The DK Foundation

What it means to be Ourselves: 3  

Unwrapping the package  

“Reach for the heavens and hope for the future, for all that we might be and not just what we are.” 

The Eagle and the Hawk, John Denver

In this series of articles we have been looking at attitudes and practices which, although they may be adopted with good intention, stand to trap the spirit of the aspirant, especially those working alone. The usual reasons for this are that the idea has been taken out of context, that there is an inadequate sense of perspective, or that the idea is anachronistic. We are all the time changing and the spiritual slant has to change too if it is to remain vital. This is becoming increasingly evident than as the Aquarian Age begins to settle in.

In line with the DK Foundation’s approach we are looking at this matter in the context of the western, post New Age landscape.

This article concludes the series What it means to be ourselves.

Each lifetime is a package of liability and opportunity.

The liability is what we have to contribute to the ongoing task of  balancing the level of consciousness which is the human personality and in which, by virtue of being in incarnation,

we are all participants.

Each of us expresses some aspect of limitation or imbalance. This is the liability, and by this means we pay our passage into incarnation. Through the difficulty and suffering caused in our lives through this imbalance, we may be able to detach from it sufficiently to understand its nature and to recognize its working in our lives.

When this happens we both pay our dues and make a contribution, because it is through dealing consciously with our personal limitations that the imbalance within the collective consciousness of the human personality will be made into a moving point, into something supportive of evolution. 

Each of us has the scope to remove a brick from the collective wall, by dealing with the imbalance in our own field of consciousness. Our efforts will broaden possibilities for the human personality, which, vis-à-vis the soul, will always be defined by its limitations but which can be made progressive within that constraint.

For the astrologer the liability is represented by Saturn. Based upon a certain set of assumptions about life, it is a place of restriction, difficulty and fear.

The opportunity is what our personalities make available to us. Opportunity is not a predetermined path; it consists rather in the development of certain energies that will open up the personality to soul consciousness. Developing these energies may recommend to the personality a specific path or course of action but it is the shifts in perception achieved in the utilisation and development of  these energies that are of significance to consciousness, not the path itself.

The very fact of belonging to the human family means, however, that we pay our liabilities and develop our opportunities within certain constraints. A human being cannot make headway through negative emotions, thoughts and deeds: the system in which we take our place does not allow it.

Our religious and spiritual systems enshrine the rules of the human personality’s transactions with the soul. They deal with development in a general way and provide the main highways.

As opportunity can be pretty well defined as the total energy package of the personality less the liability, it follows that the better we manage the task of dealing with our liability, the more time and energy we have available to invest in our opportunities. As we straighten up, we can see further and clearer.

We could all do with knowing what our liability is and understanding how it expresses itself.  If we challenge this habit of mind consciously, we will change our lives.

The DK Foundation’s approach to astrology serves this purpose. We use the horoscope to define  liability and to identify the keys to opportunity. In the life of each of us, these keys will be different, involving different combinations of energy principles and different areas of life.

Development at this level is a personal matter. It gives a point to knowing who we are. This way we can walk in shoes that fit along a path that ensures that we will call in on the experiences that we need in order to make shifts in consciousness

Sometimes, an individual may find that his path cuts across the grain of spiritual orthodoxy, although never to the extent of transgressing the basic rules of the personality’s transactions with the soul.  The Buddha defined these rules and they will not change.

Any variances between the path of the individual and the main highway will be greatest at a time of a change in the spiritual tempo because individuals are now capable of picking up on and processing new influences quicker than the collectivity. If the disparity becomes too great then systems upholding the old values fall into disrespect.

At this particular time in our development there is conflict in the matter of assertiveness. The general understanding is that assertiveness is an undesirable expression of aggressive egotism. The refinement in consciousness, brought about by submissive values associated with Piscean spirituality, is inestimable in its effect but those values have done their work. They are no longer dethroning self-importance.  On the contrary they are creating something very unpleasant and neurotic in the western psyche that now has to be balanced out through a different approach.

A greater assertiveness is the key to opportunity for many individuals now. The collective consciousness of the human personality is trying to move onto a more positive setting in order to be able to bring through spiritual will. This will about through working through imbalances in the consciousness of individuals.

We should view this as a major opportunity. Time was when an individual could not participate consciously in the matter of balancing himself, because his liability controlled and used up life.  He simply paid his dues and died, refining his constrained being with a greater or lesser degree of grace and acceptance and hoping to earn rewards after death.

Now our understanding of individuality is strong enough to entertain ideas, not simply about what we are, but about what we might be whilst we live. Not all these ideas are constructive or relevant. Often times they will not come down from the level of ideas into everyday life, but sometimes they will help us create a strategy that will remove the obstacle and release us to opportunity.

The New Age assisted this process by supplying ideas but has not done so well in turning them into workable strategies because, in the main, New Age thinking focused upon opportunity and forgot liability, leaving people to fall into its potholes.

If we have personalities strengthened by a sense of individuality, then we should put them work. This is the point of being ourselves. Everything benefits. But without purpose they are monsters of selfishness, unfulfilment and destructiveness.