Soul Is the Lodestar

Our memories are the storehouse of life experience. They are always immediately accessible, awaiting only our intention to bring them into focus in any moment. We live in this subtle “cloud” of associations from past experience which constantly influences our decisions and actions throughout the day. While some memories are the automatic lodestones that anchor the pattern of our daily experience, we can also exercise our will to choose which memories and experiences we want to form the conscious context of our lives. Once chosen, they become our preferred “sense of things” providing meaning and values within which we feel comfortable to live, move and have our being.

At this time, however, the familiar foundations of our living are being challenged as our trust in previously accepted authorities and institutions becomes eroded by revelations of their shortcomings. We have seen respected religious leaders convicted of crimes against the innocent; once acknowledged regimes are discovered to be cruelly oppressing their people; millions are starving as a result of climate change and the exploitative practices of governments, businesses and economic institutions. The list goes on and revelation continues to expand as the patterning of the past unravels. New truths, or aspects of a greater Truth, are emerging and we are beginning to experience our world in a new way, creating new memories and new patterns in order to “make sense of things”.

These new patterns challenge past acceptances and are fuelling our protests and resistance to the destructive effects inherited from them. As people everywhere rise up, speak out and inspire one another, a great tide is surging through the world, shaking loose our old limiting memories, and creating a new civilisation, a new era.

What is emerging at the crest of this wave is a demand for enlightened leadership, the distribution of the world’s abundance according to need, and shared responsibility for our planet as we come to realise that every part of it is essential to the whole. We are beginning to live the truth of the wise teaching of our spiritual Elders:

Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.’” Matthew 25:40

It has taken a long time to germinate the seeds planted by the Great Teachers down the ages, but these seeds are now shooting up into the light towards the great magnet of the Soul, which is the Sun at the centre of our livingness and of our sense of place in the universe. The growth which has been quietly gestating for centuries is coming to birth now in the flowering of the human heart and its burgeoning will to throw off old patterns generated by fear: fear of loss – of livelihood, recognition, acceptance, or an afterlife in heaven. Our long gestation has been within the nurturing womb of the Mother of the World, feeding from her substance. Now new realisations are dawning as we come through the pain of birth into a new era, the Era of the Mother of the World.

… this is a time of painful progress for nations. Each nation evolves in its own way: one by war, another by calamity, by labor, by knowledge, or by podvig*. Each nation bears its own karma. This karma can be light, but many nations carry a heavy and difficult karma.
You must tell people that in this evolution of peoples there can be no return to the past. Everyone who realizes the immutability of evolution, has already made his own destiny easier. Everyone who understands the law of labor in the service of humanity helps his own ascent. Everyone who learns to love to serve the evolution of peoples also serves his own evolution. Thus, a great responsibility turns into a light burden.
It will be asked, ‘Why is this time called the Era of the Mother of the World?’ Truly, it must be so named. Woman will bring great help, not only by bringing enlightenment, but also by affirming equilibrium. At times of confusion, the magnet of equilibrium is disturbed, and free will is needed to reunite the broken whole. Maitreya, the Compassionate One, needs co-workers. He who sacrifices himself for the Great Era will reap an abundant harvest.
The Thinker said, ‘Learn how to labor for all humanity.’” Supermundane, 722

Love flows through the awakened heart as it recognises and responds to the impulse of life to meet the needs of others and all that lives in and through our planet. This beautiful world is our common home; it is the great reservoir of living matter which nurtures and sustains all the kingdoms in nature – mineral, plant, animal, human, and the subtle layers of the Supermundane. The flow of its life-bearing substance cycles through all. To interrupt it for individual acquisition is to break the rhythm of our planetary heart-beat. The Wise teach us that:

…Just as a magnet attracts iron and then magnetizes it, so is sustenance given to the magnet of the individual spirit. Without nurture the spirit will not see how many doors are open to it.
According to the law of the interchange of matter, it is necessary to create a steady current of receiving and giving. One should not think that whatever is read once stays in the mind. The gardener is not worthy who visits his garden only once. It is necessary to understand the signs, but for this one should accept them as one’s own. One’s own Book lies at hand. Wondrous is the realization of reverence through which one’s life is transformed…” From Agni Yoga, 377

The times are unprecedented as our life force shifts from fear to love. This expresses through our progress from oppression to freedom, from exploitation to responsibility, from exclusion to inclusion. Collectively we are undergoing an expanding new experience, creating new memories, new values and new patterns of living together with one another and everything in our world. The great battle, between what we revered in the past and the enlightened living we now both seek and know is possible, is reflected through every aspect of our living.

All the crusades in humanity’s past are nothing in comparison with the March of Maitreya. I affirm that the Great Battle means the renewal of the Earth. The future should be understood not as a battle but as podvig*. One can expect battles not only in the usual sense but also as a reconstruction of life. There may be various periods, but in them one can sense a strengthening of life’s tempo. You already sense this acceleration of rhythm. Everyone can perceive this in accordance with the condition of his nerves, but he will be sure to sense a new cosmic condensation. One can feel a direct intensification of the rays. One can feel anxiety or feel striving into the distance. All of these details will indicate the existence of the same new accelerated rhythm. You can understand how the intensification of energy is laying a new step for the planet’s progress. No one should be surprised that Chaos breaks through, for the Battlefield is enormous. Let us not forget to notice even the smallest manifestations. There is so much diversity in the clashes between the fundamental forces of the Universe!” Heart 184

The human soul is the lodestar by which we sail through the chaos of conflicting tides, navigating by the map of the Heart to safer shores. It is our true being and when our identity is anchored there we know our way home. Then the guiding light is the memory of the Light from which we came and to which we return. There our Elder Brothers are readying to welcome us.

* * * * * *

* Podvig – This Russian word is often translated into English as “feat” or “achievement,” but it has other meanings. Podvig (подвиг) is not just a result, or the achievement of an objective; it’s a brave and heroic act, an action performed in difficult circumstances. …It is a synonym for selfless acts, for example, a podvig in the name of love.