Some Thoughts On Festival Week Of The New Group Of World Servers – 2012

November 23, 2011

The following are some thoughts on how we might approach preparations for the Festival Week to be observed next December. It’s not too early to begin reflecting on how best to contribute to this special week of observance, and the following are a few ideas that might be useful for us to hold in mind as we make our plans.

Years ago, when the Festival Week began to be observed, highlighting the existence of a vast and varied group of servers working throughout the world was revelatory to many. However, awareness of the worldwide network of servers, by whatever name they are called (e.g., Paul Hawken refers to an "unnamed movement" in his book Blessed Unrest), is now widely perceived, thanks to the Internet. But the subjective, energetic nature of the network of servers, linked through ties of love for humanity and common spiritual values rather than through outer collaboration, for the most part, isn’t so widely understood. It seems to me that highlighting the subtle, subjective yet global and comprehensive nature of this network, its openness to all who respond to its core values, and the field of spiritual energies which mobilises it, is where we could usefully place our focus in our plans for next year’s Festival Week. What do you think? Naturally, this would include the work of Triangles, but not be limited to it. The etheric pattern which substands the outer realms is esoteric but also of deep interest to many, as we found in the "Inner Sight" series we did on the Etheric Body. That series received more requests for additional information than almost any other topic we did, except perhaps for the series on the seven rays. So people are intrigued by the idea of a subjective energy body and we can offer something on that subject.

As we begin to develop our thoughts on the coming Festival Week, perhaps we should allow sufficient time for silent reflection before beginning to hold headquarters group meetings, so that a process of precipitation can take place in silence and in freedom from the impact of other minds. Three of the meditations we do in the Shrine Room are especially related to the theme of the subjective network:

• The meditation on the new group of world servers with its four-fold esoteric function (to free the prisoners, to work in the interludes, to hold the vision, and to synthesise and integrate all constructive activity);

• The meditation on the rapid communications system which we do on Monday and Wednesday (stage II, visualising the planetary etheric interrelationship and seeing the Christ as the central point of energy in all states of consciousness and as the communicating life between all kingdoms; and stage III, reflecting on the role of the Christ, linking the subtle, subjective worlds of energy with their objective expression in form);

• The new moon meditation with its seed thought on the progression of ideas into ideals.

Holding the subjective nature of the worldwide network in mind as we do these meditations in the Shrine Room in the coming months should help us to deepen our sense of the subjective nature of the group. Especially for an esoteric group, learning to see beyond and behind the outer form to the underlying, conditioning energies and forces is our service. This seems vitally important for, as the seventh ray will govern the incoming age, it will have an increasing effect on the network of the ngws. Understanding the esoteric nature of the subjective network and the way it vitalizes the group of servers who work on the outer planes could shed some light on the way that the ngws can help to sustain the Christ’s work.

Several passages from the Tibetan are especially illuminating:

"The seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order or Magic embodies a curious quality which is the outstanding characteristic of the particular Life which ensouls this ray. It is the quality or principle which is the coordinating factor unifying the inner quality and the outer tangible form or appearance. This work goes on primarily on etheric levels and involves physical energy. This is the true magical work." (Esoteric Psychology, Vol. I, p. 52)

"Humanity at this time is passing through a cycle of excessive activity. For the first time in human history this activity embraces mankind on a large scale in the entire three aspects of the personality consciousness. The physical bodies, the emotional and mental states of consciousness are all in a condition of potent upheaval. This unified triple activity is increased by a cycle of equally intense planetary activity, due to the coming in of a new age, the passing of the sun into a new sign in the Zodiac and the preparation consequently going on to fit man to work easily with the new forces and energies playing upon him. At the centre of human life, the integrating group of new World servers must meet therefore a very real need. Their work must primarily be to keep such a close link with the soul of humanity—made up of all souls on their own level of being—through their own organised soul activity that there will always be those who can "work in the interludes" and so keep the plan progressing and the vision before the eyes of those who cannot as yet themselves enter into the high and secret place. They have, as I oft times have said, to learn to work subjectively, and this they must do in order to preserve—in this cycle of activity and exoteric expression—the power, latent in all, to withdraw into the centre. They constitute the door, speaking symbolically. Capacities and powers can die out for lack of use; the power of divine abstraction and the faculty to find what has been called "the golden path which leads to the clear pool and from thence to the Temple of Retreat" must not be lost. This is the first work of the Group of World Mystics, and they must keep the path open and the way clear of obstructions. Otherwise white magic might temporarily die out and the selfish purposes of the form nature assume undue control. This dire event happened in Atlantean days and the then group of workers had to withdraw from all external activity and "abstract the divine mysteries, hiding them away from the curious and the unworthy." (Treatise on White Magic pp. 519-20)

Rereading "Spiritual Life in the New Age" in Destiny of the Nations, pp. 107-36 would be clarifying for us all.

Whatever direction our plans may take in the months leading up to the Festival Week, reflecting on these ideas should prove helpful.