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Esoteric Psychology II - Chapter I - The Egoic Ray - The Seven Laws of Soul or Group Life
Such are some thoughts, translated from an ancient metrical arrangement, which may throw some light upon the duality of personality and the work to be done by the beings found upon the septenate of rays. Know we where we stand? Do we realize what we have to do? As we strive to enter into light, let us count no price too great to pay for that revelation. We have studied an interesting sequence of Laws. In Law One, we find that three major ideas emerge: First of all, that the Eternal Pilgrim, of his own free will and accord, chose "occultly" to die and took a body or series of bodies in order to raise or elevate the lives of the form nature which he embodied. In the process of so doing, he himself "died", in the sense that, for a free soul, death and the taking of a form and the consequent immersion of the life in the form, are synonymous terms. Secondly, that in so doing, the soul is recapitulating on a small scale what the solar Logos and the planetary Logos have likewise done, and are doing. These great Lives come under the rule of the laws of the soul during the period of manifestations, even though they are not governed or controlled by the laws of the natural world, as we call it. Their consciousness remains unidentified with the world of phenomena, though ours is identified with it until such time that we come under the rule of the higher laws. By the occult "death" of these great Lives, all lesser lives can live and are proffered opportunity. [173] Thirdly, that through death, a great at-one-ing process is carried forward. In the "fall of a leaf" and its consequent identification with the soil on which it falls, we have a tiny illustration of this great and eternal process of at-one-ing, through becoming and dying as a result of becoming. In Law Two, the sacrificing unit - again freely and by choice - comes under the influence of the method whereby this death is brought about. By the impact of the pairs of opposites and through his being "pendent" 'twixt the two, he knows the outer darkness as Christ knew it finally at the Crucifixion, where He hung, symbolically pendent 'twixt heaven and earth, and through the potency of His own inner vibration and magnetism, has drawn and will draw all men to Himself. This is the first great idea emerging. The second emerging idea concerns the balancing of the forces which have been mastered. The symbol of the scales is here appropriate, and, of this truth, the three Crosses on Mount Golgotha are also symbols. Libra governs this law, and certain forces from that constellation can be sensed when the soul consciousness comes under the influence of the law. These forces are quiescent where the personality is concerned; their effect does not register, even though necessarily present. In Law Three, the sacrificing God and the God of the dualities come under certain influences which produce more easily recognized effects. By his death and by his victory over the pairs of opposites, the disciple becomes so magnetic and vibrant, that he serves the race by becoming what he knows he is. Immersed, physically, from the angle of the personality, in the waters of earthly existence, yet at the same time he is aware - in consciousness - of other conditions, of his essential purpose in dying for other lives, and aware also of the method which he must employ in achieving and attaining the releasing equilibrium. When these ideas are dominant in the mind, [174] he can serve his fellow men. These laws have this effect only as they emerge in the consciousness of the man who is building the antahkarana and who is proceeding with the Science of Union. It is when the fourth Law of Repulse is beginning to produce its effects that the disciple becomes aware of the Angel with the Flaming Sword, Who stands before the portal of initiation. By this portent, he knows that he can now enter; but, this time, not as a poor blind candidate, but as an initiate in the mysteries of the world. The truth of this has been summed up for us in an ancient chant which used to be sung in the antechamber of the Temples. Some of the words may be roughly expressed as follows: "He enters free, he who has known the prison walls. He passes into light with open eyes, he who for aeons long has groped the darkened corridor. He passes on his way, he who has stood for ages before a fast closed door. He speaks with power the Word which opens wide the Gate of Life. He stands before the Angel and takes away his sword, releasing thus the Angel unto a higher task. He himself guards the doorway into the Holy Place. He died. He entered the strife. He learnt the way of service. He stands before the door."
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