The Destiny of the Nations

by Alice A Bailey

  The force expressing itself through the centre, New York, is the force of the sixth Ray of Devotion or Idealism. Hence the conflicts everywhere to be found between the varying ideologies, and the major conflict between those who stand for the great ideal of world unity brought about by a united effort of the Forces of Light, backed by the cooperative effort of all the democratic nations, and the separative materialistic attitude of those who seek to keep the United States from assuming responsibilities and her rightful place in world affairs. This latter group, if they succeed in their endeavour, will deny the United States her share in the “gifts of the Gods in the coming age of peace which will succeed this point of critical suspension,” as The Old Commentary phrases it. The sixth Ray is either [98] militant and active, or mystical, pacific and futile, and these two aspects at present condition the United States. The keynote of this world centre is “I light the WAY;“ this is the privilege of the States if its people so choose and permit worldwide humanitarian, self-sacrifice (self-initiated) and a firm decision to stand by righteousness to govern their present attitudes and policies. This is slowly coming to pass and the selfish voices of blind idealists, the fearful and the separative are dying out. All this is happening under the inspiration of service, motivated by love. Thus the two major democracies can eventually restore world order, negate the old order of selfishness and aggression and usher in the new order of world understanding, world sharing and world peace. Peace will be the result of understanding and sharing, and not the origin of them, as the pacifists so often imply.

  The force pouring through Darjeeling at this time is that of the first Ray of Will or Power. The soul ray of India is the first ray and hence the immediate effect of the inpouring Shamballa force is to stimulate the will-to-power of all dictators, whether they are the would-be world dictators such as Hitler and his group of evil men, ecclesiastical dictators in any religion, business dictators in any business group in any part of the world, or those minor dictators, the tyrants in the home. It is interesting to note that the keynote of India is “I hide the light,” and this has been interpreted to mean that the light pours forth from the East and that the gift of India to the world is the light of the Ageless Wisdom. This is true in a sense, but there is a wider and deeper sense in which it will prove true. When the intent and purpose of the great Life which works through Shamballa is carried out and is in process of expression, a light will be revealed which has never yet been [99] seen or known. There is a word in the Christian Scriptures which says “In that light shall we see light;” this means that through the medium of the light of wisdom shed abroad in our hearts through the Ageless Wisdom, we shall eventually see the Light of Life itself — something meaningless and inexplicable to humanity at present but which will be later revealed when the present point of crisis is surmounted. Of its nature and its effect I have naught to say to you at present.

  I would like here to interpolate some remarks. It is of deep moment to realise that Great Britain and the United States are closely related; that this relation makes certain realities and activities inevitable once the soul of each nation is functioning potently. India and Great Britain are also related through this first Ray personality of Great Britain and the soul ray of India. The implications are clear and interesting and also encouraging. The consciousness aspect of the British people is steadily shifting into an expression of their second ray soul and hence their seizing upon the opportunity at this time to serve humanity at immense cost. The same thing is happening to the American people. The problem of shifting idealism is great, as I have said, and the temptation is to hide behind the glamour of fighting for an ideal rather than react to world need, and omit to react to the ray of the soul which is the second ray of love.

  The forces flowing through Tokyo are those of the first Ray in its lower materialistic aspect. Japan is governed by the soul ray in the consciousness of its leaders. Its sixth ray personality is responding to the call of the first ray energy and hence all the present unhappy attitudes and activities, and hence also its link with Germany through the soul ray of both nations and with Italy through the personality rays. Hence, therefore, the Axis.[100]

  I would here point out that in these inter-relations is no inevitable fate or unavoidable destiny. The aim of the individual disciple is to handle the forces which play through him in such a manner that only constructive good can eventuate. He can misuse energy or employ it for soul ends. So it is with nations and races. The fate of a nation lies in the hands of its leaders usually; they marshal the nation’s forces, focus the national intent (if intuitive enough) and develop the characteristics of the people, leaving in fact behind them the memory of symbols of national intent, ideals or corruption. This can be seen as it worked out in a demonstrable way in the two great guiding groups of world leaders during the war. The three Axis groups of leaders, dominated by the evil German group, with Italy and Japan fighting at intervals against the evil influence (consciously seldom but unconsciously often), and the second group — the leaders of the Allied Cause. No matter what past history may indicate in connection with many of the allied nations (past aggressions, ancient cruelties and wrong doing), they were and are today seeking to cooperate with the Forces of Light and are endeavouring to salvage human freedom — political, religious and economic.

  I would also point out in passing that the two major divisions of the world — the Occident and the Orient — are also governed by certain ray energies, as follows:

  The Occident Soul Ray Ray II.

  Personality Ray Ray IV.

  The Orient Soul Ray Ray IV.

  Personality Ray Ray III.

  [101] I would remind you that we are in a period of shifting rays and that they change both for individuals and nations, for hemispheres and planets. All can move off a minor ray on to a major, if destiny decrees. A study of the above tabulation will give much light to the inter-human relation. Three great countries hold the destiny of humanity in their hands at this time: The United States of America, Great Britain and Russia. Great fusing, racial experiments are going on in all these lands; the rule of the people is being developed in all of them, though it is as yet in an embryonic stage. In Russia it is being retarded by a dictatorship which will shortly end; in the States by corrupt politics, and in Great Britain by ancient imperialistic tendencies. But democratic principles are being developed, if not controlling; religious unity is being established though it is not yet functioning, and all three countries are learning very rapidly, though the United States at present is learning the most slowly.

  The Occident and the Orient are linked through the personality ray of the Occident and the soul ray of the Orient; this indicates eventual understanding, once the second ray occidental soul becomes the dominant factor. When these various relationships are somewhat grasped by the peoples of the world, you will get the clue to the various happenings taking place today and will understand the goal and the method of its attainment more clearly. There is much deep research work to be done, for the science of energy relationships is yet in its infancy.

  The next few years will see its gain. What is really happening is a shift in the human consciousness from its focus on individual energies functioning through some specific ring-pass-not (individual, national, continental or racial) to a grasp of their inter-relation and effects upon each other. This science can be studied in various ways: [102]

  1. From the angle of antagonisms which seem inevitable and which can be accounted for by the ray energies and which can be offset by soul energies rightly employed.

  2. From the angle of identity of forces, leading inevitably to identity of interests and activities.

  3. From the angle of fusion, of unity of vision and of goals.

  4. From the angle of humanity as a whole. If it is remembered that humanity is primarily governed by two rays (the second and the fourth) it will be found that those nations and countries whose governing rays are also the second and the fourth must and will play an import
ant part in determining human destiny.

  Therefore, through the five major centres in the planet today, spiritual energy is streaming forth, and according to the vehicle of expression which receives its impact so will be the reaction and activity, and so will be the type of consciousness interpreting and using it. The ancient occult truism remains accurate: “Consciousness is dependent upon its vehicle for expression and both are dependent upon life and energy for existence.” This remains an immutable law.

  The five cities which are the exoteric expression of the esoteric centre of force and through which the Hierarchy and Shamballa are seeking to work are the correspondence in the planetary body to the four centres up the spine and the ajna centre in the body of humanity and of individual man. In all three cases, they are “living vital focal points of dynamic force” to a greater or less extent. Some predominantly express soul energy and some personality force; some are influenced by Shamballa and some by the Hierarchy. The head centre of the Occident is beginning to react to second ray energy and the ajna centre to fourth ray energy and in this lies the hope of the race of men. [103]

  There is a wide field of research here. This research will fall into several categories:

  1. Research into the realities of man’s spiritual nature and centres, the nature and influences of their governing planets, their inter-relation from the energy angle and the quality of the ray forces which are seeking expression, plus a knowledge of the personality and egoic rays. Out of this will come an understanding grasp of the human constitution which will reveal all relationships and produce two basic “events in time”:

  a. The blending in the waking consciousness of the subjective and objective life of the individual.

  b. A new relation established between men which will be based upon the above fusion.

  2. Research into the various national centres and their esoteric ruling energies, revealing in a more universal manner and with a wider horizon the destiny of humanity in relation to its group units, large and small. The soul and personality qualities of nations will be studied, the centres within each nation which focus certain ray energies will be noted, and the qualitative emanations of its five or six major cities will be investigated. Let me here give you an instance of what I mean: the influences of New York, Washington, Chicago, Kansas City and Los Angeles will be the subject of scientific research; the psychic atmosphere and the intellectual appeal will be studied, effort will be made to discover the soul quality and the personality nature (the spiritual and the materialistic tendencies) of these great aggregations of human beings which have come into expression in certain fixed localities [104] because they are expressions of the force centres in the vital body of the nation. Similarly, in connection with the British Empire, a study will be made of London, Sydney, Johannesburg, Toronto and Vancouver with subsidiary studies of Calcutta, Delhi, Singapore, Jamaica and Madras which are all subjectively related in a manner unforeseen by students at present. Under the plan, and contingent upon the energies pouring through the five planetary centres according to plan, there are three great fusing energies or vital centres present upon our planet:

  a. Russia, fusing and blending eastern Europe and western and northern Asia.

  b. The United States (and later South America), fusing and blending central and western Europe and the entire western hemisphere.

  c. The British Empire, fusing and blending races and men throughout the entire world.

  In the hands of these nations lies the destiny of the planet. These are the three major world blocs, from the consciousness angle and from the angle of world synthesis. Other and lesser nations will participate in the process with full independence and cooperation, voluntarily and through the perfecting of their national life in the interests of the whole of humanity and through the desire to express and preserve their soul integrity and their purified national purpose (which purification is now going on). The keynote, however, of human living will be struck by Russia, Great Britain and the United States — not because of their power, their historical past and their material resources or [105] territorial extent, but because they are in a position to fuse and blend the many types, because they are far-visioned in their world purpose, because they are not basically selfish in their intent, and because the government of the peoples reaches down into the depths of each nation and is fundamentally for the people. Their basic Constitution, Magna Charta and Bill of Rights are human. Other nations will be gradually swept into line with these fundamental spiritual requirements, or — if they are already based on these human principles and not on the rule of a powerful minority, exploiting an unhappy majority — they will cooperate freely with these greater nations in a federation of purposes and of interests until such time as all the nations of the world see the vision clear, forego their selfish aims and agree in the unity of the work to be done for the whole. Humanity will then emerge into the light of freedom with a revealed beauty and a spiritual purpose, hitherto unknown.

  Beginning as ever with the study of the microcosm as the clue to the macrocosm, but seeking at the same time to envisage the macrocosm in order to understand the microcosm, man will some day establish an intelligent relation to the whole of which he is a part and with conscious cooperation. Thus the higher mind and the lower mind, the abstract and the concrete, the subjective and the objective will be brought into a functioning unity and man will be whole.

  I cannot give you the relation of the planetary centres to the human being. Too much knowledge would be given too soon and prior to the time when there is enough love present in human nature to offset the possible misuse of energy with its often disastrous consequences. The colours, [106] the mathematical rate of the higher vibrations which emanate from the centres — individual and planetary — and the quality (esoterically understood) of the energies must be the subject of human research and self-ascertained. The clues and the hints have been given in the Ageless Wisdom. The slower method of research is the safer at present. Early in the next century, an initiate will appear and will carry on this teaching.

  The remainder of this century must be dedicated to rebuilding the shrine of man’s living, to reconstructing the form of humanity’s life, to reconstituting the new civilisation upon the foundations of the old, and to the reorganising of the structures of world thought, world politics, plus the redistribution of the world’s resources in conformity to divine purpose. Then and only then will it be possible to carry the revelation further.

  Be of good cheer, for there is no true defeat of the human spirit; there is no final extinction of the divine in man, for divinity ever rises triumphant from the darkest pit of hell. There is need, however, to overcome the inertia of the material nature in response to human need, individually and by the nations not engrossed with the essentials of the situation. This shows signs of happening. There is no power on Earth which can prevent the advance of man towards his destined goal and no combination of powers can hold him back. Today that combination is active — a combination of ancient evil and modern aggressive selfishness, released through a group of unscrupulous and ambitious men in every country. They will not finally succeed. They may delay and hinder the emergence of freedom. The charge against them under the Lords of Destiny is mounting up, but Divinity will triumph.

  SPIRITUAL LIFE IN THE NEW AGE

  [107] One point I would like here to bring to your attention and that is that the two great groups of divine agents — the Great White Brotherhood and the Lodge of Materialistic Forces — are both of them seeking to divert these energies into channels which will further the ends for which they work and for which they were formed and exist. Therefore, I would ask you to remember that behind all the outer events are these two directing agencies. You have, as a consequence:

  1. Two groups of advanced Minds, both equally illumined by the light of the intellect, and both of them formulating clearly their objectives, but differing in their direction and their emphasis. One group, under the divine plan, works with the for
m aspect entirely, and in this group the light of love and of selflessness is absent. The other group is working entirely with the soul or the consciousness aspect, and in this group the doctrine of the heart and the law of love control. In this connection, the two groups are working in opposition, therefore, upon the mental plane.

  2. The plans, which embody these two differing ideals and objectives, are carried down on to the astral plane, and thus into the world of desire. The lines of demarcation remain ever entirely clear as far as the workers in these two groups are concerned, but are not so clear where ordinary human beings and the world disciples and initiates are concerned. There is much chaos on the plane of desire, and the world Arjuna is today sitting in bewilderment between the two opposing forces or camps, recognising his relationship both to form and to [108] soul and at the same time wondering where his duty lies. His point in evolution determines his problem. Thus the two groups are working in opposition upon the plane of desire.

  3. The materialising of the plans of these two groups of illumined minds proceeds steadily under the differing laws of their being — the laws of form life and the laws of spiritual living. In this initial stage and whilst the battle is being fought out in the realm of desire (for that is where the major conflict is being waged, and all that is happening upon the physical plane is only a reflection of an inner conflict) the forces of these two groups, working with the energies of the sixth and seventh rays, have brought about in the field of physical living, a state of complete cataclysm. The economic situation and the religious hatreds are the two major instruments. This is a subject upon which you would do well to ponder.