The Destiny of the Nations Read online

  Contents

  Cover

  EXTRACT FROM A STATEMENT BY THE TIBETAN

  THE GREAT INVOCATION

  INTRODUCTION

  THE INFLUENCE OF THE RAYS TODAY

  THE NATIONS AND THE RAYS

  THE NATIONS AND THEIR GOVERNING SIGNS

  AN ANALYSIS OF CERTAIN COUNTRIES

  THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CERTAIN CITIES.

  SPIRITUAL LIFE IN THE NEW AGE

  INITIATION IN THE AQUARIAN AGE

  CHRIST AND THE COMING NEW AGE

  ARCANE SCHOOL TRAINING

  INDEX

  EXTRACT FROM A STATEMENT BY THE TIBETAN

  Suffice it to say, that I am a Tibetan disciple of a certain degree, and this tells you but little, for all are disciples from the humblest aspirant up to, and beyond, the Christ Himself. I live in a physical body like other men, on the borders of Tibet, and at times (from the exoteric standpoint) preside over a large group of Tibetan lamas, when my other duties permit. It is this fact that has caused it to be reported that I am an abbot of this particular lamasery. Those associated with me in the work of the Hierarchy (and all true disciples are associated in this work) know me by still another name and office. A.A.B. knows who I am and recognises me by two of my names.

  I am a brother of yours, who has travelled a little longer upon the Path than has the average student, and has therefore incurred greater responsibilities. I am one who has wrestled and fought his way into a greater measure of light than has the aspirant who will read this article, and I must therefore act as a transmitter of the light, no matter what the cost. I am not an old man, as age counts among the teachers, yet I am not young or inexperienced. My work is to teach and spread the knowledge of the Ageless Wisdom wherever I can find a response, and I have been doing this for many years. I seek also to help the Master M. and the Master K.H. whenever opportunity offers, for I have been long connected with Them and with Their work. In all the above, I have told you much; yet at the same time I have told you nothing which would lead you to offer me that blind obedience and the foolish devotion which the emotional aspirant offers to the Guru and Master Whom he is as yet unable to contact. Nor will he make that desired contact until he has transmuted emotional devotion into unselfish service to humanity-not to the Master.

  The books that I have written are sent out with no claim for their acceptance. They may, or may not, be correct, true and useful. It is for you to ascertain their truth by right practice and by the exercise of the intuition. Neither I nor A.A.B. is the least interested in having them acclaimed as inspired writings, or in having anyone speak of them (with bated breath) as being the work of one of the Masters. If they present truth in such a way that it follows sequentially upon that already offered in the world teachings, if the information given raises the aspiration and the will-to-serve from the plane of the emotions to that of the mind (the plane whereon the Masters can be found) then they will have served their purpose. If the teaching conveyed calls forth a response from the illumined mind of the worker in the world, and brings a flashing forth of his intuition, then let that teaching be accepted. But not otherwise. If the statements meet with eventual corroboration, or are deemed true under the test of the Law of Correspondences, then that is well and good. But should this not be so, let not the student accept what is said.

  August 1934

  THE GREAT INVOCATION

  From the point of Light within the Mind of God

  Let light stream forth into the minds of men.

  Let Light descend on Earth

  From the point of Love within the Heart of God

  Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.

  May Christ return to Earth.

  From the centre where the Will of God is known

  Let purpose guide the little wills of men—

  The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

  From the centre which we call the race of men

  Let the Plan of Love and Light work out.

  And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

  Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth

  “The above Invocation or Prayer does not belong to any person or group but to all Humanity. The beauty and the strength of this Invocation lies in its simplicity, and in its expression of certain central truths which all men, innately and normally, accept—the truth of the existence of a basic Intelligence to Whom we vaguely give the name of God; the truth that behind all outer seeming, the motivating power of the universe is Love; the truth that a great Individuality came to earth, called by Christians, the Christ, and embodied that love so that we could understand; the truth that both love and intelligence are effects of what is called the Will of God; and finally the self-evident truth that only through humanity itself can the Divine Plan work out.”

  Alice A Bailey

  INTRODUCTION

  [3] It is of major interest for us to know something about the energies and forces which are producing the present international situation and presenting the complex problems with which the United Nations are confronted. In the last analysis, all history is the record of the effects of these energies or radiations (rays, in other words) as they play upon humanity in its many varying stages of evolutionary development. These stages extend all the way from those of primeval humanity to our modern civilisation; all that has happened is the result of these energies, pouring cyclically through nature and through that part of nature which we call the human kingdom.

  To understand what is today taking place we must recognise that these energies are seven in number. They are called by many names in many different lands, but for our purposes the following seven names will be used:

  1. The energy of Will, Purpose or Power, called in Christian lands the energy of the Will of God.

  2. The energy of Love-Wisdom, called frequently the Love of God.

  3. The energy of Active Intelligence, called the Mind of God.

  4. The energy of Harmony through Conflict, affecting greatly the human family.

  5. The energy of Concrete Knowledge or Science, so potent at this time.

  6. The energy of Devotion or Idealism, producing the current ideologies. [4]

  7. The energy of Ceremonial Order, producing the new forms of civilisation.

  These energies are ceaselessly playing on humanity, producing changes, expressing themselves through successive civilisations and cultures, and fashioning the many

  This in no way infringes upon man’s freewill; these forces have both their higher and their lower aspects and men respond to them according to their mental and spiritual development, and so do nations and races as a whole. Humanity has reached a point today where there is a most sensitive response to that which is higher and better.

  This teaching anent the seven rays remains a profitless speculation unless it is susceptible of investigation, of eventual proof and of general as well as particular usefulness. Too much is written at this time which will have to be relegated to the discard as useless, as not warranting acceptance as a possible hypothesis and as not demonstrating a truth which can be proved. I am, therefore, seeking here to do two things:

  1. Indicate, as you have seen, a new and powerfully efficient esoteric psychology, and also

  2. Show the lines of development which are inevitable, for the reason that certain major potencies are coming into play at this time. Certain forces are becoming increasingly active whilst others are steadily becoming quiescent. It is these active forces which we will now consider.

  I would like to pause here and point out that these forces come into play either cyclically or through demand. This is an interesting point for students to remember. The work done through the Great Invocation is n
ot then necessarily [5] invalid. It might perhaps clarify the subject if I pointed out that there are five energies (and there are usually five dominant ray energies active at any time) coming into play:

  1. Those energies which are passing out of manifestation, as the sixth Ray of Devotion is at this time passing out.

  2. Those energies which are coming into manifestation or incarnation, as the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order is at this time emerging into expression.

  3. Those energies which are — at any given time — expressing the ray type of the bulk of the manifesting humanity. Today these ray types are predominantly the second and the third. Relatively large numbers of first ray egos are also to be found acting as focal points for certain first ray forces.

  4. Those energies which are today being invoked as the result of human need and human demand for succour. This demand curiously enough remains largely in the realm of the first ray influence for the desperate need of humanity is evoking the will aspect and that ray embodies the divine will-to-good and remains immutable and is — for the first time in the history of humanity — being invoked on a large scale. This statement is definitely encouraging, if you study its implications.

  You have, therefore, in the present field of divine expression the following energies manifesting:

  1. The energy of idealism, of devotion or of devoted attention, embodied in the sixth ray.

  2. The energy whose major function it is to produce order, rhythm and established, sequential activity — the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Ritual.

  3. The energy of the second ray, which is always basically [6] present in our solar system, that of love-wisdom, to which many of the egos now in incarnation belong and will increasingly belong. The next one hundred and fifty years will see them coming into incarnation. The reason is that it is to this type of human being that the work of reconstruction, and of re-building is naturally committed.

  4. The energy of intelligence, actively displayed in creative activity. The creative ability of the future will emerge on a relatively large scale in the realm of creative living and not so much in the realm of creative art. This creative living will express itself through a new world of beauty and of recognised divine expression; through the outer form, the “light of livingness” (as it is esoterically called) will show. The symbol and that for which it stands will be known and seen. This is the energy of the third Ray of Active Intelligence, working towards the manifestation of beauty.

  5. The energy of the will aspect of divinity. This has been but little expressed and understood by humanity up to the present, but the time has now come when it must be better comprehended. The demand from our innumerable planetary forces has not hitherto been adequate to invoke it and for its invocation the great Lord of the World has patiently waited. The call has now gone forth. Its first faint notes were heard two hundred years ago and the sound and demand has increased in volume and potency until today this great energy is making its presence unmistakably felt.

  I am anxious to have you realise the potency and the effect of these energies as they play upon our planet, evoke response — good and bad — and produce the turmoil [7] and chaos, the warring forces and the beneficent influences. They, therefore, account in their totality for all that we see happening around us at this time. In the books which are being written today in an effort to solve the problems of the why and the wherefore of present world conditions, the writers are necessarily dealing only with effects. Few there are that can penetrate into the distant world of causes or look back into the that ancient past and see past and present in their true perspective. I, however, seek to deal with causes — predisposing, effective, determining, and productive of those events which cause the present state of affairs. I deal with energies; they are concerned with resultant forces. I would remind you here that these effects which are producing so much fear, foreboding and concern are but temporary and will give place to that ordered, rhythmic imposition of the needed idealism which will be applied eventually by love, motivated by wisdom in cooperation with intelligence. All will be actuated by a dynamic (not a passive) will-to-good.

  We will divide what I have to say under two points:

  1. The situation and its ray causes in the immediate present.

  2. The situation in the future when the Aquarian Age is really established and the Piscean influences are no longer dominant.

  Before we take up these points, however, I have a few introductory comments to make. These it is essential that you should study and comprehend for upon their right acceptance and understanding will depend the benefit you will gain from my teaching upon these points.

  It is a truism to remark that the history of the world is based on the emergence of ideas, their acceptance, their transformation into ideals, and their eventual superseding by the next imposition of ideas. It is in this realm of [8] ideas that humanity is not a free agent. This is an important point to note. Once an idea becomes an ideal, humanity can freely reject or accept it, but ideas come from a higher source and are imposed upon the racial mind, whether men want them or not. Upon the use made of these ideas (which are in the nature of divine emanations, embodying the divine plan for planetary progress) will depend the rapidity of humanity’s progress or its retardation for lack of understanding.

  Humanity is today more sensitive to ideas than ever before, and hence the many warring ideologies and hence the fact that — in defence of their plans — even the most recalcitrant of the nations has to discover some idealistic excuse to put before the other nations when occupied with any infringement of recognised law. This is a fact of great significance to the Hierarchy for it indicates a point reached. The major ideas in the world today fall into five categories which it would be well for you to bear in mind:

  1. The ancient and inherited ideas which have controlled the racial life for centuries — aggression for the sake of possession and the authority of a man or a group or a church which represents the State. For purposes of policy such powers may work behind the scenes but their tenets and motives are easily recognisable — selfish ambition and a violently imposed authority.

  2. Those ideas which are relatively new such as Nazism, Fascism, and Communism, though they are not really as new as people are apt to think. They are alike on one important point, i.e. The State or community of human beings counts as of importance whilst the individual does not; he can be sacrificed at any time for the good of the State or for the so-called general good. [9]

  3. The idea, neither old nor particularly new, of democracy in which (supposedly but as yet never factually) the people govern and the government represents the will of the people.

  4. The idea of a world state, divided into various great sections. This is the dream of the inclusively-minded few, for which many regard humanity as yet unready. Towards this the entire world is headed in spite of its many ideologies, each fighting with each other for supremacy and oblivious of the important fact that all these ideologies may be temporarily adapted to the groups or nations who adopt them. They are none of them suitable for general use (and I say this equally of democracy as of any other ideology); they suit well in all probability the nations who accept them and mould their national life on their premises; they are only transitory substitutes in this transition period between the Piscean and the Aquarian ages and cannot permanently last. Nothing as yet is permanent. When permanency is reached, evolution will cease and God’s plan will be consummated. And then? The greatest revelation of all will come at the close of this world period when the human mind, intuition and soul consciousness is such that understanding will be possible.

  5. The idea of a spiritual Hierarchy which will govern the people throughout the world and will embody in itself the best elements of the monarchial, the democratic, the totalitarian and the communistic regimes. Most of these groups of ideologies have latent in them much beauty, strength and wisdom, and also a profound and valuable contribution to make to the whole. Each will eventually see its contribution embodi
ed under the control of the Hierarchy of the Lords of Compassion and [10] the Masters of the Wisdom. The restoration of the ancient Atlantean control by the spiritual forces is still in the future but the Aquarian Age will see the restitution of this inner and spiritual guidance on a higher turn of the spiral.

  All this must inevitably be brought about by the work of those who function on one or other of the five controlling rays to which I have referred above. Nothing can stop or truly impede their united effect. This is a point I would have you remember. Modern man is apt to condemn the ideology which is not familiar to him and for which he has no use. He repudiates those ideas which do not lie at the back of his national and personal life or tradition and which would not suit him as an individual nor meet the need of the nation to which he belongs.

  The recognition of these facts would lead to two results if correctly applied: first, the individual who accepts and is devoted to a particular ideology would cease fighting other ideologies for he would remember that the accident of birth and of background is largely responsible for making him — as an individual — what he is and determining his beliefs. And, secondly, it would bring to an end the attempt to impose a personally or nationally accepted ideology (political or religious) on other nations and persons. These are basic steps towards eventual peace and understanding and hence I emphasise them today.