The Great Invocation

"Coded within the beautiful words of the Great Invocation is a consistent pattern of numeric relationships revealing a sacred message of importance for all humanity. This world prayer tells the story of humanity's purpose through the symbolism of numbers." -John Berges
 

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"We shall talk and think increasingly in terms of electricity, of voltage, of intensity and of power." -Treatise White Magic, 334

The Great Invocation is a formula relating the basic properties of electricity as it should flow throughout our planetary electrical system. These basic properties are power, voltage, current and resistance. Electricity is a fluid, very much like water, and our understanding of electricity will deepen if we keep the water analogy.

The relationship between Shamballa, Hierarchy and Humanity may be illustrated by making reference to an electrical system model. The planetary Power source, the generator of electricity, lies in Shamballa. However, electricity needs to be regulated between the power source and a point of use. The Hierarchy of Elder Brothers, serving as a planetary rheostat ("dimmers"), regulates the flow of electricity to circuits throughout the planet. Lastly, Humanity completes the system by using voltage regulated electricity for service (work). Energy that is not used for work produces heat, a common problem in group work when heat (interpersonal friction) consumes most of the energy, and a common source of "evil" (misused energy) in the planet.

In electronic terminology, Light, Love and Power (Life) correspond to current, voltage and power, respectively. Resistance relates to Humanity's capacity to serve as conductor of electricity. Humanity may either transform energy into redeeming work and service (radiation) or dissipate energy into unredeemed heat (chaos).

Power (P), defined as potential capacity to do work, is related to voltage (V) and current (I) by the formula: P = V * I. Love (voltage) is the creative (electromotive) force that drives Light (current) throughout a circuit transforming potentiality (power) into actuality (work, service). Keeping the water analogy, voltage is the water level difference between input (Shamballa) and output (Humanity). Current, on the other hand, is the amount of fluid (Light) that flows in a circuit. Therefore, the higher the voltage at a constant current or the higher the current at a constant voltage the higher the capacity for work (service), or power.

Voltage itself is also related to current and resistance (R) by the formula: V = I * R. That is, a higher current at a constant resistance or a higher resistance at a constant current are associated with a higher voltage. That a higher current (Light) be associated with a higher voltage (Love) is intuitively apparent. However, the meaning of the relationship between voltage and resistance is less apparent because resistance dissipates energy as heat.

Overcoming resistance is a basic purpose of Love, the electromotive force of this universe. The V = I * R formula suggests that Love (voltage) is not expressible without some measurable magnitude of resistance. In the extreme case of totally overcoming resistance (resistance = 0), Love cannot be expressed unless the concept of infinity is invoked. The progressive overcoming of resistance may eventually produce an infinite Light (I = V/0 = oo) that may relate matter directly to the Life of God. It seems that short of that apotheosis, Love, the second (Son) aspect of divinity, needs the third aspect (Mother-Matter, resistance) to find expression in our planetary life. This may be a key to the mystery veiled by Virgo (the Sphinx): "I am the Mother and the Child. I God, I Matter am." The redemptive force of Love -inextricably related to duality- progressively transmutes matter to become a pure channel for the Life of God. However, in this process heat is unavoidably produced until resistance is eventually eliminated. Thus, our immediate goal is to minimize the production of heat and to maximize the radioactivity ("clear cold light") resulting from the transmutation process.

The practice of goodwill, through the sacrifice and transcendence of self-interest, is the best prescription for reducing the resistance within the electrical circuitry of Humanity. ["It is essential that servers everywhere become 'relaying channels and not delaying points of selfish interest' in the divine flow." (Telepathy, 195)] Herein may lie a key to the phrase "seal the door where evil dwells." What we, as Humanity's representatives, are invoking is the eventual total annihilation of resistance to the "divine circulatory flow." Another aspect of this hermetic sealing may be viewed as eradicating the so many "short-circuits" within Humanity that misappropriate the energy poured in from Shamballa. Once that process of sealing is complete, relative -of course- to our planetary stage of evolution, the fourfold electrical formula of resistance, current, voltage and power becomes a threefold formula of Light (current), Love (voltage) and Power. This is the synthesis expressed in the last phrase of the Great Invocation by the affirmation, "Let Light, and Love, and Power restore the PLAN on Earth." The transition from a nonsacred (quadrangular) to a sacred (triangular) planet is thus portrayed.

The hermetic sealing of the door where evil dwells may also mean to infinitely INCREASE our resistance to the forces of evil and to arrest its flow within the planet. How can we increase our resistance to evil and, simultaneously, decrease our resistance to the Life of God? The answer may lie in another concept from modern electronics: the diode. Diodes (devices having two electrodes) are semiconductors that permit current flow in one direction only. That is, keeping our water analogy, a diode is a one-way valve for the flow of electricity. Diodes are widely used in electronics to convert alternating current to direct current. In this function diodes are called rectifiers. For instance, the task of the Elder Brothers is similar to the function of an electronic rectifier (and capacitor) : making a smooth, constant current out of the oscillating efforts of disciples in the world. A perfect diode-rectifier does not offer any resistance to the flow of electricity in one direction (L-I-V-E) but at the same time does not allow for any flow of electricity in the opposite direction (E-V-I-L). We may have then a different view on the problem of evil in our planet: the REVERSAL of the "divine circulatory flow." First, we considered the obstruction or resistance to the divine flow which is basically a problem to be handled by aspirants and disciples who have already rectified their orientation in life ("reversal of the wheel"). Second, we have identified the problem of evil from the perspective of the majority of Humanity at this point in time who have not yet reoriented their current flow and unconsciously permit the (reverse) flow of evil in the planet. The Great Invocation is also their tool to accomplish their reorientation as did the Prodigal Son.

There are other mysteries that may yield some of their veils if we focus our attention on the relationship among voltage, light and resistance. It has been already mentioned that a higher current (Light) is associated with a higher voltage (Love) and that this relationship is intuitively apparent. However, it is also possible that as Light (current) diminished and approached zero then resistance approached infinity, and, therefore, no current flow was ever possible regardless of voltage (Love). This may have been the situation of unmanifested, primeval chaos, as described in the Secret Doctrine under the triad of Chaos-Theos-Cosmos. According to Hermetic Teachings, Chaos is the "substance" out of which our universe is continually created in an infinite process of becoming. The first stanza of the Great Invocation, "From the Point of Light within the Mind of God" may serve as a reminder of that process symbolized in the Proem of the Secret Doctrine by the circle and the point within the circle.

It should be realized that our present exoteric knowledge of electricity is limited. Only two out of the five parts of the formula of truth concerning electrical phenomena have been revealed so far (Treatise Cosmic Fire, 456). And, "the negative electricity of the planet is all that is as yet contacted for commercial purposes" (Treatise Cosmic Fire, 524). Therefore, we should expect that the two simple formulas that have been addressed in this essay will fade as special cases of an imminent new revelation and that their interpretation will vary accordingly.

We are told that the Great Invocation is a powerful mantram based on seven "very ancient word-forms" (Externalisation Hierarchy, p.489). We are also told that "A mantram, when rightly sounded forth, creates a vacuum" (Letters Occult Meditation, 164). It is an extraordinary coincidence that the first major use of vacuum technology in industry occurred about 1900 in the manufacture of electric LIGHT bulbs. Furthermore, the great breakthrough that made modern electronics possible was the invention of the vacuum tube. The vacuum tube provided an efficient means of signal amplification by controlling power electrically and at very high speed. Although the modern "solid-state" transistor has mostly replaced the vacuum tube, vacuum tubes are still used when their ability to handle high power and high voltage is required. Vacuum technology is also used to deposit integrated electronic circuits on silica chips and for television picture and X-ray tubes, among many other uses. Therefore, vacuum technology has proved to be very useful exoterically and may contain even more powerful esoteric applications. The adequate use and understanding of the Great Invocation may afford us a unique opportunity for planetary service.

The power of words is enhanced if the interlocutor understands the meaning behind those words. The sixth group of "Sacred Words of the seventh Logos" is intimately connected with electrical manifestations and is "beginning to work out in the formula of scientists... but fortunately for themselves they remain formulas on paper and are not as yet embodied in sound" (Treatise Cosmic Fire, 451-2).

This essay has attempted to approach the hidden symbols veiled in the Great Invocation using basic concepts of modern electronics. Humanity holds the key to hermetically seal the planetary door where evil dwells. The Great Invocation is the GROUP mantram bestowed by our Elder Brothers to achieve this lofty end.
 

Originally published in
The Beacon Vol LV Num 8;  March/April 1994

Afterword: There are 113 words and 443 letters in the Great Invocation. The exact midpoint is the letter "S" in the midword "IS" (God IS known). There are FOUR words (verbs) starting with the letter "S" in the Great Invocation: "stream" (light) in the first group; "stream" (love) in the second group; "serve" (purpose) in the next-to-last group, and "seal" (plan) in the last group of 28 words each.

Others may conduct the numero-anatomic analysis of such pattern, but from the electrophysiologic point of view, we are clearly presented two "streams" (current and voltage) of an electric circuit (Light and Love) "grounded" in Service (Love) and emPOWERed to HERMETICALLY "seal" (with Light) the door of darkness on Earth.

This may be the electrophysiologic reason for the letter "S" (which is really a smoothed number 5) being at the very heart (dynamo) of the Great Invocation: the Hermetic Tetrasigma.

 

Heartbeat Consecrated to the Glory of the One

(1-2-3; 1-2-3; 4; 5; 1-2-3)

Stream forth Light. Stream forth Love. Serve. Seal. God is known!