THE WORLD OF MEANING
The search for meaning is a defining characteristic of the human experience and key to our social, psychological, and spiritual development. But rather than an idealized quest for the ‘Holy Grail’, this search today is undertaken right where we are, mined from the quarry of the daily life. This hidden glory, once discovered, uplifts, redeems, and makes all things new.
Meaning can be examined from a variety of angles. Its common definition—as the something which a word or phrase is intended to communicate—affirms its role as the subjective or inner counterpart to the objective word-form. It is the metaphysical substance of every object or form. The ability to express this substance through the medium of words or speech (i.e. form), creates a veritable bridge between inner perception and outer expression.
Esoterically one could say that meaning is the noumenon (inner thought) made fully tangible through the medium of speech. As such, it fulfills the same role as the Soul in man, for the Soul or spiritual self likewise is noumenon—a product of Divine Thought—made flesh through cyclic incarnation. In a broader sense, the world of Soul is one and the same with the world of meaning; whereas the Soul is a linking agency, meaning is the substance within which the divine agent lives and moves and works.
The search for the world of meaning (which is the world of Soul) is a search for the hidden knowledge which relates to the essence of things, the key to which (occultism teaches) lies in knowledge of self. But to attain to Atma Vidya or true Self-Knowledge, one must go beyond individuality altogether, identifying with the great principle of Soul which resides innate in all things, which is one also with the Universal Mind. The Soul therefore relates macrocosm to microcosm, individual to group, and group to the whole. The world of meaning thus reveals the multifaceted nature of an interrelated whole.
Today, the world of meaning is emerging so rapidly that it is producing a deep and profound dissonance within the collective psyche. Without the consciousness of Soul as a mediating factor, the fire which fuels the light of meaning meets the waters of appearance and a mist or fog is produced creating distortion and moral confusion. Triangles workers play a significant role in dispelling this fog by clarifying the mental atmosphere through which we all think and see the world. The ability of Triangle members to stand daily in the light of the Soul supports an alignment within the collective human psyche. Rightly aligned, the fire and light of the higher world finds fit receptacle, and rather than distortion and delusion, the precipitation of meaning produces clarity, moral alignment, and spiritual contentment. On the plains of Earth, Heaven emerges from within the struggle and conflict.
Even on our conflicted planet, evidence abounds of this world of meaning emerging in very concrete ways: in science, religion, literature, art, music, even politics, business, and industry. Yet, its most striking emergence is perhaps in the very ordinary world of the everyday. This includes family and communal relationships, but it also involves the ideas with which the now educated and mature peoples of every country interact on a daily basis. Today, many are discovering the perennial truth: “That which is to be revealed lies all around us, and within us.”1 — a spiritual firmament within the world, not apart from it.
1Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, p.246 A. A. Bailey
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