Universal Spirituality
by Michael Robbins

*This talk was given at the April, 2004
Seven Ray Institute/University of
the Seven Rays Conference in Mesa, Arizona.

Read it below or listen to this talk here!

I think that this year’s conference is somehow a very important one. We’ve been doing these conferences based upon the numerology of the year. The two and the four make the six and so we are focusing upon the sixth ray this year, and especially upon the theme of the new world religion and the developing universal spirituality. Last year we worked with the scientific impulse and the year before that with the artistic impulse and, in the year 2005, both here in the United States and in Finland (north of the artic circle), we will be working with the magical impulse. This year it seems to fit very well because we have a religious/political situation in the world which is critical and that needs the attention of esoterically inclined people who know how to think, how to meditate, how to project their thought and how to make a difference in the subtle worlds.

We have to get clear somehow during these few days together about the role of religion in the world. I think a lot of us would like to call it spirituality but, for a long time, it will still be called religion. Even the Tibetan calls it the new world religion, which will be slowly unfolding over the next number of centuries. It will mean a tremendous opportunity for our planet as this new type of scientific faith develops. And we can begin to develop it now but we have to understand what may be involved and I’d like to offer us the opportunity to think about a few things together. That’s what I did, I sat down and said, “We’ve got an interesting title here, ‘The New World Religion: Envisioning a Universal Spirituality’”. So I began to analyze what this can really mean. I began to really think about it and I’d like to share my thoughts with you and maybe it will stimulate in you further thoughts and together we can create that group pool of thought which can be impressed by the intuition. Hopefully, then, we can leave this week in a more illumined condition on a very emotional subject--more light and less heat, more Venus and less Mars.

This theme is related to the problem that the Tibetan called “The Problem of the Churches”, in his book The Problems of Humanity. It’s very interesting to me that it is said that the Christ one day spoke to him (He numbers himself one of the humblest friends of the Christ), that’s what he says and it is a very beautiful thought. And the Christ said this about the Arcane School, “What is this group that is taking an interest in our work?” And this was only after the Arcane School group had begun to study the problems of humanity as a course. It wasn’t all of their occult study, not their study of The Secret Doctrine, not the study of all the many lessons sets—but it was when the School turned to the study of the problems of humanity, that’s when the Christ actually noticed them. So that says something about what the Hierarchy is really doing and where their real interest lies. So when we say that we are serving the Hierarchy, let’s remember that the only way to really do that is to put humanity first, then we can say that we are serving the Hierarchy too.

Well, we have a great representation here and we are going to be discussing the various faiths of the world and we have people representing these faiths. What is this religious impulse? The word religio, we’re told, means to bind back, to link again. But the question is to what will this binding back occur? Will it be back towards an original source--the Monad, our Father in Heaven, the Spirit, our true Self? Or will it be a binding back to some doctrinaire, separative form of thought--a return to some fundamentalism, whether it is religious fundamentalism or occult fundamentalism--there are all types of fundamentalism. Will we bind ourselves back to these rigid forms of thought and forget the living source? A binding back is necessary—the two fishes are always attached to each other and the soul and personality have to work in tandem through that link that connects them. The two rays which are most prominent in relation to the religious impulse are the second Ray of Love-Wisdom and the sixth Ray of Devotion or Idealism. We know that the great Lord, the Christ, the Master of all Masters and the Teacher alike of angels and of men, holds the basic supervision of the religious impulse of the world in his care. And, of course, the Master Jesus is intimately connected with that and, interestingly, also the Master Morya. He always manages to bring his strength to necessary things.

And so, the religious impulse, what is it really? It’s part of the great Law of Attraction. And it’s sometimes called the great Law of Attraction and Repulsion and you can see how this works out within the religious field. The religious impulse, I think, is related to the process of disassembling--after scattering and division. You know it is related to Jupiter as it brings all things together after they have been dispersed and, in that way, you see the binding back always to a more and more real source until the great unity is achieved.

Now, in Egyptian mythology, you had this character called Typhon and he was the great dragon or the great serpent and we can think of him as the principle of ignorance, or the principle of chaos. And he dismembered the God Osiris, cutting him up into fourteen pieces and that number has got to be of interest to us. Isis was the wife of Osiris and also the patron of the mysteries of the Ageless Wisdom. It was her job to reunite the pieces. And my friend and colleague, Nicholas Nilan, tells me that Isis has a lot to do with the star Sirius as that star sponsors our whole initiatory program within this solar system and in this planet. So, under this Sirian/Isis influence we are re-uniting the scattered pieces of ourselves—which have been scattered through ignorance and through the general identification with limited states of consciousness. So, that’s it in a larger sense, this great recollecting of the scattered units--first through the power of desire and then, through the power of love.

Now if we were to look at the religious impulse psychologically, which I think is always important (and I’m going to simplify this of course), I think we will find it based upon two quite contrasting psychological movements. Now I’d like to mention the negative side first. I’d say that the religious impulse is often spurred and stimulated and motivated by the recognition of loneliness and vulnerability. After individualization, which we’re told took place some 21 million years ago when we became a self-aware being, however dimly self-aware, the human being cognizes, or recognizes himself as a separate being. Before this time there was the participation mystique and we were part of nature. We could not differentiate ourselves, just as the animals—they have consciousness but they cannot differentiate themselves as distinct. But this perception of distinctness, this cognition of “I am” and the perception of vulnerability, they go hand in hand. When you are separate, then comes at first the vulnerability and the powerlessness; the old Vedanta idea—wherever there are two, there is fear. Man wakes up millions of years ago and says “Here I am and here it all is and I am afraid.” That is the great problem on our planet, of course.

The Tibetan tells us that the problem of fear is the great Dweller on the Threshold for the whole planet. You know, it is one of the nine heads of the hydra—you know it is that fear that is at the root of every one of those hydra heads, at every one of our vices. Somehow, if we were fearless, we would be perfectly loving and we would not be here now. Or, if we were here, it would be totally for the purposes of service—we would be free of the world to which we are bound. So, the casting out of fear, this is the big job for me and you and for all of us, I think. So we, as early man, recognize our powerlessness and innately we seek to overcome it. Why do we seek to overcome it? Because inherently we are power itself, we are spirit itself and somehow that deep, innate, unconscious state even within primitive man, reveals to him the root and source of power. Thus he tries to overcome every possible limitation. And that drives us on and forward through space with progressive action through every type of obstacle until we overcome all limitations. So even though I am powerless and vulnerable, I will overcome that.

Now, I will always look for higher things to link myself to and greater sources of power—and that’s where religion comes in. If I link myself to something greater than myself, especially something higher, something freer than this world—then I become its power, little knowing that I am linking myself to my own spirit. As I link to one God after another, little do I know that they are me as I link to them and try to rise out of my present limitation. So, that’s the kind of liability, that is the cause of religion that is based upon human limitation—the religious impulse to link with the inner source which we are but to do this in an unconscious manner, progressively as we go along, not knowing that we are on the great journey to linking with the Self that we have never left. So those are the mysteries.

Now, from another and more positive perspective, H.P.B. in The Secret Doctrine has some wonderful things to say about the religious impulse. She says that early man who was just individualized was acutely aware of the solar angel within him in those early days—aware of this great god, this super human being, who had chosen to affiliate with animal man and lift him up much more rapidly than otherwise would have been the case. It’s said that if we didn’t have the intervention of the solar angel at that time we would all be like the many people today in whom the spark of mind is not yet really germinating. They did not receive that spark at that time, for karmic reasons, and so we all owe much to the solar angels. So ancient man, millions of years ago in Lemurian times, had this deep reverence or devotion--that is often found in higher animals--to this inner god, the presence of which, he sensed. Now, of course, as our emotions have become more powerful, our desires more powerful, and our minds more active—we have lost touch with that inner god, with the great being—the heart of fiery love who is stimulating the sense of self-awareness within us. Only as we get towards the later stage of the path of evolution are we able, in fact, to retrace our steps and begin to reconnect with that solar angel.

So it begins with reverence for this sense of something that is within me that is awesome and wonderful. We may lose that along the way but we find it again later when the mind begins to be illuminated. So, due to the devotional instinct of early man and his greater psychic sensitivity, there was the communion with the inner god—although quite an unconscious communion—like a great obedience, like a good little child who obeys his parents, not yet a teenager. Now, of course, the adolescence in the human being is the stage from which many of us are just emerging. It is a period of great rebellion.

So that sense of something better was perceived from the very first. It was not total ignorance. In a way, the Lemurians were closer to that internal world than were the Atlanteans and the Aryans, in terms of their consciousness. And so we can think of this religious impulse as an instinctive groping towards the good, the better, and the higher which will, in fact, save us from this world. It is, in a way, the great urge to evolve, based on ray six, which immediately links it to the third ray whose quality is the “will-to-evolve”. So the six and the three are involved in this. Now, looking at this from a very broad perspective, we will join and amalgamate ourselves, by linking to ever larger wholes until the whole re-becomes, consciously, the One. Now we are on our way to a blissful state of unity which is fully appreciated on the star Sirius. And 80% of human beings are on their way to that wonderful star where the wholeness of the whole, in bliss, is fully appreciated.

Now, where are we now as human beings? These are all wonderful thoughts but the fact of the matter is that we’re not all so enlightened about this re-joining of the whole and the re-tracing of our steps to our true inner nature. In fact, we have anxiety about being in this world—it is sometimes called existential anxiety, the anxiety that just comes from existing. And the Tibetan calls it by a wonderful name, he calls it “the dire pain of life itself”. Now, on a bad day, I always like to look at that sentence and I know he understands. Well, you know, under the spell of this existential anxiety, I would say that the human being becomes desperate to re-unite. This urge to reunion, by whatever means—material, mental, spiritual—is a driving unconscious, semi-conscious urge. It really begins to emerge within the consciousness of the aspirants of the world, the people who aspire consciously to something higher; and also, of course, in the disciples and the initiates.

Modern man is desperate, unconscious, wanting something for security and we people who say that we want to be disciples, we are waking up to the potentials of that union as we try to tread the conscious path in that way. Now, what does the poor person do? This desperation does exist, it is masked and hidden behind a brave face and religious words and all the rest of it. But, as Master Morya says, “that brave face is often just a mask of the fear of death”—this desperation is only periodically and temporarily relieved by the achievement of what I want to call transient, sheltering unions. These are felt as harmonious, “At last, something. I’ve finally found a group of people and I am finally home.” It’s fine for a while. But no one is really home with the externalities of other people; they are only home with the soul.

So we try to find those transient harmonies that give us those moments of peace and relief from existential anxiety. Remember the kind of planet we are on here—this planet is called that of releasing sorrow and purifying pain. So let us just say that there is much about the religious impulse which rescues or saves us from the sufferings of the earth. We want to rise out of this vale of tears—but we know that’s not the real way; when you want to get out of it for your own sake and your own relief, then you’re not treading through any door whatsoever. It’s only the person who comes back for his group brothers who passes the test. The Tibetan says, “You have to walk the dusty streets of life with your brother.”

And you know, there were a number of disciples who were wonderful thinkers and yet they lived in the ivory tower--they can do all these wonderful things but they don’t “walk the dusty streets of life with their brothers”. I think we all have to think of that. I’ve certainly had to think about it. You know, you can often experience one blue book too many. Salvation is not up there, out there, away. It’s right in there, that’s where salvation and rescue is to be found. So it turns out that when people try to go higher, they don’t necessarily become better by doing that. They may separate themselves, they might distance themselves, they might become proud, and they might become elitist; but higher is not necessarily better.

So this is what we are going to be thinking about in this seventh ray age when religion changes its tune. Sometimes what happens is that the states that you usually experience in your personality become so inflated that they seem as if they are real divine states. When this happens, we can end up projecting our normal personality states upon God, on divinity and we think-- that’s it. And what that does is prevent us altogether from experiencing real divinity because we become so full of ourselves, our personality selves. The Secret Doctrine told us all about the universal approach which Sanat Kumara and the great god kings offered to infant humanity and maybe, just maybe, we didn’t have to go through everything we went through as a result of our rebellion--apparently we rejected that somewhere along the way and we did not respect what the Kumaras offered us. As you know, man is the Prodigal Son and children rebel. Maybe you have had children and have had them rebel. We’ve all done that but we didn’t have to--we could have attended to our elders. But maybe we all learned something through our rebellion and have come back sadder but wiser.

Long ago, the great universal laws, the good laws, were offered to us and only now are we returning to them as the mysteries return to humanity with the coming of the Christ. So, through this process, man got very dark. The Tibetan said that humanity has erred grievously. When I hear those words I just feel guilty. I was there, erring grievously with everybody else. In those old days, ignorant man began to make divinity in his own image. He got farther and farther from the solar angel; he chose what was immediate and familiar. Soon he began making statues of himself and worshipping them. You can understand what a curse egotism is, what the ego is—when you begin to look at the immediately present self and think that is what you really are. We’re not that, you know, but that’s what ancient man thought and this led him into deep excesses which caused, as we have heard, the downfall of Atlantis. The degeneration continued and the self- worshipping tendency still exists today.

The sign Leo, which is the most human of all the signs, in its early stages presents that kind of self-glorification, self-worship, and narcissism. But we have to get beyond ourselves, beyond the avankara, if we are ever going to get into the true religious impulse. There have been all kinds of religious impulses in the world and many of you here today know a lot more about them than I do; they have been as full of glory, full of wonder and have been just as appalling as they have been various. Now we are heading for something new. We need to finish with the horror and the separatism. We’re in a different stage now. It just seems like every stage of man’s developmental process has produced a religion. At each stage man produces a religion that is equivalent to that stage. Each type of desire generates its own type of religion and man does indeed make god and religion in his own image.

So where are we? That will depend upon who your God is. I’m sure you know that to be true. You talk to some people and God is right there, very fixed. But if you talk to someone like Buckminster Fuller, you’ll find that he had a need to pause and meditate to understand his definition of God. But it’s brilliant because he thought the subject through in his own terms. So we’re trying to move beyond the deification of desire, we’re trying to move beyond self-justification and the terrible things that can be done in the name of religion—all because of fear. Religion helps you survive, it helps you to be saved. And people want to survive because the fear of annihilation, the fear of ex-communication and of being rubbed out of existence, is probably the worst existential fear that exists. Religion can give you that kind of salvation from imminent annihilation and people are seeking that today. They fight to preserve what defines them. But one day, before very long, science will come to our aid, the fifth ray will come to the aid of the sixth and second rays and this will render religion universal. And it will have much more to do with the discovery of commonalities among all human beings—a similar fate, a similar destiny and the transcendence of personal desire.

We need the light of the illumined mind in the field of religion if we are to ever get closer to the soul. You’ve heard what the Tibetan says, “Oh, the scientists, they are much less separative than the religious people of the world.” And of course he is probably including the average esotericist among the religious people of the world. The scientists are much more cooperative, much closer to the source of the soul, much closer to Venus whereas the religious people of the world are busy acting out Mars and lower Neptune. The mind is required for us to aspire to the true religious impulse. We can no longer afford to be misled by appearances.

The Tibetan brought forth seven new types of teaching and among these seven is the teaching upon the new world religion. He says that “the emphasis will be upon the three major full moon periods—Aries, Taurus and Gemini—and the minor full moons and this leads to a consequent relationship being established to the work of the Christ and the Buddha in the minds of spiritually inclined people everywhere with the result of a great broadening of human aspiration. This work is yet embryonic but it should be receiving increasing attention.” So this new world religion has a lot to do with putting together the work of the Buddha and the Christ and thereby inspiring people. Now why should we inspire people to aspire? The Masters really want to gather people into the ashrams. D.K. asked us to send out the Discipleship in the New Age books as he said it would do more to gather people into the ashrams than anything else. Why do the Masters want to do this? Because we have such a thing here as the space-time schedule of the planetary Logos and it demands group initiation in order to enlighten a specific number of human beings in order to make the transition into this fourth initiation. So this is all part of a planetary process and this new world religion is part of that ingathering. It brings people together in relation to the ashrams. The Masters want us to come closer. They asked Krishnamurti, “Why are you telling them to go away, tell them to come to us.” Krishnamurti wanted people to stand on their own two feet. I always thought that was amusing, he was speaking to them as if they were the Monad.

Eventually we’re told that this new world religion will demonstate as the main linking unit between the East and the West, between the two hemispheres of the global brain, the global mind. This is particularly true if Sri Krishna is “shown to be an earlier incarnation of the Lord of Love, the Christ, thereby three major world religions--the Christian, the Buddhist and the Hindu--will be intimately related, whilst the Mohammaden faith will be found to be linked to the Christian faith because it embodies the work of the Master Jesus as he overshadowed one of his senior disciples, a very advanced initiate, Mahomet.” Surely Mahomet was a fourth degree initiate, a very advanced soul and Jesus was his teacher in the same way that the Christ was Jesus’ teacher. So all these things are linked together and when Jesus reappears, he will be the Messiah for the Jewish people.

The Tibetan somehow wants us to connect all the religions of the world based upon their similarities. and their adherence, devotion, and love of the same teachers who are not, believe me, fighting in the same way that their adherents are fighting with each other. “The Masters deplore all this ignorance, all of the non-cooperation among all of you. We don’t do that, why are you?” And it is very true in the field of religion. And that has to end. Love and cooperation have to be brought in here. So this new world religion, whatever it might be—and I think we are going to get a better idea of this during the next few days—will be established. And it is one of the main missions of the Christ during the Aquarian age, to help establish this new approach to divinity. Maybe some centuries will be required before it takes place because there is a lot of resistance right now. He says the next 150 years will meet with resistance but, after that, things will clear. That takes us into the beginning of the age of Aquarius which the Tibetan gives out in some correspondence as 2117. So, just add another 250 years to that for the overlap period between Pisces and Aquarius and maybe by the year 2375 the 500 year period will be ended, the Piscean age will be floated out, and we will be solidly in the Aquarian age. And then I think we will see these developments that we are thinking about at this time.

In the age of Aquarius we will be seeking to establish the divine circulatory flow which is another name for a healthy exchange of energy between all units of life. I would say that the divine circulatory flow is seven-fold, depending upon the seven rays. And also the obstacles to the divine flow are seven-fold, depending upon the obstacles that each of those rays present. So the religion as it is now practiced in the world is really disrupting the divine circulatory flow. So are wrong economics and wrong politics and wrong anything on any ray. So we cannot expect health and happiness, the joy of the Aquarian age, all of these good things, unless somehow this flow is re-established. So somehow we have to think of ourselves, when we are looking for this new spirituality, as being part of this flow between each other. We have to break down the barriers between the souls of each other and know that these barriers do not exist and we have to find that way to really relate to each other as souls and then we will be beginning to practice what the new world religion will be.

Now, I asked myself, is it really a new world religion? Is it really new? And I said, no, not really. It’s only new relative in time and space. In a way it’s only a return to the ageless principles of The Secret Doctrine. I thought of it this way--it’s the kind of Ageless Wisdom religion. It is a return to something that has been with us forever. And, as The Secret Doctrine suggests, these are the principles to which we must return. I would, in a way, call it the religion that is practiced by the Hierarchy. And although the Hierarchy doesn’t really practice any religion at all, they do have a kind of spirituality which binds them to reality. I like to think of their religion in that way when I am trying to think about how we should practice the new world religion--well, what does Hierarchy do amongst themselves? So, in a way, it is the establishment of a reflection of Hierarchical spirituality that is attempting to work out now. And, I would say this, the new world religion is the religion of the fifth kingdom of nature, the kingdom of souls. It is not really humanity’s religion at all, at least humanity as presently constituted. So, the closer we get to Venus, the closer we get to the soul, the closer we get to this inner light and reality within us, the more we are entering the fifth kingdom and the more we can practice the binding back that is common to that kingdom which is really connected to reality.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the principle, distinguishing characteristics that may be found in the new world religion. I would say that the new world religion is solar, “soular”, and it honors the Christ as a solar Being. Now the Aztecs were solar, too. It was a different thing—the religion of the sun doesn’t necessarily have to be good. And the chandra religion in India is a very solar religion even though chandra means moon. So you know, just because some people worship the sun and some people worship the moon, it doesn’t mean that the real solar principle is unfolding within them. The new world religion will be solar in the Christ sense and the hearts of fiery love and the divine flames of the heart will be activated under Neptune and under Venus and it will be altogether under this lunar influence that we call religion. It will be a religion in which every man and woman becomes symbolically, and actually, Hercules.

How many of you have read The Labours of Hercules? How many of you have performed those labours? Keep those hands up. Every man and woman becomes symbolically and actually the bright son of Hera, the soul and Hercules, on his way to becoming Christ. There’s going to be a myth in this new world religion about initiation and the pilgrimage and the progress and the quest of the individual soul as it joins the brother and sister souls and becomes initiated. Initiation will play a big part in the new world religion. It will, in fact, be integral and we’re told that in the three great types of organizations upon the third ray, the second ray and the first ray--the esoteric organisms, the church organisms, and the Masonic organisms--initiation will be given in all three of them thereby meeting the needs of all the different types.

The new world religion will be based upon the cyclic observances which are attuned to the planetary and solar rhythms. And we’re already involved in that, aren’t we? We’re doing that, we have our monthly full and new moon meetings and we try to make them rhythmically responsive to the energies available because it’s all about linking with those wonderful energies. These energies make you feel very good, very happy, and very willing to share them with other people. But one has to link with them and be infused by them—one can’t just talk about them. It’s a question of the real thing. So at these monthly meetings maybe we can get in touch with this rhythm and share it. “Joy shared is joy doubled”, they say. The new world religion will be a trans-cultural approach—it will not be based upon the separatism of language or cultural history, although the different groups may very well keep their different languages and traditions but the core of it will be something that they share in common. H.P.B. said she didn’t care what the tradition had been, the core of it was the esoteric, occult doctrine.

Now, if we want to contrast the old and the new, perhaps the coming new world religion will be one in which meditation is used more frequently than prayer. But it does not supplant prayer because Jesus prayed, Christ prayed, and prayer is good. The planetary Logoi meditate and we have to learn to meditate, too. It’s not based upon sectarianism—all these little splinter groups—it’s based upon cooperation and participation. It is a religion based upon knowledge, not just upon belief. We’re coming out of the age of faith, coming out of the age of belief, and entering into the age of knowledge, and this is good. This is the Aquarian age of knowledge of God instead of believers of God. Wouldn’t you rather be a knower than a believer? But, of course, there is a transition and a certain intensity of believing becomes knowing. St. Paul told us this. It is a religion based upon confidence in the inner God and the belief that an inner god exists and the confidence of the soul which is discovered through meditation and service.

It is a religion that is practiced, not in supplication to the Hierarchy, but in cooperation with them and within their evoked presence. OK, it’s right to bend the knee if a great presence walks in the room--then the knee is appropriate. But this groveling about and forgetting the dignity of man, that’s not what the new world religion is about. One has to stand up also and stand in that first ray energy which is the energy of spirit. There will be no competition in it, no separativeness in it. There will not be the saved, there will not be the elect. In all of the Tibetan’s writings, the word damnable is only used once. He writes of “the damnable doctrine of the elect of God”. And I think you know what I mean. If you are rich, God loves you, all those wonderful things. It deifies pride; it is a damnable doctrine because it stops everybody in their tracks if they give in to it. So these are no pre-destined, elect people of God and we have to move beyond that. It’s a religion in which energies are multiplied by contact with the Hierarchy; they are multiplied by the absence of separative barriers. We all want more, don’t we? The spirit is everything and so the spirit naturally wants more because it is everything. So it is lost here in the outer world and it doesn’t have everything like it has in the inner world and it wants everything. So separatism gets in the way of being everything and having everything.

So life more abundant is on the way and the Christ said “I want you to have life more abundant.” It’s a religion in which the etheric body is going to play an important role for energy transmission. We are entering into a seventh ray age and this etheric sensitivity and connectedness is the next dimension of study for sensitive people. And so etheric patterns will be very important in this new religion and there will be a lot of seventh ray energy in it, a lot of appropriate etheric approach, appropriate geometic patterns which are reflective of the divine archetypes. It won’t be a mess, in other words. It will be a religion in which sound and color play an indispensable role in the science of invocation. Now we are already getting into that as the fourth ray age is almost with us--in another twenty years that will be coming in. And you know when sound and color are used scientifically, we won’t have to talk about those things anymore, we’ll know the exact formulas of connection that will identify us with the higher devic powers and patterns. That, in itself, will be a tremendous exhilaration, a tremendous enthusiasm for all of us.

Tolerance and unity will also be highlighted in this coming religion as it will be related to solar fire and not fire by friction. It will be a religion of intelligent love under divine purpose. You can think of these things yourself. You just have to think of what this new religion will be like and it will come to you. It will be a religion not so much for sheep as for goats. Well, which would you rather be, a sheep or a goat? Well maybe sheep are not that bad but the idea of that initiatory independence, of taking your own evolution in hand like a goat does, to become the unicorn, it’s a religion leading to initiation. That’s the point—first initiation, second, third, whatever it may be--those initiations will be practiced in the inner temples. And every one of those groups—masonry, the church, the esoteric groups–each will have its inner sanctuaries where initiations will be given. And who will be the initiators? Well the Christ will be openly among us and he is the first initiator and he confers the first and second initiations. A lot of religion is reaching for what’s out there. But we are told that the kingdom of heaven is within and that it will be a religion based upon the realization of the centrality of the will and the identity. It’s right here in the heart, this is where we live, and we don’t have to reach out of ourselves for reality. The sixth ray has to remember that, the second ray, under the influence of the first ray, does know that.

Now I have a few more minutes and I would like to discuss how we can envision a universal spirituality. We’ve talked about the new world religion, we’ve talked about the religious impulse and its positive and negative origins and we’ve talked about the state of affairs presently existing. So much depends upon how we interpret the word universal. You know that is a word used very differently—a universal spirituality. It’s not necessarily universal in a cosmic sense; we are not cosmic beings. We’d be doing well to be planetary beings, let alone solar or systemic beings. Yet there is a stage in our development which we could call the planetarization of consciousness. And, at that point, we would be stepping into the spiritual Triad and the possibility of spiritual transfiguration would exist for us. There was a great book by Dane Rhudyar by that name and he was, I expect, planetarizing his consciousness. It could indicate, however, a solar spirituality because sometimes D.K. uses the word galaxy not to mean a huge, multi-billion, island universe, but simply a constellation. That’s what a galaxy of stars is sometimes to him, and when he uses the word universe, he doesn’t necessarily mean the whole thing, he sometimes means simply our solar system. So, when I sometimes think of that universal spirituality, I think about it going to the bounds of our solar life. And all of it involves the heart and solar fire. Now, of course, a universal spirituality does exist but it’s not the province of man to know too much about it. I would say that universal spirituality is likely to be a spirituality that is shared by all humanity. You know, when we use the word universal, we generally mean shared by all, or observed or accepted by all. So universal means inclusive and everybody recognizes it--it will be devoid of all these separatisms and sectarianisms and there will be, somehow, a great consensus about the method of spiritual approach. Well, we certainly don’t have that now. You can’t get consensus among hardly any spiritual people. Maybe among small groups who think alike, hopefully creatively, but still alike. But one day people will see what is there.

D.K. tells us that humanity will be naturally clairvoyant at that future time. In the Aquarian age, for the first 700 years, we will be living under the influence of Saturn (during the first decanate), but then comes Mercury and Venus and those are going to be planets that are going to open up the ajna center for a lot of people and they will see what it is. And therefore consensus will be arrived at. You can’t get consensus of knowledge among believers because nobody knows. You can only get consensus of knowledge among knowers. So we have to turn ourselves into knowers in order to achieve the soul consensus that is being discussed here.

Madame Blavatsky says that by the end of the 21st century occultism, the study of the mysteries, will have won the day and that a great light will shine, illuminating the illusory nature of formerly cherished cleavages. We’re into that process of great illumination right now. Science will come to the rescue to help us end these schisms based on non-penetrating belief because mostly we have belief in a comfortable world but we don’t even allow our belief to penetrate into reality. There will be an agreement between science and the facts of spiritual approach and D.K. assures us that this will be the case. So all of us have to become scientists of the spirit and, when we approach our religious impulse, it must be done in a scientific way, using the higher mind. We have to use these two parts of ourselves.

A universal spirituality is also predicated upon what we would call a global spirituality and we already see signs of that taking place as people share great events over our communications systems. Sometimes it is a sharing of happy events and, at other times, we share sorrowful events--but through the process the one soul and mind of humanity are being brought together into a communion. In the unity there is a lot of saving of energy. So a universal spirituality will be very efficient because we waste so much energy fighting with each other. If that energy was available to leverage our soul, can you imagine the states of realization we would all be enjoying together? So in this universality there is unity, there is harmony and there is inclusiveness. A unified approach by humanity under the second ray will to unify.

Now I want to read just a few things from the Master D.K. about the new church. And you know, his words are very good. This is from The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, “There is no disassociation between the one universal church, the sacred inner Lodge of all true Masons and the innermost circles of the esoteric societies.” One, two, three--there it is. No disassociation between these three types of inner sanctums. “Three types of men have their needs met, three major rays are expressed, and the three paths to the Master are trodden, leading all three to the same Portal and the same Hierophant.” I think he is saying that the three are one and that the Trinity is a unity. So let’s think about that because a great synthesis has to come upon us in our spiritual approach as a result of the Shamballa impact. Right now we are in the esoteric community and surely we need a lot of unity in that--although we may have disagreements. But what about bridging to the church community, to the Masonic community? All of that is a synthesis for the future.

Now he talks about some Masters that are involved in this process. “At this particular time, the Master M, the Master K.H. and the Master Jesus are interesting themselves with the work of unifying, as far as may be, Eastern and Western thought so that the great religions of the East, with the later development of the Christian faith, with all its many branches, may mutually benefit each other. Thus, eventually, it is hoped one great universal church may come into being.” Master M, Master K.H., Master Jesus--that is from Initiation, Human and Solar. “The foundation of the new church which will no longer be along devotional and idealistic lines but will be an outgrowth of the old idealism demonstrating through mental forms. It will have for its basis, the scientific recognition of the unseen world and its due appreciation and apprehension by means of accurate, scientific, ceremonial.” Now he is talking about the blending of the fifth ray and the seventh ray in the Aquarian age and that is coming. So, you see, a lot of this blindness, this fuzziness and this guessing is all going to leave and, knowledge, true knowledge, will take its place in the religious field.

I would like to close on a Sirian note, if I can. Because we are going to have a meditation in which we will use music from the Sirian ritual which we have just completed. And we will be meditating upon certain themes relating to the Christ, to the solar religion and to the star Sirius and to the inspiration of Sanat Kumara. But somehow when you think about what the religious impulse must become, of course you can’t forget the wonderful sixth ray and “The highest light controls” and all that aspirational power. You also cannot forget the beauty of Venus as it relates to the energy of Sirius, the holding of love and mind together. There is a triangle, a connection, involving Venus, the solar Angels and Sirius and you cannot forget Jupiter and that marvelous sense of inclusiveness that should be the keynote of the new spirituality. And we know that there is a triangle between Sirius and Leo and Jupiter which is very, very potent. You cannot forget Neptune and its faculty of bliss which occurs when all artificial boundaries are melted away. And you know what those people are called who tread the way to Sirius—they are called “blissful, dancing points of fanatical devotion”. But you have to be a sixth degree initiate to do that particular dance.

Sirius is behind it all. It is the star of sensitivity. It is the star of karma. It’s the star of freedom. It is the star of initiation. When we want to think about what the new world religion should be and how we can contribute to it by being in the right spirit for it, we think of Sirius. We think of the heart of the sun. We think of the trinity of planets, Jupiter, Venus and Neptune and of course there are many other Sirian connections as well but I am just emphasizing for the sake of the solar flames which we are to become as we enter this new solar religion. Imagine people having as their religious impulse, warmth of heart—just simply warmth of heart. Which is not simply an ordinary occurrence for all of us all the time, you know. I admit I’m not always walking around with a warm heart, I don’t know about you. But, when it happens, you know it is right and you know that there is nothing more beautiful than love. Then you say, “Ah”. When the heart opens us, there’s nothing better. And that’s so affirming. Well Sirius is behind all that, burning away all of the impediments to warmth of heart which, I hope, we will all find a way to practice so that we can all meet in the heart, meet in the heart center, meet in the heart of the sun and meet one day on the star Sirius. Even if you are going other places, it doesn’t make any difference, I’m sure you are all connected–that would be a happy day.

Happiness is promised in this Aquarian age, it’s the age of joy under the Sirian impulse. But we first have to get through the Saturn period, followed by Mercury and Venus. That joy of the Christ realization is coming. So when we think about the new world religion it is a religion in which the joy of the soul is manifest. We’ve got a lot of things to weigh us down, a lot of worries, but inherently, under it all, there is a great joyfulness and bliss going on. And I’m hoping that we can discover that and share that and then we won’t have to talk about our faith because we will be it. That’s the thing, when we are it, we don’t need to do anything because we are that. And then, at that level of attainment, people want to be with you and to talk more. Ramakrishna didn’t have to go very far, did he? He just stayed in his ashram and the people found him. You know, let the magnet work and the joy express.