will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?”2
Nor can we deny that, historically, there have been many threshold times of great transformative significance. The harnessing of fire, the development of agriculture, the first writing of language, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution—these are just a smattering of examples of transformative epochs that forever changed the face of humankind on the earth. Each furthered the reach of our combined knowledge, culture, and know-how, and thus in each of these we can see what was, in its time, a truly new age that brought the peoples of the world a little closer together.
Living on the Threshold of Change
Looking around us at the world today, it does not take much of a stretch to think that we, too, are on a major threshold. Global challenges on the economic, political, and environmental fronts rivet our attention. An unprecedented worldwide cross-pollination of spiritual perspectives as well as scientific breakthroughs and technological advances hint at solutions that will be a quantum leap beyond old ways of dealing with our problems. Perhaps most significant of all, the effective shrinking of the world through the Internet and other modern communications systems suggests that, for the first time in human history, a unified humanity is within the realm of possibility. Add to that the astronomical fact that, because of the precession of the equinoxes, Earth's vernal equinox is transitioning from the constellation of Pisces to that of Aquarius, and maybe the dawning of the Aquarian Age does not seem so far-fetched after all.
The interesting thing about dawns and crossing over thresholds, however, is that these movements are processes that occur over some period of time. There are multitudinous factors leading to the approach of a threshold, and complex internal forces propel individuals to become pioneers in its crossing. Who can delineate, for example, all of the influences of philosophy, science, mathematics, art, and politics that came together to produce the Renaissance? And what forces were at work within the makeup of an Isaac Newton or a Leonardo da Vinci to propel them over the threshold, thereby making them such influential figures in the widespread and lasting transformation that the Renaissance became?
Unlike a fix that swoops down from above, transformative epochs have always tended to rise up from within the participants. Even the birth of Jesus, held by those of Christian faith to have been the major transformative event so far in human history, was described by Edgar Cayce as coming in response to “continued preparation and dedication” on the part of those who knew the potentials of their day and organized their lives around it accordingly.3 We should expect no less a requirement of us if our day is truly to be one of transformation to a new age. In that context, we might look at the Aquarian Age as an invitation for us to participate in the next stage of a process that is synonymous with evolution.
At least that seems to be the Cayce readings' take on it. The only time that the readings spoke about the Aquarian Age by name occurred in 1939, when Edgar Cayce was asked if he could name the date when the crossover from the Piscean to Aquarian Age would happen. His response was that “In 1998 we may find a great deal of the activities as have been wrought by the gradual changes that are coming about….” He went on to further clarify that “…This is a gradual, not a cataclysmic activity in the experience of the earth in this period.”4 This emphasis on process and gradual transformation rather than sudden, cataclysmic change matches the very essence of evolution (which is defined as a process in all of its dictionary definitions).
Elsewhere in this same reading he said that where the Piscean Age brought the consciousness of Emmanuel or “God with us,” the Aquarian Age would mean the full consciousness of the ability to communicate with or be aware of our relationship to “Creative Forces” and the use of these creative forces in a material world. The opportunity of our day, then, would seem to be conscious engagement with the Creative Force behind all things and our own use of such creative capacity right here in this world. This is, in essence, a call to an evolutionary lifestyle, a spirituality based not on seeing how quickly we can “graduate” from the earth, but instead on how well we can participate in the process of creation. What else might we expect from a body of spiritual teaching that consistently links co-creatorship to our core purpose?
For us in this early twenty-first century world, so fraught with both peril and potential, the stakes have never been higher. The potentials of our time call us to engage with processes that will take us over the threshold into the attributes of the Aquarian epoch, rather than wait for particular dates that will bring it all together for us. In the language of the Cayce reading cited above, our astounding opportunity is to learn how to use creative forces—the same forces that have brought worlds into being—right here in this material world where we find ourselves. The perils of our day make the maxim that we cannot solve a problem from the level of consciousness that created it all too obvious. Rather than fix our gaze on some hoped-for event on the horizon, where a previously unattainable state of spiritual consciousness will fall like refreshing dew, today is when we must actively engage in pushing past the boundaries in our own consciousness to be that consciousness which will approach the world's problems in an entirely new way. It is time for us to find the ways we are called to be the embodiment of evolution—a process that is leading us toward a new threshold for life on this planet. As we learn to nurture those forces within us that will help nudge us over the inevitable hurdles that any threshold will entail, we will rise to the evolutionary potential of our age.
What's Distinctive about the Evolutionary Approach to Life?
Just what is it that makes the evolutionary approach different from other spiritual paths? Isn't all spirituality, by its very definition, evolutionary? Well, yes—and no. We might say that the main difference is one of context. From any spiritual standpoint that includes the long view of the soul's history, we're used to thinking of evolution in terms of our personal path of development. Traditional spirituality often presents the path to enlightenment as an evolutionary one, whereby we transcend the bonds and limitations of the flesh and this three-dimensional world and return to fully realized consciousness of our oneness with God.
The evolutionary world view would agree that this opening up of consciousness is crucial. But it sees that as not an end in itself but rather as the means to an ongoing evolutionary advance that can be traced back to the Big Bang. And the primary arena of that evolutionary advance is here, in this world of flesh and blood and rocks and plants. In other words, a spiritual path that emphasizes getting out of this world is not evolutionary in the sense that I will be using the term here. “Evolutionary spirituality,” as presented in these pages, is a world view—an interpretation of the facts at hand—that holds central the idea that the manifest universe is evolving. Not just the cosmos, not just plants and animals, but consciousness itself is evolving on a cosmic scale, influencing every atom of manifest creation. Therefore, evolutionary spirituality is a commitment to take responsibility for bringing consciousness into our thoughts, our bodies, the world, and creation itself.
For that reason, this world of three dimensions has intrinsic meaning and purpose. It is far more than just an illusion to be rolled away or a dream to be awakened from. Furthermore, our purpose here in this earthly realm goes beyond personal spirituality and “soul growth.” We are called beyond soul growth to participation in an ongoing creation. In one sense all living things are participants in ongoing creation. But in the case of humanity, that participation is a bit more pointed if, in fact, we are at the leading edge of evolution as most contemporary evolutionary world views claim. In us and through us comes the evolutionary advance of all that is. Therefore, evolutionary spirituality entails a commitment to embrace the unique opportunity of incarnation. This book is both a call to that commitment and an exploration of what it might look like in our daily habits, priorities, and actions, if we were to truly seize the evolutionary opportunity before us.
The story of that opportunity begins with an infinitesimal point outside of time and space, where nothing burst forth into something and when time and space and matter were born. From that moment on, a forward-moving process began, and this process is still taking place today. While traditional approaches to spirituality (even New Age ones) will often assume that this earth plane is a fixed environment