The Buddhic Plane and The Human Hierarchy

10.10.01

 The buddhic plane is the plane of unity and at-one-ment. There is a difference between relationship and identification. Relationship preserves the separate identity of the things that are being related. Identification destroys it. In a real sense identification occurs upon the monadic plane. The consciousness of the human and deva evolutions meet and merge into their essential identity which is one with the planetary life. On the buddhic plane, these evolutions meet and relate. On the astral plane these evolutions meet and fight.

Thus these three words relate to the second, fourth and sixth planes – identification, relationship and conflict.

 The human unit is a member of the Fourth Creative Hierarchy expressing itself upon the buddhic plane. You know that humans evolve through directing energy and devas evolve through being directed. On the buddhic plane, the realisation and acceptance of this relationship occurs, resulting in true cooperation between the evolutions. Man is a solar angel and yet he is not. He directs his solar angel and is directed by it. He is both the Dweller that stands before the Angel, and the Presence that the Angel protects. These are the paradoxes and the mysteries of the buddhic plane. The Fourth Initiation brings these paradoxes to resolution, and it is this aspect of Hierarchical life that is dealt with in the ashrams on the buddhic plane. For the sake of clarity we might further subdivide the Fourth Degree initiates in the ashram as follows:

Those with their angel directed upwards to the monad via the atmic plane.

Those with their angel directed ‘horizontally’ upon the buddhic plane.

Those with their angel directed downwards into the three worlds.

 On the buddhic plane the directing energy (human) and relating energy (deva) cooperate. It is this conscious cooperation that allows the three-fold work of the Fourth Degree initiates. Let us make a distinction between the work of the Third Degree initiate in the three worlds and the work of the Fourth Degree: First and foremost the Fourth Degree has been liberated from any identification in the three worlds and has shattered or is in the process of shattering the causal body. He has therefore no ‘home’, no ‘resting place’ for his consciousness in the three worlds. The Third Degree still has an ‘investment’ in matter, albeit high grade solar matter of the three worlds.

 “As man develops the will aspect, he learns to break loose from the aura of the deva evolution, and the major task of the Hierarchy (as far as basic essentials are concerned) is to "provide sanctuary" to those who have liberated themselves from the ocean of deva energies in which their vehicles must perforce move and live and have their being, but with which they have otherwise no point of contact, once liberated by their own effort and will "from the angels."”  (R&I, p.181)

 The Fourth Degree initiate has liberated himself from the angels, including the solar angel, while the Third Degree initiate is in the process of that liberation. The Third Degree still has an ‘identity’ – an identity formed as a result of the downward activity of the Fourth and Fifth Hierarchies. To understand this we might imagine that a human unit exists simultaneously as an initiate on all levels. The division in time and space has to do with the central preoccupation and capacity for self-realisation of the essential Life.

 In this case we are discussing the work of the Hierarchy upon the planes of the triad, and therefore the essential identity we are speaking about is that of consciousness. A Third Degree initiate has his consciousness identified with the mental plane, a Fourth Degree with the buddhic, and a Fifth Degree with the atmic plane. The identification on a particular plane does not however mean that there is no simultaneous consciousness upon the other planes. For example, when in the personality, the fact that one may be focused in the mind does not preclude simultaneous consciousness in the etheric body, although it may be a consciousness that is ‘unconscious’ to the personal identity. An integrated personality integrates, fuses and then directs the consciousness developed in each of the three vehicles. When this is done the Third Degree is fast approaching, and the indwelling being is close to liberation into Hierarchy. Within Hierarchy the same process occurs. A Master of the Fifth Degree is one who is able to integrate, fuse and then direct the energies of the triad. He does this by integrating the activity of the Third, Fourth and Fifth Creative Hierarchies. Between the Third and Fourth Degree, the integration of the Fourth and Fifth Hierarchies takes place, and they are related to the Third.

 Let me return to the three types or stages of the Fourth Degree initiate and try to explain the process from their perspective. Man is Mercury, the Fourth Hierarchy directing Venus, the Fifth. While in incarnation the Fifth Hierarchy is directed into the three worlds. Man looks into the worlds and his consciousness falls. This is the true man, the human soul, Mercury. However, simultaneously (from the causal perspective) there is another man, a lesser man, identified before the Second Degree with the astral body and Mars. In his aspiration this lesser man notices where the solar angel falls and pursues the object that is lit thereby. The greater man, the human Hierarchy, looks, the deva falls and the lesser man pursues the object that the deva has thereby ‘ensouled’. This is the root cause of desire and the process that underlies what humans in the three worlds call ‘love’ and relationship.

 If you take this analogy and apply it to the greater and lesser Heavenly Men upon their own planes of evolution, much light will be shed upon the operation of the macrocosm.

 After the pursuit of the ultimately unsatisfying and unobtainable, the human in the three worlds begins to think creatively and to recognise that the source of what he seeks is his own higher self. He ceases to be a ‘son of desire’ and becomes a ‘son of mind’. His father is himself as the Sun, the source of light, the Fourth Creative Hierarchy. His mother is the solar angel, the beam of light which falls upon and focuses through the mental plane. Through a process of identifying with his thoughts he gradually becomes identified as the thinker, and then glimpses the possibility that he is the director of thought itself.

“THREE MINDS UNITE” under the Fifth Ray and then a man is in the process of liberation onto the buddhic plane. He is able to use the causal body without ‘identifying’ with it. (RAI, p.518)

 The point here is that he does not suddenly become active upon the buddhic plane, he rather becomes aware of the activity that he is already performing upon that plane. He does this through identification with a higher aspect of himself.  Herein lies the truth that a man is already a Master. This is also the reason why it is so unsafe for the human kingdom to contact the deva evolution before they have ‘self realised’. On the buddhic plane a man ‘realises’ himself as Mercury, able to direct Venus. Venus is ‘the light of the soul’. Light is consciousness. Light is substance. Consciousness is therefore substance. Humans are not consciousness, light or substance. Humans possess consciousness – a gift from the solar angels, but are not consciousness. Humans direct consciousness. Humans are Spirit.

 Let me give you a practical example. A human soul in an ashram upon the buddhic plane, let us say a Second Ray ashram, directs his attention into the three worlds with the intent to produce an effect as a result of the working through of an idea or archetypal energy from the buddhic plane. As a result of this directed attention by the Fourth Hierarchy, a solar angel - member of the Fifth Hierarchy - sacrifices itself and becomes the ‘relating energy of that attention’ or the ‘conveyer of intention’ of the Fourth Hierarchy. The solar angel builds out of its own substance, the substance of light or consciousness, a causal body upon the higher subplanes of the mental plane. That causal body is a vehicle for the buddhic intention, carrying the quality of the ashram into incarnation in the three worlds. A series of seven incarnations occur in which the incarnated soul works out the intention as a result of essentially ‘being’ the energy of that intention itself. This of course is not comprehended until an incarnation in which the realisation of oneself as the source of incarnating intent occurs. When the original ashramic purpose that brought the human soul - with the aid of the solar angel - into a series  of incarnations is realised, the human being is thereby ‘ashramically restored’ and able to direct the remainder of the incarnational process.

 It is exactly with this process that the first of the three types of Fourth Degree initiate is absorbed. We might think of an initiate as someone who is at a particular stage of realisation of his essential nature. Thus each human soul is a Master already, and yet very few are cognisant of that fact in time and space. Accordingly, whenever a human being becomes an initiate of any degree his identity is only resting at that level, and is resting there as a living example of the heritage of us all. Therefore when we receive ‘direction’ from a Master of the Wisdom, we are merely receiving direction from an aspect of ourselves that is at a greater stage of self-realisation in time and space.

 And so the ‘downward gazing’ Fourth Degree initiate is working in the three worlds ‘through’ a number of Third Degree initiates in his ashram, in order to complete the original incarnating intention and to adjust karma generated by his activities as a soul during the series of incarnations. He is still consciously directing his solar angel or his consciousness into the three worlds according to ashramic intent, but his consciousness or solar angel no longer has a ‘resting place’ within the three worlds and thus remains outside ‘time and space’ as it is known in incarnational terms.

 The second type or stage of the Fourth Degree is the directing of the solar angel in relationship upon the buddhic plane itself. One name for the solar angel might be ‘the bridge between two centres of intention’. It is a relating principle, in fact the very energy of relationship itself. Vertically the two centres of intention might be a man’s buddhic and astral nature – his ashramic intent and his desire. Or it might be the relationship between the intention of an initiate and the intention of a disciple. Horizontally this relating principle is what coheres an ashram, both internally and within the Hierarchy as a whole. It results in synchronous vibration of intent upon the buddhic plane and the web of light upon the higher subplanes of the manasic plane. Fourth Degree initiates working in this way are responsible for the ‘integrity’ of the ashram. They link and blend the activity of the human and deva evolutions upon the buddhic plane so that ‘fields’ of vibration are created and maintained. These fields are both ‘reservoirs’ of energy for those who are still polarised within the three worlds, and ‘distribution centres’ for the energies of Will passed down from those polarised on the higher cosmic ethers. Their lesson is in learning to balance these two functions of the ashram.

 The result of this activity upon the buddhic plane is what causes many of the difficulties disciples have with relationship upon the lower planes. These lines of ‘magnetic interplay’ are set up between ashrams, and within an ashram between souls. They are the source of the soul level attraction between individuals in incarnation. When the identity of the incarnating soul is still located - evenly partially - within the astral ring-pass-not, then desire comes into play. The Venusian energies of relationship generated from Mercury as part of the ashramic interplay are detected and sought after by the Martian energies of the desire body. Desire seeks to capture and possess the object upon which Venus, the light of the soul, has fallen. The energy of attraction results from a mutual projection of soul light. This energy is best directed towards an increased cooperation in ashramic endeavour, and will then result in a reclamation of the projection and a transfer of solar angelic energy or consciousness between the two human centres of intent. We call this ‘creativity’. It is a creativity that leads into a closer connection with the ashram.

When the energy of desire is indulged in, the result is often a solidification of the projection, a decrease in consciousness and ‘procreativity’ as the intent behind the connection is thwarted and seeks independent expression through a new vehicle. This vehicle may not necessarily be a child but may be an activity or organisation through which the soul intent tries to express. All creativity in the three worlds, even when expressive of the ashram, eventually leads to satiety and divine discontent as the soul seeks a higher creative response.

 The third activity of the Fourth Degree initiate concerns those who are working more closely with the Master at the centre of the ashram. It is their job to direct and hold their intention on the Master’s will. They are thus in training to hold and receive more and more of the energy directed by the Chohan at the centre of the ashram upon the monadic plane. As a result of this training they are learning to also hold the alignment between their expression on the buddhic plane and their essential monadic identity on the second cosmic ether. They do this by directing the solar angel through the atmic plane and thereby discovering the higher nature of manas, that expressed in the Libran Hierarchy of the triads, rather than the Capricorn Hierarchy. It is the discovery of the higher activity of the angel that makes possible the eventual fusion between the evolutions upon the monadic plane.

 The establishing of relationship is the essential work of the Fourth Degree initiate. Once the relationship is established then a transfer of identity occurs along the channel created out of the substance of the relationship. In involution, the identity flows down the channel resulting in a greater identification of Spirit with consciousness, and then consciousness with form. In evolution, the flow along the channel is reversed.

 A Fourth Degree initiate has liberated his own identity from confusion with the angel. He is thus able to direct the angel as an agent of redemption – a channel or antahkarana along which the identity of those still trapped in the lower worlds can flow. He then learns to direct the angel upon the buddhic plane, creating ‘reservoirs’ of enlightenment and ‘distribution’ points for Hierarchical will. Eventually he learns to direct the solar angel towards the monad and thus creates the channel whereby the higher Will can reach the ashrams. Gradually he transfers his identity onto the atmic plane and prepares for the Fifth Degree.

 And so within Hierarchy itself, defining it as the activity of human beings endowed with consciousness upon the three planes of the triad, there are a number of activities that occupy the attention of the initiates there. There are those who chiefly concern themselves with the relationship between Hierarchy and humanity. There are those who concern themselves with the intra- and inter-ashramic relationships, and then there are those who seek to maintain a relationship between Hierarchy and Shamballa: The Master, his ministers for internal and external affairs (the Fourth Degree initiates), and the ministers responsible for the management of particular portfolios in the creative work of the ashram in the three worlds – the Third Degree initiates.