Soul to Spirit: The New Spiritual Psychology

Moving on to the 5th subplane of the emotional plane, Salmon, I am hypothesizing Bailey’s Group Four belongs here. This group is said to be associated with Atlantean consciousness (Esoteric Psychology, Vol II, p. 205). I have also placed Petal Two of the Egoic Lotus (Knowledge/Love petal) here. Since I have already spoken about Atlantean consciousness in the last chapter, I will not speak of it again here, outside of mentioning that this is the first “official” Atlantean consciousness group.

ATLANTEAN CONSCIOUSNESS

As mentioned in the last chapter Atlantean consciousness is primarily astral (emotional) in nature (Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, pp. 494, 498), and is predominantly full of kāma, or desire. In fact Bailey claims that most psychological disorders connected to Atlantean consciousness come about when their desires are frustrated (Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, pp. 496). As a counselor I myself can vouch for this. Overwhelmingly my clients contact because they feel they do not have enough money, love, satisfying work, or happiness in their lives. Or, sometimes they come because they feel “something is missing” in their lives, and though they don’t quite know what they are missing, they do know they “want more.” Because Atlantean consciousness has more mind, they have more power to discriminate and choose between their various desires. They also have the capacity to employ time somewhat intelligently, giving them more of an ability to plan.

Bailey goes on to state that with Atlantean consciousness, “The more subtle pleasures begin to make their appeal; man’s desires become less crude and physical; the emerging desire for beauty begins to appear, and a dim sense of aesthetic values. His consciousness is becoming more astral-mental, or kāma-manasic, and the whole trend of his daily attitudes, or his modes of living, and of his character begins to broaden, to unfold, and to improve. Though he is still ridden by unreasoning desire most of the time, yet the field of his satisfactions and of his sense-urges are less definitely animal and more definitely emotional. Moods and feelings come to be recognised, and a dim desire for peace and the urge to find that nebulous thing called ‘happiness’ begin to play their part. This corresponds to the period of adolescence and to the state of consciousness called Atlantean. It is the condition of the masses at this present time. The bulk of human beings are still Atlantean, still purely emotional in their reactions and in their approach to life. They are still governed predominantly by selfish desires and the by calls of the instinctual life” (Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, pp. 24-25). If this is starting to sound familiar, it is because especially when we are talking about Atlantean consciousness (which is comprised of those in Groups Four, Five, and to some extent Group Three as well) for the most part we are talking about ourselves, or at least most of the people we know around us.

EGOIC LOTUS PETAL — Knowledge/Love

Next we will examine the Egoic Lotus petal connected to Group, known as the Knowledge/Love petal. If you look at the chart to the left you will find this petal shown with the number 2. I have placed this petal here in part because it makes sense to me, but also because Michael Robbins in his Egoic Lotus Webinar Commentaries 3 Series says around 1:18:00 that he believes Group Four to be associated with the unfolding of the Knowledge/Love petal as well. So what is the unfolding of this petal like? To quote directly from one of the Alice Bailey books titled A Treatise of Cosmic Fire (p. 539) we find the following statement about the Knowledge/Love petal. “The Petal of Love for the physical plane. Unfolds through physical relationships, and the gradual growth of love from love of self to love of others.”

Going back to the Maslow system of the Hierarchy of Needs, this reinforces what I have shared earlier about how Group Four is starting to cultivate their Love and Belongingness needs. All this talk of “love” however makes me want to clarify for a moment what is meant by the word love. In many ways the word love used both in association with the Egoic Lotus and with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is misplaced. As suggested before I feel the word love makes more sense here if it is replaced by the word connection. Why? Because what most people call love here is actually more like attachment, possession, lust, addiction, control and even abuse. Look at such phrases as “love hurts” and you instantly get the picture. Love, when it really is love, never hurts. Love is a healing and unifying force. Yet the majority of the music, movies, television, and overall memes about love in our primarily Atlantean consciousness planet continue to associate the word love with things that are more like attachment, possession, lust, addiction, control and even abuse. In my own work specializing primarily in the field of love and relationships, I once spent most of my time working with this population helping them to free themselves of these misplaced notions of love. I frequently would tell my clients that if love was hurting them, it meant it was more about being I.L.L. (I Lack Love), and not really love itself that they were on the receiving end of. Despite the many distortions about love that exist here, it is true that there is a growing ability to have some small measure of love or concern for others. The knowledge of love, however small and distorted, is beginning. That is why it makes sense to associate this group with the Knowledge/Love petal.

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