In presentation 20, I outlined various states of consciousness. I started by looking at Active and Passive consciousness and how this applied to the four stages that the monad evolves through. It starts from primary matter, passes through secondary and tertiary matter and finally reached quaternary matter. During this evolution, the monad goes from being potentially conscious to being passively conscious, then having a memory and finally developing will-power. At this stage, the monad becomes self-activating. I next looked at objective and subjective consciousness and linked this to whether a monad is focusing its attention out into its environment or dwelling within a thought-world, within its envelopes of incarnation. I also mentioned the existence of the etheric web. I described what role it played in our lives and why we need to respect its integrity. The last point of discussion was the existence of an overlap of consciousness between planes. This overlap is what drives evolution, as the monad is subjectively conscious up to half a plane of matter beyond where it is objectively conscious. We are currently only objectively conscious on the lowest three sub-planes of the lowest plane of matter (49:5 to 49:7). This is when we are awake. During sleep, we may be objectively conscious on higher planes but I discuss this in later presentations.
Collective Consciousness
I now wish to start this prevention by looking at collective consciousness and what exactly this means. All matter in the Universe shares a common consciousness. This is part of the consciousness of the ABSOLUTE, the entity which brought the universe itself into existence. It is therefore correct to say that there is only really one consciousness. That is a difficult concept to get your head around when we look at our own separateness from each other, let alone ourselves. But one of the greatest epiphanies you are going to have is when you realise that there is only one all-embracing thought-life in the Universe and you are one tiny monad that is part of it. One way to think of it is to imagine each molecule of water coalescing with others until collectively you have an ocean. The molecule is still itself, yet it is part of something much greater.
The concept of single and collective consciousness is difficult to grasp until we get past duality. This is when you see things as pairs of opposites and not part of the same coin that just has two faces. Collective consciousness acts at various scales, from the whole Universe to galaxies, solar systems, planets and countries. Each of these organisational structures has a collective consciousness. So let’s give the term collective consciousness a definition and say that it is a group of individuals that use a shared consciousness to achieve a common goal. Each collective is lead by one monad, who has graduated to a higher level and manages the rest of the collective. This is an important definition to grasp. In the rush to define everything as a collective, it is useful to remember that there is a controlling consciousness that manages the whole process for the group. A good example of this is our local area god, known as the Solar Logos. Esoteric literature often describes this entity as an individual. This is true taking into account what I have just said. However, I was at great pains to point out in a previous presentation that God is not really an individual but a collective. Yes, there is one higher monad in charge of the show, but it is the collective that puts on the show and takes the curtain call. The higher monad is there to advance the whole collective.
The Human Kingdom is the only one where membership of the collective is not apparent to its members. The reason for this is that we are isolated from each other in our private causal bodies. I have already discussed how the lower kingdoms of monads share a group-soul. This allows them to advance their evolution faster when they have a much lower inherent level of consciousness. The higher kingdoms, from the 5th Kingdom upwards again share their consciousness, but not as a group-soul but as a group of souls. This is why I use the tern soul-group for the higher kingdoms and not group-soul. The term soul is slightly misleading, as we leave our soul behind when we enter Unity Consciousness is the 5th Kingdom. What we are really talking about is where the monad, located in the 43:1 atom, happens to have its main focus of consciousness at that time.
The diagram depicts the apparent duality at lower levels of consciousness. These consciousness levels are found in the three lower planes, the physical, emotional and mental. Note on these planes how the individual is always separated from its neighbour. When you get to the Unity plane, suddenly the monad’s consciousness overlaps with its neighbours. Their neighbour’s overlaps with their neighbours around the circle. You now have a collective conscious.
The concentric circles represent the seven planes of the solar system. On the 7th plane, 43, there is a single collective consciousness that encompasses the entire solar system. Just to clarify, each spike represents a monad, which is part of the collective consciousness. It may not know it yet, but it is. There are three phases that the monad goes through. It starts a separated individual; it becomes a united individual and finally, it gains oneness with all within the circumference of the circle. The colour coding in the diagram emphasises the transitions in consciousness.
Triads and collective consciousness
The 1st triad, also known as the persona, is isolated from the other triads by the lower causal body. Our higher triads are not isolated from one another. They belong to a collective of beings and our super-consciousness is part of those collective beings. This collective communicates telepathically and each individual monad supports the development of all other monads in the collective. In this way, the soul-group is very similar to the group-soul found in the lower kingdoms.
Once we reach the level of the collective consciousness, we remain individuals but integrate more and more with the collective. I can not emphasise strongly enough that we remain individuals. There is no wallowing in a collective morass, carried aways on clouds of blissfulness. We do however contribute and gain from a much larger pool of shared knowledge, wisdom and direction. Entering this collective is about entering into service and aligning yourself with the Divine Plan. This is a very grand term but simply put, there are monads higher up the chain of command that actually know where we are supposed to be going. That is the plan. Simple really.
Expansion of consciousness for the monad continues until it reaches omnipresence and omnipotence on a galactic scale. The final step now is to leave the universe and reenter negative existence; the Anti-verse. The option now exists for the monad to create its own universe if it chooses to do so. This brings into focus the relationship between the single monad and the collective. It starts its journey unconscious and finishes it, within this universe, fully conscious. That is the reality, that objective consciousness does not exist in the universe. Why? Because this universe is the subjective reality of another monad. To experience true objective reality you have to leave positive existence and enter negative existence. That thought may come as a bit of a shock to some. They may feel they are coming to know their true-self. Dream on. If you have an envelope around you, then you are shielded from reality. Your ‘objective’ experience is being filtered by those series of envelopes. We effectively have 48 envelopes (filters). It is only on the 1st plane that we finally get to stand there naked and unadorned. We may see ourselves, our true monad for the first time, however, we are still in another monad’s subjective reality!
Levels of Consciousness
OK, so we have got the general idea that life is about expanding our consciousness. As we evolve, our sphere of consciousness expands upwards and outwards. This increases our scope and our vision of what is. At the same time, our consciousness expands downwards, increasing our depth of understanding of the planes of consciousness below the one we are on.
Every time a monad cross the threshold of a higher level of matter, it gains a new sense of reality. This reality encompasses all the positive qualities of the planes below and none of their weaknesses. To frame this in a reality we all know, think of the passage from puberty to adulthood. There are differences between these two phases. The latter hopefully should encompass the benefits gained in the former, without the spots and continuous tiredness! Each new level takes us closer to our divinity.
2. Stages of Human Development
In the early stages of human development, the monad resides in the physical atom (49:1). At this stage, developing consciousness is the main concern of the monad. The next stage of development is when the monad moves its focus to the emotional atom (48:1). Towards the latter stages of human development, the monad moves again, this time to the 47:4 permanent mental molecule. In its final stage of evolution through the Human Kingdom, the monad realises that consciousness in the mental body has limitations. The intellect, though a capable tool does not supply all the answers the monad seeks. It is at this time that the monad ascends to the mental atom, situated in the 47:1 atom located in the causal body. This is located on the second triad. The monad now has causal consciousness and this takes precedence over the intellect.
The diagram below depicts the evolution of subjective and objective consciousness through six kingdoms of nature. These are shown along the bottom of the diagram. For brevity, I have only presented how each of the six kingdoms operates in the three lowest planes of matter. They appear as five planes, as the physical and mental planes are subdivided. This is listed on the left-most column. I have highlighted the permanent atoms and molecule and listed all the subdivisions of each plane.
Each kingdom of nature has a permanent atom or molecule where the monad is lodged, as it passes through that kingdom. It can be seen that in the three lowest kingdoms, the monad is always lodged in the permanent physical atom. In the Mineral Kingdom, subjective consciousness is slowly developed. Rocks do not objectively observe their environment. They are subjectively aware of it, all the way up to the lowest of the etheric sub-planes.
Plants are fully subjectively aware of the three lowest planes of matter. Note that they are also becoming sentient in the emotional plane. I have spoken about how each kingdom of nature is subjectively aware of the half plane of consciousness above where its monad is focused. Notice also in the Plant column that the sub-plane representing the permanent atom is blank. This is because consciousness on this sub-plane does not occur until the 5th kingdom of nature is reached.
When we reach the animal kingdom, we can see by the change of the colour of the bar, that animals are now objectively aware on the three lowest sub-planes of matter. They are also subjectively aware of the etheric sub-planes. The animal starts to work up the emotional body it first activated when it passed through the plant kingdom. Remember that monads pass through a kingdom very slowly. This results in each phase of evolution occurring on different globes in different chains. These terms are newly used in these presentations. I do not wish to elaborate any further, only to say that just imagine every time a monad moves kingdoms, it finds itself on a new planet. That is the easiest way to think of it. Notice also on the animal column that incipient mental consciousness has started to develop. This is worked up later in the Human Kingdom.
We finally reach the Human Kingdom. You notice that the column on the physical plane (49) matches the level of subjective and objective perception of animals. What differs is the development of emotional and mental consciousness. Both of these are still only subjective but higher emotional development is beginning to occur. We have already discussed what emotions these higher levels contain.
Mental consciousness development continues, beginning where the animal kingdom was starting to gain awareness on sub-plane 47:7. Consciousness now moves through all the levels of intellectual and cultural development. These are discussed in the next presentation. I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that during the Human phase of evolution, it is possible to be incipiently conscious in the lowest sub-plane of the casual body. This allows the monad access to intuitive thought. This is when you just know something, without having to think it through using your intellect.
Note that the monad’s journey through the human kingdom involves it migrating through two permanent atoms and one permanent molecule. This did not occur in the three lower kingdoms. The next column is labelled ‘Enlightened Humans’. This stage of the monad’s passage thought the Human Kingdom warrants a column of its own. It can be seen that major changes have occurred in the objective consciousness level of the monad. It is now objectively conscious in the physical plane (49), having full etheric vision. Note however that it does not have atomic consciousness yet.
The reason that the column is not rectangular in shape as it moves through the emotional plane. This is because the monad starts to shed the lower vibrating matter of its emotional body. The secondary matter that makes up the substance of this body, known as Elemental Essence, is slowly discarded. These particular monads are themselves involving, move out of the human monad’s emotional body, back into the general pool of secondary emotional matter. This means we achieve that happy state and appearance of looking like an inverted egg!
An enlightened monad is fully conscious on the lowest causal plane (47:3) and begins to work up its objective vision on sub-plane 47:2. This is the plane of ‘inspiration’. Where does this inspiration come from you may well ask? It comes mainly from the 5th Kingdom. Monads there supply us with all the raw material for what we think are our own brilliant ideas. Ever wondered why true genius’ never boast about their abilities? The reason is that they know it is not them that came up with the ideas in the first place. A true genius operates at the level of ‘inspiration’ and that is why they are so effective at manifesting new ideas, music and art into the world.
It is not shown in this diagram, but when the monad reaches enlightenment, it is subjectively consciousness on the first three sub-planes of the Unity plane. This is part of the 5th Kingdom. The last thing I wish to draw your attention to in the ‘Enlightened’ column, is the letter and number ‘i3’. This indicates that the enlightened monad has taken and passes the 3rd initiation. More on this in later presentations.
The last two columns are well above our pay grade. The first of these represents the evolution of consciousness in the planes that are represented in the diagram. The first thing to notice is that in its passage through this kingdom, the monad takes two more initiations (i4 & i5). It also passes through three more permanent atoms and a molecule (46:1, 45:4 & 45:1). If you look at the lowest three sub-planes of the physical plane, the bar is solid. When a moaned chooses to incarnate, it has a physical body. Note the presence of the word ‘optional’. When a monad reaches the 5th kingdom, it has no more karma. It is not obliged to return to Earth to balance this energy. It chooses to do so because it now selflessly serves the Divine Plan. It comes amongst us to further our own consciousness development.
Another thing of interest is the fact that a 5th kingdom monad is now operating at the atomic level on the etheric and emotional sub-planes. No more is it bothered by those pesky elemental monads, either in the emotional or mental sub-planes. It does however still maintain a causal body. The big change here is that this causal body is constructed by the monad itself and is no longer watched over by the Augoeides. This is the solar angel that helped the monad through the human kingdom. That illustrious deva has gone off to take a well deserved holiday and does not show up until the 3rd Solar System! Ponder what that implies.
The final column represents monads that have reached the highest levels of consciousness in the Solar System. These monads achieve their i6 and i7 initiations and pass through two more permanent atoms and one permanent molecule (44:1, 43:4 & 43:1). These monads quite literally glow in the dark. On all planes from the Unity plane downwards, they only occupy their atomic atoms. If they choose to take physical form, they can quite literally construct the three lowest bodies out of the ethers. The word ‘optional’ really does apply to these advanced beings. At the highest level of consciousness in the Solar System, 43:1, visits are very few and far between. Christ and Buddha are examples of such exalted monads. In fact, Buddha has taken the 8th initiation (i8) and has passed beyond the bounds of the Solar System.
In the next presentation, I wish to continue to look at the various levels of consciousness and then go on to look at the five stages of human development.