As promised in the last presentation, we are now going to take a deeper dive into the last three stages of the process of building the Antahkarana. We start with Stage 4, Invocation and Evocation. What exactly do these two words mean? Invocation and evocation are two different terms that deal with summoning and calling forth entities. Invocation refers to calling for the assistance or presence of a superior being, while evocation involves summoning non-human entities to interact with them. That is the technical way of looking at these words. But to us, these words have a more mysterious texture. Think of them more as an emanation or a voiceless appeal towards the light. Between the caller and the called, there is an interplay that forms a relationship. This is the underlying cause of all progress made by the disciple, pushing forward along the path of expanding consciousness and penetration into the light. This applies as much to plants, pushing their way out of the darkness of the earth into the light of the sun, as it does to a child pushing its way out of its mother’s womb. It also applies to Humanity’s drive towards greater knowledge and effective physical living. When we come to the aspirant, they are attempting to move forwards from the Halls of Learning, into the Halls of Wisdom. The disciple penetrates into the realm of soul light and life, just as the initiate passes from grade to grade in the Hierarchy of liberation. The World Teacher moves on into the Council Chamber of Shamballa, just as the Lord of the World moves into divine realms we can scarcely imagine. All these things come about as a result of the processes of invocation and evocation This process is an appeal, which generates a response.
The urge to push out of darkness into the light, from the unreal to the real and from death to immortality, is inherent in all forms. It is all a pushing forwards along the Lighted Way. This constitutes one of the most subtle and least understood laws of the Universe, which relates to the Life principle, of which we are currently clueless. Remember, there are the Laws of Nature, which are objective to us and there are the Laws of Life, which currently are subjective to us. This Law of Life underlies the Law of Evolution as well as the Law of Karma. What this driving force links to is the Law of the Life Purpose of the Planetary Logos. It is an expression of the dynamic intent of this august being. What the Logos is doing is forcing all substances in manifestation and in time and space, to act and react to the conformity of the will of itself. What the Planetary Logos does is enables its form, which is a compounded structure of the seven kingdoms of nature, to express the logoic intention for the duration of the “Great Breath”. What is this “Breath”? It is the interplay between time and space. This “Breath” affects atoms as well as the mightiest of beings that dwell within the sphere of the Logos’ consciousness. This “Breath” unconsciously affects the sub-human kingdoms and is sometimes spoken of as the “Law of the Life of the Sun”. Humanity, after the process of personality integration, reacts with increasing consciousness to the divine purpose. Once the Antahkarana is constructed and the higher initiations taken, the initiate cooperates with the Will and purpose of the Logos in full intention and understanding. This is quite a change for disciples. They no longer react to their own inner urges to invoke the higher aspects of life and of consciousness, to light their way ahead. They now know; they see and they participate in the Plan. This is done by relating themselves, to the divine intention, through an understanding of the doctrine or Science of Tension. Disciples make this tension their own as far as they can grasp it. They are now in a position to deal with the changeable fractions of form while recognising that which is immutable. They are now co-creators in the great scheme of things. Evolution may have a master blueprint, but it does allow for some creative renditions of how that blueprint is materialised. Witness all the extinct branches of the evolutionary tree of life on this planet, from the smallest bacteria to the mightiest dinosaur.
What passes for religion today does not offer satisfactory answers to the aspirant. The religion of the future will call forth the invocation of Humanity and a response from the greater Life that sustains us all.
Invocation is a recognition by the “part” of its relationship to the “Whole”. The impetus behind invocation is the increasing demand for an awareness of that relationship. Religion is the impact of the vibration of Humanity towards the Great Life, which it feels part of. The response is the “all surrounding love” that is returned to Humanity. In between organised religion as we see it today and the religion of the New Age, dwells the atheist and agnostic. They feel no desire to invoke any higher power and they are satisfied with the mechanistic models of science. This is a phase that many monads go through, as they focus more on their rational minds and are no longer satisfied by the emotional comforters expounded by current faiths. This is a temporary phase in the evolution of the monad and soon it realises that there must be something more. The current, collective, invocation has only reached as far as the Hierarchy. In the future, our collective yearnings will begin to be dimly sensed by Shamballa. Eventually, religion and science will merge, as Humanity polarises into a more mental framework. Invocation and evocation will then take on a more scientific nature.
It is worth looking at the role of religion in the past. As already mentions, religion then had an emotional appeal. It had a framework that related the individual to the reality of the world around them. Aspirants at this time sought divinity through an emotional lens. This was and is the age of the mystic and saint. Individuals reaching this stage attempted to purify and perfect themselves, reaching out to their concept of the World Teacher, whoever they thought that individual was.
The last appearance of the World Teacher, about 150 BCE, was supposed to end the emotional approach to invocation, which had existed since the Atlantian times. Although we have no records of this incarnation, esoteric lore tells us that the World Teacher demonstrated in himself the perfection inherent in Humanity. This was a latent possibility for the whole of Humanity to aspire towards. The objective was for Humanity to achieve Christ-consciousness, which is found on Plane-46 in Unity consciousness.
Up until this time, all previous teachers and adepts only presented partial aspects of divine perfection. Christ summarised all these parts into a single whole. But this particular incarnation of the World Teacher did far more than this. If this was all that he did, he would have presented Humanity with a static picture of perfection. This would have been an arrested form of development. The religion that was spawned through the writing of a clique of about 50 gnostic scribes in Alexandria, never recognised the fact that something lay beyond Christ. No mention was made of other possibilities beyond this level of consciousness. We can cut these scribes some slack, as the concepts of evolution were not known to Humanity until the 19th century. Orthodox religions have been preoccupied with an emotional and aspirational approach to the figure of the perfection of Christ. It has not looked beyond the reality He represented. Christ foresaw this when he pointed out to his disciple that they would be greater things than He was. The gnostic writers were well aware of the appearance of the World Teacher and knew of some of His teachings. Christ stated that He was going to the Father. He was pointing to someone else that was responsible for His being. This is an indication of a way towards even higher evolution. The Church never dealt with this issue. They presented a static heaven. What Christ was saying, when he spoke about the Father, was the fact that he did not represent perfection. Humanity was not ready for that. What He was telling us was that He was a pilgrim on “His Way”.
There is more to say about the role that invocation and evocation play in our development. It historically links back to the Christ incarnation and drives home what these great adepts are trying to achieve in a sequential manner. The Lord Buddha built one step and the Christ built the next. I find this background knowledge fascinating and if you stick with me on this, I will explain further in the next presentation.