Ego

As the Ego progresses through the stages of Spiritual Evolution, its consciousness enlarges and expands, including more and more of the Cosmos within it as the Self, until the stages of Cosmic Consciousness are reached in which the Ego finds itself blending into the Whole, and the All blending into the Self. This is what is meant by Cosmic Consciousness; Spiritual

Consciousness; Transcendental Consciousness; the Higher Consciousness;

The Arcane Teaching however has always held that Egohood (with survival and re‑birth) is onditional and exceptional. It has held that there must be

earned and evolved an Ego, before that Ego may persist in Re‑embodiment and Re‑birth.

Spiritual Evolution begins only when the Ego is evolved from the Personal Self of some creature on the plane of humanity, or some plane equal to it in other worlds. From thence on there is Spiritual Evolution, and Metempsychosis, Re‑birth or Re‑embodiment, which latter continues until

the Ego passes through that stage and thenceforth pursues its Spiritual Evolution without the necessity of Rebirth.

The Arcane Teachings also hold that the majority of human beings on earth to‑day have not developed Egohood, and are therefore not likely to be

reborn or re‑embodied, but will, after a period of life in the Astral World, in their astral bodies, again die and fade away, being resolved into their original elements in the Cosmos.

But if the new life persists beyond childhood, the Ego must progress in order to attain further stages of Spiritual Evolution. If it simply lives its old life over again, without reaching forward to greater attainment and knowledge, then it is dangerously

near falling into the attraction of the “descending path” which will take it down the ladder, step by step; life after life; and which, unless the Ego learns the lesson and again steps forward,

will eventually cause it to lose its Egohood and become Egoless, which means eventually dissolution. But these downward steps

are not in the nature of punishment—they are simply stages of the law of Sequence or Cause and Effect, proceeding along the lines of Desire and Will. These descending Egos follow their

desires, just as much as do the ascending ones. It is not Reward or Punishment, in either case—it is simply Cause and Effect, and the Path of Desire. Desire is the great motive force. There

are cases known of Egos descending the scale to such an extent, drawn by their material, physical and animal desires, that they have even descended to the scale of animals and eventually

perished as entities, unless rescued by the love and affection of human friends who aroused in them the last flickering spark of Spirit, and thus set them again upon the upward path. These cases, however, are very rare.

It must not be supposed, however, that all persisting Egos are “good.” On the contrary, there are many persisting Egos who are giants of “evil,” possessed of the sense of the “I,” but filled

with personal desires of material aggrandizement and selfish attainment which makes them stand out above the crowd. But such, sooner or later, are taught their lesson and either change their natures or else sink to annihilation, for all real progress

must lead toward the life of the One, not in the direction of selfish personal attainment and Separateness. The error of

Separateness is often brought to the minds and understanding of these Egos, by their desires finally leading them to a place where they are actually separated from their kind, and thus they

experience that hunger for human companionship, sympathy and love which results in a change in their entire nature. One has but to look at the inner lives of some of the selfish “great men” of our own and past ages, in order to see examples of this

stage of experience. And, so the evolving Ego rises in the scale—if he be Fit— and reaches higher and higher planes of life.

There are glories ahead of the persistent Egos which cannot be described in human words. We do not become “God” as the Pantheists hold—but we become as gods. There are infinite possibilities

ahead for us—there is no limit to our greatness and attainment, if we are true to the Inner Light and our Real Self.