Giving IT no respite, the Two pursued the Third wherever IT went — no place was safe from Them or beyond Their reach. They had taken many a face to cloud Its wits and to mirror Its wants. Each one charming IT to be in the image of Themselves. And thus the Third had been at times one of Them, at others its inverse — but never who IT was Itself.

Such a long time the chase had carried on, the Third had no recollection of Its name — although, buried deep in Its heart lay a doorway opening to THAT who was Its real Self.

Unbeknown to the Two, though, the chase was also changing Them — it wasn’t in Their nature to acknowledge who They were, Their lives spent on snaring all who came Their way.

And thus for aeons the chase went on, triumph after triumph over the Third the Two claiming to Themselves. Yet, such was the nature of the Third that with Its very presence in Space and Time nothing could remain the same.

And at last, cornered against the wall of Time, tired of the chase and with no strength left, the Third decided to confront the Two. Thus, taking a quick turn, IT did what IT hadn’t done before — IT looked at Them face to face!

Lo, all things came to a standstill — for the first time They saw each other in the light of day, and the Three looked all the same! — Who was who, none of the Three knew then!

And with this, for Them, Time and Space ceased to be. No more days, no more nights — the Three were now One… THE ONE — ready to start a new Song of Creation unlike the previous ones.

Commentary

This peculiar Stanza was left by the Ancient Teachers as a synthesis of the teaching They wanted to offer us with the "Stanzas of the Dawn". It contains several layers of symbolism, each requiring for its interpretation a different “altitude” in consciousness.

One layer of symbolism refers to the cosmological relation, and the interaction, of the Two Origins of our Universe (i.e. ‘the Impulse to Be’ and ‘the Impulse to not-Be’ ) with the Third Emanation (i.e. The Thinker ) — interaction which was already commented in Stanza X.

Another layer of symbolism refers to the journey of identity-discovery of Humans along Space and Time — commented in Stanza IX when referring to our triune nature as a ‘beast’ who becomes an Angel, plus a God, plus The One.

A third layer of symbolism refers to the process of ‘making of the beast an Angel’; in other words, making of the three aspects of our persona a ‘one’ — i.e. making of our mind, our feelings and our vital activity a one integrated whole that is fully controlled by one’s self.

Yet, there is still another and higher layer of symbolism that refers to something more profound in us, and that only a few teachings on the Perennial Wisdom address. Let’s comment on this other layer of symbolism, since it provides a synthesis of all the "Stanzas of the Dawn":

The central thread running along all the Stanzas is that we, Humans, are on a journey of identity-discovery — a journey through Space and Time, and a journey for which we have clothed ourselves in, and have surrounded ourselves with Diversity at every turn — all with the purpose of actualizing our essential nature as Torchbearers of Sacrificial Will and Compassion and as Dragons of Wisdom.

Yet Diversity isn’t just in our external experiences. It isn’t just about race, gender, cultural background, religious persuasion, economic wellbeing, education, evolutionary development, and so on. This Stanza XII reminds us that a more essential Diversity characterizes each of us in our very Self — a diversity in Identity, or in simpler terms, a diversity in our psychological nature.

We have already reviewed that each of us is a triune being who is sourced by an ESSENCE for which we have no conception at this point in our development. We reviewed that we are a ‘beast’ who becomes an Angel (a persona), plus a God (a Soul), plus The One (a Spirit) — and that these three are sourced by an eternal and infinite SOURCE or ESSENCE, The One Source of All.

This Stanza XII takes us further in understanding our journey of identity-discovery. It tells us that the form we clothe ourselves with at each of those three levels of our being is not us, but that those forms belong to Orders of Beings who are our companions on this journey and who give us temporary identities while we learn from and master the psychological characteristics of their natures.

For instance, we all can attest that our physical body has tendencies or instincts which easily take us in certain directions, at times overruling our will and common sense… that our desires and emotions do the same at their level, pulling us here and there into desire and emotional situations which can overwhelm us… and that our minds do the same, many times running without control and flooding us with thoughts that seem to have a life of their own and that don’t leave us alone.

This all happens because those three levels of our being aren’t us… because they are the natural psychological tendencies of Orders of Beings who provide for us a physical, a desire-feeling and a mental form while we learn to be our Selves… because, in their essence, those Orders of Beings are still identified with psychological tendencies natural to the Two Origins of the Universe.

However, and so the Stanza reminds us, this constitution of our forms is the result of a planned design. Through the forms those Orders of Beings provide to us, we experience states of identity and a psychological diversity which weren’t, at first, in our inner Essence. But we aren’t the only ones who are learning in this relationship. Those Orders of Beings are learning from us those levels of awareness which are already in us — and with this they develop a capacity to hear and see the greater Song of Creation of our Earth and Sol System so that They can, at some point, and like us, contribute fully to it.

The subject of these other Orders of Beings in our multi-dimensional form is vast and beyond this commentary, and there are other works on the Wisdom that deal with it in a certain depth.* Suffice is to say here that those Orders of Beings provide each of us with the opportunity to experience and learn a psychological diversity.

A very important point to emphasize here is that we can always be in control of that learning process — that our Self is “the Third” mentioned in the Stanza. Of course, as the Stanza also reminds us, taking back control of our journey is a process for which the many cycles of incarnations provide us with the opportunities to do so. It is truly a process of getting tired of identifying with those identities that aren’t ours, and of choosing to face them directly to arrest their power over us — it is this process that the Stanzas address when referring to ‘the beast becoming an Angel’.

But let’s not stop here in our interpretation of the symbolism of this Stanza XII and dare to face the fact that also at the Soul and at the Spirt level we are being provided with the experience of other states of identity and with a psychological diversity, at those levels, by other Orders of Beings.

For instance, on our journey, at a certain stage — when ‘the beast is becoming the Angel’ — we are attracted to and identify with ‘being religious’ or ‘being spiritual’, with aspirations to become a better person, with plans to make things better for others, with a drive ‘to be good’, etc. All these psychological tendencies which arise in us at some point on our journey, apparently out of nowhere, are also made possible in us by an Order of Beings Who in themselves are what we call by the vague name of “Soul” — in our sub-conscious we actually have the knowledge of this, and in various cultures this Order of Beings is called “Guardian Angels”, or by an analogous term.

Again, the Stanza reminds us that those stages of our journey during which one assumes ‘identities of Soul’ are just that, psychological stages from which we must distill their essence to incorporate them in our psychological diversity, and then leave the stages behind to enter into new ones.

And so after our experience with the ‘identities of Soul’ the journey keeps going at much more exalted levels — those levels we call by the vague term ‘Spirit’ — where we do the same: Assume ‘identities of Spirit’, distill their essence, incorporate them in our psychological diversity, and then leave those stages behind to emerge into a state of Pure Being where there is no need for more of those experiences.

In the Sixth Age that we are now entering, this theme of the journey of identity-discovery, and of the psychological avenues it takes us through, is going to take a central stage in our lives. Our Sciences, our approach to Religion and to Spirituality, our use of Art, our Philosophies and Social Organization, and our forms of decision-making and Government are all going to reflect, and be refined in ways that will foster that journey for all.

All those developments are in our future, near and far. However, the reason Stanza XII, and all the other "Stanzas of the Dawn", is given to us in the present moment of transition from one Age to another, is because the transformation of our identity from ‘fixed’ beings in Time and Space, limited by them — which is how we all currently feel about ourselves — into masters of our journeying has already begun. We are tired of ‘the chase’ and about to turn around to face those identities that aren’t ours.

The "Stanzas of the Dawn", left by the Ancient Teachers and kept alight by all the many Teachers throughout the Ages, thus, illuminate for us the way we are now traveling as Humans on Earth — at this very critical moment. They are telling us that we are on a journey which is about identity-discovery… that this journey is about experiencing Diversity… that Diversity is a learning immersion to actualize our Love nature… that this Diversity isn’t just about external factors, but that our very timeless and non-spatial Self is becoming the sum total of the identities of many Orders of Beings. And all of this because we have a destiny, a destiny which the nascent Sixth Age is starting to reveal and clarify for us — and that will do so with increasing clarity as we acknowledge that we are One Humanity and One Planet, and as we act and live in that acknowledgement.

Torchbearers of Sacrificial Will and Compassion, plus Dragons of Wisdom — this is who we are… this is what the decades and centuries to come will reveal of us… this is the promise at THE DAWN OF THE AGE OF THE MAGICIANS.

* More on this subject is found in the books by Alice A. Bailey, published by the Lucis Trust Foundation.