October-December 2021

CONTENTS:

Desire and Freedom – Editorial
Many of the mass thoughtforms that hang over human consciousness are a mixture of desire tinged with mind and concerned with the political life of humanity. These are difficult to disconnect from and “see through” because they have become so potent through mass thinking. They take the form of political ideologies of the left and right, of dictatorship and liberal democracy, which in their time and place have been useful in taking humanity forward, step by step, into more intelligent states of consciousness.

Understanding the Astral Plane – Djwhal Khul
One of the most vital things every aspi­rant has to do is to learn to understand the astral plane, to comprehend its na­ture and to learn both to stand free from it and then to work on it. In this instruction, I seek to give some clear teaching on this plane, for the moment a man can “see” on the astral plane, and can achieve equilibrium and hold steady in the midst of its vibrating forces, that moment he is ready for initiation.

The Land of the Heart – Eduardo Gramaglia
It is somewhat disappointing to realize how little I know about the heart, this sun of my own little system, the knowledge of which I can only approach through analogy at this stage. The sun is a giver of life, and a storehouse of vital-electric energies. It is the great pulsating and beating heart of our system: it vitalizes and informs endless hosts of beings under its sway. As the heart distributes life and joy around my own little system, and regulates the circulation of the blood and who knows what other yet un­suspected fluids and gases, there must be a correspondent circulation of vital currents throughout the solar system, of which the Sun is the heart. These are those “circulations of the cosmos”, spoken of in The Secret Doctrine. This twelve-faceted vibrant life is inside ourselves too.

Synthetic Inclusiveness – John Rasmussen
One may begin with the imaginative recognition of the Presence as both the origin and outcome of the spiritual path. At this point, realizing the Presence is only the aspiration to tread the path. Our belief in the necessity of turning towards divinity acts as a touchstone for the personal evaluation of spiritual verities. This belief is the magnet that pulls us towards unification, and the evidence within us of the seed of Spirit. It leads from imagination to the intuition of the Presence, which is our re­sponse to the call of the One Life, and the guarantee of our eventual success.

So Souls Unite in Flight – Kathy Newburn
The Law of Analogy is one of the key teach­ing modes of the spiritual path. In this aphorism our attention is drawn to birds flying in forma­tion as akin to “souls in flight.” Why so? Perhaps this calls us to remember that when we work spiritually, such inner union is possible and is, in fact, the very nature of the soul. The soul is group and at this level we can accomplish much that as limited individuals is not possible.

Turning our World “The Right Side Up” – Dermot Carroll
The idea of cultivating detachment goes against the prevailing mindset of the av­erage citizen of the western world, where the making of attachments is much more in vogue. In fact this work of cultivating attach­ments is not just a feature of western societies; it is the predilection of humanity throughout the whole world – even though the root philoso­phies of eastern societies tend to emphasise de­tachment much more than those of the west. We cultivate attachments from our earliest years, attaching to our parents and families and friends. In later years we attach to partners, to groups and organisations, to careers, to the var­ious spoils of life.

The Occultism in Job: The Climax,  Part 4 – Alice Bailey
The drama of the Book of Job now mounts to a climax. A new and irrevocable step is taken, and at the close Job emerges a new man, with a new vision, a new mode of life, and with an entirely fresh set of values. He has been re-oriented and transformed. He has passed through the stages of outer humiliation and of internal controversy. He has heard the voice of his own Soul, and all his earlier satisfac­tion in his worldly position and influence, and his later revolt against the apparently unfair mea­sures of fate, fade away into the silence.

The Educational Role of Distinction – Gustav Brügge
The making of distinction leads directly to the development of the intuition. Dis­crimination or discernment can be de­fined as the educational process that we subject ourselves to in the process of developing intu­ition. We need to be able to understand what spiritual truth is and what it is not, in order to draw a distinction between things of concern and the unimportant, and between good and evil; this distinction is related to the fourth ray. Humanity as a whole needs to understand the concepts indicated by the words, equilibrium and balance, as will is required to fulfil them.

A Home Fit for Sharing – Michael Brehme
It seems self-evident that the psychological rehabilitation of nations cannot be imposed by any one nation but will be envisioned and enacted, not through force, but through the in­spiration to create a home fit for sharing. This will manifest as humanity becomes increasingly sensitive and responsive to the idea of building a World to a Plan inspired by new and incoming energies.

The Tree of Plenty – A Student
I recently had a dream. In the dream I was walking up a gentle sloping hill. To my left side was a long row of very tall pine trees. Di­rectly above, and following above the pine trees were electrical power lines.

Alexander Graham Bell: An Extraordinary Forerunner – Elizabeth Hornland
Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edin­burgh Scotland March 3, 1847. He lived in many places throughout his life in­cluding London England, Ontario Canada, Boston Massachusetts, Washington D.C, and Cape Breton Nova Scotia. With his birth there came into the world a man of vision, a man of service to his fellow men and an extraordinary forerunner. He is best known for inventing the telephone which he did at twenty-nine years of age. This invention forever changed how people communicate with each other. The telephone erased the distances between individuals and connected nations in an unprecedented way.

Spirituality in Education – Andreas de Bruin
In education, we are still oriented towards the industrial age; one is educated to do a job. But questions like these about the meaning of life are given little space. We need a paradigm shift in ed­ucation. Do we study only to find a job later? Or is it not the task of education to prepare young peo­ple to understand the whole process of life?

A Call for Radical Empathy – Dr Gwen Adshead (Book Review)
Dostoyevsky remarks that “a society should be judged not by how it treats its outstanding citizens but by how it treats its criminals”. At the moment many countries in the world imprison far too many people in order to feed the public demand for revenge and punishment, this despite the fact that only a small percentage of convicted crimi­nals are too dangerous to try and rehabilitate in the community.