We continue our examination of the Hierarchy and its function by looking at the focus of its consciousness in the Solar System. We have talked about the stages of development of consciousness. The Human Kingdom is currently going through its evolution into self-awareness. Amazingly enough, this process of self-awareness started when monads reached their quaternary stage of evolution and that started when the monad transitioned from tertiary matter, which is actively conscious, to quaternary matter, which starts to become self-conscious. This happens first at the mineral stage of evolution, the 1st Kingdom. As we have already discussed, the members of the Hierarchy inhabit the 46th to the 43rd worlds within the orbit of our Solar Logos. The game changer that occurs when a monad moves from the 4th to the 5th Kingdom of Nature is that it is no longer evolving, it is expanding. What exactly does that mean? From Worlds 46 onwards, the monad becomes part of an ever-increasing sphere of consciousness, that links to all other monads in that world and the worlds below. If you then look at the whole of the Hierarchy, you can say that this body of monads is omniscient, all-knowing, in the entire solar system. Now, we know this does not mean all grades of the Hierarchy are omniscient at all levels. For instance, 46-selves are not conscious of the other planetary worlds, that only start from 45-selves upwards. Nevertheless, you get the picture. These monads are plugged into the entire solar system in one way or another. They wish to extend that knowledge, in an appropriate format to us in the 4th Kingdom of Nature. What is stopping that from happening? We are stopping it, by blindly striving for materialism, seeking power and glory and living in the world of appearances. They can only come so far, we have to now walk towards them.
We may be self-conscious but that is about our self-identity. To progress further, we need to forget ourselves to merge into a unified field of consciousness. It must however be understood clearly that we are not losing ourselves. We are still very much who we are and what we have experienced. It is that we share ourselves and put ourselves at the service of all monads. When we talk about the consciousness of the Hierarchy, it is just the total consciousness of all experiences of the monads of the whole solar system. Their consciousness is our consciousness. This is planetary and solar systemic evolution in action. Laurency tells us that 45-selves and upwards are infallible in their conception of the past and present. “However, where the future and its possibilities are concerned, even the planetary hierarchy can make miscalculations”. This is clear from the fact that there are often different views within the hierarchy as to the suitability of desirable measures. What makes exactitude impossible, according to Laurency, is the Law of Freedom and the unpredictability of individual actions. If everything were predetermined, as many philosophers have thought, then mistakes would be impossible. The planetary hierarchy’s pre-calculations of the future are based on its knowledge of the past, of what exists in the present, and of those cosmic departmental energies, which are to pour through the planet during a zodiacal epoch.
Let us now move on and look at the Planetary Government. Who heads this? It is Sanat Kumara. It would be fair to say that if you wanted to talk about God, this is as far as you need to go. When the Bible talks about god, this is as far as it goes. When it references Jehovah, then it is not even talking about god but a tribal nature spirit that then morphed into an elemental egregore. The planetary ruler heads up a government that is itself evolving. In this process, they supervise the material processes of the planet, the consciousness evolution of the six natural kingdoms, and the infallible application of the Laws of Life. The individuals of all kingdoms have to solve their problems themselves according to the Law of Self-Realisation and are supervised by billions of individuals belonging to the deva evolution, who evolve by doing this work. Where Humanity is concerned, these devas administer both the Law of Destiny and the Law of Karma & Reaping. This entire organisation is working according to the laws of Nature and of Life, wherefore arbitrariness and injustice are absolutely precluded, according to Laurency.
The Planetary Government and the Hierarchy work as a team. The Planetary Government adapts the cosmic energies (the energies of the seven cosmic departments) to planetary needs and very often this is done after asking for the suggestions of the Planetary Hierarchy. Both the Planetary Government and the Planetary Hierarchy are evolutionary kingdoms that develop by having experiences and working them up, by acquiring qualities and abilities with a view to reaching higher kingdoms, by obtaining knowledge of the laws of higher kingdoms and by faultlessly applying the laws of lower kingdoms. Nothing is perfect, except on Plane-1, the highest world in the whole Universe. Further down the chain, consciousness development is an iterative process.
Both the Planetary Government and the Hierarchy can be regarded as energy centres from which energies pour down through the lower worlds. The energies of the Planetary Government are cosmic and interplanetary and are taken charge of by the Hierarchy for planetary use. The energies received from the government are especially related to the motion aspect, which also comprises the energy aspect and the will aspect. This is the impelling force in events and individuals. They make it possible for individuals in lower kingdoms to utilise dynamis, the absolute energy which must be scaled down through the different worlds in order not to act destructively and dissolve the material composition. As free energy, dynamis acts destructively.
On a technical point; entry to the Planetary Government requires the monad to have reached cosmic consciousness and become a 42-self. Laurency tells us that this does not preclude 43-selves from having unrestricted access to the government to engage in discussion about future plans and activities. Members of the government span a consciousness spectrum from World 22, down to world 42. That is quite a range. We know absolutely nothing about what they get up to, nor would we understand, if even if we were told. This does not mean we can not understand what they are trying to do. How it benefits them and how it benefits us. Humanity has its envelopes, which are opportunities for learning. The Hierarchy, by analogy, have the planet with its worlds and their content of natural kingdoms, parallel evolutions in those kingdoms etc. This is their pallet. Although every member of the Hierarchy has their particular function, they profit from the experience of all the others. By, function, is meant the full utilisation of one’s abilities in current life processes. In so doing, they acquire the qualifications of fulfilling ever greater functions in the cosmic processes of manifestation. By receiving “energies” from higher cosmic kingdoms and utilising them purposefully, they also assimilate their “nature”. In serving they acquire ever greater insight and ability. This is a concept that the disciple learns to realise.
Laurency tells us that because of the immense power the Black Lodge wields through the continuing misleading of Humanity in the fields of religion, philosophy, science and politics, we are in big trouble. We are on the verge of self-destruction of all physical life. As a result, those 43-selves who have become 42-selves (aka the Lord Buddha), at the request of the planetary ruler, have decided to enter the government and remain in it until “the crisis” has been overcome and the planetary hierarchy has been able to reappear as the guide of evolution on our planet.
It is comforting to know that, within the Hierarchy, nobody is charged with a function that they are not fully competent to judge. Moreover, the supervision effected through the series of higher selves precludes any mistake.
To finish off today’s discussion, it is worth noting that although our knowledge of all things esoteric really went into overdrive with the publication of the Secret Doctrine, not everything stated within this book was accurate and other statements were taken out of context. Theosophists talk about the “failure of the Buddha” because he did not whisk off to Sirius, as was planned. It was not a failure. It was just a change of plan, brought about by current circumstances, as already discussed. Other confusions can arise because of how the Planetary Hierarchy have described our solar system. They have called it the Cosmic Physical World (43-49). They then call worlds 36 to 42, the Cosmic Emotional and worlds 29-35, the Cosmic Mental. This was partly a result of a lack of better terminology and also to keep this classification in line with existing terminologies and relationships. These designations are also used in this series of presentations. Laurency wryly points out that this may be the reason that clairvoyants witter on about cosmic consciousness, when they only have access to subplanes 48:4 to 48:7 of the Emotional World.
In the next presentation, we will start by looking at past incarnations of the Planetary Hierarchy.