Brothers in the Light

Tonight we are celebrating the Christ’s Festival in Gemini and the culmination of the higher interlude of the year. Since 1952 this event has also been celebrated as World Invocation Day, when a special focus is placed on the use of the Great Invocation. Those of us who have used this world prayer regularly for some time are familiar with its potency through direct experience and understand it as an energy formula with the invocation of the Christ lying at its heart.

As we are fortunate to be meeting together now at the peak time of the moon of Gemini (18h32 BST), let us enter into a period of silent meditation for five minutes. As we do so, let us be aware that the full inflow of Light, Love and Spiritual Power is passing through all three planetary centres in response to planetary need. We’ll then say the Great Invocation out loud together:

From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.

From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men –
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.

OM

In studying the influences of Gemini, there are many indications as to why World Invocation Day is held at this time – and why it’s known as the Christ’s Festival as well as the Festival of Humanity.

The first clue lies in the book, Esoteric Astrology, where we learn that Gemini is one of the most important of the twelve signs and that its influence lies behind every other sign. The second Ray of Love-Wisdom pours through Gemini and through its energy, the occult teaching that love underlies the entire universe becomes apparent. God is love, we are assured, and this statement is both an exoteric and an esoteric truth.

The Gemini force has also been described as "the force which produces the changes needed for the evolution of the Christ consciousness at any particular point in time and space. It is always compatible to the requirement". The evolution of our consciousness is prompted, and its steady expansion guaranteed, by the underlying love of Deity that reaches our solar system primarily through Gemini. This sign forms "a point of entrance for cosmic energy from Sirius" – the true home of our Spiritual Hierarchy. For nearly two thousand years, the Christ has represented humanity during the Gemini festival, standing before the Hierarchy as the leader of His people and "the Eldest in a great family of brothers". The Christ’s energy is to be found in every heart that is beginning to respond to the goal of conscious Love, calling the individual to group life and group awareness instead of the long established desires and interests of the self-centred personality – hence the deep spiritual crisis with which every aspirant is familiar.

According to the Ageless Wisdom teachings, the Law dictates that when an embodied Christ reaches His goal in time and space, recognition of the achievement comes to Him at the time of the June Full Moon. This is because the complete victory of life over form, and of spirit over matter is consummated and celebrated in the sign of Gemini. Christ attained this superlative victory in June 1943 during the dark days of the World War. Since this time the power of invocation has increased dramatically as a potential energy in human consciousness, and divine love can be evoked to tremendous effect during times of world crisis, pain and difficulty.

Today, on World Invocation Day, it is worth recalling the remarks of the Tibetan that if we use the Great Invocation "rightly", it can "reorient the consciousness of humanity" and stabilise it "in spiritual being". It can disrupt and rebuild the planetary thoughtform that has been created in the past, one which "had and is having such disastrous and cataclysmic results", and open the door to a new and better world; and that "this could be done so rapidly that the needed changes would come about almost overnight". While the strength of the combined efforts of all those who use the Great Invocation is undoubtedly being effective in disrupting the planetary thoughtform of selfish materialism, it is vitally important to know that, with a little more effort, the needed changes for a new and better world could be with us right now. This should serve as a powerful urge for us all to renew our resolve and dedication to the Plan and to earnestly seek to distribute the Great Invocation more widely as well as to deepen our understanding of its use.

Using the Great Invocation "rightly" means sounding it "with deliberation and full commitment to its meaning". It involves lifting ourselves into a soul-infused state of consciousness and sounding it as a Word of Power; and this requires a controlled mind focused clearly on the inner meaning of the spoken words while simultaneously energising them with the soul’s dynamic will. It requires us to work behind the scenes with unconditional Love, with clear mental understanding and with the conviction that, as a Word of Power, the Great Invocation will transform consciousness. The urgency of this time of planetary crisis should provide sufficient impetus for us to work with the Great Invocation in this way – to raise our consciousness to the soul and to work more purposefully as esotericists from a higher altitude and perspective. We must further empower the spirit of invocation that is coming alive in the world and resulting in, amongst other things, the establishment and rapid growth of so many NGO’s and charity groups. The vision of a soul-infused civilisation is emerging from the fires of the present crises. It is quickening into a new planetary thoughtform of hope and renewal – tuning into this thoughtform and further energising it by use of the Great Invocation is an essential and potent world service.

Amidst so much disruption and upheaval, having faith in the spirit of invocation requires a calm and poised appraisal of the true state of the planet’s health. When the path is strewn with obstacles, the disciple has to stand strong and recognise the difficulties as a sign that he is nearing the portal of achievement, not failure, and equally so the worldwide group of servers must stand strong and collected midst the upheavals taking place all over the world. The cry for justice and change is resounding through the heart of humanity, but for spiritual energies to find entrance and meet this demand, the bridge of access between the human and spiritual kingdoms must be kept active and electrically vibrant by the united invocations of the esoteric members of the new group of world servers. Only the courageous heart can measure up to this work for it requires endurance of a special kind. The perpetual cycles of crisis, tension and emergence on an individual, racial and planetary scale to which the disciple is exposed are difficult to bear. However, they provide the measure for assessing how much esoteric theory has been assimilated, to what degree life is being lived in a state of dynamic harmlessness, and most importantly, how much love is being poured out to all those who suffer in this unhappy world of ours.

The importance of sustaining the spirit of invocation throughout the three spiritual festivals and working with the cycle of crisis, tension and emergence that results from it cannot be overstated. The Wesak Festival may be understood and celebrated as a major highpoint of the spiritual calendar, but it should also be held in mind that important planetary events are also taking place at the Gemini Festival. At this time the Hierarchy observes a specific ceremony that covers "three whole days", with each day having a different keynote. The keynote of the first day is Love, the second day, Resurrection, and the third day is that of Contact. On each of these days the Christ sounds the Great Invocation alone, and then the Hierarchy intones it, invoking light, love and the will-to-good (one on each of the three days). After these three days of invocation, there is a "climaxing day" on which the Hierarchy, led by the Christ, pronounces the Invocation, prefacing each stanza with its appropriate esoteric keynote. While we do not know these more esoteric keynotes, the Tibetan says that something approximating them might result from a very large number of the new group of world servers unitedly sounding the OM.

This is something well worth bringing the creative imagination to bear upon in order to fix a strong mental image as a tool of invocation. The Gemini festival is World Invocation Day for a specific purpose, and the Hierarchy are working especially hard to facilitate the invocatory process in human consciousness at this time as a means of averting planetary disaster. Through the unity achieved by all those who participate in the major spiritual festivals comes the power to invoke higher forces and the opportunity for the Hierarchy to legitimately direct them on behalf of humanity without encroaching on its freewill. Significant insight into this is to be found in Helen Roerich’s book, Supermundane – the Inner life: "When we advocate unity as a means of achievement, Our Advice is simply scientific. We require an intensification of energy that can be achieved only if the co-workers are united. Every breach tears the valuable tissue and who can tell whether it will be possible to restore it…who is the one to judge which violation of Our Advice will bring disaster?" Not for nothing does the Tibetan remark that many of the natural disasters around the world could have been averted if the disciples of the world had lived up to their responsibility of correctly invoking and distributing energy – a sobering thought if ever there was one.

Use of the Great Invocation is the outstanding mode of service and anyone can render this service here and now. Having the Great Invocation as we do, it can never be said that we have not been given the greatest of opportunities to serve in the fullest and deepest manner possible. All who use the Great Invocation are part of a growing band of brothers in the light – brothers who are united in the light of planetary invocation and working ceaselessly to evoke the soul of all human beings – to awaken them to the duality of their own being, and to help them throw the weight of their consciousness onto the side of the soul whose power alone can bring fusion and unity out of the duality that rages in the human psyche at this time. In Gemini, a sign of duality, this process is beautifully portrayed by two of the constellation’s stars that are known as the two brothers – Castor representing the mortal personality, and Pollux representing the immortal soul. We read in the Secret Doctrine: "Castor owes his immortality to Pollux. Pollux sacrifices himself to Castor." (II. 130.) It is only on the reversed wheel of discipleship, when the intuition awakens, that a growing awareness dims the lesser light of the personality as the light of this soul brother grows. At this stage the disciple recognises his duality and affirms the spiritual keynote of Gemini in order to make the transition: ""I recognise my other self and in the waning of that self, I grow and glow." The underlying crisis of these times is due to the unstable fluctuation between soul and form control, but the deepening sense of schizophrenia is forcing humanity to recognise its duality, to discriminate and to choose between the higher and lower nature. The opposition reigns until realisation dawns on the personality that it too is truly a brother in the Light, a part of the divine plan, an agent in the manifestation of a greater, more encompassing solar life. The rhythm set up by this opposition is outlined in Esoteric Astrology as follows:

"The waxing and the waning light which distinguishes soul experience from the first faint move towards incarnation and Earth experience, the rise and fall of civilisations and the growth and unfoldment of all cyclic manifestations are produced by the "interplay between the two brothers," as it is called. In that far-off time when the greater round of the zodiac was started in Gemini, as now it is in Pisces, there was a relation between the waxing and the waning moon, due to the pulsating power of Gemini. This is now greatly lessened, owing to the removal of the responsive life from the Moon, but the rhythm then set up still remains, producing the same basic illusion."

Astrologically, Gemini’s role is to be fluidly responsive to many influences from the zodiac. The word astrology has been defined as "the algebra of life"; the word algebra derived from an Arabian word "al-jebr" which means the reduction of parts to a whole. The word "jabara" signifies to "bind together" so its function is to bind together or to integrate elements into a formulated whole. In this way the revolutions of "celestial bodies" constitute in their totality a vast and complex symbol which, of itself, is made up solely of cyclically changing patterns of relationship. The value of each zodiacal sign is enhanced by its relationship with the qualities and opportunities of its opposing sign.

While this causes conflict initially through continual interplay, both aspects eventually become unified. The same is true of the interplay and opposition of planetary relationships as the astrologer and philosopher Dane Rudhyar makes clear: "Two planets in opposition are located, in terms of zodiacal longitude, exactly in opposite directions from the point of view of the Earth observer. The latter is therefore, as it were, subjected to contrary pulls. He may be actually "pulled apart" by the opposition. But also, if the two opposed planets are considered as two poles of a battery, he may be illumined by the spark flowing from pole to pole.

This is especially so where the two planets are basically of opposite polarities." Coming further down to earth, we’ve all witnessed the extremes of opposition displayed within religious beliefs as well as between religion and science. Precious world-views and cherished theories are tightly clung to accompanied by a refusal to see beyond "the known and familiar". An observation from Henry Zemel clarifies this: "The conformist propensity of social institutions is not the only reason that erroneous theories persevere. However, once embedded within a culture, ideas exhibit an uncanny inertia, as if obeying Newton’s law to keep on going forever until acted upon by an external force." The rhythm and ritual of consciousness too, tends in time to settle into its own comfort zone and become reluctant to experiment and renew. It often requires a crisis in the form of an outside force to upset its comforting rhythms and open it up to an alternative, more inclusive view.

Not being able to see "outside the box" is common until the intuition or group perception is awakening within the consciousness. This indicates that the Brother in the Light is starting to exert his influence on the personality and a more fluid and receptive attitude to the realm of ideas is developing. The idea of the group rather than the personality starts to motivate all his actions at this point as he realises that it is through the unity of group work and invocation that all the higher, spiritual goals are achieved. At this stage, it is the group heart that becomes the disciple’s organ of sensitivity to world need and the group heart that provides the means of circulating the lifeblood of the higher kingdoms into the lower to heal and transform. In these times of dire world need, we can, with perseverance, become so attuned to the rhythm of group life that we will suddenly become aware of the group heart being evoked by world need and feel its love pouring through us. As we learn to "share in the heart’s reaction", the power of Love-Wisdom will pour through us to build anew in this time of destruction. So let us take full advantage of the heart’s power to respond at this critical juncture in planetary history to link up with the Christ, the outstanding exponent of the heart’s power, now strengthened by the Will and Wisdom of his brother, the Buddha. And let us become as one with all those who work towards unity as brothers in the light.

Christ’s Festival –
June 2008 –
London
Christine Morgan