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In this Treatise with which we are now engaged, our primary aim is to point out the effect upon the Soul of the experiences undergone in the bodies, and the process whereby the consciousness aspect of divinity is expanded, culminating as it does in what is technically called an initiation. Each of the two major divisions of this process—involution and evolution—could be divided into six definite expansions of consciousness. Those upon the upward arc differ from those upon the downward arc in objective and motive and in scope, and are essentially sublimations of the lower aspects of the unfoldment of consciousness.
These six stages might be called:
Each stage, when at its height of expression, involves a period of crisis. This crisis precedes the unfoldment of the next stage in the conscious awakening of man. We here are viewing Man as a conscious thinker, and not man as a member of the fourth kingdom in nature. Ponder upon this distinction, for it marks the points of emphasis and the focus of the identification.
In the first stage of appropriation, we have the Soul or the conscious thinker (the divine son of God, or Manasaputra) doing three things:
demand for existence.
The second stage of aspiration concerns the aspiration or the desire of the Soul to appear, and brings the consciousness down on to what we call the Astral plane. The inclination of the Soul is towards that which is material. We must not forget this fact. We have been apt to regard aspiration as the consummation or the transmutation of desire. However, in the last analysis, it might be said that aspiration is the basis or root of all desire and that we have only used the word "desire" to signify aspiration which has a natural object in the consciousness of man, confining the word "aspiration" to that transmuted desire which makes the Soul the fixed objective in the life of the man in incarnation. But all phases of desire are essentially forms of aspiration and, on the involutionary arc, aspiration shows itself as the desire of the Soul to experience in consciousness those processes which will make it conscious and dynamic in the world of human affairs.
When this conscious realisation is established and the Soul has appropriated a form upon the Mental plane through the will to exist, and one also upon the Astral plane through aspiration, then the third stage of approach takes place upon Etheric levels. The consciousness becomes focused there, preparatory to the intense crisis of "appearing", and there takes place what might be regarded as a ranging or a gathering of all the forces of the consciousness in order to force the issue and thus emerge into manifestation. This is a vital moment in consciousness; it is a period of vital preparation for a great Spiritual event—the coming into incarnation of a son of God. This involves the taking of a dense physical body which will act either as a complete prison for the Soul or as a "form for revelation", as it has been called, in the cases of those advanced men whom we regard as the revealed sons of God.
Then, when the gathering of forces during the stage of approach is consummated, the fourth stage takes place, that of appearance, and the man emerges into the light of day and runs his little cycle upon the Physical plane, developing increased sensitivity in consciousness, through the medium of experience gained through the processes of life in a physical body. After appearing in form, he becomes (with each new appearance) increasingly active and alive and awake, and the stage of activity grows in intensity until the consciousness of the man is swept by ambition. The two final stages of activity and of ambition are those covered by the ordinary man and dealt with by the ordinary psychologist.
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