Part of the Casswiki article series Cassiopaean Experiment
The 4th Way terminology recognizes the higher emotional and higher intellectual centers as well as the sexual center as higher centers. Descriptions vary and are not always unambiguous.
The sexual center is a higher center in the sense that it is not divided into positive and negative halves and mechanical, emotional and intellectual aspects. It is not as readily identifiable as the moving, thinking and feeling functions and it is not limited to sexual functions. The Cassiopaea material associates it with the solar plexus and says that it is a place of in-streaming of cosmic energies.
From the material:
Q: [Question concerns what takes place during the body’s sleep]
A: The question needs to be separated. What happens to a souled individuals is different from an organic portal unit.
At this point, we stopped and talked about the “soul energy” of organic portals coming from a “pool” - sort of like the soul pool of flora and fauna. So, the question about where the recharging comes from for “organic portal units” was asked.
A: The pool you have described.
Q: This one was about where the recharge energy comes from for the souled being during sleep. Same place?
A: No - it recharges from the so-called sexual center which is a higher center of creative energy. During sleep, the emotional center, not being blocked by the lower intellectual center and the moving center, transduces the energy from the sexual center. It is also the time during which the higher emotional and intellectual centers can rest from the “drain” of the lower centers’ interaction with those pesky organic portals so much loved by the lower centers. This respite alone is sufficient to make a difference. But, more than that, the energy of the sexual center is also more available to the other higher centers.
Q: [ Of course, the next logical question was: where does the so-called “sexual center” get ITS energy?]
A: The sexual center is in direct contact with 7th density in its “feminine” creative thought of “Thou, I Love.” The “outbreath” of “God” in the relief of constriction. Pulsation. Unstable Gravity Waves.
Q: [Question as to whether these “centers” as described by Mouravieff relate at all to the idea of “chakras.“]
A: Quite closely. In an individual of the organic variety, the so-called higher chakras are “produced in effect” by stealing that energy from souled beings. This is what gives them the ability to emulate souled beings. The souled being is, in effect, perceiving a mirror of their own soul when they ascribe “soul qualities” to such beings.
Q: [We made some assumptions about which center corresponds to which chakra.]
A: No.
The “sexual center” corresponds to the solar plexus.
Lower moving center - basal chakra
Lower emotional - sexual chakra
Lower intellectual - throat chakra
Higher emotional - heart chakra
Higher intellectual - crown chakra
Q: [What about the so-called seventh, or “third eye” chakra?]
A: Seer. The union of the heart and intellectual higher centers.
Mouravieff describes the higher emotional and intellectual centers as the “eyes of the soul”. They both see differently. These centers exist in individually souled humans and are even functioning and awake but are disconnected from the lower centers which constitute the regular consciousness due not to any deficiency of the higher centers but rather due to the lower centers’ lack of development and improper and sluggish functioning. The Work takes the form of preparing the lower centers in such a way that they become capable of entering into contact, however briefly, with the higher centers. It would be false pride to claim that human efforts create the higher. The scope of human efforts is limited to training the lower centers, the machine, so as to be a suitable receptacle for the soul. The higher is not the product of man’s efforts, which are anyway restricted to the level accessible to man. Yet the efforts are necessary. At best these efforts could be said to provide construction material and receptive capacity for the higher. They do not per se design or cause the higher.
The higher centers need the correct type of fuel in order to function, or it may be more correct to say that the organism must contain the right type of energies in order to connect with these centers. In the system of hydrogens, these energies are H12 for the higher emotional and H6 for the higher intellectual. The only energy of this degree that is produced independently of consciousness is the Si12 of sexual energy. The other energies are Sol12 from the air octave and Mi12 of the impression octave. These may occur in surges from specially intense experience or conscious work. Such processes may help the metabolism produce the right psychic substances by intensifying attention, for example.
The connection to the higher emotional center is linked to the state of objective consciousness of self, or intense self-remembering. This may occur spontaneously in flashes of an entirely different perception but the lower centers cannot typically sustain such contact for long. One problem with this perception is the fact that the lower intellect immediately steps in the way and starts analyzing, which disrupts the immediacy of the contact. The lower intellect substitutes ideas and representations for the thing itself and replaces immediate perception with imagination. The strength of attention is not sufficient for staying with the experience. Both intellect and emotion flee into imagination and making interpretations and judgements, which is their normal automatic functioning.
Contact with the higher intellectual center is linked to the highest state of consciousness spoken of by the 4th Way, the objective consciousness of the cosmos or divine consciusness. This is so rare that it is nearly impossible to say anything about this. See Enlightenment.
Mouravieff writes concerning these as follows on Vol. I pages 46 – 47 of Gnosis:
Their functions are different. In the Tradition they are sometimes called the eyes of the Soul. Thus, St Isaac The Syrian said: ‘While the two eyes of the body see things in an identical way, the Eyes of the Soul see diferently: one contemplates the truth in images and symbols, the other face to face.” In other words, messages received through the higher emotional center can be translated into pictures or language, but they always take the form of images or symbols. This is the case, for example, with the Book of Revelations. […] As for communications received through the higher intellectual centre, they are of such a transcendent nature that there is no way in which they can be translated into human language.
We do not register the messages of the higher centres, which are ceaselessly working in us at full capacity. This is not only because our lower centres are under-developed, but also because they are not equilibrated. We must therefore apply ourselves to stimulate the growth of the Personality within us, and to equilibrate and regulate the work of our three centres. By the intensive practice of self-observation, we must try hard to distinguish the work of each centre within us, then the work of their two parts, and lastly of their sectors. So we enter within ourselves.
If by appropriate exercises we can succeed in completely developing and perfectly equilibrating our lower centres, we shall be able to establish a permanent tie with our higher centres. Such a tie will be established gradually, starting from the lower emotional centre. The further the latter is purified and developed, the better it will acquire its normal rhythm. This is what will allow contact with the higher emotional centre. Later on, through the latter, it will make contact with the higher intellectual centre.
As no direct link exists between the lower intellectual centre and the higher intellectual centre, the intellectual culture which is the almost exclusive basis of our education cannot lead us to higher levels of consciousness. In spite of the refinement of his intelligence, no matter how extensive or deep the knowledge he acquires, exterior man remains enclosed within the circle of reason. Escape is possible only via the heart; that is why the cultivation of our emotional life dominates the attention, the pre-occupations and the obligatory efforts demanded by esoteric teachings.