The Way of Man by Henry T. Laurency
15. THE MANIFESTAL SELF
15. THE MANIFESTAL SELF
1A perfected manifestal self, a 43-self, has acquired full subjective and objective self-consciousness, omniscience and omnipotence within his own solar system and the ability to apply without friction laws of nature and laws of life within all the seven atomic worlds 43–49.
2The manifestal self is the only kind of self within the planet that is in a position to acquire cosmic consciousness. Having acquired 42-consciousness he may choose between joining the planetary government or starting out on his cosmic consciousness expansion in some other solar system or in some other group of solar systems.
3In a 43-self, you need not look for the monad–primordial atom. Its dynamic energy, which in the highest cosmic world would be sufficient to shape a universe, acts in world 43, despite the 43-light, as an intense source of light with energy radiation in all seven dimensions.
4Those who have become 43-selves have free access to the planetary government and receive the directions that determine the planetary hierarchy’s planning for the work for evolution within the planet. New kinds of energies from other planets, other solar systems, and higher kingdoms are constantly pouring in, and they must be utilized in an expedient manner.
5In a letter to Sinnett, K.H. tells how 43-self M.C. (his chief) restored a manuscript that had been destroyed by mischance, lending it a form (paper, ink, seal) that could not possibly be distinguished from the original. It was the work of an instant. True, 43-energy was used in the process, but 45-energy had been quite sufficient. The matter is explained thus: Everything that has once existed is reproduced, in all its reality, in the planetary memory. All the molecules that had entered into the manuscript were retrieved once more to shape the form they had once made up. Everything that has once existed can be reshaped in the same manner. Thus nothing can be lost that is considered to be of such a value that it needs to be reformed.
6At the present transition from the Piscean to the Aquarian zodiacal epoch, mankind has ended up in chaos in all human domains. This also concerns the entire biological life on our planet. Under such precarious circumstances, those 43-selves who would normally leave our planet for a “cosmic career” have decided to join the planetary government as “additional members” and do what they can to avert a menacing catastrophe from a totally disoriented mankind that believes itself wise when rushing with all its might towards annihilation.
1What the 43-self does not know is how the atomic kinds 1–42 found in the atomic kinds 43–49 can work in other material compositions than in his own solar system or, expressed differently, the seemingly exhaustless possibilities of these 42 ever higher molecular kinds. It is an inevitable limitation inherent in everyone who has not reached the highest cosmic kingdom. And not even such a one can determine the possibilities of primordial mass in other cosmoses, since each primordial atom is a completely unique thing. It is of course meaningless to speculate on such possibilities. But this fact is of importance also for anyone who imagines he has explored all possibilities in his worlds. Man cannot know as much of the possibilities of the three lowest atomic kinds as, for instance, a 43-self knows, since this self can see the higher atomic kinds 43–46 in atomic kinds 47–49 and utilize these in quite another way.
2If you contemplate this fact you may see how unwarranted it is to believe yourself able to judge anything at all, except in a very superficial respect. In the light of this, the self-importance of the learned seems regrettable more than anything. Humility is what becomes us best as we are faced with the many unsolved problems.
1The activity within the manifestal world of the planet is divided into three departments of which the third in world 44 is divided into five different departments.
2The expression “within the planet” actually is misleading, since strictly speaking the causal world is the highest world of the planet itself (world 46 is common to the whole planetary chain; world 45, to the solar system).
3The three departments correspond to the three aspects of reality and supervise the processes of manifestation concerning these within the planet. They constitute the supreme authorities within the planetary hierarchy and of the seven departments. They also are the connection between the planetary government and the planetary hierarchy in other respects.
1It is the head of the second main department of the planetary hierarchy, the department of education, who before each new zodiacal epoch of some 2500 years indicates which idea of reality the planetary hierarchy will try to incorporate with mankind’s store of reality ideas.
2Christos–Maitreya’s idea for the Piscean epoch was the unity of all life, the basis of universal brotherhood. All individuals in the whole cosmos make up a unity through their unlosable share in the cosmic total consciousness; all are wandering towards the same final goal, all are fellow wanderers on the way.
3The history of religion bears witness how life ignorance, believing itself able to comprehend and understand everything, succeeded in totally bungling the idea, so that not love but hatred was to characterize the Piscean epoch.
4During the Aquarian epoch, Christos–Maitreya will make a fresh attempt to make mankind understand the unity of all life. If this fails, mankind will annihilate itself. At all events, this will be his last effort for mankind, before he (like the Buddha) leaves our planet for ever to embark on his interstellar consciousness expansion. He will be succeeded in office by the one whose most well-known incarnation was Pythagoras.
1There are in all seven hierarchies for the seven parallel paths of evolution. One of these seven has been given the name of planetary hierarchy. It is the one that supervises the evolution of the monads who pursue the human path of evolution. Of the remaining six, it is only the so-called deva evolution that can be contacted by men and that has therefore become known. The devas manage the attendance of the development of the matter aspect and supervise the application of the law of reaping. The evolution representing the motion aspect has also improperly been given the name of deva evolution before mankind received knowledge of the seven evolutions.
2In its evolution, the deva hierarchy is far ahead of the human stream of evolution. It supplies individuals for supervision of the monads of the human stream of evolution. The tasks of the deva hierarchy include cooperation with the planetary hierarchy. Assistance is necessary since the human stream of evolution is the most difficult to advance on and so requires individual supervision. Every evolutionary monad of it has been accorded a deva who reports to higher authorities about his protege to the extent that this seems necessary. That was the meaning of the gnostic saying “not a sparrow shall fall on the ground without the will of god”. Nobody is left unattended.
3The knowledge of the matter aspect we receive or we have originally received through “inspirations” from the deva hierarchy; and the knowledge of the consciousness aspect (attempts at culture, etc.), from our own hierarchy. At his present stage of development, man cannot contribute to the knowledge on his own.
1In the quasi-gnostic Gospels, the author makes Christos say, “I and my Father are one”, a saying that has of course caused irremediable confusion of ideas. The saying meant that Christos had become a 43-self and, as such, had free access to the planetary government. The expression “be one” or “become one” is used in different senses and is, strictly speaking, misleading, since all monads in the cosmos make up a unity as sharing in the cosmic total consciousness. All who have entered into the world of unity (46) are consciously one. Christos was (is) a 43-self. Nobody is able to identify himself with higher beings, only with lower ones. A 43-self cannot identify himself with a cosmic being in the planetary government. But he can fully grasp the manifestal consciousness (43) of that cosmic being.
2The terms used in the esoteric literature are unfortunately so loosely defined that you must be very familiar with the symbolism of the planetary hierarchy, with the different senses of the symbols, in order not to misunderstand practically everything, which mankind has done without fail whenever it has “caught” some esoteric expression or symbol. Exactitude of expression is apparently asking too much.
3Only after the release of the knowledge in 1875 has it become possible to exactly interpret the content of symbolic literature; for instance, the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Gospels, the Koran, etc. Any interpretation before 1875 was misinterpretation.
The above text constitutes the essay The Manifestal Self by Henry T. Laurency. The essay is part of the book The Way of Man by Henry T. Laurency. Copyright © 1999 by the Henry T. Laurency Publishing Foundation.