Victorian Cosmic Prophets

Some saw it coming in the Victorian age –

prophets such as Whitman, Carpenter, Blavatsky, Bucke and James –

the Cosmic Human soon to be born

a race no longer lost, confused, forlorn –

reunited with the Spirit of Life

of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Love

with the Heavenly Son and the Divine Daughter

moving on from the Age of Slaughter

into a time of Healing, Comfort and Light

the end of humanity’s long dark night.

But in the 20^th century the shadow grew

new weapons to prevent us breaking through

the illusions and delusions in the mind

to keep us divided and frightened.

21^st century is the time to renew

the human contract with the earth,

to recognise the wisdom of sage and crone

to finally bring humanity home.

Our ancestors’ voices remind us.

“The simple truth is, that there has lived on the earth, “appearing at intervals,” for thousands of years among ordinary men, the first faint beginnings of another race; walking the earth and breathing the air with us, but at the same time walking another earth and breathing another air of which we know little or nothing, but which is, all the same, our spiritual life, as its absence would be our spiritual death. This new race is in act of being born from us, and in the near future it will occupy and possess the earth.”

–Richard Bucke, (1837-1902) from his book, Cosmic Consciousness

“It is an occult law moreover, that no man can rise superior to his individual failings without lifting, be it ever so little, the whole body of which he is an integral part. In the same way no one can sin, nor suffer the effects of sin, alone. In reality, there is no such thing as ‘separateness’ and the nearest approach to that selfish state which the laws of life permit is in the intent or motive.”

“The Universe is worked and guided from within outwards.”
―Helena Blavatsky (1831-91), co-founder of the Theosophical Society

“The great central fact of the universe is that spirit of infinite life and power that is back of all, that manifests itself in and through all. This spirit of infinite life and power that is back of all is what I call God. I care not what term you may use, be it Kindly Light, Providence, the Over-Soul, Omnipotence, or whatever term may be most convenient, so long as we are agreed in regard to the great central fact itself. God then fills the universe alone, so that all is from Him and in Him, and there is nothing is outside. He is the life of our life, and our very life itself. We are partakers of the life of God; and though we differ from Him in that we are individualised spirits, while He is the infinite Spirit, including us, as well as all else beside, yet in essence the life of God and the life man are identically the same, and so are one. They differ not in essence or quality; they differ in degree.

“The great central fact in human life is the coming into a conscious vital realisation of our oneness with this Infinite Life, and the opening of ourselves fully to this divine inflow. In just the degree that we come into a conscious realisation of our oneness with the Infinite Life, and open ourselves to this divine inflow, do we actualise in ourselves the qualities and powers of the Infinite Life, do we make ourselves channels through which the Infinite Intelligence and Power can work. In just the degree in which you realise your oneness with the Infinite Spirit, you will exchange dis-ease for ease, inharmony for harmony, suffering and pain for abounding health and strength. To recognise our own divinity, and our intimate relation to the Universal, is to attach the belts of our machinery to the power-house of the Universe. One need remain in hell no longer than one chooses to; we can rise to any heaven we ourselves choose; and when we choose so to rise, all the higher powers of the Universe combine to help us heavenward.”

Ralph Waldo TRINE (1866-1958) excerpted from In Tune with the Infinite

“Orthodox scholars say: ‘In the heathen classics you find no consciousness of sin.’ It is very true – God be thanked for it. They were conscious of wrath, of cruelty, avarice, drunkenness, lust, sloth, cowardice and other actual vices, and struggled and got rid of the deformities, but they were not conscious of ‘enmity against God’ and didn’t sit down and whine and groan against non-existent evil.”

Theodore Parker (August 24, 1810 – May 10, 1860) American transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church.

“There is a state of mind, known to religious men, but to no others, in which the will to assert ourselves and hold our own has been displaced by a willingness to close our mouths and be as nothing in the floods and waterspouts of God. In this state of mind, what we most dreaded has become the habitation of our safety, and the hour of our moral death has turned into our spiritual birthday. The time for tension in our soul is over, and that of happy relaxation, of calm deep breathing, of an eternal present, with no discordant future to be anxious about, has arrived. Fear is not held in abeyance as it is by mere morality, it is positively expunged and washed away.

“If religion is to mean anything definite for us, it seems to me that we ought to take it as meaning this added dimension of emotion, this enthusiastic temper of espousal, in regions where morality strictly so called can at best but bow its head and acquiesce. It ought to mean nothing short of his new reach of freedom for us, with the struggle over, the keynote sounding in our ears, and everlasting possession spread before our eyes.”

WILLIAM JAMES (1842-1910) VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

Is it wonderful that I should be immortal? As everyone is immortal.

I know it is wonderful – but my eyesight is equally wonderful, and how I was conceived in my mother’s womb is equally wonderful.

And passed from a babe, in a creeping trance

of a couple of summers and winters, to articulate and walk –

all this is equally wonderful.

And that my soul embraces you this hour,

and we affect each other without seeing each other,

and never perhaps to see each other, is every bit as wonderful.

And that I can think of such thoughts as these is just as wonderful;

And that I can remind you,

and you think them and know them to be true

is equally wonderful.

WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892)

“I conceive a millennium on earth – a millennium not of riches,
nor of mechanical facilities, nor of intellectual facilities, nor
absolutely of immunity from disease, nor absolutely of immunity
from pain; but a time when men and women all over the earth
shall ascend and enter into relation with their bodies – shall attain
freedom and joy;
“And the men and women of that time looking back with something like envy to the life of to-day, that they too might have borne a part in its travail and throes of birth.”

-Edward Carpenter (1844-1929), gay philosopher and mystic

These Westerners were breaking through the mental and emotional chains imposed by religions and legal codes to a level of awareness that was very familiar to those people of the world who had not lost their innate connection to spirit…

“The first peace, which is the most important,
is that which comes within the souls of people
when they realize their relationship,
their oneness with the universe and all its powers,
and when they realize that at the centre of the universe
dwells the Great Spirit,
and that this centre is really everywhere,
it is within each of us.”

Black Elk, Lakota Medicine Man 1863-1950

Wisdom traditions from every region of planet Earth teach of the integral relationship between humanity and nature, they offer knowledge and techniques to aid us in understanding and experiencing that innate, natural, state of affairs. They reveal to us that human consciousness is itself an intricate, interdependent, manifestation that is intimately connected to nature’s elemental forces. They show us that planet Earth is ailing because humanity is ailing. We have forgotten our place in the grand scheme of things, largely as a result of two forces – monotheistic religion, which separated out humanity from god and divides the world into good and evil, and science, which dissects material reality and discovers miraculous powers but also dissolves any sense of oneness or belonging:

Nearly 2000 years ago the philosopher Plutarch (46-120 CE) observed: “In general, the person who looks for what’s reasonable does away with what’s wonderful.”

The modern mythology underpinning the collective global culture is dominated by the materialist, scientific paradigm – which makes no effort to open our minds to the wonder and mystery of our own consciousness. It literally trains us from the moment we are self-aware to believe our individuality is all we are, that we look out at a hostile world, that life is a competition. This is a complete reversal of the wisdom taught for thousands of years across the planet, and it has resulted in a world where people feel alienated, where more resources are poured into war machines than into solving poverty and hunger, than into dealing with the rapidly mounting issues facing the world.

The deep belief in materiality

has driven humanity to insanity –

we have to gain a sense of conscious unity

in order to realise our innate divinity.

The tale of conflict and woe,

that divides the world into friend and foe,

is the tale that has to go.

Competition keeps us in the head,

co-operation brings us into the heart,

we have to learn to think from the heart instead

to stop ourselves pulling apart.

The mind is there to question and analyse

and if we’re lucky over time become wise,

but in the heart, soul wisdom can always be found,

through the heart we tune into the vibrations around.

It’s through accepting and loving all beings

and letting intuition be our guide,

that humanity will evolve to a new level,

discovering the cosmic senses inside.

We are more than the body, and more than the mind,

everyone benefits, when we choose to be kind.

Transcend the body, transcend the mind –

there’s a multiverse of consciousness waiting for us to find.