Quest Universal I
Dark Half of the Year (2015) paper
Gabrielle Herbertson
CHRIST: of the Heavens, the Human, & the Heart
OUTLINE OF CONTENTS
I. WHO IS THE CHRIST?
A. macrocosmic and microcosmic
B. in the context of avatars, saviors, revealers
II. CONTACT
A. individual
B. group
III. WHO WAS THE CHRIST?
IV. WHO IS HE TODAY?
V. ACHIEVEMENT
A. Christ and Jesus
B. Christ's contribution
C. Lord Buddha and Lord Christ
VI. CHRIST SYMBOLIC
A. initiations interpreted
B. the symbol of the cross
C. names
D. astrological symbology continued
VII. THE WILL
VIII. CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS
IX. REAPPEARANCE
X. AND NOW
*note on form: In deciding on capitalizations for words of a sacred nature in this paper, I have followed the lead of The Tibetan and Alice Bailey in the books upon which my research is based. Thus words often capitalized in other works to set them apart from ordinary speech, here may not be; and in some cases, the reverse is true. I have aimed for consistency, but not held it rigidly, as differing contexts of the same word seemed to call for different treatment, both in my sources and in my own mind.
CHRIST: of the Heavens, the Human, & the Heart
Who is the Christ? He is not the figure hanging on the cross. He is the holy fire from the City of God. He is not the man of sorrows who suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane. He is the universal spirit manifest in human form to bring love and light to earth. Christ is not the being that belongs to the orthodox church. He is the spirit flowing through all true religions. He is not the figure of the ancient past, for he is the spirit of the New Age and is present now among us. He is the Word of God made manifest in human form. He is the fire within my heart. He is the magnetic presence. In him I live, move, and have my being.
-Herman Rednick
May 29, 1997
Taos NM
Who are you, being of my heart, in whom my heart is a cell? Shepherd, blaze of fire, dove, lion, star? Where have you come from and where are you going, and what place has little darkling hopeful earth in your plan and purpose? Whom do you serve, and how might a little one enter your service? What have you to do with me, with my soul, with my own origin and destination? Who can tell me these things? How can I speak with you, hear you, enter into the anteroom of your council?
I dwell on you, hold your image, serve in your name, and thus set my earth-star in the firmament of my four-fold realm. Will you send your star to mine, through the triangle of the heavens beyond my heaven?…and the link be made from lowest to highest and highest to lowest here in the middle earth…and the way be thrown open?
I seek you, I claim you as my soul, I implement your instruction as it has come down through the Man of Palestine, for the lamp he lit with you burns yet in the cathedral of love while those of stone crumble. I stand in your light pouring from the Holy City like the sun by day and the blue star by night. Show me who you are that I may see, and who I am that I may serve.
I labor toward you through the hall of learning, until your own hand closes the last book, and I look up into your face.
I. WHO IS THE CHRIST?
A. macrocosmic and microcosmic
The 2nd aspect of Deity, the Son of God, incarnate in form, is brought forth by the relation of the 1st and 3rd aspects, spirit and matter, Father and Mother. This interplay engenders the “psychological Entity,” which we call the Christ. The cosmic Christ demonstrated his perfection, (related to the human family) through the medium of the historical Christ. This psychological Entity can bring forth a quality within the human form which can “obliterate the forms” and eventually be regarded as “constituting all that is.” This truth of life, quality, and form—or appearance (the three aspects) is demonstrated to us in the story of Christ in Galilee, for as He said to those of His time, He was neither what He appeared to be (carpenter of Nazareth, son of Joseph), nor the Heavenly Father, but that bridge of their meeting, [Esoteric Psychology I 18] and thus our bridge—the quality of the love of God visible on earth, an expression of the 7 ray qualities and the 12 zodiacal stations, and, most important–and extraordinary–the pure principle of the ray of the Solar Logos himself, Love. Christ's purity was such that He was permitted to embody for us the cosmic principle of love, revealing for the first time the nature of the Heart of God. [Externalization of the Hierarchy 470]
Thus is the Christ of history the emblem of a cosmic principle, itself the sign of a cosmic relationship of the union of opposites, the fundamental pairs of opposites, the great dualities, as already noted: spirit/matter, life/form, Father/Mother. This relationship is, and produces, the manifested “son,” the cosmic Christ, “the conscious sentient universe.” The gospel story is its dramatic symbol–symbol as “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual reality” [Esoteric Psychology I 285]–and the historical Christ is the guarantee of its truth—the reality of “the spiritual basis of all that is, and ever shall be.”
From the meeting of light and dark, the invisible becomes visible, the light of the world, the Christ, stands forth, revealing, and out of the eons of impossibility, the possibility is lit up—of consciousness, and of our own knowing.
And for our part, we, the human disciples, are to develop the Christ consciousness and bring in the “rule or law of Christ”–love. As the disciple Paul wrote, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ…” (Philippians 2:5) This involves the recognition that the chitta, (or “mind-stuff” of the Sanskrit) of which our minds and mental bodies are a part, is also a part of the cosmic Christ, represented for us, as ordained, upon our planet, by the historical Christ. When, through walking the path of meditation and service, we come to know our own illumined minds, we will find ourselves initiated into the fact of the soul, the Christ principle within us. [Esoteric Psychology I 95]
…And through the revelation of the soul, the “mystery of the Ages” which it veils, will stand revealed. Here, at the end of the age, as writ in the scriptural prophecies the world over, that which was secret shall be opened, and death, as we understand it, be abolished by the actuality in our experience, of the soul, of ourselves as souls.
Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?“
-Messiah oratorio
(Corinthians 15:54-5)
Two thousand years ago, Christ displayed the divine powers as living potential in each human being, and now, further, what was a clarion call, truths enunciated amidst illusion, shall be realized as “facts in nature”–universal brotherhood, essential immortality. In this, the Christ of Palestine brought “not… peace, but a sword,” (Matthew 10:34) dividing by distinction the soul and body, yet in establishing the soul as our locus of identity, “its expression, the body” comes into its right place, and wholeness emerges.
O Christ, Divine Avatar,
inspire us to know thy truth and life.
May we be conscious of your presence within our hearts.
We are become one with your spirit.
Help me to transform by nature,
for this is the purpose for which I came upon this planet.
May thy fire guide me every moment
and help me to bless everyone I meet.
-Herman Rednick
April 3, 1971
Taos NM
B. in the context of avatars, saviors, revealers
Christ brought one of the Divine attributes—Love—to the earth plane. Situating this act in its larger context, we are told there are three groups of attributes of Deity: 1) the “expressing attributes,” those steadily emerging and of which we are becoming conscious; 2) the “presented attributes,” those which have presented themselves to advanced consciousness but are not yet capable of comprehension by average humanity, brought forward by those living as souls; and 3) the “undefined attributes,” those of which we have no conception….Love is a “presented attribute,” and it required an Avatar of the stature of the Christ to present its significance to the Human Kingdom and two thousand years for even the most incipient knowledge of it to step into view on the world stage. [Esoteric Psychology II 397]
Revealers of emerging divine attributes like the Christ (or Buddha, or Plato) differ from other avatars, for they constitute focal points through which a new presented attribute “can emerge as a thoughtform” and impact the minds of humanity's thinkers. These Avatars are ”possessed by the attribute,” anchoring it in human consciousness. Perhaps it could be said that the divine attribute is not only what such Avatars bring, but what they are….Then commences a long span of time of development wherein the presented attribute becomes the expressed attribute. [EP II 399]
“Christ was the first of our earth humanity to achieve individualization…” (the third initiation, the fusion of personality and soul [Rays and Initiations 385]). The rapidity of His evolutionary unfoldment was “totally unparalleled.” [Esoteric Psychology II 210] Two thousand years ago, He embodied not only a planetary level of love, but a cosmic principle; he was the first fruit of the human family, the “perfect man,” and “eldest in a great family of brothers.” [R and I 91] Although the Buddha had attained that point in an earlier period before the planetary life of earth, conditions for the initiation were not available then and He took it with the Christ.
He is called the Christ in the West, the Bodhisattva and the Lord Maitreya in the East, the Imam Mahdi looked for by the Muslim. Since 600 BC, He has guided the spiritual destinies of men. The Lord of Love, as His brother the Buddha was the Lord of Wisdom, the energy of the 2nd aspect and 2nd ray pours from the heart of the Planetary Logos, through the heart of Sanat Kumara, to and through Him. “He works by means of a meditation centered within the heart.” The Master of the Masters and the Teacher of Angels and Men, He energizes the indwelling consciousness within the form, so that eventually it can return to its source. Ever since He left, at the Resurrection and Ascension two thousand years ago, he has remained with us in a body of etheric physical form in the Himalayas, working with His two brothers, the Manu and the Mahachohan. The light He pours forth stimulates every seeker's desire, galvanizes the spark of life within, drawing all unto Himself, until each one stands face to face with Him as the Initiator of the Mysteries. [Initiation Human and Solar 3-4]
He is the head of the Spiritual Hierarchy of our planet, made up of disciples of all faiths whose purpose is the love of God and of humanity. [Reappearance of the Christ 60]
Disciples and spiritual men and women have loved and followed Him for three thousand years–through His coming as Sri Krishna and as another earlier, as well as through His disciple the Master Jesus. [Externalization of the Hierarchy 557] He is universal and His work and love apply universally; the requirements are love of one's neighbor, a disciplined life, recognition of the divine spirit in all beings and paths, and a daily life characterized by outpouring love. [558]
There are many roads leading to the City of God. Each one was created by the Masters of Wisdom to fit a race of people at a certain state of growth. Your soul has chosen your path. As we rise to the higher worlds, there is no “I” or “thou” on different roads. All people are moving to the point of light we call God. Through intensified love we become one with the risen Christ, and with compassion like a flame, we serve as we rise to the City of God.
-Herman Rednick
September 9, 1978
II. CONTACT
The Christ is not a single figure. He is much larger than the form of man. He has a great aura that is filled with a thousand angels and with his close disciples. Around the Christ is a gold light with rays in all directions. He is here and everywhere. He responds to every sincere call. He is a projection of Sanat Kumara, and, with the seven spirits before his throne he is enfolded by the Cosmic Christ. Through your union with the Cosmic Christ, it is your home for a million years.
The Christ lives within my heart.
-Herman Rednick
A. individual
When a disciple reaches out to the Christ, she may in truth be becoming aware of the influence of her own soul, that inner quality and beingness we call Christ consciousness, or the orientation toward love of beings we call the Christ spirit. But there is also a time when, by “contact with the Christ,” may be indicated something else–an earned and purposeful experience of entering the field of this Being…“the Christ himself, as a living individual, attentive to the reaction of disciples who possess sufficient strength of purpose, clarity of intention, and dedication to enable them to touch the periphery of his aura (…'the hem of his garment').” At a particular stage of training, we “must” make this attempt–attended by its own troubles of overstimulation and glamour, yet through vigilance, an awareness of “the individual aura of the Christ” is [gloriously] available to us. [Discipleship in the New Age II 587]
It is said that each day He pours out blessing to the world, “standing under the great pine in His garden at the sunset hour with hands uplifted in blessing over all those who truly and earnestly seek to aspire.” All seekers are known to Him, though they be unaware of Him. [Initiation Human and Solar 44]
And if one be aware, thus is aspiration fulfilled into experience.
B. group
It is increasingly in group formation that contact is possible with “certain greater Lives and Forces of Light, such as the Christ and the Buddha.” Just as individuals make contact with their own souls, “through meditation, discipline, and service,” so do men and women already soul-oriented, form a group of souls and through alignment with each other, in “aggregated aspiration, consecration, and intelligent devotion,” find themselves carried to greater heights…[Esoteric Psychology II 112]
And we walk toward the Christ as we walk the path of probation and discipleship, for it is He before whom we stand as initiates for the first and second initiations.
At the third initiation, Christ speaks a word of power, and His protective aura is required (plus our own Master's and another of 5th or 4th degree) before the star of the One Initiator can shine forth. Christ stands behind, and the other two on either side. At further initiations, the Angel of the Presence is Christ Himself. Through His heart passes the power of the One Initiator, stepped down, so the disciple can absorb it. [Rays and Initiations 175]
III. WHO WAS THE CHRIST?
In the past we talked about the Christ, his teaching and healing. We will now look at the Christ because we need a clear image as he is today:
His physical body is transmuted so that every cell is radiating light. All his centers are glowing with prismatic color and power. His heart is like the sun, and his mind is filled with a holy intensity. Out of his heart and eyes there flood waves of compassion to everyone. Every activity in the world is touched. Groups all over the world are focal points for the Christ light. We are related and interwoven with all those on the same path.
The Christ love flows through my heart.
-Herman Rednick
July 16, 1972
Who was the Christ, as humanity in its masses knew Him—or failed to know Him–2000 years ago, and as His legacy—both tragic and hopeful, yet withal, unfinished—has presented Him to men and women today?
Since the middle of the Atlantean period…“selfishness has been the motive and self-interest the dominant factor” in the human psyche. Part of the Christ's work was to offset this tendency, through example and through the teaching of unselfishness. And though a leaning toward martyrdom was one result, the reorientation was successful and a new note was seated– “the instinct for service.” [Treatise on White Magic 259] Such was the urgency of need for relief from the individual desire nature, that Christ advised–with its own urgency–a seeking of one's neighbor's good above one's own, of service, sacrifice, self-forgetfulness, and love of all beings. Thus could the deeper demands of the human race itself gain a hearing in the hearts of its members. [Esoteric Psychology II 155]
And thus was the Law of Service first fully expressed by Christ, not only for the Piscean Age, but as a forerunner of the Aquarian, embodying the “living water,” for which men thirst. [EP II 119]
Yet the legacy of the churches as carriers of Christ's message, has failed. The “Master of all Masters and the Teacher alike of angels and men” and His path—both marked by a revelatory simplicity and purity—have been occluded in fogs of theology, materialistic emphasis on physical structures and baroque hierarchies, and an alienating interpretation of the gospel story: an unnatural birth, a blood sacrifice on the cross, the “vicarious atonement” rather than confidence in our own divinity, a departure to distant pomp “at the right hand of God,” Christian interference required as a “corrective” for other spiritual approaches, and, as characterizing emblem of His path, a dead Christ. [Externalization of the Hierarchy 403-4]
And yet again, in its essence, the gospel story stands eternally true, and only needs re-interpreting to take its place in the continuity of revelation. [Reappearance of the Christ 64]
These things shall come, and are coming. His first message landed on immature ears, but under the subsequent outpouring stream of his livingness, the “ears to hear” are surely emerging in those who are listening now.
IV. WHO IS HE TODAY?
Living Christ
The concept of the Christ has been distorted through the ages, by the preachers and the images created by the artists. He is shown bleeding and hanging on the cross of lying in a sarcophagus, with his disciples weeping over him. This does not give you a true reality of the living Christ. He is in a transmuted body of radiant love and power. His great love is a spiritual sun, radiating his prismatic light to the earth. With his angelic groups of millions of angels, he is everywhere present. Through love, we are disciples of the Christ, living in his spiritual body.
Through love I become one with the radiant living Christ.
-Herman Rednick
August 15, 1976
Do we not know—the “church of Christ” is all who love their fellow men, and who are seeking the light? [Reappearance of the Christ 65] And where is He to be found? Working through His disciples, through the Masters, through those toiling unseen. His “church” is the human heart, and the congregations of folk at every byway of the world. [65]
Christ's task today is triple:
*He “tends the evocation of the fire,” meaning the electric fire of Shamballa, or the divine Will. This task was begun in the crisis and triumph in the Garden of Gethsemane.
*He “nourishes the lesser lives,” and “tends the little ones,” meaning those taking the first and second initiations, at which He presides. In this function He fulfills His role as the world Teacher.
*He “keeps the wheel revolving,” meaning the wheel of rebirth, circling into and then out of the prison of incarnation, so human beings can learn the lessons needed and reach perfection. The incarnation process is controlled by the Christ in conjunction with the Manu and Mahachohan, and the four Lords of Karma. [Rays and Initiations 91-2]
The love of God through Christ establishes two group relationships—one, by means of love, between the Hierarchy and Humanity: “for the salvation of His people He comes forth,” and then stays with them as head of the Hierarchy; and the second, by means of wisdom, and representing both Humanity and the Hierarchy, relating them both to Shamballa. The complete alignment of the three centers requires the Buddha's help, and here, for the first time in Humanity's history, both these great Beings, these two great Brothers, are present on earth together, at the time of the Wesak. [Rays and Initiations 89]
V. ACHIEVEMENT
A Son of God Descended
Humanity was crying and reaching out to God for ages. The earth groaned. In the Holy City, where men are like gods, the call was heard. And a being of fire moved to the lower regions, and a son of god took on form. Christ walked upon the earth, a pure being of love and fire. And a new tone resounded around the earth. Those that had ears to hear turned toward the sun. And there began a new movement for humanity.
-Herman Rednick
Taos NM
Through the events of the life of the Christ, we see the signs of His accomplishment, and the demonstration of the path we must also take. And through the fact of His existence, walking like other men, yet not like, upon the plane of physical form, we experience the changed nature of the relation of the human family to the Kingdom of its true being.
A. Christ and Jesus
There are two paralleling histories running through the gospel story, and by the close unity of Christ and His disciple, the Master Jesus, the lesser world of discipleship benefitted by the achievement of the Greater One upon the way of the higher initiations.
Gethsemane marks the great passage of Christ. There, in the midnight Garden, dawned upon His “enlightened, purified, and divinely focused” consciousness, a vision which elicited his cry, Father, not my will, but Thine be done. It was an opening up of the emerging divine intention for humanity and the planet. He stood already in full understanding of the Plan, the goal of establishing the Kingdom of God on earth, the interplay between the Hierarchy and Humanity—the heart and throat centers of the Planetary Logos. From there, at the moment of total surrender to the necessary sacrifice of His life, suddenly a great expansion of consciousness “dawned on His soul (not on His mind…).” He saw further into the significance of Divinity, into the Divine idea as it existed in the mind of the “Father.” The worlds of phenomena and of meaning vanished, the energy of creative mind and of love—gone. And suddenly available, a new energy—that of life itself, of Will. Thus passed the Christ through the Gethsemane renunciation, and the high point of His attainment, a glimpse of the 6th initiation. And this spiritual crisis upon the octave of the Christ, enabled Jesus on his own level, overshadowed by his Master, to take the 4th initiation, the Crucifixion or Great Renunciation. [Rays and Initiations 290-1] Two great Disciples, each serving the one greater than he—for Jesus, Christ; for Christ, the Father in Heaven. [697]
Thus grew, through Christ and Jesus, closeness within the Hierarchy, and through Christ, between Hierarchy and Shamballa; Love, and Will. [R and I 523-4]
A “fusion of agonies” infused and bonded three kingdoms. The Master Jesus felt the agony of the human cry and renounced his own life to meet it, thus concluding the stages of the Lighted Way. The Christ knew the agony of yearning for the revelation that would equip Him as world savior, and of seeing its implications, thus entering the Way of the Higher Evolution, “going to the Father,” [R and I 523-4] and anchoring “the will of God in the matrix of love.” [527]
B. Christ's contribution
A Being from Sirius
Being of light from the holy city in Sirius, you are the perfect transmuted principle of man and woman into the image of God. You have overcome evil, and use all your energies to help humanity. Your radiance burns with fire and power. Your intense compassion is a divine reality upon the earth. You are the Christ, you are the light upon the earth.
-Herman Rednick
July 6, 1978
The Christ was the first of our planetary humanity to blaze the trail to the higher spheres of revelation, after the 4th initiation. [Rays and Initiations 523] He lifted the science of Invocation and Evocation to the mental plane, opened the door to the 3rd initiation, anchored the thread of the Father in the fabric of the Son, and pointed the way through the “needle's eye,” thence to the passage through the Pyramid (spiritual Triad—AAB) to Shamballa. He completed the work of the Buddha, adding to His elder Brother's note of wisdom, the fullness of love, thus manifesting the whole flower of love-wisdom. [524]
He built a completely finished antahkarana, carrying all the way through the relation of Humanity to the Hierarchy, and of the Hierarchy to Shamballa. By this, He aided the work of future disciples—of ourselves, in our treading of the Higher Way, far ahead. The “first thread of living substance” of intelligence, love, and will, from our earth humanity, he interwove with the planetary antahkarana, a secret of the 6th initiation. [R and I 528]
Christ rendered a universal service, enacting in His being, a unification that rent the veils of maya for all beings.
Three great sons of God, at the moment of initiation made tremendous contributions, rending the veil. The first rending was by Moses, in the 3rd aspect expression of the Law; the second, more important rending was by the power of the 2nd aspect through Christ, in the expression of Love; and a third, minor rending was by Paul, in a 1st aspect expression of synthesis. The second rending was effected when Christ subjected the Master Jesus to the 4th initiation and “their joint influence was triumphant over death.” Light was let in on to the second level of the etheric plane, and “a new type of illumination was spread abroad upon the earth.” [Rays and Initiations 192-3]
The glory and uniqueness of Christ's accomplishment is His bringing about a rending (for the first time) from “the top to the bottom,” spoken of in the gospel story of the temple curtain. This was possible because He stood outside the aura of the human family as world savior. [R and I 196]
The great planetary achievement of Christ was named by Paul: He made “in himself of twain one new man, so making peace,” [Esoteric Psychology II 448] and in Christ's own words, I and the Father are one. [Discipleship in the New Age II 468]
C. Lord Buddha and Lord Christ
Although the Christ was the first of our earth humanity to achieve the soul fusion noted as the 3rd initiation, the Buddha had attained this point much earlier, and the initiation itself, they took together, standing before the One Initiator, the Lord of the World, in a 4th Ray ashram. [Rays and Initiations 385]
These stupendous beings embodied cosmic principles, the effect of which was the stimulation in humanity of intelligence into wisdom, in the case of Lord Buddha, and of emotion into love, in the case of the Christ. [Externalization of the Hierarchy 411]
There is a legend in the East that when His purpose had been served in walking the earth, the Buddha left behind for His brother the Christ, “His vestures,” the sum of His emotional-intuitive nature, the astral and mental bodies, for the aid of Christ's mission in his turn. [Reappearance of the Christ 100]
Buddha, Lord of Light, appeared as a point of light in the world of glamour, the astral plane of the emotions, and focused in Himself the illumination eventually making possible the dissipation of glamour. Five hundred years later, Christ, Lord of Love, appeared in the world of the mental plane, embodying the attractive will of God, dispelling illusion by the potency of Love, drawing to Himself the hearts of men. Their work must now be carried forward by a wise humanity, in response to the coming revelation following upon Their joined efforts. [Glamour, a World Problem 166-7] Even now, year upon year at the high point of invocation and evocation, the Wesak, these two unite in a fused purpose to bring to earth a blessing far beyond it….
At that supreme hour, the Christ focuses in Himself the outreaching spiritual aspirations of humanity, while the Buddha focuses in Himself the forces downpouring–the entire planet thus aligned in extraordinary potential. [Esoteric Psychology II 114]
VI. CHRIST SYMBOLIC
As the Cosmic Christ, the God incarnated in the Solar System, and as the Being of that office, who worked through Jesus to embody the cosmic principle of Love on our planet, so are we, by descending reflection and by dint of our souls, human beings expressing the Christ in incarnation. His planetary movements in His own sphere, shown forth in history, leave a trail in symbols in the world of meaning, a marked and lighted way from immersion in form where we “come to ourselves” and begin the return home. If we have eyes to see and ears to hear, He is teaching us even now, story by story, layer by hidden layer revealed.
The sacrifice of a world savior is an emblematic act. The same deep story is inflected as the Word incarnated through a planet, as the Solar Angels who are the Word incarnate through a human form, as the Christ enacting this sacred drama to present as a teaching the symbolism of death and sacrifice, or as the Buddha demonstrating the sacrifice and death of personal desire. “The theme remains the same—the death of that which is lower in order to release that which is higher, or—on a larger scale—the death of that which is higher…in order to release that which is lower.” [Esoteric Psychology II 94]
A. initiations interpreted
The initiations of the Christ as He overshadowed his disciple Jesus demonstrated mastery and process, reverberate through the grades of the cosmic physical plane, and prefigure, instruct, and guarantee our own necessary path–disclosed in the language of symbols, those visible outer signs of an inner reality.
In the Master DK's writings, across his many books, sometimes it is unclear to me in which cases it is the Christ and in which cases Jesus who is passing through a particular signal experience or initiation; or whether this extraordinary method of anchoring the 2nd aspect of Deity produces a combined experience of Christ and Jesus, Chohan and Master; or when DK's situational intent or context, e.g., writing to specific students in Discipleship in the New Age, produces a changing emphasis that appears as inconsistency or contradiction. Even with this uncertainty, the overall thrust of meaning remains coherent, and I report as I have read, of some of the initiations taken in that destined incarnation for the Picsean age of Jesus the Christ:
The Great Renunciation or Crucifixion
Though that union of beings, Jesus and the Christ, hung upon the cross, it was the Master Jesus who passed through the crucifixion, the 4th initiation.
Through the “blood of the heart,” He made the renunciation [Rays and Initiations 697] and overcame the “final hindrances offered by His perfected personality” in its four aspects—dense physical, etheric, emotional, and lower mental, the Lower Quaternary. [354] He knew the outer darkness where He hung, “symbolically pendant 'twixt heaven and earth.” [Esoteric Psychology II 173]
The experience of the tomb ended the hold of matter on spirit, and He passed into the Hierarchy to take up the destiny of the Christian Church. [Rays and Initiations 354]
The crucifixion and death of Christ was the revelation to initiates for the succeeding two thousand years of the “dissolution of the intermediary,” the transmutation of the “trinity of manifestation” into the “duality of purpose.” [Discipleship in the New Age II 258]
When He chanted the occult mantram My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? He spoke not of the personality, but of the “middle principle,” the soul. [Discipleship II 258-9] …I wonder if it might also have been, among the actors in this Passion, the lifting off of Christ from Jesus, and that bereftness, prompting the mantric cry.
The symbol continues in the tearing and partitioning of His “robe of glory” by the Roman soldiers. Christ projected into the world consciousness, the direct relation to the Monad, the Father. Also symbolizing the opening of an unimpeded channel, was the veil of the Temple “rent in twain from the top to the bottom,” this made possible by the Avatar in cooperation with the Master Jesus, and the evolutionary stage of humanity. [Discipleship II 405]
All lesser renunciations of the lower nature prepare for and symbolize the final dissolution of the causal body, here at the 4th initiation. And the accomplishment of the crucifixion makes way for the fused personality-soul's resurrection into the Monad, then carried to “solar perfection at the ascension.” [Discipleship II 259]
We too take up the cross of the personality and follow Him to this initiation in our own time, the “climaxing gesture of ages of small renunciations.” [Rays and Initiations 697] For Him, the antahkarana had been completed from the brain and mind to the Spiritual Triad, the soul-infused personality in direct relation with the Monad. And the recognition came upon Him, as it shall upon us, “sudden and appalling,” that the beautiful and seemingly eternal source of His life, the soul body, is no longer needed. Must be relinquished. [695] Each one who comes to this tremendous experience of seeing, of bereftness, and of magnetic capacity, cries out with Christ, from one side, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? and from the other, I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.
The Resurrection
While Jesus knew the tomb, the 4th great passage, Christ in His parallel arc, passed through the 7th initiation, the Resurrection, and returned, by rising, to His original state of existence “to which we have given the name Shamballa.” As the prodigal son of His parable went out and came back, so did He enact and guarantee the divine cosmic drama, with its turning point: I will arise and go to my Father. [Rays and Initiations 730]
B. the symbol of the cross
The Symbol of the Cross
From the Mysteries came the symbol of the cross. It represents the focused will of God in man. It is the sacrifice of the self so that the body becomes a channel for the Christ. One does not work for self because there is no self. It has been crucified in the pain and blood of the heart. The disciple becomes a radiant focal point on earth. When he reaches the City of God, he can look back and see that he has risen out of illusion, and that every experience was a purification, a test of will and love.
I follow the Christ path.
-Herman Rednick
November 9, 1980
The symbol—and reality—of the cross is rich with grades of meaning, vis a vis the cosmic Christ, the life of the historical Christ, and as concerns our own Christ principle within.
The three crosses known to esoteric astrology are eloquent of the tasks and triumphs of a Christ—cosmic, historical, and psychological: the Mutable, “the cross of the Personality or changing form;” the Fixed, “the cross of the Disciple or the eternal soul;” and the Cardinal, “the Cross of the Spirit .”…bringing, respectively, the crises of Incarnation, Reorientation, and Initiation. [Esoteric Astrology 84] The theme of all three crosses….is “fusion and integration” of the personality into a whole; of the personality with the soul; and of this unit with the Monad and of all three into a blending, finally fully expressing “simultaneously in time and space….the vertical and the horizontal life.” [563]
All three crosses functioning at once in the life of Jesus the Christ, is “a thing hitherto unknown in the perfection which He displayed–…of perfect responsiveness and perfect demonstration of result…a manifestation and an example of the fusing of the 12 [zodiacal] energies in the divine Personality (expressing Individuality) on the physical plane…as it is intended eventually to express itself through humanity on this planet.” [EA 565]
Examining the signs of the Mutable cross, we find:
the Gemini aspect shown in the perfect fusion of the human and divine in Him;
the Virgo aspect shown in his twelfth year by his words Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? subordinating the form life to the will of the indwelling Christ– with the descent at the Baptism crowning the process;
the Sagittarius one-pointedness shown by His decisive words, in full knowledge of the imminent sacrifice, I must go up to Jerusalem, and then “set[ting] his face” and treading the path of the savior…
and the Pisces aspect shown in his sensitivity to unbroken contact with his “Father in Heaven,” the Monad. [Esoteric Astrology 564]
The Fixed Cross and its four aspects are shown thus:
Taurus: Christ said, “I am the light of the world,” as have spoken all Sons of God who know the teaching of the Fixed Cross. His words, “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light,” indicate the eye of illumination of Taurus.
Leo's self-conscious identity is shown in His saying What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?–his center of self-consciousness. [EA 565]
Scorpio's presence is shown in the legend that in the cradle, the infant Christ strangled two serpents, demonstrating that the pairs of opposites could no longer control Him.
Aquarius's note is sounded at and approaching the Last Supper, when the disciples are sent to find a “man bearing a pitcher of water,” the water of life for all, and sharing of the communion, as well as in his statement, I am the water of life.
Christ demonstrated perfection through these 4 signs of the Fixed Cross. [566]
The presence of the Cardinal Cross in Christ's life is implied:
Aries, in its energy of beginnings, is suggested by the inception of the “age of love,” bringing about the world cleavage of the present time.
Cancer's influence appears, related to His comment, Other sheep I have which are not of this fold… meaning those of the mass consciousness, as distinct from the initiate consciousness of his disciples.
Libra's balancing energy is in evidence in Christ's standing between the old world and the new, between East and West, producing a “crisis of equilibrium” in the human kingdom.
Capricorn's attendance is starkly clear at the crisis of the death of the form–his triumph over death and resurrection into life. [EA 567]
The Fixed Cross of the cosmic and historical Christ holds a particular imperative for us. The disciple and white magician recognizes the cross in the heavens upon which the cosmic Christ is crucified, and knows that he too, as a cell in the body of that Great Being, is also crucified there, and must be able to pronounce the inner meaning of each arm of the fixed cross:
Taurus: I seek illumination and am myself the light.
Leo: I know myself to be the one. I rule by Law.
Scorpio: Illusion cannot hold me. I am the bird that flies in utter freedom.
Aquarius: I am the server, and I the dispenser of living water. [Treatise on White Magic 548]
The three crosses on Golgotha symbolize more than one triplicity, according to the Tibetan:
In Esoteric Astrology [568], the three heavenly crosses under discussion, represent progressively:
Mutable unrepentant thief Humanity
Fixed repentant thief Hierarchy
Cardinal cross of Christ,
[as the Will of the Father] Shamballa
In another iteration, from Rays and Initiations [356], they are interpreted thus:
unrepentant thief the unregenerate man
repentant thief the struggling aspirant
Christ in center the Hierarchy, and all who have become liberated through the human experience
C. names
A name carries a vibration, and some of the given names of the Avatar, the Christ, indicate facets of the countless-sided jewel of Him whose true name and full nature are surely beyond the imagination of any on earth.
He is called Neptune:
“In this world period, as far as the race (Aryan) to which the Western world belongs, Neptune is known esoterically as the Initiator. In certain ancient formulas, the great Teacher of the West and the present world Initiator, Christ, is spoken of as Neptune, Who rules the ocean, Whose trident and astrological symbol signifies the trinity in manifestation and Who is the ruler of the Piscean Age…” [Esoteric Astrology 219-20]
Other names, four in number, by which “the Christ Avatar is ever called” are:
1. The Desire of All Nations Taurus Fixed Cross
2. He Whom the masses sense
or He Whom they anticipate Cancer Cardinal Cross
3. He Who is, for Her,
the purpose of existence Virgo Mutable Cross
4. He Who shows the light
and gives the water Aquarius Fixed Cross
These signs point to forms of consciousness, manifested by the energies of the signs. [EA 273]
Christ's work in the coming age—already upon us—will encompass two new functions, brought to life in these names:
By His physical presence He will be the Dispenser of the Water of Life, and through His overshadowing of those sensitive to His impression, He is the Nourisher of the Little Ones—those “babes in Christ” of the 1st and 2nd initiations, which He administers. [Reappearance of the Christ 83]
Also, in the coming era shall He be known as the Point within the Triangle, the great Triangle of force which stands behind Him: the Buddha bringing light, the Spirit of Peace bringing love, the Avatar of Synthesis bringing power. [82]
Yet another assignation, most curious, is the number eight, “which, we are told, is the number of the Christ,” and may relate to the centres, of which there are eight if the spleen is included, the petals of all numbering in multiples of eight, except the base of the spine which counts four—half of eight. The formation of the centres, appearing like petals, is actually like “a number of superimposed eights,” a progression of double circles. The centres bring the outer form of divinity into manifestation, and at the end of the evolutionary cycle, they will “bring into expression the soul force and life and produce the incarnation of a fully revealed son of God…” [Treatise on White Magic 596-7]
…Perhaps the Christ of today, flower that He is, is the multi-petaled seed of that fruit of divinity.
D. astrological symbology continued
In a grand astrological “three,” relating to the Christ, we have three sons of god expressing the keynote of each Cosmic decanate of our zodiac (these constellations being to the greater zodiac what planets are to the decanate of a sign).
Hercules Scorpio Strength through testing
Buddha Taurus Illumination through struggle
Christ Pisces Resurrection through sacrifice
These three compose a triangle in the initiation process, expressing strength, illumination, and love in full expression. [Esoteric Astrology 487]
Additional astrological resonances through the New Testament events include:
The transfiguration, represented by Venus in Capricorn, the Mount of Vision. “When love and mind and will meet in the person of the Christ, 'He was transfigured' before all men.”
He “went up to Jerusalem,” the place of death, as well as the city of peace, “Jerusalem” speaking of Pisces.
Significant of Aquarius, as mentioned earlier, Christ directed His disciples toward a “man bearing a pitcher of water” and, continuing the Aquarian theme, introduced them in the “upper room” to union and unity through the symbolism of the communion. [Esoteric Astrology 167]
The cascade of symbols from the lexicon of astrology continues:
“Christ was born in Capricorn, fulfilled the law under Saturn, initiated the era of intelligent brotherhood under Venus and is the perfect example of the Capricorn initiate who becomes the world Server in Aquarius, and the world Savior in Pisces…”
He completes the zodiacal round as He does His life, pronouncing, It is finished. [EA 168]
Our own destiny as Humanity, the world disciple, displays and is impressed by the symbols appearing locally 2000 years ago, of One whose real nature is both more ancient and more prescient than any historical occurrence. Perhaps it could be said The Christ of the Heavens touches with fire the Christ of the earth, who touches with light the Christ of our hearts, who is to touch with love, all men.
Signs in the present of this universal language of Christ-activity:
*the initiative over the globe to return confiscated or privatized land to the people. Counterpart: Mother-Earth as the true Virgin Mary.
*the movement and migration of people, and more recently, the tremendous numbers of refugees of war, seeking sanctuary. Counterpart: the journey of Mary, Joseph, and the Infant, to Egypt.
*the long silence between the 1st and 2nd initiations, entered now by the many who have taken the birth initiation. Counterpart: the thirty years of Jesus, between birth and baptism, of which nothing is (publicly) said. [The Destiny of the Nations 150]
In the Aquarian Age, the (emotional) waters of the Piscean Age will be absorbed into the (spiritual) water pot carried on the shoulder (emblem of Aquarius), bringing to all the waters of life. [Destiny 150]
“In the Aquarian Age, the Risen Christ is himself the Water-Carrier….meeting the need of the thirsty nations of the world….” This time He will “testify to the fact of the resurrection…” of the “immortality of the soul…” The emphasis during the past 2000 years has been on death….the emphasis in the Aquarian Age will be on life and freedom from the tomb of matter…..” [Destiny 150-1]
And the upper chamber of the Pentecost shall be our meeting place too, where we recognize the Risen Christ, know the soul flame of each other, and where all diversity of tongues is transparent to the spiritual language shared.
VII. THE WILL
Will is the fire in back of creation. Will is the fire that drives you to your goal. It is the cohesive force that holds creation together. It is the fiery serpent that rises up your spine. It is the force that compels nature and molds your environment. It is a two-edged sword mounted by a serpent. You can create or destroy through will. If you turn will to negative use, the serpent turns against you. It is also a key to the Mysteries. It takes discipline and wisdom to use will for a creative purpose.
I am a point of fire
held within the mind of God.
I am a lamp to those that seek.
I bring peace into dark places.
-Herman Rednick
Taos NM
Christ's incarnation was the seal of love. Its consummate expression in Him opened the way for a fuller introduction of the next destined unfoldment–of the Will of God.
While the Buddha demonstrated “the light of wisdom in relation to the light of substance”–the inherent potential in man, Christ's inflection as “the light of the world” demonstrated the light of the soul, releasing on earth the cosmic principle of love, and revealing that of which it is a part. “Love is an aspect of will…It is…the will to attract into itself, and this will, when exerted toward that which is not material we…call love.” [Esoteric Astrology 623]
The love He brought forth was an aspect of the will “functioning through the medium of the 2nd ray,” of love-wisdom. So powerful was it as to release love on the octave of cosmic principle.
Three aspects of the divine will through the 2nd ray can be seen:
1. The will-to-initiate or to condition–inaugurating the era of the Kingdom of God on earth, the fusion of the two centers–humanity and the Hierarchy. This will produce a race of human beings whose expression will be love-wisdom.
2. The will which brings fulfillment via the “driving force which enables the 2nd ray soul steadily to achieve its goal…”
3. The will which conquers death by its intense love of reality and of “that 'persistent One' who exists behind all phenomena.”
This is the “will-to-love.” [EA 624]
The 2nd ray knows itself as “the transcending will”– behind its cosmic, attracting love “lies a synthetic vision of divine Intention.” Here, a distinction between the Buddha and Christ has bearing: the Buddha revealed the [initiatory] process; the Christ embodied process and also goal–the revealing process and that which is revealed. [EA 625] He revealed the cosmic principle of love, and by its means, was that love.
The 2nd ray also knows itself as the “will which transfigures,” displayed by Christ when He emerged “before his startled disciples as Light Incarnate” and “was transfigured before them.” [626]
Returning to symbolic language (or, more explicitly symbolic), in Virgo comes the nurturing of the life of “that 2nd ray phenomenon, a Christ,” the fulfillment of matter's task and its lifting into heaven. [EA 627] In Pisces comes the completion of the work which the matter aspect made possible, the emergence of the Christ as a world savior. These two consummations proceed through the will aspect of the 2nd ray, focused in Shamballa, expressed through humanity, perfected in the Hierarchy. Here told is the story of unity, brought about by the life and will of the 2nd ray, giving rise to the Christ consciousness, and the Christ principle in objective appearance. [628]
The genius of Capricorn transports the Divine will in the service of Christ's mission:
It was the “angel born under Capricorn” which came to Christ in the Garden…and “fused His individual will into the divine Will,” equipping him to complete his work. For He came to reveal not only divine love in the world, but also, according to the legend in the Masters' Archives, He came:
to fabricate the gossamer thread which bound the two together and linked the place of the Most High (Shamballa) with the Holy City (the Hierarchy). The bridge between the Holy Place and Holy of Holies was securely anchored. The will of God could now be carried to fruition. [EA 633]
And, by Christ in us, the hope of glory is Humanity, “The Outer Court,” linked to the Holy Place. (~Colossians 1:27)
The Kingdom of this world is become
the Kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ…
-Messiah oratorio
(Revelation 11:15)
In Gethsemane, where Christ made His contact with the Shamballa force, the Will of the Father, and anchored that first thread of Will, He initiated a relationship which, observing humanity after 2000 years, is still “but a thin frail line of connecting energy.” The Shamballa force is for group use, and increasingly will be taken up. While love was the theme of the Christian teaching in its Piscean manifestation, Will, divinely expressed, will be the theme of the world religion to come in Aquarius. Yet even love, 2000 years notwithstanding, has never yet been truly expressed except by the Christ. [Esoteric Astrology 581-2 ]
Symbolic language again shows us—visible sign of an invisible truth—Christ's spoken recognition of the three aspects of the Shamballic life and energy as reported in Esoteric Astrology [582-3]:
1. as we see again, Wist ye not I must be about my Father's business? spoken to His mother–symbol of the substance aspect, allying Himself with the Monad or Father aspect.
2. Suffer it to be so now…to fulfill all righteousness, spoken to John at the Baptism, symbolic of the 2nd initiation and the conquest of desire, substituting the Divine will for any personal wish, and fulfilling “right human relations.”
3. and our familiar Father, not my will but Thine be done, merging the highest individual will with a divine will beyond human conception, the Will which finally conquers death.
“Desire works from and through the material form upwards; Will works downwards into form, bending form to divine purpose,”…the one invocative, the other evocative. [EA 583]
In Rays and Initiations [86], the energies of the Monadic force of Shamballa are noted symbolized in the life of Christ overshadowing Jesus, vis a vis these occasions:
The purificatory energy at the Baptism; the destroyer energy at the Crucifixion, shown in the complete rending of the veil of the Temple (permitting a fresh inflow of the Will [Esoteric Astrology 598]); and the energy of organization, in the Garden alignment and identification, relating the will of Christ to that of the Father.
A symbolic event occurred between the tomb death and Christ's appearance three days later “in living form,” when He “went down into hell” for the release of those there. Analogously, in our time, there is an interim between the darkness of the Great War and its extended aftermath, and the emergence of the new, living, spiritually founded civilization. [R and I 87] Watch and pray. Love and serve.
Yet again, in The Reappearance of the Christ [27-29], are the Monadic realizations of Christ observed, with their symbolic correspondences:
1. in the Temple of Solomon at the age of twelve, (later the twelve disciples will continue this symbol) the number of completion, recognition of his work as a world teacher,
2. setting his face “to go up to Jerusalem”, this name meaning “peace” and indicating the “centre where the will of God is known,” or “place of serene determination and of poised, quiescent will.”
3. the Gethsemane occasion of such significance, where his surrender opened vision into the Will as Life Itself, and opened the way to the higher initiations.
4. his words I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me, speaking of his “magnetic will,” related to the resurrection; and his last words recorded in the gospels, after the death, after the resurrection, spoken by the living Christ, Lo I am with you always even unto the end of the age, affirming his divine will, one with the Father's, to “continuously pervade the world of men with his overshadowing consciousness.”
For many, the Christ spirit is present in the heart. Out of that Christ consciousness the next human unfoldment grows, bringing to light the will of God. From goodwill, the soul, Christ consciousness of love, comes the will-to-good, the Spiritual Triad (three-fold expression of the Monad), recognition of the universality of life and its monadic inflow. Yet the two are one. [Discipleship in the New Age II 270]
VIII. CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS
Twice Born
It is written, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are new.” (II Corinthians 5:17)
When you are attuned to the Christ, a stream of vibration descends upon your body and mind. Transmutation takes place and the disciple is renewed by the spiritual fire. THe heart begins to glow and a new birth takes place. This is the spiritual birth, the twice-born. The account of this mystery is recorded in all the ancient literature. Man moves in a new world for he now related to society through love.
-Herman Rednick
August 3, 1975
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. So spoke the Christ, working through Jesus an age ago. This is the second birth, the birth of the Christ in the heart, the first initiation, or, as The Tibetan phrases it, “the initiate in you, the Christ in you,” [Discipleship in the New Age II 244] and, once again, as the initiate Paul described it, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The individual and his soul consummate their approach to each other with the “babe in Christ” born in the cave of the heart [Esoteric Psychology I 288] The Christ himself is the Initiator of these “little ones,” those taking the 1st and 2nd initiations [Reappearance of the Christ 83] of the threshold.
“The Christ is being born today in many a human being, and increasingly will the sons of God appear in their true nature,” and guide humanity in the New Age. [Esoteric Psychology I 292]
“…there have ever been individuals…who were linked consciously to their souls, and consequently linked to the Hierarchy [the Kingdom of God, or Souls] …and who expressed the Christ consciousness…this is loving understanding and intelligent, living service.” [Discipleship in the New Age II 407]
Today many in the human family are responding to the growing Christ consciousness…”it is awareness of the group, of the whole, of the universe…the energy of buddhi,” the plane of intuition and unity. [Esoteric Astrology 471]
The Christ-consciousness, the infusion of the soul, the 2nd aspect, the Christ-within, in its aggregate, invokes and becomes the true “Church” of Christ, the “Body of Christ” increasingly manifest on earth.
We shall see “the birth of the Christ” taking place in many lives, in those who have consciously brought together the two aspects of soul and body. These individual happenings in their mass will produce a resonant group emergence—of the Hierarchy, “the body of Christ,” on the physical plane. All that we see of anguish and travail ubiquitous about us, is the labor of that birthing. [Esoteric Psychology I 314](The astral plane is in turmoil, caused by the increasing descent of the Christ energy from the buddhic plane into the astral.) [Discipleship in the New Age II 749]
But who may abide the day of His coming?
And who shall stand when He appeareth?
For He is like a refiner's fire.
-Messiah oratorio
(Malachi 3:2)
For the individual also does this circumstance hold true, for each disciple attended by agonizing difficulty, from the symbolic union of Father-sprit and Mother-matter and the nurturing in long gestation of the nascent Christ Child, is giving birth “within the animal stable and in the manger of the world.” [Esoteric Psychology I 314]
Thus will the whole group (of all aspirants and disciples) accomplish, and, as if a forerunner, the way will be “made straight” for the Christ to again appear on earth, in the many this time, not only singly. “Yet each member of the group is a Christ in manifestation, and all together present the Christ to the world, and constitute a channel for the Christ force and life.” [EP I 314]
IX. REAPPEARANCE
Though I am Unborn, the Soul that passes not away, though I am the lord of beings, yet as lord over My nature I become manifest, through the magical power of the Soul. For whenever there is a withering of the Law…and an uprising of lawlessness on all sides, then I manifest Myself. For the salvation of the righteous, and the destruction of such as do evil; for the firm establishing of the Law I come to birth in age after age.
-Bhagavad Gita book IV
The Reappearance of the Christ
The world is being prepared for the reappearance of the Christ. The Holy City is descending and all people everywhere, are being stimulated. And the disciples of the Christ are being flooded by the holy fire. Every old form shall crumble before this holy descent.
And a new vibration and light shall cover the earth. And a tone of harmony shall sing from nation to nation. And the heart of everyone shall be filled with love. And there shall be no more hate, but the Holy One, the Christ, shall walk the earth again. And humanity shall know brotherhood. And the light shall return to all places of worship.
I prepare for the reappearance of the Christ through love and service.
-Herman Rednick
April 3, 1977
And so He shall come, is coming, comes.
In June 1945, at the full moon of Gemini, the Christ took up His responsibilities as the World Teacher of the Aquarian solar cycle—the first among the Avatars to span two zodiacal ages, the Piscean, and the Aquarian—continuing another 2500 years. [Reappearance of the Christ 82] In the Piscean Age He related Humanity to the Hierarchy; in the Aquarian, He relates [Hierarchy and] Humanity to Shamballa. [88] After His decision, the Spirit of Peace descended upon Him in overshadowing, the Christ-consciousness converged as a focal point in Him, creating a living bridge between the 4th and 5th Kingdoms (human personalities and souls, Humanity and Hierarchy), and the Avatar of Synthesis, that great Being of Will-potency and the energy of at-one-ment, allied with Him, to “keep His eye upon Him, His hand beneath Him and His heart in unison with His.” [77]
When Christ made clear His intention to reappear with His disciples, the permission of the Lord of the World came forth, for use of a word of power, a “stanza of direction,” [73] and under instruction from the Christ, The Great Invocation was given out by the Tibetan as aid in preparation, for both the Hierarchy and Humanity.
From the point of light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let light descend, let light descend on earth.
From the point of love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return, may Christ return to earth.
From the center where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men,
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.
From the center which we call the race of men
Let the plan of love and light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let light and love and power restore the plan on earth.
In this emergence, the Christ will embody in Himself, the “way of the mind” of His brother, the Buddha, the “way of the heart” of His own accomplished perfection, and added to them, the 3rd principle (in number, the 1st) of divine will [Reappearance of the Christ 94]…or, to say it differently, in His earlier coming He used the teaching aspect of the 2nd ray, and this time will employ the will aspect of love, or “the energy of Love in its dynamic or electric form.” [Discipleship in the New Age II 598]
And the moment His appearance is “an accomplished fact,” and right human relations begin definitely to condition earthly living, “the Buddha will pass to the work which awaits Him,” and proceed “to His own place,” in the solar Hierarchy.[Reappearance of the Christ 96] For a few decades longer He will aid the Christ in widening the channel between Shamballa, the Hierarchy, and Humanity, [Externalization of the Hierarchy 542] and then “His long alliance with the race of men” will be finished, His work with mankind to be taken up by another. [Reappearance 96]
Christ's coming in Palestine seated upon earth the divine principle of Love, and set in motion an impulse toward brotherhood and service–a true revolution of the heart. Yet it was also a tragedy of incompleteness, revealing to Him that humanity was not then ready for what He had to give–“not desperate enough” to relinquish old ways, that He Himself required a deeper relation–a oneness–with “the Father's House,” and that more trained and dedicated workers were needed to accomplish the shift in consciousness. [Reappearance 99]
These things stand ready. Surely this time, as He continues what He began, as He carries in Himself the fusion of the keynotes of the Piscean and the Aquarian Ages and the three great principles of deity–will, love, and radiant intelligence–He shall effect and see the true resurrection on earth–the emergence of humanity from the tomb of materialism. May He “see the travail of His soul and…be satisfied.” [Reappearance 101]
The Resurrection
It is written, “I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” (John 11:25)
One becomes alive when the spirit of the Christ floods you with love, thus breaking the hypnotic hold of the personality. Love is more than a sentiment or being kind to your neighbor. Love is the spiritual fire of transformation. Thus, you have deep gratitude for every experience.
Love is the power that opens the way to the Golden City Thus, one realizes that the greatest treasure on this earth, is to be aware of the Christ. You become a temple of love and light. This is the resurrection from the dead and freedom from the hypnotic hold of maya.
Through Christ I am transformed
from a mortal to a temple of light and love.
-Herman Rednick
April 10, 1977
Three modes shall His appearing assume:
1. overshadowing of all initiates and disciples, on the mental plane creating outposts of His consciousness in every nation through which to work.
2. outpouring of the Christ consciousness upon the masses, reorienting human desire and the astral plane, releasing goodwill of the heart and right relations everywhere.
3. physical appearance, anchoring Hierarchical energy, in a potent physical focal point somewhere on earth, constituting a “tiny heart center” through which the love of the Hierarchy can flow. [Rays and Initiations 615-19]
First will a “needed conflict” result, leading to a clarification, exhaustion of mental and emotional contention and “renunciation of obstructions.” And then a harmony [as the 4th ray resolves into the aura of its “master,” the 2nd ray] shall flower, aligning the heart of God with the hearts of men. [R and I 618]
The cascade proceeds thus:
From Shamballa's will-to-good which is essential love, to the planetary heart center, the Hierarchy, to the heart of the Hierarchy, Christ, to all initiates, disciples, and aspirants, to the hearts of goodwill among men, to the focal point on earth through which He will work. [620] This cooperative meditation makes a path of light, and along it, center by center, as the channel opens, He will come. [Discipleship in the New Age II 207] Has He set His face toward the new Jerusalem? Then let us finish with our deaths, rise as souls from our personalities, that it may be life, not death, that welcomes Him!
“Christ, His disciples, Masters of Wisdom, and the Great Companions are approaching the physical plane.” [Externalization of the Hierarchy 503] When “He whom both angels and men await” comes near manifestation, He brings with Him not only some of the Great Ones and Masters, but some of the Devas “who stand to the deva evolution as the Masters to the human…” Among them also is this a time of crisis. The call has gone forth for them to approach humanity and unite their higher vibration and knowledge with those of the Christ and His disciples for the furthering of the race, to the benefit of both evolutions. [Esoteric Psychology I 123] They will offer much about color and sound affecting the human etheric bodies. Physical ills and sickness will be offset. [Externalization of the Hierarchy 508]
One of the first acts of the reappearing Christ and the Hierarchy will be to erase the fear of death: incarnation and taking on form are the true place of darkness for the soul–and only temporarily. [Rays and Initiations 732]
The 6th initiation (Decision) “has a most peculiar application to the time of the reappearance of the Christ”–the Masters taking this initiation of choice among the seven paths of the Higher Evolution–postpone it briefly now to aid the Christ's work and the externalization of some of the Hierarchy's ashrams. They will also constitute a protective wall around the Christ, and act as a bridge between Him and the Avatar of Synthesis, [Rays and Initiations 655], that great Being so closely related to the Will aspect of divinity. [Reappearance of the Christ 77]
As certain of the members of the Hierarchy fit themselves for the “objective work of public expression,” they face the difficulty of contacting a lower vibration than they have any composing material to respond to. This which is “a necessary aspect of [our] normal expression” finds nothing in them of correspondence, and so can cause them pain. Thus the significance of the description of the Son of God as “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”(Isaiah 53:3) The Hierarchy is working to “create” the “needed responsive apparatus” to function with a minimum of difficulty and give full attention to the work to be done. [Externalization of the Hierarchy 530]
In another time, the early Atlantean period, the Hierarchy was physically present on earth. Later, under evolutionary law, they withdrew into subjective expression while humanity learned by experiment and experience, the way of Return. In the long interim, senior disciples have emerged into humanity when needed, and the World Teacher has come forth for each new civilization and age. But one by one, alone, have the sons of men found their way into the Hierarchy as Sons of God, until now, the relation between the “Kingdom of God on Earth and the Kingdom of God in Heaven” is such that the “Gates of Return” could be opened. [Discipleship in the New Age II 409] And they are opening.
New Age
It is written, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away…And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven… Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them…” (Revelation 21:1-3)
We are moving into a new age and the transmutation of the earth shall begin. The magnetic spiritual downpouring has begun. This has caused great disturbance everywhere.
The temples and the churches shall be filled with a holy atmosphere, and the White Initiates of Shamballa shall move among men. Those on the path of service with a heart of love shall come face to face with beings of radiant spiritual fire.
-Herman Rednick
June 13, 1976
When the energy of the light of all the rays can be expressed through the 7th ray, “the highest aspect of the divine light can penetrate down into the physical plane.” “Such a manifestation inevitably takes place in moments of planetary crisis, when the 7th ray is active and when the Sun is in Aquarius.”[Discipleship II 425] These conditions obtain. “The objective of this combination (which has occurred six times during the period of the fifth root-race) is to bring about illumination and the establishment of order upon the Earth.” [426]
Christ functions now upon the Atmic plane, of Spiritual Will. The invocation mounting from Humanity to that high place originates upon the plane of the emotions, invoking “the Desire of all Nations.” (Haggai 3:1) And the plans for His coming are being laid on its higher correspondence, the Buddhic plane. The Hierarchy and humanity join their motivation in this call. It cannot be denied. [Discipleship II 426] Astrologically, the time is propitious, momentous planetary events are imminent, the planetary Logos is taking a cosmic initiation. The energy which magically brings together matter and spirit (the 7th ray) is already organizing human affairs. There will be a direct channel for the “light supernal” into the three worlds, and onto the physical plane. The possibility will become real for the “new heaven and the new earth.” (Revelation 21:1) [427]
Like a Luminous Cloud Upon the Earth
When we think of the reappearance of the Christ, we have an image of a spiritual being upon the earth plane. When He shall appear, a billion angels shall come with Him, and a thousand masters shall be at His side. They shall be like a luminous cloud upon the earth.
Blessed is the one who walks the path of the Christ and who has love within the heart. There shall be a downpouring of love energy and fire never experienced by humanity. The disciple shall be anointed by an angel, and the fire from Shamballa shall enter your heart. This is a destined time for disciples and for all who are facing the sun…
-Herman Rednick
January 4, 1976
“A great and new movement is proceeding and a tremendously increased interplay and interaction is taking place,” as ashrams, Masters, Chohans, initiates, disciples and aspirants all move forward into new adjustments, higher alignments, and increased activity. This will go on until AD 2025, this cycle being called “The Stage of the Forerunner.” It is preparatory, testing, and revelatory. [Externalization of the Hierarchy 530] And here we stand now, and in sacred company, work.
warning: If the narrow-minded emphasis of world religions–hatreds, materialism, exploitation–does not move toward some loving synthesis, “humanity is headed toward a religious war which will make the past appear like child's play” and “may well prove the end of humanity.” Christ adds to His many objectives, still another–the effort to avert such a war. “It can be averted by goodwill.” [Externalization of the Hierarchy 545-6]
The Return of the Christ
All people are looking for the return of the Avatar. Christ is not a single person, he is a luminous light that enfolds the earth. There are focal points for the Christ in every nation. He is called by many names. Humanity shall be on the road to transmutation, thus the earth shall become a sacred planet in the Body of God.
We will not say, “Christ belongs to the Christians,” and we shall not travel to every country to convert the “heathen.” Brotherhood shall become a reality.
My life purpose is to become one with the Christ compassion.
-Herman Rednick
September 30, 1981
X. AND NOW
“The first of the factors revealing the divine nature, the first of the great psychological aspect of God is the tendency to synthesis.” It was this quality that Christ revealed and also dramatized for humanity. His tremendous utterances [Esoteric Psychology II 231]…written by the disciple of love under the influence of the energy of the Buddhic vehicle of the Christ which is identical with the Buddhic vehicle of the Buddha–[Externalization of the Hierarchy 687] blazed like a star upon the earth. The words, like mantra, bind thread after thread, fusion after fusion, as they pour out and down, and draw upward. Fortunate among the far reaches of matter and time, we hear it, still astonishing and perfect, the call to synthesis out of the shatterings and fragments of personality life, out of even the blessed duality of the soul-relation, to the identity encompassing all: (John 17:11-24)
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are…
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world…
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one…
Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
And so he stands behind us and before us, and we stand between, sustained by the downpouring of spirit, the “sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind.” (Acts 2:2) The descent at the Pentecost has crossed the boundaries of its historical occasion and belongs to all who love “with one accord.” And his presence rushes unbroken from that time to this, from the setting age to the dawning one, for it is the universal “dissemination of the Christ-consciousness throughout all time and in the heart of every human being…” [Rays and Initiations 356]
Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the world.
CODA
Their sound has gone out into all lands,
and their words unto the ends of the world.
-Messiah oratorio
(Romans 10:18)
Lord Maitreya
Lord Maitreya, we pray for your appearance.
With your descent, a cloak of light shall enfold this planet
and this event shall signal the new age of Aquarius.
May we be part of your plan.
Let your light blaze through my mind and body
and awareness sing throughout my being
so that I shall be transmuted into a sacred temple.
May your will of fire guide me
and your love bless all I know.
The will of the Lord Maitreya is my guide.
The love of the Lord Maitreya is my life.
-Herman Rednick
Taos NM
Works Cited
Bailey, Alice A. The Destiny of the Nations. New York: Lucis Publishing Company, 1949.
—. Discipleship in the New Age II. New York: Lucis Publishing Company, 1955.
—. Esoteric Astrology. New York: Lucis Publishing Company, 1951.
—. Esoteric Psychology I. New York: Lucis Publishing Company, 1962.
—. Esoteric Psychology II. New York: Lucis Publishing Company, 1970.
—. The Externalization of the Hierarchy. New York: Lucis Publishing Company, 1957.
—. Glamour: A World Problem. New York: Lucis Publishing Company, 1950.
—. Initiation Human and Solar. New York: Lucis Publishing Company, 1951.
—. The Rays and the Initiations. New York: Lucis Publishing Company, 1960.
—. The Reappearance of the Christ. New York: Lucis Publishing Company, 1948.
—. A Treatise on White Magic. New York: Lucis Publishing Company, 1951.
The Bible. King James Version.
Handel, George Friderick. Messiah: An Oratorio.
Rednick, Herman. Lessons given to students in northern New Mexico. 1970-1985.