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Biblioteca Esoterica Esonet.ORG
http://www.esonet.ORG
multiplicity of the lower mind's thought processes into the unified revelation — the
"seeing whole" — of the illumined mind, the mind of wholeness.
The lower mind nevertheless performs an important function during the first phases of
the development of human consciousness, when this consciousness emerges from the state
of biological (vegetable and animal) consciousness — a state in which it is structured and
controlled by instincts. When Natural Man enters the stage of biospheric existence, he is
"overshadowed," as it were, by the power of the Godhead released through the primordial
Avatar in whom the archetypal Image of Man manifests as a spiritual entity. Both the
power of the Godhead and the archetype that gives it a form are almost totally beyond the
consciousness of human beings just emerging from the biological state. These emergent
human beings are still so close to the animal condition that their minds can operate only as
the lower or concretizing mind.
The function of this mind is to give concrete form to what makes protohuman
organisms human. At that time, "giving concrete form" means expressing the inexpressible
and incomprehensible in symbols based on unusual or particularly intense experiences of
life in the biological world. The concretizing lower mind thus reflects the realities of the
realm of archetypes — the realm of the higher mind — which is then utterly transcendent
and ineffable. This, indeed, is what the lower mind always should do. Its function is to
translate spiritual realities into life terms, thus into symbols, images, and ritual gestures
which become the foundation of cultures uniting and "ensouling" increasingly large
groups of human beings.
However, the consciousness of primitive human beings is still bound to life energies
and instincts operating as rigidly set mechanisms seeking release in fulfilling activities.
Therefore, the symbolic forms and magical rites of the culture inevitably are misused and
made to serve life desires. Sooner or later, human beings whose biological energies are
particularly powerful use the concretizing mind to bring these energies to a sharper, more
effective focus. The lower mind then performs two functions: it rigidly maintains the
culture's traditional structures and form, and it gives strength to the developing psychism
of the community, which usually is dominated by one or more powerful human beings.
When the process of individualization begins and culture-wholes are formed whose
dharma is to pay particularly focused attention to the archetypal ideal of autonomous and
responsible individual selfhood, the concretizing mind gives sociopolitical form to such an
ideal. The concepts of democracy, of the "worth and dignity of the individual," of the
primacy of the individual over the collective, and of universal reason over particular
feelings gradually become official tenets of a new social order. These ideals acquire some
kind of religious sanction and eventually are formulated into political laws; but the
majority of the people repeatedly and most often successfully circumvent sanctions and
laws, often with the tacit approval of priests, prosecutors, and judges. The desires that fill
and energize the psychic-astral realm use the lower mind, which has become the servant
of the ego.
The ego is a psychic structure organized by the concretizing mind, but it is also to some
degree a reflection of the principle of individualization within the triune spiritual entity
described above. Ideally, the ego reflects this spiritual principle of individualization as the
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