Michael Robbins Volume 2, Number 4, Fall 2006 Editorial Articles
Poems and More Featured Artist
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The Aquarian Christ: *** This talk was presented at the 2006 annual Conference of the Seven Ray Institute/University of the Seven Rays in Phoenix, Arizona. During this morning’s talk, I would like to place a particular emphasis upon that section of the book, The Reappearance of the Christ, which focuses on the “Christ as the Forerunner of the Aquarian Age” and proceed with a short analysis of some of the main points. This is foundational material and prior to the Conference I made my way through most of it. I re-discovered what an incredibly profound book it is and how much of it I have yet to comprehend. As I was preparing my thoughts for this Conference, I was struck by my need to be reminded of a number of important facts touching on the Christ’s mission in Aquarius, and which are most useful as we attempt to prepare for His Reappearance. Maybe there are some of us here who also have that need. Our greatest task (even as it was in the momentous year 1945) is still to prepare humanity’s minds and hearts for the reappearance of the Christ. This is the period of the Forerunner, in which less than twenty years remain (1945-2025) to prepare His Way. Even though the day may not be immediate, as many suppose—for the requirements for the reappearance of the Christ are rather far from being fulfilled—it is still an imminent event (as the Hierarchy understands time). We are to prepare the way, even though it may be fifty years or even more before it takes place; although some think it an immediate possibility and others think it will take much longer, the fact remains that we don’t know when it will occur and that should not be our focus. We still have about a hundred and ten years before the Piscean energies have been significantly exhausted, so that the balance between Piscean and Aquarian energies is reaching some sort of level. Indeed, no man knoweth the hour of His Coming, and those who claim that they do are simply deluding the public and themselves. The Tibetan tells us that: In the light of the Will of God, Christ made certain basic decisions and determined to carry them out in the relatively immediate future—the exact date of His coming being known only to Him and a few of His senior workers;…1 These senior workers would be Masters and Chohans, the ones who know. He also said: the unconvinced, yet hopeful, wishful thinking of believers (and also
unbelievers), will soon give place to certain knowledge, to visual recognition,
to provable signs of executive work and to the reorganisation by men of
unusual potency—[i.e., initiates and Masters] of the political, religious,
economic and social life of humanity. It is important for us to be realistic about the reappearance. These are days in which people could lose their mental balance and you see it going on all the time. It is important for the esotericists of the world to keep that realism by a very clear and balanced reading of The Reappearance of the Christ. This is essential for it reminds us of what is really happening. It is a really good stabilizer to read this book every few years; I certainly found it to be so. I have a lot of quotations from the Tibetan (from The Reappearance of the Christ) to share with you as I find it is important to go back to bedrock when we are talking about our whole Conference theme. He further says: we are told that Christ might come in Person and walk among men as He did before. This has not yet taken place but plans are being laid which will enable Him to do so. Those plans do not involve the birth of some nice child in some nice home on Earth; they will not produce the wild claims and the credulous recognition of the well-meaning and the unintelligent as is so frequently the case today, nor will someone appear and say: "This is the Christ. He is here or He is there." I would point out to you, however, that the widespread appearance of such tales and claims, though undesirable, misleading and wrong, nevertheless demonstrates human expectancy of the imminence of His coming. Belief in His coming is basic in the human consciousness. How He will come and in what manner is not yet stated. The exact moment has not yet arrived nor has the method of His appearance been determined. Nevertheless, there may be some kind of delay in this process. I think there has been a delay actually. In Initiation, Human and Solar we see that there was hope that after the 1950s certain Masters could have appeared and then the Christ himself would have appeared at the end of the century. That hope was abrogated with the heating up the world situation and the dropping of the atomic bomb. I think the availability of nuclear energy to an unprepared humanity necessitated a delay in this process. This is my impression anyway. When we think of the Reappearance of the Christ and the external assumption of His duties in the Aquarian Age, patience and humility are required of us. We have much preparatory work to do. Nevertheless, this task of preparation which falls to aspirants, disciples, and initiates in the world is surely essential, for in the externalization of the Hierarchy and the reappearance of the Christ lies the salvation and redemption of humanity and a major step towards the rendering of planet Earth, a sacred planet. I think this is all about the emergence of the second ray soul of our planet and getting humanity in shape so that it can assist in the emergence of the world soul. Can we really imagine the nature of the Aquarian Christ? To do so we will want to be sure of the nature of the Aquarian Energy and the date when that age will actually begin. As for the actual start of the Aquarian Age, we are given a date most useful to us in the adjustment of our ideas concerning where we, humanity, now stand: 2117 is the figure given quite definitely by the Tibetan in an unpublished letter to the psychologist Roberto Assagioli. That letter is a gem. It is an authentic letter and it does give 2117 as the starting date. Some of us, Niklas Nihlen and also Phillip Lindsay, have done some very fine work in establishing why, because of certain Venus cycles and other factors, this date should be one we really must consider. That gives us 110 years before the last decanate of Aquarius is aligned with our vernal equinox. In The Reappearance of the Christ, we read: “Astronomically, we are not yet functioning fully within the influence of Aquarius; we are only just emerging from the Piscean influence, and the full impact of the energies which Aquarius will set loose has not yet been felt.” So we are in this overlap period and we are as much Piscean as we are Aquarian. We have to use the best of Pisces and purge ourselves of its worst effects and then gradually assimilate the Aquarian energy, which I think none of us has truly done, but we have a good start. We have to realize that we are not really very far-seeing, not compared with what the Masters can see and all the complex interaction they can envision. What can we envision of the Age of Aquarius? We can use the following emergent energies and trends as points of reference and there are many more. So let us see something about this age of Aquarius and what the Christ will be bringing to us and why he is uniquely suited to do this. Let us call it the Age of the Fifth Ray—the major ray of Aquarius is the fifth ray, indicating remarkable strides in science and the mastery of energies—especially subtle energies. The Aquarian age will be a scientific age and its evolution will be a scientific evolution, as will its religion. Let’s also call it an age of the seventh ray. Every time the Aquarian Age occurs it doesn’t mean that the seventh ray will also occur with it. This particular ray cycle that we are talking about lasts for the entire duration of a precessional age. In the coming Aquarian age the seventh ray will coincide with it, affording us the opportunity to “bring Heaven to Earth,” and thus externalizing, for our day and age, the Father’s intention. In this Aquarian age, the power of Saturn (already felt) will be focally in power from 2117 to approximately 2837—including the natural overlap periods, one of which has already begun. I use increments of 720 years to divide the Aquarian Age. The number 72 is most important in relating to both Precessional Ages and Yugas. The power of Saturn gives us choice, difficulty, opportunity, and conformity to the divine will and divine Plan. In the Aquarian Age, Mercury (indicating the Aquarian apotheosis of buddhi/manas) will be a powerful conditioning factor because Mercury is both buddhi and manas. Mercury will be focally in power from 2837 to approximately 3557—but who even thinks in terms of these future dates? This will be the great Mercurial age--it will be the era of the individual and group antahkarana. If we think we are building the antahkarana now, just wait another 720 years, we are really going to know what we are doing. In the Aquarian Age, the planet Venus bringing in the Age of Brotherhood, will be focally in power from 3557 to approximately 4277. We have only passed the year 2000 and to be thinking ahead into the year 4,000 is something, isn’t it? This will be the age of the establishment of the World Community, during which nationalism will die out. The Aquarian Age will be the age of the revelation of the network of subtle energies, which substand our normal physical plane experience. In the Aquarian Age, there will come the discovery and utilization of the etheric body, signaling the death of materialism as we now know it. Some of you who are astrologers know that the sign of Aquarius is related to the lowest of the creative Hierarchies, which is related to the etheric plane, but also the physical plane. It will be the age in which we have the experience of the one mind of humanity and we already sense the potential. The experience of the one soul of humanity will be emerging and the advanced members of the human family can already sense it. It will be the age of the revelation of the nature of the deva kingdom, and the establishing of real cooperation with certain aspects of that kingdom. Obviously there are certain devas that you and I will not be able to contact, they actually rule an entire plane of a Raja Deva Lord, but we will have cooperation with some within that kingdom. The Aquarian age will be the era of white magic—the power of the materialization of thought will reach heights that surpass even those of ancient Atlantis. And I can only ask us, are we ready for this? Just imagine if we could really materialize our thoughts completely, I think we are not ready. It will be the age of the revelation of Genius, and while every one of us is really a genius in our soul nature, we must bring that genius, or genie, right down on earth so that that state becomes our practical and normal mind. The Aquarian age will be the age of the revelation of the Universal Mind as expressed now through the Spiritual Triad, which is increasingly accessible through the development of the antahkarana. And, I think, most important of all, it will be the age of the experience of Universal Love—especially during the last third of the Aquarian Era. This will be uniquely, Christ’s period of fullest expression, for in so many ways, He is a Venusian Being, as is His great Teacher, Sanat Kumara. Christ is the Morning Star, he is Lucifer, the bright star, Venus, and it will be his age. Now what does the Tibetan say about this.: the major effect of [the Aquarian Age] will be to induce recognition of man's essential unity, of the processes of sharing and of cooperation and of the emergence of that new world religion whose keynote will be universality and initiation. Religion will be very important but not religion as we know it. It will be a religion that is both scientific and subjective, it will be a major way of relating humanity, intelligently and thoroughly, to the major sources of spiritual inspiration upon our planet, the science of invocation and evocation. The era of scientific religion is coming. Is the Christ a scientist? Well, he will certainly know enough about it to lead us in this scientific age. Religion, in fact, will become a method of initiation—a spiritual condition toward which every intelligent human being will learn to aspire. Surely we aspire to initiation for the power it will confer to be better servers. What is meant by the Tibetan’s use of the term universality? It means the tendency to think in great wholes—whether conceiving the wholeness of humanity, the wholeness of planetary life on all levels, and even the conception of the solar system as an instrument for the expression of the God of Love. So holistic thinking, which is already emerging, will lead us into universality. After all, what is the universe? D.K. is very interesting in his use of words such as universe and galaxy-- sometimes when he talks about universe he means precisely our solar system. So when he talks about universal consciousness he somehow means the consciousness of our Solar Logos, in some small measure. The third initiation is the first solar initiation and during the Aquarian age a fair number of people will be led into that solar type of conception. So we’re not talking about cosmic consciousness in some huge sense, we’re talking about an awareness of what’s really going on in our solar system and having enough solar power in us to appreciate that kind of universality. The Aquarian Age will be an age of widespread initiation promoted by the emergence of the universalizing consciousness. This has never yet been the case: D.K. tells us: humanity is now undergoing a true initiation as it enters into the new age of Aquarius; it will then be subjected to those energies and forces which will break down the barriers of separation, and which will blend and fuse the consciousness of all men into that unity which is distinctive of the Christ consciousness. The Christ consciousness and the age of Aquarius have so much in common. We had a lecture here the other day entitled, “Why Now?” Why should this all be happening now? And there are so many cycles that are leading precisely to this opportunity and we can see that the Hierarchy and the Christ chose this time since its very inception for the emergence of itself once again into full power on the physical plane. The Christ is the World Server, Teacher, and Savior for both the Piscean and the Aquarian Age. Even when He was still the World Savior in Pisces, the Christ foresaw His mission in the Age of Aquarius. That segue between Pisces and Aquarius, depicted for us in the relationship of the constellation Pisces and Aquarius in the sky, is a manner of overlap and the Christ is a representation of that overlap. According to the Tibetan: He told His disciples to go into the city and that there they would meet a man, carrying a pitcher of water, that they should follow him to the upper room and there make ready the communion feast in which He and they would share. The Last Supper was symbolically an Aquarian event: One of the virtues of the energy of Aquarius is the Power of Sharing, which the Tibetan describes. The great spiritual achievement and evolutionary event of that age will be the communion and human relationships established among all peoples, enabling men everywhere to sit down together in the Presence of the Christ and share the bread and wine (symbols of nourishment). Note the emphasis of sitting down “in the Presence of the Christ.” In the early days they actually sat down with the Christ at the table, just the few, and now we will have his presence with us among the many. We will have the Christ presence with us always, even if we are not seeing him physically. So when does sharing become possible? Well, you know you are moved to share when your heart becomes filled with this warm energy—the solar fire takes over and the Christ presence comes into you and you just want to give everything. When that presence comes, sharing will be the natural way that we will live. The Tibetan says: Preparations for that shared feast (symbolically speaking) are on their way, and those preparations are being made by the masses of men themselves, as they fight and struggle and legislate for the economic sustenance of their nations, and as the theme of food occupies the attention of legislators everywhere. This sharing, beginning on the physical plane, will prove equally true of all human relations and this will be the great gift of the Aquarian Age to humanity. There are all kinds of levels on which we can share and we have to do it, do we not? The Christ consciousness promotes this outflow from one to another, so we can all assimilate each other. Now that might not be a bad thing. Just imagine the ability, when one is for all and all is for one, to assimilate what we all are so that we actually become one being, with a multi-focus. That lies ahead for we are a group being and if you look at a hierarchy there is only so much room at the top and it is not as if every atom is going to become the Solar Logos literally. So we are a group being and we have to get used to the idea that we are one thing with multiple foci and sharing will lead to that. We are told that just after the illumination of the Buddha in the 500’s B.C., the Christ became the Bodhisattva. In June, 1945, at the time of the full moon, “He definitely and consciously took over His duties and responsibilities as the Teacher and Leader during the Aquarian solar cycle.” So we have to go back to 500 B.C., when the influence of Pisces was already beginning to be felt, to find the time when he took over his world saviorship as the World Teacher for the era of Pisces. Now who he was exactly at that time we do not know—was he an internal being, was he an external being? We don’t know. But in 1945, about 170 years before the actual beginning of the Aquarian Age, he took over his responsibilities as teacher and leader during the Aquarian solar cycle. The Avatars do not necessarily wait for the beginning of a ray or the beginning of an age to fulfill their destiny. They usually start a little earlier. Now, what are three of the Christ’s functions during the Aquarian Age? The Tibetan gives us something that we should all have in our consciousness and dwell upon:
We have to impress these three functions within our consciousness because that is what he is going to be doing within the Aquarian age and hopefully we will be in a position to cooperate with him. First, in 1945, the Christ became the Point within the Triangle, and will so remain for 2500 years. The Tibetan states: In those three words—light, love and power—the energies of His three Associates (the great Triangle of Force which stands in power behind Him) are described: the energy of the Buddha: Light, for the light ever comes from the East; the energy of the Spirit of Peace: Love, establishing right human relations; the energy of the Avatar of Synthesis: Power, implementing both light and love. At the centre of this Triangle the Christ took His stand; from that point His Aquarian work began, and it will continue for two thousand five hundred years. Thus He inaugurated the new era and, upon the inner spiritual planes, the new world religion began to take form. The word "religion" concerns relationship, and the era of right human relations and of a right relation to the Kingdom of God began. Such a statement as this is easily made but its implications are far-reaching and stupendous. There are also new Aquarian functions which the Christ will uphold: We are told that “by His physical Presence, He will become the "Dispenser of the Water of Life." Also, “through the overshadowing of those sensitive to His impression and of His focussed Mind, He becomes what is technically known as the ‘Nourisher of the little ones.’” That nourishing of the little ones is already starting. You can feel and sense that there are many disciples and groups that are being overshadowed by the Christ’s presence. Well, who are the little ones? We are the little ones. All initiates of the first and second degree are little ones, regardless of what they think. And when we become initiates of the third and fourth degree, then we begin to grow up a little bit. His duties as the Point within the Triangle are particularly related to the masses of human beings everywhere. As the Point He will influence them, enlighten them and produce right human relations amongst them. As Dispenser and Nourisher, He enters particularly upon His Aquarian duties. Let’s examine, with the Tibetan, these three functions of the Aquarian Christ: His Role as the Point within the Triangle: First, as the Point within the Triangle, Christ becomes the awakener of the hearts of men, and the one who institutes right human relations by being simply what He is and by standing unmoved where He is. This He accomplishes by transmitting the energies from the three points of the surrounding Triangle to humanity. This blended, impersonal energy, triple in nature, will be spread abroad universally, producing evolutionary growth, attracting people and nations magnetically to each other and automatically causing the unfoldment of the sense of synthesis, of provable unity and of a desirable fusion. Just as, during the Piscean Age, there was unfolded in humanity a mass responsiveness to knowledge and to the principle of intelligence, so in the Aquarian Age, a mass response to right relations will equally be evoked, and goodwill (as its expression) will be distinctive of the mass consciousness. His second role is as the Dispenser of the Waters of Life: As Dispenser of the Water of Life, His work is most mysterious and not at all easy to comprehend. In His public work, two thousand years ago, He said: "I am come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly." (John X.10.) The Life Aspect—from the angle of the vision of Christ—expresses itself in three ways: As physical life, nourishing the cells of the body. This life is found within each atom of substance as the central point of living light. In Esoteric Healing we learn that the Christ is the healthiest of all human beings and has what is called a perfectly balanced endocrine system. That sets the standard etherically for the ideal human being. He will teach in such a way as to bring new levels of health and vitality to humanity. We cannot help but think that the throat center, as ruler of the physical processes, will be stimulated by the Christ in a new way, bringing the entire question of etheric-physical health to a new level. That is the first level of life that the Christ will dispense. The second level of life is called livingness. The Tibetan wrote: When this livingness is present and expressing itself, the human atom becomes a part of the spiritual Hierarchy.
One more type of life the Christ will bring, and this is an important one, the one most often referred to, the Christ will bring the Life more abundantly. The Tibetan wrote: This life can be known as light, love and power within and above the head of the disciple of the Christ. This abundant life enables him to cooperate, not only with humanity and with the spiritual Hierarchy, but also with Shamballa itself—the centre of life in its purest essence.
Christ dispenses the Water of Life, Nourishes the Little Ones and is the Point within the Triangle. These are the things we have to think about when we think about the Aquarian Christ and desire to cooperate with him. We are being nourished and stimulated by this energy from Him and countless thousands, maybe millions, will be undertaking the first initiation and thousands will be taking the Baptism, the second initiation, during this age of the cleansing waters. The nourishment that is occurring is very interesting because he is nourishing the little ones so they can become initiates of the third and fourth degree. Now some of them actually will achieve that by the end of the Aquarian age due to this nourishment. I would just like to say a few words about things that can get in the way of this marvelous Aquarian outflowing that he intends. These things concern us very much. The trouble is in Christ’s own household. Now some of us might think of ourselves as part of Christ’s own household, or would like to be, and although we may not think of ourselves as troublemakers, it is possible that we are just a little bit. This is what the Tibetan says of the matter: A Master and, to a far higher extent, the Christ, suffers far more from those in His Own household than from those in the outer world; His work is more impeded by the advanced aspirants than by the intelligent thinkers. Bear this in mind at this time. It was not the cruelty of the outer world of men which caused the depths of sorrow to the Christ when on earth; it was His Own disciples, plus the massed sorrow—spread over the entire cycle of life, past, present and future—of humanity. 3 That massed sorrow is called the “dark night of the soul.” That’s the real definition of the dark night of the soul, not something we are suffering personally, but something we are suffering because of the identification with the ills of all human beings. Another thing he says about us: The Masters are, therefore, anxious to "burn up the disciple in the fire of the will-to-love so that he is set free and the barriers to the inflow of the avataric force may be dissolved." Why is this? Because it is the disciples in the world and not the mass of men who today hinder the Coming of the Avatar and render useless His intention. He dare not come until the disciples and aspirants in the world bring about the needed changes in themselves, for the reason that there would not be "enough of the will-to-love with the fiery essence."4 So here we have this glorious picture of what the reappearing Christ can be. We have the statement that He might have already appeared long ere this—we had almost a promise that he could have appeared in the twentieth century—and now that we are told that the first plans for the externalization will be laid in 2025. So we have to do better. Now I am going to close with two injunctions from the Tibetan that tell us what we have to do to prepare the way for the emergence of the great Lord in his Aquarian dispensation.
So we have to prepare men’s minds and hearts for the reappearance of the Christ, even though it will not be for a while. The next thing he says is:
Well, those are the words and we have our work cut out for us. These are some foundational thoughts that have been planted so that we can build upon these things.
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