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When this stage is reached, the focus of the life is predominantly material, and the man is ambitious, effective, and powerful. Yet there slowly arises in him a divine discontent; the savor of his life experience and enterprises begins to prove unsatisfactory. Another shift in consciousness takes place, and he reaches out—at first unconsciously and later consciously—to the life and significance of a dimly sensed reality. The Soul is beginning to make its presence felt, and to grip in a different sense than hitherto, and in a more active manner, its vehicles of expression and of service.
Little by little, the consciousness of the third aspect of divinity is coordinated with that of the second, and the Christ consciousness is aroused into activity through the medium of experience in form. Man begins to add to the gained personality experience of the three worlds of human endeavour, the intuitive Spiritual perception which is the heritage of those who are awake within the kingdom of God.
Paralleling this development of the consciousness in man is the evolution of the instruments whereby that consciousness is brought en rapport with a rapidly expanding world of sensory perception, of intellectual concepts and of intuitive recognitions. With the development of this form aspect we will not concern ourselves, beyond pointing out that, as the consciousness shifts from one body to another and its range of contacts, therefore, steadily expands, the centers in man's Etheric body (three below and four above the diaphragm) are awakened in three major stages, though through the medium of many smaller awakenings:
- They begin to develop from that of the "closed bud to that of the opened lotus". This takes place during the period of ordinary
evolution.
- The petals of the lotus become vibrant and alive. This is the stage of personality integration.
- The heart of the lotus, "the jewel in the lotus" also becomes actively alive. This is the period of the final stages upon the Path.
This process of unfoldment is itself brought about by five crises of awakening, so that we have a threefold process and a fivefold movement.
- The centers below the diaphragm are the controlling and dominant factor. The stage of dense materiality, of lower desire and of physical urge is in full expression. This was carried to its higher point of development in Lemurian times. The sacral center was the controlling factor.
- The centers below the diaphragm become fully active, with the major emphasis in the Solar Plexus center. This center eventually becomes the great clearing house for all the lower forces and marks the period of the shift into a higher body, the Astral body. This was characteristic of Atlantean racial development.
- The awakening of the Throat center and the shift of much of the lower energy into the throat activity. The Ajna center also begins to become active, producing integrated and creative personalities. This stage is characteristic of the present Aryan race.
- The awakening of the Heart center and the shift of the Solar Plexus energy into that center, thus producing groups and the entrance of a new and fuller sense of Spiritual energy. The shift of emphasis is then into those states of awareness which reveal the kingdom of God. The fifth kingdom in nature becomes creatively active on earth. This will be characteristic of the consciousness of the next great race.
- The awakening of the Head center, with the consequent arousing of the kundalini fire at the Base of the Spine. This leads to the final integration of Soul and body, and the appearance of a perfected humanity upon earth. This will express the nature of the final race.
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