2025 is a year of profound spiritual import according to the writings of Alice Bailey, as was discussed in the blog posting “2025—Developing a Vision of Possibilities”. The Hierarchy of spiritual Masters, she wrote, meets in conclave during the twenty-fifth year of each century to assess the state of the planetary condition in order to determine the next steps needed for the unfolding of the divine Plan for the Earth and all of its kingdoms. At such a pivotal moment it’s natural for human beings to consider “what’s next?”, but sometimes, in order to know where we’re headed, it can be illuminating to know where we’ve been.
Not only is 2025 a year of crucial importance in the centennial cycle, but we are also experiencing the dynamic effects which accompany the entrance into a new age. While new energies are pouring in, the effects of the previous age—a cycle of some 2000 years—still linger. As they are withdrawing, a maelstrom of conflicting forces is being generated which is having profound impacts on all kingdoms of the Earth, not least the human kingdom. Although all seven rays embody seven types of divine energy, esoteric teaching says that when a cycle which was governed by a particular type of ray energy withdraws, its lower effects—not its divine essence but the effects it creates upon forms—are most visible, and this helps to explain some of the circumstances we are experiencing in the present period.
The past age was governed by Pisces, sign of the World Saviour, a cycle coinciding with the sixth Ray of Devotion and Idealism. One of the outstanding achievements of the field of energy thus created was the development of what esoteric teaching calls “the capacity for abstraction”. Under the sixth ray, the divine principle of desire shifted away from a focus on the outer material realm towards a realm of higher desire; from the sacrifice in earlier ages of even human forms in order to propitiate the gods, to sacrifice for the sake of an idea or a belief; and from a belief that God is transcendent, apart from the world, to a realization that God is also immanent, within every human heart no matter how deeply buried. This shift in vision led to the cultivation of soul consciousness, and an orientation to a world of higher values became the main objective of the Piscean age. The aspiration to achieve an ideal and to sacrifice for that ideal began to inspire human minds, and the mystical perception of “something other and higher” became the expression of the religious impulse, both in the East and the West. Christianity and Islam–two religions of deep reverence and aspiration—emerged under the impact of devotion to an ideal, but the mystical impulse also heightened in their followers the sense of duality which fosters the tendency to divide and separate, creating sectarianism and the vicious wars that have sometimes eventuated as a result.
Under the old age, the spiritual aspirant directed the focus towards devotion to a world of spiritual values, while the aspiration of the masses of human beings became oriented towards material comfort and possessions, and for a much smaller group, the development of intelligence through education. This orientation has produced a world of extraordinary material achievements through the generation of wealth, improvements in health and longevity, and the discoveries of science. After 2000 years, literacy has been achieved by the great masses of humanity, and the production of material goods has led to a standard of living that would have been unimaginable to those living in an earlier age. What is lacking, however, is the sense of universality that is necessary for education to be available and affordable to everyone, and for the willingness to share material benefits for the upliftment of all, not just the privileged few.
Even just this brief overview of the developments which can be traced to the 2000 year cycle of Pisces, and its coincidence with the sixth Ray of Idealism and Devotion, shows how mixed the effects of spiritual energies can be when they encounter physical forces. Both the good and the evil are stimulated; both material desire and spiritual aspiration are awakened. An analogy would be a well-fertilized and watered garden which, under the impact of the sun’s rays, will produce both weeds and flowers. The deciding factor is the type of seed in the ground which receives those energies, and so it has been with humanity’s response. It’s clear that there is an urgent need for new seeds—a new response mechanism—when we consider the grotesque and growing cleavage created by the concentration of the world’s wealth in the tiny fraction of the super-rich and, on the other extremity, the appalling poverty of untold millions. The benefits of technology, which were intended to enhance communications, have too often fostered the growth of delusional claims and the seeming inability of too many people to distinguish the true from the false. The climate crisis is demanding redress and, at the same time, evoking denial and resistance to change. From the inner planes, an important symbolic happening at the close of the Piscean age is the worldwide devastation of the forests. According to esoteric teaching, the sacrifice of the forests to the needs of man subjected them to “the influence of fire those vegetable forms of life which were ready for initiation”. A similar effect has been occurring in the mineral kingdom due to the incoming seventh ray, as metals have been transmuted through sound and fire into instruments for warfare and, increasingly, are being plumbed for mineral wealth to serve the newly developing technologies. As ominous as these developments may appear to human eyes, the esoteric perspective suggests that they may at the same time indicate signs of preparation for initiation in those kingdoms.
“Trial by fire” is a familiar experience in the human kingdom as well. Along with the remarkable advancements in culture, science and education, the past century was the bloodiest in all of human history. For our encouragement, though, the inpouring energies of the Aquarian Age, accompanied by a new 2000-year cycle of the seventh Ray of Order and Organization, will foster the willingness to share and develop the sense of universality. The work of sixth ray energy, the legacy of the long cycle of Pisces, and the impact of the incoming energy of Aquarius will bring a potent transformation of the astral or emotional realm, according to Alice Bailey’s writings. The impact of Pisces, which is associated with the water element, and Aquarius, sign of the “water carrier”, together with the withdrawing sixth ray, are producing a vortex of force which will be invocative of mental energy, she wrote. This is presently visible in the colliding forces of various ideologies but, in time, it will awaken human minds to the causes of the present crisis and reveal the way forward.
This vastness of this task, spanning some 4000 years, may shed light on why the Christ is the first of the great world Teachers to cover two zodiacal cycles—the Piscean and the Aquarian. As the Avatar who inaugurated the Age of Pisces, Christ consummated in himself the message of the past and embodied the divine principle of Love, but his vision for humanity remains unfinished and new qualities of divinity remain unknown. He foresaw the need of the present times when he told his disciples to look for a man bearing a pitcher of water, symbolic of Aquarius, and to follow him into a house where all would meet and hold communion with one another. This is the urgent need of the present times which will be fulfilled in the two-thousand year cycle of Aquarius: to share in a practical demonstration of universality and brotherhood.
“Each age provides its way out”, Alice Bailey wrote, and when one ray succeeds another directly, as in the transition from a cycle governed by the sixth ray to a new cycle governed by the seventh ray, the anticipated effects will be unusually potent, we’re told. The age of Aquarius, sign of the world Server, will build upon the accomplishments of the age of Pisces, sign of the world Saviour. The spiritualising of forms might be regarded as the main work of the seventh ray, according to esoteric teaching, because its energy fosters the blending of spirit and matter. This suggests that we can anticipate a new age of fusion and synthesis, leading to increased soul expression. The thrust of this energy will reveal the stupendous order and pattern which underlie the divine Plan for our world, bringing order out of chaos and rebuilding “the shrine of man’s living” out of the present destruction. “Only a few, here and there, really grasp the vision of the future and realise what is going on, seeing truly the beauty of the emerging plan. It is with these few that the Members of the Hierarchy can work”, Alice Bailey wrote. This expresses the goal before all who seek to serve the Plan in this time of transition.