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Esoteric Psychology II - Chapter I - The Egoic Ray - The Five Groups of Souls
Higher than this we need not go, except by inference. A detailed analysis is not, however, in order, owing to the limitations of men's minds. The above is only a wide generalization, and the various groupings shade into each other in a bewildering way. The varieties of intermediate types are myriad, but this analysis will serve as a skeleton structure upon which to build. [208] 7. In the development of the race, at this time, we can now study the types, the qualities of these souls, the apparatus of response which they must use, and the nature of the mechanism of contact which they have constructed in order to enable them to function in the world as we know it today. Science and religion together are producing that latest of the sciences which we call psychology. For this, the time is now ripe. 8. All, these manifesting souls have come forth from some Source at some time in their cyclic expressions. This, to the modern thinker, is purely speculative, and can be regarded probably unprofitable; it may also be interesting, but is presumably imaginative. May I say here that the occultist regards all the above affirmative statements as constituting an exact and proven science, but as being presented in symbolic form for the consideration of the minds of men. Esotericists and theosophists would do well to remember this, and to realize that their divisions and groupings, their affirmations and statements about occult teaching, and their pronouncements as to time and place are largely symbolical and must be thus considered. 9. The process whereby the soul nature and the form nature meet and blend is termed individualization. Individualization is the emergence of the soul upon the path of outgoing, through the medium of a form. Thus through the use of a form, expression in the three worlds becomes possible. Initiation is the process whereby a soul, having exhausted the resources of form life, and [209] having thus achieved mastery and expression, returns again to its source. This the soul does through the medium of five stages, steps or initiations which are the correspondence in the interior life of the soul to the five stages whereby expression is developed in the strictly human races, beginning with the Lemurian stage, passing through the Atlantean and the Aryan, and so on through the two final races upon our planet in this world cycle. In connection with individualization the following points should be remembered: Individualization upon the moon chain took place in the fifth race of the third round. In Lemurian days, individualization took place because it was the third root race and the fourth round. In Atlantis, the door of initiation opened, and forced initiation became the objective of the best of the human family. Those who could or can thus become initiate are the "lights which ever radiate." In Lemurian days it was the "lights which ever burn" that came into being. In our race we find the "lights which ever shine." This is the individualization of the sixth race types who came in in the second round. It is well to remember that the soul who came into incarnation in old Atlantis individualized upon that chain which is called the moon chain. This was a period of unfoldment so much earlier than that of our earth that we know nothing about it. These egos, therefore, did not individualize on our [210] earth at all but came into our cycle of evolution as human beings, - of a low order as far as the lowest of our present humanity is concerned, but somewhat higher than the egos which individualized upon ancient Lemuria. It might be of interest here to note that Christ was the first of our earth humanity to achieve the goal, whereas the Buddha was the last of the moon chain humanity to do so. As far as the development of these two sons of God was concerned, so rapid was the development of the Christ that in Atlantean days He found Himself upon the Path of Probation as did also the Buddha. He, coming into incarnation from the moon chain (having been held in what the occult teaching calls "pralaya" till that time), entered upon the probationary Path a very short time ahead of His Brother, the Christ. From the angle of evolution the rapid unfoldment of the evolution of Christ was, and has been, totally unparalleled. It has never been duplicated, though there are people living today upon the planet who are beginning to develop now with equal rapidity (but not earlier, so that they have a background of slow individual development, which is only now being accelerated). This rapidity is, however, a different matter altogether, for many of the disciples today came into this earth evolution from the moon chain where already much had been unfolded. They have not worked up to their present point from Lemurian times as the Christ has done. He, therefore, stands uniquely alone. Just how and why egos come into our planetary evolution from earlier cycles and from other planetary systems is a subject of the greatest interest, but it is of no real importance to the students of this Treatise. We shall not therefore consider it or deal with it. It is of a speculative nature and utterly past their possible corroboration or capacity to check. There is no standard of comparison nor can they judge by inference [211] what is important. All that can be said is that the three major monadic types came into being, either from the moon chain or during the Lemurian stage of individualization and that these three determine much that is transpiring today. All that it is here possible to do is to give some information which may throw a light on the subject, and color our general thought, but which it is impossible either to check or accept except as being inferential or possible. All this can later be determined by the student when his knowledge and powers are greater than they are at present and adequate for that purpose.
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