Shortly after the planetary turmoil and devastation of the Second World War, Alice Bailey, in one of her books, commented: “A new chapter in the great book of spiritual living is about to be written [and] a new expansion of consciousness is an imminent happening…”. In an age of scientific materialism, frenzied global consumerism, rising authoritarianism, and a turning away from mainstream religion, especially in the Western world, what may have prompted this encouraging yet paradoxical statement?
Humanity, throughout its long journey in consciousness, has stumbled often, but its quest for light, and for truth, in some form or another, has rarely wavered. Nevertheless, the culmination of human selfishness and rampant materialism precipitated the World War. In the last century, the age-long struggle, spanning millennia, between the spiritual and the material, reached a defining moment. Out of acute suffering and pain, anguish and sorrow, something better emerged, which is still a work in progress today. In the intensity of planetary warfare, and in its immediate aftermath, humanity was forced to recognise the errors of its way, to relate cause and effect, right and wrong, and in doing so, to recalibrate its moral compass, and to emphasise right relations in human, national, and international affairs. That this has been only partially successful is undoubtedly true, but nonetheless, a firmer foundation prepared, so that future progress along these lines is not only possible but imminent.
This epochal crisis of humanity, at the end of one planetary cycle and the beginning of another, is not an unexpected event. And, in the last few hundred years or so, such is the progress of human thinking, partially attributable to the introduction of ‘universal’ education, that a spiritual awakening is emerging. In the highest reaches of human consciousness, something is stirring. It is revealing itself as a sense of right relationships to all the diverse forms of life on our planet: in sounder human interaction, and growing compassion for the animal, vegetable, and mineral lives that adorn our planet. All of which, have an indispensable role, in the unfolding Plan of God. In addition to these positive developments is the rising invocative demand of humanity to Deity for greater light and understanding in the world. And, such is its clarity and potency, so we are informed, that it has reached the very Throne of God.
Humanity is wrestling with its own powerful lower nature, palpable, vocal and disruptive, yet attentive to the life of the soul. There are many moving parts to the present predicament, some of which are highlighted earlier. Although many are beyond our control, we can learn to respond to them from a higher perspective, and in greater harmony with the planetary rhythm.
One example was the release of what has been described as the ‘Shamballa Force’. Its impact, three times in the last 80 years or so, was one of the most significant events in planetary history. It was unprecedented. Not since Atlantis has this cosmic energy of awesome power been loosed towards the human centre. It emanates from Sources far removed from human experience, yet its impact reverberates throughout the planetary spheres. It is the highest expression of Deity upon our planet. It has both a shattering and a synthesising effect, breaking down the barriers of ancient crystallised thought, so that new life can course through the consciousness of a weary and tried humanity. In its wake, it brings about a deeper interrelationship between seemingly disparate and diverse elements, of a closer alignment between peoples, nation-states, and the panoply of government institutions and bodies. Its impact is still felt today in both positive and unfortunately not-so-positive ways. For example, the rise of authoritarianism, the forced imposition of a political agenda on its populace, physical and psychological oppression, and all that infringes legitimate human free will, run contrary to a spirit of freedom and goodwill.
But politics, government, and international relations are not the only areas in which progressive thinking is visible. Science, along with other disciplines, such as psychology, and groups dedicated to the amelioration of the human condition, are playing a leading role in the journey of humanity into a new era. Is it possible that the visionary scientists, such as Rupert Sheldrake, Ervin Laszlo, and Roger Penrose, who are at the cutting edge of blending science and religion, and of explaining the connection between form and that which lies behind the manifested world, whether we call it energy or consciousness or life or intelligence, are together responsive to and building a new approach to God? Ervin Laszlo in his book, The Immutable Laws of the Akashic Field, interestingly observes: “To find our way toward a better life and a better world we need science as well as spirituality. Science without spirituality misses the intuitive elements of human experience, elements that many great scientists have valued on a par with, and even above, reason and logic.” He goes on to say: “But spirituality without science cannot offer reliable guidance for confronting the problems we face in the world. We need both science and spirituality, and we need them together, coherently linked.”
Not without good reason are a small but growing number of scientists questioning the legitimacy of scientific materialism and its suffocating limitations. A blind obedience to the status quo of scientific thinking is not in the interests of science nor of human development. The orthodox scientific worldview that we live in a universe without meaning or purpose or a sense of interconnectedness leads to what has been described as a ‘cosmic alienation’, a kind of absence of any relationship between our planet and the cosmos. All we see, as we are led to believe, is the empty abyss and meaningless of space. What a bleak picture!
This view of the universe is far removed from the thinking of the great sages of the East in the Hindu and other spiritual traditions who believed in a vibrant and interconnected universe. The holy grail of science, the link between matter and consciousness, or the material and the spiritual, is a work in progress but perhaps it won’t be too long before the connection is firmly established in mainstream scientific circles.
As human thinking awakens, so too will a sense of relationship with all other forms of life. “All forms”, we are reminded in the spiritual teachings, “exist to express truth”, to reveal the underlying quality that the outer form veils. Human minds have the capacity to embrace the Glory of God and to see a little more clearly the underlying purpose of life, and in so doing perhaps catch a fleeting glimpse of the vast panorama of the supreme cosmic Lives that populate the celestial spheres.
In other areas too, and on more mundane levels, such as commerce and finance, there is constant movement and experimentation. Globalisation has brought about an unprecedented interconnectedness in the outer world. Transportation, manufacturing infrastructure, financial planning and control, fed by a burgeoning consumer demand have led to an explosion of the seamless flow of goods and services throughout the world. But the integration of materialism on our planet needs to be matched with an equally vibrant and spiritual interconnectedness, a circulatory flow of energy that releases new life into the very fabric of human experience. One such initiative that is helping to release spiritual energy throughout the world is Triangles, which harnesses the power of thought and visualisation.
Nonetheless, great strides in human development have taken place since the World War. The shared suffering and distress, physically, economically, and socially, has been almost universal. Few have escaped the clash between the old and the new, the material and the spiritual, and the reactionary and the progressive. In many areas of the world this friction continues unabated and its effects are felt in such diverse fields as international relations, politics, economics, and the media. After the War, Alice Bailey wrote: “the invocative cry of humanity… is clearer, purer and more selfless than at any other time in human history.” “True religion”, she went on to say, “is again emerging in the hearts of men [and women] in every land; this recognition of a divine hope and background may possibly take people back into the churches and world faiths, but it will most certainly take them back to God.” In the eye of the storm, the faint outline of a new religion is taking place at a grassroots level, free from the constraints of dogma and theology, but rather from the awakening of human consciousness in individuals and groups around the world to a new moral code and set of values.
A new chapter beckons in the unfolding story of human evolution. All the great expressions of human life are being shaken to their very core. Something new is emerging, more in line with the values and principles of the Aquarian age. A subtle, yet palpable, deepening and broadening of human consciousness is beginning to define a new world fit for the twenty-first century and beyond. How this chapter and narrative is written, in part, is the responsibility of us all and future generations.
