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"Many understand that an age is ending
but do not comprehend that
the new age will unfold on higher ground."
The quotation above is excerpted from Entering the Age of Light (ETAOL), a booklet published by Gathering Wave Press. This e-booklet presents a compilation of intuitive impressions received from spiritual guides, who are attempting to prepare awakening humanity—as ETAOL asserts—“to meet the onrush of events that will clear away structures of the old order and initiate the collective passage into the new order of light.”1
The language used in this booklet is potent, synthetic, and visionary. The phrases used (such as the quotations above) are concise and forceful, compacting large amounts of information and intuitive understanding into a few select words. The fuller meaning and significance of this writing must be grasped through the use of the intuition, a higher faculty of the mind that transcends the analytic powers of concrete thinking.
To aid the reader in understanding the important message of this booklet, we are presenting a series of articles, which will compare some of the essential truths found in the synthetic phrasing of ETAOL with the teachings of the Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul,2 the author and source of inspiration for the Twenty-four Books of Alice Bailey.3 The truths contained in the 33 pages of ETAOL and those explained in exhaustive detail in the works of the Tibetan are remarkably similar in meaning and intent.
To illustrate this point, consider the phrase “City of Light” selected as the title for this article. In ETAOL, these three words, “City of Light,” appear in the section entitled “Consciousness and the Age of Light,” under the heading “A Season of Birth.” The inference from these phrases is that the city alluded to is to be found in the realm of consciousness and not in the physical world. It is to be entered through a birthing process that humanity will undergo in this time of transition into a new age, referred to here as “A Season of Birth.”
The Tibetan Master describes the new age in great detail, giving, in essence, the foundational teaching for humanity on the nature of the coming Age of Aquarius.4 He also tells us much about the transition, or birthing period through which we are now passing “collectively” as one human family. He uses some of the very same wording found in Entering the Age of Light—including the words “city” and “light” in separate references, each of which is filled with great meaning.
One reference to “city” occurs in the “Glossary” of the small book, Initiation, Human and Solar. The Tibetan uses the word “city” to explain the meaning of the Sanskrit word “purusha.” Wikipedia tells us that purusha is Sanskrit for “Cosmic man” or “the Self” which pervades the universe. DK defines purusha as follows:
| Purusha. The spiritual self. The embodied self. The word literally means "The dweller in the city"—that is, in the body. It is derived from the Sanskrit "pura" which means city or body, and "usha" a derivative of the verb "vas," to dwell.5 |
We learn here that “city” is equated to the body, and “the Self”—the greater or “spiritual self”—is embodied in this “city.” The self, or conscious aspect of our being, dwells in the body. The soul inhabits the form. Consciousness indwells matter. All of this is implied in the words “City of Light.”
By extension, the birthing process, alluded to in ETAOL (and in the Bailey books)—is a birth in consciousness, not a physical birth per se. As the following passage makes clear, this birth involves the revelation of light—of the lighted aspect of our being (through a purified and aligned outer form). It is a process that will occur in consciousness—unfolding, so to speak, “on higher ground.”
Many understand that an age is ending but do not comprehend that the new age will unfold on higher ground… After eons of incarnation in physical matter, only a few human beings can yet sense the reality of ‘a city of light’—a higher world where the light inherent in life will be made visible.6
What we are being told here is that in the coming age a new reality, which transcends “physical matter,” is going to become visible, and the body (or city) which the incarnating soul inhabits will become a body of light. Physical matter will become transformed into light substance revealing the soul that dwells within.
The wisdom teaching of the Tibetan supports this idea explicitly. To the Tibetan: “[L]ight is substance…substance is energy.”7 And substance exists both on a physical level and on the subtler level of the soul. DK describes the “bodies of light” that each and every human being possesses:
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There is the radiant body of the soul itself, found on its own plane, and called, frequently, the Karana Sarira or the causal body.
There is the vital or etheric body, the vehicle of prana8 which is the body of golden light, or rather the flame coloured vehicle.9
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The soul body, or body of causes (the causal vehicle), is the “radiant body” existing in subtle mental/spiritual realms. It is the translucent form which the soul inhabits on its own level. The etheric body is the vital body, or life vehicle in the physical world. This “body of golden light” infuses, interpenetrates and animates the dense physical form. It is the field of expression for the soul in incarnation.
In the coming era, there will be a gradual vibrational shift upward along the evolutionary spiral, the result of which will be the fuller expression of soul light through the “flame coloured” vehicle. Awakening souls across the globe will be the agents of transmission of this higher vibrational energy into living expression in the world.
At present the vital or etheric vehicle remains invisible, beyond the spectrum of human sight. Soul energy, transmitted through this “body of light” is registered—by those sensitive enough to feel it—as love, warmth, or radiant vital force. In the coming decades humanity will develop the ability to see this energy directly and that which has been hidden will become outwardly discernible. ETAOL presents this vision of the coming new reality, boldly proclaiming: “the light inherent in life will be made visible.” This is the light of love, the light of the soul expressed through the etheric vehicle.
The Tibetan confirms this prediction, prophesying the appearance of a new faculty, first occurring amongst the more advanced members of the race: etheric vision. Our book, When the Soul Awakens, offers this definition:
| Etheric vision is the power to see the subtler grades of matter with the strictly physical eye. People [with this faculty]…are able to register “all forms of divine manifestation as light units of varying degrees of brightness.”10 |
In the coming era human beings will heighten their vibration and learn to see etherically. As this occurs, over time, DK tells us that a “mysterious change” will occur—a change “based on the realization of the true nature of matter…and of the effect of the Sun upon substance.”11 He confirms the claim that the light inherent in life will be made visible telling us that the “unity of life will be a known and scientific fact, and life in matter will no longer be a theory but a fundamental of science.”12
The etheric body is the body of vital energies (pranic forces) that animates the dense physical form. It is the field of expression for the soul. It is a “body of golden light” reflecting the “radiant body” of the true self. These esoteric facts about the true nature of human existence, once known only to initiates of the ageless wisdom, will become the object of study by scientists in the new age.
Entering the Age of Light was written to prepare us for this evolutionary leap into a new world by bringing our “attention to this higher stage of evolution.”13 The language used to convey this message is evocative and inspiring. Many of its ideas are expanded upon in comprehensive expositions on esoteric science by the Tibetan. To be prepared for the coming reality of the “City of Light,” to begin to embrace that which is about to occur with wisdom and understanding, we would do well to ponder deeply upon these ideas, to study the ancient teachings in the light of the intuition, and to look with new eyes upon the world of living energy which surrounds and sustains us.
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