Invoking the Aquarian Christ in Jerusalem

This paper was presented at the 20^th annual conference of the University of the Seven Rays on "The Aquarian Christ: Living in the Radiant Heart of the Coming One".

Shalom and Salaam to everyone. First I would like to take you on a journey to Jerusalem and then address some of the aspects of what we encounter as an outpost for the Aquarian Christ energy in Jerusalem and the implications of that for the Ageless Wisdom community.

Let us move our inner eye toward Jerusalem. What do we think and feel when we hear Jerusalem? The mind immediately classifies it as a problem spot in world politics; and for the emotions it is a magical place, the archetypal City of Peace. It is both a symbol of our highest ideal of Peace, of Shamballa, and at the same time one of the major places responsible for the absence of peace on Earth. And this great drama is being held in place in Jerusalem for millennia.

Down the ages an exceptional amount of cultures and religions have left their imprint on this specific spot on the Earth. And these historical imprints are focused into unbelievable density in the Old City of Jerusalem and especially around the Temple Mount, Mount Moriah.

On the East side of the Old City there is the Palestinian part of Jerusalem, and on the West side the Israeli part. The everyday life in Jerusalem seems not so different from any other city. Yet one can feel the charge of many thoughtforms meeting, clashing, mingling, endeavoring somehow to live together in this small area.

This place seems to have the specific tendency to attract the human projections of the holy and the true and to tightly preserve the thoughtforms which are created around them.

Many of the important events of the three abrahamic religions have occurred in other places, yet it is Jerusalem where the thoughtforms are centered and preserved.

The amount and vehemence of thoughts and feelings which the believers of these three religions, and also the secular world, send to this place from all over the planet is immense; thus each group holds their thoughtform of Jerusalem in place and adds daily to its substance.  Jerusalem is like a magnet.

The Temple Mount is the central point of this magnet. On the Mount, there stand the two Mosques. We know of the Jewish Temple which stood in the same area. Some hold that the Roman Temple of Jupiter stood at the same place and that there are earlier structures of worship there as well, including worship of the Goddess. This little hill with its layers of temples, which keeps the attention of humanity glued to it, is called Mt Moriah, which means in Hebrew the Teachers of the Lord. It is interesting that Michael Robbins says that King Solomon, who built the Jewish Temple, was Master Morya.

Between the two mosques there is a large open space and in this space there is a special atmosphere. There seems to prevail an emptiness, a silence which is quite contrary to the density around it: like in the eye of a storm. One wonders if it could be an opening or inlet of 1^st Ray energy, a kind of vortex, which could have been the initiating impulse for all this intensity. In a scientific geological measurement of the intensity of light on the planet it was found that the strongest physical light is in Jerusalem. This is definitely a Capricornian place, reaching up into the supernal light and anchoring it solidly in matter, creating manifold thoughtforms on the way.

The name of Jerusalem is very revealing of this fact: Yeru-Shalem means city of the one whole. Shalem means whole in Hebrew. It has the same root as the word Shalom, Peace.  Yet now the city is called Yeru-shalaim, meaning the city of two wholes. When the one whole is brought down into matter, it becomes the many. This natural process of ‘unity becoming diversity’, the multiplication of form, is the way of evolution everywhere, but here in Jerusalem it seems intensified and preserved to the extreme. The result is what might be called cryptic density. When one goes down into the deep archeological excavations in the Old City, the piling layers of old thoughtforms are very palpable. The dark recesses of history and the human sub-conscious can be accessed here and one can get a sense of what it might feel like to approach the “door where evil dwells”. Evil in this context could perhaps be understood as a suffocating amount of old form.

So we have here the highest light being rendered into densest matter  - which opposes the New.

In the last decades much good work is being done towards lightening the density by the progressive streams of the religions, the Eastern religions, especially of Buddhism, which is steadily growing in Israel, and by the Interfaith work which is contributing a lot towards softening and opening.

This lightening of the form is being done from within the religious forms. Each person acts out of their own religious identification. 

Complementing this vital activity, there must be the esoteric work which works from outside into the religious forms, which can consciously and scientifically invoke the New.

For Jerusalem, because of its complexity, the invocation of this New must be especially precise and perhaps requires an especially great sacrifice of the old. Invoking comes easily in Jerusalem. It is easy to feel called upon by the Divine in this 6^th Ray climate. You feel impelled to say to the Christ, to God, to Allah: Here I am. I have no other life intention. What do you want me to do?

The next thing you know you get a call on your subjective cell phone:

Hello....Who is this?  Oh my God...The Aquarian Christ?  Really?

Yes,  yes....The connection is fine Sir!   What is that?  You are planning your Reappearance - when?   That soon...?   So how may I serve You Sir?  Ok, you want to make it a simple, down to earth event. I understand.

What?  A table for two in the Old City?  Yes Sir.  I can certainly arrange that. Ahhhhh, one question Sir. Would this be in the Jewish, Christian or Muslim quarter?

And what you hear as a response to your invocation is conditioned by your personal belief.

That’s why real attention must be given to our relationship with our own childhood belief or our religiosity. As an esoteric worker we have to be able to rise above this identification. We may think we are not identified and yet subconsciously we are conditioned by it. This conditioning is only really challenged when we meet “the Other”, the one who is conditioned differently. Jerusalem’s gift is that one is constantly challenged on this account, giving one the opportunity to become aware of ever subtler limitations inside.

I will give a personal example here. Endeavoring to be an outpost of the New, of the Aquarian Christ in Jerusalem, naturally I draw upon my love for the Christ. This love has been there from early age. As a child growing up in a non-religious family I was secretly praying to the Christ every evening in my bed.

As a young adult, when I first laid my eyes on the Sea of Galilee, big tears started to stream. Something touched me very deeply. There was a deep recognition of something which has to do with the Christ. It felt as though something of this Christ energy is physically present. The tears kept flowing throughout the 2 days I was there, much to the dismay of the group of young kibutz people who had invited me to come.

From then on I visited the Sea of Galilee every few months. Linking in with the Christ energy through the Sea of Galilee is always a very nurturing experience, strengthening me for my work in Jerusalem. Yet at one point I came to realize that it was the Piscean Christ, the emotional Christ I was linking into and that I must learn to look forward, to look for the Christ not behind me but in front of me. Consequently my relationship to the Christ had to gradually change over the years. I understood that I must relinquish my childhood religiosity, that I have to curb my rather 6^th Ray mystical-devotional reaching for the Christ. I sacrificed the heart-approach as I knew it and gradually cultivated a more mental, more abstract, more Aquarian relationship with the Christ energy. I realized that otherwise I would only add my own blend of religiosity based on history rather than become an outpost of the New.

It is this attachment to the childhood religiosity, which holds the old Piscean 6^th Ray forms in place. The existing forms evoke from us identification. This is part of human nature. Born into a specific family, nation and religion, this is our default and in order to identify with something else or with a higher form of it one has to make a huge effort.

And Jerusalem especially holds these old forms so strongly and loudly. The fact that the historical Piscean Christ has walked this land is definitely hypnotizing. It powerfully triggers the childhood religiosity. And so do the religious sites of the other religions. 

My inner, still ongoing process of weaning myself from the emotional Christ which is painful and sacrificial helps me towards compassionately understanding those who are hypnotized into their respective religious thoughtforms and are held by their kama-manasic identifications to the extent that they cannot see beyond.

One thing which holds this kama-manasic identification, the childhood belief in place is language.  

For example the Hebrew language is originally a religious language, which means that many spiritual terms will have a specifically Jewish connotation rather than connoting a universal concept. The best example is the word Messiah, the anointed one. For many religious Jews the word Messiah connotes a specifically Jewish savior, rather than a universal world teacher, who will only come if the Jewish people as a whole keep the religious rules. For the secular Jews the word Messiah brings up all the pain and exasperation resulting from the domination by the religious Jews, so they totally reject it. We have invented a new term in Hebrew, “Morey Olam”, which is a kind of unfamiliar way to translate World Teacher. We use it in the Hebrew translation of the Great Invocation. It is a big stretch for all.

The attachment to words is a common thing. Also for the esoteric students it is so. Words to which we have become accustomed, especially if they are in use for a very long time, have mantric value. They are evocative. We use these words in order to invoke the Higher. Just to say the word Christ already heightens the vibration of those who are linked to him. However, what for one person is an upliftment is for another person a major source of conflict.

In Israel the word Christ, which is the Greek translation of the word Messiah, brings up many conflicting associations. Christ, for many Jews, is a symbol for those who persecute them. It is easier for the Jews to relate to Yeshua (Jesus). Christ or Messiah is seen as a title which has been falsely given to Yeshua. Even for those who do respond to his energy, to accept that Yeshua was the Messiah would mean to accept that Judaism has missed out on its own Messiah. There are many deep-rooted theological misunderstandings which have become an impenetrable barrier for many Jews to open up to the Piscean Christ message.

Imagine for a moment what it means for us to put this year’s beautiful conference brochure on the entrance table where our classes are held, let alone show it to family or neighbors. A few years ago I would not have dared to do so. Now that I have worked through part of my emotional attachment to the Christ and I am embracing a mental understanding which is strong enough to withstand the challenging this evokes, I did put it on the front table as an interesting experiment, listening carefully to the various reactions: one person looked through the list of presenters and remarked with a mixture of relief and irony: oh, there is a Sara and a Ruth, so it’s okay….. Another person responded by saying: oh, good that you go there and tell them something of how it really is, you are probably much more open than most of them there. I took the opportunity to explain what the Aquarian Christ is all about and that this is not a Christian conference.

Yet this brings home to us how problematic is the use of Christian terminology and in particular the word Christ in the Ageless Wisdom teachings outside the Christian context. The barrier of language is a fatal one. I wonder how much this barrier of language is responsible for the fact that the Bailey teachings are not very widely known and used in non-Christian cultures. This is something to think about for the esoteric community.

When we call this entity the Christ, we limit it to the Christian thoughtform and make it inaccessible to those outside this thoughtform.

We in Jerusalem, in the hot mystical 6^th Ray climate find the cooling 5^th Ray approach a possible way toward sanity. The safest way to make the esoteric teaching available is to translate the spiritual concepts as much as possible into the language of energy and science.

Scientific terminology seems to be very sobering, establishing a common ground for the religious and non-religious people. Scientific language is universal because it is being formed by humanity as a whole. We are only at the very beginning of this process. It is far from being comprehensive and it is not satisfying emotionally, it has no evocative appeal.  Yet it would much lighten our load if all terminology would be one of science and energy. It seems so much easier and more effective to shift to a mental universal language than try to explain to each other the underlying universality of the various religious terms, asking a stretch from those who cannot as yet do this stretch.

For the esoteric student this kind of stretch is easier than for the religious person. Nevertheless, just think of how many of us are very reluctant to replace the word Christ with “The Coming One” in the Great Invocation. This is a true sacrifice of evocative power. This may give a little taste of what is expected of the esoteric student with a Jewish background. The Jewish racial mind is exceptionally strong and resilient. And the Blue Books are asking of them not merely to relinquish some terminology but to relinquish the core of their childhood religiosity.

We must ask ourselves a serious question about our own identification. The way from our Christian background to the Ageless Wisdom teaching is admittedly a stretch. Yet, it is not that bad a stretch. After all, as long as it is “our” Christ who is the head of the Hierarchy, all is in good order. The mix of Christian, Hindu and Buddhist terminology in the Blue Books has become part of our religiosity. The Great Invocation and other mantrams are our prayer book. The personal Christ and our waiting for his reappearance is our form of religiosity, not so different from anyone else’s.

Are we not asking of the non-Christians something which we do not ask of ourselves? Perhaps also we Bailey students need to sacrifice some Piscean terminology in order to accommodate a larger whole? The temple of the New requires a sacrifice of the old. We in Jerusalem are certainly challenged to make this sacrifice.

We need to meet our own Jerusalem, our own inner place where the Shalem, the whole, becomes separative due to the separative nature of the outer form.

Let’s try to imagine such a sacrifice, to replace our familiar way to think and speak about that which we term the Christ, in a more abstract language, beyond religious terminology. Let us for a moment imagine that we will eliminate any term from our esoteric vocabulary which can clash with any of the religious thoughtforms.

This challenges our emotional attachment. Let us feel for a moment any resistance we might have to giving up on cherished, evocative words in favor of more universality.

Only when we ourselves taste this sacrifice, do we start to truly understand those who are not yet able to do this. We can feel their fear and pain of giving up part of their identity. We are compassionate towards them because we know what they are up against. Then we will know how to talk to them, how to build a bridge for them toward the next unfoldment of Divinity. We will know how to present the New without it being threatening.

Here I would like to mention the work of the Dalai Lama as a wonderful example. In his recent visit to Israel it struck me how similar are his work methods to what we are trying to do. He talked about the concept of “secular ethics”, meaning to separate our morality from the religious context. He also stressed the importance of science as a guideline and help. He uses a very simple, general language, no Buddhist religious concepts. The Dalai Lama stayed for about a week holding many meetings, only one of which was about Buddhist teaching.

He is not relinquishing his religiosity, but he definitely gives it a second place, holding the universal values at first priority, thus building a bridge between the old and the new. For a religious leader this is quite a statement and sets a great example.

In this transition period maybe a way can be found on the one side to honor our religiosity and on the other to make a further stretch towards embracing a larger whole.

A first step for the Ageless Wisdom community is to become aware of our religiosity, our own Piscean need and conditioning. To acknowledge this goes a long way towards true universality.

Apart from the effort to transform the Piscean mystical language into an Aquarian universal language, a kind of update is needed here. In R&I p 254 The Tibetan states about the Full Moon work that it leads to a relation between the work of the Christ and the Buddha in the minds of spiritually inclined people, becoming a linking unit between the East and the West, linking the Christian, the Hindu and the Buddhist faith. Indeed the Bailey teachings bring the Far East and the West into relation; however, since their writing, the Jewish state has been established and the Jewish consciousness is very much active as a separate entity; and also Islam, which comprises one fifth of humanity, has become prominent on the human agenda.

I feel that a next step is called for here, and that in our concept of the World Religion or Universal Spirituality the Ageless Wisdom community must become more inclusive of these two religions in a new way. To make the teaching truly universal we must complete the picture. We need to soul-fully understand and embrace both Jewish and Muslim religiosity. (Of course there are other religions to be included as well, but I want to confine myself to these two here.)

The Tibetan has thrown much light on the Jewish riddle and this light has caused, well, let’s call it some major problems of digestion. Healing is needed, among the Jews and also among us disciples of the Tibetan. Some work has been done toward this healing. Various esotericists have given their thought to it. The Lucis Trust and also the SES have formulated a formal compilation about the Jewish subject. This is a very important beginning. However, we are still far from a Tikun (a healing correction).

The light and darkness which has been stirred up by the Tibetan and the human knee-jerk reactions must be faced and embraced by the Ageless Wisdom community and then rendered harmless and digestible.

Without a process of self-reflection this cannot be done. It is not enough to explain in other words what the Tibetan meant when talking about the Jews. We have to start to see the text in a larger perspective. We must recognize and acknowledge that this material was written at a certain time and for a certain audience. We must ask ourselves where we stand today and what is expected of us towards taking the teaching further into the New Age.

In the Bailey texts we find almost nothing on the Muslim archetype. The Tibetan only states that the Muslim religion is linked to the Christian faith and that it was the Master Jesus who overshadowed his advanced disciple Mohammed. This makes the Muslim religion qualified by the 6^th Ray, as is Christianity through the 6^th Ray of the Master Jesus and St Paul’s 6^th Ray personality. Mohammed may perhaps have been a 6^th Ray soul with a 1^st Ray personality. But we don’t know. There definitely seems to have been a 1^st Ray at work. Much filling in must be done here.

This calls for the use of our esoteric sense. We must rise above the manasic wealth which alone cannot provide a solution and a healing. The best of the heart and the best of the mind must be brought together and synthesized. This then produces the state of consciousness of Buddhi, which is needed to transcend the thoughtforms and intuit the causal design, the essence, and see it in the larger context. Tapping the Water of Life from the Buddhic plane, tasting this buddhic exquisiteness, is so satisfying, that it loosens the spell of the kama-manasic identification – our own and others’. This enables us to both pierce and embrace the thoughtform, not breaking it but with buddhic water compassionately softening and dissolving it.

A deeper, soul-ful understanding of both the Jewish and the Muslim archetype is of absolute necessity in our work in Jerusalem. Because of the magnitude of the group glamour involved, it takes the concerted group effort of those who can hold their consciousness above the clouds and, with an embracing heart, pierce the dense atmosphere of Jerusalem with the vision of the New.

I take this opportunity to appeal to you as representatives of the Ageless Wisdom community together to apply our hearts and minds to this world problem.

In order to effectively and safely do this work, the sound anchoring of the Jerusalem outpost within the world group is of vital importance. We want to extend a warm welcome to you to be in touch with us.

I would like to invite you now to join the best of our hearts and the best of our minds together and invoke the New, coming to us on the wings of Love-Wisdom, the buddhic exquisiteness, the Aquarian Christ.

Meditation

Quick alignment, group soul, chalice out of heart substance, mental rim. We take our stand as an outpost of Hierarchy. We open up to the buddhic Aquarian exquisiteness. Let us feel it like a substance. Let us feel its texture, its taste, its quality. Let the deepest core of our hearts resonate with it. Let the group chalice be filled with it.

Let this exquisiteness, this life elixir, flow out to all the outposts of the Aquarian Christ, the Maitreya, the Aquarian Messiah, the Aquarian Imam Mahdi; see the outposts come into resonance and may the resonance be so unified that an impact is made on the human consciousness.

We take some of this exquisiteness into our own individual chalice. Let it be full to the brim and may it overflow with clarity, love and power on behalf of Humanity. Let us stay one more minute with the joy and gratefulness of the community of the World Teacher.

Om
Thank you

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