THE COSMIC ANTAHKARANA
It might be added that
the factual ceremonial admits the disciple into full fellowship with the
Hierarchy; that the symbolic representation indicates to the disciple the Way
into Shamballa, and that illumined revelation presents to the initiate the
bridge between our cosmic physical plane and the inner subjective and cosmic
worlds; this entrance to the bridge (I am speaking in symbols) reveals the
existence of the cosmic Antahkarana, created by the Lord of the World and His
group of Executives. RI 533
The planetary antahkarana is built through the gradual alignment of three Wills – Humanity, Hierarchy and Shamballa. The human being adds its small thread to this antahkarana when then wills of the personality, soul and monad are atoned.
For instance, brother
of mine, when the third eye, the inner eye, and the Monad are brought into
direct alignment with "the Eye of God Himself," so that what the
planetary Logos sees can be partially (at least) revealed to the initiate, who
can tell what that revelation will bring of results and enlightenment? When the
true nature of the will is comprehended and the self-will of the personality
(of a very high order, necessarily), the will of the soul (as demonstrated by
the activity of the highest tier or circle of the egoic petals), atma,
expressing itself as the spiritual will, and Sanat Kumara are also brought,
through initiation, into direct alignment, who, again, can predict what the
revelation will be? DINA II 349
Gradually the planetary antahkarana will be completed and the Lord of the World will then take possession of His creation – externalizing representatives of Shamballa within the sphere of Humanity as well as Hierarchy.
The ‘aligning of wills’ within the cosmic physical plane has a higher correspondence within the lower three cosmic planes.
When we speak of the Planetary Logos of the Earth Scheme we are speaking of a Being that is expressing on the lower three cosmic planes. Sanat Kumara is an embodiment or incarnation of the Logos on the earth globe but the Logos himself is not limited to his embodiment and functions on higher levels.
The "Silent
Watcher," that great Entity Who is the informing life of the planet, and
Who holds the same position to the Lord of the World, Sanat Kumara, as the Ego
does to the lower self of man. Some idea
of the high stage of evolution of this Great Being may be gathered from the
analogous degree of evolutionary difference existing between a human being and
a perfected adept. From the standpoint
of our planetary scheme, this Great Life has no greater, and He is, as far as
we are concerned, a correspondence to the personal God of the Christian. He works through His representative on the
physical plane, Sanat Kumara, Who is the focal point for His life and energy. He holds the world within His aura. This great Existence is only contacted
directly by the adept who has taken the fifth initiation, and is proceeding to
take the other two, the sixth and seventh.
Once a year, at the Wesak Festival, the Lord
Buddha, sanctioned by the Lord of the World, carries to the assembled humanity
a dual stream of force, that emanating from the Silent Watcher, supplemented by
the more focalised energy of the Lord of the
World. This dual energy He pours out in
blessing over the people gathered at the ceremony in the
HIS 105
At the first two initiations it is the Christ who presides. At the third and fourth it is Sanat Kumara. At the fifth and sixth it would seem an aspect of the Planetary Logos presides while at the seventh it is the Logos Himself acting on behalf of the Solar Logos who initiates.
During these five
initiations those two great beings, the Bodhisattva first, and then the One Initiator,
the Lord of the World, Sanat Kumara, are the administrators or
hierophants. After these ceremonies,
should the initiate choose to take the two final initiations which it is
possible to take in this solar system, a still higher type of energy in expression
of the One Self comes into play, and can only be hinted at. At the seventh initiation that One of Whom
Sanat Kumara is the manifestation, the Logos of our scheme on His own plane,
becomes the Hierophant. At the sixth
initiation the expression of this Existence on an intermediate plane, a Being Who must at present remain nameless, wields the Rod and
administers the oath and secret. In
these three expressions of hierarchical government—Sanat Kumara on the
periphery of the three worlds, the Nameless One on the confines of the high
planes of human evolution, and the planetary Spirit himself at the final
stage—we have the three great manifestations of the Planetary Logos
Himself. Through the Planetary Logos at the
final great initiation flows the power of the Solar Logos, and He it is Who
reveals to the initiate that the Absolute is consciousness in its fullest
expression, though at the stage of human existence the Absolute must be
regarded as unconsciousness. HIS 92
Thus we have three levels of being, three wills which are really one Will that comprises the manifest Purpose of the Logos of the Earth Scheme throughout His creation. We might equate these to the Logos of the Scheme, the Logos of the Chain and the Logos of the globe. In terms of the planes we would locate them upon the cosmic mental, astral and physical planes respectively.
On the third subplane of the cosmic mental plane we find the causal body of the Planetary Logos. On the fourth subplane of the cosmic astral plane we find the ‘polarisation’ of the Planetary Logos and on the first and second subplane of the cosmic physical plane we find the ‘embodiment’ of the Planetary Logos in Sanat Kumara.
If we combine the alignment of the three Wills of the Logos on cosmic planes with the alignment of three Wills on the cosmic physical plane we have an antahkarana that embraces both planetary and cosmic , reaching from the third subplane of the cosmic mental to the fifth subplane of the cosmic physical.
The chart below gives an idea of these relationships.
It can be seen that the ‘Existence on an intermediate plane’ referred to above relates to the Logos in his astral vehicle or desire body positioned at the exact centre of the system.
At the seventh initiation the initiate is able to contact
however briefly the Planetary Logos in his causal body on the cosmic mental
plane. At the fifth degree ( or perhaps the sixth as
mentioned in the above reference ) the initiate is able to reach to the Logos
in his cosmic astral body.
We may be able to get some idea of the building of this lower half of the cosmic antahkarana which links the cosmic astral and physical planes by examining how it has been expressed in the life of the planet as a whole.
The Christ completed
the work of the Buddha by manifesting in its fullness the nature of love, thus
permitting the full expression of love-wisdom in its dual aspect—the one aspect
demonstrated by the Buddha and the other by the Christ. But His greatest work has not yet been emphasised in the worlds of thought and of religion—the
revelation of the Way of the Higher Evolution.
This entails the bringing through of pure divine will and the relating
of the spiritual Hierarchy to the great Council at Shamballa. It will be apparent to you, therefore, that
He was the first to carry through—from stage to stage—the complete revelation
of humanity to the Hierarchy and of the Hierarchy to Shamballa. This He did by virtue of a completely finished and constructed
antahkarana, and thus He facilitated the work of all future aspirants and
disciples. He made possible their
unimpeded progress, as far as the opening of each stage of the planetary
antahkarana is concerned. He presented
the "first thread of living substance, irradiated by love, intelligently
woven and energised by will" which any human
being of our Earth humanity had interwoven with the planetary antahkarana. RI
528
He then focussed in Himself the two major divine attributes and
aspects—will and love (atma-buddhi)—and because of this, His consciousness
became extra-planetary as is the consciousness of the Lord of the World, and He
could then touch certain heights of awareness and contact certain solar
Agencies which had never before been contacted by man. This achievement enabled
Him to put Humanity in touch with the Spirit of Peace. He thus Himself became
the Light of the World and the Prince of Peace.
In this manner,
Shamballa and the Hierarchy were brought into a close relationship and two
great streams of force were blended and a definite interplay set up between
them. The Buddha, through His achievement of illumination, established the
first major link with the Forces of Light. The Christ, through His ability to
express the will of God in love and as world salvage, established the first
major link with the Spirit of Peace HIS
The chart below traces the dual alignment of love wisdom from the mental plane of the cosmic physical to the ‘intermediate existence’ of the Planetary Logos on the cosmic astral plane.
The human soul is dual comprising the fusion of mercury and venus, the fourth and fifth hierarchies. The fifth hierarchy is also dual expressing as both manas and atma and thus we have the human soul as the triad. The alignments put in place by the Christ and Buddha reflect the venus and mercury alignments respectively.
The zigzag green and blue lines represent pathways through the planes
that this consciousness takes. The green line of Venus moves from the third subplane of the
cosmic astral to the fifth subplane, to the atmic plane, to the mental plane.
Consider the astrological rulerships of this line.
Venus is exalted in Pisces and a ruler on one level of Taurus, Libra and
Capricorn. Pluto the hierarchical ruler of Pisces is brought into relationship
with Venus, the hierarchical ruler of Capricorn. The solar angels leave the
Father’s house, under law, and descend to retrieve their reflected light.
The blue line is the Mercury alignment and descends from the fourth subplane of the cosmic astral, via the sixth, to the monadic plane and thence to the buddhic. Mercury rules each of the four signs involved—Aries, Gemini (which remember is ruled by Mercury, Venus and Earth), Virgo and Scorpio. This line brings the energy of Uranus, hierarchical ruler of Aries, into relationship with Mercury, hierarchical ruler of Scorpio.
The human Hierarchy ‘awakens’ to ‘Life’. The Tibetan has
this to say about Mercury:
Mercury, the Messenger of the Gods, carries to humanity a certain
type of force and this precipitates a point of crisis; it brings about the next
great revolution which will lead mankind on to new experience, and to the
revelation of the divinity which it is the destiny of man to reveal. (EA, p.549)
Initiated man
is the combination of two Hierarchies—the divine hermaphrodite created from the
union of Mercury and Venus, the Fourth and Fifth Hierarchies. These are the
energies involved in building the antahkarana because we ARE the antahkarana.
Two astrological triangles are involved:
.
Returning to the chart we must now focus on the red line that represents the ‘sushumna’ thread of this antahkarana. It links three crucifixions—that of our Planetary Logos on the fourth subplane of the cosmic astral, the Fifth Hierachy, and the Ninth (or Fourth) Hierarchy who is ourselves as we approach the Fourth Degree. It was at the Fourth Initiation that Jesus on the buddhic plane was overshadowed by the Christ on the monadic. The link then extended to Sanat Kumara (consider the central point of the chart as a crown chakra), and thence to the Planetary Logos polarised upon the fourth subplane of the cosmic astral. Thus a great alignment of Will took place.
Between the fifth and the seventh intiations this cosmic antahkarana is extended from the cosmic astral plane to the cosmic mental creating a triple alignment between the three Wills of the three levels of manifestation of our Logos.
The Christ and the Buddha took the third initiation together ( RI 386 ) and when the Christ completes his work of the seventh initiation the cosmic antahkarana will find its place within the consciousness of mankind and the great Sound of the Planetary Logos will reach forth on to the physical plane of this earth globe.
This is concerned with
the realisations of the overshadowing Christ as He
registered the Voice which is heard at the third, fifth, sixth and seventh
initiations. The Gospel story gives us
the five Initiations of the Master Jesus, beginning with the first and ending
with the fifth. But it also gives the
initiations of the Christ, starting from the second and ending with the
seventh. The latter is left incomplete,
and the Voice is not recorded, because at the Resurrection and Ascension we are
not told of the hearing of the affirmative sound. That will be heard when the Christ completes
His work at the time of the Second Coming.
Then the great seventh initiation, which is a dual one (love-wisdom in
full manifestation motivated by power and will), will be consummated, and the
Buddha and the Christ will together pass before the Lord of the World, together
see the glory of the Lord, and together pass to higher service of a nature and calibre unknown to us. RI 84
The Christ and the Buddha took the third initiation together ( RI 386 ) and when the Christ completes his work of the seventh initiation the cosmic antahkarana will find its place within the consciousness of mankind and the great Sound of the Planetary Logos will reach forth on to the physical plane of this earth globe.