From Churches to Temples of Initiation
by Carol Parrish

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!

It is a pleasure for me to be at this conference, let alone to speak; just to be here and be with a group of people that hold energy and awareness as a group--as I believe this group is doing--is a wonderful thing. Today as we talk about "From Churches to Temples of Initiation" I am coming at my topic exactly 180 degrees away from all the wonderful power points that have already been presented. But I hope that we will see where those two points begin to come together. I believe that if Christianity was looked at less as a religion and a church and more as a Mystery School, that the modern world would get a quicker understanding of its goal. Every minister or priest should be a philosopher and a teacher who knows more than how to quote verses--not having had their own transformational experience. Each leader needs to be able to lead other individuals through transformation. Christianity and the other traditions, all have at the core of their message the idea that there is a soul, a god, in the making; but we don't approach it that way or we don't hear that enough.

Right now the wisdom of the ages is acting upon all traditions and all planetary Lives and we are moving very swiftly to update human life. The sixth ray has really done its work well. All humanity has been saturated like a cotton ball in an energy of devotion and idealism for 2,000 years--we've learned to be devoted to family, duties, professions, and to our goals. We can focus and hold tight, our obsessions are many, our addictions are strong, and the effort to become single-minded of purpose, has been achieved, so much so that most of our religions have a sort of fanaticism lurking beneath the surface. However, through psychology we are becoming aware of developing new tools to help clear us on our emotional level - old wounds that are both personal and collective are being addressed as we move deeper into the seventh ray energy. We will see humanity embrace a series of ideas that are only scratching the surface at this period of time.

Some of us today are saying humanity is one family. And yet our collective lets our brothers and sisters who are living out of sight starve, go without medical care, without housing - and it doesn't keep us up at night. Our nations finance wars against one another based on selfish interests and have little regard for lives lost, calling them collateral damage. The energy of devotion and idealism has uplifted humanity in its cycle of power, moving us from insensitivity to greater emotional sensitivity, and we have developed a much greater concern about those individuals close to us. While we are more hesitant to attack those to whom we can put a more personal face, weve not found our way yet to unconditional love or to overcome a selfish devotion to those who serve our personal goals. Even our governments are much more favorable to those who lobby for influence than for the voters who keep them in office.

As early as 1947-49 a very conservative philosopher, a theologian, Mon. Romano Gardini, broadcast a crisis, "The End of the World".He taught that the modern world was essentially over. He divided Western history into three segments - classical, medieval, and modern. And he contended that today's Christians were unable to move either forward or backward. The modern pilgrims would have to reach to a "Back to the Future" methodology--a kind of quantum spirituality, he called it. And his recommended approach seemed to be much more like the fifth ray approach to the mystery schools than the sixth ray approach and devotion of religions of today. While we must continue to open our hearts,  we must, at the same time, open our minds in order to use wisely the heart power and the human potential that we have discovered. While Gardini was conservative in his religious structuring, he was correct that the narrow Christian approach would no longer provide and prove itself effective. The power of religions within old belief systems are fading -- belief is no longer enough; a more acceptable manner of understanding and responding is necessary. It has taken the masses some time but they are now beginning to leave organized religion and embrace spirituality with less dogma and doctrine and more psychology and common sense.

The post-modern culture is a culture of choice. The love of mystery exists and will continue to do so because humanity is hungry for the energies that we sense at the edge of our nature. We want spiritual sciences and we want tools to help us discover, identify and move energy from plane to plane more readily and in a more understandable manner. Breakthroughs are occurring as the more mental influence of the seventh ray is making itself felt through discoveries such as that of the Dead Sea Scrolls -  the Nah Hammadi scrolls - long hidden materials. We are learning that most of the translations of both the Old and New Testaments are so distorted that they provide little validity to actual fact. Humanity is being challenged to learn to read Biblical scripture as allegory, symbology and metaphor. While only a few have begun to acknowledge the feminine aspect of creation and her contribution, Sophia is breaking forth. Her name is becoming increasingly significant and her mysteries capturing the interest of many - particularly women, ready to be empowered by a new understanding of her mysteries. In recent weeks we have seen The Passion of the Christ and The DaVinci Code both sweep stirringly over great numbers of our people. And it is as obvious as the polarity of our country can make it. These two powerful ideologies can be observed as masculine mysteries of martyrdom being confronted by feminine mysteries of resurrection. A teaching novel appears and is bringing with it things known in the heart, the esoteric, while the rational portrayal of violence holds sway over those dedicated to the sixth ray of emotionalism.

Esoteric teachings provide new "ah has" just as humanity is grasping that Adam doesn't mean a human but a species, a race of beings, especially as the Christian concept - the mystical Body of Christ is becoming better understood and is associated with Adam Kadmon and with the Heavenly Man of other dimensions. Now scriptures stating "we are one" can become more meaningful and we can become knowledgeable and understand ourselves to be either a part of the problem or a part of the solution. With a modern understanding of holograms we can begin to believe that we are each a part of the Plan, even though we may see things differently from our neighbor. We have made many breakthroughs that will help us continue to find ways to face relationships in a new way. The finger may believe it is separate but the hand knows that it is one. The technology of today has made it possible for us to rediscover ancient truths, recycle ways of understanding. The archeologists have unearthed enough of the wisdom teachings to jar many out of  comfortable sleep. The use of computers in translating texts and technologies that can discover old road beds, under centuries of dirt and carbon dating, all give us new windows on the past.

Inner faith understanding is emerging, much to the resistance of many and sociology has proven that all people have enough caring in their feeling nature that we no longer believe those different from ourselves to be savages without culture. Various older systems can assist us in exploring the teachings of ancient temples. Walking the streets of Ephesus we can imagine the various Mystery Schools - those rare places of learning that once offered fifth ray exactness to the privileged and those deemed worthy-- being replaced by the sixth Ray of Emotionalism, Devotion and Idealism, those preceding laws seemed too harsh, too distant. Now once more humanity experiences the shifting tides of change as chaos swirls around us, forcing our human structures to shift, change and adapt. The development of the rational mind has transformed human conditions and is leading humanity from darkness to light, from the unreal to the real.

For centuries the words, "there is nothing concealed that shall not be revealed", "there is nothing hidden that shall not be known", have been read from our pulpits around the world. Yet these words have not kept deception at bay for our minds and our beliefs have operated on two separate levels. The right hand has not concerned itself with knowing what the left hand is doing and now it is all coming to the surface. The mind of the modern human being moves rapidly when it focuses itself upon a particular quest. We have both the technical equipment to help us and a mind that is focused and pursues its goal. Last summer I heard a Dr. Daniel McIntyre, retired theologian, warn that patriotism has replaced religion in our country as the number one force with which to contend. I believe this is true. When people are intimidated from speaking their truth by governments, religious authorities, or threats to their freedom, we see sixth ray consciousness at its worst. It dehumanizes.

So we've taken up the task of unveiling much of humanity's early history of which we were ignorant. Researchers are contributing to our understanding and are beginning to reconsider other high cultures and contributions they have made, perhaps even through contact with other life forms. Some information is so radical that we are afraid to face such speculations. Churches have taught the message of love of God and love of neighbor without understanding that it is self-love that makes it possible to love others. We do not understand love even as we use the words  "thinketh in the heart". Now heart math validates that there is a mind in the heart itself that can know and remember what the brain cannot. Biofeedback validates altered states of consciousness, we know electrical currents speed up healing and we've had two wonderful presentations from the scientific point of view today. We know that healing prayers are highly effective not only when directed to individuals but even to specific beds in which a patient might have the good fortune to find him or herself. We find ourselves following in the footsteps of the Illumined of all ages, recalling that the Great Master of the Christian way said clearly, "Even greater things than these ye shall do".

It is said that at the dawn of the Earth Scheme certain instructions were deposited in safe places by the Great Ones. Each of the higher Ones granted some of His or Her higher frequencies to humanity by the use of which humanity would eventually get back in touch with our source and with the higher worlds. These Beings then decided where they should hide the key to the kingdom of heaven, without sharing with humanity that it was hidden within. Here then abides the spark divine that is to be brought then to fulfillment through our own struggles and experiences. A wonderful author and teacher, Ralph Metzner, says, "Heaven is within. The spiritual path is purgatory. And hell is when you get stuck."

We are responding to the seventh ray energy mentally. Seed thought meditation focuses us at a mental level. It is attracting rich new mind stuff to each of us in our mental body and the focus we build magnetizes more and more of the stuff needed to organize layer and layer of subtle vibration within that mental body. This vibration will then be converted into delicate frequencies through which we will detect our soul purpose. The vibration of the higher world will then assist us in building receptors to the intuitive and the atmic planes as they pour their frequencies into the chalice we continue to build as we are developing more and more of our soul-infused nature, later to be attached to the monadic influence.

One of the books that I recently read is Elaine Pagel's Beyond Belief- - and if you haven't already read it I believe you should. It is so significant in helping people in the church world to begin to understand how much more is really there for us in the Christian tradition that we have missed. But those who penetrate into the cloud of knowable things find themselves in awe of the opportunity we have to pursue, to perceive, to know and to intuit. Hesitant to express all that we discover, we wait for verification from others who are likewise discovering the same impressions. We confirm for one another, certainly in a conference such as this, the realities that are being unveiled. We begin to search within more diligently, to access less from outside sources without verification and we come to see that although we may use different words, but we're on the same wavelength as the same truths begin to appear from a variety of sources. As a smiling face reflects to us the unknown from Mars, can we not see that this is probably a message saying both welcome and ha ha.

There is a certain human arrogance that has proclaimed that we are the most superior life form on the Earth--that we are the chosen sons and daughters and that we can take as we please and do as we please, believing seriously that we are the only valued form of life in our solar system. Now we may be coming into new awareness in a way little expected. We may have to think in terms of right relationship, not just with the earth, but with the solar system. These are all a wonderful turn of events for us to ponder, regardless of how things finally emerge. With our strong sixth ray conviction we are dedicated to our chosen addictions, beliefs, and how we think things ought to be. Repeatedly we have to learn we can live without a person we didn't want to lose, or a business in which we felt secure, or a love that didn't grow as we wished it would have. We ponder each of these as we confront crystallizations born of emotion, devotion and dedication. And we watch them be changed, transformed, or destroyed, perhaps, by incoming waves of new thought, new discoveries, and new energies.

Seventh ray energy is efficient--it teaches many lessons at the same time and while it seems to touch one, it touches many--a family, a group, a corporation, or a professional field. It is highly efficient; it works through the masses with financial upheavals; it shifts its power from resource to resource. Remember, people are resources--many hands make light the work and many minds joined together can envision well-being for all. Critical mass is a great power little understood. Watching as age-old structures based on devotion rapidly fade, many grow easily disillusioned. The movement from ray to ray demands that forms die or transform, we must perceive the subtle messages that will guide humanity through the changing of the ages. As experiences of the light bring knowingness to confront belief, literalism is confronted and profound mysteries of inner reality are given a space in which to emerge.

Esoteric teaching suggests that from the earliest civilizations humanity has been on a quest for a more conscious relationship with our Source. Religion itself has been ever transforming. We learn religion is the invocative cry of humanity and the evocative response of the greater Life. Religions today are too often seen as so charged with emotionalism that they are perceived as senseless and fanatical to true thinkers. While this is the outer form Piscean religion shows, we need also to remember that the goal of religion is to take us to a transforming spirituality that opens us to a greater relationship with life itself. Even now we stand at a point of radical change; religion as we have known it is rapidly splintering into two avenues of _expression--one clearly dogmatic and demanding, while the second it taking the form of a revitalizing, universal spirituality that has not quite found its form yet. This new spirituality is what we are talking about as we come here together. I think of it as an Aquarian religion, still in its infancy. It distrusts religion as it has been known and it desires to be known as something else. But it is this newborn religious impulse which, in due time, will form the foundation for the spiritual centers of the future. This impulse is humanitarian, compassionate, and transforming. Its goal is love-wisdom. It is blessed by the esoteric ruler of Aquarius, ray two, with its love-wisdom influence.

Individuals awakening to their own inner nature are challenged to respond to the changing approaches. While awakening ones find no form ready to nurture them except traditional or contemporary religion, too often these forms have become abrasive to their delicate inner nature. So psychology, poetry, music, art and service have all been used to alleviate the pain. But these cannot provide what is being sought by the inner nature that wants a new form of alignment with its source. New thought approaches can carry individuals toward a healing of woundedness but soon, they too, need more. So the Aquarian approach to religion is being born right now. Soul-infused individuals are recognizing in a subjective way the one world religion that is struggling to find its outer form. Others are frightened by the concept of a universal approach to religion. There is a pervading fear that world religions are going to be cooked down into a kind of mush with no flavor or identity. I choose to think of it more like a salad that will retain all of its colors, textures, identities and flavors. Each will have a respect and a regard for each of the world religions that make a contribution to the whole. Ecumenical ideas have led us to inner faith and it is this inner faith and inner action that is leading us to see our similarities while granting differences without dissent. As the seventh ray continues to expand our mind, we will capture the essence of myths, archetypes and parables that have long guided humanity. A dedication to dogma will vanish--we will remember and we must remember that dogma is not just a religious characteristic but a defining factor in many positions. Dogmatism insists on accepting something as absolutely true even when there may be cause for reasonable doubt. The problem with dogmatism lies not in the concerns as to whether or not something is true but in the refusal to think in the light of higher mind.

Now let's look at the inflowing seventh ray influence we often call ceremony and white magic. We must expand our thinking and recognize this seventh ray influence as orderly, as ritualistic, but also as the ray of economy and finance. It is efficient with no wasted motion. Ceremony means formal in nature--coordinated, organized, synthesized and magical, certainly mystical and, at the same time, practical. All of this is to say that humanity stands at the brink of becoming aspiring mystics. It is time for the work of the soul to be made manifest on the outer planes. We are to know ourselves as souls and see others as souls as well. There is a readiness for discipleship, for connectedness, that this era, with its incoming awareness, can heal. So much of humanity has grown spiritually sick, hungry and left without hope that a path of discipleship, persons that can lead individuals into transformation, are deeply needed. And while we tend often times to become critical of all that is around us, we need to realize that large numbers need to be awakened to a next step.

Mystics tend to think that their approaches to truth are quite simple while others often are quite dumb-founded by them. The era ruled by Uranus awakens and stirs in powerful highly visible ways; so mentally quick it stimulates the Aquarian impulses, strengthening the fifth ray effect as well as that of the seventh ray, so technology and exploration abound. Now they are to be brought to humanitarian aims - new capabilities, a new sense of adventure, begs transformation in all areas of human endeavor. Even as our structures are weakening as the devotion that held them together is being withdrawn, the opportunity exists for thinkers to move in, find new forms, and bring them to manifestation. Interestingly enough, power and economics are as mistrusted in a similar way as religion is. We're being forced to recognize that our world cannot be reconstructed without a re-evaluation and a redistribution of financial opportunity and a greater respect for both the resources of nature and of people. The incoming seventh ray energy has a close relationship to appropriateness and the question repeatedly will be--what is appropriate in this situation? We must all think that way.

Many are recognizing an inner call to embrace personal ethics and religion in bold new ways. Formulas long veiled are emerging as tools to be shared. Wise ones, capable of the sacred work of nurturing souls, are busy even now evolving new psycho-spiritual techniques and restoring esoteric psychology to daily lives and daily situations. Mentors who have achieved self-actualization are co-creating lives of honor and nobility of spirit--bravely paving the way for the masses ready to join them. How to's are incredibly important. In fact I have felt that a great deal of my own work is to be based around how to's. And I think there are a number of us here, as I listen to you, that have that same impulse--that we have to define the how to's to help people to take their first steps in trust and in safety.

Capable ones are emerging on every line of service. The re-emergence of communities, of co-working, of co-creating, prepares humanity for the reconstruction of societies more along Aquarian values. The foundation of the independent nature of the western world was laid in the fifth ray foundation with its mystery schools and its spiritual sciences and delineations. The passion of the sixth ray drove deep within a dedication to beliefs that one could assimilate. Now the humanitarian impulses of Aquarian group work can blend these foundations into an active path of initiation with great freedom of conscience, ethics and value. Through the seventh ray system of orderliness and rituals, practitioners working within the framework of a religion will bring forth new centers of understanding - mentally alert and spiritually healthy. There is something wonderful about being able to question an aspect of our daily lives that is as significant as our religion. The rich energy of the sixth ray has built magnetic qualities into devotees in the last centuries as humanity outgrows religions of restriction and embraces meditation, contemplation and inner work. I am particularly thinking about seed thought work--it draws to itself the intuitive guidance needed to unfold both the individual soul purpose and the future for the collective. This collective, magnetic center, built now in so many, is at work drawing to modern humanity new concepts of relationship, equality, appreciation of culture and nature.

Creativity, inventiveness and imagination are sweeping the world in powerful waves. These qualities, blended with freedom and sensitivity of _expression directed toward beauty, well-being and appreciation of the subtle energies of which increasing numbers are becoming aware, provides the foundation needed to carry humanity towards initiation. The challenge is to begin the work knowing that it will be transformed as the collective moves ahead. Respect for the feminine within each is vital. A new appreciation for gender must be gained for an evolved society to be created. We must remember that love itself is the evolutionary force. Already the collective heart and mind are ready on the inner side of life. Only the outer side is in disarray. Here our personal return to wisdom, compassion and simplicity are required. Role models who recognize the importance of this era, are vital. We're challenged to become better co-workers, less competitive and more supportive of the efforts of one another. We are asked to be increasingly conscious of the presence of the inner world and to be more outspoken and courageous about our own inner knowing.

In our Western world we already have a legal framework of churches readily available to serve as centers of light and love, places in which to do transformational work. Students of higher thought depart the churches rather than re-work them. The need to stay and serve is great because humanity is hungry for those who can respond to the incoming impulses in an encouraging manner. Church centers are becoming more and more accepting of new approaches to meditation, prayer, healing work,  study and sharing in a respectful, inner faith manner. This current opportunity will grow only stronger-- assisting humanity to move toward the initiation of the masses. Churches will no longer be seen as just rewarding places of personal renewal but as environments wherein sensitive impressions from the higher world can be anchored at a mental level to be lived out in the daily life. With new freedoms the churches will become the temples where aware individuals can nourish dedicated co-workers to use new opportunities wisely. Churches will be temples of learning once more. They will teach how to live ethically and explore the ethical ideologies that are needed. They will help us to honor spirit, mind and body.

We live in a blessed moment - at a time of transition from age to age. The masses are restless to take their place in reconstruction. The dot by number game plan that has led humanity for centuries is becoming ever clearer. The solutions we need for the correcting of our world are already here and within us. Dedicated ones will bring them forth a few hundred years from now. More formal temples of initiation will be in place. Wisdom will bring the needed process of intuitive insights, new revelations, concepts and principles that will continuously make participants more sensitive to the divine Plan. Esotericists of today are magnetically drawing from the raincloud of knowable things the outline for the future temples of initiation. No longer do such temples exist only on the inner planes to be longed for but we are invited to participate in anchoring centuries of effort. The Aquarian religious impulse has arrived and tomorrow's temples of initiation have already begun. The future is now.

May the Power of the One Life

pour through the group of all true servers.

May the Love of the One Soul

characterize the lives of all those who seek to aid the Great Ones.

May I fulfill my part, in the One Work,