The throat - gives awareness of individuality / mental plane - opened by raising the energy of the sacral centre
	the heart - gives access to the higher astral plane - opened by raising the energy of the solar plexus centre
	the brow (the ajna centre, in Theosophical tradition) - gives access to the higher mental plane - opened by synthesising the four centres of the personality mentioned above
	the crown - gives access to the monadic (soul) plane; when connected to the base centre, the crown centre gives access to the Atmic plane or Nirvana

It may take many lifetimes and many different personality forms to open one centre, or two or three centres may be opened in one lifetime as the result of intense, conscious effort. Often the physical vehicle will succumb to illnesses involving the gland or part of the body that corresponds to the energy centre being opened, but the consciousness generated by that experience will be stored in that repository on the mental plane called the causal body, the seat of egoic consciousness, and the reincarnating process will provide another vehicle for another attempt.

The four centres that man in incarnation has to open consciously are not opened in a strict sequence (although the crown centre needs to be the last opened), nor is just one centre likely to be the sole focus of an incarnation, rather there will be an emphasis upon one over the others. But before the reincarnating process can end for any one ego, the causal body has to be inclusive of the consciousness achieved with the opening of these four centres.

Spirituality is the name that has been given to efforts down the ages to co-operate with this process of opening the energy centres. There are millions of different ways to approach it, but only one process. The major religions of the world are paths; they are not the journey. The activities that have sprung into life with the New Age are also paths and there are a myriad more of which western man may know nothing, and all of them paths serving the one journey.

According to D.K., the myriad paths will belong to one of two categories of path: occult or devotional. These are the two ways (see Endnote 1).

The occult paths are those which develop the mental faculties and are focused upon the brow centre. This category uses explanation and encourages the development of knowledge. It contains paths that are expressive of the Third, Fifth and Seventh Rays, and is governed by the planets Saturn and Uranus. Astrology and Theosophy come under this category. Its highest expression is white magic and the application of the lower to the aims of the higher.

The devotional paths refine the emotions and are focused upon the heart centre. This category encourages belief and acceptance. It contains paths that express the Second and Sixth Rays and is governed by the planets Jupiter and Neptune. All the major religious systems of the contemporary world come into this category. Its highest expression is mysticism, and the loss of the lower in the higher.

Today, neither of these terms, occult or devotional, has a very attractive ring to it, but to have the awareness that any given spiritual path is likely to be developing either the mental faculties or the refining emotion is very useful and as there is no merit in simply proliferating terms, we will stick to them.

It is not quite as it is to say that we have to choose one or the other: our egoic ray or our personality ray (depending upon level of development) will incline us to one or the other if that magnetic connection has not been over-ridden by conditioning or fashion.

It is a fact of contemporary spiritual life that because the major spiritual movements of the Age of Pisces, until the advent of Theosophy (which anticipated the Age of Aquarius), belonged to the devotional category, it is assumed today that spirituality is synonymous with mysticism. It is nothing of the sort; mysticism is just one expression of spirituality, but a lot of people who are designed to walk occult paths are trying to walk the way of devotionalism and mysticism because, owing to conditioning, this is the best that they know how to do. This dedication will be rewarded and, hopefully that reward will include finding someone or something that helps them to set their feet on a suitable path.

New Age ideas and activities fit into these categories too but the difference may be that as they do not form a part of a long established tradition with a clear spiritual identity, there may be no awareness on the part of those involved, even at a quite senior level, of the basic purpose (i.e., its effect on the energetic pattern of the personality) because of the lack of understanding of context which is a feature of contemporary spirituality. An activity may be recognised as being ‘spiritual’ and adopted for that reason alone. The result of this can be, an often is, a pot-pourri of ideas and practices that represent a sincere but confused attempt to raise the level of consciousness. The technical name for this is syncretism. There are problems inherent in syncretism, in as much as the mix of ideas and practices may contain ingredients that are incompatible but unrecognised as such. But in the final analysis, it is the quality of the mix that counts. Syncretism per se is not negative.

For example, horoscopy is incompatible with those devotional practices that encourage surrender of the separated self. Horoscopy is about defining and understanding the separated self and then setting that unit of consciousness, the self-conscious personality, to achieve the requirements of the soul. The eventual goal, soul consciousness, is the same but the route is quite different: one goes via the astral plane the other does not.

At the Foundation we do not knowingly give readings to the serious students of John de Ruiter, not because we do not acknowledge John de Ruiter - on the contrary - but he is taking his students up a quite different path, a path of acceptance, and once they have committed to this path, focusing on their personalities, responding to dissatisfaction and making conscious choices will not help them. The effect would be like pressing fast forward and rewind simultaneously on a tape machine. On the path of acceptance it does not matter what one’s circumstances are. Development comes precisely from the cultivation of indifference towards them. That people do not understand this most fundamental point is a very good indication of how difficult it is for the western mind meaningfully to engage with the idea of surrender (see Endnote 2). But because astrology is perceived as having spiritual value and because John de Ruiter is recognised as a spiritual teacher, it is assumed that the two go together. This is an example of syncretism. This kind of confusion abounds in contemporary spirituality, and not just in New Age circles. It is the fatal flaw at the heart of ecclesiastical Christianity which has tried to recast the words of the Christ to accommodate western appetites. But some things do not go together and amongst them are:

	acceptance and self-determinism
	indulgence and spiritual development

Time cannot and will not change this. It is the responsibility of Third Ray teaching to make these things clear.

In general the personality, the separated self, is a matter of huge disquiet in western spirituality. Spiritually-minded people, borrowing the language of mysticism talk so readily about ‘losing the ego’. If, by that term is meant considering others and being aware of others, then that is one thing, but if it is used to mean getting free from personality consciousness, then read Madame Irina Tweedie’s book ‘Chasm of Fire’ to find out what that takes. The book is not for the faint-hearted, let alone the process.

We are making the personality the subject of next month’s article. Because of the dominating influence of Second and Sixth Ray-inspired devotional paths in the past two thousand years, the mystic’s view of the personality as a sinful obstruction on the path of return has been accepted as the authorised version.

Early in the last century Yogananda was trying to make his mysticism-infatuated western audience understand that there are many holy men in India who will have to reincarnate as humble householders. Why? Because their experience as holy men had developed certain capacities but not others. It may raise and transform solar plexus energy to the heart centre, or it may take it higher still and open the ajna centre, but the other centres may remain unopened. The mystical experience is not necessarily the end of the story: it is merely a stage in development.

Our personalities are the most valuable things we have, second only to life itself in the matter of our spiritual development, if we know how to use them, or how to lose them.

If we are to use them we need to understand them, which is where horoscopy is so useful.

If we are to lose them the first thing we have to do is find a dedicated teacher. To play at losing the personality, which is what we will do if we try to do it alone, and to leave the debris of the wounded personality unprocessed in the psyche is to set ourselves up for a dysfunctionality that can take lifetimes to clear. Misunderstanding on this point is another New Age fall-out problem. That there are not more casualties than there are is because there are more people talking about ‘going beyond ego’ than doing anything effective about it.

The D.K. Foundation
June 2001

Endnotes:
1. In fact, there are three ways but the third (or, more properly, the first) that focuses on the dense physical body is not a significant factor in contemporary western spirituality.
2. The occultist’s stand on acceptance is

	That things matter until you know they do not matter.
	Then, when we are thinking about the requirements of developing humanity as a whole, and not ourselves, they must be made to matter again because then we can be agents of spiritual will.