What Is Ascension?

Ascension is the raising of consciousness from fear to love, and the gradual transformation of the whole person to match. It is the natural destination of every soul, and according to the teachings shared here it is now under way for humanity and for the Earth together.

This page sets out the idea as plainly as we can. The pages that follow it go further into the seven rays, the dimensions of consciousness and the signs of awakening.

Ascension in Plain Language

Every human being lives at a certain frequency. The word is borrowed from physics, and it is used here as a picture. A person whose days are ruled by fear, resentment and scarcity is living at a low, heavy frequency. A person whose days are full of trust, kindness and gratitude is living at a high and light one. Most of us move between the two many times before lunch.

Ascension is the process by which the higher state becomes the settled one. It does not happen by leaving the world. It happens in the middle of ordinary life, through thousands of small choices to respond with love where one used to respond with fear. As the choices accumulate, the person changes: first in outlook, then in feeling, and at last, the teachings say, in the very substance of the body.

The Ascended Masters are those who have completed this process. Their message is that it can be completed, that it is being offered to everyone now, and that no one makes the journey alone.

Personal and Planetary Ascension

The teachings speak of ascension on two scales. Personal ascension is the path of the individual soul, which has always been open. In every age a few people walked it to the end. Planetary ascension is something else: the lifting of an entire world, with all its kingdoms of life, into a higher state.

According to the Masters, the Earth entered a period of planetary ascension in the latter part of the twentieth century. Light is reaching the planet in greater measure than at any time in its recorded history, and the effect is to bring everything hidden to the surface, in individuals and in societies, so that it can be healed. This is why the present period feels at once so hopeful and so turbulent.

The two scales depend on each other. Each person who raises their own frequency makes it easier for everyone else. A world does not ascend by decree. It ascends one heart at a time.

From the Third Dimension to the Fifth

The shift is most often described as a movement from the third dimension to the fifth. These are not places. They are ways of experiencing the same world.

	Third-dimensional consciousness	Fifth-dimensional consciousness
Sense of self	I am separate, and I must protect myself.	I am a distinct part of one life.
Ruling emotion	Fear, in its many disguises	Love, as a steady state
Other people	Rivals, or means to an end	Fellow travelers
Time	A line. The past binds and the future threatens.	The present moment, in which all is available
How change is made	By effort and force	By alignment and intention
Source of guidance	Outer authority	The heart, and the Higher Self

Between the two lies the fourth dimension, a bridge. It is the realm of dreams, of emotion and of the unfinished past, and most of the difficult inner work of ascension is done there. The full map is given in Dimensions of Consciousness.

The Light Body

As consciousness rises, the teachings say that the body itself begins to change. Around and through the physical form there is a body of finer substance, sometimes called the etheric or electronic body. In most people it is dim and uneven. As fear is released and the flame in the heart expands, this finer body brightens and becomes organized, until it is able to carry the full awareness of the soul. This is the light body.

Its seed is the threefold flame: a spark of the Source that burns in the secret chamber of the heart, with a blue plume of will, a golden plume of wisdom and a pink plume of love. Every practice on this site is, in one way or another, a means of tending that flame.

In the complete ascension, at the end of a soul's final lifetime, the light body absorbs the physical altogether and the person is free. For most of us the work at hand is more modest and more immediate: to let a little more light in, today.

Five Stages of the Path

No two people ascend in the same way, and the path is not a ladder. Even so, most accounts describe a similar sequence, and it can be reassuring to know where one is.

1. The Call. Something interrupts the ordinary course of life: a loss, a meeting, a book, a question that will not go away. The old answers stop satisfying. This is the soul knocking.
2. The Clearing. Old grief, anger and fear rise to be felt and released. Relationships and habits that depended on the old self fall away. This stage can be long, and it is the one in which help is most needed.
3. The Opening of the Heart. Compassion arrives, first for others and then, with more difficulty, for oneself. Guidance becomes easier to hear. There are periods of great peace.
4. The Embodiment. Insight becomes character. The person does not merely know that love is the answer. They are, more and more reliably, loving. The light body begins to stabilize.
5. The Service. Attention turns outward. The question changes from how do I ascend to how may I help. The Masters say that at this point the person has, in every way that matters, joined them.

Who Helps Us

Three great companies of beings are especially concerned with the ascension of the Earth, and this library is devoted to them.

• The Archangels bring the pure power of the seven rays. They protect, heal, illumine and clear the way.
• The Ascended Masters have walked the human path to its end. They teach from experience and sponsor those who follow.
• The Venusian Council of Light comes from a world that has already made this passage. They hold the frequency of love and the pattern of a civilization at peace.

All three observe the law of free will. Their help is immense, and it must be asked for.

Common Misunderstandings

• That ascension means leaving. The purpose is to bring heaven into earthly life. The Masters did not escape the world. They finished their work in it.
• That it will happen on a certain date. No true teacher has set one. Ascension is a process, and each person moves through it at the pace of their own choices.
• That some people are chosen and others left behind. Every soul is destined to ascend. There are only those who are taking the step now and those who will take it later.
• That it requires giving up ordinary life. Family, work and friendship are the classroom. Very few are asked to leave them.
• That the higher you are, the less you feel. The reverse is true. Sensitivity and compassion increase.

Where to Begin

1. Give ten minutes a day to stillness. Any quiet sitting will do. Regularity matters more than method.
2. Ask for help by name. Choose one Archangel or Master and invite them into your day.
3. Use the violet flame. It is the simplest and most direct means of clearing what is heavy. See The Violet Flame.
4. Tend the heart. The Heart Temple Meditation takes fifteen minutes.
5. Be kind today. To one person, once, when it is not easy. This is the whole path in miniature.

Questions People Ask