I have just now come across a much clearer and more direct statement of something I was trying to say in my earlier post. In the book
A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, by Alice Bailey, the following concise summary of the process of spiritual (and human/intellectual, and material) evolution is presented:
The life of God comes cyclically under the influence of the different Hierarchies or forces, all of which temporarily build for it a vehicle, pass it through their substance, give to it in this way a certain quality or coloring, and increase thereby its vibratory capacity until eventually the life is set free from hierarchical limitation. It then returns to its eternal Source plus the gain of its experiences and with the increased energy which is the result of its various transitions.
Just how much insight we can gain into what
evolutionary developments take place during our incarnation into each of these
Hierarchies, will depend upon our willingness to consider that
Humanity's Consciousness may actually exist as part of a vast
continuum.
At the least pole of this continuum of consciousness is the FORM which we call
an atom. Through a gradual progression - as taught in the
Zohar, in the
Code of Manu, and in modern esotericism even since medieval times and before - the most
primitive forms of life are replaced by increasingly
sophisticated forms, as
vehicles for the evolving LIFE within.
Consciousness, though undetectable for most of us at so early an evolutionary stage as
the atom, is readily observable in the cat or dog, and even if you watch the movements of a jellyfish on the Discovery channel, you cannot help but recognize that there is
awareness - however rudimentary - on the part of these magnificent and beautiful aquatic creatures.
Between the most basic unit of evolutionary focus,
the atom, and the more developed examples in the animal and human kingdoms, there are a myriad of
LIFE-Forms in the mineral and vegetable kingdoms. Each kingdom represents the evolutionary progress of millions upon millions of years -
not just of the FORMs which LIFE takes on for its development, but of the LIFE Itself.
And there are those who are exceptionally gifted at understanding the
Life within the animal, and lower kingdoms, either through gifts such as clairvoyance and telepathy, or even by direct Spiritual Identification, in the case of advanced disciples and Initiates.
The
continuum of consciousness continues in a direction that most of us recognize
to one degree or another ... yet somewhere between the
collective subconscious and
shared dream archetypes of Jungian philosophy, and the objectivity of Plato's
world of FORMS and
Cave Allegory, we decide that consciousness apparently empties itself into some kind of
void, rather than connects with - even evolves
into - Deity Itself.
The esotericist, however, can no longer embrace the
nihilistic presentation of Eastern mysticism and the conception of Buddhism's Nirvana as
emptiness, because s/he has found - through direct experience on perhaps every level of one's being - that Consciousness in fact DOES survive `death' ... continuing, from incarnation to incarnation, toward increasingly clear, understood and accepted GOALS, attained through intentional striving.
The
Hierarchies, then, of the above quotation, prove to consist of
Conscious Units of LIFE, which exist
not-apart-from the Divine Life,
or Deity, on the highest levels - or
within the innermost reaches - both of our collective, and of our individual, Being. The Divine Spark, prior to evolving its FORM to the level of
complexity of a human, with abilities to
express more of the Divine than even the most evolved animal is capable .... must first undergo - through the
`Cycles of Necessity' - the appropriate rounds of Incarnation within EACH prior Kingdom of LIFE (paradoxically defined, for us, according to the
FORMs which this Life takes on).
If we would know more about our Highest, most Spiritual Nature, then we must first study something of the FORMs through which that LIFE - the Life of God -
willingly and gladly evolves, though also
of Necessity. Yet there are already hundreds of Initiates living upon our planet, in one of the worlds accessible to us or another (physical, astral, mental and Spiritual), and these Initiates of
all degress are capable of teaching the serious student exactly what is necessary for our progress. They have done so, and They continue to do so, yet the student will
receive only according to his or her demonstrated capacity to
Serve ... and his or her willingness to sacrifice the agendas of the
little self to those of the
Greater, the Soul.
It is found by the student, early on, that
only upon entry into the HUMAN Kingdom, does the material evolution of the FORM, fully meet with the purely Spiritual Evolution of the LIFE ... thus giving Birth to an
entirely NEW Kingdom, the nature of whose evolution - for us - is primarily Intellectual (
at this time). Humanity is actually a
bridging Kingdom, and our entire function upon planet Earth
might be described as the unification, or bridging, between the three lower kingdoms of life, and the
three Spiritual Kingdoms ... each of which, it might be emphasized,
has already attained to the FULL development or completion of the same Self-Consciousness which Humanity only recently began to develop.
The continuum of consciousness, if we follow the line of
natural and Divinely-designed future progression (hypothetically, and then - hopefully -
in thought, word and deed ... in Actualization!), leads the entirety of the Human Family through experiences of self-Initiated challange, growth and discovery (self-discovery, other-discovery and God-discovery) ... eventually concluding in several
definite stages of demonstrated Self-Mastery. These have been referred to since ancient times as
spiritual Initiations, and have been presented - via religious teachings - as those major, life-transforming experiences which
every evolving Soul undergoes in one or another of its final series of Incarnations. Here, the key word is
series ...
~+~+~
In realizing that the Life of God exists upon
several levels transcending the Human, it becomes apparent to us that in fact, there is a
Hierarchy of Consciousness, paralleling (or rather
Expressing) the Great Chain of Being. Although ultimately Monistic and truly
non-dual on some exalted level (the
Supreme Cosmic as some have rendered it in Western traditions), we cannot, any of us, deny that in fact
OUR experience of God is quite often subject to the mostly-limiting, and only
sometimes-illumining nature of
the mind. And that, of course, is when we aren't trapsing through a
swamp of quasi-human emotions (much of our astral life is really quite animalistic), or all but completely blinded by the
mayavic world of whirling lights, buzzers & bells ... the phantasmagora of physical, sensory experience - enough to make even poor Tommy fumble at his pinball game!
It is quite true that a simple act of kindness, preferably the
intentional kind, or even the tenderness and radiant warmth of attention from someone who genuinely cares, can
immediately communicate the
Love, and the Light, of the Divine ...
directly from the most Transcendent levels, straight into the heart and mind of even the most oppressed, or materially
blinded of struggling, precious human Souls. Animals, similarly, respond to the Divine Energy by answering
from within ... and the sleeping Deity Whom and which lives
within their beating hearts, stirs a bit from its dormant state, when we approach our younger Brothers with this kindness. Some of us also know, that trees and plants have the capacity to respond, such that our Karma, from such massacres as
widescale deforestation, will take many a kind word to our plant on the windowsill, before the balance between the Kingdoms has been fully restored.
At any rate,
As Above, So Below. Just as we can recognize that Consciousness is progressing in its evolution through the
lesser kingdoms, we can gain some insight into what things might be like in the
Superhuman (the Devic, or Angelic) by looking at certain correspondences. For the next immediate kingdom of life beyond Humanity, the Kingdom of Heaven or of `Souls,' it is not inaccurate to say that we are something like beloved animals. The metaphor will only break down when we feel our Conscience reminding us that
our behavior towards our younger animal Brethren is not quite on par with what we KNOW the Divine Law indicates (the Law of Love, written in
every human heart, however faintly it is as yet recognized by some).
Our Souls, we know, do not abuse us, or use us for sport, or treat us as anything other than a beloved Friend, adopted
for the duration (many, many long cycles of incarnation) ... that through their Loving Sacrifice WE might slowly develop, and ultimately ATTAIN (rather than freely receive,
as some kind of handout) the Divine Consciousness which they already possess. And, just as it is true that our animal friends often try to understand us but do not fully "get it" (owing to the lack of the mental principle within them ...
or rather, to its development), we may safely say that except in the rarest of instances -
the Adept, Master or advanced Initiate -
we, too, often miss the mark. The only possible value of GUILT, it will be observed, would be to inspire REFORM ... for otherwise, the resultant
self-devaluation - which is often observed in religious types - only further serves to spiritually (or ethically) incapacitate us, adding insult to injury as it were.
The Kingdom of Souls, it should be noted, is one wherein Love and Light
already prevail ... yet this does not mean that there is always full agreement, or cooperation, between the various GROUPS which comprise the Human Family. Although it is true that
evil as we commonly know it, including all
unnecessary suffering and unproductive conflict,
does not exist upon the Soul levels, it is also true that there are
distinctions which continue to demonstrate as the Power of Choice (or
Free Will, if we like). These choices include observation, learning and Spiritual growth as
the Soul subjectively experiences the results of its activity under the same Cyclic Law as we are subject to ... just on a higher subsequent turn of the spiral.
Now imagine the relationship between Humanity and
that Kingdom which lies one
full step beyond that of our own Spiritual Soul(s). Exoteric religions speak little about Beings of this stature, except in Myth and Allegory, in stories, poetry and symbolism. We have the Elohim of Judaism, borrowed by Christianity and revisited in St. John's Vision of the
Seven Spirits before the Throne. The Hindu knows these as the Seven Prajapati, the Seven Rishis, or the
Seven Mind-Born Sons of Brahma. And Buddhism, especially the secret practices of Tantra, recognizes
five exoteric, seven esoteric Dhyani Buddhas, and Dhyani Bodhisattvas.
Each of these systems is the outward product of many, many generations of seekers, finders and codifiers, as well as the direct
Revelation(s) of one or another of the same body of
Adept Teachers which has always existed upon our Planet, guiding Humanity, guarding the Truth & the Light, and teaching the Wisdom to those willing & capable of living and practicing it. This Conscious
Hierarchy of Beings, called by some the
Masters of the Wisdom, by others simply
the Elder Brothers or
the Great Ones, represent the Vanguard, the Pinnacle, the Ultimate, Crowning Glory - and Highest Achievement - of which any man or woman is capable upon our planet, at any given time. In a curious way, They also indicate our own distant and inevitable future, though only up to a certain point (taking into consideration the
Divine Efficiency - in terms of presentation of the Divine Plan, much being
`over the horizon') ...
and only as fully as Humanity's own KARMA will permit!
So, what the esotericist has come to understand, is that the
Hierarchy, though technically the Divine Representation of the greatest possible achievement of the
4th Kingdom, as full-fledged, Spiritually-Perfected members of the 5th Kingdom (Souls, having
completed their evolutionary trek upon this globe) ...
symbolically, and also quite actually, the Adept Hierarchy serves the
next highest Kingdom, the Elohim, or Planetary Spirits, as THEIR Representative(s) upon this Planet, for Humanity - thereby BRIDGING between GOD (
the Throne), and the Kingdom of evolving Spiritual Souls, just as Humanity bridges between the Soul and all lesser kingdoms.
The question of
Free Will will not finally be answered, until and unless we are willing to take a look into the
possible Magnitude, and the occult (esoteric) significance, of precisely the Kingdom of Elohim -
that PLURALITY of Beings which nonetheless comprise, in the totality of
Their expression, our Solar System ... working out the Will of God, from on High. These
Seven Spirits before the Throne are clearly observable
only in their outermost peregrinations around our central Deity, save to the rarest of Initated and Adept-trained clairvoyants. Those familiar with the custom of the Tibetan Buddhists to circumambulate the
stupa, will appreciate how this tradition can be seen as a humble, microcosmic
mirror, an emulation, of the motion of the
Planets Themselves, as They Journey around the Solar God.
If I have room, I will try to close with
the Gayatri, which I will write about on another thread, since this may make some sense to those who can't figure out why I think
the Sun is actually
`God' ...
Oh Thou,
From Whom all things proceed,
To Whom all things return,
Reveal to us the face of the true Spiritual Sun
Hidden by a disc of golden light
And help us to know the Truth
And to do our whole Duty
As we journey to Thy Sacred Lotus Feet.
OM OM OM
Namaskara,
~Andrew
