The sixth commandment of the TEN RULES OF DISCIPLESHIP of the 4th degree of the Great White Lodge is clear as crystal. You cannot mistake it; you cannot misinterpret it. It says quite unequivocally: "treat every member of the Great White Lodge as though he were of blood kin." And what is meant by "Great White Lodge"? Who are the people mentioned here as "members of the Great White Lodge"? The answer, again, is more than plain. Everybody is a member of the Great White Lodge, each atom, the whole wide universe belongs to, and is, the Great White Lodge, explain the Temple Teachings. No exemptions, no special cases, no options for any type of exclusion from this "privileged club" called Great White Lodge, simply because everybody and everything is in it, and not one atom in the entire cosmos can be thrown out of it. So everybody, even the ant we step upon, the chicken we eat, the gnat we inadvertently breath in, is a Lodge member whom we must treat as blood kin. This is why the Indians maintained that you have to beg and pray to an animal or plant for forgiveness before you kill it, ensuring them that you love them and care for them and explaining to them that without their help you would have to starve. If you don't do this, you hurt and insult the spirits, and they will take revenge on you. Also, an Indian compensates, gives something in return when it becomes inevitable for him to take a life. So when you pick a flower, you put some tobacco upon the ground close to the plant root.

The basic principle of Brotherhood is, then, to treat every thing, especially things with a soul - animals, and needless to say, all and every type of humans - as blood brothers, as next of kin. Absolutely no exceptions here. My blood kin is then, not only the people I am related to or people whom I happen to like, but everybody.

The very first Brotherhood we encounter in life is ourselves. Our physical and interior bodies are composed of many Brotherhoods. Man being a multidimensional entity, we have the Brotherhood of our seven principles to begin with. Let us base our very first actions toward Brotherhood on the fact that man has, or rather is, Seven Spirits.

Let us establish a Brotherhood of seven bodies or principles in ourselves first, before we could or should even think of going further and attempt to solve problems for others or for the world at large. These seven bodies or spirits are the real scene of battle, and to achieve the impossible, we must possess superhuman faith, and be ready for making superhuman sacrifice in exchange for superhuman power. Essentially, we must give from our lower parts to the higher. (In reality nothing is higher or lower, all being one. We all sit at a round table, with some of us older, some of us younger.) The trick is to balance perfectly those seven beings in us which are, of course, just one and the same being, only divided up and distributed on seven different planes or dimensions. But, how do we establish a perfect balance between different segments of something we do not even know - without help? We don't. If you are a surgeon, you do not operate on a patient unless you know exactly what you are doing. We cannot know anything about our interior bodies until we get there, or rather, our consciousness gets there [because the interior body is always on its own plane and does not have to get there at all]. In other words, we cannot even start establishing Brotherhood in ourselves, without the help of someone who knows. But a Master would never do it for us because the point is exactly that we ourselves need to learn to swim, by own effort. So what do we do? One way is remembering the old maxim: "Man, know thyself." And the more we think about this, the more we will understand that there is something tremendous, something quite incredible hidden in ourselves, something quite unacceptable to the world at large: a god. This god or higher self will help us, as soon as we are ready.

It may surprise us, but this guide in our heart may suggest a totally different course from what we might expect. For example, it may tell us to start with including our lower self in our brotherhood scheme instead of demonizing and excluding this good or perhaps not yet domesticated servant, or, even more insanely, battling it, as humans usually do with themselves through doubt or fear.

It is only the Higher Self that can know the exact nature of our constitutional imbalances, and the need where, when, and how to adjust which body to what extent. Imagine seven variable beads on a string. The beads are alive, so is the string, and when one bead grows excessively, growth for the remaining six is inhibited. Then all beads show an unnatural condition: in one there is too much, in the other, too little matter, force, and consciousness. You could also say that the stronger or richer bead exploits the weaker or poorer ones. Occultism demands to remedy this, for nothing in nature can live at the expense of another. He who exploits must die. That our Christ Self will have to grow and increase, while other parts, as it may seem to us, are doomed to decrease, may seem to contradict this. But as soon as we start grasping that the Christ or Buddhi principle - the sixth bead on our septenary string - is in reality one giant cosmic bead that contains in itself, and gives life, growth, nourishment to, string and beads and all, we will also understand the depth of sacrilege involved when daring to declare the permissiveness of exploitation on the authority of Christ. Even if we try to understand occultism, we are still in the clutches of dogma and prisoners to black magic in the name of Jesus, as long as we - even though but unconsciously - associate the Christ with some independent and distant and even inimical god on a throne who threatens to take away our lives. True pantheism will make us understand that the Christ is neither different from us, nor far away, nor a threat to our survival. The Christ is that in which we "live and move, and have our being." The Christ, although one of them, penetrates and interpenetrates all of our seven principles, encompassing our whole being.

What then, is the Christ? a principle? Yes, but one that is much more alive than anything we can conceive of. Is it a person? No, but even if not, it can assume any form, and certainly is It an Entity, although a very large one at that. For the Christ is infinite, and as powerful an Entity as the Universe itself, for the reason that it contains, or rather is, the Universe. Best described, perhaps, is the Christ by people who have had a near-death-experience. Again and again, they tell us about a living light, indescribably beautiful light that is brighter than everything we know and still soft, having seemingly no end, which is receiving you when you get free from the earth plane, and enfolding you and giving you the ecstasy of joy beyond comprehension. True pantheism, even more spiritual introspection, will open our eyes to the fact that the Christ is always a giver, never an exploiter. It ever gives to all our constituent parts, making sure - provided we let it - that the plant that we are grows but to proportions of harmony. Compare the Christ to sunshine. It ever shines on everyone - kingdoms, persons, principles, not taking away life but giving it to all. In the light of the Christos, giving is receiving. So, Francis of Assisi, not surprisingly, was no friend nor slave to exploitation. He scorned the riches of his merchant father. He believed in a Brotherhood of Man that would truly include all, even the songbirds that praise the dawn. Perhaps he saw the only reality that ever matters: we, all of us - every atom, star, and man in the Universe - are indivisible, inseparable from one another, because we are one with God and all good.

We must see that we are not different from our Christ Self. What is the Christ Self? On another level and from another standpoint, it is one of the zillion spheres, or rather, holes, in the Iron Curtain of selfishness of humanity where the Light from the Central Spiritual Sun may shine through. But it is a living, rational being as well. In Gems From The East, HPB tells us a paramount reality about the Christ. Says HPB : "Think of the Master as a living man within you".

We can more easily understand our essential oneness and unity with our Christ Self by picturing our lower self as tied to this Higher Self much in the way of Siamese twins. Then we'll see that this neglected and despised "lower" self - deemed even dangerous by occultists - is in fact but a shadow of the Christ, its raison d'ˆtre being to provide a backdrop against which this figure of light becomes cognizable. We need this lower self for growth. Of course, this shadow-twin is ever one with its parent-brother made of pure Light - for nothing ever can be OUTSIDE of the Christ, It being that Infinite Ocean of Light which penetrates and interpenetrates all things, all planes, all creatures.

We must be ready to be led by the Christ, and not merely going after our own lights. We must adapt to the Universe. Sooner or later, we will have to transform and merge this little personality or lower mentality or astral body or Ka, into the Big Mighty All, thus uniting with the Christ. And there is no need to fear that we may lose our individuality in the process. Even the very highest adepts we hear from, still do have their personal likes or dislikes, and they laugh about disciples who fancy to be able to get rid of everything that would make them human. We need to understand that the division between the Higher and lower self is - well, not really there. For sure, there is no hard and fast boundary line separating the two. The two poles constitute a brotherhood; none can live without the other; the higher must grow ever stronger by transmuting and finally assimilating the lower; but the lower is not annihilated, only changed, transformed, converted into the Christ. This is alchemy; this is initiation; this is evolution; this is life, and the natural order of things. This is, on the level of society, the divine prototype for brotherhood typified by the word Theocracy.

A Brotherhood of Man first of all means that we strive to be aware of, and understand, our own dual nature. This means patience with our failures, and a love and understanding for our own seemingly "horrible" natures. It is a wrong standpoint to say, "I am bad", "this and that person is bad". Why? Because it is untrue and a curse against the Christ. Nothing and nobody is "bad"; everything and everybody is dual. Not in the sense as if very different, separate things that are each other's opposites - like angel and devil - were tied or chained together, but simply as one and the very same thing having two sides or poles. Understanding this we also see why the various disciplines amounting to self torture - self-flagellation in medieval times and its present-day equivalents; excruciating practices of Indian hatha yogis - are so much against nature, and even a lot worse than futile. "He who despises and reviles his body, because it does not radiate the light of his soul, despises God as certainly as does the man who despises and reviles the soul and spirit of God." We can only commence marching toward our own Brotherhood by getting rid of the habit of calling ourselves names, or putting ourselves down whenever things seem less than perfect. Also for the reason that the Divine is always about to fulfill what we think or say, taking it as our hearts' desire. If we complain about something that happened to us, the Universe will rush in and bring us more of the same; if we thank and praise, and see the good in whatever comes to us, it will provide the good stuff.

A Brotherhood of Man, then, also means that the love that we give to ourselves, should be extended in the very same measure to others as well. "Treat every member of the Great White Lodge as though he were of blood kin," says the Temple commandment, and Master Hilarion adds: Everybody is a member of the Great White Lodge; each atom, the whole wide Universe belongs to, and is, the Great White Lodge.

How do we establish a true Brotherhood between humans? By serving the spirit of love, and not its opposite that is ever eager to take advantage of everybody. The Master Jesus made it very plain: Ye cannot serve God and Mammon (Matthew 6:24).

We cannot permit the continuation of the present monetary system of exploitation.

A system of egotism is no brotherhood.

A system of competition is no brotherhood.

A system of winning and losing is no brotherhood.

Money, the Curse of Mammon, is no brotherhood.

A system of crime and punishment is no brotherhood.

A system of wage slavery is no Brotherhood.

An even worse slavery for women is no Brotherhood.

We are told in no uncertain terms that the White Lodge cannot and will not tolerate any longer this Curse of Mammon to continue lording over the earth. In 1899, we were told that we were granted a final grace period of 100 years, a single short century, within the time-frame of which we ought to have toppled the kingdom of Satan now disgracing the planet. But accepting this statement from the Lodge as literally true seems to demand far more courage than the average Theosophist, Templar, Freemason, Buddhist, Jew, Moslem, Christian, or Freethinker is able to muster. We will never achieve superhuman result without superhuman faith. If we simply cannot, or will not believe the words of our parents, what, then, can our Father do? What can a Father do if his children will not believe him?

A Brotherhood of Man means that we cannot torture, vivisect, and maim our animal brothers simply because it is advantageous to us. They are as much entitled to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness as we are. The Great Spirit lives in them. They have as much right to be where they are as we do.

A Brotherhood of Man means that we cannot poison or rob or destroy Mother Earth at our discretion. We cannot chop down the most beautiful trees in the world merely because we need them or because we want the money from selling them.

A Brotherhood of Man means that we cannot permit commercial interested to continue killing Mother Nature. If we do, we will be guilty of a very great crime. We will be partners in crime with those who will be responsible for the karmic reaction from the Earth Entity which the Lodge will have to permit or even precipitate, and which, in the end, will destroy a large part of the planet.

Let us say a little prayer here. I just made it up recently, for a dearest friend, as a birthday present. So here it is:

May the Light from our hearts illumine thy being,
"Driving the shadows/Into the blackness of the Great Abyss",
And may you feel and know Father's love,
And may the Holy One, the Universe Itself
Give you strength and health and good cheer
And comfort in your great sorrow;
May you accept to be led,
May you attain to the child state
And follow the guide who'll surely appear.

Let us finally remember where we come from. There is a little Indian song that may remind some of us of Hiawatha, architect of the great American Brotherhood of Man we know under the name Iroquois Confederacy or League of Six Nations. We know what Hiawatha means to us. We are of the red race, though bearing the pale face. Let us gather around the fire and seat ourselves in silence for a spell, in the Lodge of the Red Star, and smoke the calumet together:

I am a circle
A circle
We are one

I am a circle
We are one
You're healing me

United People
We are one
United People, People
We are one

I am a circle
We are one
You're healing me

I am a circle
A circle
We are one