attachment”, and thereby lay the foundation for later relinquishings which can be effected without pain and the sense of loss, because we have acquired the power, latent ever within ourselves, to detach ourselves from achieved possessions.

This law works out in many ways, and it is not possible to do more than indicate a few of those general significances which embody the major lessons of every disciple.

First, the soul must relinquish the personality. For ages, the soul has identified itself with the lower personal self, and through the agency of that lower self has gained experience and acquired much knowledge. The time has to come when that agency is “no longer dear” to the soul, and their respective positions are reversed. No longer is the soul identified with the personality but the personality becomes identified with the soul and loses its separate quality and position. All that has been acquired through age-long struggle and strife, through pain and pleasure, through disaster and satisfied desire, and all that the wheel of life, which has turned ceaselessly, has brought into the possession of the soul—All has to be relinquished. Life, for the disciple, becomes then a series of detaching processes, until he has learnt the lesson of renunciation [Fourth Initiation].
The sequence is, first dispassion, then discrimination, and finally detach-ment. On these three words must all disciples meditate, if they are ever to reap the fruits of sacrifice.

“Having pervaded the worlds with a fraction of Myself, I remain”. Such is the theme of the soul’s endeavor, and such is the spirit which must underlie all creative work. In this thought lies the clue to the symbol of the Law of Sacrifice—a rosy cross with a bird flying over it. This is the loved cross (rose being the colour of affection), with the bird (symbol of the soul) flying free in time and space.

Secondly, the soul has also to relinquish not only its tie and its gain through contact with the personal self, but it has most definitely to relinquish its tie with other personal selves.
It must learn to know and to meet other people only on the plane of the soul. In this lies for many a disciple a hard lesson. They may care little for themselves and may have learnt much personal detachment. Little may they cherish the gain of contact with the lower personal self. They are learning to transcend all that, and may have transcended to a great degree, but their love for their children, their family, their friends and intimates is for them of supreme importance and that love holds them prisoners in the lower worlds. They do not stop to recognise that their love is primarily love for the personalities, and only secondarily for the souls. Upon this rock, many disciples are for lives broken, until the time comes when, through pain and suffering and the constant losing of that which they so much cherish, their love enters into a newer, a higher and a truer phase. They rise above the personal, and find again—after felt loss and suffering—those whom now they love as souls. Then they realise that there has been gain and not loss, and that only that which was illusory, ephemeral and untrue has disappeared. The real Man has been gained and can never be lost again… to hold, one must detach, and to keep, one must release. Such is the law.

The soul has also to learn to relinquish the fruits or gains of service and learn to serve without attachment to results, to means, to persons or to praise…
In the fourth place, the soul has to relinquish also the sense of responsibility for that which other disciples may do. So many earnest servers hold on to their fellow workers, and do not relinquish their hold upon them or upon their activities upon the outer plane. This is a subtle error, for it masks itself behind a sense of righteous responsibility, an adherence to principles as they appear to the individual, and the accumulated experience of the disciple,—which is necessarily incomplete experience. The relation between disciples is egoic and not personal. The link is of the soul and not of the mind. Each personality pursues its own course, must shoulder its own responsibilities, work out its own dharma, and fulfil its own karma, and so answer for itself to its Lord and Master, the Soul. And answer there will be. Does this itself sound of the nature of separation and aloneness? It does, as far as outer activities are concerned. Only as servers cooperate from the standpoint of an inner subjective linking can a united world be carried forward.

At this time in the history of the world and its periodical salvaging from conditions which are wrecking the current civilisation, it is necessary that aspirants grasp the fact that that salvaging process must be carried on under the Law of Sacrifice, and that only a relative outer unity can be at this time achieved. Not as yet is the vision seen with a sufficient clarity by the many servers, to make them work with perfect unanimity of purpose and objective, of technique and method, or complete understanding and oneness of approach. That fluid, perfect cooperation lies as yet in the future. The establishing of an inner contact and relationship, based on a realised oneness of purpose and soul love, is magnificently possible, and for this all disciples must struggle and strive. On the outer plane, owing to the separative mind during this age and time, a complete accord on detail, on method, and on interpretation of principles is not possible.
But—the inner relationships and cooperation Must be established and developed, in spite of the outer divergences of opinion. When the inner link is held in love, and when disciples relinquish the sense of authority over each other and of responsibility for each other’s activities, and at the same time stand shoulder to shoulder in the One Work, then the differences, the divergences, and the points of disagreement will automatically be overcome.
There are three rules which are important to disciples at this time.

First, see to it that you permit no rift to appear in the inner relation in which you stand to each other. The integrity of the inner band of servers must be preserved intact.

Secondly, pursue your own duty and task, shoulder your own responsibility, and then leave your fellow disciples to do the same, free from the impact of your thought and criticism. The ways and means are many; the points of view vary with every personality. The principle of work is love for all men and service to the race, preserving at the same time a deeper inner love for those with whom you are destined to work. Each soul grows into the way of light through service rendered, through experience gained, through mistakes made, and through lessons learnt. That necessarily must be personal and individual. But the work itself is one. The Path is one. The love is one. The goal is one. These are the points that matter.

Thirdly, preserve ever in work the attitude of mind which must grow out of the two rules above, faithfully followed. Your point of view and consciousness are your own, and therefore, are for you, right. Not necessarily is that which seems so clear to you and of such vital importance to you, of the same value or importance to your brothers.
Your important principle may be realised by an abler mind than yours and by a more advanced disciple as embodying an aspect of a greater principle, an interpretation of a principle, correct and proper at a certain time, but capable of a different application at another time, and by another mind.
Under the Law of Sacrifice these three rules might be interpreted thus:

Relinquish or sacrifice the age-old tendency to criticise and adjust anothers work, and thus preserve the inner group integrity. More plans for service have gone astray and more workers have been hindered by criticism than by any other major factor.
Relinquish or sacrifice the sense of responsibility for the actions of others, and particularly of disciples. See that your own activity measures up to theirs, and in the joy of struggle and on the way of service the differences will disappear and the general good will be achieved.
Relinquish the pride of mind which sees its way and its interpretations to be correct and true, and others’ false and wrong. This is the way of separation. Adhere to the way of integration which is of the soul and not of the mind.

These are hard sayings, but they are the rules by which the Teachers on the inner side, guide Their actions and Their thoughts, when working with each other and with Their disciples. The inner integrity is necessarily a proven fact to Them. To the disciple it is not. But to the inner Teachers, the outer differences are abhorrent. They leave each other free to serve the Plan. They train Their disciples (no matter what their degree) to serve that Plan with freedom, for in freedom and in the sense of joy and in the strength of inner cooperative love is the best work done. It is sincerity for which They look. The willingness to sacrifice the lesser when the greater is sensed is that for which They search. The spontaneous relinquishing of long-held ideals when a greater and more inclusive presents itself is Their guide. The sacrifice of pride and the sacrifice of personality when the vastness of the work and the urgency of the need are realised, sway Them to cooperation. It is essential that the disciples shall learn to sacrifice the non-essential in order that the work may go forward. Little as one may realise it, the many techniques and methods and ways are secondary to the major world need. There are many ways and many points of view, and many experiments and many efforts—abortive or successful, and all of them come and go. But humanity remains. All of them are in evidence of the multiplicity of minds, and of experiences, but the goal remains. Difference is ever of the personality. When this Law of Sacrifice governs the mind, it will inevitably lead all disciples to relinquish the personal in favor of the universal and of the soul, that knows no separation, no difference. Then no pride, nor a short and myopic perspective, nor love of interference (so dear to many people), nor misunderstanding of motive will hinder their cooperation with each other as disciples, nor their service to the world.”
(Alice A. Bailey, Esoteric Psychology vol. II, pp. 87-109)

Symbol composed by Adriano N.

* Today in the Heaven of Causes, the consonant heliocentric conjunction between Mercury (4th Ray) and Pluto (1st Ray of Will and Power) takes place.

Spirit Science

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