Nowadays, from any perspective we look at the path of inner growth, we always meet the group as a space for development and as an instrument for expanding consciousness. Whatever theme we deal with, on whatever project we share, we always talk about the group. This is the real great theme that characterizes our times and that differentiates today’s inner research from that of the past.
Today everything happens in a group; this fact can be explained through several factors:
– The group is the fundamental note of the Aquarian era
– The group can multiply forces and resources and therefore produce much more substantial effects and accelerate any development
– The group allows Those who guide us to save energy by creating an amplified transmission
– Through the group, everyone, even those who would have difficulty walking a path of self-development on their own, can proceed and accelerate their evolution.
All groups are characterized by the type of action they carry out in the world, which can be the most diverse: from subtle action through meditation, to the diffusion of knowledge through teaching and study, up to experimenting and sharing concrete aspects of common life. In general, the latter are given the name of community and today many of them are being born in the world because ‘life in common’ could be a valid response to the needs of our times. In reality, all groups, on whatever level they appear, are communities, in the sense that they promote union (from the ancient latin “cum” = with, and “union” )
Each group originates on the subtle plane, that is, it is born from a nourished and loved idea. And then it develops from top to bottom, from spirit to form. Developing a ‘science of groups’ would make available a map, marking the development steps that groups have to take, the crises and the ways to overcome them, the differences and similarities and how to use them and so on. Today there are many people who feel called to work in a group, even to start a group, and they also have a lot of good will to do it, but often they get discouraged after a series of attempts because they encounter obstacles that they don’t know how to deal with. We can say that the Group is one of the great Mysteries of our time, a Mystery waiting to be revealed and waiting to reveal its full potential.
Just like for the individual, there are specific steps that each group must face in order to activate its soul energy, and thus begin the process that leads the group’s personality to be infused with soul energy. It is only when this process is underway that the group antahkarana is formed and intuitions, inspirations and insights can flow in the mind of the group, allowing it to orient itself better toward its field of service and to be able to grasp more clearly what is its task in support of the Plan.
Moving from considering the group as just an instrument to seeing it as an end, as one of the objectives of the Plan, leads us to place it in a central position. In fact, one of the Goals of the evolutionary Plan is the Group Consciousness: a state of consciousness in which the separate and separative self is transcended and absorbed in a much wider perception of themselves and of the world, which gradually includes more and more beings, human and those belonging to other kingdoms of nature. If the development of a group consciousness is something much broader and deeper than just the experience of a group life, it is also true that living group experiences provides a great stimulus.
Therefore, each group is a protected laboratory, in which people can experiment in a concentrated and conscious way, with the various steps that lead to the group state of consciousness. This also coincides with the soul’s consciousness and therefore with contact with the soul. Two main functions of the group therefore emerge: one is to represent a physical and psychic space in which consciousness can grow more rapidly, the other is a result of the latter, that is, the group that becomes so integrated that it can be a service unit: a subject who actively makes itself responsible for service actions for the world. When this happens in a stable way, the group disciple is born, that is, a new disciple / server of the world.
‘Group disciple’ is something different from a group of disciples. This goal, certainly high and demanding, can be an important goal for all groups and for the good of the world: if we imagine a network of groups, in which each of them represents a solid, stable and consecrated unity acting for the Common good, we can easily see what enormous advantage would result for the Planet. This network of highly functioning service units could fundamentally accelerate evolution.
Marina Bernardi
Adapted from original article of 13th July 2020
Please visit the Science of Group Work for more resources on groups and group consciousness https://www.scienceofgroupwork.net/