“The Mysteries, when restored, will make real—in a sense incomprehensible to you at present—the nature of religion, the purpose of science and the goal of education. These are not what you think today.” Alice Bailey
In the Mysteries Part 1, I explored the history of the ancient Mystery Schools. As I finished that piece by noting, in the Ageless Wisdom teachings of the Trans-Himalayan tradition, through the work of such writers as Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey, and Bruce Lyon, it is understood that today, as part of the major planetary crisis and evolutionary transition we are facing, there is the chance for the Mystery Schools to re-emerge. Furthermore, it is understood they will be able to be established in an updated form – one that incorporates the essence of the ancient Mystery Schools but at a higher level of the evolutionary spiral.
In Alice Bailey and Bruce Lyon’s work, it is described that the Mystery Schools will re-emerge in locations connected to their ancient counterparts, and we will likely see a reconnection to the ancient monuments and temples of initiation that remain today around the world, and the construction of new ones.
Updating the Mystery Schools: From Soul to Spirit
In the ancient Mystery Schools, the path of transformation that was engaged was one that focussed on an individual’s awakening to themselves as a soul – a particle of the One’s Light – and embodying that in their respective culture in service to collective evolution.
In the Mystery Schools that are to come, the above teachers have described that there will emerge preparatory and advanced sections of the different schools, corresponding to the Lesser and the Greater Mysteries described in Part 1.
The preparatory schools will focus on initiation into recognition of oneself as a journeying soul in an essentially sacred, evolutionary kosmos, on mental study, discovery of one’s soul purpose, emotional psychotherapeutic work, sexual healing and physical health. This will integrate the lunar and solar mysteries that figured in the ancient Schools to allow one to stand as an integrated human being, rooted in wholeness, personal sovereignty and soul, in service to the collective.
In the advanced schools, the emphasis will be on a deeper level of our being: the initiate’s awakening as and embodiment of spirit. There, it is understood that those who already stand as integrated, whole, soul-full human beings will enter into the transfiguring light of Reality to fuse their soul with their personal self, and from there they will open to the electric life-force of spirit and it’s current of divine power, love, creativity and purpose. Just like suns that supernova and collapse in on themselves once their fuel has been consumed in the fire of cosmic fusion, so will such souls in the advanced schools, once the fuel of their soul purpose has been completely expressed, collapse in on themselves leaving only the black hole of spirit. These beings will then stand as masters – the harvest of the advanced schools.
Spirit, Soul, Personality
The terms spirit, soul and personality are used a lot in spiritual and personal development circles. They are often not so clearly differentiated, but the difference between them is key to understanding the developmental stages of the path described in the Mystery Schools.
To break them down, throughout the ages, the spiritual traditions have taught that the human being has three major levels to its being, described often in terms of spirit, soul and personality – all arising, as does everything, within the infinite presence of the Absolute One.
Spirit, the etymology of which comes from the Latin ‘spirare’ or ‘spiritus’, meaning breath, can be understood as the Breath of God, the Absolute One. As the non-dual traditions have pointed to, the Absolute is an infinite, super-abundant field of Presence, Consciousness and Energy, and spirit is the energy aspect, the breath, power, or what can also be called the life-force of the Absolute One (the Holy Spiritin Christianity, Shakti in Kashmir Shaivism, or Tsal in Dzogchen). All creative cycles, whether of the life of an ant, a human being, a planet or a galaxy, are described as the out-breathing and in-breathing of the Absolute One, or the expansion and contraction of it’s beating Heart. Spirit is the dynamic force that is this movement. In Ancient Egypt, the cycle of universal creation and dissolution was symbolised by the landing and taking off of the bennu bird, or phoenix, which represented the god Ra (the spirit or life-force of the Absolute) in the Tree of Life in the city of Heliopolis.
In a human being, spirit is the nucleus of divine presence and life at their core. Matter corresponds to the body or bodies that provide the form – in this case we speak of this in terms of the mental, emotional and physical bodies that together form the personality. And soul is the consciousness between them. The spirit remains eternally identified with the Absolute Unity of the One. Matter multiplies to provide the bodies for the apparently separate Many. The soul is that which arises on the vast journey of repeated human incarnation to bridge them. This is the Holy Trinity of Father (spirit), Mother (matter), and Son-Daughter (the soul) that is so present in the narratives of the ancient Mystery Schools.
Nourishing the Earth with the Blood of Gods
The esoteric understanding of the path of awakening in ancient cultures was encoded in their mythology, which has been at the core of all the Mystery Schools. To understand what the mythology is pointing to, one needs to be able to decode it’s esoteric meaning. That esoteric meaning almost universally related to the journey of the soul to awaken to spirit and redeem their embodiment to stand free and in service of the whole.
In Gnostic Christianity it was figured as the Christ principle in every being (the soul) who is sacrificed on earth (loses conscious connection to the divine) and who draws on the wisdom of Sophia (the feminine side of the soul) to rise again to act as a bridge between the father (spirit) and humanity (the embodied personality) on earth (the realm of the mother-matter).
In the Ancient Egyptian mystery school, Osiris (the divine soul), is killed and dismembered by Set (which death represented the divine soul dying to its true nature in incarnation). From this point Osiris is represented, as above, in his mummified form (representing the divine soul entombed in the body). Then, Isis (the feminine side of the soul) gathers together all the different pieces of his body (except the phallus, which is lost – representing Osiris’ loss of connection of the divine power of spirit), allowing the birth of their son, Horus (the awakened soul). Horus then battles Set (the material self) until the watching gods eventually judge Horus as victor and bring him and Set into harmonious relation (the integration of soul and personality). This leaves Horus, the original model of the pharaoh, to rule on Earth as a representative of Ra (the Father).
Another example is the Garden of Eden story. Here, Eve (the feminine side of the soul, and thus the more materially oriented) is tempted by the serpent (the life-force present in matter) to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (to enter into duality through incarnation), resulting in her and Adam (who represents the masculine side of the soul) being disconnected from the Father (spirit).
In the Ancient Greek mythology, Uranus (spirit – the Father), the original husband of Gaia (matter – the Mother), is castrated by Chronus (the law of material incarnation) – meaning he is severed from the divine life-force of spirit that remains ever awake to its true nature as one with the Absolute, with his severed testicles falling into the ocean to emerge as Venus (the soul).
In the ancient Aztec Mystery Schools, Quetzacoatl (the soul) played the role of bridging earth (body) and sky (spirit). And in the Vedic mythology of Ancient India, Rama is one of a number of figures that played a similar role.
The Mystery Schools were all based on this spiritual narrative of the earth needing to be nourished by the blood, or death, of solar gods, with the aid of lunar goddesses. We see this in all of their myths. The story is of an essentially good and spiritual being (the soul) of royal/divine heritage (the spirit) sent into a harsh and painful scenario where they pass through great trials and/or death (incarnation in matter) to eventually rise again (to integrate and eventually fuse soul and personality), remember their essentially divine nature (awaken to spirit), bring online it’s power, and stand as pillar of good on earth (mastery). Consider how well this narrative fits with the stories of Osiris/Horus, Christ and even Buddha. I would venture to say that the original forms of human sacrifice we find in the Mystery Schools of South America were symbolic, whether actually carried out or not, of just this narrative.
The Black Hole: A New Symbol at the Heart of the Mysteries
In the Mystery Schools of the past, where awakening to the soul was the core focus, the masculine side of the soul was often symbolised by the image of the sun. Horus, Rama, Quetzacoatl, and Christ are all solar gods. Like the sun, which radiates its light and warmth unconditionally for all in its field, the soul radiates light, love, and wisdom unconditionally to all in its field. And the feminine side of the soul was symbolised by the moon, which again reflects the light that comes to it unconditionally in all directions.
A key piece of Bruce Lyon’s teaching on the re-emergence of the Mystery Schools is that this symbolism will remain in place for those stages of the path where the soul is the focus. However, for those in the advanced schools where the focus in on awakening as spirit, a new cosmological symbol will find its place in the mysteries: that of a black hole.
At the turn of the millennium astrophysicists started to understand that at the centre of every galaxy there appears to be a supermassive black hole. Just as a supermassive black hole is able to hold a field for an entire galaxy of one hundred billion suns or more to be birthed, grow, shine radiantly and eventually die, simply through the dynamic power of the infinite density of its singularity (according to Einsteinian physics), so also is the nucleus of spirit at our core supremely powerful.
In the Trans-Himalayan teachings, it is understood that the energy of spirit is impregnated with the divine power and purpose of the Absolute. Purpose can here be considered the alpha and omega of any creative cycle, whether of a human being, a planet or a galaxy. Purpose as a quality of spirit is both the catalyzing spark and the final consummation of any cycle of manifestation. It is the seed of destiny at the heart of everything, waiting to be activated so as to power form and consciousness into increasingly transparent expressions to the One.
The Cosmological Symbolism of the Coming Mystery Schools
In the Mystery Schools that are to come, I would suggest that our emerging understanding of the structure of the kosmos will provide a universal symbolism for the process of awakening and initiation that will occur within them. In the earth, moon, sun and black hole, we have cosmological symbols for the embodied personality, the feminine and masculine aspects of the soul, and spirit. And in the infinite space that enfolds and is at the centre of them all (every atom of every structure in the universe is 99.9% space) we have a symbol for the Absolute Reality of the One in which all levels of creation arise.
In terms of how spirit expresses for an individual on the spiritual path, it is worth noting this energy doesn’t come online until they have come to the point of being able to stand as an integrated personality, connected to their own personal sovereignty and wholeness, and from that point soul has become fused with every part of their life. That is, until soul and personality are fused (the integration and fusion of their earth and sun/moon). Radical awakening to and as the Absolute One may have occurred before this (as it can occur temporarily at any stage of the path), but only when soul-personality fusion is established that the force of spirit comes online (symbolised by the black hole). This fusion will be the consummating victory of the preparatory schools, and will set the foundation for advanced stages of the path in the advanced schools.
The Advanced Integration of the Lunar and Solar Mysteries
As described in Part 1, in the ancient Mystery Schools there were both solar and lunar initiations, which have more masculine and feminine orientations respectively. The solar initiations focus on what might be called ascending soul work: integrating the personality, awakening to the soul and then fusing soul and personality to reveal spirit and awakening as the Absolute. The lunar initiations focus on descending soul work: radically accepting, allowing and journeying so deeply into the emotions, sexuality the body and nature so as to reveal the feminine side of the soul, allowing the fusion of the personality and soul and the revelation of spirit.
One difference in their orientation is that the solar initiations orient to spirit in the heights whereas the lunar initiations awaken to spirit in the depths of the body. As we come into incarnation, spirit pours forth a stream of its life-force into the core of the soul and another into the base chakra at the root of the body. The solar-masculine path orients toward the masculine side of the soul through mind, awakens to the Absolute and accesses its life-force of spirit. The lunar feminine path orients toward the feminine side of the soul through the body, energy, sexuality and emotions, fuses soul and personality, awakens to the Absolute and reveals the life-force of spirit.
One way this integration has been symbolised in the Mysteries previously is as Baphomet, seen below. Baphomet is understood to have originally been an object of worship by the Knights Templar, who some consider to have been the forerunners of the Freemasons. Baphomet surely represents the integration of the divine soul with the animal body, and the solar masculine with the lunar feminine.
It’s important to note how each side eventually balances with the other. When spirit is accessed in the heights via the masculine solar path, it automatically activates the reservoir of spirit in the base chakra – kundalini. When spirit is accessed in the depths of the body on the lunar feminine path, it automatically activates an awakening to spirit in the heights. When the solar and lunar paths are integrated, spirit reveals itself through the heart chakra, and its awesome energy pours forth through their heart to the world.
The fact that the solar and lunar initiations take different orientations on the path is what is behind the war of the sexes in collective culture, even in the domain of spirituality. As long as the masculine is not plugged into the original source of masculine energy, which is spirit in the heights, there will be tension with the feminine owing to his inability to truly stand in his own essence. And as long as the feminine is not plugged into the original source of feminine energy, which is spirit in the body, there will be tension with the masculine owing to the same. When one or both connect to spirit along their respective paths, there is an automatic, mystical recognition of the inherent divinity of the other, and the tension between the sexes comes to an end.
Activating Planetary Purpose: The Core of the Coming Mystery Schools
“Revelation itself is a science—knowledge of the Mysteries is a fire that needs a sustained and progressive burning if it is to serve the society it enters into.” Alice Bailey
The fact that spirit will be the focus of the transformational work done in the advanced Mystery Schools means that their initiates will be working with the energy of divine purpose, often symbolised in the Mystery Schools by lightning. This will allow the initiates of these schools to start to experientially penetrate into, awaken to, and reveal the divine purpose at the core of the whole 4.5 billion year journey of the Earth.
As such, the advanced schools will be global centres that can anchor the revelation of our planetary purpose more and more fully in human culture. To put this in perspective, in the Trans-Himalayan teachings this planetary purpose is not simply equivalent to the emergence of an integrated, sustainable, global society rooted in love, compassion and support for all beings. Rather, just as spirit doesn’t come online on the path of an individual until soul and personality are fused, the power of our planetary purpose will only start to come online to reveal itself once a global integrated society rooted in love is in place.
These teachings prophecy that the Mystery Schools will then form a network of global centres that will support the emergence of a globally integrated spirituality. And it is understood they will serve as training grounds for global leaders in all fields to establish an increasingly awake, universally compassionate, economically prosperous, technologically advanced, highly educated, systemically agile, and ecologically sustainable global culture.