The Creative Process in the Individual | Page 7

Thomas Troward
very widely accepted under
various guises even at the present day it is well to be on our guard
against it. Therefore I wish the student to see clearly that there is
something which comes before that Polarity which gives rise to
Evolution, and that this something is the original movement of Spirit
within itself, of which we can best get an idea by calling it
Self-contemplation.
Now this may seem an extremely abstract conception and one with
which we have no practical concern. I fancy I can hear the reader
saying "The Lord only knows how the world started, and it is His
business and not mine," which would be perfectly true if this
originating faculty were confined to the Cosmic Mind. But it is not, and
the same action takes place in our own minds also, only with the
difference that it is ultimately subject to that principle of Cosmic Unity
of which I have already spoken. But, subject to that unifying principle,
this same power of origination is in ourselves also, and our personal
advance in evolution depends on our right use of it; and our use of it
depends on our recognition that we ourselves give rise to the particular
polarities which express themselves in our whole world of
consciousness, whether within or without. For these reasons it is very
important to realize that Evolution is not the same as Creation. It is the
unfolding of potentialities involved in things already created, but not
the calling into existence of what does not yet exist--that is Creation.
The order, therefore, which I wish the student to observe is, first the
Self-contemplation of Spirit producing Polarity, and next Polarity
producing Manifestation in Form--and also to realize that it is in this
order his own mind operates as a subordinate center of creative energy.
When the true place of Polarity is thus recognized, we shall find in it
the explanation of all those relations of things which give rise to the
whole world of phenomena; from which we may draw the practical
inference that if we want to change the manifestation we must change
the polarity, and to change the polarity we must get back to the

Self-contemplation of Spirit. But in its proper place as the
root-principle of all secondary causation, Polarity is one of those
fundamental facts of which we must never lose sight. The term
"Polarity" is adopted from electrical science. In the electric battery it is
the connecting together of the opposite poles of zinc and copper that
causes a current to flow from one to the other and so provides the
energy that rings the bell. If the connection is broken there is no action.
When you press the button you make the connection. The same process
is repeated in respect of every sort of polarity throughout the universe.
Circulation depends on polarity, and circulation is the manifestation of
Life, which we may therefore say depends on the principle of polarity.
In relation to ourselves we are concerned with two great polarities, the
polarity of Soul and Body and the polarity of Soul and Spirit; and it is
in order that he may more clearly realize their working that I want the
student to have some preliminary idea of Polarity as a general principle.
The conception of the Creative Order may therefore be generalized as
follows. The Spirit wants to enjoy the reality of its own Life--not
merely to vegetate, but to enjoy giving--and therefore by
Self-contemplation it projects a polar opposite, or complementary,
calculated to give rise to the particular sort of relation out of which the
enjoyment of a certain mode of self-consciousness will necessarily
spring. Let this sentence be well pondered over until the full extent of
its significance is grasped, for it is the key to the whole matter Very
well, then: Spirit wants to Enjoy Life, and so, by thinking of itself as
having the enjoyment which it wishes, it produces the conditions which,
by their re-action upon itself, give rise to the reality of the sort of
enjoyment contemplated. In more scientific language an opposite
polarity is induced, giving rise to a current which stimulates a particular
mode of sensation, which sensation in turn becomes a fresh
starting-point for still further action; and in this way each successive
stage becomes the stepping-stone to a still higher degree of
sensation--that is, to a Fuller Enjoyment of Life.
Such a conception as this presents us with a Progressive Series to
which it is impossible to assign any limit. That the progression must be
limitless is clear from the fact that there is never any change in the

method. At each successive stage the Creating Power is the
Self-consciousness of the Spirit, as realized at that stage, still reaching
forward for yet further
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