5.6 – Construction of Ideals
9 March 2020 – 17.48 (GMT)
Pisces Full Moon: the Ideal of Liberation
CASSIO … Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
can be retentive to the strength of spirit…
CASCA … So every bondman in his own hand bears
the power to cancel his captivity.
(William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar – Act I, Scene 3)
A particular incarnation is not an isolated event in the life of the soul, but is a part and an aspect of a sequence of experiences which are intended to lead to one, clear, definite goal—the goal of free choice and a deliberate return out of matter to spirit and eventual liberation. There has been much talk among esotericists (particularly in the Eastern presentation of the Path to Reality) anent liberation. The goal held before the neophyte is liberation, freedom, emancipation; this, by and large, is the keynote of life itself. The concept is a transitting out of the realm of the purely selfish and of personal liberation into something much wider and more important. This concept of liberation lies behind the modern use of the word “liberty” but is far wiser, better and deeper in its connotation. Liberty, in the minds of many, is freedom from the imposition of any man’s rule, freedom to do as one wishes, to think as one determines and to live as one chooses. This is as it should be, provided that one’s wishes, choices, thoughts and desires are free from selfishness and are dedicated to the good of the whole. This is, as yet, very seldom so. Liberation is much more than all this; it is freedom from the past, freedom to move forward along certain predetermined lines (predetermined by the soul), freedom to express all the divinity of which one is capable as an individual, or which a nation can present to the world.
There have been in the history of the past two thousand years, four great symbolic happenings which have sequentially presented (to those who have eyes to see, ears to hear and minds to interpret) the theme of liberation—and not simply of liberty.
1. The life of Christ Himself. He, for the first time, presented the idea of the sacrifice of the unit, consciously and deliberately offered for the service of the whole. There had been other World Saviours, but the issues involved had not so clearly been expressed, because the mind of man had not been ready to grasp the implications. Service is the keynote of liberation. Christ was the ideal Server.
2. The signing of the Magna Charta. This document was signed at Runnymede, during the reign of King John on June 15th, 1215, A.D. Here the idea of liberation from authority was presented with the emphasis upon the personal liberty and rights of the individual. The growth and development of this basic idea, mental concept and formulated perception falls into four phases or chapters:
a. The signing of the Magna Charta, emphasising personal liberty.
b. The founding of the French Republic with its emphasis upon human liberty.
c. The Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, determining national policy.
d. The Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms, bringing the whole question into the international field, and guaranteeing to men and women everywhere in the world liberty and freedom to develop the divine reality within themselves.
The ideal has gradually become clarified so that today the mass of men everywhere know what are the basic essentials of happiness.
3. The Emancipation of the Slaves. The spiritual idea of human liberty, which had become a recognised ideal, became a demanding desire, and a great symbolic happening took place—the slaves were freed. Like all things which human beings enact, perfection is nonexistent. The Negro [sic: published in 1953] is not free in this land of the free, and America will have to clean house in this respect; to put it in clear concise words, the U.S.A. must see to it that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are facts and not a dream. Only thus can the inevitable working of the Law of Karma (which is our theme today) be offset. The Negroes are Americans, as well as the New Englanders and all other stocks which are not indigenous in this country, and the Constitution is theirs also. As yet the privileges it confers are withheld by those who are the slaves of selfishness and fear.
4. The Liberation of Humanity by the United Nations. We are participating in a great spectacular and symbolic happening and are watching it in process. The liberation of the individual has moved onward through the symbolic liberation of a section of humanity (the remnants of the first two races, the Lemurian and the Atlantean) to the liberation of millions of human beings, enslaved by the forces of evil, by millions of their fellow men.
The ideal has worked through into a practical worldwide effort upon the physical plane and has demanded worldwide sacrifice. It has involved the entire three worlds of human evolution, and for this reason the Christ can now lead His forces and aid human beings to liberate mankind.
(Alice Bailey – Esoteric Healing, p. 259-262 – written in 1953)
When the true nature of Service is comprehended, it will be found that it is an aspect of that divine energy which works always under the destroyer aspect, for it destroys the forms in order to release. Service is a manifestation of the Principle of Liberation… Service saves, liberates and releases, on various levels, the imprisoned consciousness.
(Alice Bailey – A Treatise on White Magic, p. 537)
Suggested listening (click on the pics for the relevant videos):
… harmony means adherence to the foundations… (Hierarchy § 335)
