The new millennium is clearly one in which the natural interrelationship between all human beings, irrespective of their politics and religions, is being seen as the basis of a new world order. Such a situation has come about, however, not just because of media technology but because the psychology of our modern humanity has broadened and deepened quite extraordinarily. The principle of universal human rights and opportunity, irrespective of caste, creed, gender, and skin color, has become so successfully enshrined in our world consciousness as a pure fact of life that now to suggest anything to the contrary is immediately seen — at least in the West — as psychologically backward and socially antipathetic.
The old, restricted Eastern mystic attitudes and Western religious theology, perhaps ideal for their times, are now clearly being seen as having had their day and needing to give way to a broader spiritual perspective. It is for this reason that the West, with its more enforcedly open political, legal, and commercial culture, was — despite the associated materialism — made to become the main theater of interest. But the new world order and its civilization will of necessity be an international one, covering the globe in its entirety and uniting all peoples in a broadly common socio-spiritual culture.
The Next Hundred Years: Major Spiritual & Political Change
What we now see in front of us, for the next few hundred years — not just the next century — will necessarily involve the natural rooting out of remaining backward cultures (both sociopolitically and spiritually) around the world. But this in turn will result in a retaliation (which has already started) where the current of expansive modernization is crudely let loose without due thought for traditional spiritual issues being taken into consideration in concert with the needed political changes. Major change — particularly that initiated on a worldwide front by the Spiritual Hierarchy — takes time to effect and settle down.
In addition, the old spirituality and maternal culture of the East needs a new vehicle to contain and nurture it. At present, the West is not capable of providing it and much damage will be done before the West (the United States in particular) realizes it. It is because of Western Christianity’s sociopolitical clumsiness and lack of wider spiritual perspective that both Judaic and Islamic extremism have been unconsciously encouraged in their development over the past fifty years.
Present Day Politico-Religious Conflict
One of the major causes of current conflict in the Middle East, for example, is actually due to extreme (i.e., fundamentalist) American evangelical literalism, which has managed to persuade itself that it has a duty to help bring about the “spiritual apocalypse” allegorically described in the New Testament chapters of Revelations, with Jerusalem as the focus. As a direct result, working in concord with equally literal-minded and wholly self-centered Zionists (much to the astonishment of the latter), they are deliberately intent upon fomenting and encouraging Israeli-Palestinian conflict in every way possible.
To the Western world, as presented by the journalistic media, this is not the way the current, supposedly “political” situation is usually presented, but it is so and it poses a great threat to world religious and political peace. This, however, is where the new and more open teaching on esoteric philosophy (particularly as regards the actual basis of divinity) comes into its own and where it must play a major (but very carefully passive) role over the forthcoming seven or eight generations in particular.
An Intended New Religion for the Masses?
The Adept Hierarchy has made it clear that the intended new religion for the masses will be based upon a spiritual science of ritual involving invocation and evocation of planetary and extraplanetary influences for the benefit of all kingdoms of nature, not just the human. For that (eventually) to come about, however, it is essential that many learn the fundamental rules of esoteric and occult philosophy — but only after they have developed the highest capacity for universally altruistic and principled behavior on a day-to-day basis. There is no doubt that the Adept Hierarchy will be watching very closely to see how the present situation improves through the influencing efforts of those already “on the Path,” working on their behalf.
This highlights the fact that what will be needed in the new era is an increasingly large caucus of spiritually motivated and esoterically knowledgeable people who will be seen actually to inspire through their lack of self-centeredness and their practical approach to both local and world problems. They will also need to show that they can be relied upon by the masses for what they represent and what they truly are. That needs to be considered on an international basis — country by country in some cases — although international religious and political affiliations will also doubtless play their roles as well. Bearing in mind the widely different stages of politico-economic as well as social development reached in some Third World countries, this is not going to be a simple or brief task and will require much patience and goodwill.
Furthermore, an equally great problem facing a prospective sea change of this sort is that of the attitude of natural or self-induced mystics, whose very instinct is to resist that which questions their experiences. Mystics, however, are merely ecstatics who are not really interested in the “why?” of their transcendental experience. They are merely concerned with finding and re-pressing the “trigger mechanism” that gave rise to it, or otherwise of conveying a secondhand vision of it to others who are then left to interpret what they have been told as best they can. That thereby often foments further unhelpful religious division and argument. Consequently, that approach too needs to be very firmly set aside.
©2013 by J. S. Gordon. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted with permission of Inner Traditions, Inc.
www.innertraditions.com
This article was adapted from the book:
The Path of Initiation: Spiritual Evolution and the Restoration of the Western Mystery Tradition
by J. S. Gordon.
As the precessional cycle transits from Pisces to Aquarius, great shifts in spiritual evolution are on the horizon for those who have undertaken the necessary spiritual preparation and initiatory work. We are part of the overall evolutionary process of Nature, a system guided by the most highly evolved Adepts and extending beyond Earth to the entire kosmos.
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About the Author
J. S. Gordon (1946-2013) held a master’s degree in Western Esotericism from the University of Exeter and was a senior fellow of the Theosophical Society of England, where he lectured on ancient history and metaphysics. Known for his in-depth knowledge on the ancient Egyptian mystical tradition, he wrote several books, including The Path of Initiation and Land of the Fallen Star Gods.
