THE SEARCH FOR GOLD

Daniel Hersheson

Gold and Money

Gold is one of the many known planetary elements included in the Periodic Table of Elements. Like

all elements, gold is made up of a certain number and combination of neutrons, protons and electrons, and the particular combination which we call gold, has resulted in a metal which has caught the imagination of humanity since the dawn of time. It's rarity, colour, lustre, malleability, the fact that it doesn't tarnish or rust and its association with prestige, status, wealth and power, has made it the object of desire of kings, the wealthy and the power seekers the world over.

This lead to the rise of gold as a means of international exchange. We can trace this development from the Egyptian shekel created in 1500 BC, to the British Florin issued in 1284, to the establishment of the gold standard in all major countries except China by1900, the establishment of the Bretton Woods agreement in 1944 - a system of monetary and exchange rate management linked to gold - and its dissolution in 1971, and the free floating of all major currencies by 1973.

With the ending of the gold standard, one might say that the energy of money had outgrown the confines of the mineral kingdom which had become an impediment to the rapid increase in human activity and the need for greater fluidity in monetary exchange. The evolution in the form, flexibility and speed of monetary exchange may be linked to the qualities of matter itself.

We are told that matter is characterised by the three qualities of inertia (tamas), mobility (rajas) and rhythm (sattva), and it is these three fundamental qualities of matter which determine the course of material evolution.

The quality of inertia manifests most strongly in the mineral kingdom which, interestingly, provides the negative basis for the permanent physical atom of man. It therefore comes as no surprise that while primitive man was polarised in the permanent physical atom that human activity was slow or tamasic. The quality of rajas or activity is said to be the principle quality of the vegetable kingdom which we are told provides the negative basis for the astral permanent atom of man. Therefore, as the polarisation of humanity shifted to the astral permanent atom, human physical plane activity intensified and became increasingly rajasic and desire driven. The industrial revolution, which began in Britain around 1760, marked a major turning point in human

history with unprecedented growth in average income and population. Just two centuries earlier, British goldsmiths started the transition from tamasic metal money to rajasic paper money by issuing tradable receipts for gold safeguarded in their vaults. It wasn't, however, until the establishment of the world's first central bank, the Bank of England, in 1694 that paper notes were systematically issued in return for deposits. This rajasic period in which we still find ourselves is characterised by "cycles of chaos, of experiment, of experience and of comprehension" as humanity seeks the 'true note and rate'. What is this 'true note and rate' and how does it relate to gold/money? Is it not the quality of sattva or harmony which we will see emerging in the economy when humanity learns to respond harmoniously to the vibration of gold/money?

Today, we are witnessing the increasing digitalisation of money, with only a small fraction of the total money in circulation actually being physical, but what is of greater interest, is the recent emergence of a completely new conceptual development in the realm of money. In 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence with the release of the first open source bitcoin client and the issuance of the first bitcoins. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency or mathbased currency, which uses cryptography to control its creation and management, rather than relying on central authorities. In fact it compIetely bi-passes both government and third party financial institutions. While bitcoin is still in its infancy, it nevertheless presents us with a new, abstract concept of money and monetary system. This is indicative of a further evolutionary advancement and heightening of vibration, to the extent that money is losing its material form and is becoming etheric in nature. Could this latest transmutation in the form of money indicate the emergence of the quality of sattva or harmony in the world economy?

If we consider the world civilisation of interlinked cities, towns and villages as the body of humanity, then money corresponds to that vital, life giving energy in the human body we call blood, and the monetary system is the means by which supply is made to circulate throughout the body of humanity, much as the blood system is the means by which nutrition is circulated throughout the human body. From this analogy, we might infer that the divine purpose of money is to provide humanity with the healthy, physical plane basis for true creative living, free of fear, insecurity and material privation.

If we recall that money is concretised etheric energy, which is necessarily swept into activity by the mental and emotional forces emanating from the collective mind and emotions of humanity, we can see that the effectiveness with which money is made to circulate throughout the body of humanity is dependent on humanity's state of consciousness, and the effect necessarily demonstrates on the physical plane.

We are told that the issue and spread of money and gold is the lower expression of the third Ray of Active Intelligence. It is clear that this third Ray energy is expressing itself forcefully through the immensely powerful men in the highest echelons of the banking industry. So much so, that through the establishment of independent, profit driven central banks such as the Federal Reserve, they have literally usurped control from government over the issuing of many of the world's currencies. Napoleon Bonaparte stated in 1815: "When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes... Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain." This view is confirmed in a statement made by Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the founder of the Rothschild dynasty, in 1790: "Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws".

Independent central banks create money out of thin air and lend it into the economy at interest. By manipulating interest rates and the loaning of money, an independent central bank effectively controls the business cycle, the economy and the government. We see the effects of this debt based monetary system and the manipulation of the money supply in the tremendous world indebtedness and the increasing divide between the immensely wealthy and the masses. The transfer of wealth from the masses to the elite few is effected through the cyclic expansion and contraction of the money supply, which uses the rajasic and tamasic qualities of matter to induce successive cycles of economic recession (deflation) and growth (inflation).

In astrological terms, the second house of Taurus has to do with finance. When considering this house we should recall that both the personality and the Soul are concerned with what is gain, what is loss, what is expenditure and so forth, but from vastly different perspectives and hence with different motives. The average personality's response to the vibration of money is largely determined by the interplay between thedesire for material gain and the fear of material loss. It is governed by the illusion of the separated self and the desire to optimise personal circumstances. From the perspective of the Soul, the notion of personal gain or loss doesn't exist. They are an illusory pair of opposites fed by greed and fear, whereby the gain of one is the loss of another. Within the context of that organism we call humanity, we can see exactly how damaging this vying for gain is between cells of the same organism. So, from the perspective of the Soul, we might suggest that income is energy received, expenditure is energy used, investment is the energising of form, loss is the withdrawal of energy from form, and gain is the obtaining of spiritual powers as a result of spiritual advancement. This alternative perspective of everyday financial terms provides insight into both the economic problem and the solution.

At this point we should recall that the New Group of World Servers is ruled by Taurus, which we have already seen governs the second house of finance. We should also recall that the "NGWS" constitutes the ajna centre of Sanat Kumara and both the ajna and heart centre of humanity. The ajna centre is the organ for the distribution of the energy of the third aspect, of which money is a physical plane form. The twin petals of the ajna centre symbolise duality or the opposing paths of materiality and spirituality. We have seen how the elite group of bankers and businessmen - highly evolved mentally, but lacking the second aspect - are selfishly wielding this energy on the path of materiality. Hence we see the vital role which the NGWS needs to play in the realm of money, finance and economics to combat the forces of materiality and to light the way for humanity, both in terms of bridging from the material to the spiritual and in terms of influencing the channels into which money is directed. Hence the weekly meditation on money. In this meditation outline there is a section in the invocative prayer in which we state "may this potent energy of Thine be in the hands of the forces of light." One possible interpretation of this sentence is that the right to issue a nations's currency needs to be in the hands of the first Ray expression of government - who have the interests of the people at heart - and not in the hands of self interested bankers.

The Symbology of Gold

The dichotomy of response to the vibration of money is no better illustrated than in the symbology

of gold. The exceptional physical characteristics or properties of gold have simultaneously made it the symbol of material desire and the symbol of those virtues which the disciple seeks to build into his nature. The fact that gold doesn't tarnish or rust and is resistant to heat and acid are associated with the qualities of incorruptibility, purity and perfection, and the lustre and luminosity of gold are associated with the Sun God or Soul and hence with light and illumination.

From an esoteric perspective, we are told that the mineral kingdom is a condensation or externalisation of the etheric substance which forms the cosmic golden web of space. This web of golden light is spoken of in the Bible as the "golden bowl." Therefore when the Tibetan refers to gold as the "externalised symbol of that which is created by the bringing together of spirit and matter on the physical plane", the imagery is one of the externalisation of this "golden bowl" of etheric energy, and the symbology is one of the condensation of golden light into physical gold. In gold we see therefore the symbol of light concealed in matter and the promise of illumination on the path of return. In this connection it is interesting to note that the zodiacal sign Taurus governs astrologically the mineral kingdom and is both the symbol of desire and the revealer of light in all phases. Taurus is therefore closely connected with the symbology of gold and the search for light.

Venus is the exoteric ruler of Taurus and it is the activity of Venus in Taurus which, through the many cycles of incarnation, finally leads man to illumination. The esoteric and hierarchical ruler of Taurus is Vulcan, the forger of metals and men alike. "He is the one who goes down into the depths to find the material upon which to expend his innate art and to fashion that which is beautiful and useful. Vulcan is, therefore, that which stands for the soul, the individual, inner, spiritual man" (EA 385) He is simultaneously and profoundly associated with both the mineral kingdom and with the Soul and He is the one who "reveals that which is deeply hidden and brings it up into the light." (EA 393) We might interpret Vulcan's dual connection with the mineral kingdom and with the Soul, as referring to the kundalini fire which links the lowest and the highest within man and which, when it has run its geometrical course, brings the human soul, so long confined within the caves of densest matter, into at-one-ment with the Soul on its own plane.

In connection with the symbology of gold and the evolution of man, we might say that in average man gold symbolises the centre at the base of the spine - the Light of Earth - which relates man to the mineral kingdom and to materiality. In the disciple, gold may be said to symbolise the golden heart centre - the Light of Love - and the spiritual aspiration to know oneself in fact to be a Sun God. In the Initiate, when the kundalini fire has

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freed man from the hold of the personality, gold may be said to symbolise the head centre with its twelve petalled heart centre of white and gold - the Light of Life - and the spiritual will to serve the Plan.

The dual symbology of gold is clearly expressed in the following quotation from a very ancient book of prophecy:

"The golden eye of Taurus points the way to those who likewise see. That which is gold will some day, too, respond, passing from East to West in that dire time when the urge to gather gold shall rule the lower half (i.e., the personality aspects of men and all nations- A.A.B.). The search for gold, the search for golden light divine, directs the Bull of Life, the Bull of Form. These two must meet; and meeting, clash. Thus vanishes gold..." (EA 379)

The eye of Taurus or the "eye of the Bull" is the symbol of the eye to which Christ made reference when he stated "I am the Light of the world," and added, "if thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light." The Tibetan tells us that the "eye of the Bull" is the eye of revelation. The underlying goal of the evolutionary process—"the onward rush of the Bull of God," as it is esoterically called—reveals steadily and without cessation the stupendous and sublime plan of Deity. This is the subject which light reveals. (EA 375)

Reference to the clash between the Bull of Life and the Bull of Form concerns the great battle of Kurukshetra or the battle between the pairs of opposites which is fought by every aspirant, and by humanity as a unit, on the astral plane. We should remember that this is actually the battle between two types of opposing energy; the energy of matter as directed by the personality and the energy of love/wisdom as directed by the Soul, and both are seeking to direct our choices and decisions, and hence energy, in opposing directions. The Bulls meet and clash and "Thus vanishes gold" is interpreted as meaning the point at which spirit and matter, the positive and negative poles, fuse into unity. This is analogous to the 'vanishing' of electricity when the positive and negative charges are brought into equilibrium. We are told that gold, as the symbol of human desire and glamour, 'vanishes' at the second initiation when the astral plane is finally overcome. The secret of Taurus is then revealed: "by the sudden removal or disappearance of world glamour in the blinding energy of light." (EA 388) "At the third initiation illusion is dissipated and the "light which shines through the eye of the Bull will be unimpeded" and carry light into the darkness." (EA 384)

Transmutation and Alchemy

We have seen that as man advances spiritually, his focus in physical incarnation shifts from point to point as the light from the eye of the bull guides the struggling soul with ever increasing radiance. The process by which man advances into ever greater light is the process of transmutation.

The Tibetan defines transmutation as "the passage across from one state of being to another through the agency of fire" (EA 476) and tells us that "Radiation is transmutation in process of accomplishment" (EA 478) and that the secrets of transmutation are hidden in the laws which govern radioactivity. Exoteric science defines radioactivity as the act of emitting radiation spontaneously by an atomic nucleus seeking to release some energy in order to shift to a more stable configuration. While this exoteric definition is based on the study of radioactive elements in the mineral kingdom, esoterically we understand radioactivity to apply to all radiations, including magnetism, psychic exhalation and so forth. The release of energy, esoterically understood, is the liberation of the inner life of an atom from the confines of form so that it may seek a new centre. In this context, an atom is defined as any centre of consciousness, be it the tiny physical atom of the chemist, the atom we call man in incarnation or the atom we call the solar Logos. Each such atom is made up of a central, positively charged atom or nucleus around which lesser, negatively charged atoms or electrons revolve. Each atom is positively charged relative to the electrons which form part of its ring-pass-not, but negatively charged relative to that greater atom in whose ring-pass-not it is an electron. All atoms are therefore simultaneously positive atoms and negative electrons, and are related to each other in a vast series of living, hierarchical structures.

The process of transmutation is therefore dual, with each atom requiring external 'stimulation' - "fanning and care and development of the inner positive nucleus", "the systematic feeding of the inner flame, and an increase in voltage" (EA 479) - by a greater Life participating in the transmutation process, until a point is reached when the positive centre of life within the atom can be left to do its own work.

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We are told that conscious and intelligent participation in the transmutation process only becomes possible in the human kingdom when man is able to consciously apply the science of alchemy to his own threefold vehicle. Only then can he start assisting in the transmutation of the lower mineral forms into the higher mineral forms.

When the central life is released as a result of transmutation, it merges with its greater polar opposite and becomes negatively charged relative to a still greater life. In the case of man in incarnation, this would represent the release of the incarnating soul from the hold of the personality vehicle at the third initiation, and its blending and merging with man in the causal body. When the causal body is destroyed by fire and the central life escapes and merges with the Spiritual Triad, one cell within the body of the Heavenly Man is released from the dense physical plane and He is one microscopic step closer to liberation from that plane.

Alchemy is essentially the science of transmutation. The beginnings of alchemy are shrouded in the mists of time, but the first known exoteric records date from 300 B.C. when the Greeks and Jews of Ancient Alexandria first started practicing alchemy. The Tibetan tells us, however, that alchemy was practiced by humanity back in Atlantan times, but due to the abuse of this knowledge and the disastrous developments, the art has been safeguarded from humanity until karma is adjusted and the physical body is pure enough to withstand the forces contacted. The science of Alchemy remains therefore deeply esoteric.

Alchemy has historically been focussed on the transmutation of the mineral kingdom and man in incarnation. This narrow perspective has dissociated the science of Alchemy from the broader scheme of systemic evolution of which it is an integral and fundamental part. Divine alchemy is the fundamental work of a Heavenly Man who seeks release from physical manifestation through the transmutation of the cells - the human and diva monads - within His body. The transmutative activity of these cells is a recognition of and a

response to the influence of the Heavenly Man. It therefore comes as no surprise that the activity of both Shamballa and the Hierarchy is essentially concerned with divine alchemy.

It becomes evident that the entire process of systemic evolution - and hence the work of Shamballa and Hierarchy - can be interpreted in terms of transmutation, a science which has been presented to us down the ages in the guise of alchemy and symbolically as the transmutation of base metals into gold. The macrocosmic view presented is very abstract but it does provide a glimpse of a far broader vision and it makes us realise that each human being is a cell within a greater organic whole, humanity, which in turn is part of a still greater organic whole, the planetary life. The more we think in terms of humanity as a unit, the more we realise that there is no escaping the troublesome groups within the one humanity to which we belong. Just as the individual cannot escape the troublesome aspects within himself and constantly has to work on transmuting his lower nature, so humanity must do the same; the lower energies within humanity must eventually be collected and centralised in the collective solar plexus centre, and there transmuted and refined until the point where transference into the heart centre is possible. Humanity is currently at that stage of evolution of the clashing bulls, that great emotional struggle between the higher Self, searching for the light of the Soul, and the lower self seeking material satisfaction. As a result of the work of Hierarchy and the NGWS - the mediating group between Hierarchy and humanity - the light of the Soul is being reflected with increasing accuracy in the mind of humanity, as expressed through the great thinkers of the world. The effect is greater clarity of thought and the stimulation of an increasing number of cells within the body of humanity into the activity of 'self transmutation'. As these cells consciously range themselves on the side of light, a point of balance between spirit and matter will eventually be achieved and a true period of sattva or harmony will emerge on the physical

 

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