Soul to Spirit: The New Spiritual Psychology

Continuing to compare the Alice Bailey/Wisdom levels with those of Integral/Wilber. Here we are moving on to Group Nine in the Bailey model and the Turquoise level in Integral.

So far I have been comparing the Integral levels to a small part of the Bailey system starting with her 10 Groups of Human Development. As we go from Bailey’s Group 8 to Group 9 to Group 10, other aspects of psycho-spiritual development (known as the ACLRIF formula, the stages of Integration, and the stages of Initiation) need to be added in and accounted for, which in these brief posts I cannot address without creating greater confusion.  Sticking with the 10 Groups only then, I will attempt to make some correlations between Integral’s Turquoise and the Bailey Groups 8 and 9.

Integral Levels of Development

As always in these posts I start with the Integral Map and its seven to ten levels.

And, here is another chart zooming in on what is emphasized above.

And, here is the Ageless Wisdom map, with its 61 levels, 12 of which are found within the Egoic Lotus..

10 Soul Groups of Alice Bailey & Integral Connections. 

Again, a reminder that in Esoteric Psychology II, (EP II) pp. 200 – 214, 10 groups of evolving humanity are presented.  We will now examine primarily Group Nine. Another reminder, EP II was written nearly 80 years ago.

Groups 8 to 9.

In Esoteric Psychology, Vol II, (EP II) as we make the jump from Group 8 (correlated with her Sacrifice/Knowledge petal) to Group 9 (correlated to her Sacrifice/Love petal), we also seem to be leaping from the 1st Initiation (1st expansion of consciousness beyond seeming duality into what is often referred to as “Unity Consciousness” in Integral), to her 3rd Initiation.  As you can tell in between 1 and 3 is 2!  That means somewhere between Group 8 and Group 9 we need to account for the 2nd Initiation. For this reason I will briefly discuss some of the foundational characteristics of what Bailey calls the 2nd Initiation first, before going into more detail regarding Group 9.  Doing so will also make it easier to draw parallels with what Integral has to say about their Turquoise level.

To start with, in Bailey’s 1st Initiation we discussed in my previous post how it starts the process of breaking one’s hold to the material world, including the need to still hang onto some level of money, sex, pleasure, and power in pursuit of the spiritual path.  Before this initiation (expansion of consciousness), people are overly invested in these things.  At Group 6 (the Orange level of Integral), people are especially invested in these things, and we are even told in the Bailey teachings that in Group 6 people reach the “height of selfishness.” Even though there may be some “aspirational” do-gooder tendencies, these are still minimal.  At Group 7 (the Green level of Integral), these “probationary disciples” begin to be genuinely selfless and “group” or “unity” conscious, but typically, they only want to be “spiritual” (vs religious), so long as it doesn’t interfere too much with their need to still have plenty of money, sex/pleasure, and power (especially as a spiritual teacher). (Note: the whole “crazy wisdom” path is often thrown in here as an excuse to sanction this kind of selfishness, and those who are on this path typically are really at the Bailey Group 7 level).  As we are told all of this is disrupted as one moves into the 1st Initiation, and according to her teaching, you just start to realize what “unity” consciousness is all about.

As one moves through the 2nd Initiation one is “baptised” or “purified” increasingly from all of these selfish tendencies.  The distortions (or what she calls glamours) of the spiritual path are slowly revealed and one sees all the hidden selfish tendencies one typically tried to gloss over.  Using modern day language, we could now call this “shadow work.” Now, there is no more room for what they also call in modern language “spiritual bypass.”  In Glamour: A World Problem by Alice Bailey there are at least 50 of these glamours that have to be removed.  And, we are told seeing these glamours and removing them in ourselves can be quite difficult, which is why we are told in her system that the 2nd Initiation is the longest expansion of consciousness on the spiritual path to get through.

We are also told that at the time of the 2nd Initiation there are two more books from the Bailey teachings we are asked to master.  One is the Light of the Soul, which is Alice Bailey’s interpretation of the classic Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali. What is notable about the placement of this text here, is that the Yoga Sutras are considered in much of the yogic tradition as a text that still has a level of dualism in it.  That fits the Bailey model, because even though you have some glimpse (or what Wilber in the Integral movement calls “taste”) of Unity Consciousness at the 1st Initiation in the Bailey model, you only fully remain abiding in that state of Unity Consciounsess in a continual way (what she calls “continuity of consciousness” at her 5th Initiation.  At the 2nd Initiation, what Integral calls “Unity consciounsess” exists in the background, but in the foreground dualism often remains. As one moves through the Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali that dualism is increasingly dissolved.

For those not familiar with this ancient yogic text, the Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali are divided into four books (or padas). Each book has a number of sayings, or sutras.  The first book in many ways states the goal of the sutras as coming to know the Real.  The second book sets the moral foundation (the yamas and niyamas) that one needs to have in place in order to have a stable foundation so that one is not so easily derailed by what I will call their shadow work. The third book goes into the many powers as one learns to more fully control the mind.  Without the moral foundation in place, people can again be easily derailed and deceived.  They go through what Ken Wilber calls the “Darth Vadar” move. To shift from Star Wars to Harry Potter, they may also turn into Voldemort. Interestingly enough on the day I am writing this post, Alan Rickman, the actor who played Snape in the Harry Potter series passed away (1/14/2016).  For this reason I spent some time watching YouTube videos that summarized the Snape character. In many ways the Snape character is the anti-thesis to Voldermort.  At the end of the Harry Potter series we discover that Snape is perhaps the most courageous and heroic of everyone.  Snape, however, has an extremely thankless role to play.  He is often demonized, misunderstood, performs duties no one else would dare to undertake, and is constantly constrained by a vow of keeping his true motives secret.  In many ways he is unattractive, disliked, and about as unglamourous as one can get.  In the end, personally he seems to gain almost nothing, except fortunately we do get to see how much he is filled with sacrificial love!  (Sacrifice/Love petals anyone?)

Another book that is important to use at the time of the 2nd Initiation in the Alice Bailey series is known as Treatise on White Magic. The title of this book itself seems rather glamorous. It implies, as does the third book of the Yoga Sutras, that maybe we are going to gain some sort of special powers here, by which we may save the world.  Both this book, and the Yoga Sutras imply that magical powers of a kind do exist.  As we learn to master the mind and focus it as a tool on understanding the inner and outer realms of the world around us, we can in fact become more powerful.  But, at the same time do we become more truly loving and wise?  Not necessarily so.  That is why in the Alice Bailey teachings they mention the temptations that Jesus faced right after his baptism as symbolic of having to prove he has passed the tests of money, sex/pleasure, and power once and for all. Buddha likewise went through three tests that were of a similar symbolic nature. All too frequently, these tests are failed. What a Treatise on White Magic is attempting to convey is that the true magic has nothing to do with mind powers.  “White magic” has to do with the energy of love, real love, especially as it uplifts and expands consciousness into greater inclusivity, harmony, compassion, and harmless action all the way around.

Moving to what is written about Group Nine in EP II and also very briefly spoken about in Michael Robbin’s Egoic Lotus Webinar Commentaries regarding Group 9 we discover in EP II. that at this level there is no longer any sense of “my soul or your soul, but simply the soul.” This is a fact in their consciousness, not just a mental theory, Robbins stresses. We are also told that by the time we are in Group Nine we have reached the 3rd Initiation, because we have achieved a stability in what is known as continuity of consciousness (though that is only 100% complete at the 5th Initiation). and all nine petals have been unfolded. Global elders. (Been to the Mountain as MLK says). Again, there seems to be a leap taking place here, which is why I have spent a little more time on the 2nd Initiation and some of it’s main themes.

To give us some more understanding of the 2nd Initiation phase I will shift to Egoic Lotus Webinar Commentaries Webinar 7 at 25:00, where Michael Robbins has the following to say about the 2nd Initiation. Here we find the true unselfish servers, who are more fully decentralized as regards their personality life. At this stage they are largely disidentified from the desire nature.  Their focus is in the world of souls. They are genuinely more selfless in fulfilling the needs of others and the world without the need for personal attention, recognition, or appreciation. We also learn that their mental attention is on the divine plan. Increasingly they know the plan regarding the various stages of evolution. For this reason in almost every organization they constitute the new and slowly growing group of world servers. Increasingly, they are adapting themselves and their environment for the sake of serving/saving the world, seeking to reduce so much of the selfishness that constitutes so much of what they see around them.

Integral and Turquoise

And, here again are quotes directly from An Overview of Developmental Stages of Consciousness compiled by Barrett C. Brown, Integral Institute April 3, 2006.

Values: Bottom line: Global order and renewal. Basic theme: Experience the wholeness of existence through mind and spirit. What’s important: Holistic, intuitive thinking and cooperative actions; waves of integrative energies; uniting feeling with knowledge; seeing the self as both distinct and a blended part of a larger, compassionate whole; recognition that everything connects to everything else in ecological alignments; universal order, but in a living, conscious fashion not based on external rules (amber) or group bonds (green); the possibility and actuality of a “grand unification”; the detection of harmonics, mystical forces, and the pervasive flow-states that permeate any organization Where seen: David Bohm’s theories; Rupert Sheldrake’s work on morphic fields; Gandhi’s ideas of pluralistic harmony; Mandela’s pluralistic integration; integral-holistic systems thinking

Self-Identity: Main focus: Interplay of awareness, thought, action, and effects; transforming self and others Qualities: Highly aware of complexity of meaning making, systemic interactions, and dynamic processes; seeks personal and spiritual transformation and supports others in their life quests; creates events that become mythical and reframe meaning of situations; may understand “ego” as a “central processing unit” that actively creates a sense of identity; increasingly sensitive to the continuous “re-storying” of who one is; may recognize ego as most serious threat to future growth; continually attend to interaction among thought, action, feeling, and perception as well as influences from and effects on individuals, institutions, history and culture; treat time and events as symbolic, analogical, metaphorical (not merely linear, digital, literal); may feel rarely understood in their complexity by others How influences others: Reframes, turns inside-out, upside-down, clowning, holding up mirror to society; often works behind the scenes

The Two Models Compared.

In comparing the two models at this time, it seems that in many ways Turquoise matches in some ways to both Groups 8 and 9 from the Bailey model.  The problem with this comparison is as mentioned at the top of this post, with the Bailey model there is a lot more going on in the shift from Group 8 to 9 than I can fit in here.  Literally books are written to explain these stages.  These include primarily: Light of the Soul, Treatise on White Magic, Esoteric Psychology II, Glamour: A World Problem, and Bethlehem to Calvary. Significant information can also be found in Rays and Initiations, Discipleship in the New Age, Vol I and Vol II, and even Treatise on Cosmic Fire. Distilling what equals 1000’s of pages of information into this short post is totally unreasonable.  What I can say in general is that the Turquoise level does seem to be equated mostly with what are known as the 1st and 2nd Initiations, which I have attempted to very briefly outline in this and previous post related to Integral’s Teal.

The key factors listed above that most seem associated with the 2nd Initiation are as follows: Recognition that everything connects to everything else in ecological alignments; universal order, but in a living, conscious fashion not based on external rules (amber) or group bonds (green); the possibility and actuality of a “grand unification.” The keys word would be “recognition” and “possibility” because at the 2nd Initiation we do not yet have “continuity of consciousness always in place that allows for real clear seeing of that “grand unification” in any detailed way. We are just beginning to put the pieces together, something that is much more in place by Bailey’s 3rd Initiation to come.

Highly aware of complexity of meaning making, systemic interactions, and dynamic processes; seeks personal and spiritual transformation and supports others in their life quests; creates events that become mythical and reframe meaning of situations; may understand “ego” as a “central processing unit” that actively creates a sense of identity; increasingly sensitive to the continuous “re-storying” of who one is; may recognize ego as most serious threat to future growth; continually attend to interaction among thought, action, feeling, and perception as well as influences from and effects on individuals, institutions, history and culture; treat time and events as symbolic, analogical, metaphorical (not merely linear, digital, literal); may feel rarely understood in their complexity by others.

Actually, symbolic, analogical, metaphorical “seeing” happens already before the 1st Initiation in the Bailey model.  As one moves deeper into the Egoic Lotus there is more and more access to what Bailey calls “higher, abstract mind” instead of “lower, concrete mind” (which tends to be more linear, digital, and literal).  So this part of the text above does not line up very well with the Alice Bailey model, though the phrase before it about attending to the interaction in thought, action, feeling and perception do (especially in regards to what Alice Bailey writes about in her “white magic” process).  Also, though one may feel rarely understood in their complexity by others”, during the 2nd Initiation this is seen mostly as a glamour that needs to disappear. True, you may be rarely understood by others, but the emotional attachment or energy around this disappears, especially as one learns to use the Technique of Indifference that is essential to the 1st Initiation process in her books.

Other phrases in the above that line up more include “recognizing the ego as most serious threat to future growth,” “seeing ego as a central processing unit” creating a sense of identity, and having to reframe meaning of situations.  Reframing is really about cleaning up glamours that block what Bailey calls “group consciousness” (which is not at all like the Integral Amber’s “group think”).

In conclusion, correlations are getting weaker here precisely because we are comparing a very extensive system that describes these levels (Bailey), with a system that is just emerging in creating these descriptions (Integral).  Understanding this, I will conclude this levels comparison process in the next post.

To conclude once here again is the map of terms we are using throughout this blog.

Have comments, questions, suggestions?  They will be posted so long as they are civil and expand the discussion.

Namaste,

Lisa

Copyright ©2016 by Lisa Love. All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, computer, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.