CHAPTER EIGHT
The Aquarius-Leo Age - 8

The Reorientation of Consciousness
Such a reorientation and repolarization of human consciousness evidently operates in various ways and under the pressure of different types of circumstances, personal or affecting at once large groups of people. There are today many groups in all countries who are striving more or less intelligently and wisely to effect such a transmutation — perhaps the most notable one being the movement radiating from the Sri Aurobindo's ashram in Pondicherry, India under the leadership of the "Mother," a French woman of most unusual character. in many instances, however, such groups do not clearly understand the nature of some of the required first steps, because they operate much too much on a sentimental, over-idealistic and purely devotional basis; and some of them are unnecessarily dogmatic and depending on a quite blind belief in supernormal agencies for the transformation, whether these agencies are imagined to be super-human Adepts on this earth or "Space-people."
      In such cases, a lack of historical perspective is usually evident, and also a true philosophical-cosmic foundation, which belief in supernatural "phenomena" can never replace, if really constructive results are to be expected. Before any constructive approach can be firmly developed, there must be a thorough and radical reorientation of the mind, and this means a critical evaluation of what today, in our Western society and over most of the globe, passes for "progress." This may well entail a nearly total repudiation of the so-called advantages and the comforts of modern suburban living; and some of the young men and women, more or less related to the "hippie" movement, are showing us the way — especially those who are gathering in small communities in the Mountain states or elsewhere, living the hard existence of pioneers and attempting to develop a new spirit and new forms of interpersonal relationship.
      It seems essential for all individuals who claim to strive after an "expansion" of consciousness to realize, and to totally accept the realization, that our science, our psychology, our traditional interpersonal behavior, and as a result our social, political and cultural way of doing things has developed in a "wrong" way. To understand why this way can only lead to destructive results in a more or less distant future — perhaps a very near future — requires a deep reorientation of consciousness as well as a transmutation of the basic energy-drive of the modern personality, dominated as it is by the ego and its wants, artificially stimulated by the dominant incentives and the competitive patterns of our society. Of course, for many centuries spiritual Teachers and mystics have urged men to overcome their instinctual appetites and emotional desires for ego-satisfaction; but now our whole society and our scientific-technological outlook in all fields of "research" are dominated by the wants of the personal ego and the drives for ever more comfort and for self-indulgence in every conceivable way. The real issue therefore is more hidden, for external abundance can hide far more effectively spiritual poverty or mental perversion than scarcity and the concomittant effort necessary for wholesome survival.
      This is not to say that such a development of the analytical intellect and the sharply individualized ego-consciousness should never have taken place; indeed it was presumably necessary, because this is the way man has to learn, i.e. by treading the path of self-destruction (the via negativa) — up at least to a "critical state" beyond which there would be no possibility of readjustment. But what is at stake now is the realization that there is another way of releasing vast amounts of energy for man's use — a way which does not involve the destruction of matter, and thus the inevitable release into the biosphere of poisonous waste-products. It is a "natural" way; but one which demands a radical revaluation of what man is as a total organism, and of his relationship to the creative forces of the universe, i. e. to spirit and to the Greater Whole within which we live, move and have our essential being.
      I repeat: the coming Aquarian first half of the coming Aquarius-Leo Age will inevitably be an era consecrated to the release and the control of "new" powers available to the men and women who are ready to deal constructively with them because they have radically re-oriented their minds and transmuted their vital desires and their ego-polarized intellect — who have gained a "new mind." This transformation is not essentially unlike the metanoia preached by John Baptist 2000 years ago; but it has now to operate within the context of a far more complex and far more intellectual technological society. It requires therefore a new approach, perhaps greater courage and, above all, a greater lucidity and objectivity of mind.
      To the new man will be revealed new powers - powers that have always been there — in his nature and in the earth's greater Nature. It will no doubt take centuries to learn to build a totally new culture on the basis of the use of such powers. I firmly believe that most of the efforts made by intellectuals and technicians to build up the new science of "prospective," and to extrapolate present trends into the future, are doomed to futility, at least as far as the next century and presumably the very last years of this century are concerned. The future presented to us by most writers of science-fiction is also a rather pathetic parody on what should develop during the coming thousand years. It reveals but too often — exceptions notwithstanding — a total lack of understanding of the possibility of transformation open to Man, which is caused by a rather blind dependence upon and the over-valuation of our modern scientific and technological mentality.