The need for such loving acceptance and education is precisely what prompted Arcana Workshops to initiate the Los Angeles Heart Project. Certainly, the above statistics on humanity suggest the United States has much more than most of the world. If our country’s heart were to overcome fears of scarcity and open to right sharing, we could do much toward creating heaven on earth. Djwhal Khul suggests that such a sacred opportunity is ours for the taking, but warns we could lose this privilege if we cannot overcome our infatuation with separative materialism. Meditation on the virtues of the heart is one of the surest means to help realize our country’s spiritual potential.

So far this year, the Heart Project has considered the virtue of Humility, which brings in God’s perspective and leads to more enlightened Service, the second virtue. Continued service calls in the greater light of the Soul and the true purpose for our incarnation. In that greater light we learn about Sacrifice, the third virtue—not just the sacrifice of time, energy and money that service can take, but what in ourselves must be sacrificed to make the service more effective. If we make the needed sacrifices of "the old, the outworn and unworthy," we make room for new Life, the fourth virtue, to pour into our vehicles. We then come closer to the core of life, which is love. As our beings become grounded in love, we gain more reliable access to the buddhic plane and the light of Wisdom, the fifth virtue, becomes possible. With this intuitive light, we can dispel our separative tendencies and truly begin to identify with others through the heart, the sixth virtue [Identification with Others]. So the heart virtues go, magnetically drawing and supporting each other as they provide the essential building substance for a stairway to heaven—our part of the antahkarana.

Besides the Heart Project, Arcana has emphasized intergroup work this year and has participated in various intergroup conferences such as the public festivals held at "The Onion." In Aries, Meditation Mount hosted the Shamballa Conference. At this conference, four Alice Bailey groups—The University of the Seven Rays, The Arcane School, Arcana Workshops and the Mount—all worked cooperatively to invoke a constructive response to the synthesizing Shamballa force due to hit the Earth in the year 2000. That conference ended with a series of five words/phrases that sought to capture the major themes and recommended solutions for aligning with the Spiritual Will of Shamballa. We would like to repeat those words here, with a little time for reflection between each term, so that your reflections can add to their invocative power. They will be the first five of the seven words planned for our mental reflecting pool exercise before our group meditation tonight.

Since many of you were not at the Shamballa Conference, we will repeat the conference closing to give you a little context for the words. Please note the proper nouns used in this closing reference the three main speakers at the conference: Tom Carney of Arcana Workshops, Sarah McKechnie of The Arcane School and Michael Robbins of The University of the Seven Rays. Items in quotes reference specific terms used in the talks. The full talks are available from Meditation Mount on tape.

The above closing was influenced, not only by the three dynamic conference speakers, but also by various discussions at Arcana’s Thursday night workshop where we had been studying both The Reappearance of the Christ and Glamour: A World Problem.

The Conclave participants eventually decided none of us had the answer. The best we could do would be to invoke a global monetary system based on right sharing in a group meditation. This we did the morning following the Wesak exact time meeting. Much of what participants received in that meditation came through in symbolic imagery. One group member saw the major banks filling with light until their doors burst open to the wider community. We had all experienced a great deal of energy in the Wesak meditation, but the money meditation seemed to give the Wesak energy received a powerful direction and focus.

Another participant brought through an image of a monetary system working more like the Sun. Duly aligned with the Divine, the Sun is steadily backed and fed by the infinite energy stream of Purpose. The Sun then shares its accumulated abundance wholeheartedly with all life forms within its ring-pass-not. A monetary system structured on such core principles would soon leave the oppressive illusions of separativeness and scarcity behind.

All of the last few paragraphs are the preface for the sixth phrase for our reflective pool—an Aquarian relation to money. We invite your input on this theme that we may more quickly reach the critical mass needed to manifest the solution that already exists on the inner planes.

For the seventh phrase, we go to the Arcana work that stands behind all the other projects—the Sunday workshop study of the Fourteen Rules for Group Initiation in A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Volume V. These rules are the training manual for developing the spiritual will which D.K. describes as "love in action" or the will-to-good.

As I suggested at the Gemini Festival, we have every reason to think that the good guys in this case will triumph. For at least the last 90 years or so—a time of great worldwide suffering and pain and great growth and triumph—the pioneers of humanity, the disciples of the Forces of Light, have been engaged … mind and heart and muscle and bone … in the process of helping humanity to move, gradually, but relentlessly, into the Age of Aquarius.

We must see that this group of pioneers, of forerunners, although small in terms of the whole, is much greater than the few thousands who are what we call esotericists—much greater, for example, than the group which studies the works of Djwhal Khul or Master Morya or any of the other Hierarchically-inspired teachings that have been made available for the guidance of humanity. We must see that this group of pioneers, this One Group of all true servers, includes all of those who know they are disciples and all of those who are disciples, but know it not. It is time to realize our common ground and to unite around our shared essential divinity. These people are, I think, the members of The New Group of World Servers, and the men and women who make up the membership of The New Group of World Servers are, I think, the exponents of the Synthesis Ashram, men and women who have been sent into the world at this time, for this purpose.

Before we meditate together this evening on this wonderful seed thought—Help humanity to build a lighted house—I want to talk a little bit about this gradually unfolding miracle we call evolution. I recently encountered three ideas to which I want to call the group’s attention. I think these three Lives or Ideas are major driving aspects of the will behind this particular stage of the Great Miracle.

This seed thought—Help humanity to build a lighted house—by the way, is another way of saying let us continue to unfold the miracle. That’s the thing, of course. Miracles are unfolded usually over millennia but, to our myopic sight, they seem to ‘pop’ into manifestation. For the disciples engaged in the effort, however, there can be none of this instant success stuff. We are obliged not only to take every step, but to take it and to know that we have taken it. There are no free rides and nothing is or will—very soon, anyway—be easy.

There is, however, Joy, which is, as you know, a "special kind of wisdom." It is the kind of wisdom that keeps the disciple going even through the darkest nights.

So, I have, as I mentioned, recently been attracted, rather forcefully, to three core ideas that I think are central to the next steps that humanity is attempting to take as the Aquarian Age continues to unfold ever more beautifully into our consciousness.

Let’s clear that up a bit. A lot has been conjectured about when humanity enters the Aquarian Age. The movement of the physical planet into the physically calculable Aquarian Age is a physically observable phenomenon. Here, however, I am not talking about the movement of the planet into the cycle of time governed by the Age of Aquarius. I am talking about the quality of consciousness we will know as Aquarian appearing in the form known as humanity.

The transition of humanity into the Aquarian Age or, more accurately, the transition of the Aquarian Age into humanity never has been a time issue. It has always been a consciousness issue, and it seems that the absorption of humanity into Aquarian consciousness is running way ahead of the physical time schedule that denotes the Age of Aquarius. If things had gone differently at any number of crisis points in the last 90 years or so—for example, in 1942, when even the Hierarchy was packing it bags—the planet would still move into the Aquarian Age on schedule, but humanity would not have made the transition.

It is always worth pointing out that evolution really has little to do with time and a great deal to do with the appearance or incarnation of these great lives we call ideas into matter or forms. Anyway, the three lives or ideas that have arisen like triple suns in my consciousness are: Essential Divinity, Brotherhood and Abundance. Essential Divinity, Brotherhood and Abundance are the clothing these ideas were wearing when I encountered them and, already, I have encountered them in other guises or word forms—most recently was Unity, Peace and Plenty. The point here is that there will be a number of formulations of these ideas. It is their meaning and significance that will define the civilizations and cultures of the Aquarian Age, not the particular words one uses.

A notable (that is, recognizable or identifiable) characteristic of the Aquarian consciousness, as opposed to the Piscean consciousness, is that the Aquarian consciousness sees quite naturally and effortlessly beyond form into the essence or animating life of the form. Consequently, because they come together around idea rather than form, it is much easier for Aquarian minds to unify or, dare I say, meld. Over the past 75 years or so, this situation has been a major factor in bringing to light the deep divisions which exist between groups and peoples on the planet and has generated much of the apparent clashing, both within and between groups—much of which we have noted, for example, within the microcosm we call the spiritual or esoteric community.

The Piscean consciousness wants to retain the forms that it has struggled to build over the past 2500 years and with which it is totally, if unconsciously, identified. While the Piscean consciousness struggles mightily to hold on to these forms, the Aquarian consciousness is much more at home with the spiritual or life side of the form and is willing, in fact, eager—too eager, sometimes—to shed the old forms and give the ideas a new, a more revealing, set of clothes. This clashing of orders, both micro- and macrocosmically, has been the cause of much pain and the source of much growth over the past 75 years.

As the years have gone by and more disciples who embody more of the Aquarian type of consciousness which we know by the name group consciousness have appeared in incarnation and have arrived at a service threshold and taken up their Soul’s work, this conflicted situation has lessened. If the growing speed of change which seems to characterize everything else these days is consistent, this situation will become more and more defined, making it easier and easier to see and, thereby, hopefully, easier for loving hearts to ameliorate.

Essential Divinity, Brotherhood and Abundance … these are one set of names for the lives that have impacted my consciousness and that humanity will be attempting to bring into a state of livingness in the next major cycle or period of evolution. It is good to realize, being that we are incarnate, that a cycle is more or less 2500 years in length, and we should be willing to be patient and not so quick to build the forms of the new Aquarian systems into hardened steel structures. Sometimes, it is better to make sand castles to start with. They are easily washed away when a better, clearer view of the idea is gained or, should I say, "grained."

These three ideas are, as you know, not new. However, the efforts of disciples to embody these ideas in their daily lives will help shift humanity from self- to group consciousness and will help to reveal to those who already are group conscious, but do not realize it, what it is that seems to make them so different from most of the people they hang out with. The insight is that over the last 90 years or so many, many of us reincarnated already relatively group conscious. We used to think we were just weird, as most of those around us said, but then that is how group conscious people would appear to self-conscious people.

As more and more people who are relatively group conscious begin to examine these relatively old ideas with their ability to see past the present Piscean forms and into the livingness of things, whole new understandings will emerge. And, this phenomenon will be true not just for these three concepts but for all of the ideas and concepts that we have been using to guide our lives and build our cultures and civilizations during the last 2500 years.

Most of the extant discourse on ideas was generated from the point of view of the self-conscious mind which, by its nature, sees things in materialistic and separative terms. Perhaps the best example of this that we have at this time is what has been done to the concept of "The New World Order." So far, we have seen scenarios that simply perpetuate the old world order by extrapolating it into the future. The old world order is based upon the identification with form and, consequently, our unavoidable mortality. This, in turn, enhances the illusion of separation and the inadequacy of resources, and results in the creation and manifestation of the systems of separation and exclusivity which characterize our present Piscean civilizations and cultures.

The real "New World Order," when it gets here, will be one that grows out of a new understanding of our essential divinity, our brotherhood and the fact of abundance. "Behold," the Guy said, "I make all things new." As, in the next few generations, we begin to focus the power of the burgeoning group conscious mind on these not old but ageless ideas, we will really begin to understand what that ancient statement, "Behold, I make all things new," means.

I would like to share with you just a few very early insights into one or two of these ideas, asking you to keep in mind that we are a long way from seeing the true significance of the coming Age of Aquarius.

First, money. A major concern that is prominent just now is how humanity has been using the energy known as money. The kind of hoarding and exclusivity which are powerful indicators of the decaying and progressively psychotic condition of the system and which have plugged up the world energy flow ... sort of like blockages in the arteries which, on a world scale, is a planetary heart attack waiting to happen ... is a result or effect of separative self-consciousness. Under the growing light of the group conscious mind, this sort of hoarding already seems ridiculous, if not suicidal. It will be a matter of great wonder a few hundred years from now that the savages of the Piscean era did these things.

As the light of group consciousness reveals ever more clearly our shared essential divinity, we will see ourselves more and more as custodians of resources rather than owners of property … users and participants in the world energy flow rather than separated and cut-off owners of a piece of the pie. This sense of livingness will naturally give rise to right sharing and the uplifting of all peoples onto levels of abundance which the present separative vision makes us unable to even see.

This is not pie in the sky, friends. It is clear thinking. These ideas will act like a roto-rooter and, in a few generations, the system will be well on the way to correcting itself; that is, if the disciples of the time have the courage, the heart and the magic to embody the necessary developments.

Next … (surprise!) … is etheric vision. We already have, as has been pointed out, the physical ability to see etherically. So, it seems clear to me that etheric vision is a natural aspect of group consciousness. How could a self-conscious person have etheric vision? He would deny what his eyes were telling him. I think that this process of denial has been going on for some time now. Because of pressures brought to bear on the group conscious baby or young child to doubt what he or she sees, knows, feels, experiences, many are talked out of this faculty. Only the most advanced would be able to withstand that pressure, and those would probably keep what they see well hidden.

However, I think that those who are in the forefront of the effort to embody these new ideas in form will receive a large lift from the gradual, but accelerating, appearance of etheric vision. This new visioning power will supply the "physical proofs" for our shared essential divinity, our brotherhood with all living beings and the fact of the inexhaustible supply of life or energy. This will, in turn, hasten the implementation of right sharing, causing the necessary changes in the financial systems as well as in the other major systems.

It is always good to remember that anything, no matter how lofty or profound, that we can say about these ideas is only relatively accurate. These ideas are aspects of the One Truth, which will forever be greater than any human summation of it. So, with that in mind, I would like to leave you with a few observations regarding what I think is the essential essential, and that is the archetypal concept of Essential Divinity. Essential Divinity, by the way, is one of the three Principles and three Laws that D.K. has identified as "those laws and principles which will control the coming era, the new civilization and the future world culture." (Disciples in the New Age, Volume II, p236.)

As we all know, the concept of Essential Divinity holds that divinity or Life invests all of creation. We have the who-knows-how-old comment, "Having pervaded the entire universe with a fragment of my self, I remain." Among the key things that this concept postulates is that there is no "chosen" kingdom or species or group. There is no group that is any closer to divinity or better or more deserving of God’s attention than any other. Assuming that such a situation of special privilege could exist is an example of how the Great Illusion of materialism and self-conscious form identification warps truth.

It is not quite enough, however, to just know about Essential Divinity. Like all of the principles of living, Essential Divinity is something we must realize. We know it’s there; we need to step aside and let it happen. Recognize it. See it. Recognition of Essential Divinity is, of course, the key to identification with others. Recognition of our identical at-one-ness with others is not a condition that has to be built; it is an existing fact one needs to realize. Identification, fusion, synthesis … these are not things that one does, these are conditions of reality one realizes.

There are, as we have been told, "no other selves. There is only the Self." There are, however, other forms, trillions of other forms, but no other selves. There is only the One Self. Identification is not with other forms; it is with this Essential Divinity which appears, if it does appear, as the light within the light we know we are. To blot out all form is to see only the light, only the One Self.

So, finally, friends, we can observe that, as the miracle of the realization our shared essential divinity continues to break on our consciousness and on the consciousness of our brothers and sisters, so will the Hierarchy externalize and the Christ in us reappear.