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CHAPTER IV - The Culture of the Individual - Part 2

THE ANGLE OF PARENTHOOD

I began with the angle of citizenship for two definite reasons: first, because it is a basic rule in esotericism to argue always from the universal to the particular, and secondly, the theme of citizenship, of the relationship of the unit to the whole and of the individual to the state, is the all-engrossing topic today in world affairs.  With it newspapers, radio dialogues and governmental appeals all deal.  This subject necessarily embodies the whole problem of individual freedom and of collective responsibility.  This subtle relationship must be understood and expressed by humanity in line [126] with the underlying principles of the entire human and planetary structure.  This structure is that of an all-embracing Hierarchy.  In spite of the rationalisation of men's minds, this Hierarchy exists and extends from the atom of substance at the very depth of manifestation to the entire solar system; it expresses in its graded ascent every type of consciousness, from that of the infinitesimally small to that of the infinitely great.  It is with a small section of the hierarchical structure—and a very small section at that—that we are engaged.  Our field of investigation is that of the fourth Creative Hierarchy, which is the hierarchy of human beings; it concerns the relations of the members of this hierarchy within its hierarchical periphery; it deals also with a possible range of existence in the subhuman realms on a lower rung of the ladder of hierarchical existence, and with that hierarchical structure which is found immediately above the human in the scale of beings that of the fifth or spiritual kingdom, the Kingdom of God.

With that great hierarchical unit which we call the animal kingdom, the third kingdom in nature, man is definitely related through the medium of his animal, etheric and astral bodies.  He is also related to the kingdom of souls, because his own soul is an integral part of that kingdom, just as his physical body is an integral part of the animal kingdom.  The aspect of himself which is strictly and specifically human is the mind or mental body; this is essentially the organ of relationship to all other human races.

In connection with our subject, therefore, I would have you bear in mind that the "threads of lighted consciousness" which we unfailingly create, and which eventually form the antahkarana, have to be woven between each and every hierarchical unit, and that within the human kingdom itself these connecting relationships and bridging factors have to be established between unit and unit and between group and group.

In the earlier stages this is effected on a mass scale by [127] means of the influence of the prevailing culture and civilisation.  This, through its external impact and through the medium of its telepathic influence, makes a gradual and slow change, for at the beginning of the evolutionary process development is so slow as to be scarcely recognisable.  Inevitably, however, subjective changes are wrought in the life of the individual.  As evolution proceeds the process becomes increasingly rapid, until today in the so-called civilised countries, the areas affected by civilisation are speedily widening and the cultural effects are as rapidly deepening.

It is hard for the modern thinker to conceive of that time when there was no racial, national or blended religious consciousness such as is expressing itself in the world today.  Even the most imaginative man is unable to visualise a state of mind wherein the consciousness was purely instinctive, self-engrossed in the physical sense, and unable to register any wider contacts than those of mate, offspring, and the call of physical appetites.  Some study of such a state of consciousness has been attempted in connection with the evolution of the tribes which are fast dying out in the modern world, but even here it is impossible to make adequate allowance for the subtler impressions and influences which are the result of united thought and inner mental pressure of the civilised part of humanity.  Gradually the world of men has become increasingly self-aware and is being sharply differentiated (with the relationship at the same time recognised) from the animal.  The state of consciousness related to the kingdom of souls is divided into various psychological schools, or is termed either occult or mystical.

We could therefore, in connection with the consciousness of humanity, divide the entire subject into three parts:

1. That concerning the tangible apparatus, the animal body, and the response mechanism whereby objective and outer contacts are made possible.

2. That concerning the inner or psychological life of [128] man.  This consists mainly of desire, aspiration, ambition and mental activity, and all of these can manifest either in their animal, psychical, mental or spiritual forms.

3. That concerning the spiritual life of man and his relationship to the world of souls, which involves, incidentally, his relationship to his own soul.

As time has progressed, these three developing aspects in the realm of consciousness have brought humanity to the recognition, not only of man's own inner personal relationships (incidentally leading to an understanding of his own physical, psychological and mental equipment), but they have brought mankind also to a realisation of the various human group relationships of which the first and the most important hitherto has been the family group-unit.  It is here that one of the major distinctions between the human state of consciousness and that of the animal has developed, through the divine imposition of the Law of Necessity.  This law has provided opportunity for the development of the sense of responsibility for the care of the family.  Once an animal or a bird can fend for itself physically, it is cast off by the parent or parents and left to its own resources.  In the case of the human family, the physical care of the child, as well as its psychological unfoldment, has gradually been extended until either the parent or the church, the community or the state, is responsible for him for many years—the time element varying according to the country of birth and social status.

This has entirely altered the aspect of affairs and the first group, therefore, of which any individual child becomes normally aware is the family group as a unit in the community.  In that particular group relationship, throughout the ages (both symbolically and indeed in fact), the following factors—underlying the very structure of existence itself—[129] are preserved and developed and are held before the race as that which is ultimately ideal:

1. The recognition of hierarchical status, which is, in the last analysis, the relation of the lesser to the greater, of the weaker to the stronger and of the more experienced to the less experienced.  Thereby the sense of protection is developed, which is the working out of one form of the love aspect in the universe.

2. The recognition of responsibility, inherited, applied or shouldered.  This is the relation of the older to the younger, of the wise to the ignorant.  Thereby the need of providing opportunity for the unfoldment of knowledge is developed.

3. The recognition of the faculty of forgiveness, which is, or rather should be, the expression of the relationship between unit and unit within the larger group, or of group and group within a still larger whole.  Forgiveness is essentially the process whereby each gives to each along psychical lines, and it is one of the rudimentary expressions of the quality of self-sacrifice which is, in its turn, an aspect of the will nature of Deity.  Being therefore related to the monadic or will life, it is as yet completely misunderstood and misinterpreted.  It is in reality the sense of synthesis or of identification and of "each for all and all for each."  This sense is being developed today as never before, but it is still so embryonic that words do not help in explaining it.  This faculty of forgiveness is not a form of magnanimous forgetting or overlooking, neither is it a gesture of superiority whereby the slate is wiped clean.  It is the very breath of life itself—the giving of all to all and for all.

4. The recognition of group interplay within the larger world relationship—justly, harmoniously and rhythmically.  [130] It is the sense of right relations, carried forward consciously and harmoniously developed.

In the period which is coming, and under the influence of the new education, these four basic recognitions will be inculcated and taught to every child in school and college.  They will thus govern and develop the new form of family unit which must inevitably come into existence.

The family group (like all else in human affairs) has shared in the general separativeness, selfishness and individual, isolated exclusiveness, based on class distinctions, inherited tradition, racial attitudes and national custom.  Families (under any category and bracket) present a united front to the world; parents defend their own children and position and situation, right or wrong; family pride, tradition, pedigree are overemphasised, leading to the different barriers which today separate man from man, family from family and group from group.  The grip of the past upon families is a factor which is largely responsible for the revolt of modern youth against parental control, though other factors—such as rebellion against enforced religion and old outworn standards and philosophies—are equally responsible.  However, under the coming world order, educators will prepare the young people in school and college for participation in an active and consciously realised group life.  For this they will be prepared by training them in the recognition of the four factors I have listed as essential to human progress at this time.  These will, when grasped and practiced, produce the needed right relationships and eventually a harmonious world.

Hierarchy, responsibility, group interplay, and forgiveness or sacrifice—these are the four categories of recognition which will enable each person to do his part and take his share in bridging between person and person, between group and group, and between nation and nation, thus establishing that new world of recognised corporate relationships [131] which will eventually produce the civilisation of light and love which will be characteristic of the Aquarian Age.

It is these four concepts which lie behind the Science of the Antahkarana, the Science of Meditation, and the Science of Service.  Their connotations have to be interpreted in no sentimental sense, or in the coin of current ideas, but always from the angle of a trained intelligence and of a spiritually developed consciousness.

Parenthood will not be regarded primarily as an animal function or as a purely social or economic function, which are the usual lines of approach at this present time.  The establishing of a deliberately prepared or constructed thread of light (as a definite part of the world-antahkarana) between parent and child, even in the prenatal stages, will be carefully taught.  Thus a close rapport will be brought about "in the light" yet without establishing undue mental control and authority.  This latter sentence will show you how impossible it has been to date to hasten the teaching of this new science of the antahkarana.  Today it is beginning to be possible to lay the foundation for this new teaching, because the young people in every land are forcing upon their parents and their teachers the idea of their essential and determined independence.  The revolt of youth, in spite of all the immediate and individual disasters, has been a desirable thing and has prepared the way for the establishing of right and better relations, based upon the premises which I have laid down.

It is of course impossible for me to do more than indicate here the basis of the new education which will prepare the youth of the world for the responsibilities and duties of parenthood.  The entire problem is tied up with that of sex, and also with the problem of the state and its control, far more than is generally conceded.  Those are two problems which are only emerging today into their full significance, and with them I cannot here deal.  Parenthood is the result, and the ordained result, of the relation of two animal [132] bodies, and I would have you ponder—even if ineffectually—upon the wider group implications of this statement.  Parenthood is what makes a state, a nation, and a group possible as far as manifestation is concerned, and here again the vastness of the problem is staggering.  Parenthood has also a close symbolic relationship to the Hierarchy, for the family unit is the symbol upon earth of the Hierarchy, and it is through the two facts of sexual relationship and physical birth that the vast Hierarchy of Souls can achieve physical manifestation and attain spiritual perfection in the three worlds of human evolution.  One could (and this fact should be carefully borne in mind) divide the Hierarchy into two basic groups:

1. Those souls who have reached perfection and achieved the status of divine servers.

2. Those souls who are in the processes of evolution and passing through the periods of continual incarnation.

The idea of generation, birth and subsequent manifestation runs like a guiding thread through all esoteric thought.  The ancient teachers of the race, sent out by the Hierarchy from time to time, ever employed the symbolism of natural process in order to illustrate and make clear the needed instruction, and lay that spiritual foundation of truth which will in the coming age lead the race into new ways and a new manner of thought.  For the esotericist, there is the process of birth into the darkness of physical incarnation which—in its turn—is the foreordained preparatory process which leads to birth into light, carried forward in the light and producing the externalisation of the body of light.  This continuing process (for in all ages this birth into light has been going forward) will produce that future world of light which it is the purpose of the natural processes of evolution to reveal.  This is the "second birth" spoken of [133] in the New Testament, in which a man is "born again" into the world of light and love.

From the angle of the new education, these new concepts will govern the mental attitude of parents in the coming civilisation, and for this the adolescent must be prepared.  It is the misinterpretation of the newer concepts which is prevalent at this time and is thus producing the emphasis laid—in certain countries and among nationalists of all countries—upon the necessity to increase the birth rate.  Attention is now being paid to birth rate, its rise and fall, to correct care of mothers and children, even in the prenatal period, and to the education of parents everywhere.  Out of all this, new ideas and attitudes must eventually arise which will be in line with the coming world culture and concepts.  But today, the motive for this solicitude is wrong.  The interior impulse to deal with the whole problem of parenthood in a newer and better way is right.  The objectives, however, which are held before the race are not the highest or the most desirable.  The necessity of the times will eventually produce radical changes in the approach to family life, parenthood and the training of children, and for this a nucleus is preparing the way—or can do so if faithful, attentive and intelligent work is done.

TRENDS INDICATIVE OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

As I said before, this subject of parenthood and child training is too great for ample or satisfactory discussion in these brief instructions, but certain statements can be made which will be indicative of future developments and point the way to where the changed attitude may be anticipated.  Let me list them as follows:

1. The emphasis in the future will shift from the urge to produce large families to that of producing quality and intelligence in the offspring.  This will include that science of which eugenics is the distorted and [134] exoteric indication.  When the fact of the etheric body with its force centres is scientifically established, the above prophecy will assume significance and meaning.

2. The need of an increasing birthrate will be eventually regarded as erroneous, and this for three reasons which it would profit you to study:

a. Many souls are rapidly achieving perfection and passing away altogether from our planetary life.  This process will be intensified during the coming Aquarian Age.  It should be remembered that the door will be shut for some time as yet upon the animal kingdom, and for a long period no individualisation will culminate in materialisation into physical bodies.  Technically, any individualisation which may take place will be that which is technically called "individualisation into pralaya, there to await the inevitable call."  There will be, therefore, no necessity for a massed and hurried creation of human forms.

b. The economic situation will make it necessary that certain physical restrictions should be imposed, because it is now evident that beyond a certain point the planet cannot support humanity. This is more fundamental in its implications than you can imagine.  Again, we have evidence of a growing realisation of the race along this particular line; that realisation is as yet distorted and much misunderstood and is today producing the promiscuous use of contraceptive methods.  As the intelligence of the race is developed (and that is going on apace), as the Laws of Rhythm and Approach are grasped, it will then be found that there are certain innate reactions which will negate conception, and that then the mechanical means will no longer be required.  This sounds as yet extremely [135] vague and almost impossible, but the race is rapidly achieving personality control (e'en though our idea of rapidity may not be yours) and this, in its turn, must produce certain automatic and inherent changes.  This is a point which must be grasped by esotericists.

c. The widespread promiscuity of the sexes, and the rule in many countries which entitles a man to possess many wives (which is an insult to the woman), will eventually and inevitably cease.  It is, in the last analysis, a form of legalised prostitution, and the fact that it has the endorsement of tradition and centuries of practice does not mitigate this position which I take.  Through this lack of regulation and of essential rhythm, the natural consequences have occurred, and millions of souls have been brought into incarnation who were never intended at this time to incarnate and achieve exoteric manifestation.  This fact is largely responsible for much of the present economic distress and for the modern planetary dilemma.  The economic situation and the necessity to provide for the unduly large population of the planet lies behind much of the aggression and greed of the nations down the ages, and for the effort being made today as never before to provide better and more adequate living conditions.  War has consequently been the inevitable result of this undue and unlimited propagation of the human species.  This lack of sexual control has brought into the world thousands of unwanted children whose appearance is solely the result of accidental and uncontrolled sexual relations, and in no way indicates the planned intention of parents—planned because intended to offer experience to incarnating souls, with the conscious intent of [136] offering the opportunity to hasten the "birth into the light" of those particular souls, thus rendering service to the divine plan.

3. The science of eugenics and of sex hygiene and the development of mentally controlled relationships will steadily grow.  Much that is now taught along these lines is erroneous and wrongly motivated, being based upon fear, expediency and the desire for improved racial attributes and physical perfection.  The right form of scientific sex control, leading to those right conditions in which souls may incarnate, cannot be imposed by law.  The desired ends may be aided by educational methods and already this is being done in a tentative and embryonic manner; but the real change in human consciousness which is needed will appear only as the race itself is brought under a rhythmic law—under which, for instance, the animal lives function, or the seasonal law under which forms in the vegetable kingdom operate—thus transferring the whole concept on to a higher turn of the evolutionary spiral.  This, when it is brought about, will produce certain fundamental changes—regulated sex life, an organised parental life, and mental differences in the racial attitude towards the sex relation and its ordained consequence, Birth.

4. As yet, it is only the religious person who thinks in terms of the two necessitated and inevitable births, the physical and the spiritual, and he thinks of the relation between the two as purely symbolic and not in any way to be interpreted literally.  Yet there is a close relation and an analogy between the two which, as time elapses, will become more clear.  There can be no new birth, no creation of the "body of light," and no "manifestation of the sons of God" apart from the process of physical incarnation.  There can be no fusion of the opposites of soul and personality [137] apart from the physiological processes of sex, and I say this deliberately, for it is in the relation of the sexes that the element of time enters into the experience of the soul, and the understanding of this will come when the doctrine of reincarnation is properly comprehended and taught universally.  It is here that sex magic and the inner tantric teachings have gone so woefully astray, and been centralised upon individual development and the attainment of some experience which is presumed to promote spiritual attainment.  The underlying idea, governing all that has been given out on the sex relation heretofore, is twofold in its implications:

a. To provide bodies for incarnating souls so that certain destined evolutionary unfoldments may be carried forward, and the attainment of an equally destined and inevitable spiritual unfoldment becomes possible.

b. To impart the scientific procedure whereby bodies "built in the dark" may gradually be superseded by bodies "built in the light."  Thus will be brought about the manifestation of the foundational light aspect of the world and its underlying structure.

5. The sex relation has, therefore, only one major objective, which is to produce physical bodies for incarnating souls.  The relation between the soul and the personality is consequently a higher aspect of the basic sex expression of the universe, and this relation is intended to bring about the appearance of a son of God as light in the world, enabling him to say, as did the Christ, that he is "the light of the world," and to fulfill the injunction, "let your light shine."  Again, the relation between humanity and the Hierarchy is intended to produce the radiance of group light and cause to emerge, out of these two [138] planetary groups or bodies, through their close fusion and scientific interrelation, that form of divine manifestation to which the name "the Kingdom of God" has been given in the West.

I would ask you to ponder on these five points or statements which are only intended to be suggestive, to evoke brooding thought and to indicate those elementary ideas which will bring in the newer attitudes to parental responsibility.  In the world today there are many thinking men and women who are conscious of and earnestly desiring the above, and who are working towards these ends.  But the mass of the people in their untold millions are totally unaware of the situation, either in its economic or esoteric aspects.  One of the tasks of the educator of the future will be to teach the meaning of the Law of Rebirth, and thus bring about such a profound change in the racial attitude to life and sex, to birth and parenthood, that sex rhythm, cyclic experience, psychological preparation and directed, controlled body-building may go forward and supersede the present methods, which are based upon an uncontrolled response to the sex urge and desire, and the unthinking procreation of children.  The vast population of the world today is the result of an animal response to those urges and of the general promiscuity, which is perhaps the outstanding factor, esoterically speaking and from the standpoint of the Hierarchy, of the present world distress, economic difficulties and national aggressions.  Think this out, for it holds a clue.

Summing up very briefly, I would say that the objective before the race as it enters into the new age is to "create in the light through the ordained activity of the light-body."  This involves the understanding of the different light expressions—the light of understanding, the light of a prearranged and comprehended process and the light of experience.  With these more subtle aspects of light leading, [139] controlling and directing the human consciousness in relation to racial generation and the perpetuation of the species, and with the science of light (a science dealing with that which concerns substance and form, for it must not be forgotten that light and substance are synonymous terms) forming an integral part of the education of parents and adolescents, we can then look forward to adjustments and changes, which are bound to come, with confidence and assurance that all will be well.

The motives leading to marriage will undergo profound changes during the next one thousand years, though the basic motive—that of love between two people—will remain unchanged or more properly emphasised and selflessly expressed.  The attitude of parents towards their children will alter dramatically and the responsibility angle will be continuously emphasised, though that responsibility will be concerned primarily with the time, opportunity and correctness of producing the forms which incarnating souls will assume.  The idea of the need for rapid procreation and the production of large families through which the state can achieve its end will be changed.  The preparation of adults for the duties of parenthood and their training in the basic necessities of the coming child will shift increasingly to the mental and spiritual levels of consciousness and be less given to physical preparations.  The light which is in the parents, which in the days to come will be seen clairvoyantly by an increasing number of people, will be scientifically related to the embryonic light in the child, and the thread of light connecting parent and child (of which the umbilical cord is the exoteric symbol) will be skillfully and patiently constructed.  The child will come into incarnation with its light body already embedded and functioning in the physical body and this will be due to the intelligent mental work of the parents.  This is not so today, except in the case of very advanced egos, for the light body is inchoate and diffused and simply hovers over the physical form of the child, waiting [140] for an opportunity to enter and irradiate the consciousness.  Thus will be brought about an integration in the light substance of the planet which is lacking at this time; and the production of this integration will be definitely initiated by the trained parents of the new age and facilitated, as the child matures, by the teaching and influence of the illumined educator.

This all sounds to you necessarily peculiar and too abstract and farfetched to make much sense.  I would have you remember that much which is familiar to you today and which constitutes a definite part of the recognised facts of daily life would, a few hundred years ago, have been regarded as equally peculiar, incomprehensible and impossible.  What is really taking place is the hastening of the processes of light manifestation, and this has become possible because of the point of attainment of humanity and the increased stimulation which is being applied to the race by the Hierarchy, assisted by forces emanating from Shamballa.

THE ANGLE OF PERSONALITY CONTROL

Much that I could say here would simply be a repetition of that which you already know and have been taught.  Many of you who are reading my words here are steeped in the ideas which I have been seeking to impart to humanity for the past years, for it was in 1919 that I first started writing through the cooperation of A.A.B.  In these writings I have sought to do two things:

1. Teach the basic necessity for certain great fusions—individual, racial and spiritual:

a. The fusion or integration of the different aspects of man's nature—physical, emotional and mental.  When this has been accomplished we shall have the manifestation of the integrated elemental forces to which we give the name of the Personality, producing [141] the manifestation of a powerful, self-directed, high grade human being.

b. The fusion of the personality and the soul.  This has to be carried out consciously and deliberately, with the willingness of these related parts of a great divine whole to see the personality subjected to changes and transmutations, produced as a result of soul contact.  This will lead to the manifestation of the indwelling soul, the Christ consciousness, the Solar Angel.

c. The ultimate fusion of humanity with the Hierarchy, producing the manifestation of God's Kingdom on earth.  This will be the consummation of all the other fusions, and will have produced certain great planetary, racial and national fusions which are incidental and necessary to progress and its inevitable results.

These fusions are not carried forward as listed above in an ordered sequential fashion.  There is much overlapping and lack of balance in the process, but though there may be differences and difficulties in the lengthy process, the end is inevitable and unalterable.  The Kingdom of God, the consummation of it all, will appear upon the planet.

2. Inculcate the methods, productive of quality and not just of quantity, which will facilitate the emergence of certain great divine characteristics.  These will, in due time, change the world and bring in the new attitudes and states of consciousness.  These, when they are matured and recognised, will bring about the appearance of the culture and civilisation which is, for the race, the next planned and desired development.

Need I, therefore, talk to you about personality development and control?  Is not that something which you have [142] considered and worked at for years?  Can I tell you anything of a practical nature that you do not already know and strive to attain?  Shall I increase your present responsibility by repetition?  I think not.  The new culture will emerge and come into being, as all of those who have a consciousness of light and the goal of pure service (which such a consciousness inevitably entails) proceed with their appointed task—a self-appointed task in every case—of living and teaching the truth about light, as opportunity offers.