The Conscience of Love

When tackling such an enormous topic as consciousness, it's only possible to cover so much ground, and as the overriding aim of Alice Bailey's writings is to help people express love in the world, it's this magnetic, attractive expression of consciousness that we'll concentrate on this afternoon. To begin with though, we should first look at how consciousness generally evolves in manifestation, and then focus more specifically on the “still small voice” of conscience, and the awakening of Love.

The relationship between love and consciousness is a prime focus of the Alice Bailey teachings, and, in particular, the increasing radiation of love by those who are starting to transcend the strictly human state of awareness. At a specific point in evolution, radiation is an indication that the life essence within a particular form is starting to respond to the magnetic pull of a greater, more inclusive centre of energy. The life has evolved to the point that it can no longer be contained within its confining walls and it's starting to escape. Examples of this are to be seen in the radioactivity of certain minerals and the perfume and beauty of some of the more highly evolved species of the vegetable kingdom.

In the animal world, less obvious but nevertheless radiatory, is the devotion and intelligent activity of domesticated animals. While they respond to the magnetic pull of human life, their powerful emanations can evoke much emotion and affection from us. Moving on to the human kingdom, radiation finds its expression here in love and service - that spontaneous outflow of a loving heart and intelligent mind that characterises those whose intuition is awakening to the call of the fifth kingdom in nature - the kingdom of souls. Here, self-identity expands to include all other lives as part of one's own identity, and vice versa, all selves being regarded as part of the One Life in Whom we live and move and have our being; group consciousness, rather than individual consciousness, is now the outstanding feature.

In a nutshell, radiation is “ transmutation in process of accomplishment....the passage across from one state of being to another, through the agency of fire". This is the way consciousness evolves, building forms, outgrowing them and then building afresh, and at certain critical points, passing from one kingdom to another. To understand this more fully we will also need to look at the evolution of consciousness in terms of fire a little later on. Humanity, as a kingdom of nature, is currently ablaze with the fire of pain and suffering but experiencing a steady transmutation as a growing number of people move through, or towards, a radiatory state. Throughout the world at this time, we see the awakenings of love and countless lives dedicated to charitable causes. The rapidly growing number of non-governmental organisations, and the tentative but strengthening trend towards synthesis symbolised by the United Nations and socio-economic blocks such as the European Community are further signs. We surely find ourselves in exciting times as humanity begins to re-orientate itself towards a higher kingdom in nature while the vanguard prepare to pass through the initiations of fire that make transference possible. This will have tremendous repercussions for the whole of humanity and launch us into the so-called “New Age” of peace and spiritual progress that is becoming ever more widely anticipated.

In terms of the evolution of consciousness then, everything is moving forward purposefully towards greater inclusiveness and expression of the ONE LIFE - ordered motion being a fundamental characteristic of manifested being. An aspect of Absolute Consciousness has been plunged into the universe, fragmented and rendered blind, dumb and inert by the coarse vibration of its surroundings. These myriads of differentiated specks of the ONE LIFE are to be found at different stages of awakening and are making the long struggle back to the One Source carrying with them the essence of their experiences.

The nature of Absolute Consciousness outside of manifestation and the genesis of the universe are superbly laid out in the Secret Doctrine, but for the purposes of this talk, we'll confine ourselves to consciousness within the universe, or more specifically, within our solar system; nevertheless some words from Helena Blavatsky provide a good backdrop. She describes the impulse that brought the universe into being as “the ONE LIFE, eternal, invisible yet Omnipresent, without beginning or end, yet periodical in its regular manifestation, between which periods reigns the dark mystery of non-Being...Its one absolute attribute...is called in esoteric parlance the `Great Breath' which is the perpetual motion of the universe, in the sense of limitless, ever-present SPACE. That which is motionless cannot be DIVINE. But then there is nothing in fact and reality absolutely motionless within the universal soul.” Secret Doctrine vol I facsimile edition pg 2

Three types of motion

Motion, then, is the outstanding feature of manifestation and there are three main types, each one related to an aspect of the divine trinity that lies at the heart of many of the great world religions and philosophies.

Figure 1

In Christianity we have, of course, The Father, Son and Holy Ghost; in Hinduism: Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma; the Hebrew: Kether, Chokmah and Binah, and the Egyptian: Osiris, Horus and Isis, and so on. Esoteric teachings refer to this trinity in terms of their major characteristics: Will, Love-Wisdom and Active Intelligence. Each of the three Gods or Logoi that comprise the divine trinity has all three aspects but demonstrates one more dynamically than the others and so is recognised as that dominant aspect itself.

Referring to A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, by Alice Bailey, we begin with the third aspect of the trinity, Active Intelligence. This energy expresses itself through rotary motion, which is due to the fire latent in matter itself. Rotary motion is apparent all around us - atoms, planets, solar systems and galaxies all rotate on their axes and within the perimeter of these whirling unified spheres is to be found variety and differentiation. By the revolution of matter, activity is increased making the material more pliable and adaptable.

The second Logos of the divine trinity, Love-Wisdom, is seeking to blend with this active intelligence of the third aspect and He adds to the rotary motion of all atoms His own form of motion, spiralling periodical movement. By circulation along an orbit around a central focal point in an ever ascending spiral, two results are brought about:

Firstly, the gathering of atoms into forms.

And secondly, by means of these forms, the gaining of needed contact and the development of consciousness through a gradual rarefying and refining of the forms as the Spirit of Love or the Flame Divine spirals ever onward towards the source from which it came.

Having now considered these second and third aspects of the divine trinity, we come finally to the first aspect of the trinity, which is Will. The mode of action of the Will, perhaps not surprisingly, is a literal driving forward through space. This forward progression is the will behind the evolutionary process that drives spirit onward until it emerges from matter with added quality and faculty from the experience it has undergone. It also increases the vibration of matter by means of its own. The activity of the first Logos is the synthesis of the spirits who are gaining consciousness through manifestation. His function is to hold them in manifestation for the desired period and then to abstract and blend them again with their spiritual source. He synthesises spirit with spirit.

The Progression of Good

So through these three aspects of ordered motion, we see a steady progression of consciousness. Because there is nothing absolutely static in existence, everything is constantly changing, mutating, adapting and growing through the experience of contacting everything else. Manifestation is an intricate and ever widening progression of relationships - each contact made bringing an expansion of consciousness, not only for the units involved, but for the collective whole. It is, at the same time, an expansion of love and inclusiveness, an ability to consciously embrace more of the whole - a growing power to link things to one another in a vast interwoven field of relationships until the underlying synthesis of creation is expressed as a conscious unity.

This is the true meaning of Love, the ability to relate greater aspects of creation together in harmony and beauty. Over the ages, the concepts of Beauty and Love have been glamourised and distorted and the meanings have become unclear. Etymology can clarify things for us here though and reveal their true nature. The word beauty can be traced back to a diminutive form of Old Latin related to the word bonus meaning `good', and so for something to be truly beautiful, it also has to be `good' in the spiritual sense. The word `Good', in turn, as well as being related to the word God of course, goes back to prehistoric Germanic roots and the word, gath meaning `bring together', the source of the English `gather' and `together'. Pythagoras called the Creator, the source of everything, the `Good', and this is an apt title because through the scheme of evolution, God is gathering everything back into Himself and so `bringing together'. The evolutionary process could therefore be simply yet accurately defined as the progression of good.

From this perspective, the universe is made up of successive gradations of good, with matter at the lowest end of the scale, spirit at the highest, and beauty being the developing state of harmony between them - the area of resonance often referred to as the soul. The soul of anything is, therefore, by definition, beautiful: it is beauty itself, the point of tension between unity and diversity, the interface between the manifest and the unmanifest, between spirit and matter. As that which is lower in the evolutionary scheme approaches that which is higher, the resonance, and therefore the beauty, steadily increases until this mediating principle disappears having served its linking purpose, and the two levels are fused into one. At a fundamental level, beauty occurs when the resident consciousness within a form has integrated the constituent parts into a unified resonance. This harmony of motion creates a vortex through which beauty enters as a flow of light, carrying the life of that which is greater into that which is lesser, and lifting it up towards itself in the process.

Three types of fire

And so love and beauty are the radiant qualities of ordered, rhythmic motion, gaining in power and intensity as consciousness moves upwards in vibratory rate from one level of expression to another. As we noted earlier, this transmutation takes place through the agency of fire. To understand this better, the three types of motion associated with the divine trinity should now be considered in terms of fire.

Figure 2

Turning once more to A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, and again, beginning with the third Logos of Active Intelligence, we recall that His outstanding feature is rotary motion and this is due to the fact that He is fire in matter. This fire or latent heat causes the atom to revolve and through the subsequent momentum to repulse other atoms. It is therefore the basis of diversity, of separation and individuality. The action of the third Logos is known as Fire by Friction.

The second Logos of Love-Wisdom is characterised by Solar Fire; this is the spiralling fire of divine mind, the form building aspect. Through the attractive agency of Love-Wisdom, this Logos overrides the repulsive tendency of groups of atoms and magnetically fixes them into forms, but we will concentrate more on this shortly.

The first Logos of Will is Electric Fire, the fire of pure Spirit. This fire drives evolution onwards towards a consummating blaze of glory. He is responsible for the direction of evolution, though where that is taking us lies beyond human understanding, and indeed, beyond the ken of the highest spiritual intelligences within the solar system. The nature of the electric fire of spirit is beautifully encapsulated in Christ's statement to the initiate, Nicodemus, which makes its appeal to the abstract mind if not to our rational thinking. “ The wind (...Spirit) bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit."

Two ideas are conveyed here—those of an emanating sound and direction, and that which is the result of the sound. This is evolution and the effect of the directing energy or activity of Spirit.

And so we have electric fire, solar fire and fire by friction. To focus our attention now on the second aspect of Love-Wisdom, we are told that “the fire of matter and the electric fire of Spirit blended, produce, in time and space, that fire which we call solar. He is the quality of the flame, or the essential flame, produced by this merging.” Solar fire, in other words, is Consciousness.

Crisis, Tension, Emergence

After considering evolution in terms of fire, perhaps its not so surprising that pain and suffering are such a common feature of life. As fire by friction governs our experience in the world, the more we desire to exist in it, the more we will experience the burning intensity of pleasure and pain that contact brings. Pleasure and pain are those two great polar opposites between which we perpetually oscillate, that is, until we learn how to walk between them along the path of the cold, shining light of solar fire. This is the noble middle path of the Buddha, and perhaps we can see from a fresh angle now, the compelling logic of His four noble truths based on the premise that desire for phenomenal existence is inseparable from suffering and sorrow.

In terms of the esoteric sciences, we might say that a human being, like every other unit of life, is a vortex of force, a point of the divine life vibrating in matter at a specific pitch and frequency. Desire for sensation causes the consciousness to reach outwards from the centre to the periphery of the vortex and build its identity around the outer senses where the frictional fires of life are experienced. Through the rotation of successive incarnations, these frictional fires stimulate, sensitise and refine the indwelling life.

To begin with, only the grossest of impacts register on the incarnated aspect of the soul, but over countless incarnations, the consciousness awakens to finer vibrations and sensations, relinquishing its desire for that which is coarser. The ladder of evolution is climbed in this way, consciousness interacting with environment - experiencing and assimilating, reaching a state of satiety and then detaching itself in search of something newer and higher, all the time shifting identity, from one rate of vibration to another. In this way the faculty of mind is developed and the spiralling ladder of consciousness is steadily ascended - a ladder that stretches from the very depths of matter to the very heights of spirit .

Looking at this a little more deeply, as well as receiving stimulation from the obvious mental, emotional and physical sources, all the evolving units of consciousness are subject to a constant bombardment of more subtle potencies. Such sources include astrological influences and forces from the angelic or deva kingdoms; the spiritual Hierarchy - those liberated and enlightened lives who guide humanity forwards in line with the Will and Purpose of the Lord of the World, and on up to the Logos of the solar system. When we add to this the directing influences of our own souls, we see that we are living in a vast matrix of forces

Theresult is a continual growth and awakening of the inner consciousness. This growth can be described as an ordered pattern of Crisis, Tension, Emergence;

CRISIS >	TENSION >	EMERGENCE
INFLUX OF ENERGY	FOCUS & ACCUMULATION	CREATIVE EXPRESSION

Potencies produce precipitation

Crisis, when there is a special influx of energy from some source to which we are responsive, tension as it builds within us; and emergence as the forces demand release through creative expression of some kind. In The Rays and the Initiations, Alice Bailey says that “ points of crisis and the subsequent points of tension...[enable] the living forms...to emerge into larger areas of consciousness. Each kingdom in nature can itself be regarded as a point of tension within the sphere of Being of the planetary Logos, and each—in time and space—is in process of generating those points of crisis which will produce a potent (and often sudden) moving forward upon the Path of Evolution. Humanity is today, in its present situation, at a point of planetary crisis, generating such a point of tension that it will shortly be enabled to move forward into the new age dispensation, culture and civilisation. The study of the individual aspirant parallels this”.

Crises power the evolutionary process and are therefore, we might say, compulsory opportunities for growth, both individually and for humanity as a whole. As points of crisis precipitate, the potencies that they release in our consciousness present us with a series of choices and direction. If we can align ourselves with the progression of good, these energy surges spiritually empower us and we realise that the whole universe is on our side, calling and lifting us to greater heights via the spiralling motion of solar fire. Without this alignment, the energies are not used constructively, and pressures build up within us stimulating the lower nature and causing disturbances or `events' that we seemingly have no control over. They then intensify our experiences in the frictional fires of matter, causing pain and suffering, and lessons are learned the hard way. The process of crisis, tension and emergence can be summed up in the phrase Potencies produce Precipitation.

The Conscience of Love

And so we come to the call of the higher nature, and the potencies of the soul that precipitate into the personality through the “still small voice” of conscience. In the book, From Intellect to Intuition, Alice Bailey comments that:

The real Master, claiming our attention and subsequent obedience, is the Master in the Heart, the soul, the indwelling Christ. This Master first makes His presence felt through the "still small voice" of conscience, prompting us to higher and more unselfish living, and sounding a quick note of warning when there is deviation from the strict path of rectitude. Later this comes to be known as the Voice of the Silence, that word that comes from the "Word incarnate," which is ourselves. Each of us is a Word made flesh. Later still, we call it the awakened intuition. The student of meditation learns to distinguish accurately between these three. This requirement, therefore, calls for that implicit obedience which the aspirant renders promptly to the highest impulse which he can register at all times and at any cost. When this obedience is forthcoming it calls forth from the soul a downpouring of light and knowledge.

Figure 3

The word `conscience' comes from the same root as `consciousness', the Latin word conscire - con, meaning `with, together', and scire, meaning `know'. The Bloomsbury Dictionary of Word Origins interprets it as “to know something with oneself”. The derived noun conscientia added to this a distinction between right and wrong. Perhaps more simply though, we could split the word into its two composite syllables, con and science; thus, to act according to one's conscience is to act with science. Conscience is therefore an awareness of inner knowledge or TRUTH. It is the registration of solar fire, and to act with science is to enter that fire and follow the path of truth as it spirals ever onward in the progression of good.

Conscience is a surge of energetic love that steadily aligns us with the soul, filling us with an irresistible urge to actively seek it out, to follow its call wherever it may lead. It leads, in fact, to the centre of the cross of discipleship where we find ourselves in a state of dynamic tension as energy from the soul streams down the vertical arm of the cross and outwards along the horizontal arm of service. We are becoming a channel for the systemic energies of love-wisdom; the conscience of love is felt flowing through us, touching the conscience of everything else, adjusting its rhythm and inducing a temporary state of harmony with the whole. Freedom is felt too, because to stand detached at the centre of the cross enables us to lift our eyes above the problems of the personality and to literally contact the energies of that which will be. Therefore we know that, despite the suffering of the world, a glorious future awaits humanity and our privilege is to participate in materialising it on earth. And when we know this beyond all doubt, we cannot help but feel free and joyful.

Joy is a simple and reliable barometer of invocative living. It springs from the spiritual tension that is created at the interface between invocation and evocation, giving and receiving, crisis and emergence - and to live joyfully is to live invocatively at the centre of the cross. Joy is an indication that we are becoming so identified with the soul of humanity, that the planetary conscience is flowing through us, inducing a state of tension in the environment and adjusting its vibration to harmonise with that of the inner, spiritual planes.

The Soul Body

At the centre of the cross, the human being is initiated into the higher energy states of harmony, peace and serenity, conditions having a passive, even static appearance that belies their terrific vibratory rate; it is an occult paradox that as the spiritual frequency increases, the appearance often becomes more poised and serene. The energies of the soul that pour through the individual, do so through the force centres that substand the physical body, increasing their vibration until they become gateways to the inner dimensions.

While most of us will be familiar with the notion of the seven major centres or chakras in the etheric body, that are whorls of force resembling lotus flowers, less well known is the fact that the soul's vesture on its own plane also resembles a vast lotus of living fire. At the beginning of our incarnations, this soul body is little more than a colourless ovoid. But as the consciousness awakens in the lower worlds, our experiments and experiences in life are translated into beauty and colour in the soul body. As we overcome the desire for the things of the earth, this process accelerates for it signifies our control over matter. Every good thought and deed is a demonstration of this control and redemption, blending solar fire with fire by friction. Ultimately, this blended fire is so fierce that it renders the soul body radioactive. This process is graphically described in the Alice Bailey teachings in the following passage, which summarises our discussion so far:

“ Before the final liberation but after the major part of the purificatory and aligning processes are complete, the vehicles of the initiate present a wonderful appearance, due to the streams of energy from the [soul]... which can reach him. The [solar] lotus is unfolded, and the central "fire" displayed. Each petal and each circle of petals is pulsating with life and colour, and is in active movement, revolving with great rapidity and with the stream of living energy circulating in every part of the lotus.....The....centres [in the mental, astral and etheric body]....are radiant wheels of fire, each group distinguished by a specific colour, and revolving with such rapidity that the eye can scarce follow them. The bodies are formed of the highest grades of substance, each individual atom, therefore, being capable of intensified vibration, and glowing with the light of its own central fire.

The etheric body especially is to be noticed as it is a transmitter at this stage of the purest type of prana, and deserves the name sometimes given to it of "the body of the Sun." It is the envelope which holds the fires of the microcosmic system; in it are centred not only the pranic fires, but those seven centres which are the transmitters of all the higher energies from the [Soul], and from the two higher material bodies [the mental and astral vehicles].....the three centres which are of a strictly physical nature—the pineal gland, the pituitary body and the spleen-themselves become luminous and radiant, and all the fires of the body are so stimulated that the atoms which form the physical sheath appear to radiate..... The forces which flow through a man whose atoms, centres, sheaths, and [soul] body form a coherent unit in full and radiant activity are of such strength and purity as to have a definite effect upon the nature of those they contact. They heal, stimulate and increase the vibration of their fellow human beings.

Figure 4

Hopefully, we can now more easily understand radiation as transmutation in process of accomplishment....the passage across from one state of being to another, through the agency of fire. We see this taking place by degree throughout the whole scheme of evolution, reflecting the great process of the electric fire of spirit contacting the frictional fire of matter and producing the spiralling path of consciousness, the relationship between the two.

The Seven Rays

We cannot really conclude our discussion of the Alice Bailey perspective on consciousness without touching upon one more vital factor. In our reflections this afternoon, we have relied extensively on the role of the divine trinity and a question that naturally arises is why a trininty - why is three fundamental? Without going into deep metaphysical debate, it can be said that when that which is One or an absolute unity divides and becomes a duality, a third factor immediately comes into play, and that is the relationship between the two. Three is therefore the divine number that immediately springs forth from duality. And so we have the eternal triangle of the self, the not-self and the relationship between them on any level of existence, or what we generally call spirit, matter and soul. However we should also consider another divine number that stems from three and that is seven. All triplicities can be grouped in seven ways according to the ratio of their power to one another, hence we see the significance of the number seven and note its prevalence in such examples as the seven major notes in the musical scale, and the seven colours in the chromatic spectrum. And in terms of the esoteric philosophy itself, the divine Trinity naturally produces a septenate of its own known as the Seven Rays of Life.

Figure 5

THE SEVEN RAYS

Seven different ratios of power produced by the trinity

RAY	DESCRIPTION
1	WILL
2	LOVE-WISDOM
3	ACTIVE INTELLIGENCE
4	HARMONY, BEAUTY, ART
5	CONCRETE KNOWLEDGE, SCIENCE
6	DEVOTION, IDEALISM
7	CEREMONIAL ORDER, MAGIC

Every unit of consciousness finds itself belonging to one of the seven rays and is an expression, great or small of its general quality. The first three rays maintain the same names and characteristics as the divine Trinity that we have been studying ie., Will, Love-Wisdom and Active Intelligence. They are known as rays of Aspect, being expressions of the nature or quality of the divine Trinity. The other four rays are called rays of Attribute as they have their root in the third aspect of the Trinity, Active Intelligence. Being different modes of intelligent activity, these attributes find their synthesis in the third ray. These are known as: The Fourth Ray of Harmony, Beauty, Art. The Fifth Ray of Concrete Knowledge or Science. The Sixth Ray of Devotion or Idealism. The Seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order or Magic. The nature of these rays of attribute may not be as immediately understandable as the rays of aspect, but they can be thought of as modes of intelligent activity - the ways in which life adapts and organises force, substance and matter.

Each consciousness is coloured by the seven rays, but resonates to the quality of one of them more than the others. In the case of a human being, this basic ray is the soul ray, but then we also have the personality ray as well as the rays that condition the mental, emotional and physical bodies. This interrelationship creates a vast arena of opportunities and the rich diversity of human consciousness and expression that we see in the world. A study of the rays is a study of esoteric psychology, and individual development can be measured by the extent that the conditioning rays have been brought into harmony with one another and under the dominion of the soul ray. In the psychology of the future, this way of approaching development will become increasingly meaningful and the internal relationships of the personality and its interaction with the environment will be better understood within the context of the Second Ray of Love-Wisdom.

This Second Ray of Love-Wisdom governs our solar system and all lives within its sphere of influence are learning to attune themselves to its permeating vibration. This is illustrated in the doctrine of the love of God that permeates all religious teachings and unites their outer diversity. And while this Second Ray governs our solar system, all of the seven rays originate from outside of it, but enter it through the heart of the Sun and are therefore all emanations of love-wisdom as far as we are concerned. Each of us who sets foot upon the path of conscious evolution is helping to intensify one of these seven expressions of love, becoming a transmitter of divine energy - “a point of sacrificial fire focused within the fiery will of God.” The initiated consciousness stands steadfast in this flow, assisting planetary redemption as " a radiating point of crisis and a producer of the needed tension". We see from this that our ideas about love have to move far beyond personal desire and sentiment if we are to understand it at all.

Desire is the distortion of love and it produces those forces of glamour that currently hold humanity enthralled and imprisoned. Glamour is an enticing misrepresentation of something that is real and spiritual. Just as the stars appear to twinkle and change colour as their light passes through the earth's atmosphere, so too is there an altered and distorted appearance of truth and beauty when their light passes through the veils of desire and sentiment. The resulting facade of glamour shines with a false light, producing a fool's gold that allures the senses. To enter this space is to become lost in a gigantic hall of mirrors in which everything is the distorted reflection of something else. However, even in this confused state, the soul with its saving force of conscience, lets us know that we are acting out of harmony with reality. Each time we hear and obey its call, even if only sporadically, we further ascend the spiral of consciousness until an elevated perspective alters our sense of relationships accordingly. This eventually leads to a complete infusion by the conscience of love itself as we awaken and merge with the great evolutionary tide.

And when, to this general picture, we add the factor of sound, we have the great creative force that conducts this ordered, forward motion in the universe putting pressures, tensions and frictions in the vesture of space and giving rise to all other phenomena. Every unit of consciousness is forging a vehicle of sound in the fires of existence in order to participate in the great symphony in the heavens. In the book Glamour, a World Problem, we read that every human being is “ perfecting an instrument whereby the music of the soul and, later, the musical quality of the Hierarchy (the kingdom of superhuman lives) can be heard....sound permeates all forms; the planet itself has its own note or sound; each minute atom also has its sound; each form can be evoked into music and each human being has his peculiar chord and all chords contribute to the great symphony, which the Hierarchy and Humanity are playing, and playing now. Every spiritual group has its own tune....and the groups which are in process of collaborating with the Hierarchy make music ceaselessly. This rhythm of sound and this myriad of chords and notes blend with the music of the Hierarchy itself and this is a steadily enriching symphony; as the centuries slip away, all these sounds slowly unite and are resolved into each other until some day the planetary symphony which Sanat Kumara [the Lord of the World] is composing will be completed and our Earth will then make a notable contribution to the great chords of the solar system—and this is a part, intrinsic and real, of the music of the spheres. Then, as the Bible says, the Sons of God, the planetary Logoi, will sing together. This...will be the result of...the correct relation between all parts...”

Love is the energy that ensures this correct relation. Through the power of its own commanding silence, it orchestrates the spiralling, musical relationship between the poles of spirit and matter, regarding every separated unit of consciousness that lies between them as instrumental to the symphony of the whole. As each of us awakens to the conscience of love, we take our place in this conducting force and the great Law of Love that governs God's creation has full guidance over our lives. As we live in harmony with this law, we assume greater responsibility for extending its rule on the lower levels of manifestation and become co-creators with God in building the “new heavens and the new earth.”

The law of service is therefore the keynote of the spiritual life - the “spontaneous outflow of a loving heart and intelligent mind” distributes God's love to all. The higher conscience is awakening and is no longer just the voice of caution that alerts us to wrong action. It is something much greater, extending our consciousness to envelope the whole and enabling us to act in harmony with our own soul as well as the soul of all. As this solar system is based on love, all that is contained within it is love by degree and the more conscious something is the more love it is expressing. And so, through the joy of service and the radiant heart, we are helping to expand the consciousness of the whole through the energy of love. This is not a vague mystical love though. For as we saw, conscience can be interpreted as `with science', and to live one's life with the conscience of love is to live in accordance with `an intuitive knowledge of the higher laws of the solar system'. It is to work as the white occultist and wield those powers through love that can help humanity take the next step towards its glorious future. From our participation in today's event, we will have constructed a thoughtform of beauty and power to facilitate and empower this process - one that each of us can tune into from time to time, and help to meditate into existence. Thank you.