Soul to Spirit: The New Spiritual Psychology

PLANES AND SUB-PLANES — 6th Subplane Emotional

Though Bailey does not assign any of her Evolutionary Groups to various planes or sub-planes, as you have seen I am taking liberty to do so, making certain hypothesizes of where they may go based upon my understanding of her work. To begin with I am putting Group Three on the 6th Subplane of the Emotional Plane because Bailey feels Group Three is Lemurian consciousness (Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, p. 205), but also because I feel Group Three has some Atlantean consciousness mixed in. I have also linked Group Three with the color Red, which is a color the Integral model uses. Though to be clear Bailey did not give colors to her various subplanes. Let’s now look at how Bailey’s Egoic Lotus is connected to Group Three.

EVOLUTIONARY NAMES — Lemurian/Atlantean

In looking at Bailey’s Group One and Group Two we saw how she claimed both groups had what she calls Lemurian consciousness. Lemurian consciousness is  where the everyday level of consciousness, or focus of thought, is focused on mastering the tasks of going through the process of individualization, coordination of the physical body, and getting the basic survival needs for food, clothing, and shelter met. Lemurian consciousness is also primarily instinctual with an additional focus on sexuality that is approached in an indiscriminate way. As we move into Group Three, Bailey claims that they also have Lemurian consciousness, though I personally believe based upon how Bailey talks about Group Three, that we could argue they are making a shift into what Bailey also calls Atlantean consciousness (which should not be confused with the Atlantean race, a group of people who some believe lived a very long time ago and were made extinct due to a world wide flood).

Regarding the shift from Lemurian to Atlantean consciousness Bailey says, “When this shift, in course of time, has been successfully achieved, then the consciousness is no longer entirely identified with the physical vehicle, but it becomes centered in the astral-emotional body. Then the focus of the soul’s attention, working through the slowly evolving man, is in the world of desire, and the soul become’s identified with another response apparatus, the desire or astral body. His consciousness then becomes the ‘Atlantean consciousness.’ His desires are no longer so vague and inchoate; they have hitherto [at the stage of Lemurian consciousness] been concerned with the basic urges or appetites,—first, his urge to self-preservation; then to self-perpetuation through the urge to reproduce; and next, to economic satisfaction” (FIND REFERENCE). But now, during the shift from Lemurian to Atlantean consciousness these desires are freed up to focus on more than these basic needs, which we will see in this chapter.

Atlantean consciousness as defined by Bailey, is primarily astral in nature. The word astral refers to their emotional nature, indicating that even when they do think, emotional reactions color their thoughts and resulting behaviors. That is why they are considered kāma-manasic. The word kāma means desire. The word manansic means mind. Atlanteans are full of desire-mind, meaning their minds are utilized primarily to help them fulfill their desires, which are connected to money/security, pleasure/sex, and power. Bailey states that when the shift to Atlantean consciousness took place, “Desire became something more than simply a response to animal physical urges and to the primitive instincts, but was directed to objects and objectives extraneous to the body, towards material possessions and towards that which (when seen and coveted) could be appropriated.  Just as the major sins of Lemurian times (if they could be called sins in any true sense, because of the low intelligence of the race) were through the misuse of sex, so the major sin of the Atlantean people was theft—widespread and general.  The seeds of aggression and of personal acquisitiveness began to show themselves” (Esoteric Healing, p. 231).

Again with Lemurian consciousness the everyday consciousness was focused primarily on physical survival and procreation. As that consciousness becomes Atlantean consciousness, we have learned how to survive in the physical world and have plenty of opportunities to satisfy sexual desires and to procreate so that we can reproduce our species. We also start to gain some confidence that our children will survive allowing us to carry our species forward. For the first time then our everyday focus can shift beyond just trying to survive within the physical world (which Groups One and Two tend to do). Now we no longer just exist within “Mother Nature,” we are able to exploit her to  satisfy our desires. At Group Three our capacity to do this is tentative and many insecurities still exist. Only as Atlantean consciousness becomes more dominant in Groups Four, Five, and especially Group Six will the desire nature becomes increasingly rampant to the point where Atlanteans “steal” from not only others, but from the environment as a whole, more than they rightfully need and could possibly use.

As for sex? During the shift from Lemurian consciousness to Atlantean consciousness that also changes. Lemurian consciousness sex is primarily at an animal level. Male animals are pretty much always ready and looking for sex. Female animals are ready mainly when they are in “heat.” Sex is mainly just about procreation and physical relief. There is not a lot of emotional connection there. With Atlantean consciousness sex starts to get attached to emotion and desire. On the positive side, this allows for an increase in sexual intimacy. On the negative side, sex becomes increasingly attached to money, pleasure and power. Sex is even stolen from others through acts of rape, molestation and manipulation. As we move into Groups Three, Four, Five and Six we will see not only in regards to sex, but in regards to everything, how this focus on money/security, pleasure/sex, and power (and the attempt to master these) continues to increase.

EGOIC LOTUS PETAL — Knowledge/Knowledge

In the chapter regarding Terms we talked about what something Bailey calls the Egoic Lotus (“soul flower”), that has twelve petals, with each petal representing twelve stages of human and spiritual evolution. Here, at the 6th Subplane of the Emotional Plane (Red), in association with Group Three, I believe the first petal of the Egoic Lotus begins to unfold. (See the number 1 in the diagram to the left). Why do I believe it belongs here? Consider what is said about this Knowledge/Knowledge petal which primarily influences life on the physical plane. “Through the breaking of the Law and the ensuing suffering the price of ignorance is paid and knowledge is achieved. This unfoldment is brought about through physical plane experience.” (Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 539). Though none of the Egoic Lotus petals are specifically assigned to any of the Ten Groups, in my mind the wording of the Knowledge/Knowledge petal regarding the breaking of the law and suffering the price of ignorance seems to be associated with Group Three. What laws are broken? The laws of the Soul. What is the price of ignorance? The karma that comes about when we do not yet understand the “Souls” we really are. Why put Group Three here and not Groups One or Two? Because as I see it Groups One and Two are just starting to find their way around in the physical world. And, they are still too intertwined with “Mother Earth” to cause much destruction. Finally, they have yet to accumulating “knowledge” about the “knowledge” in regards to knowing how to get their basic physical needs of food, clothing, and shelter met. But, with Group Three we start to see this knowledge emerge.

How? I imagine this knowledge about getting knowledge regarding the physical world happening in the following ways. For starters understand that each of these Ten Groups takes at minimum thousands of years to develop (some say they may need tens of thousands of years or even much, much longer to come into being and then disappear). Following the lead of Integral (which we will read more about in the next section) and how it speculates that Integral Red (which I believe is the same came online around 15,0000 years ago; I feel the same could be said about Group Three — Red. This places the emergence of this group back before the agricultural era pushing it into hunting and gathering societies. Imagine the knowledge that has been shared about the knowledge of how to survive in the physical world that from that time until ours has been passed on. For starters, knowledge (teaching) had to be passed on to children from their elders about the knowledge of where the best hunting grounds were, the routes to get there, and the best times of year to look different animals to kill. Knowledge (teaching) had to be passed on regarding the knowledge of what kind of plant species could be harvested at different times of year to be eaten or turned into medicine.

Eventually that knowledge including how to build different kinds of shelter and how to make clothes. Over time it would include knowledge of weaponry, the building of chariots, ships, the making of pottery, lessons in weaving, dye making and so much more it would be impossible for me to list it all. At first this information would be passed on in an oral manner, until the invention of writing exploded this knowledge about surviving and prospering in the physical world up to day and age, everywhere. It might even be said that the Knowledge/Knowledge petal in regards to the Physical Plane has at this point opened so fully, it might even be ready to fall off (symbolically speaking). Maybe that is why Group Three is starting to seem antiquated and their thinking is increasingly being viewed as archaic. Now that we have this knowledge of how to survive in the physical world pretty much mastered, it is time to move on.

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