This article by John-Roger was first published in 1973 in Baraka.
We are all spiritual beings. We are all of God. There is nothing and no one that is not of God. The spark of God individualized within each human being is the Soul, which is the basic element of our existence. The Soul is forever connected to God. The connection is perfect and intimate; it is the source from which we draw our life. The nature and the essence of the Soul is JOY. It is joyful because it is of God and has knowledge of that.
The human consciousness is somewhat different. There are elements besides the Soul that make up the human consciousness. These elements can sometimes cloud the clarity of spiritual vision and interfere with our ability to perceive God directly. These elements are the body, imagination, emotions, mind, subconscious, and unconscious.
The elements of human consciousness are actually microcosms of planes or realms of Light beyond the physical universe. Some realms are of a positive nature, and others are of a negative nature. Much like with the positive and negative poles on a battery, the combination of positive and negative creates movement and action, the dynamics of life as we know it.
In the outer reality, there are realms of existence that correspond to each level of consciousness present within the individual. The PHYSICAL level of existence is obvious to all of us. It is the level of the physical universe that we can see. Corresponding to the imagination is the ASTRAL realm. Through our imagination on this plane, we give reality to our fantasies and scenes of our imagination. The CAUSAL plane of existence matches the emotional quality of the human consciousness. On this level, our emotional creations come into a form of objective reality, to let us see their power. The MENTAL realm corresponds to the mind, with all its confusions and doubts as well as its clarity and dynamic thrust. The ETHERIC realm is the area where the power of our subconscious and unconscious becomes reality.
All of these levels are “negative” in nature — not bad, but like the negative pole of a battery. Their influence will tend to keep us recycling within the lower worlds. Their power is designed to keep us on those levels. The Soul, however, is positive in nature. The realm of the Soul and the realms of Spirit above are designed to lift us and bring us freedom. In the positive realms, the lower worlds lose their influence. The plan and purpose of the negative worlds becomes clear and in that clarity is freedom.
Let me give you an analogy of how the negative worlds function. Suppose you are walking on a mountain path, and “home” is about ten miles away. You set off on your journey, feeling good, and everything seems fine. Then you come to an area where the terrain gets very rough. There are a lot of trees down across the path, and it’s very steep. It becomes very foggy and rainy. It’s hard to keep on the path. As you look for a way through, perhaps you scrape your leg or turn your ankle. The physical body gets cold and begins to ache. You feel tired and lose your enthusiasm for this journey.
In your imagination, you start seeing the possibility that the entire ten miles is going to be like this. You start creating the image that it’s never going to get any better, and you don’t know how you’ll ever make it home. Then the emotions come in with your imaginative scene, and you start feeling discouraged and depressed. You can’t find a way around the trees, and in your imagination you’ve gone ahead of yourself and imagined that the path isn’t going to get any easier, so you start to cry.
Then the mind may come into play and start thinking about another way to get home. Maybe it can’t deal with the present situation, so it makes you believe that if you go in another direction entirely, you’ll make it home. So you follow the new direction and turn away from the path that leads home. The unconscious level takes in all the data from all the other levels but doesn’t have any tools to express on these other levels. It just stores the information and then feeds it back to you, so that every new turn in the path becomes an aspect of the last turn, and all sorts of vague fears and illusions come up to the surface of your consciousness. They frighten and confuse you and prevent you from seeing clearly what is really present for you in each moment of your journey.
As all of these aspects play back and forth in your consciousness, it becomes very easy to get lost, sidetracked, confused, and frightened as you move through your experience, trying to find your way home. When you can reach beyond all these negative levels and perceive from the Soul, from the positive aspect of yourself, you can lift in consciousness, see where your home is, and see which path will lead you there. And whether the rough terrain lasts for ten miles or only a half mile, you can see what to do to traverse the path.
At that point, you can go back into your journey and use all the levels as tools for your advancement. You use your body to move through the space, toward your goal. You use your imagination to create the image of reaching home safely. You use your emotions to keep you happy and joyful. You use your mind to decide upon a good direction and keep you focused on completing that direction. And you use the areas of the unconscious to strengthen you as you learn to discern reality from illusion.
Into this matrix of life come those who are enlightened, who have discovered how these different levels work and fit together, and who have experienced the Soul and Spirit directly. They are the ones we have called the masters and great teachers of humankind. They have assisted humankind in awakening to its greater destiny and have taught of God’s love and God’s plan. Living in the higher realms of Light, they become imbued with the positive energy of Spirit. As they come into the lower worlds, they bring that energy [Baraka] to these levels. The Soul within each person intuitively recognizes that energy from Spirit as its greater reality and moves toward it. In this way we learn and grow in our awareness of God and are finally able to transcend the lower levels of consciousness and reach our home in God.
– John-Roger, D.S.S.
