Comments on the use of the Great Invocation
The Great Invocation is a planetary tool of universal ability to fulfil the will of God. That purpose impels my astrological nature (of soul and of personality) as a natural way to respond to the need for affiliation with others. So this need for affiliation is working through the inherent possibilities for fusion released by the Great Invocation. The Invocation affirms our group ability to be manifested on the etheric levels through our quality of fusion.
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The biggest problem for me is my wandering thoughts while saying the Great Invocation. I find that if I use visualisation while going through the words, it keeps my attention focussed and my heart a flame during the process.
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Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion--at that time I descend Myself.
Singing the Gayatri mantram also helps to awaken the Will and to harmonise our individual will with the Cosmic Will. The meaning of the mantram is: “We meditate upon the Cosmic Lord (of Light), so that that Light of the Soul embraces us und alerts our wills.” In the Great Invocation we also invoke the centres of Light, Love and Will. We can visualise the centres in us: The Will at the middle of the forehead below the hairline, the Love above the right eye and the Light above the left eye. In the Gayatri we can visualise the syllable bhur above the left eye, bhuvah above the right eye and suvaha below the hairline. Through these centres the divine energy descends into us and goes on to reach the throat centre, the centre related to humanity. It is the work
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The work is in "Doing Love" in all our daily actions which invokes the "Will to Good" on this planet and in this solar system...
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I think the beauty of this work lies in the fact that the Invocation is a World invocation/prayer asking to aid the whole of humanity beyond the personal. Those who use it offer it as an appeal, like lighted beacons encouraging others to also work.
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The Invocation presents us with a Timeless, verbal structure of truth and beauty, offered as a sacred tool to spread universal goodwill . I use the original version. Sometimes I stand and sound the Invocation silently, using hand and arm gestures, sometimes wordless, using symbols only. All these beautiful and varied ways of work must create a lovely mosaic from the heavens.
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Recognizing that the Light of Knowledge, Wisdom has been dimmed amongst humanity, we have been enveloped for so long in this heavy energy of darkness that the strongest appeal for Light from the Mind of God to descend into the minds of man is so very needed. Love and Goodwill from the heart of humanity has also been all but drained from so many in this time, so that the Love from the Heart of God is the only thing that can re-set that energy flowing throughout humanity. Humanity has lost its way, we have strayed so far away from the Path, that only the True Guidance from the Hierarchy can help us all. This Love and Light is the only power that can and will seal the door where evil dwells. So I use The Great Invocation as the Strongest Appeal, Invocation and Demand that the Power of these Energies be Spread throughout this Planet, so that the Plan of Love and Light can and Does work out. O M
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I visualise the New Age symbol in coordination with the Great Invocation. The use of geometrical symbols, the radiation of light from the central point in the cross in the centre and the words seem to provide a powerful funnel through which to channel the energies of Light Love and Power. Concluding with the 5 planetary centres located at the tips of each arm of the blue pentacle star radiating light out into the world of Humanity.
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It is not easy to add something new to the already sounded thoughts on the Great Invocation, but there is a thought to focus not on the seventh ray's tendencies to crystallization (misuse), but rather to look at it from the angle of dense externalisation of the Whole (1st Ray)--the Idea of the Saving Power's work.
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In Discipleship in the New Age, Vol. II, p. 156, the Tibetan offers an intriguing statement regarding the Great Invocation.: "I challenge you to penetrate, through meditation, more deeply into the vital meaning of these words, these amazing words. They embody, as far as is possible in modern language, a formula which has been in possession of the Hierarchy ever since it was founded on Earth..." This thought can also be coupled with the paraphrased statement that meditation always begins with alignment but results in alignment, provides esoteric stimulation for research.
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Maybe we can revisit the comments on the Great Invoccation found in Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II pg: 668 about rearrangements and adaptations of the use of the Great Invocation for the general public...IT is VERY OPEN!
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The Tibetan said the Great Invocation is the Mantram of Direction for humanity.
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The opportunity to talk about The Great Invocation, is something I have wanted to talk about for years. I appreciate the comments about the seventh-ray tendency to crystallization, because I believe this is happening everywhere, including with our use of the Invocation. I refer the interested reader to The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, because a significant portion of that book is dedicated to the introduction over a ten-year period, of the three stanzas of the Great Invocation. Curiously, narrative about The Great Invocation is intertwined with instruction about the use of triangles, so the interested reader will benefit from perusal of these sections.
We are told that these Invocations are great Words of Power, and they need to be said correctly in order to be most potent. The name of this is significant: It is an invocation—we are to invoke energy with dynamic power. It is not merely an invocation, however: It is the invocation; in fact, it is The Great Invocation. The invocation is a seventh-ray statement, but more importantly it directly synthesizes all three major rays: We draw in light, the light of the mind, of the Mahachohan, to uplift the mindstuff of humanity; we magnetically attract the love of the Eternal Son, the Coming One, the Christ; and we invoke in power the will of the Father Himself, the power of Purpose. What an invocation!
If we turn to Externalization, we are told that had the First Stanza been invoked in power and dynamic tension, the second World War could have been avoided! Instead:
The Great Invocation was rendered relatively powerless, from the angle of dynamic usefulness, because the majority of those who used it turned it into a peace prayer. It was instead a great spiritually militant invocative demand. This must not happen with this Stanza of Invocation. It is a demand; it is also an authoritative affirmation of existent fact; it sets in motion agencies and forces hitherto quiescent. (Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, p. 250)
Let me repeat one sentence here, in which five words are each important: “It was instead, a great spiritually militant invocative demand.” Great. Spiritually. Militant. Invocative. Demand. This word demand is particularly important because it is repeated several times.
Later in the book, this idea is repeated:
[The First Stanza] was used as a prayer by the majority and not as a challenging demand as had been intended; it did not, therefore, prove adequately effective in arresting the onward march of evil. It does, however, preserve the form which can and will evoke eventually the Spirit of Peace. (Bailey, EH, p. 397)
Two pages later, students are given direct guidance in the use of the invocation:
I would ask you also to take those measures in your individual life and in your environment, wherever possible, which will help make the work to be done at the time of the Full Moon in May and in June successful; to use both the Invocations constantly; do not use them as prayers or employing the energy of desire but as great challenging demands, employing the power of the will as you can muster it and focus it at a point of tension. (Ibid., p. 399)
As we think of The Great Invocation, let us learn anew how to say it as a fiat, a decree, a dynamic invocation, even as a demand! A demand for light, a demand for love, a demand for the Purpose and Will of God! Surely the need for light and love and power has never been greater, as we are faced with the emergence of the merchants of illusion in this final battle for domination of the World of Ideas.
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The Great Invocation is only effective if used on the mental plane and with the power of a controlled mind-focused on its intent and meaning-behind the spoken effort. When said with the power of the soul as well as with the directed attention of the mind, it automatically becomes dynamically effective.