Revealing the hidden divinity
“God Transcendent eternally exists, but can only be seen and known and correctly approached by God Immanent—immanent in individual man, in humanity as a whole and in the planetary Life Itself”, Alice Bailey wrote. This shines light on the significance of Cancer, one of the two gates of the zodiac (the other being its polar opposite, Capricorn). Through Cancer, souls pass into outer manifestation for the purpose of taking form. Inevitably, this entails the circumscribing of the indwelling life, yet it’s said that without the form and without the ability to sense need and to respond sensitively to the surrounding environment and circumstances, the soul would never awaken to divinity in manifestation—to God Immanent.
The science of esotericism illumines this apparent duality of divinity by penetrating into the world of energies and forces that lie behind and condition all phenomena, all forms, all manifestation. The first task of the esotericist, we’re told, is to comprehend the nature of the conditioning energies and forces which most readily work through the incarnated form, the personality. The key word of Cancer expresses the goal of the soul as it undertakes cyclic reappearance in form, or reincarnation: I build a lighted house and therein dwell. Gradually, as the consciousness awakens to this task, life shifts from seeing experience and circumstance as events that happen to one, and becomes instead an opportunity to discern the nature of the energies which have elicited such events and how they may be transformed. The creative work begins as life becomes the source of training in the handling of those energies which are the substance of all creation, and which enable the seeker to contribute to the creation of a new world, for “There is always a new world in process of forming; the keynote of the work of every disciple can be summed up in the familiar words: ‘Behold, I make all things new,’” Alice Bailey wrote.
Learning to view life and the manifested world in this way stimulates the light already present but hidden in substance. Thus esotericism, the study of the meaning and significance which underlie the outer forms, is fundamentally redemptive, for it leads to light and revelation, and the result of all revelation is the disappearance of veils. Again, this gives insight into the key word of Cancer, I build a lighted house and therein dwell. Learning to look within and to recognize the energies and forces which seek to work through one generates a process of unveiling that leads, in time, to the “full shining forth of the divine nature”, Alice Bailey wrote. This is why the ancient Rules of the Road forbade “the wearing of a hood, a veil which hides the Pilgrim’s face from others”, for “The Road is trodden in the full light of day…Naught can be hidden, and at each turn, a man must face himself.”
There is no place for fear on this Road, for love and light are the great revealers. As the light comes on in the house of the personal self, its rays reveal all that awaits redemption within. And as the soul sets about this task, its growing radiance begins to shine through the windows and open the doors to the outer world of manifestation, illumining the way for all one’s fellow beings who share the path of evolution. Just as we want to be loved and understood, so by loving and understanding others, seeing all—ourselves included—with clarity and positivity, we slowly begin to awaken to the essential hidden divinity. Since ancient times, human beings have sensed an awesome Presence behind the outer world of form. Now we are awakening to the reality that this Presence is not external to the world but lies at the very heart of it, within even the smallest atom of substance. The task of each human being, as the keynote of Cancer expresses, is to realize the Presence of God Immanent within and let its radiance shine through the lighted house of the incarnated self, and thus contribute to the work of world salvage.
