In his work with Bruce, DK cites the use of the black hole at the centre of the galaxy as a cosmological symbol for the monad as one of the seven most significant aspects of his new teaching. He even goes so far as to say that it is one that,
“Will be as important for the will and electric fire as the symbol of the sun has been for the soul and the consciousness principle.” (Occult Cosmology, p. 313)
The black hole teaching is one of deep mystery, waiting for us to increasingly unpack it through the fire of our own experience. A focus I want to explore in this piece is the sense that the mysteries of the monadic-black hole teachings are related closely to the teachings on resistance given by DK in Working with the Will (p. 101-116). There, he discusses the analogy between the flow of current through an electrical circuit and the flow of current through one’s own system or though a group. He says,
“The greater resistance to the flow of current the more ‘excited’ the electrons in the wire get and the more heat and light is given out. The tungsten filament in a light bulb for instance, has high resistance to flow and hence the light.”
“Early on the path as the current meets greater resistance the individual identity becomes ‘excited’ and there is much talk and activity generated as a result. This culminates in the full radioactivity of the causal body at the Third Degree. It is an interesting thought that the implementation of one’s soul purpose may be the result of the resistance to the flow of planetary purpose. Later on when one’s resistance is burnt out and the soul is released, the current flows without heat and light. The initiate becomes a less visible but more potent force. Another interesting thought is that a ‘sun’ may be a point where there is ‘resistance’ to the flow of the electrical current in space and hence the solar display.” (p. 102-103)
Each of us is running on fuel. That fuel is our soul purpose, expressed in a manner that is increasingly potent, aligned and clear of personality resistance. It is this that is the root of our plans, our judgments, our hopes and aspirations, and our interest in the evolution of consciousness (on individual, group and global levels). Yet it is fascinating to consider that even our soul purpose embodies a subtle resistance to the purpose inherent in the monadic Life principle. Just like suns that supernova and collapse in on themselves once all their fuel has been consumed in the fire of cosmic fusion, so also do souls, once the fuel of their soul purpose has been exhausted, collapse in on themselves leaving only the black hole of monadic spirit.
Mass and Purpose
Crucial to understanding the cosmic correspondence between a black hole and a monad, particularly in terms of the power aspect of the monad, is the correspondence that DK draws between mass and purpose:
In the same way that a gravity field is a result of the warping or influencing of space-time by the presence of a dense mass, so a field of consciousness is a result of the ‘warping’ of buddhic substance by the presence of a ‘dense’ purpose. A black hole has no form or light but large ‘mass’. Purpose is related to mass, not matter. A Master in the center of an ashram is the embodiment or rather ‘antiembodiment’ of purpose and therefore creates a field of consciousness which is really the disruption of a buddhic field that then warps around this central mass.
The mass of a black hole can vary widely, all the way from being of about 10 solar masses through to the supermassive kind found at the centre of galaxies, which can be of billions of solar masses. That mass, however, and according to Einsteinian physics, will be concentrated into a singularity of infinite density, gravitational strength and space-time at its core. This is the point at which space and time as we know them cease to exist, and all ‘physical’ laws break down (and physicists begin to tear out their hair…).
Correspondingly, at the heart of the monad is the ever-realised singularity of Infinity, of that which cannot be limited, and that is unconditioned. The monad is thus a nucleus of unbroken identification with the Absolute Reality of the One Life, but which expresses that realisation along one of the three major rays (1st, 2nd or 3rd).
Supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies hold the incredible power they do primarily owing to their mass (a galactic scale of purpose). With this increase in mass comes an increase in the strength of their gravitational pull, and thus a corresponding increase in the number of objects (whether floating gasses, space debris or planets and suns) orbiting them. Gravity is proportional to mass, and for the supermassive black holes at core of galaxies, it is their scale of mass that allows them to hold a field for one hundred billion suns to be birthed, grow, shine to the limit of their capacity, and die. It is this mass that has the power to warp space and time so as to hold such enormous fields of unfoldment.
The esoteric correspondence of this within the planetary field of the Earth relates to the role of Shamballa as a reservoir of the Life principle, and thus of the cosmic monadic purpose of the Earth.
It also relates to the power of monadically identified beings (such as the Chohans and Buddhas of Shamballa) to hold fields on the monadic and subtle soul planes for vast numbers of beings grow, evolve, unfold and eventually supernova, or make their own transition from personality to soul to monadic polarisation.
This says something of the power expression of a buddha, or monadically identified being, to purify, destroy, vivify and reorganise the planes and body of manifestation it is incarnating through in alignment with divine purpose, and to act as a dynamo for the unfoldment of the beings within it. The black hole is a perfect symbol for the effect of such a being on its environment, and all of this teaching is deeply related to the third of the three occult mysteries DK tells us are revealed at the 3rd, 4th and 5th initiations – the Mystery of Fire. From A Treatise on Cosmic Fire:
The mystery of Electricity. The mystery of Brahma. The secret of the third aspect. It is latent in the physical sun.
The mystery of Polarity, or of the universal sex impulse. The secret of the second aspect. It is latent in the Heart of the Sun, i.e., in the subjective Sun.
The mystery of Fire itself, or the dynamic central systemic force. The secret of the first aspect. It is latent in the central spiritual sun. (p. 872)
Befitting well the use of the cosmological symbol of the black hole at the core of the galaxy for the monad, and in connection with the roles of such supermassive black holes as destroyers and consumers of stars once their ancient journeys have reached their end, we can see that the Mystery of Fire is relates to the mysteries of the First Logos, who in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire we are told:
His function is, by means of will, to hold them in manifestation for the desired period, and later to abstract them, and blend them again with their spiritual source. Hence the necessity of remembering that fundamentally, the first Logos controls the cosmic entities or extra-systemic beings; the second Logos controls the solar entities; the third Logos controls the lunar entities and their correspondences elsewhere in the system.
This rule must not be carried too far in detail as long as man’s mind is of its present calibre. The mystery lies in the realisation that all is carried on in a divine co-operation that has its base outside the system. Hence too the fact that the first Logos is called the Destroyer, because He is abstraction, if viewed from below upwards. His work is the synthesis of Spirit with Spirit, their eventual abstraction from matter, and their unification with their cosmic source. Hence also He is the one who brings about pralaya or the disintegration of form,—the form from which the Spirit has been abstracted. (p. 148-149)
Just as consciousness is a faculty of the soul, purpose is a quality of the monad, and like mass, ‘purpose’ is the dynamic energetic capacity of monadic spirit, or Life, to warp the space-time around it so as to eventually come into conformity with that purpose. Purpose acts like an ever-present omega point within the field of evolutionary manifestation, drawing all space and time into conformity with its destined signature, which is itself a unique expression of the Absolute.
Monadic Service
This brings some insight into what service at the monadic level – the service that we are cosmically rendering right now – really means. We, as monads, both singularly and collectively (perhaps the answer to the degree to which we could understand that there actually are ‘individual’ monads can be found in the property of light to exit as both a particle and a wave), could be understood as an emanation of galactic dark light from the spirit, or “Lion of Cosmic Will”, incarnating through the Milky Way galaxy and anchored in the supermassive black hole at its core. That emanation has streamed down into the etheric and physical body of the planetary Logos of the Earth via the heart of the sun. Within the Body of the Planetary Logos of Earth, we each repeat this process by emanating streams of life that then anchor as the heart of the soul (the jewel) and in the base of the personality as kundalini. Yet during the entire process of incarnation at both the personality level (lifetime by lifetime) and soul level (cycles of lifetimes by cycles of lifetimes), we remain as monads on the subtlest three sub-planes of the cosmic physical plane. When we reconnect with our monadic source through the process of identification, we ignite the monadic power in our core to dynamically purify, destroy, vivify and reorganise (warp) the space-substance and time of the cosmic physical plane in conformity with divine purpose.
Monadic service, therefore, is the process of transforming and transfiguring a portion of galactic substance that forms the matter and energy of our planetary field. This matter and energy is composed of the lives that our planetary Logos chose to take on as its body of incarnation so as to manifest into the densest physical levels of the cosmos at the dawn of this cycle. This was and is the densest matter of the solar system, a fact born witness to by the scale of Earth’s bioevolutionary complexity in comparison with our neighbouring planets. Where else, in our solar system at least, do we find the physical and biological beauty and diversity or Earth?
In Occult Cosmology, DK discusses how part of the galactic purpose for which our planetary Logos has taken responsibility is to ground the evolution and awakening of Life to itself in densest matter, and access the power of galactic kundalini already present in it. In so doing, it is understood that the whole physical sphere of Earth may eventually shine and radiate the Life principle with such potency that becomes an inseminating agent within the galaxy, calling other civilizations presently residing on subtle levels to descend more fully into the physical.
Those who can access their monadic core can participate in this process. And the decision to stay within the planetary body, even after the full anchorage of our polarisation has transitioned into the monad at the 5th and 6th initiations, whilst simultaneously deepening identification with and transmission of the Life-force of the galactic Logos, is what characterizes those who choose to take the Path of Earth Service. It is of this process that Morya speaks with the following words:
The Cosmic Magnet is Our Sacred Power. Boundless is the immensity of this Power. If only the spirit would manifest understanding, fearlessness would suffuse all hearts, and the spheres would resound with rejoicing.
The Arhat proceeds carrying the power of the Cosmic Magnet in his heart, and I affirm that when this power, of the Magnet, receives both polarities, Be-ness radiates. Cosmos creates; it creates the beauty of Be-ness. (Infinity I, 119)
The Call to Supernova
Bruce wrote at the beginning of this phase of the Shamballa School work of two kinds of sacrifice. One involves the sacrifice of the reality of monadic spirit, or Life (in terms of our experience of it in consciousness), to centre more fully in soul and to remain committed to service of the Plan and planetary evolution. The other involves the sacrifice of focus on the soul principle so as to more fully enter into the reality of monadic spirit. This allows non-dual identification with and as Life, as well as the entry and transmission of planetary Purpose.
As we have said before, this purpose is not a directional effort toward some eventually achieved goal, but is rather the property of the monadic Life of the Earth that dynamically warps the space and time of its field so as to increasingly purify it of all resistance to the expression of that Life.
In Working with the Will, DK gave us:
“The soul, like a sun, may burn through its fuel faster and therefore have a brighter but shorter life span. We have commenced a period—the Aquarian Age—where a ‘sustained burning’ is required.” (p. 190)
With the global release of the Shamballa-force of planetary Purpose via the newly instituted cycle of Shamballa Impacts, the opportunity increasingly exists for those for whom the call resonates, to centre more fully in their black hole monadic nature. This involves the second type of sacrifice mentioned by Bruce above, and could be described as the occult process of ‘going dark’.
When we work with the Life principle, we take our focus off the growth and unfoldment of consciousness as well as all outer activity. We release the self-reflective function of consciousness that produces the light of understanding and make demand upon Shamballa for the impact of the Life in our lives. Once that has begun, we simply rest all resistance in consciousness and form (such an interest in more understanding or a focus on the energetic changes that might happen in the form nature), and allow the Life-current to thunder through us, unobstructed. As this occurs, identification with and as the Life of the planetary Logos of Earth, and the Absolute Reality of the One Life, wells up and overflows from our hearts. From there, as the water of Life it spills over into and through the Earth, allowing the planetary Logos to extend its embodiment and self-recognition more and more deeply into its body of manifestation.
While this does involve taking one’s eye off service to the Plan as one’s key focus, it does not necessarily entail any lack of potency in the outer world. Rather, it involves an increase in service potency. From Group Initiation:
“At the third Initiation however the focus of the soul must shift and this can be experienced by the individual soul as well as those souls around them, as a lessening of commitment, of focus, and of spiritual power in the world. The interest in the expansion of outer projects ceases and yet in this cessation something peculiar occurs. As the abstraction process occurs it creates a stronger vertical alignment to the monad, and along this channel greater spiritual energy can flow into those projects which have already been initiated in the world. The outer result is the expansion of the very projects that the soul was once focused upon achieving due to the inflow of monadic power as a by-product of the soul’s focus on the monad at the same time as staying in connection with the personality. Eventually nothing at all is trying to be achieved in the outer world and yet the achievement reaches its full flower at the time the Fourth Initiation is undergone.” (p. 49-50)
These are the initiates of Life who, having given their hearts to the world in great shows of light and heat, become increasingly silent, invisible Presences. Dwelling perhaps in places of simplicity, tending to their gardens, journeying deserts, swimming on oceans and lying in hammocks, their identification with and as Life and the monadic purpose of Earth, dynamically transfigures and empowers the entire global field. As such, they reside within the Earth-field as self-realised black holes of silent power.
To such beings, and the journey of going dark so that the footprints of our souls are erased, I offer fullest reverence.
