CHAPTER FOUR
The Human Situation - 1

The Movement of Wholeness
as a cyclic series of situations
In this book the word situation is given a very broad meaning which includes yet transcends its ordinary use. A situation is one of the many possible ways in which a phase of the Movement of Wholeness is actualized. The character and inherent quality of that phase refers to a particular relationship between the dynamic polarities of being. Unity and Multiplicity. I speak of a "situation" whether the principle of Unity or the principle of Multiplicity is dominant; thus, whether that situation occurs in a physically objective universe or in a mostly subjective realm of being that may be called "divine." The Godhead state is a situation; so is the life-span of a biological organism. And the activity of Celestial Hierarchies (the various aspects of the divine Mind) produces a multitude of situations, just as does the organization of human beings into tribal communities or large cities.
       Any situation, when apprehended and given meaning in terms of the structural relationship of the forever interacting two polarities of Wholeness, should be considered threefold. The two principles of Unity and Multiplicity operate in it respectively as an integrative and whole-making, and as a fragmenting and differentiating, trend. But their dynamic relatedness assumes the character of a whole in the situation. Unity and Multiplicity operate always and everywhere as interrelated and interdependent "presences"; and Wholeness — which also means relatedness — is an implied "third." Furthermore, Wholeness implies consciousness.
       Consciousness is inherent in any whole because the word consciousness is another symbolic way of referring to the relatedness of the Unity and Multiplicity factors in any phase of the Movement of Wholeness. Every phase represents a level of being; and consciousness at that level assumes a characteristic quality. This quality is inherent in the type of situations activated and made to operate at that level of Unity-to-Multiplicity relatedness — thus, of Wholeness. There may be many situations of that type, but they all refer to and make explicit the potentiality of development of this specific quality of consciousness.
       Thus, the operation of an elementary kind of consciousness has to be assumed even in the condition of existence which the human senses perceive and mind interprets as matter; and the biological and functional activity of cells within living organisms reveals consciousness at work at a higher level of complexity. A still more inclusive type of consciousness finds expression in the symbols, the capacity for interpersonal cooperation and co-conscious transmission of information characterizing all full-grown human cultures.
       As levels of organization and activity are reached which transcend personhood and local cultures, and as one acknowledges the existence of spiritual and predominantly subjective communities (Pleromas of quasi-divine beings), the possibility of a type of consciousness that surpasses human understanding also has to be accepted. The immensely inclusive and radiant quality of such a consciousness presupposes states of being of which stars and galaxies may be the material representation, because the modern mind is no longer willing to think of celestial gods. Human consciousness may be able to reflect such transcendent states of being, as the calm surface of a lake may reflect the full moon. But it is a symptom of a rather naive hubris to believe that the consciousness of a person operating strictly at the human level of body-materiality and of biological, sociocultural organization can do more than reflect "divine" modes of consciousness. At the root of such pride one can readily find a deep sense of insecurity.
       The nature of this insecurity which characterizes the human condition can easily be understood. One has only to realize that, while at the biological level of sentiency and compulsive instinctual reactions, consciousness had been operating in situations in which the species-as-a-whole was the subjective factor, this factor begins to assume a personal character with the appearance of truly human beings and human situations. A process of individualization begins which leads to increasing difficulties and to the rise of anxiety in the consciousness of whomever it affects — and I eventually this means every human being.
       The first stage of the process is the development of particular cultures in and through which a group of human beings gives organized and ritualized forms to their togetherness and cooperation. But out of this collective and hardly more than biological type of organization, the intense desire in human beings to emerge as "individuals" who are able to demonstrate free will becomes a driving factor in human evolution. The process of individualization generates strong tension, emotional stresses, interpersonal conflicts, and therefore insecurity. Religion and philosophy are called upon to heal this insecurity and to lead to numinous experiences of Wholeness. Different doctrines are made to fit the specific needs of various types of insecure human beings, and in the process what had been the subjective factor in a whole biological species becomes condensed and particularized in a human subject whose consciousness, as a result, takes an individualized form.
       During the prehuman phases of the Movement of Wholeness, mind acts in situations developing in the earth's biosphere for the purpose of focusing into the concrete shapes of physical bodies archetypes created by the celestial Hierarchies — each archetype having a specific function in the operation of the planet as a whole. When the "bottom" of the great cycle of being is reached (the symbolic Noon) the principle of Multiplicity is as compelling as it ever can be. A reversal of the Movement of Wholeness occurs, and a new type of living beings (homo sapiens) appears. The beginning of a truly "human" evolution is made possible by the gradual rise to power of the principle of Unity; but besides the activation of a new archetype another factor is also implied. The ideal or celestial form of MAN-Anthropos manifests in the field of activity and consciousness of the earth as a Being. I refer to such a Being as the Supreme Person, because when concretely actualized in a "body" of earth-substance, the archetype assumes characteristics which, in their totality, constitute the state of personhood — provided we use the term in its most essential meaning.
       The Supreme Person is the prototype of personhood. In Rhythm of Wholeness I referred to "It" (as such a state of being transcends gender) as the original or great Avatar. Under whatever name, It is the "Solution" which had been envisioned by the Godhead in the symbolic Midnight as an "Idea" or a formula of relationship, now concretized in material objectivity. The idea is no longer only a form, but a "Presence"; and this Presence has power, for in It the sublime Compassion of the Godhead is pulsating. It is Wholeness operating in "substance." However, the kind of substance which could be an adequate substratum for the concrete actualization of the supreme vision of the almost totally subjective Godhead state inevitably has to be a substance of a quasi-spiritual kind. The substance of the "body" of the Supreme Person can only be the subtlest, most unified matter available within the earth-field. The normally developed human senses cannot perceive such matter; and the energy latent in such a "body" is so intense that it would destroy all natural human organisms. Esoteric students assume that this kind of matter-energy appertains only to the highest "etheric" sub-planes (sixth and seventh) of the physical world, while what we perceive as solid, liquid and gaseous matter refers to the first, second and third sub-planes — the fourth (fire) and perhaps the fifth (more specifically mental) are related to all radical transformation and personal metamorphosis.