I want to talk this evening for a little while about the mind, an appropriate topic for discussion during Sagittarius which, for the Aquarian disciple, is a mind issue. Mind, as you know, is located on the fifth plane of what esotericists refer to as the Cosmic Physical Plane. It is also interesting to note that, according to ancient lore, 5 is the number of man. We also happen to be in the midst of the fifth sub-race of the fifth root-race. The goal of the Aquarian disciple is the mastery of the mind so that the dominant 5^th of the Soul, located on the fifth subplane of the fifth plane, can make itself heard at the Third Gate in Capricorn.

It is mind, the use of it, that finally distinguishes Humanity from the lower kingdoms. And it is the use of the mind that is going to ultimately make the externalization of the Fifth Kingdom and the reappearance of the Christ evident. Today, it is hard to think of the mind without thinking of the mouth, of the generator of speech, the manifesting engine of the mind. Control of the mind will actually manifest through the control of the mouth, the primary organ of sound, of creative power. Remember that ‘Every word is a thunder-bearing arrow." A focused, precise thinker is a focused, precise speaker, and the more focused and precise, the more potent for good or ill are the arrows which fly from his or her mouth.

So, how did you all get through Scorpio? Assessment Opportunities-we used to call them tests-are such fun. Do you think you passed? Or do you think that maybe you failed? Those birds which we create and let fly from our mouths, are they doves of peace or birds of war, messengers of clarity and light or specters of confusion and obfuscation? Probably a little of both.

Sometimes Scorpio can be a bit discouraging. But have you realized that failure is the generic name of one of the bigger, uglier monsters that hang out in that borderless landscape we call the Great Illusion? The Failure beast has a rapacious appetite. Eats millions of unwary travelers everyday. Makes Tyrannosaurus Rex look like a toothless, little lizard. When you feel discouraged, it is probably because the Failure creature, having lured you from the Path, is feeding on you.

Like Death, Failure is strongly energized by self-centered thinking and fear, and for that reason it is difficult for people to see that what we call failure, although an arduous path, is still only one of the many paths by which we succeed. Failure is just another way of climbing the mountain. It is somewhat more painful than success, and usually slower. However, it often takes a very significant failure to send a message that will be loud enough to wake up a deeply-sleeping traveler, and frequently the progress made by the awakened one is quite spectacular.

So, in this sense, failure is success. Just in passing, I think that, very frequently, the second initiation comes packaged as a big, big failure. You know it’s the Big One because it really hurts. It is the one that caves in the roof and lets in the light. Success is indicated by moving on.

I am not advocating failure as learning methodology here. I am advocating a sense of humor or maybe amazement about the things we put ourselves through in order to train ourselves. I am advocating good cheer, and, above all, perseverance which is, at every level of the Path, the underlying message of Sagittarius. We have since the beginning retrieved our arrows of searching, or reviewed our lives at death, remounted our steeds, or reincarnated and continued the long journey toward the Mountain Top and the Third Gate. It is only the failure of perseverance that is truly fatal, that dooms the climber. Remember that in those dark hours. Perhaps the most powerful touchstone we have, which, like most of our jewels, has been hidden by the forces of retrogression under layers of platitudinous and sentimental gunk, is, ‘Where there is a will, there is a way" Think about that. What is more powerful than the will?

Old Humanity, our dear friend, is facing a major test just now. The test is to determine whether we can count to 5. It is so simple, on the one hand, that it seems ludicrous, but, on the other hand, the forces that are arrayed against it make it seem that we will never pass. We have had many wake up calls, even ones that have caved in the roof, like the Long War which we call WWI and WWII. The most recent wake up call, one whose message we do seem to have heard, was the Vietnam War.

Do you think that public opinion is finally, after more eons than I can count, being swayed to accept the truth that war doesn’t solve problems, that competition, which is what war is without any clothes on to make it acceptable, just destroys people and places and things, just adds to the clouds of chaos that are threatening us?

I think that we have made real headway on the war issue. People are pretty fed up with war as a problem-solving tool. We see daily in our Vietnam veterans the results of what went on in Vietnam. Now we are beginning to see in our own population the fruits of our adventures in the Gulf, which included the extermination of thousands of Iraqis-a fact seldom talked about. The total price we will have to pay for that solution remains to be seen. But you can bet it won’t be insignificant. We also have, almost daily, the results of the fanaticism and carnage in Bosnia, and the equally fanatic and greed-driven pathos in Rwanda. I think that the unavoidable graphic exposure of these events through the media is helping to sway public opinion toward seeing the absurdity of war.

All of this ability to see, as you know, is the result of Humanity’s growing mastery of the fifth plane, the mental plane. Mastery over the mind results in the development of the ability to visualize, to see in two directions. You know that very old saying, "Where there is no vision, the people will perish." It is a very occult statement. Usually, when we say "The Vision," we think of hope and of things to come that are usually mystically beautiful and lovely. But as the old mystical sense of vision gives way to the more occult form of visualization, Humanity will see ever more clearly both the future possibilities and the present reality, the need and that which meets the need,

The developments made in the fields of electronic communication including radio, TV and now the personal computer and the Internet, where all things are available for all to see (What was that bit about ‘all that was hidden will be revealed?’), are the fruits and indicators of Humanity’s new powers of visualization. Humanity has Vision. It sees. And what we are seeing is what we have made. Where there is no vision, the people will perish. We have vision. We can see, better than ever. If we can muster the will and the courage to act, and I think we can, we will not perish.

However, I do not think that we have been able to get public opinion to see the connection between war and competition as yet. That is a much more sophisticated issue, but it is nearer than we think. When competition is all dressed up in fine clothes or is made to appear as entertainment, it is very hard to reveal the greed that drives it and the separative and destructive nature which lies at its base. But our new-found vision is undressing even the most sophisticated presentations of the competitive model... Need I mention the present Texaco revelations?

Before the war/competition connection is complete, however, we are going to have to make it possible for people to count to 5. This is something we need to do real soon. That is Humanity’s test. Can Humanity count to 5? Our test is: can we muster the courage and the will to help? (By "our," I mean those of us who can already count to 5.)

Humanity has no trouble getting to 4. We have been able to count to 4 for thousands of years. I venture to say that everyone who hears this talk will have been taught as a matter of basic education that Humanity is the Fourth Kingdom. We have the mineral, vegetable, animal and human. ‘Humanity" is the name of the Fourth Kingdom.

Have you ever wondered why the Fourth Kingdom is named Humanity? I have. I have thought, ‘Where did that name come from? What does it mean? What does it symbolize?" But I have never doubted that an entity which we have named Humanity exists.

No one has any trouble thinking of Humanity. I mean when you think "Humanity," you get an answer. It is the whole human population of the planet. Likewise, when you think "animal" or "vegetable" or ‘mineral," you get an answer.

If one were to speak publicly of these entities-or kingdoms as they are called in the biological sciences-no one would seriously challenge one’s credibility. No one would cast aspersions or doubt on your intelligence or sanity. There may be some discussions on where one draws the line between these kingdoms, but pretty nearly everyone agrees that they exist.

However, if one were to speak publicly in almost any venue other than a religious or "spiritual" one about a fifth kingdom, about the gentlest thing that would happen would be that one would be ignored.

Why is this? Why is it not considered intelligent or sane even to speak of a fifth kingdom outside of the churches or classrooms in religion or philosophy? A fifth kingdom is a scientific concept, supported by reason, logic, common sense and intuition. The existence of a fifth or spiritual or non-material kingdom has played a major role in all recorded human history. Although it has been transmitted to us very largely through the medium of paint or ink or stone, the Spiritual Kingdom has never been anything that you could put a coat of paint on or weigh. But that is its reality. It is formless. It was reported on by the artists, the poets, the thinkers, the intuitives, the foremost visionaries or scientists of the times through the mediums they could manage. They did not know quantum mechanics.

True, the historical record which is in many cases 3 to 5,000 years old deals in things miraculous, in incredibly fanciful stuff, Gods and creatures that defy the known physical laws of nature. I think these are simply symbolic representations or formulations of the mystic’s or thinker’s or intuitive’s contact with a formless kingdom. The older and more fanciful ones were made to communicate concepts that are eternal and that exist to people who really did not think at all, let alone know anything about quantum mechanics or quarks. I mean, if you were a thinker of, say, 4,000 years ago and neither you nor the people you were trying to communicate with knew anything about quantum physics and you encountered in your meditations an idea about justice or truth, or goodness or beauty, how would you formulate it?

On the other hand, if, in a much later period, you were a scientist like Galileo, say, and you did discover a new fact regarding the physical plane and you dared to communicate this to the by now institutionalized church, you would get burned or something. I never read anywhere that Galileo doubted the existence of a spiritual kingdom. He was simply trying to straighten out some of the facts vis-a-vis the physical plane. His new and correct information in no way contradicts the idea of the existence of God.

Interesting, is it not? The forces of retrogression controlled the growing light through the materialization or formalization or institutionalization-all these words are synonymous-of the churches of the world. They turned the Church from an organic, living, emerging concept into what was/is basically a dead or at least a static object. Church leaders materialized what were basically living myths, living, symbolic, stories made up by wise or holy men who were the thinkers, intuitives, the scientists of their times, to communicate timeless truths to their people, by raising these tales to the level of static Divine and Unquestionable Facts. They then proclaimed any hint of a scientific fact that they perceived as a threat to their power base as evil and black magic and darkness.

I do not think that the Church Fathers were evil or bad guys, at least not most of them. They believed- more or less had to believe if they were going to maintain their power positions- that they had the Truth. I mean if you had spent 40 years studying a belief system and had become an authority with a good job and some power in your community, you, too, would have a strong tendency to believe what was underpinning you, and to see anything that threatened your "truths" as a danger, if not evil.

In spite of all of this control, the Light grew, or one could say the planet evolved or unfolded according to the Plan. The advances in science are only breathtaking. One could go back to Galileo’s time and chronicle the advances, many of which were made at the cost of the scientist’s fife, but, for illustration purposes, let’s start with 1903. We have gone from the first sustained flight of an airplane at Kitty Hawk to arguing about the safety of taking a rocket ship which has a plutonium device on board, and which, coming from a few trips around the sun, is already going 42,000 miles an hour, and slingshotting it around our planet Earth so that it can gain enough velocity to reach Saturn. That is pretty far to go in 93 years. I have already mentioned the astonishing developments in electronic computing and communications. This is all evidence of Humanity’s growing mastery of the mental plane. It is startling. A person who was living as recently as the mid 1800’s would think he was on another planet.

But now, it seems that the worm has, ironically, turned. It is the materialization, formalization or institutionalization of science which is trying to control the growing light and protect its materialistic base by ridiculing and making it dangerous for people to speak of intuitions, revelations and discoveries in non-physical arenas. It is strongly disputed that there even is a non-physical arena.

Curious, the men and women with traditional scientific training who are able to look into the formless worlds, into the Fifth Kingdom, are finding themselves in the place occupied by the scientists of old. Only now it is their own institution that they fear. Like the church leaders of old, who believed they were protecting Truth, the leaders in the institutions of science have raised similar materialistic barriers to the light, a light that in no way would detract from the facts of physical science, but would immeasurably expand the field of investigation. And, like those leaders of old, these leaders are not evil or bad persons; they are simply shortsightedly protecting the forms that have and do give them personal meaning and power.

We need to make it OK for men and women of the planetary intelligentsia, and especially those who are trained in the physical sciences, to think and speak about these things without fear of some kind of ridicule or termination. It is the planetary intelligentsia, thinkers, visionaries and intuitives who, using the bridge of the mind, will reveal the Fifth Kingdom. It is my thought, or maybe just my wish and hope, that this unfolding revelation will have the backing of the institutionalized scientific community. Or, if it does not, like the New World Religion is surrounding the church of old, a new science will be born, and the old science will gradually be absorbed or wither away. Is not this the way evolution works, has always worked?

In the esoteric community, we talk about the externalization of the Hierarchy and the reappearance of the Christ. (I do not know where the name Hierarchy, any more than I know where the name Humanity, came from.) Externalization and reappearance are precisely used words. They are akin to revelation. A revelation is the externalization or the appearance of what has always been but not seen. Light is the cause; revelation is the effect.

In the case of the Hierarchy and the Christ, reappearance or externalization means the realization on the part of men everywhere, but especially by the mental apprehension of the intelligentsia that there is a spiritual realm that is not material, that a significant identifiable area of this realm is named "Hierarchy," that these propositions are facts as substantial as any fact recognized by materialism.

We must bring the light of mind into the issue of the externalization and reappearance. The spiritual realm exists as concept, as idea. Its externalization or revelation must follow the same path into form that all concepts follow. It must manifest on the mental plane first. It must be a "respectable" idea. To make it so, the grip of materialism which makes it virtually impossible to speak of these ideas, but which is in a state of extreme crystallization, must be shattered.

Once the idea of the Hierarchy gains respectability, gains acceptance as an idea worth considering by the intelligentsia and the scientific community, it will manifest or it will be allowed to manifest or, more accurately, the fact of its ongoing externalization will become apparent.

So, we return, it comes back to us, to those for whom a Fifth Kingdom is not an absurdity, or a dream or a hope, but a living Reality. Going there, having been there, it is our duty, our solemn and noble charge to help the light of that Kingdom to stream forth into the minds of men. For then will Christ, the Avatar of Love, reappear on Earth. We know the purpose. That is part of the fruit of going there. We know, that it is only from the center which we call the race of man that the Plan of Love and Light can work out. It is in our hands; we can, if we have the courage and the will to grasp and wield the power of light and love, shatter the grip of materialism, seal the door where evil dwells and restore the Plan on Earth.

I’d like to end this talk tonight by quoting a passage from an ancient Archive of the Hierarchy. It concerns the reappearance of Christ, the Avatar of Love who is the forerunner of an even greater Avatar. It says that When the Avatar has made His appearance, then will the Sons of men who are now the Sons of God withdraw Their faces from the shining light and radiate that light upon the sons of men who know not yet they are the Sons of God. Then shall the Coming One appear, His footsteps hastened through the valley of the shadow by the One of awful power Who stands upon the mountain top, breathing out love eternal, light supernal and peaceful silent Will.

"Then will the sons of men respond. Then will a newer light shine forth into the dismal weary vale of earth. Then will new life course through the veins of men, and then will their vision compass all the ways of what may be.

"So peace will come again on earth, but a peace unlike aught known before. Then will the will-to-good flower forth as understanding, and understanding blossom as goodwill in men."

A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol. V, p94-95.

Capricorn will tell.

Tom Carney

12/10/12
by Dan