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Glamor - A World Problem - The Ending of Glamor
a. The Dissipation of Individual Glamor Let us first of all consider the mode by which the individual aspirant can succeed in dissipating the glamors which have for ages conditioned his life in the three worlds. He has been dominated by desire for four-fifths of his incarnated experience. He has begun to transmute his desire into aspiration and to seek - with all the devotion, emotion and longing of which he is capable - for realization. It is then that he becomes aware of the appalling nature of the glamors in which he automatically and normally walks. Glamor arose when man recognized and registered desire as an incentive, thus demonstrating his humanity and his distinction from the animal, because it is the mind which reveals the existence of desire. The instinctual effort to satisfy desire - innate and inherent in the lower nature - gave [203] place to planned efforts to meet desire, involving the directive use of the mind. Thus the line of demarcation between the animal and the human has become increasingly apparent and the first and basic expression of pure selfishness appeared aeons ago. Later, as evolution proceeded and desire shifted from one planned satisfaction to another, it began to take on a less physical aspect and men sought pleasure in emotional experience and in its dramatization: this led to the establishment of the drama as its first artistic expression; by means of this, down the ages, man has supplemented individual emotional and dramatic living with a vicarious submergence in it, thus exteriorizing himself and supplementing his personal dramas, desires, and objectives with those which were developed by means of the creative imagination, thus laying the foundation for the recognition - intelligent and real - of the part in relation to the whole. Thus from earliest Atlantean times the foundation was laid for the unfoldment of the sense of mystical duality through the various stages of an anthropomorphic recognition of deity to the recognition of the real in man himself, until finally we arrive at the proposition which faces the disciple. Then the Dweller on the Threshold confronts the Angel of the Presence and the last and major conflict is fought out. This dualistic consciousness culminates at the time of the third initiation in the final fight between the pairs of opposites and the triumphant victory of the Angel - the embodiment of the Forces of Good in the individual, in the group and in humanity. Then dualism and the desire for that which is material and not oneself (as identified with the Whole) dies out. Unity and the "life more abundantly" is achieved. The process followed by the disciple who is consciously working at the dissipation of glamor in his life can be [204] divided into four stages to which the following definitions can be given: The stage of recognition of the glamor or glamors which hide the Real. These glamors are dependent in any particular life crisis upon the ray of the personality. The stage of focusing the disciple's consciousness upon the mental plane and the gathering of the light to that point of focus so that the illumination is clear, the work to be done is plainly seen, and the searchlight of the mind is directed upon the glamor which it is intended should be dissipated. The stage of direction. This involves the steady pouring of the light (under intelligent direction) into the dark places of the astral plane, remembering that the light will enable the disciple to do two things: Dissipate the glamor - a satisfying experience. See the Real - a terrifying experience, brother of mine. The stage of identification with the Real as it is contacted after the dissipation of the glamor. In the added light which is now available, there will be a further recognition of still subtler glamors which in their turn must be dissipated.
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