A Small Group of Servers:
It is important to realize what the sudden impact of this small group of servers had on the consciousness at the time. And human consciousness has always been the primary focus of the spiritual Hierarchy. Outer physical activities initiated by individuals are of lesser importance. Therefore, consider the effect on the highly crystallized European consciousness of the 15th and 16th centuries by the work of the following group of servers:
Johannes Gutenberg – 1400 – 1468
Christopher Columbus – 1446 – 1506
Nicolaus Copernicus – 1473 – 1543
Martin Luther – 1483 – 1546
The effective work of these four on the general consciousness of the time was dramatic and revolutionary. Taken altogether, their work opened the floodgates for new ideas and new ways of thinking in the creative fields of culture, literature, and exploration of both the geographical world and of the outer universe, in the fledgling field of science, in religious and spiritual thought, and in music and the arts.
In 1517 Martin Luther composed a list of ninety-five theses (propositions for the basis for argument) and posted them on the door of the All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Germany. His demands set off a revolution in the thinking of the day. He had the audacity to challenge the well-established orthodoxy of the church! By the 16th century the Church’s core faith of Christ’s teachings had become so encrusted and corrupted with theological practices—indulgences, special feast days, giving money to the church for the renovation of St. Peter’s church in Rome. Money was not used for doing good works for the poor; it went to the rich Bishops for their estates. Luther’s call was for a return to the original faith. He didn’t want to start a new religion—just return to the core principles. “To invoke the Savior in place of works was to change reality, that is, to reshape culture and individual behavior“.5 Luther’s protest began the shattering of the crystallization that had built up in the Church over the centuries since its founding, a crystallization that was inevitable coming at the time of the closing of the Piscean Age with its sixth ray emphasis on ideology , idealism and devotion. Such a shattering is still occurring today in all religious expressions. As the Piscean Age and the sixth ray fade out in strength and influence the tendency among some to hold on to the “old ways” is inevitable. This shattering effect is what the spiritual Hierarchy was counting on when—in the 15th century—it began to prepare human consciousness for the coming new age and the fresh Aquarian energies of the seventh ray of Order and Organization. (The seventh ray began to manifest in 1675). Of real significance for the coming period of enlightenment is the keynote of Aquarius: “Water of Life am I, poured forth for thirsty men.” In the 15th and 16th centuries, new Life did begin to pour in and almost immediately human consciousness was changed forever.
Luther’s protest, however, might not have spread so far and wide had it not been for the invention, around 1450, of Gutenberg’s moveable type printing press. His invention spurred hundreds of small printing companies to spring up all over Europe, employing hundreds of craftsmen to design and craft the moveable type and graphics. It enabled the mass printing of thousands of pamphlets and the development of the new artifact: “the Book”. Book means bible of course, and the printing of the Bible in the local language enabled the common citizens to finally learn to read this holy book for themselves and to freely think about the true meaning of the scriptures. The availability of books began to establish a common culture and a great desire to learn. Such freedom of thought led almost immediately to the rise of the Protestant Reformation. It opened the western mind to new and revolutionary ideas, both sectarian and secular.
5 Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence, p. 22
(to be continued)
