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Esoteric Psychology I - Section Two - II. The Rays and the Kingdoms in Nature
A careful study and a true analysis of the effect and work of the rays in connection with the animal kingdom is not possible. Yet it must be remembered that the roots of human psychology lie hidden in this expression of God. Humanity is an expression of two aspects of the soul, - the animal soul and the divine soul, - and these two, blended and fused in man, constitute the human soul. It is this fact that is the cause of man's special problems, and it is these two factors which involve him in the long struggle which eventuates in the liberation of the divine soul, through the sublimation of the animal soul. In these words lie much food for thought. "The twain shall be one." This work is begun in the animal kingdom, and constitutes its "secret," and hence the use of the word "transfusion" in this connection. Individualization was the first result of this secret process. Its final consummating effect can be seen in the five stages of the initiatory process, leading to eventual transfiguration and liberation. The entire work is, however, one great unfolding revelation of the soul of God, and it is only when we divorce humanity from that process of revelation that we find the secrets, the problems, the difficulties and the mysteries insoluble. A consciousness, an awareness and a sensitivity to an ever-widening and more inclusive contact is gradually being developed, and this is the consciousness of God, the awareness of the solar Logos, and the sensitivity of the cosmic Son of God. The form through which that Life expresses Itself, the [249] sensitive response apparatus through which that Consciousness works, are of secondary importance, and are in the nature of an automatic mechanism. It is the mechanism, nevertheless, with which we have hitherto identified ourselves, and we have forgotten that that mechanism is but an expression of an aspect of consciousness, and that it indicates, at any particular time, the point of evolution of the informing entity. Let me reiterate: The two factors which are of major importance, during manifestation, are the evolving consciousness and the manifesting life. When this is borne in mind, it will be noted how each stage upon the way can be seen whole as a kingdom in nature. Each of these kingdoms carries the consciousness aspect forward to a greater stage of perfection, and demonstrates a greater sensitivity and responsiveness to outer and inner environing conditions, than does the preceding kingdom. Each manifests a fuller revelation of the inner and hidden glory. When, however, a unit of life is immersed in form, and when the consciousness is identified (in time and space) with any particular form, it is not possible for it to realize its divinity or to express it consciously. Its psychology is that of the partial and the particular, and not that of the universal and the whole. The greater and closer the identification with the form aspect, the greater is the lower unity and synthesis, but at the same time, the greater the darkness and, speaking symbolically, the denser is the prison. Such is the consciousness in the lower or subhuman kingdoms in nature. The more the unit of life is identified with "the one who is conscious," the greater again is the higher, yet different, unity and synthesis. Such also is the consciousness of the three higher kingdoms, the superhuman. The tragedy, the problem and the glory of man is that he can identify himself with both aspects - the form and the life; and his psychological state is such that during the period wherein he forms part of the human kingdom, his kingdom, [250] his consciousness fluctuates between these pairs of opposites. He can identify himself with the subhuman forms, and this he invariably does in the early stages. He can identify himself with the life aspect, and this he does in the final stages. In the midway stage of the average man, he is torn violently between both, and is himself the battleground. With this consciousness, incident upon an awareness of the pairs of opposites, is connected the entire problem of pain and of suffering, as we today understand it. The animal suffers, but suffers entirely physically and sentiently. Man suffers, but suffers physically, sentiently, and also mentally, and the mental suffering is due to the development in him of certain aspects of the lower mind - anticipation, memory, imagination, the power to visualize, remorse, and the inherent urge to reach out after divinity, which brings with it a sense of loss and of failure. The sufferings of God Himself (to which the scriptures of the world so often mysteriously refer) are divorced from sentiency, and are mental and intuitive. But on this mystery we need not enlarge. The sufferings of humanity are primarily personal; of God, they are pre-eminently impersonal and related to the whole. I have touched on this as I wanted you to get a picture of the synthesis of the unfoldment from the inchoate to the sentient, from the sentient to the mentally realized, and from the mentally realized to the "divinely appreciated," as it is occultly termed. I give you pictures, but they are pictures of a whole. Endeavor to think in wholes, and try not to fit every point of detail into the whole, but remember that what may appear to be a contradiction may be but a fragment of temporary detail for which you - as yet - see no place or explanation. In the animal kingdom the first dim indication of sorrow and pain is seen, whilst in the higher and the domesticated animals these two educating processes are still more clearly [251] indicated. Man's work with the animals is potent in results, and will lead eventually to a reopening of the door into the human kingdom. Some of the work already done by man has outstripped divine expectation and may warrant a hastening of the Plan. Let us now tabulate our points anent this kingdom and the rays, as we did with the other two kingdoms.
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