(Arcane School Conference, June 2020, speech by Christine Morgan)
Elevation and the Freedom to Serve
Elevation and Freedom – surely the promise of the
Aquarian age could be expressed in these two words. In the course of history however, their
expression has given power and privilege to individuals and minorities while
whole populations have been deprived and disenfranchised. A crystallization of
this is seen today where the forces of nationalism, economic selfishness and
greed have perpetuated glaring inequities.
Although such
unenlightened and destructive patterns have repeatedly brought humanity to the
edge of catastrophe, we have also witnessed globally signs of new and more
enlightened consciousness in people’s responses, such as during the recent
pandemic. When we have passed through the effects of the current pandemic,
however, will the international community regroup as a more unified body, and
redress these glaring inequalities in the world and support those who are
working towards this end? More than this
sense of global unity however, a sense of global destiny and purpose will be
needed to steer human creativity in the right direction.
A recent Arcane
School letter referred to the wise council of the Norwegian diplomat, Torgeir E. Fjærtoft, who wrote of the need for a new kind of diplomacy to move
from the incessant conflict between nations and the resulting international
gridlock. He said: My experience from multilateral diplomacy within the
UN is that to persuade, you invoke to evoke. That means that to
work, an idea must have a strong appeal. The specific wording at any given
point in time of UN principles and codifications are but evolving appearances
of an underlying idea. This idea, not the evolving appearances, is the
reference to which member states relate.”
It is inspiring
to hear this echo of the practice that esoteric students use – invoke to
evoke. This is the beginning of all creative activity, and an essential
activity to form right relationships of any kind. It is the same process that lies behind all
our work over the conference and especially today, World Invocation Day. In
order to increase the strength of this invocation- evocation process,
consciousness must be raised to the higher energy levels where that power lies.
And this raising of consciousness is the key to the principle of freedom – a
subject that is on many people’s minds as a result of the pandemic and the
restrictions that, out of necessity, have been imposed on the movements and
activities of entire populations more or less.
The issue of freedom seems to be behind many events that are shaping our
world at present as we sense a door to a new world slowly opening. Ultimately, freedom is a state of
consciousness, not of circumstance, as many freedom fighters have demonstrated
to the world through the inspiration that has sustained them through
persecution and imprisonment.
Esoterically,
the principle of freedom is “a leavening or raising energy which is capable of
permeating substance in a unique manner;” it is a divine principle which is
part of the influence which the great sun, Sirius, exerts on our solar system,
and, we are informed, “particularly on our planet”. This cosmic freedom is “related to certain
great evolutionary developments that enable the life or spirit aspect to free
itself from the impact, the contact and the influence of substance.” A lack of inner freedom is due to poor
alignment with the Higher Self through subtle fears, desires or other glamours.
It hinders the circulation of lifegiving forces leading to spiritual
suffocation and loss of contact with the realm of beauty that is seeking
expression through all forms.
First
and foremost access to this realm of beauty is achieved through alignment with
the soul, for the soul activates in the disciple the freedom-granting laws of
the spiritual kingdom. The Law of Elevation is one of these, and when it takes
root in the personal life, it awakens
“the joyful, uplifting power of 'udana' – one of the five pranas that circulate
around the etheric body of every human being.
Udana means “that which carries upward”.
When this is controlled, it co-ordinates the vital airs in the brain
cavities and raises the consciousness into the crown chakra. At this point, entrance into the ashram is
gained and true freedom experienced.
This is because the entire circle of the
ashram with which a disciple is affiliated, its inner and outer service, is
governed by total freedom.
It is our limited concept of
what this true freedom is and a grudging or partial response to the discipline
entailed to achieve it, that renders us prisoners of the planet. As long as the
outer senses and the lower desire nature control experience, the discipline
required to achieve liberation will seem imprisoning. It is the willingness to
redirect the desire nature to work creatively in group work that is the call of
our times. In the Tibetan’s words, “Obedience
lies ahead with freedom in its hand."
Group work liberates the lower self, and the
consciousness is lifted into the light of the fiery jewel burning bright with loving purpose at the heart of the group. The more we experience this, the more we come to realize that discipline and freedom are
two sides of the same coin, and when this is realized spiritual practices are
no longer arduous but full of joyful expansion. The daily meditations and periodic
recollections throughout the day, keep the etheric body charged and our spirit
is felt to be rising within. The Law of Elevation is assuming control and as it
does so, an understanding of a more abstruse but related law starts to enter
the equation. This is the Law of Expansive Response, about which an ancient
stanza says:
Above the clouds of earth, a sign shines forth.... Only the
eye of vision sees this sign… Only an understanding of the law which elevates
and lifts can teach the man of fire and son of water to enter into mist. From thence he climbs on to the mountain top
and there again stands free. It is a freedom, triple in its kind, which greets
the man who passes…on to the burning ground of sacrifice. The sun augments the fire; it dissipates the
mist and dries the earth. And thus the
work is done. Esoteric Psychology II, p.199
If brooded upon, these mysterious
words can bring a more direct relationship with the esoteric laws that
facilitate the rise of consciousness to the mountaintop. Another way to enter into the spirit of these
laws, is to think of ourselves as ‘energy in motion’ rather than a form. Our sense of identity is determined by a
‘habit of motion’ which sets up a pattern in substance, and this pattern
coheres into a substantial form. Because our habit of motion is always
modifying itself – ever so slightly changing over time and spiraling onwards –
so is the form constantly breaking down and rebuilding itself in conformity to
the new rhythms of motion. On the spiritual path, our goal is synthetic motion.
As we read in A Treatise on
Cosmic Fire: “One of the main
functions of the Master in this cycle...is to teach His pupil how to reconcile
all these factors, how to synthesize their various modes of motion or
expression, and how to co-ordinate them all so that the vibration is uniform. When energy from the Ego controls, or
imposes its rhythm upon the various sheaths via their respective major centres,
when the triple fire is mounting in orderly fashion via the triple channel, and
when the three head centres are united in triangular fashion, then we have
illumination or the irradiance of the entire personality life, darkness gives
place to light, and the Sun of Knowledge arises and dispels the darkness of
ignorance. The minor centres are
concerned with the internal co-ordination of the sheath, the major with the
group co-ordination or the interrelation of one sheath to another. The man becomes a burning and a shining
light, radiating forth a light which burns from within.”p1130
The
disciple steadily rises to the mountaintop with fellow disciples to form one
burning light. It is this fire that we referred to during the festival week of
the New Group of World Servers who we symbolically called the Group Prometheus,
after the Titan who stole fire from the gods on
Mount Olympus to impart the gift of civilisation to humanity. This symbolic act
might be equated with the fusion of the higher and lower mind into a bridge of
light between the human and superhuman kingdoms. This is certainly the goal for
the fifth root-race and the immediate task of the New Group of World Servers
who are leading the way. It is inspiring to picture the group standing on the
mountaintop in Capricorn, evoking the blazing light of Hierarchy to give to
humanity as the fire of the new, world civilisation. It is here, on the mountaintop that
the fires
of Agni, Lord of the mental plane are experienced, fanned by the airy love of
Indra, Lord of the Buddhic plane, and burn the disciple up in joy and bliss.
This would all seem a beautiful but rather mystical
portrayal of the disciple’s mountain top experience if we were not to add to it
the practical work of transmitting the
fire contacted there into human consciousness.
This is carried out by working with the rhythm and ritual of the seventh
ray of ceremonial magic, which is the basis of “practical discipleship”. It is through awareness and use of this ray
energy that the “light supernal” that is experienced on the mountaintop is
applied in the valleys below. We are told that “the Procedure required for the
manifestation of ‘light supernal’ takes place when a transitory point of
synthesis is reached and the seven energies are blended into one great
energetic Light. These seven energies have ever, unitedly, created the ‘light
supernal’ upon the highest levels of divine expression, but that revealing
light only finds Location when the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order is active
and in process of manifestation in the three worlds, and necessarily,
therefore, upon the seventh plane, the physical plane. Such a manifestation
inevitably takes place in moments of planetary crisis, when the seventh ray is
active and when the Sun is in Aquarius. Such a combination of relationships is
being established now… The Objective of this combination…is to bring about
illumination and the establishment of order upon the Earth…
…The
first indication of the possibility of the effectiveness of these divine
proposals was “the giving out of the Great Invocation; its potency was so great
that right conditions had to be considered before its enunciation was
possible. That was the first step in the planned precipitation of the ‘light
supernal’; the second step will be the reappearance of the Great Lord, Who will
act as the lens through which the light can be focussed and adapted to human
need. Conditions are rapidly being brought about whereby this great event of
light distribution will be possible.”
DINA II, p425/6
If
we ponder on this, we will see that, through resonance with the Law of
Elevation, our lives become energetic patterns of motion, until the sheer power
of livingness automatically transforms all that is contacted. The
proclamation of the Christ, "Behold, I make all things new", can
therefore be emulated by each disciple at his or her own level. This transfiguration may seem beyond our
reach, both individually and as a group, but it doesn’t have to be — our destiny lies in our own hands and
the question is whether we become warriors on the path of light or what the
Tibetan calls “the plodding, fairly satisfactory aspirant”. During this
precarious transitional stage time in world history, the love within us demands
that we do all we can to meet this unprecedented opportunity now. If we dare to throw down the gauntlet to our
personalities, we can take a revolutionary step forward into a new way of
living. It is undeniably an enormous challenge because the material
world is perceived so strongly and tangibly.
Even with esoteric knowledge and sensitivity to subjective impression,
the senses can all too easily be overwhelmed, dissipating the spiritual life. The
intensity of the inner world has to be pursued however, and we can attain this
through acting “As If” the goal has already been achieved. Using the creative imagination in this way is
to work under the occult law energy
follows thought — the thought form we build is steadily energized to such a
point of resonance with the reality to which we are aspiring that it finally
elevates the consciousness into the reality of group life on the mountaintop.
Here,
on the mountaintop, the integrated group pattern of thought is a living fire,
through which the Hierarchy can work and each disciple is a part of the pattern
and a vital link relaying the energy into the environment. The change to group
living and always thinking of the group and oneself in terms of ‘energy
patterns in motion’ is really the shift from the monotony and repetitiveness of
the physical plane into the creative, ever original, experiences of energy in
circulation. From the subjective point of view, everything affects everything
else while minute transformations take place in perpetuity. Each moment of the day brings something new
that has never been experienced before.
If we dwell on this, we realise that living consciously in the higher senses
and striving to experience life as energy patterns could be the most uplifting,
creative thing we can possibly do. It is
the joy of living in an ever-changing kaleidoscope of light, colour and sound –
every part of which vibrates with dynamic life. This is the reality that awaits all who dare
to let “the Forces of Creative Life circulate and the Law of Elevation
Control.”
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