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II. The Seven Laws of Soul or Group Life - Part 5

I would like here to give you some thoughts anent the new groups which come into functioning activity under the Law of Group Progress.  It must be constantly remembered, as one considers these coming new groups, that they are primarily an experiment in Group Activity, and are not formed for the purpose of perfecting the individual member in any group.  This is a fundamental and essential statement, if the objectives are rightly to be understood.  In these groups the members supplement and fortify each other, and, in the aggregate of their qualities and capacities, they should eventually provide groups capable of useful spiritual expression, and through which spiritual energy can flow, unimpeded, for the helping of humanity.  The work to be done is very largely upon mental levels.  The spheres of daily service of the individual members of the new groups remain as their destiny and inner urge indicates upon the physical plane; but—to the differing [181] fields of individual effort—there will be added (and this is the point of importance) a group activity which will be a joint and united service.  Each person in such groups has to learn to work in a close mental and spiritual cooperation with all the others, and this takes time, given the present point of evolutionary development of the world aspirants.  Each has to pour forth love on all, and this is not easy.  Each has to learn to subordinate his own personality ideas and his personal growth to the group requirements, for at present some will have to hasten their progress in certain directions, and some must slow it down as a service to the others.  This process will take place automatically as the group identity and integration becomes the dominant thought in the group consciousness, and the desire for personal growth and spiritual satisfaction is relegated to a secondary place.

This contemplated group unity will have its roots in group meditation, or in the contemplative life (in which the soul knows itself to be one with all souls).  This in its turn will work out in some form of group activity which will constitute the distinguishing contribution of any particular group to the raising of the human race esoterically.  Within the group life, the individual will not be dealt with as such by those who seek to train, teach and weld the group into an instrument for service.  Each person will be regarded as a transmitter of the type of energy which is the predominant energy in any ray type,—either egoic or personality rays.  Each can in time learn to transmit the quality of his soul ray to the group, stimulating his brothers to greater courage, clearer vision, finer purity of motive, and deeper love, and yet avoid the danger of vitalising his personality characteristics.  This is the major difficulty.  To do this effectively and correctly, we must all learn to think of each other as souls, and not as human beings.

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Therefore, as a preliminary statement, we have the following objectives in the group work of the New Age, as they make their tentative beginnings at this time.  The later and more esoteric objectives will emerge as the earlier ones are reached:

1. Group Unity.  This must be achieved through the practice of love, which is part of the practice of the Presence of God, through the subordination of the personality life to the group life, and constant, loving, living service.

2. Group Meditation.  These groups will eventually be grounded in the kingdom of souls, and the work done will be motivated and carried forward from the higher mental levels in the demonstration of the contemplative life.  This involves the dual activity of the life of the disciple, wherein he functions consciously both as a personality and as a soul.  The life of the personality should be that of intelligent activity; that of the soul is loving contemplation.

3. Group Activity.  Each group will have some distinguishing characteristic and this will be dedicated to some specific form of service.

When the groups are properly established (and the time is imminent) and after they have worked together subjectively for a certain necessary period of time (to be determined by the quality of the life of the individuals composing it, and their selflessness and service) then they will begin to function outwardly and their life aspect will begin to make its presence felt.  The various lines of activity will emerge when the group vibration is strong enough to make a definite impact on the consciousness of the race.  Therefore, it will be apparent that the first and foremost requirements are group integrity and group cohesion.  Nothing can be accomplished [183] without these.  The subjective linking of each group member with each, and the emergence of a group consciousness is a vital objective for the next few decades.  Thus there will emerge a group circulation or transmission of energy which will be of real value in world salvage.  For the individual it should be remembered that purity of body, control of the emotions, and stability of mind are fundamental requirements and should be the goal of the daily practice.  Again and again we must come back to these prime character requirements, and tiresome as the reiteration may be, I urge upon you the cultivation of these qualities.  Through these groups it may be possible to restore some of the ancient Mysteries, and some of the groups mentioned previously in Letters on Occult Meditation, will be found among the emerging New Age groups.

b. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW GROUPS

This brief summary will serve to give some of the elementary requirements and, by means of a broad generalisation, to indicate the major reasons why such groups are being formed.  We can now perhaps widen our vision a little and at the same time look at the groups in greater detail.

One of the characteristics distinguishing the groups of world servers and knowers, is that the outer organisation, which will hold them integrated, will be so nebulous and fine that, to the outer observation, it will be practically non-existent.  The group will be held together by an inner structure of thought and a close telepathic interrelation.  The Great Ones, Whom we all seek to serve, are thus linked, and can at the slightest need and with the least expenditure of force, get into rapport with each other.  They are all attuned to a particular vibration, and so must these groups be attuned.  There will be thus collected together, people demonstrating [184] the wide difference in nature, who are found on differing rays, who are of varying nationalities, and the product of widely separated environments and heredity.  Besides these factors, which immediately attract attention, there will also be found an equal diversity in the life experience of the souls concerned.  The complexity of the problem confronting the group members is also tremendously increased when one remembers the long road which each has travelled, and the many factors and characteristics, emerging out of a dim and distant past, which have tended to make each person what he now is.  When, therefore, one dwells on the difficulties and the possible barriers to success, the question will arise and rightly so:  What makes it possible to establish this group inter-relation?  What provides a common meeting ground?  The answer to these questions is of paramount importance and necessitates a frank handling.

We find in the Bible the words:  "In Him we live and move and have our being".  This is the statement of a fundamental law in nature, and the enunciated basis of the relation which exists between the unit soul, functioning in a human body, and God.  It determines also, in so far as it is realised, the relation between soul and soul.  We live in an ocean of energies.  We ourselves are congeries of energies, and all these energies are closely interrelated and constitute the one synthetic energy body of our planet.

It must be carefully borne in mind that the etheric body of every form in nature is an integral part of the substantial form of God Himself—not the dense physical form, but what the esotericists regard as the form-making substance.  We use the word "God" to signify the one expression of the One Life which animates every form on the outer objective plane.  The etheric or energy body, therefore, of every human being, is an integral part of the etheric body of the planet itself [185] and consequently of the solar system.  Through this medium, every human being is basically related to every other expression of the Divine Life, minute or great.  The function of the etheric body is to receive energy impulses and to be swept into activity by these impulses or streams of force, emanating from some originating source or other.  The etheric body is in reality naught but energy.  It is composed of myriads of threads of force or tiny streams of energy, held in relation to the emotional and mental bodies and to the soul by their co-ordinating effect.  These streams of energy, in their turn, have an effect on the physical body and swing it into activity of some kind or another, according to the nature and power of whatever type of energy may be dominating the etheric body at any particular time.

Through the etheric body, therefore, circulates energy emanating from some mind.  With humanity in the mass, response is made unconsciously to the rulings of the Universal Mind; this is complicated in our time and age by a growing responsiveness to the mass ideas—called sometimes public opinion—of the rapidly evolving human mentality.  Within the human family are also found those who respond to that inner group of Thinkers, Who, working in mental matter, control from the subjective side of life, the emergence of the great Plan and the manifestation of divine purpose.

This group of Thinkers falls into seven main divisions and is presided over by three great Lives or super-conscious entities.  These Three are the Manu, the Christ and the Mahachohan.  These three work primarily through the method of influencing the minds of the adepts and initiates.  These latter, in Their turn, influence the disciples of the world and these disciples, each in his own place and on his own responsibility, work out their concept of the Plan and seek to give expression to it as far as possible.  These disciples have hitherto [186] worked very much alone except when karmic relationships have revealed them to each other and telepathic intercommunication has been fundamentally confined to the Hierarchy of adepts and initiates, both in and out of incarnation, and to Their individual work with Their disciples.

These groups, therefore, which have hitherto worked entirely subjectively, can and will be duplicated externally, and, the new groups will come into being largely as an externalisation—experimental as yet—of the groups which have functioned behind the scenes, motivated from the central group, the Hierarchy of Masters.

This experiment is primarily as yet one of group integration and the method whereby it can be developed.  The reason why Those on the Inner Side are now experimenting with this group idea is because it is definitely a New Age trend.  They are seeking to utilise the increasing bias of the human being towards coherence and integration.  It must be remembered, however, and with constancy, that unless there is a subjective coherence, all outer forms must eventually disintegrate or never cohere at all.  It is only the subjective links and the subjective work that determines success, and these must (particularly in the new group work) be based on egoic relations and not on personal attachments and predilections.  These help where there is at the same time a recognition of the egoic relation.  Where that exists, then something can be formed which is immortal and as lasting as the soul itself.

One practical point should be made clear.  These groups will for some time be what might be called "pattern-groups" and, therefore, must be formed very slowly and with much care.  Each person forming part of the new groups will be tested and tried and subjected to much pressure.  This will be necessary if the groups are to stand through this transition period of the present.  It will not be easy for disciples to form [187] [187] these groups.  The methods and techniques will be so different to those of the past.  People may evince real desire to participate in the group life and to form part of the group activity, but their real difficulty will consist in bringing their personal life and vibration into conformity with the group life and rhythm.  The narrow path which all disciples have to tread (and in the early stages these groups will consist primarily of those on the Probationary Path or the Path of Discipleship) requires obedience to certain instructions which have been handed down to us from the ancient past.  These are followed willingly and with the eyes open, but no rigid adherence to the letter of the law is ever asked or expected.  Flexibility within certain self-imposed limits is always needed, yet that flexibility must not be set in motion by any personality inertia or mental questioning.

This great group training experiment, now being initiated on earth through a new activity of the Hierarchy, will demonstrate to the watching Guides of the race just how far the disciples and aspirants of the world are ready to submerge their personal interests in group good; how sensitive they are, as a group, to instruction and guidance; how free the channels of communication are between the groups on the outer plane and the Inner Group, and between them also and the masses whom they are expected eventually to reach.  A Master's group of disciples, on the inner side of life, forms an integrated organism, characterised by mutual love, life and interplay.  The relationships in that group are entirely mental and astral, and hence the limitations of the etheric force body and of the physical brain and dense physical body are not felt.  This leads to a greater inner facility in understanding and to a reciprocal interplay.  It is wise here to remember that the astral potency is far more strongly felt than on the physical levels, and hence the emphasis laid upon emotional-desire [188] control in all treatises on discipleship and on preparation for that state.

Now an effort is being made to see if such a group activity and interplay can be set up on the physical plane, which will consequently include the physical body apparatus and the brain.  The difficulties are, therefore, great.  What has to be the technique employed in handling this more difficult situation, which is only possible because the work of the Masters' groups has been so effective?  Much may depend upon just how far we will react to this interplay and how much it will mean to us in our lives.  This embodies a most practical occult method of work.  The astral-physical brain reactions should be regarded as non-existent and allowed to lapse below the threshold of the group consciousness, there to die for lack of attention.  The emphasis is held steadily on mental and egoic relations.

c. THE EXPERIMENTAL NATURE OF THE GROUPS

I have said that these groups constitute an experiment. This experiment is fourfold in nature and a concise statement about it may clarify conjecture:

I. They are an experiment in founding or starting focal points in the human family through which certain energies can flow out into the entire race of men.  These energies are ten in number.

II. They are an experiment in inaugurating certain new techniques in work and in modes of communication.  It is to be noted that in these last three words is summed up the whole story.  These groups are intended to facilitate interrelation or communication as follows:

1. They will be occupied with an endeavor to facilitate communication between individuals so that the rules [189] and methods whereby speech can be transcended may become known and the new way of intercourse be brought about.  Eventually communication will be from:

a. Soul to soul, on the higher levels of the mental plane.  This involves complete alignment, so that soul-mind-brain are completely at-one.

b. Mind to mind, on the lower levels of the mental plane.  This involves the complete integration of the personality or lower self, so that mind and brain are at-one.

Students must remember these two distinctive contacts, and bear in mind also that the greater contact need not necessarily include the lesser.  Telepathic communication between the different aspects of the human being is entirely possible at varying stages of unfoldment.

2. They will work at the establishment of communication between that plane which is the plane of illumination and pure reason (the buddhic plane) and the plane of illusion which is the astral plane.  It should be remembered that our great task is to dispel the world illusion through the pouring in of illumination or of light.  When enough groups have been started that have this for their objective, there will then be found upon the physical plane, those channels of communication which will act as the mediators between the world of light and the world of illusion.  They will be transmitters of that type of energy which will break up the existing maya or illusion and dissipate the ancient thought-forms.  They will release the light and peace which will illumine the astral plane and so dispel the illusory nature of its life.

3. Through other groups another type of energy must flow, producing another type of interrelation and communication.  These groups will bring about the right healing of the personalities of individuals, in all aspects of their nature. [190] The work intended is the intelligent transmission of energy to various parts of the nature—mental, astral and physical—of the human being, through the right circulation and organisation of force.  Healing must eventually be carried forward by groups which act as the intermediaries between the plane of spiritual energy (either soul energy, intuitional energy, or will energy) and the patient or group of patients.  This last point is to be noted.  The group idea must always be remembered, for this will distinguish the New Age methods from the past; the work will be group work for the group.  The members will work as souls and not as individuals.  They will learn to communicate healing energy from the reservoir of living force to the patients.

4. Other groups of communicators will act as transmitters of two aspects of divine energy,—knowledge and wisdom.  These must be thought of in terms of energy.  Their work will concern itself with the education of the masses, as a direct intermediary between the higher mind and the lower mind, and with the building of the antaskarana; and their task is that of linking the three points of interest upon the mental plane,—the higher mind, the soul, and the lower mind—so that there is established a group antaskarana between the kingdom of souls and the world of men.

5. Political work will occupy other groups more specifically than does any other branch of work.  These groups communicate the "quality of imposition" and an authority that is lacking in many other branches of this divine group activity.  The work is largely first ray work.  It embodies the method whereby the divine Will works out in the consciousness of races and nations.  Members of this group will have much first ray in their constitution.  Their work is to act as channels of communication between the department of the Manu and the [191] race of men.  It is a noble thing to be channels of the Will of God.

6. Some groups will be, in a pronounced sense, channels between the activity of the second ray, that of the World Teacher (at the present time, the Christ holds this office) and the world of men.  The energy of the second ray must pour through such groups of students and believers and allied groups of thinkers and workers, and there will be many of these.  This fact is to be noted.  There will be many such groups.  The platform of the new world religion will be built by them.

7. A few groups will have an interesting function, but one which will not materialise for a long while, or not until the work of the building forces of the Universe are better understood.  This will be coincident with the development of etheric vision.  These groups will act as channels of communication or intermediaries between the energies which constitute the forces which construct the forms, the fabricators of the outer garment of God, and human spirits.  The possibility is, therefore, to be noted that the main initial work will be concerned with the problem of reincarnation.  That problem deals with the taking of an outer garment or form under the Law of Rebirth.  Therefore, when these groups are organised, it will be with that subject that the members will at first work.  They will make a deeper and different study than has heretofore been undertaken on the Law of Rebirth.

8. Some groups of energy communicators and transmitters will carry illumination between groups of thinkers.  They are illuminators of group thoughts.  They transmit energy from one thought centre to another.  They transmit, above everything else, the energy of ideas.  That is their major function.  The world of ideas is a world of dynamic force centres.  This should not be forgotten.  These ideas have to be contacted and [192] noted.  Their energy has to be assimilated and transmitted and this is the function of those force centres which will express themselves along these lines of activity.

9. Groups working in another category will have for their specific work the stimulating of the minds of men so that alignment can take place.  They act primarily as channels of communication between the soul of man and the soul in any form.  They will be the great psychometrical workers, for a psychometrist is one whose soul is sensitive to the soul in other forms of life,—human and non-human.  They evoke the soul of the past, primarily, linking it with the present, and finding it also indicative of the future.

10. Members of other groups will be communicators between the third aspect of Deity as it expresses itself through the creative process and the world of human thought.  They will link or blend life and form creatively.  Today, unknowingly and without any true understanding, they bring about a concretisation of the energy of desire, which, in its turn, brings about the concretisation of money.  This, consequently, necessitates the materialisation of things.  They have a most difficult task and that is why it is only during the past one hundred and fifty years that the science of world finance has made its appearance.  They will deal with the divine aspect of money.  They will regard money as the means whereby divine purpose can be carried forward.  They will handle money as the agency through which the building forces of the universe can carry forward the work needed; and (herein lies the clue) those building forces will be increasingly occupied with the building of the subjective Temple of the Lord rather than with the materialising of that which meets man's desire.  This distinction merits consideration.

III. They are the externalisation of an inner existing condition[193] It must be realised that these Groups are not a cause but an effect.  That they may themselves have an initiatory effect as they work upon the physical plane is no doubt true, but they themselves are the product of inner activity and of subjective aggregations of force which must perforce become objective.  The work of the group members is to keep, as a group, in close rapport with the inner groups, which form nevertheless, one large, active group.  This central group force will then pour through the groups in so far as the group members, as a group

a. Keep en rapport with the inner sources of power;

b. Never lose sight of the group objective, whatever that objective may be;

c. Cultivate a dual capacity to apply the laws of the soul to the individual life, and the laws of the group to the group life;

d. Use all forces which may flow into the group in service, and learn, therefore, to register that force and use it correctly.

Would the following sequence of statements convey anything to our minds in this connection?  It is a statement of fact and is not in the least symbolic in its terminology, except in so far as all words are inadequate symbols of inner truths.

1. Each group has its inner counterpart.

2. This inner counterpart is a complete whole.  The outer result is only partial.

3. These inner groups, forming one group, are each of them expressive of, or governed by certain laws, embodying, the controlling factors in group work.  A law is only an expression or manifestation of force, applied under the power of thought by a thinker or group of thinkers.

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4. These inner groups, embodying differing types of force, and working synthetically to express certain laws, are an effort to bring in new and different conditions, and hence produce a new civilisation.  This is the New Age that the Aquarian Age will see consummated.

5. The outer groups are a tentative and experimental effort to see how far humanity is ready for such an endeavor.

IV. They are also an experiment which has for its objective the manifestation of certain types of energy which will produce cohesion, or an at-one-ment, upon earth.  The present distraught condition in the world, the international impasse, the religious dissatisfaction, the economic and social upheaval of the past few decades, are all the result of energies that are so potent—owing to their immense momentum—that they can only be brought into rhythmic activity by the imposition of stronger and more definitely directed energies.  When the groups are functioning adequately and have achieved, not only an internal group unity, but also harmony between the groups themselves, then some peculiar and esoteric work can be done.

Such are some of the plans which the Hierarchy are attempting to carry forward and in which all true disciples and aspirants can have a part.  They are brought to our attention in order to evoke our lasting cooperation.

d. ASTROLOGY AND THE NEW GROUPS

This Law of Group Progress embodies one of the energies which have gradually been released over the past two centuries.  A fuller tide was swept into activity at the time of the May, 1936, full moon and now the growth of the group idea, both in its good and bad aspects, can be imminently expected.  As has several times been pointed out to students, this law [195] is connected with a certain realised impulse in the minds of men, and this is, in its turn, the effect of various types of energy, which are playing upon the earth.  The name "Law of Group Progress" is the phrase given by human beings to a particular type of energy which is producing the coherence of units in a group, thus forming them into one living organism.  The recognitions eventuating are those of group affinity, group objective, and group goal.  It is, in the last analysis, the emergence into the subjective consciousness of the same type of energy which produces that aspect of cohesive action which demonstrates as tribal, national or racial unity.  In this case, however, the determining factor is not of a physical connotation nor have these groups a physical plane basis.  They are based on a group idealism which can only be consciously registered when the units in the group are beginning to function upon the mental plane and are developing the capacity to "think things through"—that is, to register in the brain that which the soul has imparted to the mind.  We have here a definition of the meditation process as it should be followed by those who, through alignment, have made some measure of soul contact.  These groups are functioning entirely through a subjective relation, which produces a subjective integration and activity.

When we come to study the astrological implications in connection with these laws, we shall discover that the energies of the zodiacal signs have a specific effect upon the energy of a Being, Whose purpose works out into manifestation through these laws, which are regarded by us as great and inevitable natural laws and also spiritual laws.  This effect produces a blending of energies which is both balancing and, at the same time, impelling.

In December, 1935, the energies of Capricorn were augmented by the pouring in of forces from a still greater constellation [196] which is—to our zodiac—what the zodiac is to the earth.  This augmentation will take place again in 1942.  It must be remembered that, from certain angles, the circle of twelve signs or constellations constitutes a special unity which revolves within our universe of heavens as our planet revolves in the centre of our circle of influences.  By means of this augmentation—during the coming Aquarian zodiacal cycle—groups on earth can avail themselves of the tide of Capricornian influences which will flow into our radius of registration every seven years.  The one just past, gave a tremendous impetus to the work of the New Group of World Servers, and was the cause of the very good reaction in the world to their particular impulse.  This worked out in every nation and in every group as a marked tendency to good will.  In 1942, there will come another planetary inflow of which we all are begged to avail ourselves, and for which we are urged to make due preparation.  This "week of group impact" occurring every seven years, will run from December 21st till December 28th, and if this should at any time fall at the period of the full moon, the opportunity will be most significant.  This possibility must be watched.  This week should be regarded as pre-eminently the "festival week" of the New Group of World Servers, and after 1942 advantage must be taken of this period, and special preparation made.  This fact invites the attention of all of us.

These new groups are appearing everywhere all over the world.  The groups upon the outer plane, with their diversity of names and stated aims, are not connected with this inner group which is sponsoring or "projecting" the new groups, except in so far as they have a definite, even if nebulous, connection.  This becomes always possible where there are three members of the New Group of World Servers found in any one exoteric group; it then becomes "linked by a [197] triple thread of golden light" to the New Group of World Servers, and can in some measure be used.  This great and spiritual grouping of servers is, on the physical plane, only very loosely linked.  On the astral plane the linking is stronger and is based upon love of humanity; on the mental plane the major linking takes place, from the angle of the three worlds as a whole.  It will be apparent, therefore, that certain developments must have taken place in the individual before he can consciously become a functioning member of the New Group of World Servers, which is the principal group at this time definitely working under the Law of Group Progress.

1. He must have the heart centre awakened, and be so outgoing in his "behaviour" that the heart is rapidly linked up with the heart centres of at least eight other people.  Groups of nine awakened aspirants can then be occultly absorbed in the heart centre of the planetary Logos.  Through it, His life can flow and the group members can contribute their quota of energy to the life influences circulating throughout His body.  The above piece of information is only of interest to those who are spiritually awakened, and will mean little or nothing to those who are asleep.

2. The head centre must also be in process of awakening, and the ability to "hold the mind steady in the light" must be somewhat developed.

3. Some forms of creative activity must likewise be found and the server must be active along some humanitarian, artistic, literary, philosophic or scientific lines.

All this involves personality integration and alignment and that magnetic, attractive appeal which is distinctive of all disciples in some form or another.  In this way from the [198] standpoint of esotericism, certain great triangles of energy will be found in the individual and consequently increasingly in humanity.  Then too the "forces of creative life" will circulate from the "point within the head" (the head centre) along the "line to the heart" and then, with the throat centre, form a "triangle of fiery light".  Such is the Way of Group Progress, and when this is being consummated, then the Law of Group Progress begins definitely to function and to control.  It might be of interest, if we here listed the recognised effects of the five laws with which we have been dealing:

 



   Law



   Effect

General
Physical   Effect



  Reaction



  Quality

1.  Sacrifice

World
Saviours
The Christ

Deliberate death. "
I die daily."

Love for the
Saviour.
Desire to follow.

Selflessness.

 

Physical Plane Unity.

 

The Masses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.  Magnetic
     Impulse.

World Religion
Schools of Thought.

Churches Organizations

Love of Ideas
Philosophy.

Devotion. Idealism.

 

Etheric or Vital Unity. 

 

The Aspirants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.  Service.

Humanitarian
Activity.

The Red Cross and allied activities.

Love of
Humanity.

Sympathy. Compassion.

 

Astral Unity.

 

The Probationers

 

 

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.  Repulse

The fight against evil.

Crusades of
 all kinds.

Love of
Good.

Discrimination.

 

 

 

.

 

 

 Mental Unity. 

 

  The Disciples.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.  Group Progress.

New Groups

New Group of World Servers.

Love of Synthesis.

Inclusiveness.

 

     Soul Unity.

 

The Initiates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. The Law of Expansive Response

We can now, with great brevity, however, touch upon the sixth law and the seventh, for we will speak of them together.  The other five laws have worked out into a definite activity upon the physical plane.  The effect or consequences of the impulses behind them produce the working out of the [199] purpose of the Most High, and can be recognised upon the plane of phenomena.  They can all be so recognised, but at this time, the conscious awareness of humanity is such that only in five instances can the effect of these laws be noted, and then only by the most advanced of the world aspirants.  The disciple and the initiate can dimly begin to recognise the effect of the sixth and the seventh laws, but no one else at this time.

These two laws are not capable of interpretation as above, because only those who are initiated or in preparation for initiation can begin to understand them.  The enlightenment which is the result of initiation is necessary before one can touch the idea behind these expressions of purpose.  We shall not, therefore, take any time dealing with The Law of Expansive Response, or with The Law of the Lower Four, beyond giving two ancient stanzas which will convey much to the initiate but may only be sounding words and meaningless symbolic phrases to the average reader and student.

"The Sun, in all its glory, has arisen and cast its beams athwart the Eastern sky.  The union of the pairs of opposites produce, in the cycles of the time and space, both clouds and mists.  These veil a mighty conflagration....

The flood pours forth.  The ark floats free...the flames devour.  The three stand free; and then again the mists envelop.

Above the clouds of earth, a sign shines forth....Only the eye of vision sees this sign.  Only the heart at peace can hear the thunder of the Voice which issues from the dark depths of the cloud.  Only an understanding of the law which elevates and lifts can teach 'the man of fire and son of water' to enter into mist.  From thence he climbs on to the mountain top and there again stands free.

The triple freedom thus achieved has naught to do with earth, or water, or with fire.  It is a freedom, triple in its kind, which greets the man who passes freely from the sphere of earth into the ocean of the watery sphere, and [200] thence on to the burning ground of sacrifice.  The sun augments the fire; it dissipates the mist and dries the earth.  And thus the work is done."

7. The Law of the Lower Four

"Four sons of God went forth.  But only one returned.  Four Saviours merged themselves in two, and then the two became the One."

These two ancient writings—one mystical and the other occult—convey but little to most minds, and this we can easily see.  Therefore it does not profit us to consider them too carefully.  The time is not yet.  These are given us, however, because they contain a magnetic potency which will aid in stimulating comprehension.

We stand today on the verge of great things.  Humanity is on its way with renewed impetus.  It stands no longer at the crossroads, but irrevocable decisions have been made, and the race is moving forward along a path which will lead it eventually into light and peace.  It will find its way into "the peace which passeth understanding" because it will be a peace which is independent of outer conditions and which is not based upon what present humanity defines as peace.  The peace which lies ahead of the race is the peace of serenity and of joy—a serenity, based upon spiritual understanding; and a joy which is untouched by circumstances. This joy and serenity is not an astral condition but a soul reaction.  These qualities are not achieved as the result of disciplining the emotional nature, but demonstrate as a natural, automatic reaction of the soul. This is the reward of a definitely achieved alignment.  These two qualities of the soul—serenity and joy—are the indications that the soul, the ego, the One Who stands alone, is controlling or dominating the personality, circumstance, and all environing conditions of life in the three worlds.
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