I am the unborn

Today we celebrate the Sun entering Scorpio, a sign that expresses both the deluding Agent and the Light of Liberation. It is in this battle that the will to victory guides the warrior to triumph.

I AM THE UNBORN

The mystery of this assertion is expressed by Krishna (the Christ in His earlier incarnation, writes Alice Bailey in the second volume of the Discipleship in the New Age) in his dialogue with Arjuna:

“Though I am unborn and eternal by nature, and though I am the Lord of all beings, I still remain in control of My material energy and manifest through My own potency.” (Bhagavad Gita IV, 6).

«The Eternal, unborn powers — Aja in Sanskrit: the Self-generated, the Anupapādaka (parentless), the Self-existent — in Sanskrit, Swayambh.» (H. P. Blavatsky – Collected Writings XIII,  Notes and Comments on the Pistis Sophia)

This statement expresses the immanent essence, present in every individual.

«Man, in essential essence, is the higher triad demonstrating through a gradually evolving form, the egoic or causal body, and utilising the lower threefold personality as a means to contact the lower three planes. All this has for purpose the development of perfect self-consciousness. Above the triad stands the Monad or the Father in Heaven—a point of abstraction to man as he views the subject from the physical plane. The Monad stands to him in the position of the Absolute, in the same sense as the undifferentiated Logos stands to the threefold Trinity, to the three Persons of logoic manifestation. The parallel is exact.

1. The Monad.
2. The threefold Triad, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, or spiritual will, intuition, and higher mind.
3. The body egoic or the causal body, the shrine for the buddhic principle. This body is to be built by the power of the mind. It is the manifestation of the three.
4. The threefold lower nature, the points of densest objectivity.
5. This threefold lower nature is in essence a quaternary — the etheric vehicle, animating life or prana, kama-manas, and lower mind. Manas or the fifth principle, forms the link between the lower and the higher.

We have, therefore, our lower four, our higher three, and the relation between them, the principle of mind. Here we have the seven formed by the union of the three and the four, and another factor, making eight. The ultimate seven will be seen when buddhi and manas are merged. Much has been hinted at in certain of our occult books about the eighth sphere. I would suggest that in this linking factor of intelligent mind, we have a clue to the mystery.» (A. A. Bailey – A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 261)

«Man, the average human being, is a sum total of separative tendencies, of uncontrolled forces and of disunited energies, which slowly and gradually become coordinated, fused, and blended in the separative personality.

Man, the Solar Angel, is the sum total of those energies and forces which are unified, blended and controlled by that “tendency to harmony” which is the effect of love and the outstanding quality of divinity.

Man, the living Monad, is the veiled reality, and that which the Angel of the Presence hides. He is the synthetic expression of the purpose of God, symbolised through revealed, divine quality and manifested through the form. Appearance, quality, life—again this ancient triplicity confronts us.

Symbolically speaking, this triplicity can be studied as:

1. Man, the Angel, the Presence.
2. The root, the lotus, the fragrance.
3. The bush, the fire, the flame.

The work of evolution, being part of the determination of Deity to express divinity through form, is necessarily, therefore the task of revelation, and as far as man is concerned, this revelation works out as the growth of soul evolution and falls into three stages:

1. Individualisation: Personality.
2. Initiation: Ego.
3. Identification: Monad.»

(A. A. Bailey –Esoteric Psychology II, pp. 7-8)

Recognising this essentiality confirms this eternal Presence in the “man” system, regardless of whether or not any individual is aware of it.

«‘Dust thou art, to dust returnest’, was not spoken of the soul.

Man is a little world — a microcosm inside the great universe. Like a fœtus, he is suspended, by all his three spirits, in the matrix of the macrocosmos; and while his terrestrial body is in constant sympathy with its parent earth, his astral soul lives in unison with the sidereal anima mundi. He is in it, as it is in him, for the world-pervading element fills all space, and is space itself, only shoreless and infinite. As to his third spirit, the divine, what is it but an infinitesimal ray, one of the countless radiations proceeding directly from the Highest Cause — the Spiritual Light of the World? This is the trinity of organic and inorganic nature — the spiritual and the physical, which are three in one, and of which Proclus says that “The first monad is the Eternal God; the second, eternity; the third, the paradigm, or pattern of the universe”; the three constituting the Intelligible Triad. Everything in this visible universe is the outflow of this Triad, and a microcosmic triad itself. And thus they move in majestic procession in the fields of eternity, around the spiritual sun, as in the heliocentric system the celestial bodies move round the visible suns.

The Pythagorean Monad, which lives “in solitude and darkness”, may remain on this earth forever invisible, impalpable, and undemonstrated by experimental science. Still the whole universe will be gravitating around it, as it did from the “beginning of time”, and with every second, man and atom approach nearer to that solemn moment in the eternity, when the Invisible Presence will become clear to their spiritual sight. When every particle of matter, even the most sublimated, has been cast off from the last shape that forms the ultimate link of that chain of double evolution which, throughout millions of ages and successive transformations, has pushed the entity onward; and when it shall find itself reclothed in that primordial essence, identical with that of its Creator, then this once impalpable organic atom will have run its race, and the sons of God will once more “shout for joy” at the return of the pilgrim.» (H. P. Blavatsky – Isis Unveiled I, p. 212)

Presence and Angel of the Presence

«In the human being you have, therefore, two major energies anchored; one unrealised, to which we give the name of the Presence, the other realised, to which we give the name of the Angel of the Presence. These are the soul (the solar angel) and the monad. One embodies the monadic ray and the other the soul ray, and both of these energies actively or subtly condition the personality.

The other five energies which are present are the ray of the mind or the conditioning force of the mental body; the ray of the emotional nature, and the ray of the physical body, plus a fourth ray which is that of the personality.» (A. A. Bailey –Esoteric Healing, p. 590)

«The mystic is ever aware of duality; of the lower man and the indwelling soul; of the tired disciple and the Angel; of the little self and the real Self; of human life expression and of spiritual life expression. Many other qualities stand for the same expression of reality. But, behind them all looms—immanent, stupendous, and glorious—that of which these dualities are but the aspects: the Presence, immanent yet transcendent, of Deity. In the nature of this One, all dualities are absorbed and all distinctions and differences lose their meaning.

When you are told to develop the consciousness of the Presence, it indicates, first of all, that you are at this time somewhat aware of the Angel and can now begin to respond, dimly and faintly, to that great Whole which lies behind the subjective world of being, as that world lies behind the physical, tangible world of everyday life.» (A. A. Bailey – Discipleship in the New Age I, p. 390)

«This Presence is the impelling force behind all revelation and is in reality God Immanent, striving ever for recognition and Itself impelled thereto by the fact of God Transcendent.

The influence of the Angel, who is the individualised seed of consciousness through whom, after due growth and response of the personal lower self, will come the revelation of the Presence. All true revelation is concerned with the unfolding glory of divinity in some field of expression, thereby testifying to the latent hidden Presence.» (A. A. Bailey – Glamour: a World Problem, p. 177)

«Duality is visioned by the seer. He sees the Presence. He sees, and seeing knows that he exists and likewise that which is seen.
The knower blends the two in one. He sees the Presence as himself. He merges with its light. Behind the Presence gleams that awful radiance which shrouds the One and Only. Before the Presence stands the aspirant. Within the Presence, through the merging process, is peace, is union, the end of fear, the end of difference, joy, love and light.» (A. A. Bailey – Discipleship in the New Age I, p. 389)

It is called the Technique of the Presence, that process by which «the soul assumes control of the integrated personality and of its relations, horizontal and vertical. This technique involves the unfolding of the flower of the intuition, dispelling illusion, revealing the Angel, indicating the Presence, and opening up to the disciple the world of ideas and the door of the higher initiations. Through the disciple’s grasp and application of these divine ideas or seed thoughts, he becomes initiate and the third initiation becomes possible as an immediate goal. The intuition is the applied power of transfiguration. This technique is related to the little known yoga called Agni Yoga or the yoga of fire.» (A. A. Bailey –Glamour: a World Problem, p. 171)

«As we enter upon our consideration of this subject (Technique of the Presence), the student has three things to bear in mind: the existence of the Intuition, the fact of Illusion, and the overshadowing Presence. This Presence is revealed by the intuition through the medium of the Angel and, when revealed and recognised, brings illusion to an end.» (A. A. Bailey – Glamour: a World Problem, p. 172)

[…] Putting this concept specifically into occult terminology: Individuality has led to the steady perfecting of the mind with its perception, apprehension, analysis and interpretation whilst initiation, through the growth of the intuition, brings about (when the mental perfecting process has reached a relatively high degree of development) the apprehension of the world of spiritual values, of unified being and of intuitive understanding. This involves a consequent moving of the point of individual focus out of the world of phenomena into the world of reality.» (A. A. Bailey – Glamour: a World Problem, p. 175)

Awareness of the Presence

«Initiation carried to its consummation, as far as humanity is concerned, produces the liberated Master of the Wisdom, free from the limitations of the individual, garnering the fruits of the individualisation process and functioning increasingly as the solar angel, because focussed primarily in the inner spiritual body. Awareness of the Presence is thus steadily developed. This fact merits the deep study and meditation of all disciples.» (A. A. Bailey – Esoteric Psychology II, p. 16)

«Advanced humanity stands, as the Dweller, on the very threshold of divinity. The Angel stands expectant — absorbed in the Presence yet ready to absorb the Dweller. Humanity has advanced in consciousness to the very boundaries of the world of spiritual values and the kingdom of Light and of God. The Angel has “come to Earth” in expectation of recognition — an event of which the advent of Christ two thousand years ago was the symbol and the precursor. This is the situation where all advanced aspirants are concerned. It can be yours. It is the situation also where humanity as a whole is concerned and the approaching Hierarchy. The consciousness of humanity from the higher and spiritual standpoint functions today through the steadily growing band of world servers, world aspirants and world disciples, and their name is Legion. Humanity today is the Dweller whilst the Hierarchy of Souls is the Angel and behind stands the Presence of Divinity Itself, intuited by the Hierarchy and dimly sensed by humanity but providing in this manner that threefold synthesis which is divine manifestation in form.

All these three have powerful emanations (though the emanation of the Presence via Shamballa has been wisely held in leash since the human race came into being). They all have auras, if you care so to call them, and in the three worlds at present that of the Dweller is still the most powerful, just as in the life of the aspirant, his personality is as yet the dominant predisposing factor. It is this powerful human emanation which constitutes the major glamour in the life of humanity and of the individual disciple. It is a synthesis of glamour, fused and blended by the personality ray but precipitated by the effect of the steadily influencing soul ray. It is the shadow or distortion of reality, now sensed for the first time on a large scale by the race of men and thrown into high relief by the light which shines from the Angel, the transmitter of energy from the Presence.

And so they stand — Humanity and the Hierarchy. And so you stand, my brother, personality and soul, with freedom to go forward into the light if you so determine or to remain static and unprogressive, learning nothing and getting nowhere; you are equally free to return to identification with the Dweller, negating thus the influence of the Angel, refusing imminent opportunity and postponing — until a much later cycle — your determining choice. This is true of you and of Humanity as a whole. […] I would remind you here also that — as in all else in manifestation — there is a group personality and a group soul; you must learn clearly to distinguish between the two and to throw the entire weight of your influence, desire and pressure on the side of the Group Angel. In this way there might occur that stupendous recognition for which all initiation prepares the applicant — the revelation of the Presence.» (A. A. Bailey – Glamour: a World Problem, pp. 159-160)