Spiritual Hierarchy–Its Nature and Relation to History and the Cultural Evolution of Humanity

Up from the Law of the Jungle

In ancient times, when servitors of dim instincts fought for survival, truths were no more than the fearsome laws of the jungle. Then tribal truths groped forward as magical spirits, good and bad. Then darkest instincts grayed toward mythic spirits, dragons, goddesses, and a host of red conquers. It may not seem now that truth could be red, but it was an advance over dark terror of the jungle, with glimmers of common fire, of protection and exchange.

Group truths became a fear-infused sense of right and wrong with imposition of laws and rules. Teachers came–quickly forgotten and mostly ignored–their impress shadow-shifted to religious Towers of Babel. Stolen fire heated the iron gray cauldrons of fear, desire, and power. The tattered remnants of the Great, mixed with the ancient blacks and grays, cheapened a truth-brew to feed the absolute soldiers.

Religious fanatics practiced their cruel trade and huge crowds of partly right people strained under the spell of pseudo-truths. A small number discovered thought and tried, with small success, to engender mass education. The gods of thought gave birth to science, and the truths of science generated more gods. Philosophers, theologians, and technicians made yet more gods and truths, with much metal in the earth and sky, and dry abstractions in the place of the heart. But the mind had exercise in these, and some with a stronger “I” stood apart.

 

Gradually, the truth of “I” moved toward “we,” and the green of earth began to warm the heart. More people noticed that truth could be stated in the plural, and relativity slowly dawned in the mind. The many were still fighting over absolute truth, but here and there on the planet comparative light study was shinning. From this something momentous emerged, a veritable tear in the illusory web of space and time. Thought leaped toward a vision of unification embracing both the relative and absolute, toward transcendence that includes and appreciates all that has gone before. Thought leaped toward realization of the value of all the halting steps, of all the little truths, of all the instinctual groping toward light. And illumined thought leaped up toward the cosmic, toward the vistas of stars and Space. Slowly then, there dawns a new ego-free perspective. The emerging sense of unity begins to respond to the absolute without the need to patent it as exclusive property of a particular school of thought or faith.