Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul - Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle

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Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle - The Centers and the Personality

2. The Related Energies. This expression has reference to what have been called the "petals" of the lotus; with these differentiations of the various energies I seek not here to deal; too much emphasis has ever been laid upon them both by oriental and occidental writers; there is far too much curiosity about the number of petals in any particular center, about their arrangement and about their coloring and quality. If these matters interest you, you can search in the standard books for this information, remembering as you garner the proffered information that you are not in a position to prove its accuracy; its usefulness, therefore, to you is highly problematical. I write this for real students and for those who seek to live the life of the spirit; the information which theorists seek is amply provided for both by me and many other exponents of the technicalities of the Ageless Wisdom.

All I would remark is that as the point in the center is the point of life and the permanent, persistent Eternal ONE, so the related energies or petals are indicative of the state of consciousness which that Eternal One is able - at any stated point in time and space - to express. This may be the relatively undeveloped state of consciousness of the savage, the consciousness of the average man or the highly developed consciousness of the initiate up to the third degree, or the still more vibrant awareness of the initiate of still higher grades. It is ever concerned with CONSCIOUSNESS; only the point at the center is concerned with the first or life aspect; the petals concern the second or the consciousness aspect, and this must be most carefully borne in mind. [172]

The state of the consciousness is ever indicated by the size, the color and the activity of the energies which compose the petals of the lotus; their unfoldment and their development is conditioned by the governing rays, as well as by the age and the length of the soul's expression. The extent and the nature of the relative "brightness" is also conditioned by the point of focus in any particular life, as well as by the trend of the thinking of the soul which is in incarnation; it must be remembered here that "energy follows thought." The natural focus or point of polarization is at times most definitely offset by a man's line of thought (whatever that may currently be) or by the fact that he is living, consciously or unconsciously, the life of every day. An instance of this can be found in the fact that a disciple's natural focus might be the solar plexus center, but because of his fixed and determined thought, the energy which he wields can be directed to one of the centers above the diaphragm, thus producing a temporary atrophying of the center below the diaphragm and the consequent stimulation of that which lies above that dividing line. Thus are the needed changes made.

When the cycle of evolution is nearing its close and the initiate-disciple has well nigh run his course, the energies are all fully developed, active and vibrant, and are therefore consciously used as essential aspects of the initiate's contact mechanism. This is often forgotten and the emphasis of the student's thinking is laid upon the centers as expressions of his natural unfoldment, whereas that is of relatively secondary importance. The centers are, in reality, focal points through which energy can be distributed, under skilled direction, in order to make a needed impact upon those centers or individuals which the disciple seeks to aid. These impacts can be stimulated or vitalized at need, or they can be deliberately [173] destructive, thus aiding in the liberation from substance or matter of the one to be aided.

It is high time that students paid attention to the service angle of the centers, and to the focusing and the use of energy in service. It is here that the knowledge of the number of the petals which form a center is involved, because this knowledge indicates the number of the energies which are available for service, i.e., two energies, twelve energies, sixteen energies, and so forth. No attention has hitherto been paid to this important point, but it embodies the practical use of the new occultism in the coming New Age. The oriental symbols which are often superimposed upon the illustrations of the centers should now be discontinued, because they convey no real use to the occidental mind.

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