Printed in the Winter 2023 issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: Keast, Teresa, "The Spiritual Awakening of the Third Eye" Quest 111:1, pg 31-35
By Teresa Keast
I would like to explore what awakening the third eye means and how and when this occurs, with a view to understanding where our spiritual evolution is potentially taking us both individually and collectively as this psychic center opens.
In ancient Egypt, the third eye was known as the seat of the spirit or soul and used as a route to higher awareness and consciousness. Buddhists relate it to spiritual awakening, and Hindus to intuition and clairvoyance. The third eye is associated with the Eye of Horus, the Eye of Shiva, the straight poised snake of the caduceus, and the horn of the unicorn. It is the “eye” referred to in Matthew 6:22: “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” It is an organ of true vision, which opens in direct response to the individual’s spiritual development.
But first let us explore this world of the two eyes, the material world we call “reality.” We know from Ancient Wisdom teachings and the scientific conclusions of Einstein and his cohorts that we will only really understand the world when we understand that all is energy and vibration.
We know esoterically that what appears real and solid, existing in time and space in our sensory world, is simply energy vibrating at a low frequency. We see, hear, feel, and interact through our senses in this phenomenal world and believe it is real; many believe it is all there is. But our true nature exists in other dimensions.
When we close our eyes and go deep into meditation, this phenomenal world disappears and we contact a peace and stillness, an essence that we call our soul. It is multidimensional, existing in realms in which there is no time and space, at a vibrational frequency beyond the perception of our senses. In occultism we call this the noumenal world. We cannot see or seek the soul with our normal vision, but with our inner vision, we can know and experience its existence on higher planes.
Quantum physics confirms that 99.9 percent of solid matter is made up of empty space, within which the atoms and subatomic particles behave as vortices of energy in constant motion. With closer analysis, these behave with the characteristics of wave energy, only collapsing into particles of solid matter when viewed by the consciousness of the observer. From this, we can conclude that the material world only exists when we observe it.
Esoterically, our noumenal soul works in the material world through a phenomenal body of matter. Again, science tells us that the dense physical form that we see before us is an illusion due to the reaction of the eye to light and our brain’s interpretation of this electrical impulse. What we see is determined by our mind’s interpretation of the energy that entered our eye. We can only see that to which we can attach meaning and understanding. An example of this is the inability of most people to see and experience the fairy kingdom or the energy interplay between living beings.
The truth is we are energy beings, light beings, and our true form is our etheric energy body rather than our dense physical body. We are in essence the spark of the divine, the light of the central sun, that is within us all. In this way we come to realize and understand that we are in the world but not of it.
A further example comes from the Theosophical understanding that our brain is simply a transmitter or receiving station for the impulses emanating from our mind, which exists only on the mental plane. This is why science still cannot find intelligence, memory, instincts, or thoughts in the brain.
Our physical bodies are not solid but composed of vibrating energy; our mind is not of this world and exists only on the mental plane; and likewise our emotions exist only as vibrations in our astral body. We can conclude that our entire personality vehicle and the material world in which it operates are illusions.
But we are in this phenomenal world of low-frequency vibrational energies in order to realize who we are in truth. We are in manifestation to embody the higher vibrational energy of the noumenal world and bring it down into the material world, to spiritualize matter. The key to navigating this material world is to accept that it is an illusion while acknowledging that we are here to heal, transmute, and lose our attachment to it and realize our God Self, our light Self—our true identity.
Etheric vision, the power to see the energy substance of all things, is true vision, just as our etheric energy body is our true body. But until more individuals grow spiritually and our race evolves to the point where all people can see etherically, our eyes will see and respond to the lower vibrations of physical matter only, and we will believe that this is the true reality.
H.P. Blavatsky described this understanding in The Secret Doctrine:
Māyā or illusion is an element which enters into all finite things, for everything that exists has only a relative, not an absolute reality, since the appearance which the hidden noumenon assumes for any observer depends upon his power of cognition . . .
Nothing is permanent except the one hidden absolute existence which contains in itself the noumena of all realities. The existences belonging to every plane of being, up to the highest Dhyāni-Chohans are, in degree, of the nature of shadows cast by a magic lantern on a colorless screen; but all things are relatively real, for the cognizer is also a reflection, and the things cognized are therefore as real to him as himself. Whatever reality things possess must be looked for in them before or after they have passed like a flash through the material world; but we cannot cognize any such existence directly, so long as we have sense-instruments which bring only material existence into the field of our consciousness. Whatever plane our consciousness may be acting in, both we and the things belonging to that plane are, for the time being, our only realities. As we rise in the scale of development we perceive that during the stages through which we have passed, we mistook shadows for realities, and the upward progress of the Ego is a series of progressive awakenings, each advance bringing with it the idea that now, at last, we have reached “reality”; but only when we shall have reached the absolute Consciousness, and blended our own with it, shall we be free from the delusions produced by Māyā . . .
The impalpable atoms of gold scattered through the substance of a ton of auriferous quartz may be imperceptible to the naked eye of the miner, yet he knows that they are not only present there but that they alone give his quartz any appreciable value; and this relation of the gold to the quartz may faintly shadow forth that of the noumenon to the phenomenon. But the miner knows what the gold will look like when extracted from the quartz, whereas the common mortal can form no conception of the reality of things separated from the Māyā which veils them, and in which they are hidden. Alone the Initiate, rich with the lore acquired by numberless generations of his predecessors, directs the “Eye of Dangma” toward the essence of things in which no Māyā can have any influence. (Secret Doctrine, 1:39‒40, 45)
Now that we understand that the opening of the third eye is paramount to true spiritual awakening and a realization of our true nature, let’s understand more about this organ of true vision.
Physically, the third eye involves the pineal gland, the pituitary gland, and the carotid glands. All must be functioning together to achieve this higher vision.
Imagine these are the three batteries of the flashlight that enables someone to see the truth. These batteries are charged by chakras: vortices of etheric energy contained within our etheric body that interact with the physical body through the glands.
The pineal gland responds to light and influences hundreds of hormonal reactions in our body that govern many of its natural rhythms and functions. This gland developed millions of years ago, before the development of our intelligent, reasoning frontal cortex and our two eyes. This was the eye of the Cyclops, the giants in Lemurian times. Science suggests it is a remnant of an organ left over from the days of amphibians and reptiles. In normal children, it develops until the age of seven years and then withers away to atrophy by adolescence, with only its physical functions remaining.
Blavatsky suggests the third eye is stored for use in eons to come and in time will reemerge as an organ of higher vision capable of supersensory powers. But first the intellect of humanity has to unfold until such a time as it is no longer the dominant guiding power and the inner vision or intuition from the higher planes of buddhi is reawakened. The intellect must be experienced before it can be transcended.
The third eye is not an etheric chakra but is related to the ajna, crown, and alta major chakra centers. The alta major is the alter ego of the evolved throat chakra. It is not an endocrine gland but relates to the pineal, pituitary, and carotid glands. It is an etheric organ with a pure lens that emerges with the spiritual growth of the integrated personality. It develops from the interplay and radiation of these three centers, allowing this vortex of energy to attract the energies of atma, buddhi, and higher manas to form a great lens of psychic function. Each of the chakras is a battery; all must be present and fully charged so the light of the third eye can be switched on.
The electrical energy for these batteries flows from the causal body, the vehicle of consciousness that houses the soul.
In the average human, these energies hardly gain access to the personality, but in the spiritual man they gain access to the etheric body through the antahkarana. But it is only in integrated and coordinated personalities, tested by initiation, that a stable, open antahkarana presides and can channel ever-increasing energies of the soul into the chakras. Through this process of energizing, the third eye becomes an instrument of the will of the soul or Higher Self attuned to the will of God: “Let my will be thy Will.”
These three head centers converge to form a triangle of amazing potency, powerfully blending the three main energies of the three major rays of Will and Power, Love-Wisdom, and Active Intelligence. This latent power of the three rays becomes manifest as a blazing light that enables the soul-infused personality to direct and synthesize these triple energies, and perform powerful work in service to mankind. As Alice Bailey observes:
One of the fundamental rules back of all magical processes is that no man is a magician or worker in white magic until the third eye is opened, or in the process of opening, for it is by means of that eye that the thought-form is energised, directed and controlled and the lesser builders or forces are swept into any particular line of activity. (Bailey, 1008)
When the third eye is opened, the disciple can become clairvoyant: able to know information about an object, person, or situation through extrasensory perception. They may be clairsentient—“clear feeling”—able to pick up on extrasensory knowledge via nontangible feelings, or perhaps clairaudient: hearing that which is usually inaudible. There develops an ability to “know” that does not come from any prior knowledge in the world. Other capacities include seeing etherically, recognizing disease states and major issues in the lives of others, and accessing past lives and the Akashic Records. The individual is also able to live intuitively, to be in touch with causes rather than effects, to be aware of dimensions and energies of which most people have no awareness, to connect with others telepathically, and to work powerfully with group consciousness. Latent powers become available that enable one to understand and use energy for healing, manifesting thought forms, and interacting with life spiritually.
Be aware that the opening of the third eye sensitizes the individual such that living, being, and relating in the material world can become difficult, creating a need to regularly retreat to keep the vibrational energy high and attuned to the world of the soul. On a deeper level, the disciple may become acutely aware that they are in the world but not of it.
The third eye will open naturally with personality integration and coordination and a commitment to living, not just studying, knowledge of a spiritual life. In this way, the developing attributes and capacities will naturally be used in service for the greater good, as the disciple becomes increasingly aware of their particular part in the conscious evolution of mankind. Usually integration is followed by a soul quickening and rapid development.
There is considerable caution surrounding techniques that attempt to open the third eye before there is sufficient soul contact or personality integration, as serious mental and physical health effects can result. For example, when opened through drugs or other hallucinogenic substances, it can cause irreparable damage to the brain, burn out the nervous system, or overstimulate certain chakras that are not ready for the resulting energies. Moreover, the new capacities may not be used for the greatest good of humanity.
The clairvoyance of an opened third eye is not to be confused with psychism, which is an ability to read the astral plane or astral body of an individual. The psychic realm is only one level above the physical realm and interpenetrates it to a large extent. Many mediums and psychically sensitive people are able to access this realm. In doing so, one immediately opens up to the deception, delusion, and confusion that abound in a vibrational frequency that includes every thought, word, emotion, imagination, experience, and act of humankind, past and present. Mme. Blavatsky described the psychic realm as “the great deceiver” and emphasized that psychic vision can never penetrate beyond the astral plane.
Now let us consider the implications as more aspirants and disciples are moving toward increasing soul contact, personality integration, and potentially opening their third eye of true vision.
At present, the majority of people in the world remain polarized in the chakras below the diaphragm, treading the path of experience and involution, with minimal soul contact. At the same time, I believe that recent worldwide events may have accelerated the numbers of people who are waking up and taking the first initiation. As they become increasingly disillusioned with the phenomenal world and are drawn to seek answers inwardly, they may be inclined to take steps toward soul contact and the subsequent challenges of personality integration.
Increasing numbers in the world today are opening the heart and throat centers and approaching the second initiation with a commitment to their soul path. There is a growing understanding of the need to move congested energies from the solar plexus chakra to the heart with the corresponding inpouring of the Christ consciousness, which enables the transmutation of the lower desire nature to heartfelt altruistic service. For example, when latent anger releases and forgiveness arises, or fear is transformed to courage, as attachment to the material world is replaced by gratitude for its blessings, and whenever there is a shift from individual to group consciousness. Through study, meditation, and living a spiritual life, guided intuitively from within, the heart energy flows up to the ajna chakra to vivify and enliven the third eye center.
As many turn from attachment to the material world of form and realize their calling of service to mankind, we see increasing numbers living their highest ideals, recognizing the link between thoughts and the agitation of the mind and body, and having the courage to express truth as they understand it, enabling the throat center to open and the energies rise to the alta major center. As the personality begins the process of reorganization and realignment, the individual walks their talk and becomes a person of honor, loyalty, and integrity.
With the increased prevalence of visualization, meditation, and mindfulness practices, many are moving toward opening the crown chakra, with a growing awareness of the oneness that connects us all and lies behind all of existence. We see this as people come to understand energy and energy exchanges between all living beings in health and healing. Words that describe this increasing unity consciousness are increasingly commonplace in pop songs and business mission statements and among groups working with awareness and a global perspective.
Like the symbol of the caduceus, the energies move between chakras via the alternating ida and pingala nadi channels, eventually opening the flow through the central sushumna channel. Consequently, the spiritual forces of fire rise to enlighten the whole being. We witness increasing awareness of qi gong, tai chi, yoga, and breathing practices, which open and enliven the flow of etheric energy. Many have come to recognize this as imperative to physical, emotional, and mental well-being.
We will see increasing numbers of people making soul contact and expressing the qualities of the soul in their everyday interactions, so that right relations within themselves and with others becomes possible and increasingly prevalent.
We will see an increased expression of the qualities of atma, buddhi, and higher manas in the manifest world. Atma, characterized by a connection with universal wisdom, enables enhanced mental power and a soul directed will to act in congruence with this alignment. Buddhi and the opening of the higher heart qualities of forgiveness, acceptance, understanding, kindness, compassion, impeccability, and unconditional love will arise as the qualities of Love-Wisdom are expressed through the astral body. The active intelligence of higher manas will pour down into concrete, analytical lower minds, allowing wisdom to replace knowledge and lifting the mind to the true mental understanding of the Higher Self.
There are many practices, including breathing and meditation techniques, to augment the development of the third eye. Rather than pursuing these techniques, I would suggest that those who are spiritually inclined focus on personality integration and coordination until they have reached the required level of soul contact. In teaching yoga and meditation, I have found that the qualities you need will come to you naturally as part of an intuitive soul journey.
As increasing numbers develop the organ of spiritual perception, the evolution of human consciousness will accelerate. This will lift the vibrational energy of the masses, enacting profound positive change in all areas of life, from education to politics to care for our beloved planet. We will see profound changes in how we live and interact with each other. We will also see the development of right relations in all aspects of human living and endeavor. Some of the ideals that will manifest include telepathic communication, living in cooperation and true community, evolved leaders, education that includes Ancient Wisdom teachings, and a true commitment to living in harmony with our planet and all living creatures who share her with us.
When any one individual raises their consciousness, this raises the consciousness of all. From the excellent work of David Hawkins in his book Power versus Force, we know that just one individual resonating at frequencies of love, peace, and compassion can raise the vibration of millions who are mired in lower, darker energies and manifestations of fear. A mere 15 percent of the population can counterbalance the negativity of 85 percent of humanity and save mankind from self-destruction.
The opening of the third eye has implications for rapid advances in psychological healing of trauma and conflict resolution that so mires human relations. Awakened healers can bridge the conscious and unconscious mind and be aware of past lives and their influences and the effects of karma. This too will accelerate growth and reorient personalities toward their soul path.
There opens the potential for the development of direct manifestation of thought: ideas that advanced initiates can clothe in physical and etheric energy and bring into being. If used for the greater good, this could solve our economic, energy, and resource challenges.
As more individuals open the third eye to live an intuitive soul-guided life, we will see greater communication with the deva realm, conscious working with the elemental builders, and an increased awareness of the multitude of different dimensions. There opens the potential for greater contact with beings of higher vibrational energies in solar systems beyond ours.
The changes in vibrational frequency that result when the third eye opens will enact physical changes in the DNA of mankind (as is predicted for the Sixth Root Race), resulting in bodies that are physically stronger and more disease-resistant—a “super race” of humans. This opening will revolutionize our understanding of health, prana, disease, and the methods of rebalancing the body and allowing its natural healing process to work. Psychic surgery, for example, will replace physical surgery.
We need to remember that the spiritual awakening of the third eye enables one to play a powerful part in the planetary evolution of consciousness. It is never simply for the sole benefit of the individual, but also acts as a compass to help and guide others to heal, grow, and transform.
The key to awakening is to live your spiritual understanding every day. Regular practice of meditation and mindfulness empower the crucial development of your intuition and discrimination. Transmuting the unredeemed aspects of your astral desire nature enable the rise of the necessary energies to the higher centers. The choice to live harmlessly and foster right thought, intention, and action will nurture the expression of the soul qualities of truth, beauty, and goodness in the way you live your life and give in service to the world. The spiritual awakening of your third eye will be a natural consequence of living from such intentions.
Sources
Bailey, Alice A. A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. New York: Lucis, 1925.
Blavatsky, H.P. The Secret Doctrine, Volume 1: Cosmogenesis. Wheaton: Quest, 1993.
Teresa Keast is a longtime student of the Ancient Wisdom teachings. She lives in Chester, U.K., working as a yoga and meditation teacher and as a speaker and writer for the Theosophical Society UK. To connect with more of her work, go to her website, www.teresa4yoga.co.uk, or her Youtube channel, where a talk on the subject of this article is available.