And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers. The Apostle Paul
The Divine Blueprint
“I AM the Resurrection and the Life: He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this ?” 1
The one who spoke these words, Jesus of Nazareth, so identified with the Universal Christ and with his own I AM Presence that he became the Christ incarnate—to be known forevermore as Jesus the Christ. This one in whom the Lord was well pleased could therefore promise immortal Life to all who, like himself, would believe in the individualization of the Christ in every son and daughter of God—to all who would believe in the abundant Life as their God-ordained opportunity to realize their individual Christhood.
Individual Christhood is the gift of God; it is man’s birthright. Therefore it is the prerogative of every one who is born of God to declare the Resurrection and the Life of his Christed Being. It is the right and the duty of every man to claim his individuality in God and to devote his life to the manifestation of the
divine blueprint that is etched upon his soul as his own unique identity—his own fiery destiny.
Fiery destiny, unveil thyself!
And show the higher way of God.
Fiery destiny, unveil thyself!
For man is not a clod.
Fiery destiny, unveil thyself!
Infuse the soul with God . 2
In the synthetic society we find that most people do not know of what their individuality consists, nor are they aware of their birthright. Apart from the few who live selflessly, devoting their lives to the good of others, they exist from day to day without spiritual goals, their main preoccupations being the accumulation of wealth, the pursuit of pleasure, and the raising of offspring who will do the same. They have a self- image which they present to society as the “glorified me” and another more realistic version which they admit in moments of candor to be the “real me.” Their neighbors and friends may have an altogether different view of their individuality; and probably no two are alike, for each one looks through a different- colored lens. Alas, individuality in the synthetic society is at the mercy of the eye of the beholder. Thus, wholly dependent upon human opinion, which blows hot and cold, individuality is always nebulous, never constant until one focuses the lens of the mind to see one’s self as God sees.
One in a million knows the secret of tethering the mind to the Mind of God and then of seeing as God sees, of feeling as he feels, of thinking as he thinks. The majority, in their unknowing state, turn without instead of within to find their individuality. Their egos are insecure and they seek by devious means to heal the breaches of their insecurity.
Some come to the realization that self-knowledge is needed, and they finally admit to themselves that before they can accomplish anything of worth they must know what “I AM.” Some try group encounter, even mental karate to break down “false values,” not realizing that the only encounter that can ever lead to self-discovery is encounter with God, with the Real Image.
When man functions from the level of his synthetic image, no matter what his method, he will fail to contact Reality. If he seeks from that level to establish rapport with other synthetic images within and without “the group,” he will effectively block his communication with the Real Image, not only of himself but also of his associates; and he will thereby lose the threads of true existence, true knowing and being.
When man stimulates the sensitivities of the synthetic image as a means of probing the synthetic images of others, he dulls the precision instruments of the soul that are capable of deciphering the symbols of both the synthetic and the Real. With prolonged abuse, he may even lose these faculties altogether. If man would know Reality, he must cease the digging-up of the artifacts of mortality, which he carries on relentlessly much as a dog hollows the earth for his favorite bones; instead, he must become an archaeologist of the Spirit in dauntless pursuit of his immortal identity—though it be buried beneath layers of synthetic sediment.
In this chapter we shall further define man’s Real Image in terms of his individuality—his divine blueprint—and we shall show how he can sensitize the faculties of his soul and his solar awareness in order that he might contact and apprehend Reality in himself and in others. We shall see that fundamental to the search for Truth are the definement and the refinement of man’s
spiritual senses; for these are the tools required for the excavation, if you will, of the Real Image.
Man’s individuality, as God conceived it and as He receives it even now, is a flame—it is the individualization of the God flame. Individuality is the geometry of your Divinity. Individuality is the name of God, I AM—it is your name inscribed upon the flame of Life. It is the new name written on the white stone “which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it .” 3
Individuality is a drop in the infinite ocean of God’s Being. It is a point of perspective taken out of the Whole and then placed in bas-relief against the background of the Whole. Individuality was separation for a purpose: that God might realize himself in manifestation and that man might realize his potential in God. This was to be accomplished as man’s will blended with God’s will and the two, united as one, became an indomitable force for the magnification of Light throughout Cosmos.
The life lived by Jesus of Nazareth was from beginning to end a statement of this oneness. He who said, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work ” 4 was the supreme witness of man’s Christed individuality. “It is not the personal T that doeth the work,” explains Saint Germain, “but the Father in me that worketh hitherto and I work. The Father that worketh hitherto is the creative effort of the universe [the Universal Christ] that enhances the vision of Life’s perfection for an onward-moving humanity. The T that works is the conscious individuality yoked with the I AM Presence of universal Reality. It is the son working with the All-Father to produce in and for every man the summation of the glory we knew together before the world was .” 5 The summation of that glory is nowhere more apparent than in the individual Christ of every man.
Individuality is, therefore, the transfer of universal opportunity from God to man. Individuality is the open portal to unity, the unity that must be realized in two stages if the Christ is to come into focus at the individual level: first between one’s human self and one’s God Self, and then between one’s self and one’s fellowman. Individuality is an opportunity to serve one’s God Self and one’s fellowman uniquely and to contribute a gift of enduring worth to the Cosmos.
Individuality is a snowflake etched in fire: it is a singular design. But until the individual discovers the blueprint of his snowflake and just what his singular contribution to the abundant Life can be, the true nature of his individuality is not known—the fire in the snowflake remains quiescent.
Individuality is a mirror of crystal suspended in the microcosm that both reflects and refracts the Macrocosm. God designed the crystal mirror of individuality both to reflect his consciousness—to send his thoughts back to him stamped with the matrix of man’s identity—and to refract his consciousness—to break down his thoughts and feelings, making them intelligible, lovable, and workable to all parts of Life.
Each individuality created by God is essential to the perfect expression of the complement of his Being throughout Cosmos. God sends forth his ideas as great streams of light, enfolding the mystery of the Christos that is solved as each mirror reflects the Image Most Holy, as each crystal refracts its brilliance, defining the parts in relation to the Whole—the rainbow rays that emerge from the white fire core of God’s Being. “This, then, is the real purpose of the existence of man,” says El Morya: “to reflect God and then to identify with the Real Image that is reflected within .” 6
Examining the imperfect images all around us, we plainly see that the crystal mirror of individuality
that God has made has been warped and flecked and coated with a tarry film. We look into the mirrors of the synthetic images of mankind and we behold there not the face of God nor his rainbow rays, but a menagerie of rude distortions of God’s individuality. There is only one thing to do: Each crystal mirror must be polished and restored to its natural beauty in order that it might reflect the radiance of the Christ beamed forth from the Central Sun of Being; each crystal mirror must become a magnet for the fulfillment of the divine blueprint. “To improve the quality of the reflecting mirror is essential,” the Master continues. “In this way consciousness itself, as a chalice, can be improved so as to contain not only qualitatively but also quantitatively more of the will of God .” 7
The Christ of Man
To expand his infinite Spirit, God created billions of individual Spirit-sparks. But in order for God to continually expand the true nature of his Being through the likeness of himself, that likeness must be endowed with his creative potential and transcendental nature.
A universal sense of justice impelled God to create man in his own image, simply because there was no higher image, and God envisioned only the best for his offspring. Because God is the epitome of free will, that which was created in his image must also be given free will—the opportunity to choose between an unlimited expression of Good and a limited expression of Good. Because God is the ultimate personification of Life, Truth, and Love, his manifestation must also personify these attributes.
However, because his plan was to create individualities who could expand and transcend themselves
as God could, who could plan, create, and endow as God could, it became necessary to create man, the individualization of himself, as a dual being. Therefore, when God individualized his flame he individed its manifestation, and man was created a unity in duality.
Man, then, was conceived in the Mind of God first as a realization of His unity—an identity complete and intact; then he was born a manifestation of the duality of God—a being of both Spirit and Matter.* We speak of the two parts of man’s duality as his Higher Self and his lower self—as the Changeless and the changing. God’s duality also has these characteristics—unchanging Spirit that is the fiery core and blueprint of all creation and Matter that undergoes perpetual transformation through spiritual evolution.
The Real Image of God that is the I AM Presence was created as a miniature replica of the Deity, an orb of Spirit focusing at a preordained point in Cosmos all of the light and virtue that issue from the Power, Wisdom, and Love of the Godhead. As the Great Central Sun represents the Almighty One in the center of Cosmos, so the individualized I AM Presence is the central sun around which the manifestation revolves and through which his individuality evolves. Thus the second half of the dual being was planned as an extension of the Presence into Matter—into the dimensions of time and space.
Whereas the spiritual identity of man, the Great God Self, was the focus of unlimited potential and dominion, the material aspect of the individed duality was given a limited creative potential within a limited framework set by God as the bounds of his habitation.
* Wherever the word Matter appears capitalized in this work, it should be thought of as Mater , the Mother or Feminine aspect of creation, and not, as some have thought, as dense unreality. Although the physical universe is temporal, it is through this Mother aspect that the Spirit of God, the Father, allows his own to unfold the consciousness of the Christ.
By divine decree the authority of the I AM Presence, the individualized God flame, would not be transferred to the lesser half of the duality until the latter should prove itself worthy of the bestowal by undergoing certain initiations and by demonstrating a complete willingness to affinitize the soul with the Divine Nature—to be, in fact, the individualized manifestation of the God flame.
Obviously, a creation that received unlimited power, wisdom, and love without merit would be fraught with explosive possibilities that could result not only in a war of worlds but also in a war of the gods. The lower self, then—destined to be made permanent through change—must be given the opportunity within bounds prescribed by cosmic law to elect to follow the designs of the Creator by a conscious discriminating use of his own creative faculties. Unless he be given this freedom to prove himself, he would be nothing more than an automaton, unworthy to receive the title “Son of God” or to wear the mantle of the only begotten One.
Thus, before that part of the Whole which we know as man can identify with the Whole which we know as God, it must descend into a temporal environment to master the energies of self and to become the master of time and space. Then, and only then, can it merge with the Whole. Individuality in the lower self, when stamped with the seal of self-mastery, becomes permanent in the Higher Self. By designing a dual being, God accomplished his purpose of creating a manifestation of himself that could earn the right, by accepting his grace, his will, and his love, to expand His Universal Consciousness on an individual basis.
Originally, man was given the opportunity to fulfill his destiny by choosing to outpicture only Good; and this was his natural inclination because he himself, having been made in the image of Good, was
inherently Good. The reason God forbade man to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was that he knew that when man “ate” or partook of relative good and evil, the latter would become an integral factor to his self-awareness. This, then, would be the dividing of the way between the Real and the unreal; for he would lose the standard of absolute Good. Since good and evil can be defined only in relation to each other (e.g., a great lie is more evil than a small lie) and not by an absolute standard (all lies are evil because they are a perversion of Truth), once man knowingly took into his consciousness and assimilated the substance of good and evil, he would no longer be able to discriminate between absolute Good and relative good and evil; for the latter would be blended in his body, in his mind, and in his soul.
Prior to its descent into form, the soul of man was given an impersonal knowledge of evil and the laws governing its temporal manifestation. When man received the gift of free will, he was forewarned by the Lord of Life that if he would retain the understanding of the energy veil at the impersonal level, he would be able to master his energies, fulfill his divine blueprint, and win his immortality without ever falling from grace, that is, without ever contacting the energy veil at the personal level.
Alas, an impersonal knowledge of evil did not satisfy the lower self. Man decided to take the law of free will into his own hands, to experiment with the knowledge of good and evil, which meant that he would have to experience the energy veil firsthand. This decision marked his departure from innocence and his descent into the world of maya—the illusory world of relative good and relative evil. Whereas God gave man the freedom to choose from among the infinite virtues of Good, man used his freedom to choose
from among the finite manifestations of evil. Man would not heed the warning “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou [thy discriminating consciousness of Good] shaltsurely die .’’ 8 He simply could not, would not, believe that his ability to distinguish between the Real and the unreal would be lost once his pure consciousness had absorbed the impure substance of the veil. Such was man’s unfortunate misconception of free will; such were the unfortunate consequences of his breaking of the Sacred Covenant.
The record of the creation of the Real Man as an androgynous being possessed with spiritual dominion and destined to multiply the gifts of God’s consciousness is complete in the first chapter of Genesis. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them. Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion.... ” 9 In the second chapter we read of the creation of the second half of the duality and of the projection of the Spirit- spark into Matter. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of Life; and man became a living soul .” 10
It was the gradual absorption of evil into the consciousness of the lower self “formed of the dust of the ground” that prevented the crystal mirror of individuality suspended in the microcosm from either reflecting or refracting the God flame and absorbing Good—as Above, so below. Therefore, the arc of light between God and man was broken, and the intimate relationship that had existed between the lower self and the Higher Self was no longer possible.
The dividing of the way eventually became the way of the God-man and the way of the human. The
God-man remained in its own sphere as the individualized God Presence, the I AM or the Divine Self, and the manifestation in form took on the nature of the human, the man hewn out of clay. For although the lower self had been endowed with tremendous possibilities—even of becoming all that the God Self was—it chose to invert the 6e-attitude of the Creator. It chose not to be, exchanging a known existence, one that had been centered in the Real Self, for an unknown existence, ego-centered and unreal.
Prior to man’s experiments with evil, the Real Self had supplied energy to the lower self directly, together with all of the divine attributes that were necessary for the fulfillment of macrocosmic purpose in the microcosm. Since this was no longer possible, it became necessary for a mediator to maintain liaison between the perfection of the God-man and the imperfection of the human. The Christ, the living Word that always was and always will be, was called upon to officiate at the individual level. All blessings and bestowals that had formerly passed directly from God to man were now dispensed through the mediatorship of the individual Christ Self."
While man was yet in his state of innocence, the crystal mirror of his identity had been reflecting and refracting the radiance of the Universal Christ. The lower half of the duality was, in truth, the personification of the Christ flame, even as the upper half was the personification of the God flame. As the Higher Self was made in the image of the Universal God, so the lower self was made in the image of the only begotten Son of the Father, the Universal Christ.
The Universal Christ is the universal consciousness of God that went forth as the Word, the Logos that God used to fire the pattern of his Divine Identity in his sons and daughters and to write his laws in their
inward parts. The individual Christ is the fulfillment of this Word, this Logos, in the individed duality. Each individualization of the Universal Christ is unique, because each individual was ordained by God to reflect in all of its glory a particular facet of the Universal Christ. This is the meaning of the divine blueprint that God created for every manifestation of himself as the individual fulfillment of the Universal Christ.
The individual Christ Self is formed 12 in the following manner. As the God Presence projects the electronic pattern of its own Real Image into the lower half of man’s duality, the energies of the Universal Christ coalesce around that pattern to outpicture the blueprint of the individual Christ; thus God is made relative to man, and the divine Manchild is born.
The purpose of a mediator is to intercede between parties who are not in agreement. Because the Image that God made and the image that man made were no longer in agreement, being no longer congruent—because the lower self was not in harmony with the Higher Self—one was needed to “be in the middle” (from the Latin mediare ), to mediate. Therefore, the individual Christ Self, as the mediator between God Above and his manifestation below, beholds the perfection of the Real Image and translates it to the consciousness of the lower self in a state of becoming Good. Beholding the imperfections of the lower self, the Christ—whose acquaintance with the energy veils of sin, disease, and death remains at the impersonal level—translates man’s requirements and attainments to the Real Self.
We have said that one in a million sees as God sees, feels as he feels, and thinks as he thinks. But this every man must do if he would find the answer to the question. What is individuality? Paul, recognizing that Jesus had attained this level of awareness, admonished his followers to “let this mind be in you, which was also
in Christ Jesus.” 13 There is only one mind which could have been in Christ Jesus, and that is the Mind of God. As we progress in our examinations of Reality, we shall learn more of this Mind and how we can “let it be” in ourselves. But first let us define its outreach.
How does God regard man? How does he see us? Does he see us naked and alone, as sinful and incomplete? It is written in the Bible that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” 14 This realistic appraisal of the synthetic image is made by the “Lord”— the term used for the I AM Presence, who speaks through the individual Christ Self of the prophet Jeremiah—who curses “the man that trusteth in man [in the synthetic image]...and whose heart [whose will] departeth from the Lord .” 15
How, then, does God see man? Habakkuk said of the I AM Presence, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.” 16 God is the supreme practitioner of the science of the immaculate concept. No matter how far man might wander from his individuality, God ever beholds man in the image of Reality in which he created him; but unto the individual Christ he has assigned the duty of adjudicating Truth and error within the soul of man.
In the Eye of God, in the Mind of God, in the Love of God man is found to be Whole; but once he removes himself from the shadow of the Almighty, from the forcefield of his immaculate conception, he loses the momentum, the geometry, and the blueprint of his identity. Since man’s very life is sustained by God’s beholding of his perfection, if for one second God were to acknowledge his imperfection, man would be no more. Because God holds man in the Real Image, man lives; therefore those who step outside the spotlight of His All-Seeing Eye eventually have no Life in them.
Those who wander from the beacon of God’s pure regard are given a temporary reprieve in the dimensions of time and space, a grace period during which they may elect to return to the central embrace of God’s consciousness of Good. By the law of free will, they may choose the election of the sons and daughters of God, who are called upon to enhance the individualization of the God flame throughout the universe; or, by the same law, they may choose to extinguish the God flame and thereby extinguish themselves.
The law of man’s individuality is always impersonal. Those who serve the Christ within the framework of this law will one day eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life 17 and live forever. Those who do not will perish. Therefore, at the end of the period of grace, if man has not found his individuality in God’s individuality, he will be no more.
The Christ is the fulfilling of the law of man’s being through the Law of God’s Being. He is the Great Mediator of the energies that descend and ascend between the Macrocosm and the microcosm. Without his Presence at the nexus of the figure eight, all energy flow between God and man would cease and the human would be no more. Thus, by dispensing the mercy of God—without which man’s individuality should have been extinguished the moment he assimilated the energy veil—the Christ is the salvation of mankind and his only hope for immortality.
The Light of the Christ must be invoked and then accepted by man if his world, which presently reflects good and evil causes and effects, is to once again reflect the World of First Cause, of absolute Good. The Christ reestablishes in man’s being the laws that are causative of only Good and that allow him to outpicture his divine blueprint, thereby making man worthy to commune with Reality as the beloved Son in
whom the Father is well pleased.When the lower self becomes saturated with the Light of the universal Christ consciousness through the ministrations of the individualized Christ Self, he in essence becomes the Christ; and by congruence with the divine blueprint, he is able to stand at the nexus of his being and once again commune directly with the individualized God flame, the I AM Presence.
Thus the crystallization of the Christ consciousness in man takes place at the nexus of the figure eight. When the purpose of the duality of the Higher Self and the lower self is fulfilled through the individualized Christ, man ascends back to the heart of the individualized God flame and becomes immortalized as a permanent facet of God’s consciousness. Having descended into form and there become the fullness of the Law in expression, man has earned the right to sit on the right hand of God, 19 that is, in the place of the individualized Christ Self. Each time the Christ triumphs at the individual level, the duality of God and man becomes a unity in expression that can and does affirm, “I and my Father are one.” 2 "
Just as the Lord God planted a sword eastward in Eden, guarded by Cherubim to keep the way of the Tree of Life, 21 so he planted in man a sword of living Truth that would cleave asunder the Real from the unreal. This sword, this sacred Word, is the individual Christ Self, whose consciousness pierces the veil, enabling man to find his freedom in God’s oneness and to return to “paradise lost.”
Resources of Individuality
Made in the image of the Most High God, man has infinite resources with which to develop the blueprint of his identity. Wherever God has individualized
his flame, there the flame gathers more of itself—more of Life, more of Truth, more of Love. Man, as a flame of hope, faith, and charity, is not deprived of any spiritual quality native to the parent flame.
From the mortal standpoint it would appear that man can never really approach the great fires of the Central Sun and breathe in the total infinity of God; however, through the living Christ and his oneness with God, all things are infinitely possible to man when he surrenders his finite consciousness. Man may therefore become both qualitatively and quantitatively one with the Father, full of grace and truth. God and man forever stand in eternal relationship to one another as the ocean is to the drop, experiencing through the exchange of the Macrocosm with the microcosm the manifestation of transcendent oneness. Failure to understand this principle will result in a failure to tap the resources of God’s individuality and to enhance them through the individuality of man.
Transcendence is the Law of Life Above and below. It functions as naturally in God and man as the flowers unfold their petals, the fruit ripens on the vine, and the seasons roll. Thus, each time the lower self invokes a greater measure of Christ-awareness, the lesser consciousness of man, yet in a state of becoming, takes on more of the greater consciousness of the Christ Self. By cosmic law man is guaranteed the unfoldment of a richer measure of his true Being as the transfer of identity from the mortal self to the Immortal Self is made.
Inasmuch as Cosmos is brimming with vast, untapped resources of wisdom, power, and love, there is absolutely no limit to the light—the energy potential locked in the core of every atom—that the evolving self can invoke and then inject into its favorite matrix. There is no limit to the natural resources available to
the flaming ones who know who I AM and are determined to let nothing stop their fulfillment of the mandate of their inner Flame of Reality:
I charge you now:
Be immortal, self-luminous, and hallowed by the Light, Sons and Daughters of the Flame in cosmic action!
Be deathless, birthless.
Omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent! 22
The Master’s statement “He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” 23 points to the worthlessness of individuality as it is defined by the synthetic consciousness. For those who find their individuality in the world of relative good and evil must eventually lose not only their synthetic images but also their Real Image, which they have failed to claim in the World of the Absolute. Therefore, unless the individual maintains contact with the God Self through the Christ Self, his individuality is not secured by the laws that predestine him to immortality.
Unless divine purpose be espoused and the divine kingdom be glorified, unless the life plan of the individual be worked out “with fear and trembling,” 24 unless the overcoming of outer conditions be the objective of man—as it is the objective of God for man—it will be impossible for him to experience individuality as that universal realization of the Christ which is his birthright. And it is the childlike consciousness that enables man to accomplish this—to be a doer of the Word, to partake of the kingdom of heaven right here on earth, to shed his coat of skins (his synthetic image), and to conceive with God the action-Reality of his life as a vessel into which he can and does pour the energies of creation. Oneness with the Christ becomes, then, identification with God.
Within the soul of man is the divine blueprint etched in crystal, whose fiery white core is an electrode drawing unto itself the energies of God that are needed to build lively stones in the Pyramid of Life and to mobilize his very atoms for action, reaction, and fulfillment. Thus the natural resources closest to man’s heart are (1) the blueprint, also known as the electronic pattern, that acts as a magnet for (2) the energies that rush into the matrix of identity to fill the blueprint of his preordained destiny. Rightly employing these resources, man can attain the realization of that Christ-awareness which is his birthright even while he walks the earth, reaping the good and bad seeds he has sown since his departure from innocence. Man’s blueprint is complete and intact at the moment of creation; therefore, let us explore the sources of energy available to him to outpicture the blueprint and to increase his individualization of the God flame.
First we should understand that it is precisely because a focus of his Source has been placed within man—as the flame within the heart—that man has access to the entire rc-Sources of the universe. The more light he draws to himself from the Source, from his own I AM Presence, through sacred invocation and selfless service to God and man, the greater will be the force of his magnetic field; hence the greater will be his opportunity to invoke more light which he may use to further enhance the individualization of his God flame. Thus the more man realizes of God, right where he is, the greater will be his momentum to magnetize the resources of Cosmos.
The most abundant natural resource directly available to man, apart from the light of his Presence, is from the Universal—the energy of the Holy Spirit, which is everywhere present throughout Cosmos. Like the air he breathes, this energy is instantly available to
man to revivify body, soul, and mind and to be charged with constructive purpose for the blessing of all Life. At any given point in space, man by the authority of his Real Self may magnetize the energies of the Holy Spirit to activate more of God and to reactivate his individuality in God.
The essence of the Holy Spirit is dispersed throughout Cosmos as vastnesses of creative potential that can be measured only in light-years. These areas are the void where the Spirit Most Holy remains quiescent because it has not been activated by the creativity of God or man. Where God has not externalized himself in man and where man has not used his free will to amplify Good, there the Holy Spirit remains an undeveloped resource, a virgin territory where man may make his markings, plow a deep furrow, and sow the good seed. Just as there is a macro- cosmic void between planets and suns, solar systems and galaxies, so there is a microcosmic void in man between the electrons and the nuclei of his atoms. Here the wide, wide open spaces are also filled with the Holy Spirit. Here, too, the still waters of God’s Mind are waiting to be moved upon, to be divided, to be poured into crystal cups engraved with the perfect patterns of sons and daughters faithful to the divine plan.
The omnipresence of the Holy Spirit is man’s universal opportunity to exercise his free will, to stretch the limbs of his imagination, and to press the desires of his heart against the bosom of the Infinite. The Holy Spirit is the energy man uses either to expand Good or to expand an energy veil. He enhances the universal Good as the crystal mirror of self reflects and refracts the symmetry of the Deity’s Mind and Being. He contributes to the energy veil that hides the face of Reality when he mirrors the asymmetrical thought and feeling forms of the synthetic consciousness,
thereby locking the universal energies of the Holy Spirit in matrices of imperfection which produce after their kind.
The essence of the Holy Spirit that permeates microscopic and telescopic worlds is therefore the natural resource God provided to enhance the light of individualized points of identity manifest as nuclei and electrons, suns and planets in man and Nature. When man by his inordinate use of free will turns this light into darkness, it becomes a wedge that stands between him and his God, a rod or a cone of blackness inserted in transparent cells of whiteness. The light in the center of a universe is thus eclipsed by incongruous forms which cast their shadows upon heavenly bodies that revolve on the periphery of the universe. Between the nuclei and the electrons of man’s being, islands of darkness, as floating grids and forcefields, prevent the penetration of space by the light of the noonday sun—the light within the heart. Similarly, in the Macrocosm, dark nebulae obstruct the light of the Milky Way. The horse’s head in the constellation Orion is an example of the misqualification of the energies of the Holy Spirit in the macrocosmic void.
It is man’s responsibility to reclaim the resources of his individuality that, by his unfortunate misquali- fications, now pollute his body, his mind, his soul, and his environment. To meet this responsibility he must first determine to cease polluting the pure stream that flows to him from the fount of Being and to qualify this energy, which he is presently receiving from the Presence as well as from the Universal, only with the patterns of the Christ. He must replace the earthly patterns with heavenly ones; 25 and then he must set about requalifying the energies which he has misqual- ified in the past, by invoking the sacred fire of God to transmute his darkness into light.
Thus man has a dual responsibility to himself and to his world for his present and past uses of the energies of the Holy Spirit. By rightly executing this responsibility he will pave the way for more noble attainment in the future; having been faithful over the energies entrusted to his care, present and past, he will be given dominion as the ruler of greater energies and worlds in the future. 26
The mantle of the Christ (the Spirit of the Christ Self) is another resource that is available to man when he has fulfilled certain requirements of the Great Law. When the initiate on the Path masters the art of selflessness and learns to let the Mind of Christ be in him, he qualifies for the ritual of the transfiguration, also known as the changing of garments. By mantling his being and consciousness in the seamless garment of the living Christ (having dismantled the soul of the blackened shroud of mortality), man establishes within and around his form the forcefield of the resurrection spiial. This forcefield, sustained through his devotion to the resurrection flame, is the catalyst necessary for the final crystallization in his world of the Christie patterns that are sealed within the Real Image of the Divine Self. Thus, each bestowal of grace, confirmed by right action, perfects man as the chalice into which God pours the resources of immortal Life. The delight of the Holy Spirit as it enters into the purified vessel that cradles the infant Messiah of man’s Real Image is the joy that is known in heaven “over one sinner that repenteth.” 27
Those who join the pilgrims upon the Path of immortal striving have at their disposal the momen- tums of God-Good invoked by all who have ever walked the Path before them and who have gone on to win the victory of individual Christhood. This momentum of the ascending pilgrims is the mantle of
their identity pattern—the spirit of their overcoming victory—which they, by law, may bequeath to those who are following in their footsteps. 28
In the order of Hierarchy—the cosmic chain over which pass the resources from the heart of the sun to the heart of an electron—the greater always assists the lesser manifestation of God-Good, and the highest individualization of the God flame becomes a magnet to raise all lesser individualities into the heights of their God-dominion.
The progressive unfoldment of Reality within the forcefield of man’s consciousness must bring about a corresponding relinquishment of unreality. The more light man invokes, the more darkness he dispels. The transmutation of that which is not worthy to be perpetuated in God or in man is automatically accomplished as man fills the void of his conscious and unconscious being with light. For the whole man is made Whole through the conquering light of (1) the Father (released from the I AM Presence), (2) the Son (bestowed as the mantle of the Christ), and (3) the Holy Spirit (available through the threefold flame and the Universal Presence of God and his emissaries).
These are the powers which were wielded by Jesus Christ when he rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the child whom the disciples could not. Thus “they were all amazed at the mighty power of God” 29 in Christ, which they themselves had not yet mastered but which he himself taught that all could master when they let that Mind be in them which was also in him.
The Four Lower Bodies
Saint Paul said: “Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 30
Just as a portrait is an outline on canvas and has no separate existence apart from the canvas or the
oils, so man is an outline upon the screen of God’s consciousness and has no real existence apart from that consciousness. His very life is God’s; his identity is a detail of a fragment of the massive fresco that is God’s Being. His energies are God’s energies, for He who is at the heart of all substance is everywhere present in the white fire core of the atom. Therefore man can be only that which he already is—a portrait drawn upon the Life that is God’s.
The synthetic image is the focal point for the illusion of separation, for it imagines that it is separate from God’s Being and that its substance is its own. It knows not that the energy it spends with reckless abandon upon the pursuit of pleasure belongs to the Almighty. The lie that man is separate from God is the lie by which his true individuality is damned. And so it was written in the Book of Life, “They believed the lie, and their damnation was just!”
That which man believes becomes the law of his life. As long as man believes the lie of separation, he is self-condemned; he dwells not in the consciousness of Truth, but in the consciousness of the lie. By denying his oneness with God. who is universal energy, man denies his own Christed individuality; therefore the Universal Christ has no alternative but to deny his identity before the throne of Life: “Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” 2
That man who by the use of free will weds himself to unreality is damned by his lie to be unreal until he elects to challenge the lie and affirm the eternal Truth of his ow n Christed individuality. If man would learn to enjoy the bliss of being a drop in the ocean of God. he w'ould forevermore rejoice in that Oneness. He would realize that he does not have a separate identity apart from God; nor would he desire separation from the great sea of God’s Being. Serapis Bey
once expressed the bliss of union in this way: “There is no moment so beautiful, so pure, so lovely as that in which the individual, as a shining dewdrop, slips into the sea of divine Oneness.” 32
With the gift of identity, God gave to man seven forcefields, each one having a different frequency and therefore providing a unique opportunity to focus the individuality of God’s consciousness. These seven forcefields of awareness, which we call the seven bodies of man, are: (1) the I AM Presence, also known as the Electronic Presence of God, which holds the pattern of the Real Self; (2) the causal body of man, which surrounds the I AM Presence as the chalice for all Good that the individual has elected to qualify in word, thought, and deed since the moment of creation when the blueprint of his identity was sealed in the fiery core of the God Self; (3) the Christ Self, focal point for the manifestation of the Universal Christ within the individual through the action of the Holy Spirit; (4) the etheric or memory body, vehicle for the soul, holding the blueprint of the perfect image to be outpictured in the world of form; (5) the mental body, vehicle for the Mind of God through Christ; (6) the emotional body, vehicle for God’s feelings and energy in motion; and (7) the physical body, vehicle for God’s power and focal point for the crystallization of the energies of the other six bodies in form.
In this chapter we shall discuss the four lower bodies as man’s opportunity to manifest the Christ in the dimensions of time and space. The four lower bodies are reference points for man’s mastery of himself and his environment through the mastery of the Four Cosmic Forces known as earth, air, fire, and water. These cosmic forces form the square at the base of the Pyramid of Life; and unless they are in balanced manifestation within the four lower bodies,
neither man nor his creations can be perfected or made permanent.
The four lower bodies are vibrating sheaths of energy, each one corresponding to a side of the Great Pyramid. And the flame in the center of the pyramid is the flame of the Christ that is the Life of every man, “the dual Paraclete reborn.” 33 This flame establishes man’s identity and is the unifying factor of the four lower bodies. As interpenetrating forcefields, these bodies are focal points for the step-down transformation of the energies of Spirit which coalesce as Matter. A study of the Four Cosmic Forces, the Great Pyramid, and the laws governing the cycles of the release of God’s energy through the four lower bodies will be taken up in later chapters. Now let us explore the function and the purpose of the four lower bodies of man.
The etheric or memory body corresponds to the side of the north in the City Foursquare and at the base of the pyramid. It is the fire body and, as such, has the highest vibration of the four lower bodies. The etheric body, or etheric envelope, is the only one of the four lower vehicles that is permanent. It is carried over from one embodiment to the next, whereas the mental, emotional, and physical bodies go through the process of disintegration. (Nevertheless, all virtue and righteousness that man qualifies through these bodies is stored in the causal body so that nothing of value or enduring worth is ever lost.)
Within the etheric body there are two force- fields. These are sometimes called the higher etheric body and the lower etheric body. The higher etheric body is designed to record the perfection of the I AM Presence and to anchor in man the divine blueprint of his Christed individuality. It cradles the soul and the pure energies of God that flow into man’s being released through the power of the spoken Word. The
lower etheric body is the subconscious mind, that computer which stores the data of man’s life—all of his experiences, his thoughts, his feelings, his words, and his actions, which are expressed through the mental, emotional, and physical bodies.
Every vibration that ripples across man’s being, every subtle mood, every hidden motive, every idle thought or word spoken by man is impressed with incalculable accuracy upon the plastic substance of the lower etheric body. Then, too, the impulses of the world that pass before the mind or play upon the feelings are recorded upon the subconscious mind. Subliminal light and sound waves, cosmic rays that bombard the planet, and the sharp thoughts and feelings of others directed as arrows of outrageous fortune—all of these make their markings upon the memory body and must be taken into account as molding factors of the personality of man until they are erased by the sacred fire and then replaced with the perfect markings of the Christ Self.
The records in the lower etheric body are primarily of the synthetic image and its involvements in the synthetic society. Layer upon layer these records accumulate like sedimentary rock from one embodiment to the next. Like the hunchback of Notre Dame, man stoops from the weight of his burden until he replaces it with the burden of Light* offered by the Christ who speaks unto the weary souls of men: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is Light.*” 34
The figure of the man of God falling under the weight of his cross and of one Simon the Cyrenian
who steps out of the crowd to take upon himself the burden of the Lord 35 reveals the mercy of God which descends in the hours of trial that precede the crucifixion of the Christ in every manifestation of God. It is the individual Christ in every man, here symbolized in the person of Simon, who alone is capable of carrying the weight of mankind’s cross.
Had there been only one Son of God, then only Jesus would have been allowed to carry this symbol of mankind’s sins. But God extended his mercy to Jesus through the Christ Self of Simon to show that anyone who comes forth to do the works of the Christ is worthy to be received as the Christ. So, too, was this mercy extended to the malefactor who bowed to the Divinity of Jesus, saying, “Lord, remember me when thou com- est into thy kingdom [affirm my true identity when thou art reunited with thy God Self].” And Jesus answered him, “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” 36
Because he had surrendered his synthetic image, he no longer needed to steal the Light of God. He would be found with Jesus in the consciousness of the Christ, which is truly the only paradise there is. These two final incidents in the life of Jesus reveal that God is no respecter of persons (of his pure sons) and that the weight of any man’s sin—even that of the whole world—can be borne by any man’s Christed Being if and when the lower self of the transgressor bows to the greater Light of the Son of God.
The mental, emotional, and physical bodies form the chalice for the trinity of Christ-action—thought, word, and deed—in the world of form. The mental body is the cup into which God pours his wisdom; the emotional body is the cup that holds his love; and the physical body is the cup that dispenses his power through service to all. When these three bodies—a triunity in the diversity of man—are respected as
delicate instruments and are kept properly attuned with the faculties of the Christ, they have instant awareness and rapport with the laws of God and of his universe and with all phases of human endeavor. The senses of the soul function through the mental, emotional, and physical bodies when man dedicates these vehicles as temples of the Holy Spirit and consciously returns to the Edenic state. (The etheric, mental, and emotional bodies are anchored in the physical body through the chakras, which will be discussed later in this work.)
The mental body, at the east of the city, was designed to be the chalice of the Mind of God through his Christ, providing man with perfect attunement with the very Hub of Life in the center of Cosmos and with the white fire core of every atom in manifestation. Through the geometric matrices of perfection established in the mental body, man is able to command the forces of Nature, to control his universe, and to be the Great Alchemist. Through the mental body man finds the freedom to be still and know that I AM God; 31 for here in man’s Garden of Eden, every idea conceived in the Mind of God—every plant and herb of the field of his consciousness—is watered with the Light of the Christ and brings forth fruit after its kind. 38
When the mental (air) body of man becomes filled with the vanities of worldly wisdom, it is no longer resilient, no longer responsive to the delicate chords of the lost Word. ’Tis then that the logic of the serpent captivates his mind, and he lowers the cup of his consciousness to partake of the double standard. In this manner the carnal mind displaces the image of the Christ; usurping the throne of authority in the mental body, it reigns supreme in the synthetic consciousness.
Thus man has need of the purity focused by the Cherubim, who, when called upon, will raise his mind
so that it might once again receive the ideations of the Mind of God. Therefore, at the east of the Garden the Lord God placed the flaming sword to keep the way of the Tree of Life. When man calls upon his Christ Self to wield this sword, he once again has instantaneous discrimination between Truth and error. Right and wrong, Good and evil. Perfection and imperfection, Reality and unreality. Once again the pillars of the ancient wisdom grace the temple beautiful that the mental body is intended to be, even while they undergird the structure of the mind.
The emotional body corresponds to the south side of the City Foursquare as the reflector of the feelings of God and his Christ; of mercy and compassion; of faith and hope; of buoyant love, joyous determination, fiery zeal, and the appreciation of cosmic law, cosmic science, and the divine arts. It is also the repository of man’s own feelings, his desires, and his emotions (his energies-in-motion), which in many are more often turbulent than they are peaceful. When man learns the mastery of the water element, the emotional body can be the mirror of the Real Image and its energies can be directed to reflect the feelings of the soul and its innate contact with Reality; or, when trained upon the lurid and hypnotic emotions of the world—on human pathos, the angry mob, the melodrama of soap opera trivia—it may make of the synthetic image a caricature of human folly.
As the tides of the sea are affected by the cycles of the moon, so the water body is pulled by lunar influences, evidenced in the extreme emotions people experience during the full moon. But the waters of the emotional body also respond to the command of the individual Christ Self “Peace, be still!” 39 When man brings his emotional body under God-control, he has at his command one of the greatest powers of the
universe to implement Good and to expand throughout Cosmos the freedom of Truth, the peace of Life, and the power of Love.
The physical body, corresponding to the side of the west, provides the opportunity for man to express the summum bonum of his consciousness in Matter. As the higher etheric body contains the blueprint of individuality in higher planes, so on earth man sculpts the pattern of his identity upon the substance of his physical body. Formed “of the dust of the ground,” which no longer sparkles with the radiance of the white fire core, this tabernacle of the soul, this temple of the living God, is not transparent as it used to be, emitting the radiance of the Universal Christ. Instead of being the focal point for the crystallization of the divine plan, man’s physical (earth) body has become the sepulcher of the imperfect thoughts and feelings recorded upon his lower etheric body.
Man’s karma, which we shall discuss in Chapter Eight and touch upon lightly in the volumes of The Lost Teachings of Jesus, determines the capacities and limitations of his four lower bodies. The imperfections of man’s physical form can be traced directly to the discord that he has registered upon his three other bodies. Once works of Grecian art, exquisite in their pristine form, chiseled by the Master Sculptor, today the statues of man and woman are often the glaring work of unskilled artisans who obviously have not studied the symmetry of the Christ Self—else they would have found the pristine pattern that ought to manifest through the etheric, mental, and emotional bodies, which must be preserved if the physical form is to be a work of art, of scientific wonder and optimum efficiency. Thus, in order to outpicture perfection in his physical form, man must take the leaven of the Christ consciousness—“which a woman [the
Divine Mother] took and hid in three measures of meal” 40 —and carefully place it in the etheric, mental, and emotional bodies in order that the leaven might leaven “the whole lump.” 41
Let us now take up some of the scientific principles that man may apply to work change in these four vehicles which God and Nature have lovingly provided for the manifestation of his true individuality.
The Science of Individuality
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he demonstrated the laws of scientific individuality. So perfectly attuned as instruments of the Christ Self were the four lower bodies of Jesus, so saturated with the universal Christ consciousness were his mind and soul, that he had manifest dominion not only over his own forcefield but also over that of the entire planet and over the four lower bodies of anyone who would surrender himself unto the Christ Light.
When Jesus spoke the command “Lazarus, come forth!” 42 there was an immediate response from the soul of Lazarus that desired to live and that believed in the power of the Christ to overcome the forces of disintegration already working in his body temple. By Lazarus’ consent, the light stored in the four lower bodies of Jesus was immediately transferred to his being; there occurred a reintegration of the energies of his four lower bodies and he rose from the dead.
The ability to manifest one’s Christed individuality or to call it forth in another is based on the application of the scientific principle known as hallowing space. According to this law, the son or the daughter of God who is devoted to the Christ Light may expand the power, the love, and the wisdom of God by consecrating his being as a vessel of the
Holy Spirit. To hallow space means to consecrate both the nuclei and the electrons of one’s atoms and the space between them to the expansion of the light. Through the nuclei and the electrons, already focuses of the Christ Light, the individual can magnetize greater light; whereas in the wide-open spaces between them he can call for an intensification of the action of the Holy Spirit and its qualification with perfection. In this manner his entire body temple becomes a dwelling place for the Most High God rather than a dumping ground for the refuse of the mass consciousness and his own misqualified energies.
Thus, although God is everywhere—and there is no place where he is not—man by the intelligent and loving use of his free will may magnetize greater and greater power from the heart of Cosmos, thereby intensifying the forcefield of light within his being. This Jesus did when he walked upon the water. Applying the law of transfer of energy, whereby energy may be transferred from God to man or from man to man, he caused the atoms of his body to absorb a more than ordinary amount of cosmic rays and spiritual light. When his whole body was full of light, it counteracted the pull of gravity and he was “purely a ray of light shining upon the waters.” 43
In order for Peter to receive the transfer of energy, he himself had to apply the principle of real- eye magic. The image of the Christ held in Peter’s mind “in radiant, illumined manifestation” became the focal point for the transfer of light which Jesus directed to him. As long as Peter retained the immaculate concept of the Christ, which Jesus also envisioned for both of them, the light flowed over the arc established between them by the power of their attention. When Peter entered into a vortex of fear, as Saint Germain explains, his body was densified and began
to sink. Jesus reestablished the alchemical tie by extending his hand to Peter, and “the flow of spiritual energy through the hand of the Christ raised Peter once again to safety .” 44
The miracles of Jesus’ life were actually not miracles at all, for the term miracle implies an exception to natural law. In reality, his powers to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to produce feats of alchemy, and even to forgive sin were the fulfillment of cosmic laws not understood by his contemporaries and not entirely explained even to the present day.
The difference between Jesus the Christ and ordinary men was the difference between the pure light momentum qualified in his four lower bodies and the impure accumulation of misqualified substance within their four lower bodies. Jesus consecrated his lower vehicles as vessels of the Universal Christ, and so he became the Christ incarnate. The sacred fire that he invoked and the laws that he applied in order to gain his self-mastery are available and workable to all who would follow in his footsteps; for the record clearly shows that both before and after his mission, those who have applied the same scientific principles that he demonstrated have achieved the same results.
The purposes of life are clearly stated, but they are not always clearly read—even when one such as Jesus leaves the record of a perfect example of the individual Christed fulfillment of those purposes. The spiritually ignorant masses are easily diverted from the central theme of creation—communion with Life, with true Being, with the One Source of energy, which is God. Without communion the key to scientific individuality cannot be won. And partial communion is not enough.
The atoms in man’s being must merge with the atoms in God’s Being. The atom that is man must
merge with the Atom that is God. The four sides of the Pyramid of Life must be congruent with the four sides of the consciousness of God represented in the City Foursquare. Through alternate periods of prayer and meditation, service and the affirmation of Truth and righteousness, man achieves a greater attunement with God and Nature; and the veil that hung between the Holy of Holies of God’s Being and the flame of the individualized spark of identity is rent in twain . 45
Like Salome with her seven veils (perversions of the seven rays), man has many veils that hang between him and his God—gossamer webs of fear and pride, ignorance and self-righteousness. In fact, he has a veil that justifies every phase of his mortal existence. It behooves man to invoke the sacred fire from the very heart of his being to consume these veils which blur the Image of Reality, compromise the standard of Truth, and prevent him from recognizing the impurities of his four lower bodies for what they are.
The purification of one’s being is the ritual of a lifetime; while the Lord does not hold sinning mortals in derision or in scorn, he “will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain .” 46 This means that when man uses the powers of the sacred word, I AM, to vainly bolster his personality and to further the compromising position of the human ego that simply will not surrender to the Superconscious Ego- then the Lord, or the Law, exacts payment for energy vainly used.
The undoing of the wrongs that have been done must take place according to the law of cycles; this cannot be accomplished in a day, no matter how great is man’s devotion to Truth once he has found it. For the intensity of the sacred fire required to consume all of the dross of his consciousness, if applied at a given moment, would not only consume his misqualified
energies but also the very being of man, which has not yet gone through the trial by fire or been made permanent through the ritual of the resurrection.
With each new day, man receives his portion of misqualified substance which must be transmuted if he would be master of the twenty-four-hour cycle. All over the world this transmutation is accomplished through the practice of various rituals: the Hindus, for example, take their traditional early morning dip in the Ganges, reciting holy mantras, while devout Christians and Moslems offer their devotions with the rising sun. No matter what his faith, having performed his spiritual ablutions, man may proceed with his creative endeavors unhampered by vain momentums of the past.
The Lord has said, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof .” 47 This means that in a given cycle man receives only that portion of the energy veil which he, in partnership with his Christ Self, can safely overcome. Man must realize that by divine decree he is never given a test that he cannot pass, for this principle is scientific. But he must approach the purification of his four lower bodies with reverence for the sacred science that God has bequeathed to him to implement his salvation. Using the correct formulas, selecting the principles that apply to each experiment in self-mastery, never tiring until the results of his demonstration of cosmic law are before him, man can have the scientific victory over his being and world—because the Great Alchemist has willed it so.
Every son and daughter of God can and must learn to control the energy flow in his four lower bodies and in his environment. To achieve this control, he must first master the technique practiced by Mary the Mother of Jesus of abiding in that state of listening grace wherein the soul does magnetize the eternal
Presence of God that becomes a bulwark of strength and protection for Godly endeavor. Through communion with the Presence, individual man is made aware of the universal intent relative to his own life; and the Divine Self pours into his forcefield the energy (as a stream of radiant light) and the know-how he requires to fulfill that intent. Practicing the art of listening grace, of receptivity to Truth and resistlessness to Love, man receives those blessings of hope and salvation which encourage him to accept the illumination of his Christ Self, who bids him work change rather than support continuing havoc in his world.
The statement “Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved ” 48 reveals the fact that there is a possibility for the individual to govern the amount of time he will spend in working out his salvation. The old man, who identifies with the transient personality, can be put off right while the new man is making his appearance ; 49 and he must be put off' if the new man, meek yet powerful, is to inherit the earth. How long this process of putting off the old and putting on the new will take is determined both by law and by the individual’s application of scientific principle. Although the cycles of his overcoming cannot be skipped, they can be accelerated and even transcended if he passes those initiations which the Lord, the Mighty I AM Presence, requires of him.
And so it is in the educational systems of the world. In order to graduate from a certain school a student may be required to master certain subject matter, to write a thesis, and to pass an exam. When he accomplishes the assignment, he is given his diploma whether it takes a month or a year. The same rules apply in the mastery of scientific individuality. Thus Jesus said, “Many that are first shall be last; and the last first ,” 50 making clear that the merits of
individual striving weigh in the balance of the bestowal of God’s grace.
Unquestionably, many would find their freedom in one lifetime if it were not for the density of human thought and feeling lodged in their four lower bodies which prohibits them from experiencing and expressing God. This effluvia causes them to remain involved in a continual round of karma-making activities— cause and effect sequences in a world of relative good and evil.
Most of mankind’s errors are committed in total ignorance of the Law, whose precepts they would gladly follow if they but knew how. The byword “Be careful!” should be heeded by men in all that they do; for by exercising care, scientific individuality is guarded even while man is in the state of becoming. The careful man is not the fool who rushes in where angels fear to tread; nor is he the one who has said in his heart, “There is no God .” 51 The careful man is the scientist who never lacks the courage of his convictions; nor is he without the humility to invoke from on high the means to implement them.
The phrase “the quick and the dead ” 52 applies to the two categories of people dwelling on earth. The quick are those whose soul consciousness has already been quickened, whose awareness has identified them as a part of God that should ultimately return to the Whole through the practice of the ritual of scientific individuality. The dead are those who conceive of themselves as having an existence apart from God. Living entirely for the synthetic image, they have become a law unto themselves; and because this law of sin, now warring in their members , 53 is contrary to the Law of Life, they are subject to a law of personal survival and personal death—of relative good and evil.
Inasmuch as man, as an apprentice to the Great Alchemist, is free to experiment in his own laboratory, he can and does set up laws within his own four lower bodies that are in conflict with natural law. These man-made laws bind him to a series of causes and effects that prevent his practice of the highest alchemy and his demonstration of cosmic law. Those who would be quickened must understand that in order to break the iron bands of these self-imposed restrictions, they must first study the principles of cosmic law and then discard, line upon line, every concept retained in consciousness which prevents the full manifestation of the Truth that can make them free. The strength of man-made laws is in the acceptance of those sinful concepts upon which they are based and the sinful habit patterns which reinforce man’s misguided use of God’s energy. Layer by layer man must unwind from the electrode of his being the coils of wrong habit, wrong desire, and wrong concept, which are the foundation for those laws by which he limits his soul’s God-given and unlimited ability to express Good.
The four lower bodies of man are the vehicles provided by God for his individualization of the God flame. Out of the flame Above came forth the indi- vided duality; out of the flame below came forth the four aspects of scientific individuality. The four vehicles may be thought of as four colanders or drums, one inside of the other. The etheric body is the largest; within that is the mental body, then the emotional body, and finally the physical body.
The light of the Christ consciousness flows through a dot pattern perforated upon the fabric of each of man’s bodies. The dot pattern of each body is different. (They also vary from one individual to the next according to the divine blueprint.) However, certain corresponding keys within the patterns provide
for the meshing of the energies of the four “drums,” allowing each individual to integrate his four body functions and his personality. Only when the perforations are in perfect alignment (when the holes of the four “colanders” are directly opposite each other) can the light flow brilliantly and steadfastly. When the holes of the “colanders” are completely out of alignment, the light can at best only seep through and the individual becomes sluggish and inefficient.
One must also consider the frequency alignment of the bodies according to the square at the base of the Pyramid. When the electronic frequencies of the four lower bodies are at the proper pitch and the bodies are at right angles to one another, the chord of identity is in harmony and the note of the individual Christ- pattern will sound forth. Misqualified substance lodged within the wide-open spaces of man’s atoms brings about the misalignment of the four lower bodies, resulting in their malfunctioning. This effluvia also prevents the balanced manifestation of the qualities of Power, Wisdom, and Love, which must be in balance equilaterally if the Christ-identity of the individual is to be expressed in form.
Because “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God ,” 54 as Paul said, all have a need to reverse the trends of imperfection within their lower vehicles. All can begin by making daily invocation to God for the fires of purification to resurrect the balanced expression of the attributes of the Christ in their character, their feelings, their thoughts, and their actions. The alchemical transformation induced by these fires ultimately leads to the alignment of the four lower bodies and the raising of the Pyramid of Life, which is built stone upon stone of man’s devotion to God and his service to his fellowman. Once the alignment of the sacred square—fire, air, water, and earth—is achieved
in man’s being, the cells and atoms of his four bodies follow suit; then the attunement of the soul faculties with the God Presence is more easily established and maintained through the purified vehicles.
The thread of contact between the lower self and the Higher Self is strengthened through the ritual of invoking light and then using it in service to Life. Each experience of bliss, wherein the soul of man merges with the Spirit of God in holy communion, reinforces this thread, until it becomes a ladder of light over which the mortal self will one day climb to its immortal freedom. Thus the memory, the thought, and the feeling of spiritual communion, once experienced by the outer consciousness, become focal points for the reenactment of the ritual; and the light received therefrom, when retained in purity and in harmony, provides the platform from which the soul may soar ever higher into the vast reaches of God’s consciousness.
One must always take care that one’s attunement is with Reality through the Mind of Christ and not with unreality through the more familiar subphases of one’s own human consciousness. The desire to be thought wise among men or to use the fruits of one’s spiritual communion to control others causes the seeker to automatically forfeit his attunement with the Christ and any temporary attainment he might gain; for the blessings of the Lord are reserved to the humble and the pure in heart.
The one sure method of attuning only with the highest Source of Being is to first surrender unto the Christ one’s human consciousness, human ego, human intellect, and human will with their attendant motivations and inordinate desires, their thoughts and memories of involvements with the synthetic consciousness. If one wholeheartedly surrenders one’s sympathy for
the synthetic image, then one’s nonattachment to the self and the possessions of the self—or the state of desirelessness— will allow the soul to pass through the untransmuted density of his world directly into the arms of his Christed Being—and that before the hour of his perfectionment. Even when surrender is complete, one should also invoke the assistance of the Cherubim to keep the way of the energies of the Tree of Life within the soul and to seal the place (the four lower bodies) where transient evil dwells.
Beloved El Morya has said, “Man cannot be perfection until he sees perfection.” That which prevents man from seeing perfection is the density of his own human consciousness, which obliterates the light of his true identity. The science of individuality is the science of the surrender of the human consciousness; unless the disciple approaches surrender scientifically, as Jesus did, following the methods of the Ascended Masters, he will never succeed in his experiments to precipitate the Christ consciousness.
Individuality is scientific only when it is completely dominated by the Real Image. The synthetic image must therefore be surrendered—if for no other reason than that it is unscientific. The mind must surrender its synthetic thoughts; the emotions must surrender their synthetic feelings; the memory must surrender its synthetic patterns; and the physical body must surrender its synthetic impulses, motives, and momentums. Only then will the sense of separation from the Source be eliminated; only then will the dead be quickened and rise from the valley of dry bones to inherit their redemptive individuality.
Harmony is the great requirement of surrender, for through harmony man establishes his attunement with God; and when man is attuned with God he identifies with Reality. Then, when attunement is complete,
his surrender of the unreal image is immediate; for in the dazzling presence of Reality he sees that what is unreal is no real part of his true individuality. The greater one’s attunement with Reality, the easier surrender becomes; moreover, it is precisely the weight or measure of the Christ consciousness that man has realized which determines the weight or measure of the human consciousness that can be transmuted within a given cycle. “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath .’’ 55 The more perfection man can see, the more he can be; and the more perfection he can be, the more imperfection he can let go into the sacred fire for transmutation.
Not knowing how the Lord will judge his long absence, man approaches the sacred altar of Truth with fear and trembling; by and by, feeling His warmth and loving concern, he raises his head in renewed hope and faith that life can be meaningful. Waiting upon the word of the Lord— for he remembers His promise “Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee” 56 — he recites the prayer of surrender:
All that I had thought my own—
My name, my fame, my contacts (fears and blames)—
I cast them all within Thy flame;
And in the glow of mastery My Christed radiance now I see Descending from the heart of God,
A special gift of Thine own love.
Descending now. Thy Presence fair In answer to my humble prayer Reveals Thyself as Light in me;
The Presence of Eternity
In time consents to honor Thee And be restored to rightful place Wherein my eyes behold Thy face Appear transcendent as the dawn.
The brightness of a cosmic morn Where sweet surrender then is born And consecration comes to me Forevermore to be like Thee.
I AM Thyself in action here;
Thy grace, O God, in me appears!
Thy kingdom come—my life is Thine—
And thus we triumph over time ! 57
When the answer is given from on high, he learns that the reward for his obedient faith is the opportunity for initiation. Passing the first testings of his soul, he receives the gift of wisdom. Now he is bidden to sit at the feet of his Lord, where he learns, one by one, the precepts of the Law and the things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world . 58 Because man loves God more than he loves himself, he is given the key that opens the door of Christed illumination. His wisdom unfolds like a golden lily; his faith multiplies like a blue lotus; and with renewed determination he consecrates his soul to purity, to communion, to service, and to surrender.
Man must never fear to surrender that which is unreal; for God will never take from him nor will He ask him to sacrifice His only begotten Son, manifest as the individualized Christ Self. Abraham’s faith was tested by God, who told him to take his only son and to offer him “for a burnt offering .” 551 When the patriarch proved that he was willing to sacrifice everything that his synthetic image held dear, that he would withhold nothing from the Lord— even his only son— the angel of the Lord returned to him that which he
had surrendered and multiplied the seeds of his Christ consciousness.
Thus the Lord does not require the sacrifice of man’s true identity, but He does require him to sacrifice the components of his unreality. By law, when man surrenders his all unto God, God surrenders his All unto him. When man sacrifices his human self, God returns to him his Divine Self. When man joyously renews his covenant to glorify God throughout his four lower bodies and to make of them a veritable temple of the Holy Spirit, God renews his covenant to withhold nothing from the Son, who at last has found his Real Image. This principle can be scientifically proved by all who are unafraid to experiment with Truth.
Individuality is nonexistent until surrender is complete. When man surrenders unto God the all of his misqualified substance for purification (symbolized in the ram caught in the thicket by his horns), God returns to him that substance transmuted to be used in the expansion of the light and in the creation of more perfect forms, ideas, and action “that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore .” 60 And so “in the macrocosmic- microcosmic interchange, in the great flow of Life, of delight, of boundless joy,” says Saint Germain, “man senses the unity of all that lives; and he recognizes that his role as a receiver of benefits from the universe entails the necessary conveyance of benefits from his own creative consciousness back to the universe .” 61
The following scientific prayer for God-purity is given as a Gregorian chant in the name of the I AM Presence and the Christed individuality of all evolving Godward. It contains the rhythm and the momentum
of the pyramid builders and may therefore be used to raise the Pyramid of Life right within the forcefield of one’s four lower bodies. Directing his attention to Serapis Bey, Master Pyramid Builder, the devotee should visualize a pure-white pyramid superimposed over his form. One third from the base in the center of the pyramid is a white flame that is congruent with his heart when he is seated in the lotus posture. In the action of the flame, the identity of God and man is found as one. The flame consumes all extraneous matter, all that detracts from the divine plan; but the bush of man’s Real Image is not consumed.
Beloved Serapis, in God’s name I AM
Calling for Purity’s ray to expand,
Imploring that shadows no longer adhere,
So longing for Purity now to appear.
My mind purify of its fleeting impression.
My feelings release of all impure direction;
Let memory retain the Immaculate Concept
And treasure the pearl of the holy Christ precept.
O souvenir of radiant wonder.
Let my mind on Thee now ponder;
Christ discrimination, sunder
All that’s less than God-success!
Cut me free from all deception.
Fix my mind on pure perception;
Hear, O Thou, my invocation—
My Christ Self to manifest!
O Flame of Cosmic Purity
From Luxor, blaze through me;
Completely clear all shadowed weights.
Ascend me now to Thee ! 62
188 Chapter 4 • What Is Individuality?
Freedom in the Macrocosm through Self-Mastery in the Microcosm
Freedom in the Macrocosm can come to the individual only after he has gained self-mastery in the microcosm—mastery over the flow and use of his energies in his four lower bodies, which results in the mastery of his environment. The gift of individuality is the gift of individual creative opportunity; it is the fulfillment of the individual expression of the God flame made permanent through man’s victorious use of his creative faculties.
Man should never forget that his individuality was originally given birth because it is the nature of the Creator to provide new opportunities for Life to express itself throughout the universes he has made. It is recorded in Genesis that the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone ,” 63 meaning that it is not good for man, the manifestation, to be all one, but that it was necessary to create the individed duality. This cosmic conception of unity fulfilled through duality persists throughout Nature as the supreme opportunity for the realization of expanding creativity in God and man.
We have seen that the Father has desired that his son share in his dominion; we have also seen that child- man is not ready to assume the responsibilities attendant upon this high office because he is lacking in self-mastery. The heir to the throne (to the three-in- one, to the Holy Trinity) is not ready for the coronation that will officially give him the right to reign as king. Hence he must abide for a time in the schoolrooms of earth, which provide opportunities for the expansion and training of his consciousness, for the soul-growth and goal-fitting that will qualify him to wear the royal robe and wield the scepter of divine authority.
The only true freedom that man can have and know and be is the freedom that God has ordained. This freedom can be known only when man masterfully employs the gift of free will to direct the energies of his life in the fulfillment of his divine blueprint; for only when man can control his life, can he control his destiny. And his destiny is his true and only freedom.
The Master Serapis Bey has lectured on the perversions of the concept of individual freedom that are projected at the sons and daughters of God to make them assert their so-called human rights over and above and in place of their divine rights:
“One of the principal problems involving the monadic consciousness is the insistence by individuals— when they allow themselves to come under the influences of the carnal mind 64 —that they use their own God-given free will to protect their individuality at all costs. Individualism is positively not correctly interpreted by the masses of mankind nor even by many among the spiritual seekers for greater Truth. These confuse what we may term ‘human rights’ with what we choose to call the ‘divine right’ of every man.
“It is true—and the world is proof of it—that human rights are being employed by mankind; and the mess of human pottage ladled out as enticement to the Esau consciousness continues to defraud the firstborn sons of their eternal inheritance . 65 But the divine right is another thing. The divine right is the immortal plan for universal man. The monadic intent (man’s God-designed individuality and his natural gravitation toward the oneness of his True Self) is its first principle or foundation stone in which the inherent pattern of unique Christ-manifestation is self-contained.
“Individuals seek without for that which is already within. Just as the entire pattern of Nature is
manifest in the seed, so in the divine seed the living Word is the inherent God-identity, Christ-identity, and soul-identity of every man. This is what is truly meant by the statement ‘No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon !’ 66
“The human master has attempted to enslave its own latent Divine Identity, which is the Source of all Life; and thus the human master has created a selfserfdom which holds individuals in bondage, not to their Divine Presence nor even to the True Self, but to myriad world patterns whose end is always transition and change....
“As long as individuals seek to master the world of illusion by themselves, they will lose their souls or be castaways from the kingdom that is not of this world. Ever and anon, souls have sought to glorify outer-world conditions and to glorify themselves against the background of its facades; thus they have pursued a temporal crown right while they seemed to be pursuing the spiritual path .” 67
The law of relativity functions throughout Life (throughout God and his manifestation), and the fixing of the bounds of man’s habitation affects those who are embodied as well as those who are out of the body. This means that the range of consciousness open to the individual is limited as long as he limits himself—as long as he limits the expression of his God Self by asserting his human rights over his divine right. In order for man to pass beyond the boundary imposed by the God Self, it is necessary for the individual to pass from the circle of the human consciousness to the circle of the Divine Consciousness.
In order to demonstrate the law governing the interchange of energy between the Macrocosm of the
Infinite and the microcosm of the finite, the soul has need of a certain measure of spiritual training and testing before the finite portion of itself may be projected upon the screen of the infinite portion of the God Self. When the required formulas have been mastered and the soul has acquired sufficient experience in the world of form to provide the impetus for the coming of the kingdom of heaven into manifestation within his individualized consciousness, it is lifted from the mortal socket into its immortal freedom through the ritual of the ascension. Man qualifies for this ritual when he is able to expand his consciousness at will, holding it up as an infinite cup in order that he might receive an infinite measure from the Infinite One.
The Prince of the House of Rakoczy, exponent of freedom and a golden-age culture, known and beloved as the Great Divine Director, has the following advice to give to those who would diligently prepare themselves for that reunion with God which is the only path to immortality:
“Only by a realization of and a faith in the continuity of Life and the justice of Life can a soul truly prepare his consciousness to receive immortality. As long as individuals are convinced that their lives are their own, they are apt to misuse the gift of free will to bottle up the selfish imp of their own creating. When they realize that they themselves are co-creators of their own divine Reality—strange though these words may sound at first to the natural man—they will perceive that God’s Spirit and his energy are the rejuvenating powers of the whole field of consciousness that makes the whole man new. The power to renew and to wipe out the stain of the hieroglyphs of error enables man to contact the mainstream of God’s consciousness and to become infused with universal reason, with the pure reason of God. Yet the very name God, has become
to many an anathema because of human distortions, imaginations, and exaltations falsely premised.
“Call a rose by any other name, it is as sweet; the ontology of man, the study of the nature of his being, is pursued through the soul of man even as it is fashioned in the inward parts according to the nature of the Creator of all things. The universal Word, the Logos, the power of the Spirit and the power of transformation, together with the power of the Christ Mind, contain the dynamic principles by which a mere individual, embodied in flesh, can attain absolute oneness with Spirit and the mastery of himself.
“But if the field of consciousness be neglected and the old carnal mind remain in command, it will surely interfere with the externalization of the Mind of Christ. The Mind of Christ is universal. It belongs to the ages, and it belongs to all men of the ages who are willing to appropriate it .” 68
Because the Life that is God is transcendent, those who graduate from earth’s schoolrooms do not lose their Life; rather does the lower half of the indi- vided duality gain on a larger scale that Reality which the upper half already has. The awareness of this Reality by the total being of man enables him to establish a forcefield of “coactuality” or coexistence with the individualized God Presence of every Ascended and unascended being. Thus, having found oneness with his Real Self, man is one with the Real Self of every other individuality conceived by God.
This status of oneness obtains for man a passport into the realm of infinite Identity. For what God has given to one, he cannot and will not deny to any. Thus, many souls who, with Jesus, win the seal of permanent individuality arrive at the place in their spiritual evolution where they, too, become first Gods in embryo and then full manifestations of God. This is
the only way the Eternal could share the best gifts of himself with those individualized focuses whom he has created and endowed with power from on high. Thus we see that there is fulfilled in every man, once he becomes the full manifestation of the Christ in action, the statement of Jesus “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth .” 69 Truly individuality is a sacred gift when it is regarded from the standpoint of the divine Summit—from the standpoint of the heights of God who dwells in individual man.
To become the Christ, then, is the goal of every child of God; and to this end every child is tested. In order to attain Christhood, the disciple must prove his God-mastery over the world and himself. This comes about through the correct use of free will, the fair development of one’s talents, and the just handling of God’s energy. Furthermore, he must align his four lower bodies; balance the action of love, wisdom, and power within his consciousness; and fulfill the blueprint of his identity. In short, he must overcome all outer conditions as Jesus did, including the last enemy, which is death . 70
The subjects of karma, the Christ, and the ascension will be more fully discussed in subsequent chapters, together with methods for overcoming the entire synthetic consciousness. Suffice it to say that the highest manifestation of individuality to which the creation of God should aspire is the realization of his individual Christhood; this is his raison d’etre. The ascension is the certificate of Christhood. This sacred ritual, which will be defined in Chapter Eleven, is the return of the individed duality to a state of Wholeness—to the Source or primal state of Being; and it is accomplished through the raising of one’s energies to the vibratory level of perfection. Unless one demonstrates the laws that define the image of his individual Christ Self, he
cannot ascend; but when he does, it is not long before he passes through the ritual of the ascension. One who has attained self-mastery is called Master; and when such a one ascends back to the heart of his I AM Presence, he is known as an Ascended Master.
Individual Fulfillment through Service to Life
Those who become Ascended Masters are immediately enlisted in world service as emissaries of the Most High. Whereas before the ascension they were instruments of the Holy Spirit at outer levels, they now function as his instruments at “inner levels,” using the combined light momentum of all other ascended beings to implement the plan of God Above and below. Their ministrations mightily assist their unascended brothers and sisters in finding their divine plan and in humbling themselves before their own Divine Identity.
The Ascended Masters retain the precious gift of identity originally engraved upon the crystal fire mist by the Almighty together with certain aspects of their individuality which they have chosen to perfect, to spiritualize, and to fill with his grace. Individual momentums of Godly virtue, faith, and good works developed in earth’s schoolrooms are thus retained after the ascension and are the means whereby greater service can be rendered by the Ascended Masters in the order of Hierarchy.
We come, then, to the question. Is individual Christhood secured by God’s grace or by man’s effort? The answer is: by both. Man attains his immortality by grace and by works. Grace is from God, whereas works are the implementation of that grace through man. God’s grace—his Life, light, and energy—is the natural resource given to man freely in order that man
might fulfill the pattern of his individuality through faith and good works. If man were saved by God’s grace alone, then everyone would be saved; for God’s grace is given freely to all, even as the sun shines upon the just and the unjust. If man’s salvation were wholly dependent upon God’s grace, there would be no opportunity for man to exercise his free will. Because man has the choice of accepting or rejecting God’s grace to implement His will, man determines his own fate.
It is not the works of the self-righteous do-gooder that merit the everlasting reward of immortal Life, but the works of God expressed through man as man becomes the instrument of God’s work by God’s grace. Again we must examine that all-important statement made by Jesus: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” If we have a proper perspective of man’s relationship to God, we will have the correct understanding of God’s work made manifest in man through His grace. But first we must accept God’s grace as the works of God made manifest through us.
As James, who called himself “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,” said: “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had
offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only .” 71
Paul said, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God .” 72 Without God’s grace man could not be saved, but what he does with that grace determines his salvation. The works of which a man boasts, saying, “I did it,” are not adequate for his salvation; but it is those good works which he, as the workmanship of God, accomplishes through Christ—works “which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” 73 —that are the honest labor of the servant-son whose reward is with him in the joy of his Lord, rather than in the praise of men. Indeed, faith and good works are vital complements of the Spirit of God made manifest in man as the passive and active aspects of His infinite grace.
Because there are many facets within God’s individuality, there are many opportunities for individual fulfillment within the departments of Life. These can be pursued from the unascended as well as the ascended state. Thus the Ascended Masters, who are the products of earth’s evolutions or of other planetary and star systems, specialize in a particular area of service to Life. The harvest of their good works, thoughts, and deeds becomes a storehouse of energy and information which may be used by those who are already in the ascended state to contribute to greater universal service or by embodied mankind as a means of helping them to obtain their freedom and victory over outer conditions. Each Master, then, being an expert in one or more fields, is qualified to advise other unascended
souls evolving upon the same path that he pursued. In a separate volume the Biographical Index provides a listing of Ascended Masters upon whom you may call for assistance—as one would call upon an older brother or sister for guidance—to enhance your service and area of specialization here on earth.
When you wholeheartedly accept the Ascended Masters as your teachers, you are no longer tied to unfounded mortal opinions and speculation; but through their exalted consciousness you are tethered to Christie concepts founded in the light of everyone’s Source—everyone’s God. The Ascended Masters are not only able to escalate your evolution from the spiritual standpoint but they are also able to speak from the lofty position of attainment. Their demonstration of the power of divine individuality provides you with the hope that all is indeed not lost and that your life can be retailored here and now until your four lower bodies become the vehicles through which your Divinity may function. Thus the Masters are able to bring out the true individuality in unascended man, because they are the ultimate expression of God’s individuality in ascended man.
The path to Christhood can be pursued through service to Life in almost any field of constructive endeavor. Jesus won his immortality through many embodiments of service to humanity; but all need not follow the same path that he did, for all do not have the same blueprint, the same fiery destiny. As Paul said, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers .” 74 You may be called to be an artist, a musician, a composer or a writer, a scientist, a doctor or a nurse, a sculptor or a surgeon, a teacher, a minister or a philosopher, an inventor or a philanthropist, an engineer, a homemaker, a secretary or an executive. Wherever
you are, whatever you are doing, you can live and win your Christhood if your motive is divine. Human motives always result in spiritual failure: divine motives, while sometimes met with human frustration and failure, are always successful spiritually.
A man can be the Christ by being a good blacksmith, carpenter, or welder. Not the calling, but how he answers the call is all-important. It is the quality of the light that he brings to his vocation that makes the difference. Being preoccupied with something that is not your divine calling can cause you to miss your true calling when it comes. This is why you must develop a state of listening grace and humbly make daily prayers for divine direction after you have lovingly looked up to God and affirmed not once but many times until these words become a mantra within your soul:
Not my will,
Not my will,
Not my will,
But Thine be done!
In order to fulfill your high calling as a son or daughter of God, you must do God’s good works, not man’s good works. You must put God and his plan first, last, and always in the center of your life. You must not allow anyone or anything to come between you and your God. If anything or anyone in heaven or on earth means more to you than loving God just for the sake of loving him , 75 then you will not find individual fulfillment and your service will be wanting the full measure that the Law requires. It is even possible to love one’s service to God more than one loves God; this, too, is idolatry. When we talk about placing God first, we must mean what we say and see to it that we allow no other love to become paramount. To love our parents and our children, our husbands and our wives
Individual Fulfillment through Senice to lufe
is to love God in manifestation. We are devoted to them because we are devoted to him and because he lives in them. Yet we must remember that he is the Whole and the;, are but fragments of the Whole which endear us to the Whole. In them we find him in him we find them: and we are not deprived of a single facet of Love's jo;, and beaut;, when we acknowledge that all loves proceed from the great fount of God’s Love.
To strive for Christhood means to make a sincere effort daiy. to balance your threefold flame fsee Chapter Sixj and to align your four lower bodies with the great Pyramid of Life. It means to dedicate -our so.1 to a mission that is beneficial to God and man not merel;. comforting to life, but spurring life onward to greater spiritual attainment-making it possible for other souls to find their freedom. For the Truth that sparks w hen the light from your Chr:st Self meets the light in their Christ Self raises one and all into newness of Life and transfiguring hope.
To den;, that one is religious because one does not attend ch .rch read the scriptures, or make formal s application unto God show s that one has notcorrecth apprehended the word. Doing God’s good ls being religious: doing man’s good ls being irreligious And not knowing the difference Ls a sacrilege The Lae is draw n by one s moti ve this is the line of demarcation that places man on this or that side of the kingdom
7 herefore it ls w eh for man to as f himself w h;. ne does w nat he does Is it for the love of God or for the love of man? Is it for the love of the Real Image or for the lose of the sy nthetic image'' Is it to the gjor. of the S uperconscio us Ego or to the glory of the h urnan ego? Is it to f urther the plan dr. me or to f .rther the plan of the r .mar. ' Is it to fulfill one’s calling or to -surp another's'' If man can ans w er these q uestions then ne can determine whether he is truly religious or irreligious
199
If he does not like his answers, he can always change what he does not like; for the quality of transcendence, the ability to transcend one’s former state, is one of the most exciting of all endowments which the Great Alchemist has given unto his apprentices.
One final note of instruction on individual fulfillment; If you are not willing to live and die for the Cause of Truth, you will sooner or later be faced with a test that you cannot pass. If you are afraid to take the ultimate stand for what you believe, you will be stopped short of the mark; your life will be unfulfilled and you will not complete your mission. Since so much is at stake, would it not be well to define the Cause for which you are expected to give your all? The Ascended Masters, who have given their lives for this Cause, are well equipped to supply us with sound advice, guidelines, and definitions; therefore, let us pursue their teachings as true devotees of the flame of Life so that we may know the Way and walk in it. For ultimately the attainment of your Christed individuality will mean losing your life, that you and all who follow after you might find their Life in Christ.
In a letter written to the American people by the late President John F. Kennedy (and transmitted to us by the Master El Morya) after his passing from the world scene, while a guest in the Darjeeling Council chambers, he defined this total dedication which we must give to the Cause if freedom and our very lives are to endure. His writing shows the true individuality of a soul no longer bound by the conventions of the world and by those hereditary and environmental factors that tend to dim its universal perception of Truth; thus that wider view which often accompanies liberation from the body temple reveals the identity of man as an ivory statue ennobled in the sunlight of Reality, a detailed work of art that seldom appears in its full glory while encased in mortal form:
“The wavering action of unstable emotions must abate in the world community. Just as long as violent feelings continue to rage, as long as feelings remain untempered by reason, just so long shall noble solutions to the problems of the world be denied mankind. Only the balm of rule by law and order can keep the city of humanity’s domain in a manner befitting human dignity and the current advance of culture. Freedom is more than a word to constrain the forces of anarchy and chaos. It is a vital flame whose eternal light glows fervently for all.
“The fear and restraint characterizing a world where each man’s concern is but for the narrow protection of that limited band he calls his own must be replaced by larger concerns of mutual interest—the courage to stand for morality, for progress in the arts and sciences, and for religious freedom to strengthen the bulwarks of the world’s cultural achievements.
“To enlist the aid of the many, it sometimes becomes necessary to sacrifice in small ways and then again, supremely; for the torch of freedom cannot be successively passed to those who will not bear it with honor and dignity. The world’s pathway to freedom, as in the past, is currently studded with milestones of never-ending progress. However, the highways to achievement are not yet smoothened, but are full of detours and hidden dangers.
“We must not fear the future. We must take note of the past and learn by the power of example. If any effort toward progress bears some fruit, it is a worthy offering; and all who strive together toward mutual goals for humanity shall one day bask in the glow of the torch of the future when the light of greater knowledge, held in the hands of a joint humanity, shall lead men from darkness to greater light.
“It is my earnest desire that the events which took place in Dallas shall not serve further to divide the
world nor result in a greater flare of fanaticism among mankind. My service to life, to world freedom and peace, was gladly given. It must be recognized by all that to step from one’s bedside each day is a calculated risk from which people of courage must not shrink.
“Just as I cannot measure my sense of love and devotion to the American people, to my family and friends, so I cannot let this opportunity pass without exhorting those who are able to accept the reality and continuity of my existence to continue to strive for peace and calmness in the face of all foment generated by men whose environment has not permitted them either the solace of religious conviction, the absorption of a richer measure of the world’s culture, or that economic stability and pride in person and service for which, unknown to themselves, they secretly and inadvertently yearn.
“I therefore urge that citizens of America and of the world shall mitigate their judgments of the people of Dallas and of Texas. There was far more love and kindness manifest in this great-hearted state than could ever be countermanded by ten assassins’ bullets. The spirit of anarchy and confusion is not confined to places, but finds lodging in the hearts and minds of men whose ideals are not wholly clarified by reason and reasonable trust either in their government or in their God, whose mercy endureth forever.
“There come to my mind the words of Saint Paul ‘How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation ?’ 76 These words must be recognized for their intrinsic worth; and men must seek to preserve the union of fifty sovereign states, not only in sanity but also in honor. Many of the problems that existed when I first took office still remain as the problems of men. An easier solution could be provided if, in compassion, all would seek to palliate the potential grief of others and unite in one grand concern for the hopes of man.
“The record of President Lincoln’s assassination has been shown to me—one that is unrecorded in the archives of men. Those kind Intelligences charged by God for the administration of the world’s spiritual government have given me irrefutable and unmistakable evidence which convinces me without question that the assassination of President Lincoln was not and could not have been an act for which the South alone was responsible. I am convinced also that this is true in my own case; and I wish to extend to those who have the faith to believe, to accept, and to cherish my thoughts, as an aftermath of my own passing from the world scene, to bear equal comfort to mankind, to bind up the wounds of the nation, to take the hand of the widow and the orphans, not only of my own beloved ones but also of the man who was used as a tool to effect my transfer from the world arena.
“A little crystal Madonna, held in the hands of a child, does not distinguish between good and evil. As men’s hearts, in gratitude to the holy principles of motherhood, cry, ‘Ave Maria,’ they cannot withhold the balm of mercy from all who require it. The Master’s words ‘Pray for those who despitefully use you ,’ 77 His call ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they do ’ 78 cannot be denied to any.
“I am cognizant of the continuation of the world’s problems, but comforted in the eternal bond of friendship which flows unbroken from the spiritual world into the world of material form....
“Encouragement should be given to the flow of commerce the world around; a special bond of freedom should unite the three Americas. Our neighbors to the north, the people of Canada, the people of Mexico and Panama, the Alliance for Progress, the Organization of American States—all of these should manifest the holy flame of One Identity; for the struggle for law and order will continue to go on in what at
times seems a lonely and lawless world. We cannot afford to yield one inch of ground to the forces of tyranny; we cannot let any event whatsoever dissuade us from the holy purpose of keeping both the peace and freedom, of standing guard to preserve those essential elements of life and liberty for which the many have already given their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
“I, therefore, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, borne from the world by the summer winds of a greater love to which I had long pledged my service, bequeath to you all the full-gathered momentum of my energies for and on behalf of freedom. The torch is indeed passed; but I know and I am certain that many noble young men and women, many men and women of mature dignity, and even the staunch hand of age shall continue to grasp it, to hold it high, to defend it against all enemies.
“Our nation must collectively rest consoled in the arms of a holy freedom which refuses to be confined to the altars erected by men, but seeks to find repose within their hearts and souls. Of this I am certain, that as in the past, so in the future, the cry ‘Watchman, what of the night?’ shall often be heard in our land, and the answer shall come, ‘All is well.’ The answer shall come because men stand guard, because men determine to control their emotions, because men seek to be better examples, and because men continue to express courage. As such qualities are divine, eternal, and immortal, they shall not perish from the earth .” 79
There can be developed a personal relationship between those who dwell in the ascended state and those who are yet working out their salvation on earth. For all Life is truly one, and the only separation that exists between heaven and earth is that concept of
separation which is held by the synthetic image. All who are one with God may share in the communion of the saints, whether they walk the earth or inhabit the heavens. Paul’s communion with the saints Above and below was so complete that he was not always mindful of the distinction, for to him there was none. “I knew a man in Christ. . . (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, 1 cannot tell: God knoweth); such an one caught up to the third heaven.” 80
Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, glimpsed the reality of the ascended hosts and referred to her communion with them on page 513 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings.” These exalted beings are the individualizations of God who dwell at ascended levels of God’s consciousness and who have been made permanent in God’s Mind through reunion with his perfection. On page 476 of the same work she states, “Mortals will disappear, and immortals, or the children of God, will appear as the only and eternal verities of man.” Thus she acknowledges that the synthetic image must give way to the Real Image and affirms the true identity of man and of the existence of immortals.
Based on her own experience, this one who wrote in the 1860s as a pioneer of the metaphysical movement made a profound observation concerning the scientific fact of individuality: “The universe of Spirit is peopled with spiritual beings, and its government is divine Science.” 81 As Paul stood on Mars’ hill and declared the unknown God ignorantly worshiped by the Athenians, 82 so we declare these exalted, spiritual beings, these immortals, to be the Ascended Masters whom Mrs. Eddy and many other highly evolved souls knew intimately while they yet wore mortal form, and
whose ranks they joined after their transition. Mrs. Eddy’s discoveries ultimately led her to the feet of her own I AM Presence, as she revealed in Christ and Christmas:
For Christian Science brings to view The great I Am,—
Omniscient power,—gleaming through Mind, mother, man. 83
Thus she saw that God is no respecter of persons and that he gave to all the focus of the individualized I AM Presence and through it the opportunity to know him.
“You see, precious ones,” says Lord Meru, “the Most High God, in the joy of creation, affords men not only the opportunity to know him but also the opportunity to know themselves—and ultimately to know themselves as God. When they become congruent with the angles of his Being, the starry perfection of his realm will be theirs to share, even as they now share the seed of his Light-potential within their hearts.
“In this expansive going-forth, God has also realized himself in a multitude of aspects; and he does, in fact, exchange with man the conceptual patterns of Reality which he holds on behalf of the creation that they might begin to comprehend the great inner realm of Being—the Great God Source in all of its spiritual wonders of joy, beauty, love, peace, and victory. Man, through his realization of the great Reality which God is, becomes—and at a given point in consciousness he is—all that he can properly comprehend of the Deity.” 84
Jesus’ promise to everyone who believes in the power of the Christ was “The works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” 85 This promise could be fulfilled only after his ascension, for then the momentum
of his spiritual power was bequeathed to all who would follow him in the regeneration.
Therefore, whosoever contacts the Most High God also receives the impetus of Jesus’ service to Life. What was true of him is true of every Ascended Being. All evolving souls have the opportunity, when communing with God, not only to receive the power of Jesus’ victory, but also to draw upon the momentum of good that has been won by every other son of God who has ascended back to the heart of God and to find therewith individual fulfillment through service to Life.
The universe is a magnificent place where order prevails in what we may term the pristine belt of divine manifestation. The teachers of the seeker after the Divine are manifold. When man is in contact with the true ministers of God, his individuality literally bursts into flame and he soars to the heights of the Ascended Masters’ consciousness, gathering more of God with each ascending spiral. Climbing the highest mountain, the seeker must bear in mind the admonishment of Jesus “In your patience possess ye your souls”; 86 and he must remember the perspective which Peter finally found, that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” 87
It has been said that man is not born until he ascends into the Presence of the Real Image. What wonders each son of God may look forward to, not as a life-and-death struggle between earthly and heavenly things, but as an unfoldment through service to God and man of the all-enfolding cosmic light! For when the son relinquishes his authority over all outer conditions to the Divine, then the fullness of God becomes the All-in-all in him, filling identity and fulfilling purpose.
Chapter 4 • What Is Individuality?
The answer to the question. What is individuality? which we have attempted to give in part in this chapter, is delicately summarized by one called Rose of Light who beholds the expression of God’s individuality in Nature:
“Let everyone understand that there is a divine plan for each lifestream, and that this plan is beautiful beyond description. It is like a golden, glowing rose, saturated with light, each petal pulsing with the power of momentary renewal, as the divine heartbeat surges out from the center of the universe, from the Source of all Life into monadic expression anywhere and everywhere.” 88
Great cosmic Light, encircle The whole blest world around;
With ministration’s service Let mercy e’er abound.
Men’s hands extend in longing,
Their lot to understand;
I AM the Masters’ vessel.
Giving freedom to their hands.
I AM, I AM, I AM the law of loving service here
I AM, I AM, I AM the blessing of Christ-cheer!
I AM, I AM, I AM the healing hands of peace!
I AM, I AM, I AM God-freedom’s full release!
I AM charged now with obedience To holy precepts pure;
In ministration’s glory Let Love fore’er endure.
Men’s hearts now ’wait the blessing Of God in action here;
I AM the Masters’ vessel,
In me does God appear.
I AM, I AM, I AM the law of loving service here
I AM, I AM, I AM the blessing of Christ-cheer!
I AM, I AM, I AM the healing hands of peace!
I AM, I AM, I AM God-freedom’s full release!
I AM filled with superpower From out the Central Sun;
In ministration’s service I act till victory’s won.
Men’s beings need this blessing To show them how to live;
I AM the Master Presence,
In love I, too, shall give.
I AM, I AM, I AM the law of loving service here!
I AM, I AM, I AM the blessing of Christ-cheer!
I AM, I AM, I AM the healing hands of peace!
I AM, I AM, I AM God-freedom’s full release!
Great cosmic Light now blazing The Summit beams afar,
In ministration’s beauty My deeds shall never mar.
Men wait to share thy bounty,
To see thee blazing through;
I AM my God in action.
Within there’s only you.
I AM, I AM, I AM the law of loving service here!
I AM, I AM, I AM the blessing of Christ-cheer!
I AM, I AM, I AM the healing hands of peace!
I AM, I AM, I AM God-freedom’s full release!
O Masters, wise and blessed,
Whose joy we long to share,
Help us to stop the action Of every burden’s care.
Let us now spread the message Both far and wide by Light;
God’s law is Love in action,
His Truth is only right.
I AM, I AM, I AM the law of loving service here!
I AM, I AM, I AM the blessing of Christ-cheer!
I AM, I AM, I AM the healing hands of peace!
I AM, I AM, I AM God-freedom’s full release!
Chapter Five
What Is Consciousness?