Written by Wes Annac, The Culture of Awareness.

Continued from Part 1

Now, we’re going to turn our attention to the angelic realms and the realms that exist beyond it, both of which we’ll eventually grow into.

Most of the material we’ll examine about this subject encourages us to look beyond the angelic realms, because our evolution will deliver us to far purer states of consciousness. Eventually, we’ll be back with Source on a much higher vibration than the angels’, but for now, they guide and help us from their exalted realms.

Even though you probably won’t read it in any of the quotes we’ll examine here, we can actually connect and communicate with angels if we want some extra assistance along our growth. Those of you who are particularly interested in channeling will probably agree.

This material doesn’t talk as much about angels themselves as it does their realms, and its primary focus seems to be to inform us about these realms and encourage us to understand that we’ll eventually evolve beyond them (but, of course, we have to reach them first).

Zarathustra tells us that the enlightened seeker is able to commune with the angels.

“For ever and everlasting [the God-realized one] eternally remains in all glory with the Spiritual Angels.” (1)

We’ll perceive and exist with the angels when we reach the highest level of spiritual enlightenment, but of course, our enlightenment will continue even after we reach this level. Most seekers on earth are focused on reaching the fifth dimension, but it’d be silly to think that our evolution somehow stops from there.

Perhaps the exalted angels who watch and assist us receive guidance and counsel from other ‘angels’ who are even more evolved than them. We’ll eventually connect with all of these evolved beings, and we’ll use that connection to guide others in the lower realms.

I can’t imagine what it’ll be like to be face to face with an angel, and I really don’t have to yet. We have a lot of inner and outer work to do before any of us reach that level, but it’s still neat to consider the idea that one day, we’ll walk and speak with the blessed angels.

An anonymous teacher encourages us not to think about our destination (enlightenment), but to enjoy our journey.

“Fix no limits for your growth. It has no limits, except those you create by your own willing and thinking: therefore think only of growing, and never of being full grown.” (2)

We’re completely unlimited in terms of what we can think, feel, do, and be, and putting conditions on our infinity makes little sense and actually traps us in a lower frame of mind. If we’re too worried about reaching our destination, then the journey to reach it will be much more difficult and unenjoyable.

Most of us came to this planet because we wanted to experience and enjoy the lower vibrations before we moved on, and even though it’ll require work, our evolution’s inevitable. No matter what, we’ll eventually evolve, because our growth never stops.

With that in mind, let’s enjoy this sacred journey as much as we can, because we might not get to do something like this again. To be on the earth at this crucial junction in its history is an amazing feat to say the least, so let’s enjoy this unique and uncanny experience before it’s over.

In the blink of an eye, all of this will be gone, to be replaced with the brimming and exuberant realms of the fifth dimension. There’s still a lot to enjoy and appreciate here, though, so let’s do just that before we move on.

In a popular quote, Rumi tells us about the evolutionary rung(s) that lay beyond the angelic.

“I died as mineral and became a plant. I died as plant and rose to animal. I died as animal and I was man. …Yet once more I shall die as man, to soar With angels blest; but even from angelhood I must pass on: all except God doth perish. When I have sacrificed my angel soul, I shall become what no mind e’er conceived. Oh, let me not exist! For Non-existence Proclaims in organ tones, ‘To Him we shall return.’” (3)

In my opinion, Rumi’s referring to the idea that when we reach a certain, higher state of consciousness, we give up our perception of ourselves as individual godsparks and merge with Source, completely wiping our perception of our identity clean in the process.

Would you be willing to give up your individual identity to experience the bliss that comes with completely merging with Source? It doesn’t seem like the angels are in this state of consciousness yet, and when we reach their realms, we’ll probably still have our individual identities. We won’t give those up until much later on.

Giving up our identities to merge with Source seems very favorable, based on what Rumi and plenty of other teachers have said about it, but it probably seems crazy to someone on earth. Nevertheless, it’ll be an important and inevitable aspect of our return to full consciousness.

Hilarion through channel Mabel Collins tells us about the blissful state of consciousness that’ll be our reward for our nearly endless toils on the earth.

“When after ages of struggle and many victories the final battle is won, the final secret demanded, then you are prepared for a further path. When the final secret of this great lesson is told, in it is opened the mystery of the new way — a path which leads out of all human experience, and which is utterly beyond human perception or imagination.” (4)

Like I said earlier, a lot of inner and outer work is required before we can reach the blissful states of consciousness we can’t perceive from the earth, but once this lower-vibrational work is complete, we’ll be back in a place where things make a little more sense.

After our toils; our labor; our hard work here on earth, we’ll grow into realms that are blissful and harmonious to say the least. It’s pretty much impossible to describe these realms, because nobody can really perceive them on earth. We can talk, write, and sing about them all we want, but we won’t know anything about what they’re like until we’re back in them.

When we are, we’ll remember a banquet of sacred truths that we also can’t perceive on earth, and all of our effort and labor will have been worth it.

Hilarion continues, encouraging us to spend equal time on each plane of enlightenment.

“At each of these points it is needful to pause long and consider well. At each of these points it is necessary to be sure that the way is chosen for its own sake. The way and the truth come first, then follows the life.” (5)

Hilarion’s referring to the different enlightenment stages when he says ‘the way’, ‘the truth’, and ‘the life’, and he’s essentially encouraging us to make sure we put equal focus on each stage. When we initially become aware, it can be easy to focus only on the higher states of consciousness we want to reenter, but to do so is to dance with illusion.

We have to be relatively focused on the vibration we’re already on instead of filling our heads with visions of what the next reality will be like. The realms beyond the third dimension are unlike anything we yet know or understand, and it’s important that we get to know this realm before we try to speed off into the next.

This reality still has a lot to teach us, and we certainly still have a lot to learn. There are beautiful and heavenly things on this planet that might not even exist on other planets, so I think we should appreciate this reality and the immense opportunities for growth and learning it offers.

Franklin Merrell-Wolf tells us about the endless nature of our evolution.

“Beyond [the sage’s attainment], whatever it may be, there lie further mysteries awaiting his resolution. In other words, We find no conceivable end to evolution.” (6)

Even when we re-reach Source and enjoy the pure bliss that comes with existing in His/Her realms, our evolution won’t be ‘complete’. Most of us will probably choose to take on the lower-dimensional experience again just so we can continue to learn and grow, and we’ll essentially reset our consciousness and start the enlightenment path over.

This compliments the idea that we need to enjoy the journey instead of focusing on the destination. The entire point of this lower and higher-vibrational existence is to learn, grow, and enjoy ourselves in distorted environments and realities, so what good will we do by focusing on one destination?

I’m not trying to advocate lower-dimensionality over higher, but then again, it really doesn’t matter if I do.

We can stay in the lower realms for as long as we want, and when we’re ready, we’ll steadily learn and grow away from them. It won’t happen a moment sooner, and when it does, it’ll be a gradual process that we’ll be meant to enjoy instead of treating like a burden.

Franklin also tells us about the glimpse a particular sage received into the endless, purer states of consciousness beyond the earth.

“A certain Sage…, speaking of unfolded Conscousness above the level of the highest human Adepts, said: ‘We attain glimpses of Consciousness so Transcendent, rising level upon level, that the senses fairly reel before the awe-inspiring Grandeur.’ Here, certainly, is space for evolution far beyond the highest possibility of man as man.” (7)

Once we reach a certain, currently unfathomable state of consciousness, we’ll have transcended our perception of ourselves as humans. We’ll have long stopped seeing ourselves as individual human beings, and instead, we’ll recognize who and what we really are at our core: beings of pure energy.

Our finite perception of ourselves, which worked for us here in the lower realms, will be replaced with the understanding that we all come from the same Source. Even though Source is seen as an external entity who we should give our praises to, in reality, we are Source.

We praise ourselves when we praise Source, because at our core, we’re comprised of the pure energy of our creator. We’re all facets of this omnipotent creator energy; this creator consciousness, and realizing this is one of the first steps to glimpsing the incredible realms the referenced sage was able to glimpse.

Footnotes:

1. Duncan Greenlees,  trans. The Gospel of Zarathushtra. Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1978, 136.
2. P.G. Bowen, The Sayings of the Ancient One. London: Rider, n.d, 35.
3. Anne Fremantle and Christopher.In Love with Love. 100 of the Greatest Mystical Poems. New York, etc.: Paulist Press, 1978, 58.
4. Mabel Collins, channel. Light on the Path and an Essay on Karma. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1974, 11-2.
5. Loc. cit.
6. Franklin Merrell-Wolff, Pathways Through to Space. A Personal Record of Transformation in Consciousness. New York: Julian Press, 1973, 43.
7. Ibid., 17.

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Concluded in Part 3 tomorrow.