The Beginning of the London Group Part Three
Continuing my series of posts on the inaugural lectures of the London Group, included below is Lecture 3, which Alan Adams presented at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London on the evening of 7th May 1975.
Like all healthy esoteric
fraternities, much changed and developed in the thinking and practices of the
group over the next 4 decades. Some elements are now dated, but essentially this lecture remains of interest historically and to any seeker after wisdom. It is after all one of a handful of inaugural
lectures which hooked the “fish” who subsequently joined the three adepts who
seeded the group from Dion Fortune’s Society of the Inner Light. This is where
it started.
Clearly, the world and humankind
were once very different from what they are now. As the Earth developed, so did
the bodies of humankind. In every one of us there was developed a response to
each phase of evolution — a vehicle to enable us to live and work in the
conditions of the phase concerned. So, humans may each be considered as
miniature microcosmic universes; and the macrocosmic universe is sometimes
symbolized as a human. In the tradition of the Kabbalah, Adam Kadmon, the
Primordial Man, is one such representation.
In the Western Esoteric Tradition, we often use a four-fold division of the levels of humankind which are simply expressions of the different forms of the force of that person's spirit, or Divine Spark.
These are the four aspects of humankind as commonly classified in the Western Tradition:
1.
THE SPIRIT: - Often referred to as the “Divine
Spark”.
2.
THE MENTAL BODY: - Sometimes divided into “Abstract” & “Concrete” functions.
3.
THE EMOTIONAL BODY: - Often also called the “Astral
Body”.
4.
THE PHYSICAL BODY: - Sometimes divided into “Etheric”
(subtle framework) & “Dense Physical”.
The spirit or Divine Spark is the
essential essence of the being, the true identity and directive power of the “I”.
Two modes of functioning are
discernable in the Mental Body. The “Abstract” aspect is closely related to
spirit, and its action is often recognised as intuition when it filters through
to the physical brain. The “Concrete” aspect is that part of the
mental body generally referred to when we use the words “my mind”. It is an
organising, categorising, and form-making function closely related to the
physical brain. In fact, the brain could be considered as the physical vehicle
of the mind. Memory is a function of the concrete mind and its instrument, the
brain. Memory makes possible the assessment of new information and its division
into categories.
The emotional body was developed
before the concrete mind, and its expression is primarily through the feelings
derived from the instincts, and secondarily through pictorial imagery. Whereas,
the concrete mind uses words, the emotional body uses pictures. It is to this
aspect of man that pictorial symbolism is directed. In modern humankind,
thought evokes words; in our early ancestors, before speech was developed,
feeling evoked pictures and we thought in pictures. We now more often think in
words. As a person can be identified with their mind, so can they be identified
with their emotions, which can block the expression of the true human just as
the mind can on its level. Both the mind and the emotions are invaluable
servants, but when they are out of control can cause many blockages and
difficulties to the spirit.
The physical body is the vehicle
of the spirit in Earth. Ideally a highly developed animal which should be a
glorious expression of spiritual power, love and majesty; it is normally
anything but that. The molecular structure of the body appears to be built up
within a subtle framework of stresses which determine general and special
characteristics. This matrix is called the Etheric Body. Thus, the dense
physical body is matter built within a subtle web of force.
The Animal Kingdom
The Solar System with its central
focus, the Sun, is considered as the “body” of the Great Entity many call “God”.
A working premise is that the life of God vivifies everything on this planet. And
the bodies of animals, as well as people, share in 
this earthly life and are one
with it.
The essential difference between people
and animals is that each person is an individual being, built up around a
spiritual core, whereas a whole group of animals appears to share one directing
spiritual nucleus which guides their evolution. For example, you can think of
the cat (not being, as a group, fully individualised) as having a “group soul”
directed by one spiritual entity, sometimes referred to as the “Angel of
the Species”.
It is part of humankind’s task to
help the animals towards individual awareness, and arguably this is already
being done by domestication. False sentiment can inhibit this process and harms
the animal.
Other Evolutions
There are also many lesser lives whose activities form much of
humanity's environment, which are essential to people’s wellbeing and are
indeed part of their nature. Such lives are really the ensouling essences
activating and controlling the processes of nature. They may be thought of as “life
patterns” -- regular repetitive patterns which form frameworks for natural
phenomena. They range from the vast cohesive stress patterns of the Solar
System itself, to the “dance” of the atom.
Forest, lakes, rivers, mountains and so on are composite
examples. Each is made up of many parts, and every part has its own determining
life-pattern, and, together, these comprise an oversoul which expresses
“atmosphere” or “feel” of the place. The more developed of these life-patterns
and their oversouls often have a well-defined character and may make their
presence known to humankind. These life-patterns are called “Elementals;” their
composites are “Elemental Oversouls”.
* * *
To be continued…
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