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Throughout the whole of this series of books runs a single thread uniting various aspects of life and specialised activities within the Plan for man. This is the thread of consciousness, evolving in man through the efforts of the soul...(more) to contact and control its personality equipment; and evolving within the planet as the centre Hierarchy becomes increasingly able to impress the Plan on the minds of men. This book, therefore, contains Fifteen Rules for Magic, and for soul control, based on these words in the Bhagavad-Gita: "Though I am Unborn, the Soul that passes not away, though I am the Lord of Being, yet as Lord over My nature I become manifest, through the magical power of the Soul." The soul unmanifest in its essential being, manifest through the nature of its personality equipment, is always a source of mystery. It evades the analytical concrete mind; it reveals its true self to the illumined mind fused with the open heart, seeking not to grasp and to hold for personal progress, but to wield the magical power in service. The power of the soul is always available to the one who seeks, as an aspirant to accepted discipleship, to become of practical service in his own peculiar times, state and environment. The teaching in this book is based on four fundamental postulates which will: 1. Teach the laws of spiritual psychology as distinguished from mental and emotional psychology. 2. Make clear the nature of the soul of man and its systemic and cosmic relationships. This will include its group relationship as a preliminary step. 3. Demonstrate the relations between the self and the sheaths which that self may use, and thus clarify thought as to the constitution of man. 4. Elucidate the problem of supernormal powers and give the rules for their safe and useful development. Through these underlying postulates runs the theme of energy, of the one informing life as a centre of energy, pervading and uniting all within the divine flow. Man is essentially and inherently divine; and the soul, the centre of consciousness, the result of the pervasive union of Spirit with matter, is the means whereby man evolves a consciousness of divinity and unity, redeems the gross matter of his vehicles and liberates the pure flame of life energy from the limitation of form. The soul is the vital link, therefore, between God and man. The book closes with a rousing call to the soul in all aspirants: "I close with an appeal to all who read these instructions, to rally their forces, to renew their vows of dedication to the service of humanity, to subordinate their own ideas and wishes to the group good, to take their eyes off themselves and fix them anew upon the vision...Let all students make up their minds in this day of emergency and of opportunity to sacrifice all they have to the helping of humanity...I call upon all of you to join the strenuous efforts of the Great Ones." The books of Alice A. Bailey, written in cooperation with a Tibetan teacher between 1919-1949, constitute a continuation of the Ageless WisdomCa body of esoteric teaching handed down from ancient times in a form which is always suitable to each period. Intended to precede and condition the coming era, the Alice A. Bailey writings offer an unparalleled spiritual approach to such subjects as the teaching on Shamballa and the Path of spiritual evolution; the spiritual Hierarchy; the new discipleship and training in meditation as a form of service; the teaching on the seven rays and the new psychology of the soul; the teaching on esoteric astrology; and the new world religion, which emphasizes the common thread of truth linking all the major world faiths.(less)