Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul - Esoteric Psychology II - Chapter II

To Netnews Homepage Previous Next Index Table of Contents

Esoteric Psychology II - Chapter II - The Ray of Personality - The Appropriation of the Bodies

It is here that the ray nature of any specific soul is first of all brought into activity, for its coloring, tone, quality and its basic vibration determine psychologically the color, tone, quality and basic vibration of the mind-energy demonstrated. It conditions the sentient form attracted and the vital body which constitutes the attractive agency upon the physical plane, drawing to itself the type of negative energy or substance through which the quality, tone or vibration of the specific center of experience can be expressed, and the environment contacted. In the early stages of manifestation, it is the nature of the form or of the vehicle which dominates and is the outstanding characteristic. The nature of quality, of the underlying soul, is not apparent. Then the form or vehicle is sentient in two directions: outwards towards the environment, which leads (as evolution proceeds) to the perfecting of the vehicle, and inwards towards the higher progressive impulse, which leads to the definite expansion of consciousness. These higher impulses are progressive in their appearance. It might, in this connection be stated that:

The physical nature becomes responsive to
1. Aspiration.

The fusion of the sentient, astral body and the physical body then becomes complete.

This basic duality then becomes responsive to
1. The lower concrete mind, [322]
2. The separative impulses of the selfish mental body,
3. The intellect, the synthesis of mind and instinct,
4. The prompting of the soul.

This produces an integration of the three energies which constitute the threefold lower man.

This triplicity then becomes responsive to
1. Itself, as an integrated personality. Then the rhythm set up by the fusion of the lower energies (the astral and the mental) becomes dominant.
2. The Soul, as the fundamental center of experience. The personality gets a vision of its destiny, which is to be an instrument of a higher force.
3. The intuition.
4. The source of inspiration, the monad.

A few students may get the symbolic significance of the process, if they grasp the fact that, in the earlier stages upon the evolutionary path, the Monad is the source of the exhalation or of the expiration which brought the soul into being upon the physical plane: upon the Path of Return, with which we are concerned in the latter stage, the Monad is the source of inhalation or of the inspiration.

In the process of exhalation or of the breathing-out, a certain type of divine energy focused itself as a center of experience in that type of sentient substance which we call higher mental matter. This eventually formed that aspect of man which we call the soul. In its turn, the soul continued in this process of exhalation or breathing-out, initiated by the monad, or the One Life. The energy thus sent forth forms centers of experience in the three worlds through the process of "attractive appropriation" of qualified material or substance. Through these centers, the needed experience is gained, the life process [323] is intensified, the range of experience through contact with an ever-widening environment becomes possible, leading to successive expansions of consciousness which are called initiations in the later stages, when consciously undergone and definitely self-initiated. Thus the field of soul influence is steadily enlarged. Whilst this soul activity is proceeding, a paralleling activity in the material substance is going on, which steadily brings the negative aspect of matter or substance up to the positive requirements of the soul. The vehicles of expression, the mechanism of manifestation and the centers for experience improve as the consciousness widens and deepens.

To Netnews Homepage Previous Next Index Table of Contents