The Destiny of the Nations Read online

  At this time, the whole world is embroiled in the chaos [33] and the turmoil incident upon the clashing of the forces of the sixth and the seventh rays. As one ray passes out and another comes into manifestation and their impact upon the earth and upon all the forms in all the kingdoms of nature has reached the point where the two influences are equalised, then a definite point of crisis is reached. This is what has occurred today, and humanity, subjected to two types or forms of energy, is thrown “off centre” and hence the intense difficulty and tension of the present world period. The cause of this is not only the impact of the two types of energy, beating upon the forms of life with equal force, but also that the energy of humanity itself (which is a combination of the fourth and fifth rays) is swept into the conflict. To this must also be added the energy of the animal kingdom (again a combination of the energies of the third, fifth and sixth rays) for this governs the animal or physical form of every human being. You have, therefore, a meeting of many conflicting forces and the world Arjuna is faced with a stupendous battle — one that is recurrent and cyclic but which will, in this particular era, prove a decisive and determining factor in the age old conflict between material domination and spiritual control. The forces playing upon the planet at this time are of supreme importance. If you will bear in mind that the sixth ray works through and controls the solar plexus (being closely related to the astral plane, the sixth level of awareness) and that the seventh ray controls the sacral centre, you will see why there is so much emotion, so much idealism and so much desire mixed up in connection with the world conflict and why also — apart from the storms in the political arena and the religious field — that sex and its various problems has reached a point of interest in the human consciousness where a solution of these difficulties, a fresh understanding of the [34] underlying implications and a frank dealing with the situation is inevitable and immediate.

  Four problems will be solved in the next two centuries:

  1. The problem of territorial possessions which is the group correspondence within the family of nations to the materiality of the individual.

  2. The problem of sex which will involve a truer understanding of the law of attraction.

  3. The problem of death, which is in reality the problem of the relation between the subjective and the objective, between the tangible and the intangible, and between life and form. This problem will be solved in the realm of psychology by scientific recognition of the true nature of the individual or soul and of the persona.

  4. The problem of the Jews which is symbolically the problem of humanity as a whole. It is today for the first time definitely a humanitarian problem and one which is closely tied up with the fourth kingdom in nature because that kingdom is the meeting-place of the three divine aspects. The Jew, with his emphasis upon his position as one of the “chosen people,” has stood symbolically throughout the centuries as the representative of the wandering, incarnating soul, but the Jewish people have never recognised the symbolic mission with which their race was entrusted, and they have taken to themselves the glory and the honour of the Lord’s elect. The Jew made this mistake and, as an Oriental race, the Jews have failed to hold before the Orient the divine nature of mankind as a whole, for all are equally divine and all are the Lord’s elect. Calvin and all who followed his lead made the same mistake and instead of holding before the people of the Occident the realisation that those [35] who recognised their essential divinity did so symbolically on behalf of all the developing, incarnating sons of God, they regarded themselves as the Chosen People and all who did not think as they did are regarded as lost. When the Jew and the narrow-minded religious devotees recognise their identity with all other people and express this identity through right relationship, we shall see a very different world. The world problem is essentially a religious problem and behind all strife in every department of world thought today is to be found the religious element.

  When the nature of the present struggle is better understood and its subjective causes are considered instead of the superficial objective reasons, then real progress will be made in the process of releasing humanity from the thraldom and the narrowness of the present civilisation and from the influence of the forces and energies which are responsible for the situation. These will be understood, correctly handled and rightly directed towards constructive and desirable ends. In the realm of this conflict, the great and fundamental law that “energy follows thought” always holds good, and one of the conditions which is inducing the present stress and strain is due to the fact that so many millions of people are beginning to think. This means that the ancient simplicity which has held good up to five hundred years ago is no longer controlling and the situation is much more complex. In ancient days the forces were largely controlled by the Lords of Materiality (those whom the ignorant and the prejudiced esotericist call “the black forces”); the forces of spirituality plus the thought of a handful of advanced men in the different nations were not so potent as they are today. The situation was then relatively simple. It was part of the [36] evolutionary plan that matter and substance should temporarily control and that spirit should learn to “mount on the shoulders of matter” as the Ancient Wisdom puts it. Now, however, owing to the widespread education of the masses and the many means of worldwide propaganda, these masses are themselves either thinking independently or are thinking as directed by the powerful minds everywhere to be found and which are seeking to control world events. Hence the increasing difficulty of the problem and one that is equally difficult for the Lords of the Left Hand Way as it is for the Great White Lodge. This is a point which you should consider and discover the implications.

  Humanity itself is rapidly arriving at the point where its united will will be the determining factor in world affairs and this will be due to the unfoldment of the mind through the success of the evolutionary process. It is right here that many experiments will be made (and are being made today) and many mistakes must inevitably take place. The major requirement therefore at this time is the rapid educating of the people in the Plan and in the nature of the forces which are controlling evolution and their directing agencies. The fact of the Hierarchy must be announced in no uncertain terms, thereby arousing public interest, public investigation and public recognition. In the process of so doing much will be learnt of the balancing group of initiates and adepts who work entirely with the material side of life and in whom (for this major cycle) the love aspect of the soul remains totally undeveloped, whereas the mind nature is potently expressing itself. If you will study what I have earlier given anent certain of the higher and lower expressions of the rays you will see how these two fields of endeavour — that of the Hierarchy, animated by love and that of the opposite pole, the Black Lodge, working entirely [37] through mind and substance — are engaged and their close relationship will emerge. You will realise then that the margin of difference is very slight and is to be found solely in intention, in the underlying purpose and the concrete objectives which this group of material workers have set themselves. The major instrument of the Black Lodge is the organising power of the mind and not the coherent influence of love, as is the case with the Masters of the Wisdom. Yet in the natural process of form evolution, these workers on the darker side of life have their useful function. Because they are working predominantly through the mental principle, we find the susceptibility of the untrained masses to this mental imposition and the facility with which they can be regimented and standardised. They have no power to think with clarity for themselves and their minds are consequently plastic and receptive to the powerful forces directed by the two contributing groups — the spiritual workers of the planet and the material workers. Because the bulk of human beings are still materially focussed, the forces which work on the side of matter find a line of least resistance which is not available to the Masters of the Great White Lodge. This danger is, however, lessening decade by decade.

  Let me illustrate these facts for you by means of the
two rays which are our immediate consideration. Both of them — as is ever the law — express themselves through a higher and lower form or forms. One of the higher expressions of the out-going sixth ray is to be found in Christianity, the spirit and principles of which were embodied for us in the life of the Master Jesus, Who was, in His turn, inspired and over-shadowed and used by His great Ideal, the Christ. In the word “idealism” you have the keynote of this ray — idealism taking form, providing a living example and indicating to the race of men their own divine potentialities. [38] In the appearance of the Christ, the divine ideal for the race, as a whole, was presented for the first time. Other and earlier Sons of God presented diverse divine qualities and attributes, but in three of them a certain perfection of presentation was achieved which (as far as this present world period is concerned) can never be surpassed.

  These three are: Hercules, the perfect disciple but not yet the perfected Son of God; the Buddha, the perfect initiate, having reached illumination but not yet having developed to perfection all the attributes of divinity; the Christ, the absolutely perfect expression of divinity for this cycle and, therefore, the Teacher alike of angels and of men. That ahead of the race may lie a still higher perfection than that attained by any of these Exponents of divinity is inexpressibly true, for we know not yet what divinity really means; in these three, however, we have three instances of a perfection which lies far ahead for the majority of the sons of men.

  In all of Them, the sixth and the second rays were controlling factors, with the first ray reaching full expression. In Them, idealism, love-wisdom and indomitable will stood forth in all their divine power. It might be of interest to you to know just what rays controlled these Sons of God:

  Hercules, the Sun-God, had a first ray soul, a second ray personality and a sixth ray astral body. These potencies and energies sufficed to carry Him through all the trials and the labours of the disciple.

  The Buddha had a second ray soul, a first ray personality and a sixth ray mind — a very rare phenomenon.

  The Christ had a second ray soul, a sixth ray personality (which accounted for His close relationship with the Master Jesus), plus a first ray mind. [39] These three all embodied the essences of the spiritual life and all of Them were enabled to set Their seal upon history and upon the hearts of men, largely through the potency of Their sixth ray expression. All of Them embodied also the new spiritual impulse which Their day and age required and all of Them for centuries — by the strength of Their living love and power — brought the vision and the aspiration of humanity back to those spiritual essentials whereby men must live. All of Them were part of the directing group of Lives Who are working out the plans of God, founded upon the love of God. The Buddha and the Christ are still closely connected with, and working in cooperation with, the Hierarchy. Hercules has gone over into the Shamballa centre, but still works in a basic association with the Buddha Who is one of the Forces linking Shamballa and the Hierarchy.

  Pure religion, undefiled and spiritually focussed, is the higher expression of the sixth ray (working as is ever the case under the influence and potency of the second ray) and for us Christianity in its earlier days was the great and inspiring symbol.

  In the same connection, among the lower aspects of the sixth ray are to be found all forms of dogmatic, authoritative religion as expressed by the organised and orthodox churches. All formulated theologies are the lower expression of the higher spiritual truths because they embody the mind reactions of the religious man, his confidence in his own personal mind deductions and the surety that he is obviously right. They do not embody the spiritual values as they truly exist. Consequently the dreadful nature of the lower expressions of the sixth ray and the control by the forces of separativeness (which are ever the outstanding characteristic of the lower sixth ray activity) can be seen [40] nowhere more potently than in religious and Church history with its hatreds and bigotry, its pomp and luxurious appeal to the outer ear and eye, and its separativeness from all other forms of faith as well as its internal dissensions, its protesting groups and its cliques and cabals. The Church has wandered far from the simplicity which is in Christ. Theologians have lost (if they ever possessed it) the “mind that is in Christ” and the outstanding need of the Church today is to relinquish theology, to let go all doctrine and dogma and to turn upon the world the light that is in Christ, and thus demonstrate the fact of Christ’s eternal livingness, and the beauty and the love which it can reflect from its contact with Him, the founder of Christianity but not of Churchianity.

  I generalise. There are those in the Church today who do express all that I have stated and who are reflections in the truest sense of the living Christ. They relegate theology and authority to their rightful place and regard the discussions of theologians as simply expressions of perhaps needed mental gymnastics and as incentives to thought, but they do not regard them as conditioning factors, determining man’s salvation or not. They know that man’s salvation is determined by the processes of evolution and is not a question of ultimate achievement but simply one of time; they know that the life within a man will bring him ultimately to his goal and that the experiences and the type of incarnation will inevitably lead him to “his desired haven.” His salvation is not determined by his acceptance of some dogma, formulated by men who have lost their sense of proportion (and consequently their sense of humor) and who deem themselves capable of interpreting the mind of God for their fellowmen.

  It should be here remembered that there are divine attributes [41] and ray characteristics which have hitherto never been revealed to the minds of men or sensed by them in their highest moments of inspiration; this is due to the lack of sensitivity of even the most advanced of the sons of men. Their apparatus remains inadequately developed and so unable to respond to these higher divine qualities. Even the Christ Himself and other Members of the Great White Lodge are preparing Themselves to register these divine attributes and consciously to merge Themselves in a still higher process or scale of evolution; it will be obvious to you that the little conclusions of the little minds are some of the most dangerous factors today in world affairs.

  It will also be apparent to you how the lower and the higher expressions of a ray are closely related to each other and how easily the higher loses its hold and the lower comes into manifestation — something that evolution itself must eventually adjust.

  It is harder to differentiate between the higher and the lower expressions of the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order, for this ray is only in the process of manifestation and we know not as yet what its major expressions will be, either higher or lower. Human reactions have their place and — as I have earlier pointed out — even the Masters Themselves do not and cannot foretell what the results of the impacts of force may be nor what may eventuate as a result, though They can frequently determine the probable happenings. If I say to you that the higher expression of the seventh ray is white magic, do you really understand what I mean? I question it. Have you any true idea of what is intended by these two words? I doubt it. White magic is realistically the power of the trained worker and executive to bring together into a constructive synthesis the “within and the without” so that that which is below may be recognisably [42] patterned upon that which is above. It is the supreme task of bringing together in accordance with the immediate intent and plan and for the benefit of the evolving life in any particular world cycle:

  1. Spirit and matter.

  2. Life and form.

  3. The ego and the personality.

  4. The soul and its outer expression.

  5. The higher worlds of atma-buddhi-manas and the lower reflection of mind — emotion and the physical nature.

  6. The head and the heart, through the sublimation of the sacral and the solar plexus energies.

  7. The etheric-astral planes and the dense physical plane.

  8. The intangible subjective levels of existence and the outer tangible worlds.

  Such is the t
ask of the white magician and as evolution proceeds and becomes more complicated and complex it will nevertheless be more rapid and more accurately defined in the mind of the magician. All, therefore, that is conducive to human sensitivity and to increased awareness is the work of the white magician; all that tends to produce better forms through which the living principle of deity can express itself is the work of the white magician; all that serves to thin or tear away the veil between the worlds wherein those who have no physical bodies live and move and work and the worlds of outer form is the work of the white magician. Of all this type of work there is always much, but never more so than at this time owing to the coming into manifestation of this ray of the magician (black and white), the seventh ray. Hence the rapid growth of the sense of omnipresence and the recognition of the non-existence of time in relation [43] to reality. This has taken place through the discovery and use of the radio and of the many means of communication and through the steady growth of telepathic interplay; hence also the spread of education, enlarging man’s horizon and opening up to him new worlds for investigation and adventure; hence also the breaking down of the old and limiting forms through the invoked force of the first ray, which has hitherto always worked through the medium of the seventh ray, because the kingdoms in nature cannot yet stand pure first ray energy; hence also the keen interest in the life after death and the appearance of all the many groups which are today investigating the nature of survival and the probability of immortality; hence again the appearance of the modern spiritualistic movement. This is a direct effect of the coming into manifestation of the seventh ray. Spiritualism was the religion of old Atlantis and the seventh ray dominated that ancient civilisation for a very long period of time, particularly during the first half of its existence, just as the fifth ray is of such dominant potency in our Aryan age and race.