Bringing the vision nearer to humanity
With the full moon in Aries a new cycle begins. According to esoteric teaching, Aries is the source, the beginning and the initiator of the New Age. Aries initiates the cycle of manifestation through the power of an initial idea, and thus the keynote of Aries is I come forth and from the plane of mind, I rule. Aries is the birthplace of ideas and an idea is a spiritual impulse taking form, whether ideas are souls brought into incarnation or ideas of God which we call the Plan. In each and every case, Aries is the beginning of the creative process, the first step of the soul’s entrance into experience in the manifested worlds.
Aries, the writings of Alice Bailey tell us, is the sign in which the first aspect of divinity, the will, is embodied. Interestingly, perhaps paradoxically, Aries initiates the cycle of manifestation but also develops the will to return to the Source, to achieve liberation from form. This process is achieved by the application of fire, which has qualities that foster heat and warmth, but which also burn and destroy. Perhaps this destructive element of fire is most powerfully manifested in its impact on the mental plane. Ideas which are truly new to human minds have the effect, first of all, of initiating a period of destruction through the breaking up of old and limiting ideas and ideologies which have conditioned human thought for long periods of time. On the highest level such ideas strike a blow upon consciousness, shattering old assumptions and values by embodying great spiritual principles which will constitute the divine Plan for the New Age, according to the writings of Alice Bailey.
Destruction is an aspect inherent in life itself, we’re told, “purificatory in intent and purpose” because it “removes forms that are imprisoning the inner spiritual life and hiding the inner soul light”. Crystallisation occurs at the close of any age, it seems, and the shattering of that accumulated dense concretion occurs, most fundamentally, through the destructive impact of new ideas. What might appear, on the outer levels of manifestation, as wreckage and death, results on the life side in release, liberation, and expansion. We’re told that it is the growth and development of the human kingdom over the past two thousand years of Pisces and the resultant inflow of Shamballa force that have precipitated the present world crisis and simultaneously prepared humanity to deal with it.
Disillusionment is a natural human response to the destructive fire which is shattering ideas and ideologies when they become hindrances to growth, but the clarity of new ideas inevitably will kindle “the fire of the will-to-love”, Alice Bailey wrote. “This fire is not what you think it is”, for the will-to-love is love of the greater whole which will “fire the entire world with the new idea of the ‘spirit of relationship’”. This must begin within one’s immediate circle and expand outward, as a pebble tossed into a pool. So many of the world’s problems center on maintaining personal, group, and national boundaries, and these present a powerful force of opposition to the thrust of the New Age, which is the Aquarian sense of universality. The outgoing Age of Pisces has prepared humanity for a higher expression of sacrifice manifesting as “salvation from our thoughtforms”, an interesting phrase worth pondering. Ideas and ideals which once opened a door to new understanding become, in time, barriers which can imprison an individual, a group, or a nation behind a wall of insularity. These must be and presently are being destroyed by the impact of new, more expansive ways of living, in spite of the resistence of retrograde forces. This is inevitable because true ideas are said to be intuitive recognitions of what will eventually be—the foundation of a “new house” for humanity.
We are living in a cycle of profound questioning and, for many, disillusionment, but only for a cycle. Behind the outer disruption lies light. Humanity’s destiny, we’re told, is to be the exponent of the mind of God, expressing the light of intelligence, motivated by love, and implemented by will—a task which can only be fulfilled through united group effort. Some words of Alice Bailey express the opportunity before us: “Happy the disciple who can bring the vision nearer still to humanity, and work it into existence on the physical plane. Remember this, that the materialisation of any aspect of the vision on the physical plane is never the work of one man. Only when it has been sensed by the many, only when they have worked at its material form can their united efforts draw it into outer manifestation”, she wrote. It’s a great privilege to have even a tiny part in this group service at such a critical moment.