Story of the Development of a Full Moon Meditation Group

by a co-worker in the U.S.A.

SERVICE THROUGH FULL MOON MEDITATION is a selfless esoteric service that is direly needed. It is also group service, thus contributing to the inauguration of the Aquarian age, the evolution of the New Religion, and the science of invocation and evocation. Through individual full moon meditation work the beginning aspirant, working steadily, develops the capacity to be fully aware and conscious, exquisitely sensitive and responsive within the physical vehicle during each unfolding stage and with all the inner contacts during the process of the full moon meditation. Every month the full moon period brings due reward of recognitions that work out into realizations and practical expression throughout the rest of the month as the incorporated energies, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, sift through the layers of the lower form and find expression. The effects are not always pleasant but they are fundamental and radical. Aspirants "know because they work". Finding the needed stamina and the rhythm to persist through all difficulties is the goal. This is the beginning subjective work of the average struggling aspirant.

Beginning: Intention

Gradually, under the carefully staged seed thoughts of the Arcane School work, the urge to group consciousness and group service grows until the instinct to contribute and serve with groups can’t be ignored. I contacted Arcane School Headquarters and found there were no full moon meditation groups in my area. There was the sense of being alone in a materialistic world. Were there no other selfless servers? The door was then opened for the glamour of spiritual self-importance and special-ness to surround and permeate the astral and mental vehicles of contact and this had to be battled with. But, each battle is a strengthening process. I continued on alone but the intention to serve with a physical group remained strong and I kept my eyes open and my intention firm. If there were others with even a seed of instinct for full moon service I hoped to be the fountain on the subjective planes that watered that seed and the magnetic field that attracted other sparks of light to join and unify as one serving group capable of learning the science of group work and of invocation and evocation together, capable of bringing more light and healing to the world.

After about five years of striving and struggling, of working and holding the urge and intention to be of further service and work with others, someone shared with me a small local newsletter entitled "Connections". In that newsletter I came across an announcement for meditation at the time of the full moon. Jubilation set in and I contacted the editor of that newsletter who told me<|> that she knew of no one doing this meditation but she was very glad to meet me. She placed that notice to attract someone to lead a full moon meditation group. Over several months of communication she convinced a skeptical me, now already burned and reticent because of the glamour of spiritual self-importance, that I should start the full moon meditation (fmm) group and that she would announce it in her newsletter. I was hesitant, I did not feel qualified, I was looking for someone to lead me and I still had enough pride to be afraid of looking silly or failing. And, yet the urge remained strong, all the obstacles had been removed and my responsibility was clear. So, reluctantly, with apprehension, and with some anxiety I agreed to lead the meditations. It was, after all, finally the manifestation of my intention to deepen my esoteric service.

Learning: Formation of the Working Group

At first the meditation was uneven and faltering. Some months a large group of 15-20 people appeared at my doorstep. Most were not experienced at meditation; some were looking for immediate enlightenment; many fell asleep during the meditation and occasionally became disruptive with their snoring. Some months it was only two of us and one month I sat by myself, in my usual spot, once again doing the meditation alone.

We could not find a public location and so I held them at my house. This posed many problems not the least of which were two children and three dogs. Still, we struggled through the meditation and in the process found that the capacity for concentration and discipline was strengthened. We are told that we have to remain working in the physical world of humanity and it was all too apparent that is where we were. After six months or so it was also apparent that there were three of us that were steady in our dedication and willing to persist. One is an aspirant and student of Rudolf Steiner, another is a server dedicated to group work and to the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and there is me. There are no other Arcane students and yet that did not seem to be a factor in this work, which is inclusive and beyond the boundaries and doctrines of particular working groups. In fact, the fmm work is the opportunity to bring various working groups into a united purpose of invocation on a monthly basis.

The quality and effectiveness of the meditation work continued to be faltering and uneven. Some months we sensed inner contact, connection and successful evocation. Others it was difficult to simply keep the group focused and aligned. There were many who attended, at first, who were mystical in their orientation and quickly became fed up and dissatisfied with the meditation form, which they considered to be too impersonal and not enough filled with good feeling. Their dissatisfaction and disgruntled thoughts were like a thick fog that impeded and hindered the concentration of the group, interfered with the ability to keep the group aligned, and made the ability to create a one-pointed group force that would be able to ascend and project, laser-like, onto the higher planes above mind difficult to impossible. I found it very difficult to do the group meditation and at first it was much less effective and less rewarding than my individual fmm work. I briefly considered quitting the effort and resuming my personal work but that was a short-lived consideration as the momentum of the intention for group service had taken hold and there was no going backward. We had begun the process of movement from the personal to the impersonal and that is where we were meant to be. It was service of a sort, albeit a struggling one.

The few other regular meditators and attendees began to find their meditation footing and I begin to find my "footing" doing group work as well. The ones who came looking for personal recognition and good feelings, the ones who came looking for personal contact with the Hierarchy, all the glamoured ones unable or unready to move forward into the light, began to gradually drop off. Attendance began to become more regular although with far fewer of us, two to three of us. Sometimes there were other students of Steiner and sometimes students of Dion Fortune as well. We developed a fluctuating core of two to three experienced esoteric meditators. The work continued to be uneven and I found myself too conscious of how the group was doing and not as focused with the inner work as I would have liked. One time, just as the evoked energies were making full impact, a transformer in the neighbourhood blew out with a loud bang and cut off the electrical power to the entire surrounding area. We all became glamoured with our work for a short time after that. I found that striving for detachment and selflessness is a struggle, even with group work.

Forming an Esoteric Healing Group

I was then asked to lead a group to study the book Esoteric Healing by Alice Bailey. Once again I did so reluctantly and only because my responsibility is to shine the inner lamp for others and this is the way they asked me to do so; it was another way to serve and it was being evoked by human need and striving. I never discussed much about my Arcane roots and most of the people in the groups were not all that much interested in it. No one was interested in applying to become a student. To make conversions is not our purpose, though, and so it did not hinder the work. Each has his or her own journey and each must learn to open the door to the Path him or herself and all those whose souls have the urge to group fmm work are most welcome. The Esoteric Healing study group has many of the same members as the fmm group and through that group many of the newer and less experienced of the group’s meditators gradually came to a deeper understanding of the terminology and concepts behind the meditation form that we were using. The group’s forces began to unite, merge and coalesce and it took much less esoteric work for me to help align, maintain and project the forces of the group because now we were all doing it together, as a group.

In the meantime, my physical vehicle was becoming more suited for service. There were changes and transformations within that brought about greater conscious activity in certain centres. Realignments took place, triangles were formed and interplay occurred. Then the higher triangle became more of a factor and created interplay with the lower triangle. All this has direct bearing on the effectiveness of the group meditation, which is made more a physical reality when the centres are directly involved in the process of the invocation and evocation of full moon energies. I cannot speak personally to the reception and changes that have occurred in the other individual vehicles within the group, but all of the aspirants attained a deepening in consciousness and experience in meditation as well as a steady source of inspiration that fuels their spiritual journey. At first it is simply the correct attitude towards the meditation work that needs to be emphasized. After more than two full years of steady work, the full moon energies began transforming the physical group form so that the work became more of a physical reality and each member found his or her rightful place within the group work.

Working: Achieving Group Invocation

Finally, after almost three years of persistent group work, the group knows itself to be an effective and contributing group to the greater group work of the Hierarchy. Though I still lead the meditations, others can comfortably take on this function as well. The group has developed the capacity to be flexible when need be and the work is carried on consistently when I am not present. It is now a real group work and not that of any one individual. There is another individual who was the obvious self-selected choice for the role of communicator, networker and outreach coordinator, and who naturally took on the role of sending out reminders each month. The group is secure enough and established enough in its work so that the location can be varied without disruption in the routine of the work, though it often continues to be held at my house. A third individual, a student of Steiner, has taken it upon herself to attend to the group alignment and create a subjective energy environment that is protective and facilitating for the work that the group is doing. This leaves me free to concentrate upon creating the projected one-pointedness that will propel the group forces onto the higher planes and direct it according to the meditation form we work with.

The group has also become magnetic. It has grown from three to five and now seven regular servers. We never worried much about numbers after the beginning, but sensed when we were becoming more effective and magnetic. Now, when new people join the group, there is no disruption in the work. The meditation work is steady and even, which means that there can be subjective discernment of the variability of the monthly energies and focus on right distribution. Now that we are established in our form, our focus has shifted from working with the form as a group to becoming aware of the higher inner energies we are working with. We share the work of merging the group mind and preparing it to contact the energy peculiar to that month, each member having an opportunity to share thoughts about the full moon energy prior to going into and working with the meditation form. Some months many individuals have something to share and some months fewer. This has also worked out to be a way to encourage group members to begin to prepare several days ahead of the full moon by thinking about that energy and its meaning and significance for humanity and the group work. Additionally, the importance of the sequential nature of the monthly energies and how they build upon one another is becoming more apparent.

While other related groups, such as the Esoteric Healing study group, have struggled at times with focus on personality limitations and failings, this has not been a problem for the fmm group. The working format, entering in silence and leaving in silence, was established from the beginning. Though this was perhaps too rigidly adhered to and enforced at first, being off putting for many and requiring education of others, it has served well to set the foundation for the impersonal group work that now occurs.

All the individual members of the group know that this work, while impersonal and selfless, is important and that they as individuals make important group contributions and the importance is because it is a selfless group work. As such there is a subjective connection of gratitude and love that is unspoken but deeply felt by all the group members. There is gratitude for the opportunity to learn to work together in this way and to be of group service. This could not be done personally or individually and so the group itself strives with gratitude to be of ever greater service to the cosmic energies that seek to manifest and be expressed in our physical world. Every member is increasingly making him or herself more open and available for this purpose as an individual and as a member of a working group. In a very real way, the evolvement of the usefulness of the individual for service is directly integrated with the usefulness, integration and evolution of the working group.

Conclusion and Recommendations

It seems obvious to our group that each working group will have its own beginning seed and its own unique process of formation according to the karmic forces and interplay of the individuals who are attracted to the group. Therefore, to attempt to give a formula for group formation would be far too limiting to achieve the needed results. The pattern or blueprint, however, is clear. Group work need only start with one worker who has a soul instinct to serve and the discipline to persist in that intention. Then, when that individual becomes magnetic enough and has evolved the personal form suited, paradoxically, for impersonal service, the group will form. At first that group will seem to be centred on that one individual, but that is an illusion. It is simply one stage of the process as it appears from the personality vehicles and is a potential glamour and hindrance. All who have an instinct to serve must ignore that glamour and continue striving for selfless group service. Given time, attention, and the persistence of the intention for true selfless group service, the true group will form and real group service will begin.

It is the effect of the evoked cosmic energies at the time of the full moon within and upon the group that is transformative of the subjective group form. This group service is a more powerful spiritual reality than any one individual server, no matter how self-realized, can know or achieve. Such is our responsibility and such is our opportunity. These groups are the seeds of the future. Working unitedly upon the subjective planes and stretching across the physical globe, they will quickly transform human consciousness. So, all who feel that soul urge to group service, your responsibility is simple—pay attention and nurture that urge. Never give up and know that it is the inherent nature of the current cosmic energies making impact upon the earth to transform and transfigure the group form for effective service. [-]

Reprinted from the January/March 2008 issue of The Beacon