(---6 chart a journey into the unknown, a map is required. Yet the most unknown of journeys is what we call life. And where is our map? Did the planning genius, the Creator, desert us in this, our greatest need? I ndeed not!
Though no one can be certain what might occur next in our lives, there is a "map" by which we can gain remarkable insight so long as our vehicle (the body) maintains its ability to take us there. I t is true that no one can be certain exactly what might occur in their lives tomorrow, or during the remainder of today for that matter. Most of us have varying types of plans or desires, but not until the moment is with us or has passed can we be certain of what occurred. Even then, many people remain uncertain during or after the event, so unaware are they of what's transpiring in their lives.
This "map" of our journey is in three consecutive segments. I t starts with our birth and is based on that only permanent aspect of our lives, our date of birth, the day on which we started our journey of individuality. However, unlike all other maps, this one has the unique quality of offering no final page. I t just keeps expanding so long as we are prepared to keep progressing.
These three segments are known as adolescence, maturity and fulfilment. And provided that no karmic or environmental influences decree otherwise, our life will successfully encompass all three phases.
The initial phase, adolescence, starts at birth and prevails through the many changes in bodily development that take it to physical maturity. At a predetermined age, it gives way to the start of the second phase maturity. This period of adolescence witnesses the ongoing development of our physical body, assuming that karmic and environmental factors do not create a fatal change.
To students of metaphysics, it is no secret that certain external factors can be instrumental in
terminating life during its early years, prior to reaching maturity. I f this be the plan, the purpose for
that life is comparatively simple and fulfilled early. Fortunately, such a destiny has always been in the minority and is becoming even more rare. With average life expectancy now around its highest in the history of humanity, we can more comfortably look to our life developing well into its third phase.
During the phase of adolescence, human lives are primarily concerned with physical experience.
Even though their Personal Growth Cycles indicate varying degrees of influence of a spiritual or mental nature in certain years, the overriding emphasis is essentially physical. I t is through the five physical senses that juveniles become attuned to life, are disciplined, recognise their relationship to and respect for their parents and the environment, attend school, and gain some measure of insight into an understanding of their individuality. Throughout their school years, young humans become heavily focused on the physical aspects of life - their own bodies and the bodies of others. The deceleration of physical growth in the latter teenage years is usually succeeded by accelerated mental and emotional activity. This is a period of many hurts and many triumphs, but it brings people to the threshold of real maturity when the physical playground is not longer the sole centre of attraction.
As they develop better self-possession of their emotions, and their mind starts to significantly
expand its awareness, the person is found to be moving from adolescence to maturity, from the first to the second phase of their life. This transition occurs at the age at which they reach the first peak Pyramid, as discussed in the next chapter. Chronologically, this will be shown to be as young as twenty-five, or as old as thirty-four. I ts duration of the second phase is of twenty-seven years, three cycles each of the nine Personal Years.
Essentially a period of mental activity, the development of this second phase of human life is
directed toward personal emotional control, the understanding of life, attaining financial security and the development of the family unit. Strong cyclic influences of varying physical and spiritual activity will continue to prevail during this phase, with the physical gradually losing its dominance while the spiritual gradually intensifies. Career development and financial independence are more easily achieved during this phase than any other, with myriad opportunities being presented as we pass through the diverse cycles of the Pyramids.
Maturity is a vital phase in the discovery of one's inner self, for the degree of success we achieve during these twenty-seven years of stability will be instrumental in preparing us for the development of our third phase of life, our years of fulfilment.
From the year on which we reach the fourth peak of our Pyramids, our emphasis in growth takes on
the primary focus of the spiritual. From financial independence, we graduate to the development of spiritual independence and the acquiring of wisdom far more profound than anything we have previously known. Any major changes in our financial or professional world should have been
undertaken during the years of maturity, for rarely do radical changes transpire with success during the years of fulfilment. Modifications to our lifestyle can always be undertaken with wisdom, but if a radical change is contemplated in this third phase of life, extreme care must be taken.
Discovering the inner self takes on a whole new depth of meaning as we enter the astonishing world of spiritual awareness that awaits the mature person. I ntuition, compassion, emotional expression, wisdom and a closer affinity with the "Creator" take on a degree of increasing development that knows no cessation so long as we seek to continue growing. And this is the crucial point!
Most people have an unconscious inner program about dying: they believe they will do so before they reach a three-figure age. Few people in middle life or younger seem able to contemplate living beyond 100 years of age. Even fewer older people are prepared to mentally make such a
commitment. Just where this fallacious concept arose will be examined and negated in Chapter 16.
We stay in the fulfilment phase until we finally depart from the body.
That this third phase of life should be our most rewarding is beyond question. After growing,
training, investing and developing for over half a century, surely we deserve the reward of peaceful, joyous development of the inner self as awaits us for as long as we want to partake of it? And the most exciting aspect of all is that we actually have the choice. This is our real independence, the ultimate discovery of the inner self.