Bases for a New World Religion: Divine Love and Intelligence

In the article entitled “Second Year of the Sixth Septennium” we reported the text from “The Distant Goals” (by E. Savoini) which presents the seven lines of thought on which a New World Religion, consistent with the energies of the Age of Aquarius now approaching, could be based.

The sixth one, the subject of this article, reads:

A dominant feature of the future religion (and its glory) will be the cult of Space, recognized as divine love, and of Light, understood as divine intelligence. And this not merely in a symbolic sense, but starting from their physical manifestations. This will be the real revolution in the religious approach. Men will finally open their eyes to a truth that has never been seen (except by very few) and yet has always been visible.

• Space is a living entity.
  
• Space is the magnetic container of life.
• Life and Space, in contact, produce consciousness, which is light, intelligence and rhythm, from which entities and forms are born.

Let’s start from these postulates, presented by E. Savoini in his text “A new model of Space” (only available in Italian), because this new conception of Space will be the interpretative key of the New Religion.

To assert that Space is alive carries with it implications that destabilise many certainties upon which men have based theories and actions over the centuries; one consequence of such an assumption, for example, is that “death does not exist except as an external phenomenon of passing from one condition of life and space to another”. […]

The second feature of Space concerns magnetism, “a sublimated concept of affective love. It can be said that space, in this sense, is love. It has, in fact, an infinite capacity for tolerance towards any form, even the most apparently unworthy, since it encompasses everything and rejects nothing. It admits everything, it does not judge, it does not choose; and, most importantly, it leaves all creatures free to measure their own potential for freedom, and free to expand it. For the first feature, space is power; for the second, it is love in action”.

[…] “The third feature of space, even more than the two previous ones, can be defined by many terms of equivalent value. It can be called consciousness, light, intelligence, movement, vibration, radiation. But it is perhaps best understood as the faculty that elaborates, plans and programmes the execution of the will. It is the architect who has been entrusted with designing an immense building, to certain ends, with certain materials, on a given site, with a set timeframe but, apart from that, in complete freedom of expression. Here, in short, is the hypothesis that space has a constructive capacity of its own, which is all the more evident and felicitous the more it is acknowledged and encouraged.”

Beauty is the most evident result of this “unlimited intelligence, not only of an intellectual kind, but also instinctive and intuitive, or perhaps of even higher types, of which man knows nothing, as yet”.

[…] “The third feature can also be defined as innovative vigour, as invention. The second accommodates, retains, nourishes. The third studies and prepares the form, the product, the instrument of expression”.

The three primary characteristics of Space are followed by four minor features (of attribute, we might say), which we will not examine except for the sixth, that relates to the subject of this reflection on the sixth aspect of the New Religion.

The sixth feature states: “Space is not for separation, it is the means of communion”.

[…] “That the sixth feature is actually present in space would seem to be confirmed by that general tendency of thought and desire (but evidence of this can also be found in many other subhuman forms) to seek community, to associate, to turn religiously to life, to bond with other existences, and even by the fear of isolation and solitude. Even certain man-made forms, which by their function act in isolation (such as lighthouses, shelters, monasteries), do not have real purposes of solitude, but are for transmitting signals to the system. Primitive man does not feel isolated from space, from great distances; he fears them because he does not understand them, but he clearly perceives their presence, and therefore somehow communicates with them and for them. At the opposite extreme, the man of great and profound culture knows that he creatively participates in a majestic universal process, and collaborates with it. Between the two stand the multitudes, no longer wild and not yet sufficiently cultivated. In these confusion reigns, that’s true, but it is transitory and a sign of possible progress.”

On these premises, it is plausible to say that this idea of Space, or of “new heaven”, will be the real revolution in the religious approach.

Men will finally open their eyes to a truth that has never been seen (except by very few) and yet has always been visible. 

«For some years now the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet has been drawing nearer to humanity and its approach is responsible for the great concepts of freedom which are so close to the hearts of men everywhere. The dream of brotherhood, of fellowship, of world cooperation and of a peace, based on right human relations, is becoming clearer in our minds. We are also visioning a new and vital world religion, a universal faith which will have its roots in the past, but which will make clear the new dawning beauty and the coming vital revelation.»

(Alice A. Bailey – The Reappearance of the Christ, p. 149)

The theme of the New Religion will be that of the great approaches.

«Two major Approaches are to be found in the past history of the race, and both are of such significance that it would be well to note them here. They lie so far back in human history that we have only myth and monument to indicate their happening.

The first great Approach of the divine to man caused the appearance of the human soul and the adding of another kingdom in nature to the three (mineral, vegetable and animal) already existing. The kingdom of man appeared on Earth.

Aeons passed away whilst primitive man continued to evolve, and when the second great Approach took place and the Spiritual Hierarchy of our planet drew nearer to humanity; the spiritual Way to God was opened for those who consciously can move forward, who can definitely demonstrate the Christ spirit, and who earnestly seek enlightenment and liberation. The true appeal of Christ’s words: “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” urges them to move forward into the light, through the gate of initiation and on to that path which “shineth ever more and more until the perfect day”.

At the time of the second great Approach, the fact of the existence of the Spiritual Hierarchy, of the open door to initiation and of the Way of Sacrifice first dawned on the human consciousness; from that moment men have found the Way and have moved out of the human kingdom into the spiritual; they have transformed their human consciousness into divine awareness. The kingdom of man and the kingdom of God were brought into relationship. Religion became a factor in the development of the human spirit and God drew nearer to His Own. God Transcendent first conditioned man’s concept of Deity. Then God as the national controller took possession of man’s mind, and the Jehovah concept (as depicted in the Jewish dispensation) appeared; next God was seen as the perfected human being, and the divine God-man walked the Earth in the person of the Christ. Today, we have a rapidly growing emphasis on God Immanent in every human being. Such have been the results of the second great Approach and such have been the results of the work of the world Saviours and Teachers down the ages, culminating in the work of Christ, Who summed up in Himself the unfoldments of the past and the hope of the future.

A third great Approach is now possible and will take place once the world war is over and man—purified by fire and suffering—has set his house in order and is ready, therefore, for a new revelation. For this coming revelation the work of the Buddha and of the Christ has been preparatory. They embodied in Themselves two lesser Approaches, and through Their united effort, humanity throughout the world has been prepared to play its part in this third Approach.

The Buddha came embodying in Himself a great divine principle or quality. He was the Conveyor of Enlightenment to the world; He was the Lord of Light. […]

Then came the next great Teacher, the Christ. He embodied in Himself a still greater divine principle or aspect, that of Love, whilst at the same time embracing within Himself all that the Buddha had of Light. Christ was the expression of both Light and Love. […]

I have here very briefly and inadequately outlined the nature of two great Approaches and two minor. These have prepared humanity for the third great Approach which will bring the new revelation, with its realised consequences, of a new heaven and a new earth.

I would ask the orthodox theologian how he interprets the words “a new heaven”? May it not signify an entirely new conception as to the world of spiritual realities and perhaps of the very nature of God Himself? May it not be possible that our present ideas of God as the Universal Mind, as Love and as Will, may be enriched by a new idea and quality for which we have as yet no name or word and of which we have as yet no faintest understanding?

Each of the three present concepts as to the divine nature—the Trinity—have been entirely new when first sequentially presented to humanity.

What this third major Approach will bring to humanity we do not and cannot know. It will bring about as definite results as did the two earlier Approaches. For some years now the spiritual Hierarchy has been drawing nearer to mankind, and this is responsible for the great concepts of freedom which are so close to the hearts of men everywhere today and for which humanity is now fighting.

As the Members of the Hierarchy approach closer to us, the dream of brotherhood, of fellowship, of world cooperation and of a peace (based upon right human relations) becomes clearer in our minds. As They draw nearer we vision a new and vital world religion, a universal faith, at-one in its basic idealism with the past but different in its mode of expression.

I have cited earlier the foundational truths upon which the new world religion will rest. I would suggest that the theme of the coming religion will be that of the great Approaches themselves; that it will emphasise anew God’s love for man as evidenced in these divine Approaches, and also man’s response to God as the word goes forth: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you”; that it will—in its rites and ceremonies—be concerned with the invocative and evocative side of spiritual appeal.

Man invokes the divine Approach in two ways: by means of the inchoate, voiceless appeal or invocative cry of the masses, and also by the planned, defined invocation of the spiritually oriented aspirants, the intelligently convinced worker, disciple and initiate—by all, in fact, who form the New Group of World Servers. The science of invocation and evocation will take the place of what we now call prayer and worship. Be not disturbed by the use of the word “science”. It is not the cold and heartless intellectual thing so oft depicted. It is in reality the intelligent organisation of spiritual energy and of the forces of love, and when effective, will evoke the response of spiritual Beings Who can again walk openly among men and thus establish a close relation and a constant communication between humanity and the spiritual Hierarchy.»

(Alice A. Bailey – The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, pp. 409/415)

«From the Centre which we call the race of men
let the Plan of Love and Light work out.»

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This article is published to celebrate today’s opposition between the two luminaries of sixth Ray (abstract Idealism and Devotion), Mars, Lord of Battle and Neptune, Lord of Communion.