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I. The Appropriation of the Bodies - Part 3

It was for this reason (when giving the earlier tabulation) that the words "building psychologically" were used, with the intent to direct the attention of the student to the soul or psyche as the building agency, but at the same time to negate or offset the material concept of body-building.  Occultism is the science of energy manipulation, of the attractive or the repulsive aspect of force, and it is with this that we shall concern ourselves.

In this soul activity is to be found the source or the germ of all the experiences which—on the physical plane today—are recognised and considered by the psychologist.  In this thought is to be found the fact that there is no difficulty in the vehicles of expression but finds its correspondence and higher truth in the centre of experience which we call the soul.

Take, for instance, the emphasis which is laid by certain psychologists upon the idea that all that we have inherited of truth (the idea of God, the concept of a future heaven, the ancient and exploded (?) belief around which the thoughts of men have superstitiously centred) are only the outer expression or formulations of a hidden "wish life."  This wish life is, we are told, based upon an inner and often hidden and unrealised sense of frustration, of disillusionment, of trouble; all the ideas which the race has prized down the ages and whereby most of its nobler souls have lived, are founded on illusion.  With the formulation of these various "wish-fulfillments" [318] in the life of the individual, with the fact that they lead to many difficulties and strains and stresses which require careful adjustment, and with the belief that in these concepts is mixed much of a childish superstition, the Teachers upon the inner side would find Themselves in hearty agreement in many cases.  But They make the following reservation.  They state that the centres of expression through which the soul gains needed experience and becomes conscious in worlds of being, otherwise unknown, have come into manifestation as the result of the "wish" or the desire of the soul.  It is the "wish-life" of the soul and not the frustrations of the personality which have brought about the situation with which man is today contending.  Therefore, the emerging into the public consciousness (through the teaching of certain schools of psychologists) of knowledge anent this wish life and its increasing prevalence is definitely founded upon the fact that humanity is becoming soul-conscious and, therefore, slowly becoming aware of the wishes of the soul.  But as man's basic identifications remain as yet in the centres of expression and not in the centre of experience—the soul, there is an unavoidable, though temporary, distortion of the truth.

We can approach another psychological problem in the same manner.  Much is being written today which is the result of the development of the science of psycho-analysis.  This is the problem of what is commonly called a "split personality".  This division in the continuity of consciousness (for that is what it basically is) takes many forms and sometimes produces more than simply a duality.  The great expression of the continuity of desire is voiced for us by Paul, the initiate, in The Epistle to the Romans where he refers to the constant battle between the will-to-good and the will-to-evil, as it takes place within the periphery of consciousness of a human being.  From certain angles this passage is prophetic, for the writer (perhaps [319] unknowingly) was looking forward to that period in the evolution of mankind when the "battle of the opposites" would be waged in its full strength, both individually and within all nations and races.  Such a time is now upon us.  As far as the individual is concerned, the psychologist is attempting to deal with the problem.  As far as the race is concerned, the great social, philanthropic, political and religious movements are equally concerned with the same problem.  This should be of interest to all for it indicates that the planetary kurukshetra is now being fought out and, therefore, that present affairs must be viewed from the angle of a basic psychology, which is expressive—in time and space—of that great centre of soul expression which we call the human family.  It indicates also the advanced point of attainment in consciousness upon the path of evolution.  When the battle is successfully fought, and there is a realisation in consciousness of the nature of the issue involved (and such an awareness is most rapidly developing), then we shall have a bridging of the gap and the fusing of the fundamental pairs of opposites (the soul and the form).  This will bring in the new era of spiritual attainment or of soul contact.

The thought which should be dominant in our minds today, in order that we may rightly understand the correct use of this whole section is simply this:—that the right appropriation of form by the soul is the result of an initial wish or desire.  It is the result of a fundamental outgoing impulse on the part of the centre of energy.  This tendency outwards is expressed in many differing words or expressions in the literature of the world, such as:

a. The desire to manifest.

b. The creative impulse.

c. The evolutionary urge.

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d. The wish to incarnate.

e. The attraction of the pairs of opposites.  This is positive energy having an attractive effect upon negative energy.

f. The outgoing tendency.

g. The fall of man.

h. The "sons of God came in unto the daughters of men".  (The Bible)

i. The "corn of wheat falling into the ground".

Many such expressions can be found, having in them symbolic quality and which are not to be interpreted literally, or with a physical connotation.  Each idea, however, involves a duality, and the concept that there is "that which is manifesting through the form of the manifest".  This is "the soul and the form", and many other similar phrases are familiar to all of us.

I would urge you to preserve, as far as possible, the thought of the psychological implications, considering this whole section from the angle in sentiency, for in sentiency (as you well know) lies the entire psychological problem.  It is always and in every case the problem of response to environment and opportunity, and in this idea lies much for the esoteric psychologist.  In sensitive awareness lies the secret of progress for the psyche, and also the secret of the many states of consciousness which the sentient or feeling factor, the soul, experiences on the path of evolution as it expands—

a. The sphere of its contacts,

b. The range of its influence,

c. The field of its conscious activity.

I have expressed these three in the order of their appearance.

We are apt to consider these appearances from the point of view of man upon the physical plane.  It is necessary to [321] consider them from the point of view of the soul and the process of experiencing.  This is an angle of vision which is only truly possible to the man who is beginning to function as a soul.

It is here that the ray nature of any specific soul is first of all brought into activity, for its colouring, tone, quality and its basic vibration determine psychologically the colour, tone, quality and basic vibration of the mind-energy demonstrated.  It conditions the sentient form attracted and the vital body which constitutes the attractive agency upon the physical plane, drawing to itself the type of negative energy or substance through which the quality, tone or vibration of the specific centre of experience can be expressed, and the environment contacted.  In the early stages of manifestation, it is the nature of the form or of the vehicle which dominates and is the outstanding characteristic.  The nature of quality, of the underlying soul, is not apparent.  Then the form or vehicle is sentient in two directions:  outwards towards the environment, which leads (as evolution proceeds) to the perfecting of the vehicle, and inwards towards the higher progressive impulse, which leads to the definite expansion of consciousness.  These higher impulses are progressive in their appearance.  It might, in this connection be stated that:

1. The physical nature becomes responsive to

a. Desire,

b. Ambition,

c. Aspiration.

The fusion of the sentient, astral body and the physical body then becomes complete.

2. This basic duality then becomes responsive to

a. The lower concrete mind,

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b. The separative impulses of the selfish mental body,

c. The intellect, the synthesis of mind and instinct,

d. The promptings of the soul.

This produces an integration of the three energies which constitute the threefold lower man.

3. This triplicity then becomes responsive to

a. Itself, as an integrated personality.  Then the rhythm set up by the fusion of the lower energies (the astral and the mental) becomes dominant.

b. The Soul, as the fundamental centre of experience.  The personality gets a vision of its destiny, which is to be an instrument of a higher force.

c. The intuition.

d. The source of inspiration, the monad.

A few students may get the symbolic significance of the process, if they grasp the fact that, in the earlier stages upon the evolutionary path, the Monad is the source of the exhalation or of the expiration which brought the soul into being upon the physical plane:  upon the Path of Return, with which we are concerned in the latter stage, the Monad is the source of inhalation or of the inspiration.

In the process of exhalation or of the breathing-out, a certain type of divine energy focussed itself as a centre of experience in that type of sentient substance which we call higher mental matter.  This eventually formed that aspect of man which we call the soul.  In its turn, the soul continued in this process of exhalation or breathing out, initiated by the monad, or the One Life.  The energy thus sent forth forms centres of experience in the three worlds through the process of "attractive appropriation" of qualified material or substance.  Through these centres, the needed experience is gained, the life process [323] is intensified, the range of experience through contact with an ever-widening environment becomes possible, leading to successive expansions of consciousness which are called initiations in the later stages, when consciously undergone and definitely self-initiated.  Thus the field of soul influence is steadily enlarged.  Whilst this soul activity is proceeding, a paralleling activity in the material substance is going on, which steadily brings the negative aspect of matter or substance up to the positive requirements of the soul.  The vehicles of expression, the mechanism of manifestation and the centres for experience improve as the consciousness widens and deepens.

From the standpoint of psychology, this means that the glandular equipment, the physical apparatus, and the response instrument become increasingly efficient, whilst an inner coordination and integration proceeds apace.  The dilemma of the psychologist today is largely due to the fact that the law of rebirth is not yet recognised scientifically or among the intelligentsia.  He is therefore faced with the problems of the inequalities in the physical equipment, everywhere prevalent.  There is a widespread failure to recognise the underlying cause which is responsible for the "appearance", for the mechanism.  There is, therefore, no scientific proof (as the word is understood at this time) of the field of experience.  There is—in time and space—no synthesis (esoterically understood) permitted, but simply the isolated appearance of a human being, making up hosts of human beings, variously equipped, greatly limited by that equipment, and faced also with an environment which seems antagonistic, lacking inner synthesis, coordination and integration, except in the case of the highly intelligent and deeply spiritual people, those who are definitely functioning souls.  For these latter, the average psychologist has no adequate explanation.

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The integration of an individual into his environment is proceeding apace, and the psychological adjustment of man to his field of experience will steadily improve.  Upon this, humanity can count, and to this, the history of man's development as a knowing being testifies.  But the integration of the human being into time has not been accomplished and even this statement will be little understood.  Man's origin and his goal remain largely unconsidered, and he is studied from the angle of this one short life, and from the point of view of his present equipment.  Until he is integrated into time as well as into his environment and until the Law of Rebirth is admitted as the most likely hypothesis, there will be no real understanding of the process of evolution, of the relationships of individuals, and the nature of the unfoldment of the equipment.  There will be no true wisdom.  Knowledge comes, as the individual integrates into his environment.  Wisdom comes as he becomes coordinated into the processes of time.  The mechanism is related to the environment, and is the apparatus of contact and the means through which the experiencing soul arrives at a full awareness of the field of knowledge.  This soul is the identity which is time-conscious in the true sense of the word, and which views the period of manifestation as a whole, gaining thus a sense of proportion, an understanding of values and an inner sense of synthesis.

Little by little the triple mechanism is developed and the centre of experience expands in knowledge.  Today this knowledge is of a very high order, and the world is full of personalities.  Supplementing our earlier definitions, a personality might be simply defined as:

a. An equipment which is becoming adequate in three directions of contact.  The experiencing soul can now begin to use the instrument effectively.

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b. An expression of the creative power of the soul which is ready to transmute knowledge into wisdom.

c. An incarnate soul, which is now ready to work consciously with the time factor, for, having learned how to work with the factor of environment, the soul can now begin to control circumstances and environment from the standpoint of time.  This means, in the first instance, the right use of time and opportunity and then the establishing of continuity of consciousness.

It is not my intention to deal with the building of the various bodies.  I seek here to generalise and to take up the theme from the point of attainment of modern humanity.  Hints are given in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire which, if duly studied, will serve to elucidate the early problem of the soul's impulse to creation.  We will, therefore, accept the fact of the initial creation of the forms, based upon the wish or desire to manifest, and proceed with our theme along the idea of experience, expression, and expansion, dealing with modern man and his problems from the standpoint of the psychological development of his problems.

c. INTER-RELATIONS OF THE PERSONALITY LIFE

In dealing now with the esoteric aspect of the appropriation of the vehicles through which a manifesting Son of God can express himself, it is impossible to avoid the use of some form of symbolic rendering of words.  So long, however, as the student remembers that they are symbolic, there is no real danger of a basic misunderstanding.  The analytical, intelligent mind uses forms of speech in order to limit the concept intuited within terms which can be comprehended, and abstract ideas are thereby brought down to the level of the understanding.

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We have seen that our major consideration must be that of the soul as a centre of consciousness and of the bodies as a centre of experience, and with this postulate we lay the foundation for our future psychological investigations.  We are not here dealing with the question of why this is so, or of how it may have come about.  We accept the statement as basic and fundamental, and take our stand upon the premise that the nature of life in the world is experience-gaining, because we see this happening around us on every side and can note it occurring in our own lives.

We can divide people into three groups:

1. Those who are unconsciously gaining experience, but are at the same time so engrossed with the processes of the results of experiencing, that they remain unaware of the deeper objectives.

2. Those who are dimly awakening to the fact that adaptation to the ways of living to which they are subjected, and from which there seems no escape, means for them the learning of some lesson which

a. Enriches their lives, usually in the practical and material sense.

b. Intensifies their sensitive perception.

c. Permits of the development of quality and the steady acquiring of characteristics, facilities and capacities.

3. Those who are awakened to the purpose of experience, and who are consequently bringing to every event an intelligent power to extract from the happenings to which they are subjected some gain to the life of the soul.  They have learnt to regard the environment in which they find themselves as the place of purification and the field of their planned service.

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This is a rough and broad generalisation, but it accounts for human experience and consequent attitudes in the three major groupings.

It is of interest to bear in mind that the process of the appropriation of the bodies, presents similar stages with respect to the evolution of the form and to the evolution of the indwelling life.  In the history of the material aspect of manifestation, there have been (as the occult books teach) the following stages:

1. The stage of involution, or of appropriation, and of construction of the vehicles of expression upon the downward arc, where the emphasis is upon the building, growth and appropriation of the bodies, and not so much upon the indwelling, conscious Entity.

2. The stage of evolution, or of refinement and the development of quality, leading to liberation upon the upward arc.

It is the same in the psychological history of the human being.  There too we find a somewhat similar process, divided into two stages, marking the involution and the evolution of consciousness.

Hitherto in the occult books (as I earlier pointed out) the emphasis has been upon the development of the form side of life, and upon the nature and quality of that form as it responds, upon different levels of the planetary life, to the impact of the environment in the early stages and to the impress of the soul at the later stages.  In this Treatise with which we are now engaged, our primary aim is to point out the effect upon the soul of the experiences undergone in the bodies, and the process whereby the consciousness aspect of divinity is expanded, culminating as it does in what is technically called an initiation.  Each of the two major divisions [328] of this process—involution and evolution—could be divided into six definite expansions of consciousness.  Those upon the upward arc differ from those upon the downward arc in objective and motive and in scope, and are essentially sublimations of the lower aspects of the unfoldment of consciousness.  These six stages might be called:

1. The stage of Appropriation.

2. The stage of Aspiration.

3. The stage of Approach.

4. The stage of Appearance.

5. The stage of Activity.

6. The stage of Ambition.

Each stage, when at its height of expression, involves a period of crisis.  This crisis precedes the unfoldment of the next stage in the conscious awakening of man.  We here are viewing Man as a conscious thinker, and not man as a member of the fourth kingdom in nature.  Ponder upon this distinction, for it marks the points of emphasis and the focus of the identification.

In the first stage of appropriation, we have the soul or the conscious thinker (the divine son of God, or manasaputra) doing three things:

1. Consciously registering the desire to incarnate.  This is the will to exist or the will-to-be upon the physical plane.

2. Consciously focussing attention on the processes involved in the decision to "make an appearance".

3. Consciously taking the necessary steps to appropriate the needed substance through which to appear and thereby satisfy the demand for existence.

With these processes, formulated as theories, we are familiar.  The speculations and pronouncements of teachers everywhere, [329] and down the ages, have familiarised us with the many symbolic ways of dealing with these matters.  Upon them there is no need to enlarge.  The whole series of events involved in the decision are to be considered here only from the angle of consciousness and of a defined involutionary procedure.

The second stage of aspiration concerns the aspiration or the desire of the soul to appear, and brings the consciousness down on to what we call the astral plane.  The inclination of the soul is towards that which is material.  We must not forget this fact.  We have been apt to regard aspiration as the consummation or the transmutation of desire.  However, in the last analysis, it might be said that aspiration is the basis or root of all desire and that we have only used the word "desire" to signify aspiration which has a natural object in the consciousness of man, confining the word "aspiration" to that transmuted desire which makes the soul the fixed objective in the life of the man in incarnation.  But all phases of desire are essentially forms of aspiration and, on the involutionary arc, aspiration shows itself as the desire of the soul to experience in consciousness those processes which will make it conscious and dynamic in the world of human affairs.

When this conscious realisation is established and the soul has appropriated a form upon the mental plane through the will to exist, and one also upon the astral plane through aspiration, then the third stage of approach takes place upon etheric levels.  The consciousness becomes focussed there, preparatory to the intense crisis of "appearing", and there takes place what might be regarded as a ranging or a gathering of all the forces of the consciousness in order to force the issue and thus emerge into manifestation.  This is a vital moment in consciousness; it is a period of vital preparation for a great spiritual event—the coming into incarnation of a son of God.  [330] This involves the taking of a dense physical body which will act either as a complete prison for the soul or as a "form for revelation", as it has been called, in the cases of those advanced men whom we regard as the revealed sons of God.

The crisis of approach is one of the most important and one of the least understood of the various stages.  Students should find it of interest to make a comparative study of the approaches which have previously been mentioned in connection with such episodes in human history as those occurring at the time of the Wesak Full Moon.  There is a close underlying relationship between the approaches upon the path of involution and those upon the path of evolution, and also between those taken by an individual and those by a group.

Then, when the gathering of forces during the stage of approach is consummated, the fourth stage takes place, that of appearance, and the man emerges into the light of day and runs his little cycle upon the physical plane, developing increased sensitivity in consciousness, through the medium of experience gained through the processes of life in a physical body.  After appearing in form, he becomes (with each new appearance) increasingly active and alive and awake, and the stage of activity grows in intensity until the consciousness of the man is swept by ambition.

The two final stages of activity and of ambition are those covered by the ordinary man and dealt with by the ordinary psychologist.  This is itself of interest, because it shows how very little of the life of the real man, of the conscious thinking Being is touched by the orthodox, exoteric psychologist.  The four stages of man's development which lie behind his active appearance upon the physical plane are not considered at all.  The intensity of the process of approach which preceded that appearance is not dealt with, yet it is basically a determining factor.  But this activity upon the physical plane [331] and the nature of his desire life (which is only translated into terms of ambition later on in his life experience) are the dominant factors to be considered.  It is, of course, exceedingly difficult for there to be a true understanding of man until the theory of rebirth is admitted and man is accounted for in terms of a long preceding history.  In this age of intensest separative thinking and attitudes, it is the individual life of the individual man, separate in time and space from all that has gone before, and from all that surrounds him in the present, which is considered as of importance and as constituting a man.  Man, as an expression of a soul process, is not dealt with in any way.

Thus we have the stages succeeding each other from the initial appropriation upon the mental plane until the man, in consciousness, has worked his way down through the planes and back again to the mental plane, which brings him to the stage of the coordination of the personality, and the emergence into full expression of what we call the personality ray.  Life after life takes place.  Again and again, the soul incarnates and, in consciousness, passes through the stages outlined above.  But gradually a higher sense of values supervenes; there comes a period when desire for material experience and for ambitious personality satisfactions begins to fade out; newer and better values and higher standards of thought and desire begin slowly to appear.

The consciousness aspect then passes through all the stages upon which we have touched but in reverse order, and this time upon the upward arc, corresponding to the evolutionary stage in the great cycle of natural processes, concerned with the form life.  It expands slowly from the consciousness of ambition through activity and the succeeding unfoldments, to the stage of approach to the divine reality upon the mental plane and that of the final appropriation, wherein [332] the consciousness of man, becomes merged in that of the soul upon its own level, and finally appropriates in full awareness (if one can use so paradoxical a phrase) the One.

When the consciousness of the soul, incarnate in a human form, arrives at a realisation of the futility of material ambition, it marks a high stage of personality integration and precedes a period of change or of a shift in activity.  During this second stage upon the Path of Return, the shift of the consciousness is away from the physical body altogether, into the etheric or vital body, and from thence into the astral body.  There duality is sensed and the battle of the pairs of opposites takes place.  The disciple makes his appearance as Arjuna.  Only after the battle and only when Arjuna has made his fateful decisions, is it possible for him to make his approach upon the mental plane to the soul.  This he does by

1. Realising himself as a soul and not as the form.  This involves a process of what is called "divine reflection", which works out in two ways.  The soul now begins definitely to reject the form, and the man, through whom the soul is experiencing and expressing itself, is himself rejected by the world in which he lives.

2. Discovering the group to which he belongs, blocking his way of approach until he discovers the way of approach by service.

3. Identifying himself with his group upon his own ray and so earning the right to make his approach, because he has learnt the lesson that "he travels not alone".

Then comes that peculiar stage of transcendent aspiration, wherein desire for individual experience is lost and only the longing to function as a conscious part of the greater Whole remains.  Then and only then can the conscious soul appropriate the "body of light and of splendour, the expression of [333] the glory of the One" which, when once assumed, makes all future incarnations in the three worlds impossible, except as an act of the spiritual will.  The significance of the above may be found difficult of comprehension for it is one of the mysteries of a higher initiation.

Therefore, it will be seen that we begin and we end with an expansion of consciousness.  The first one led to the inclusion of the material world, and the second one includes or appropriates, consciously and intelligently, the spiritual world.  We see the desire consciousness transmuted into aspiration for the spiritual realities and the focussed, vital approach to the kingdom of God.  We see the appearance on the physical plane of the imprisoned consciousness, limited and confined for purposes of defined, intelligent development, within an evolving form, and the final emergence upon the mental plane of the enriched, released consciousness into the full freedom of the Mind of God.  We see the activity of the conscious mind of man slowly expanding and intensifying, until it becomes the activity of the illumined mind, reflecting the divine consciousness of the soul.  We see the ambition of the conscious man transformed at first into the spiritual ambition of the pledged disciple and finally into the expression of the Will of God or of the Monad, in the initiate.

Thus the three aspects of divinity are released upon earth through the medium of an incarnated and fully developed consciousness, that of a Son of God.  From the conscious appropriation of form back again to the conscious appropriation of divinity is the work carried forward and the plan of Deity worked out.  Laying the ground, as we are now proposing to do, for the study of integration in connection with the human being, it will not be necessary for us to deal in detail with the many phases of the various stages we have been considering.  Thousands of human beings, indeed perhaps millions, will [334] be found on our planet, at any one time, who will illustrate in their lives and activities some one point or other upon the downward or the upward arc.  For the majority, the expert assistance of the modern trained educator and psychologist, the churchman or the physician, will suffice to give the needed aid, particularly when three happenings eventuate, which will inevitably be the case before so many decades have gone by:

1. These four types of experts—educators, psychologists, churchmen and physicians—will work in conjunction with each other, and each will place his skill and his peculiar point of view and interpretation of conditions at the disposal of his fellow workers.

2. The fact of the soul will be admitted as a reasonable hypothesis, and the fact that there may be an indwelling entity, seeking to control in some measure the mechanism, will also be accepted.

3. The Law of Rebirth will be regarded as a law in nature, and place will be given in the thoughts of these four groups of human helpers, for a man's past and his rapidly developing future.

In this Treatise, we are considering those more advanced people who constitute the intelligentsia of the world, who are beginning to use the mind, who are upon the probationary path, or who are nearing the Path of Discipleship.  When this is the case (and it seldom occurs before, unless to the eye of the initiate) the personalities are so refined that the personality ray and the egoic ray permit of analysis and definition.  Until there is sufficient pronounced development to allow of a true diagnosis, it is not possible to say definitely what is the ray of the personality.  The defining of the egoic ray comes later still and can only be surmised at first from the nature of [335] the conflict of which the personality is aware, based as it will be on a growing sense of duality.  It will also be capable of expert diagnosis from certain physical and psychical characteristics which indicate the quality of the higher nature of the person concerned, and also through a study of the type of a man's group affiliations as they begin to appear upon the physical plane.  A man who—being, through personality predilection, a creative artist—suddenly takes a deep and profound interest in mathematics, might be inferred to be coming under the influence of a second ray soul; or a man, whose whole personality was definitely upon the sixth ray of fanatical idealism or devotion to an object of his idealism, and who had functioned during life as a religious devotee, and who then switched the centre of his life interest into scientific investigation, might be, therefore, responding to a fifth ray soul impression.

We shall, therefore, study the process of coordination and the methods whereby two great integrations take place:

1. The integration of the personality, or the means whereby the consciousness of the person

a. Shifts out of one body into another, so that a definite expansion of consciousness takes place.

b. Begins to be active in all the three personality vehicles simultaneously.

2. The integration of the personality and the soul so that the soul can

a. Function through any one body at will, or

b. Function through all the three bodies which constitute the personality simultaneously.

This will lead us to confine ourselves to the study of the more advanced or pronounced types, which are primarily the [336] mystic, the aspirant, the notable people, and those who constitute the people with psychological problems of our present time and period.

Step by step, the various bodies have been developed, utilised, refined and organised; step by step the sensory apparatus of man has been sensitised and used, until the world today is full of men and women whose response apparatus, and whose instruments of contact are as far removed in effectiveness from those of primitive man as are the vehicles of the average modern man from those of the Christ and the Buddha, with Their immensely wide range of subjective and divine awareness.  Step by step, the unfoldment of the nervous system has paralleled that of the inner psychical apparatus, and the glandular equipment has faithfully reflected that of the great centres of force, with their inter-connecting lines of energy.  Step by step, the consciousness of man has shifted from:

1. That of the purely animal, with its emphasis upon the natural physical appetites, into that of the vital, personal being, responding to the impacts of an environment which he does not intelligently understand but in which he finds himself.  This is the primitive and so-called savage state of consciousness and lies far behind us today, in a distant racial history.  This primitive stage saw the birth of that religious direction to which we give the name of animism.

2. That of a vital, primitive being into that state of consciousness which is coloured almost entirely by desire for material satisfaction.  This in time transmutes itself into that of an emotional response to the environing conditions, leading thus to an intensified "wish-life" a development of the imaginative faculty.  It ends finally in the production of the Mystic, with his aspiration, his sense of [337] duality, and his reaching out after God, plus an intense devotion to an ideal of some kind or another.

3. That of the vital, emotional, desire emphasis and state of longing into that of a mental consciousness,—intelligent, enquiring, intellectually sensitive, responsive to thought currents and reacting with increasing steadiness, vigour and sensitivity to the impact of ideas.

4. That of one or another of these states of consciousness, alternating in their emphasis, or predominantly active in some one or other of these lower aspects, to that of integrated personality, selfishly occupied with self-emphasis, self-interest, self-expression, and so demonstrating as a great or intrepid individual, demonstrating power and purpose in a world which he exploits for his own selfish ends.

When this stage is reached, the focus of the life is predominantly material, and the man is ambitious, effective, and powerful.  Yet there slowly arises in him a divine discontent; the savor of his life experience and enterprises begins to prove unsatisfactory.  Another shift in consciousness takes place, and he reaches out—at first unconsciously and later consciously—to the life and significance of a dimly sensed reality.  The soul is beginning to make its presence felt, and to grip in a different sense than hitherto, and in a more active manner, its vehicles of expression and of service.

In this summary, we have sketched the broad general outlines of the process.  It will be obvious that there will be gradations in the process and men will be found on earth at every stage of consciousness.  One will be equipped with vehicles in which the emphasis is upon the sensory life.  In some cases there will be found a consciousness which is shifting its emphasis out of one vehicle into another, and so becoming [338] awake and more inclusive in its range of contacts and in its awareness.  Others again will be possessed of a consciousness which is organising itself for full expression as a man, as an integrated personality and as a worker for material ends, bringing to bear upon those objectives all the force and power of an integrated functioning person.  There will be those whose consciousness is gradually awakening to a new and higher sense of values, and is slowly at first and more rapidly as facility is acquired, shifting its focus of attention out of the world of material, selfish living into that of true spiritual realities.

Little by little, the consciousness of the third aspect of divinity is coordinated with that of the second, and the Christ consciousness is aroused into activity through the medium of experience in form.  Man begins to add to the gained personality experience of the three worlds of human endeavour, the intuitive spiritual perception which is the heritage of those who are awake within the kingdom of God.  Paralleling this development of the consciousness in man is the evolution of the instruments whereby that consciousness is brought en rapport with a rapidly expanding world of sensory perception, of intellectual concepts and of intuitive recognitions.  With the development of this form aspect we will not concern ourselves, beyond pointing out that, as the consciousness shifts from one body to another and its range of contacts, therefore, steadily expands, the centres in man's etheric body (three below and four above the diaphragm) are awakened in three major stages, though through the medium of many smaller awakenings.

1. They begin to develop from that of the "closed bud to that of the opened lotus".  This takes place during the period of ordinary evolution.

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2. The petals of the lotus become vibrant and alive.  This is the stage of personality integration.

3. The heart of the lotus, "the jewel in the lotus" also becomes actively alive.  This is the period of the final stages upon the Path.

This process of unfoldment is itself brought about by five crises of awakening, so that we have a threefold process and a fivefold movement.

1. The centres below the diaphragm are the controlling and dominant factor.  The stage of dense materiality, of lower desire and of physical urge is in full expression.  This was carried to its higher point of development in Lemurian times.  The sacral centre was the controlling factor.

2. The centres below the diaphragm become fully active, with the major emphasis in the solar plexus centre.  This centre eventually becomes the great clearing house for all the lower forces and marks the period of the shift into a higher body, the astral body.  This was characteristic of Atlantean racial development.

3. The awakening of the throat centre and the shift of much of the lower energy into the throat activity.  The ajna centre also begins to become active, producing integrated and creative personalities.  This stage is characteristic of the present Aryan race.

4  The awakening of the heart centre and the shift of the solar plexus energy into that centre, thus producing groups and the entrance of a new and fuller sense of spiritual energy.  The shift of emphasis is then into those states of awareness which reveal the kingdom of God.  The fifth kingdom in nature becomes creatively active [340] on earth.  This will be characteristic of the consciousness of the next great race.

5. The awakening of the head centre, with the consequent arousing of the kundalini fire at the base of the spine.  This leads to the final integration of soul and body, and the appearance of a perfected humanity upon earth.  This will express the nature of the final race.

Forget not that there are at all times those who are characteristically expressing one or another of all of these various stages and states of consciousness.  There are but a few on earth today who are capable of expressing as low a state of relative development as the Lemurian consciousness.  There are a few at the extreme end of the Way who are expressing divine perfection, and in between these two extremes are all possible grades of development and unfoldment.

Man is therefore (from the angle of force expression) a mass of conflicting energies and an active centre of moving forces with a shift of emphasis constantly going on, and with the aggregation of the numerous streams of energy presenting a confusing kaleidoscope of active inter-relations, interpenetration, internecine warfare, and interdependence until such time as the personality forces (symbolic of divine multiplicity) are subdued or "brought into line" by the dominant soul.  That is what we really mean by the use of the word "alignment".  This alignment results from:

1. The control of the personality by the soul.

2. The downpouring of soul energy, via the mental and the emotional bodies, into the brain, thus producing the subjugation of the lower nature, the awakening of the brain consciousness to soul awareness, and a new alignment of the bodies.

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3. The right arrangement, according to ray type, of the energies which are motivating and dynamically arousing the centres into activity.  This leads eventually to a direct alignment of the centres upon the spine, so that soul energy can pass up and down through the centres from the directing centre in the head.  Whilst this process of soul control is being perfected (and the time consumed is, from the angle of the limiting personality consciousness, of vast duration), the ray types of the vehicles steadily emerge, the ray of the personality begins to control the life, and finally the soul ray begins to dominate the personality ray and subdue its activity.

Eventually, the monadic ray takes control, absorbing into itself the rays of the personality and of the soul (at the third and fifth initiations) and thus duality is finally and definitely overcome and "only the One Who Is remains."

We can now deal with the coordination of the personality, with its three types of techniques previously mentioned, which are the techniques of integration, the techniques of fusion and the techniques of duality.  We will then pass on to a consideration of some of the problems with which psychology has to deal, arising as they do, out of the shifting consciousness, the intensification of the energy reception by the centres, and the inflow of soul potency.  This will bring us to a point in our Treatise in which the rays and the human being will have been somewhat considered, and where we can eventually and with profit deal with that point, the third pertaining to the Ray of Personality, which we are in process of completing.  It concerns education, the psychological training of aspirants and disciples, and the trends to be found emerging in the new esoteric psychology.

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