Humanity journeys from unity through separation back to unity. It is always a part of God, for all that is lives and moves and has its being in Him. In the beginning humanity was not conscious of that unity; in the end it will consciously share in God's omniscience.
The story of the Tower of Babel tells of humanity's original state of unity. The whole Earth spoke a single language. Then, as it "journeyed from the east," it gradually lost its perception of the universal light and descended to the lower "plain" of consciousness. There, entering into a more circumscribed personal life, such a confusion of tongues developed that the people could no longer "understand one another's speech." They were beginning to live in terms of self-will instead of divine will. Thus divided in interests and purposes, the Lord (Law) did "scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth."
In its earliest stages of development, before the race consciousness had extended beyond the subjective state into the objective, mankind was easily amenable as a unit to a single directing will. That One Will operated through the twelve zodiacal Hierarchies in directing the destinies of the entire human race.
Later, embryonic humanity reached the stage of individualization. After it acquired mind and developed self-will, it divided into separate races and nations. Consciousness was directed more and more to the external world. The many individualized minds and separated races were not unitedly receptive to a synthesized hierarchical guidance; so, in the divine order of things, this was henceforth delegated to a number of lesser Beings chosen from among Archangels working under the direction of the Lord Jehovah. Each race and nation received its immediate guidance from an archangelic Race Spirit.
Like members of the human life wave, the Archangels are not all of equal development. Those who serve as animal Group Spirits are among the least advanced. Among those serving mankind, the more advanced assume the greater tasks by leading the major races and the most progressive nations. They become, as it were, the corporate soul of a people, feeling and willing for its collective good. They inspire their people with love of race and country, and devotion to the goals to which they are dedicated. Leaders are especially inspired in their task of carrying a nation or race forward in accordance with its particular genius and toward realization of the ideals inherent in it.
This is still the chief source of inner guidance in the life of nearly all races and nations of the Earth. The exceptions are the new pioneering peoples who are an amalgam of many races; these are emancipating themselves increasingly from such control, their destinies being directed more and more by the awakening God within the people themselves.
The Race Spirit broods over its people like a psychic cloud, impregnating them with a consciousness of the large racial ends they are intended to serve, and controlling them by means of the breath, and power of the spoken word. Language and music are the principal mediums whereby one may come into touch with the Race Spirit of a people. If the people of a nation knew how to manipulate the forces resident in human speech, they could perform miracles for good or ill.
After humanity left the east (realm of light) and settled on the plain (physical conditions), it commenced to establish a civilization in the material world. It built a tower of stone. The purpose was to raise it so high that its top would "reach unto heaven." The divine spark in man, now encased in a physical body and struggling through a world of divided forms, had lost all but a hazy memory of its heavenly origin. Drawing upon its own human devices, it conceived the idea of building a tower by means of which it might reascend to its state of former glory.
But humanity was not yet ready for this. It was not qualified for reascension. So the Lord (Law) intervened and frustrated its plan.
That which disqualified the builders of the Tower of Babel may be determined by an examination of their character as this is presented in the Bible story.
The people were of the land of Shinar, a province of Babylon. The name means confusion, and symbolically signifies a material civilization and an unregenerate humanity. It was "the mother of harlots," "the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit." By its own wickedness it fell.
This Babylon was founded by Nimrod, the son of Cush, who was the son of Ham, who was the son of Noah. The people of Shinar, the builders of the towers, were thus descendants of the line of Ham, whose name signifies darkness and materiality. The tower he builds cannot pierce heaven. The piles of stone he erects will fall. Not until he has been chastened and purified through the sufferings incident to worldly confusion, misunderstandings, conflicts, sufferings in obedience to the commandment of the Lord (operation of divine Law) can he regain the lost spiritual estate to which he openly or secretly, knowingly or unknowingly, aspires.
Man had grown wise and powerful in his own conceit. By his own unaided human efforts he proposed to invade superhuman spheres. But the universe is so constituted that the higher is automatically protected from intrusion by the lower. Spiritual gates cannot be taken by a storm of mental weapons. Entrance into spiritual realms is possible only to a spiritualized being.
— Corinne Heline
