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RHYTHM OF WHOLENESS
A Total Affirmation of Being
by Dane Rudhyar, 1983




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CHAPTER FIVE
The Four Crucial Phases of the Cycle of Being - 5


From Midnight to Sunrise:
The activity of the "Builders of Archetypes"
In the Godhead state Wholeness assumes, as totally as possible, the subjective character of all-inclusive oneness. All-inclusiveness, however, implies the inclusion in consciousness of the failures of human evolution mentioned above. Many of these failures are almost totally unconscious centers of circles so empty of contents that circumference and center are indistinguishable. They do not "exist," but in some mysterious subjective way they "inist" as the shadows of Wholeness in the "memory" of Pleroma beings who at any level (planetary or cosmic) must include them, for these "failures" are as much a part of the cycle as the "successes." This inclusion in subjective consciousness is what divine Compassion means.
       Such a compassion is not a "feeling" in the human sense of the term; it is the resonance of a state of subjective being. It is nearly absolute Unity remembering Multiplicity, and this remembrance renders absolute oneness impossible. It is Wholeness compelling an almost totally subjective One to summon back to objective existence all that has failed, totally or partially, during the whole Day before Midnight; for in the consciousness of this One is condensed the total potency and the entire spiritual harvest of the experiences of the cosmos approaching nearly perfect unity. It is Wholeness compelling the Movement to radically alter its direction, to let the principle of Multiplicity rise to an eventual supremacy once more at Noon. It is Midnight dreaming of this ineluctable Noon, and this dream is a vision of a future universe that will answer the particular need of the failures of the cycle-that-was — the need for a "second chance" to experience Wholeness in the plenitude of concrete objective living, as participants in a new humanity on a material planet.
       The existence of such a humanity able to choose the meaning it will give to its experience is still immensely remote. It can occur only after a workable form of living has been built. This requires, not only the formation of archetypes and the transmutation of potential into kinetic energy but also the arousal of the partial failures of the past from their long "sleep" in states of unconscious or semiconscious subjectivity. Before this, the inertia of the nearly absolute failures of the past cycle (symbolized in Genesis as "the dark waters of space") must be overcome
       During the period that follows the symbolic Midnight (the Godhead state), the energy of the Movement of Wholeness that had been condensed in the state of nearly absolute Unity must be, first, transmuted into active divine Compassion. Then the "dream" of the Godhead must be defined gradually in terms of various levels of archetypes. This process of formation is predominantly subjective because the principle of Unity is still dominant; but the principle of Multiplicity is rising to power, and what is produced in the subjectivity of the "divine Mind" becomes increasingly objective. The process — the formation of archetypes — is hierarchical. Esoteric traditions and many theologies refer to it as the establishment of a graded series of "creative Hierarchies." The more distant these Hierarchies are from the Midnight state of Godhead, the more their components develop particularized functions.
       Western traditions speak of a single Creation, a divine "Let there be light!" But Eastern seers and metaphysicians refer to several Creations, which imply a creative process. Yet the character of the process is primarily unified, because the principle of Unity has tremendous inertia, even in retreat. It holds in check and contains the operation of the principle of Multiplicity as long as possible. A critical point, which may be explosive, probably occurs. Yet it need not resemble the Big Bang still envisioned by most astrophysicists. It might have been more significantly evoked to the human consciousness by the vitalistic images of the great "bird of eternity" (kalahansa) emerging from the "egg" of space; but this "space" is that of the divine Mind. The definite outlines of a future universe having been formed step after step, creative Hierarchy after creative Hierarchy, in that Mind, the Word or Logos is "uttered" — essentially one, yet already subdivided into many "Rays" or "Letters."
       The Word is both kinetic energy and form; it is the vast, multi-level spectrum of cosmic vibrations. And through the fast-spreading energy contained within the magnetic lines of force of a cosmic formative Mind, the immense Compassion of the Godhead radiates. Ancient philosophers and holy men bowed in reverence to it, calling it "the One Life." Nevertheless, it soon breaks into a fantastic multiplicity of "lives," wherever favorable planetary conditions of existence develop. In each of these locales, species of life collectively experience the continuum of changes — changes now taking objective and eventually (when mankind evolves) measurable forms — each life-species reacting to change according to its own structure and temperament.
       The continuum of change kept on unfolding during the Night period of the great cycle of being, but change was then far more subjective than objective. It could not be measured by the motions of planets or stars because there were none. We should therefore think of it as subjective duration. If objective measures of time are given for the "length" of the Night period, it can only be by establishing corresponding time values based on the assumption of an essential symmetry inherent in the Movement of Wholeness. This assumed symmetry is the manifestation of the balanced dualism of Unity and Multiplicity. It is inherent in the concept of cyclicity, which itself is but a way of understanding the dynamic essence of Wholeness.
       Having thus sketched out as many of the most characteristic developments of the cyclic process as I can understand, I shall next attempt to clarify some points I have only touched upon in the preceding.





By permission of Leyla Rudhyar Hill
Copyright © 1983 by Dane Rudhyar
All Rights Reserved.



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