(RI 349) I would point out also that even the black magician possesses these qualities, for they are the sine qua non of all magical art, both black and white; the black magician passes through the door of initiation as it opens twice for the first two initiations. He passes through on the strength of his will and his character accomplishments and because the group-conscious aspect of the soul is active in him as in his brother seeking affiliation with the Great White Lodge. The love aspect is, however, lacking in the black magician. Forget not that all is energy and there is nothing else. The energy which [Page 349] is an aspect of the soul and which we call magnetic attraction (the group-building quality) he shares with the spiritual aspirant. He is essentially group conscious, and though his motives are separative, his methods are those of the group, and these he can get only from the soul.

You see again another reason why the first and second initiations are not regarded by the Lodge of Masters as major initiations. Only the third is so regarded, because at that initiation the entire personality life is flooded with energy coming from the Spiritual Triad, via the "sacrifice petals" of the will and purpose aspect of the soul. To this type of energy the black magician is not responsive. He can and does respond to the knowledge—most ancient and hardly won—stored up in the "knowledge petals" of the souls he can appropriate and utilise the energy of attraction (erroneously called love by some students) stored up in the "love petals" of the soul, but he cannot respond to and use the energy of divine love, working out in the divine Plan which controls all knowledge and converts it into wisdom, and which actuates and clarifies the motive which brings loving magnetic attraction into action and which we call true group consciousness and group cohesion. It is at this point that the two ways—of darkness and of light—become widely divergent. Until the third initiation is taken, glamour may condition the attitude of those seeking to understand the life of a man upon the Path, and they may mistake the spurious for the real. The black magician leads a disciplined life, analogous to that of the spiritual aspirant; he practices purity for his own safeguarding and not in order that he may become a channel for the energy of light; he works with power (the power of magnetic attraction) with and in groups, but he does this for his own selfish ends and for the fulfillment of his own ambitious purposes. But at the third initiation there comes to the true spiritual initiate the revelation which is the reward of perseverance and purity rightly motivated—the revelation of the divine purpose, as the soul records it in terms of the hierarchical plan, though not yet in terms of the Monad. To this purpose and [Page 350] to the loving Will of God (to use a trite Christian phrase) the black brother cannot respond; his aims are different. You have here the true meaning of the oft-used and misunderstood phrase, "the parting of the ways."

(RI 600) During the initiatory process between the second and the third initiations, the initiate has to battle with illusion in exactly the same sense as he earlier had to battle with glamour. Illusion is, in the last analysis, the control of the mental processes by great and massive thoughtforms; this conflict persists from the moment that the disciple has achieved mental polarisation (at a midway point between the second and third initiations) until he stands before the Initiator at the Sixth initiation of Decision

(RI 350) But both groups of aspirants (the black and the white) stand before the door of initiation and take the needed steps to open it on two similar occasions. Both overcome glamour after the second initiation, and see their way clearly ahead; but their goals emerge as widely different; one treads the broad way which leads ever deeper into matter and materialism, into darkness and "black power"; the other leads to the straight and narrow way, to the razor-edged path which leads into light and life. One group has never freed itself from the principles which governed the first solar system. They were principles entirely related to matter and substance, and were at that time and in that period (so remote that the number of years of distance can be stated only in super-astronomical figures) the conditioning factors for the initiation of the time. Certain units of humanity—then existent—were so completely conditioned by these material principles and so deliberately unready for moving on to the comprehension of another set of principles (more expressive of the divine nature) that they remained of "fixed and selfish material purpose" and a planned distortion of the divine will was intelligently created by them. You have here a hint as to the nature of evil and a clue to a part (though only a part) of the mystery to be noted in the statement that evil and good are reverse aspects of the same one reality, and evil is that good which we should have left behind, passing on to greater and more inclusive good. Forget not that the black magicians of today were the initiates of a previous solar system. When the door of initiation is ready to open for the third time, the parting of the ways takes place. Some follow selfish intention and the fixed determination to remain with the separative condition of matter; and to others, the divine will is clearly impressed upon them and becomes the motivating power in their lives. It was under instructions from the Great White Lodge on Sirius that the door remains [Page 351] closed the

third time to the dark brothers. Evil, as we understand it, has absolutely no place on Sirius.

To the black magician, at this third opportunity, the door of initiation presents an insuperable barrier and obstacle; to the true spiritual neophyte, the door connotes "overcoming." We shall not consider further the approach of the black brothers to that door, but shall confine ourselves to a consideration of the initiations of the Great White Lodge.

(EOH 688) Again, the Members of the Hierarchy are not only sensitive to impression from the two other planetary centres (Shamballa and Humanity), but They are acutely aware of the Forces of Evil which are fighting furiously against the externalisation of the spiritual work. The energy which cosmic evil generates is active along three main channels:

1. From the centre of cosmic evil upon the cosmic astral plane. Of this centre you can know nothing, and its emanations and its magnetic aura can only be understood and recognised or interpreted by the senior Masters and by initiates of still higher rank. As the potency of the astral plane (which is so familiar to us all) weakens, and glamour and illusion are negated by a rapid spiritualising of humanity, the power of cosmic evil will correspondingly weaken and the Forces of Evil will be unable to reach the planet with their present easy effort. It is against the impact of this emanating evil that the Hierarchy stands in protection of humanity. Hitherto it has been the task of Shamballa, working through the Hierarchy, to protect humanity from the "intention to destroy" of the cosmic Forces of Evil, but—in the coming cycle and as a result of the triumph of the Forces of Light in the world war—the potency of Shamballa can be combined with that of the "protecting Agents of Light."

2. From the Black Lodge which is the externalisation of the centre of cosmic evil on Earth. Just as the White Lodge is the representative or correspondence of the cosmic centre of light upon Sirius (the true Great White Lodge), so the Black Lodge is also representative of ancient and cosmic evil. The Black Lodge is also far more advanced in externalisation than is the White Lodge, because materialism and matter are, [Page 689] for it, the line of least resistance. The Black Lodge is therefore far more firmly anchored upon the physical plane than is the Hierarchy. It requires a much greater effort for the White Lodge to "clothe itself in matter and work and walk on material levels" than for the Black Lodge. Owing, however, to the spiritual growth of mankind and to the steady, even if slow, orientation of mankind to the spiritual Hierarchy, the time has come when the Hierarchy can materialise and meet the enemy of good upon an even footing; the Hierarchy need not be further handicapped by working in substance whilst the Forces of Evil work both in substance and in matter. Once the reappearance of the Christ and of the Hierarchy is an accomplished fact, these Forces of Evil face sure defeat. The reason for this is that the trend of human living and thought is turning steadily towards the subjective spiritual values, even if these values are interpreted in terms of material well-being at present and of better living conditions for all—with peace and security also for all. The Black Lodge or the planetary centre of evil works almost entirely upon the astral plane, and is impressed directly and guided in detail from the cosmic astral plane.

In summing up, I would say that the present reorientation of the Hierarchy, in relation both to Shamballa and to [Page 690] Humanity, ushers in the cycle of complete defeat of cosmic evil upon our planet, leaving only an isolated and weakened Black Lodge to die a slow death; this permits the purification of human desire to such an extent that "matter will be redeemed by the sacrificial will of Those Who know, by the will-to-good of Those Who are, and by the goodwill of those sons of men who have turned their faces to the light and who in turn reflect that light."

Black Lodge do not know purpose of SK

(RI 717) We have spoken much of the purpose of the planetary Logos. When I use the word "purpose" I am indicating the [Page 717] answer to the question: Why did the planetary Logos create this world and start the evolutionary, creative process? Only one answer has as yet been permitted to be given. Sanat Kumara has created this planet and all that moves and lives therein in order to bring about a planetary synthesis and an integrated system whereby a tremendous solar revelation can be seen. Having said that, we have not really penetrated any distance into the meaning of the divine purpose; we have only indicated the method whereby it is being attained, but the true objective remains still an obscure mystery—guarded rigidly in the Council Chamber of Sanat Kumara. It is this mystery and this divine planetary "secret" which is the goal of all the work being done by the Black Lodge. They are not yet sure of the purpose, and all their efforts are directed to the discovery of the nature of the mystery. Hence the hierarchical problem.

(RI 696) I have hinted earlier to you that this fourth or Renunciation Initiation is closely linked with the sixth initiation and with the ninth. The sixth initiation is only possible when the initiate has definitely made the needed renunciations; the reward is that he is then permitted to make a [Page 696] perfectly free choice and thus demonstrate his essential and gained freedom. The ninth initiation (that of the Refusal) has in it no element of renunciation. It is not a refusal to hold, for the initiate is at the point where he asks and holds nothing for the separated self. At that final planetary initiation the Master is brought face to face with what might be called cosmic evil, with that reservoir of evil which cyclically overflows the world, and also with the massed group of masters of the Black Lodge. He refuses recognition. This I will deal with later when we take up that particular initiation.

(RI 716) 2. It will be apparent to you, therefore, that this energy is the agent for the revelation of the divine purpose. It may surprise you that this is regarded as presenting a problem to the Hierarchy, but if this power—impersonal and potent—should fall into the hands of the Black Lodge, the results would be disastrous indeed. Most of the members of this centre of cosmic evil are upon the first ray itself, and some of the divine purpose is known to a few of them, for—in their due place and in the initiatory regime—they too are initiates of high degree, but dedicated to selfishness and separativeness. Their particular form of selfishness is far worse than anything which you can imagine, because they are completely detached and divorced from all contact with the energy to which we give the name of love. They have cut themselves off from the spiritual Hierarchy, through Whom the love of the planetary Logos reaches the forms in the three worlds and all that is contained therein. These evil but powerful beings know well the uses of the will, but only in its destructive aspect. (the destructive (a very relative term) aspect of the will works through Pluto)

(RI 202) This knowledge constitutes the first step towards the comprehension of the secret of negation, towards a true understanding of the basis of the ever-existent pairs of opposites, and towards the knowledge which lies behind the significance of negation. The above sentence is in all probability of little meaning to you, but it nevertheless contains a truth for which the trials, experiences and initiations of planetary existence prepare the initiate. They endow him with those qualities which will enable him to contact cosmic evil and yet remain untouched, eventually to play his part in bringing the Black Lodge and its Brotherhood to an unholy finish. The roots of the Black Lodge are on the cosmic astral plane, as the roots of the White Lodge and its Brotherhood are on the cosmic mental plane; this is, in reality, only for the time being and in order to see certain organised activities upon the star Sirius perfected and carried to a consummation. This has oft been hinted in my writings.

(RI 554) 2. This process received its initial impulse as a result of a group decision within the Hierarchy itself. Certain Masters Who were facing the sixth Initiation of Decision at the time—a relatively small but powerful group—decided together to tread the Path of Earth Service (technically understood) in order to bring about the changes which They sensed as desirable and as already existing within the consciousness of the One Initiator, the planetary Logos. It was Their decision, taken early in this century, which precipitated—in the centre which we call "the race of men"—those potencies and stimulating energies which produced that major destructive agency, the world war (1914-1945). As these energies occultly "fell into the centre," the effect produced was both good and bad. Human unity and unanimity, human planning for group welfare, and human [Page 554] creativity (expressed primarily at this time through science) received a tremendous stimulation. Simultaneously, the entering potencies released by this decision produced an up-surging of evil in the hearts of men so inclined, leading to an analogous or paralleling unity, unanimity and creative activity of separative and hateful evil. This, in its turn, "opened the door where evil dwelt" and let loose on earth the full fury of the Black Lodge.

(RI 232) Incidentally, it is this Aquarian influence which has given the adepts of the Black Lodge the power to bring universal death throughout the world. These evil beings have responded to the will energy of Shamballa and to the life-giving vitality, but have used it in keeping with their own evil intentions and with the power conferred by their standing upon the cosmic ladder of evil. Hence the war. I only mention this as a striking example of the oft misunderstood fact that the same energy or identical force will produce results within the consciousness of a Christ or within the consciousness of anti-Christ. It is the same energy, but the forms upon which it plays differ so vastly that in one case the will-to-good is intensified, and in the others the will-to-evil. Energy per se is entirely impersonal.

(CF 986) a. Black Magicians and White. Much is said among occult students these days anent white and black magic, and much that is said is without force, or truth. It has [Page 985] been truly said that between the two types of workers, the line of demarcation is so slight as to be difficult of recognition by those who, as yet, merit not the term "knower."

The distinction between the two exists in both motive and method, and might be summed up as follows:

The white magician has for motive that which will be of benefit to the group for whom he is expending his energy and time. The magician of the left hand path ever works alone, or if he at any time co-operates with others, it is with a hidden selfish purpose. The exponent of white magic interests himself in the work of constructive endeavour in order to co-operate in hierarchical plans, and to further the desires of the planetary Logos. The Brother of Darkness occupies himself with that which lies outside the plans of the Hierarchy and with that which is not included in the purpose of the Lord of the planetary Ray.

The white magician, as has been earlier said, works entirely through the greater Deva Builders, and through sound and numbers he blends their work, and thus influences the lesser Builders who form the substance of their bodies, and therefore of all that is. He works [Page 986] through group centres and vital points of energy, and from thence produces, in substance, the desired results. The dark brother works directly with substance itself, and with the lesser builders; He does not co-operate with the forces which emanate from egoic levels. The lesser cohorts of the "Army of the Voice" are his servants, and not the directing Intelligences in the three worlds, and he therefore works primarily on the astral and physical planes, (CF 986) only in rare cases working with the mental forces, and only in a few special cases, hidden in cosmic karma, is a black magician found working on the higher mental levels. Yet the cases which are there to be discovered are the main contributing causes of all manifesting black magic.

Cosmic karma suggests again a relationship to those from the last solar system, hint, hint

The Brother of Light works ever through the inherent force of the second aspect as long as he is functioning in connection with the three lower planes. After the third Initiation, he works increasingly with spiritual energy, or with the force of the first aspect. He impresses the lower substances, and manipulates the lesser building lives with the vibration of love, and the attractive coherency of the Son, and through wisdom the forms are built. He learns to work from the heart, and therefore to manipulate that energy which streams from the "Heart of the Sun" until (when he becomes a Buddha) he can dispense somewhat the force emanating from the "Spiritual Sun." Therefore, the heart centre in the Brother of the right hand path is the transmitting agency for the building force, and the triangle he uses in this work is

a. The centre in the head which corresponds to the heart.

b. The heart centre itself.

c. The throat centre.

The Brothers of the left hand path work with the forces of the third aspect entirely, and this it is which [Page 987] gives them so much apparent power, for the second aspect is only in process of reaching its vibratory consummation, whereas the third aspect is at the height of its vibratory activity, being the product of the evolutionary processes of the preceding major solar system. He works from the throat centre almost entirely, and manipulates primarily the forces of the physical sun. This is the reason why he achieves many of his ends through the method of pranic stimulation or of pranic devitalisation, and why, also, most of his effects are carried out on the physical plane. He works, therefore, through

a. The centre in the head corresponding to the throat centre.

b. The throat centre.

c. The centre at the base of the spine.

The white magician works always in co-operation with others, and is himself under the direction of certain group Heads. For instance, the Brothers of the White Lodge work under the three great Lords and conform to the plans laid down, subordinating Their individual purposes and ideas to the great general scheme. The black magician usually works in an intensely individualistic way, and can be seen carrying out his schemes alone, or with the aid of subordinates. He brooks usually no known superior, but is nevertheless frequently the victim of agents on higher levels of cosmic evil, who use him as he uses his inferior co-operators, that is, he works (as far as the bigger purpose is involved) blindly and unconsciously.

The white magician, as is well known, works on the side of evolution or in connection with the Path of Return. The black brother occupies himself with the forces of involution, or with the Path of Outgoing. They form the great balancing force in evolution, and though they [Page 988] are occupied with the material side of manifestation and the Brother of Light is concerned with the aspect of soul or consciousness, they and their work, under the great law of evolution, contribute to the general purpose of the solar Logos, though (and this is of tremendous occult significance to the illuminated student) not to the individual purpose of the planetary Logos.

Finally, it might be briefly said in connection with the distinctions between magicians that the magician of the Good Law works with the soul of things. His brothers of darkness work with the material aspect.

The white magician works through the force centres, on the first and fourth subplanes of each plane. The black magician works through the permanent atoms, and with the substance and forms concerned. The white magician utilises in this connection the higher three centres. The black magician uses the energy of the lower three centres (the organs of generation, the spleen, and the solar plexus) synthesising their energy by an act of the will and directing it to the centre at the base of the spine, so that the fourfold energy is thence transmitted to the throat centre.

The white magician uses the kundalini force as it is transmitted via the central spinal channel. The black magician uses the inferior channels, dividing the fourfold energy in two units, which mount via the two channels, leaving the central one dormant. Hence it will be apparent that one works with duality and the other with unity. On the planes of duality, therefore, it is apparent why the black magician has so much power. The plane of unity for humanity is the mental plane. The planes of diversity are the astral and the physical. Hence the black magician is of more apparent power than the white brother on the two lower planes in the three worlds.

The white brother works under the Hierarchy, or under the great King, carrying out His planetary purposes. [Page 989] The dark brother works under certain separated Entities, unknown to him, who are connected with the forces of matter itself. Much more could be given in this connection, but what is here imparted suffices for our purpose.

b. The Source of Black Magic. In touching upon this point, we are trespassing into the realms of the mystery and the domain of the inexplicable. Certain statements can, however, be made here which, if pondered upon, may throw a little light upon this dark subject.

First. It should be remembered that the whole subject of planetary evil (and students must distinguish carefully between planetary and cosmic evil) lies hid in the individual life cycles and in the history of the Great Being who is the planetary Logos of the Earth. Therefore, until a man has taken certain initiations and thus achieved a measure of planetary consciousness, it is useless for him to speculate upon that record. H. P. B. has touched, in the Secret Doctrine,95 upon the subject of "the imperfect Gods," and in these words lies the key to planetary evil.

An imperfect God is a planetary Logos which has not taken the 3^rd initiation and therefore not yet a sacred planet

Second. It might briefly be said that, as far as our humanity is concerned, the terms planetary evil and cosmic evil might be interpreted thus:

Planetary evil arises from certain relations existing between our planetary Logos and another planetary Logos. When this condition of polar opposition is adjusted, then planetary evil will cease. The adjustment will be brought about through the mediation (occultly understood) of a third planetary Logos. These three will eventually form an equilateral triangle, and then planetary evil will cease. Free circulation will ensue; planetary obscuration will become possible, and the "imperfect Gods" will have achieved a relative perfection. Thus will the karma of the manvantara, or secondary [Page 990] cycle, be adjusted, and so much planetary karmic evil be "worked off." All the above must be interpreted in its esoteric sense and not its exoteric.

Cosmic evil from the standpoint of our planet consists in the relation between that spiritual intelligent Unit or "Rishi of the Superior Constellation" as He is called (who is the informing Life of one of the seven stars of the Great Bear, and our planetary prototype) and one of the forces of the Pleiades.96 Students need here to remember that the "seven sisters" are occultly called the "seven wives" of the Rishis, and that the dual forces (resultant from that relationship) converge and play through that one of the planetary Logoi who is the Logos of any particular planet, and is the "reflection" of any specific Rishi. In this relation, at present lacking perfect adjustment, lies hid the mystery of cosmic evil as it makes itself felt in any particular planetary scheme. Again, when the heavenly triangle is duly equilibrated, and the force circulates freely through

a. One of the stars of the Great Bear,

b. The Pleiad involved,

c. The planetary scheme concerned,

then again cosmic evil will be negated, and a relative perfection achieved. This will mark the attainment of primary perfection, and the consummation of the greater cycle.

Cyclic evil, or tertiary evil, lies hid in the relation between the globes in any particular scheme, two of them ever being in opposition until equilibrised by force emanating from a third. Students will only apprehend the significance of this teaching as they study the pairs of opposites in their own cycles, and the equilibrising work of the Ego.

A fourth type of evil growing out of the above finds [Page 991] its main expression in the sorrows and troubles of the fourth or human kingdom, and will find its solution in two ways: by the balancing of the forces of the three kingdoms (the spiritual or fifth kingdom, the human, and the animal), and secondly, by the negation of the attractive power of the three lower kingdoms (the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal, who thus form one unit), by the spiritual kingdom, utilising the fourth or human kingdom. In all these cases, triangles of force are formed which, when balanced, procure the desired Black magic is spoken of as making its appearance upon our planet during the fourth root race. It should be borne in mind here that this means strictly in connection with the fourth kingdom and its conscious use by wrongly developed men. The forces of evil of the planetary and cosmic kind have been present since manifestation set in, being latent in the karma of the planetary Logos, but human beings began consciously to work with these forces and to use them for specified selfish ends in this round during the fourth root race.

Black magicians work under certain great Entities, six in number, who are spoken of, for instance, in the Christian Bible as having the number 666. They came in (being cosmic, not systemic) on that stream of force emanating from cosmic mental levels which produced the three worlds of human endeavour. Students should remember here the fact that the three lower planes of our solar system are not considered as embodying a cosmic principle, for they form the dense physical body of the Logos, and the dense physical body is not considered a principle. There is an occult significance in the expression "unprincipled." These entities are the sumtotal of the substance of the three lower subplanes of the cosmic physical plane (our three lower systemic [Page 992] planes), and it is under them that the black magicians are swept into activity, often unconsciously, but rising to power as they work consciously.

(CF 992) In the early stages of human unfoldment all men are unconscious black magicians, but are not occultly "damned" thereby. As evolution proceeds they come under the force of the second aspect, and the majority respond to it, escaping from the meshes of the black magicians, and coming under the force of a different number. The few who do not do so in this manvantara are the "failures" who have to continue the struggle at a later date. A tiny percentage wilfully refuse to "pass on," and they become the true "black magicians." For them the end is ever the same, first, severance of the Ego from the Monad, entailing a wait for many aeons until another solar system has its being. In the case of the "failures" the Ego severed itself from the personality or lower self, entailing a setback for a lesser period, but still having opportunity within the system. Second, a cycle of existence, spent in unlimited evil, and dependent upon the vitality of the severed egoic body and its innate persistence. These are the ordinary "lost souls" spoken of in the Secret Doctrine.1 If students will study these conditions, and will extend the same concept to an earlier and more matured solar system, they will get [Page 993] some light upon the problem of the origin of evil in this solar system.

(CF 838) There is one such constellation, situated between the lesser Dipper and our system, and another, interrelated with the Pleiades and our system which still have a profound effect upon the physical body of the solar Logos.

The above paragraph is specifically worded thus because the effects are felt in the lowest sheath of all, and are responsible for much that is ignorantly termed "black magic." These two constellations have run their cycles and are "dissolving." Some of their life force and energy has been transferred to our solar system, [Page 838] just as the lunar life force was transferred to our earth, and this it is that is the cause of much cyclic evil. The process of decay and the evil emanations induced still have power to influence forms which are responsive to what was for them an earlier vibration. The substance of these forms is magnetically linked with the decaying body, much as the etheric double is connected with its dense sheath, and effects are therefore manifested. Purificatory fire is the only cure for this magnetic corruption, and this is being utilised freely by the planetary Logoi in Their schemes, and by the solar Logos in the system.

(EPI 10) It must be remembered, however, that it is in this region of thought that the cleavage comes between black and white magic. It is in the use of thought power that the two aspects of magic can be seen functioning, and therefore it is true that there is no black magic, per se, until one reaches the realm of mind. No one can be a black magician until the will and the thought work in unison, until mind control and the creative work of the focussed mind can be seen. It has oft been said the black magician is rare, indeed, and that is verily true, because the creative thinker, with power to use the sustained will, is also rare.

Let me illustrate. There is need for clear thinking on these matters, for as we study the psychology of the microcosm [Page 10] and arrive at an understanding of his ray impulses and energies we shall need to see clearly the way we go so that we shall tread the path of selflessness, leading to group awareness, and not the path of individualism, leading eventually and inevitably (as the mind aspect becomes organised) to the left hand path of black magic.

(EPI 75) I should like here to give a suggestion, for it is necessary that some of the methods of the Hierarchy should begin to be understood. The work of what in the West is called "the Christ Principle" is to build the forms for the expression of quality and life. That is the characteristic work of the second aspect of divinity. The work of the Antichrist is to destroy forms, and this is essentially the work of the first expression of divinity. But the work of the destroyer is not the work of black magic, and when ignorant humanity regards Antichrist as working on the black side, their error is great. His work is as beneficent as that of the building aspect, and it is but man's [Page 75] hatred of the death of forms which makes him regard the work of the destroyer as "black," as being against the divine will, and as subversive of the divine programme. The work of the representatives of that mysterious power which we call cosmic evil, and their responding representatives, is indeed worthy of the word "black"; but it is not applicable to the work of Antichrist. It might be added that the work of the black forces wells up from below, whilst the work of the destroyers is impelled from above. The symbols of these two ways are the sword and the cross.

(EPI 359) The sixth ray influence served to attract men's minds towards an ideal, such as that of individual sacrifice or service, and the mystical vision was the high water mark of the period; the numerous guiding mystics of the Occident and the Orient have appeared. The seventh ray influence will in time produce the magician, but in this age the magician will be predominantly in the class of white magic (not as in Atlantean days, when the predominance was on the side of selfish [Page 359] or black magic). The white magician works with the forces of nature and swings them back into control of advanced humanity. This can already be seen working out through the activity of the scientists which the latter end of the last century and this twentieth century have produced. That much of their magical work has been turned into selfish channels by the tendency of this materialistic age, and that many of their wise and true discoveries in the realm of energy are today adapted to ends which serve man's hatred or love of self, is equally true. But this in no way militates against the wonder of their achievements. When the motive is transmuted from pure scientific interest to love of the divine revelation, and when service to the race is the determining force, then we shall see the true white magic. Hence therefore the need to turn the mystic into the occultist, and to train the modern aspirant in right motive, mind control and brotherly love, all of which must and will express themselves through harmlessness. The most potent force in the world today is harmlessness. I speak not of non-resistance, but of that positive attitude of mind which thinks no evil. He who thinks no evil and harms naught is a citizen of God's world.

(EPII 377) When all these three are stimulated, the disciple is often for a time swung off the centre into a maelstrom of magical work of the lower kind—sex magic and many forms of black magic. He is glamoured by the beauty of his motive, and deceived by the acquired potency of his personality.

(EPII 389) The third ray disciple, employing the Technique of Fusion, finds that:

1. It evokes a full functioning of the divine creative faculty. It will be apparent at this point how important is motive, for it determines the line of activity and differentiates man's activity into what is called (by esotericists) black and white magic. It is interesting also to note that it is the very rare man indeed who swings into the field of so-called black magic. This indicates, does it not, my brother, the extraordinarily triumphant work of the Great White Lodge.

(EPII 471) Glamour has oft been regarded as a curious attempt of what are called the "black forces" to deceive and hoodwink well-meaning aspirants. Many fine people are almost flattered when they are "up against" some aspect of glamour, feeling that their demonstration of discipline has been so good that the black forces are interested sufficiently to attempt to hinder their fine work by submerging them in clouds of glamour. Nothing could be further from the truth. That idea is itself a part of the glamour of the present time, and has its root in human pride and satisfaction.

(EPII 723) Certain forces which we (in our ignorance and lack of perspective), may call evil or black forces. In worldly parlance, these forces are connected with what is regarded as the black side of nature and of energy. They are wielded by great and powerful human beings, the majority of whom are out of physical incarnation. They work from the astral plane and primarily through the agency of groups. These groups—being composed of ignorant, unstable, selfish and ambitious men—provide an easy field for their efforts. For this so-called evil work, the average individual in the group is not responsible, though there is usually to be found in the group those who are willfully ambitious and selfish. Though the individual penalty is light, and the individual responsibility is small, yet the effectiveness of this method is very great. The result is in the nature of group obsession, which is a relatively new thing, but also is today becoming increasingly frequent.

(EA 445) Today as never before the Hierarchy stands as a "mediating transmitter" between:

1. Humanity and the will of God. The revelation of the true significance and purpose of that will as it stands behind all world events is needed now as never before. This can come through a closer relation between the Hierarchy and Humanity.

2. Humanity and its karma, for it is equally essential that the laws for the transmutation of karma into active present good are clearly grasped.

3. Humanity and cosmic evil, focussed for many millenia of years in what has been called the Black Lodge. Speculation anent this Lodge and its activities is both fruitless and dangerous.

(EA 588) One of the causes lying behind World War II is to be found in a premature contact—a contact made by certain selfish minds of a relatively high quality, aided by the Black Lodge. To offset this and eventually bring about the elimination of the influence of the dark forces from our planet must come the active, conscious use of the Shamballa force by the White Lodge, aided by the men and women whose will-to-good is strong enough to safeguard them from personal peril in their work and from being deflected on to wrong and dangerous lines.

(EH 299) Paralleling all the activity of the Great White Lodge [Page 229] (as was always the case and is the case today) was the activity of the dark forces. Their effects had to be brought about through the medium of the sacral centre, and thus a most vicious situation came about which weakened the stamina of the human body, which greatly increased the demands of the sex nature through the stimulation of the sacral centre, artificially brought about by the Black Lodge, and which produced many unholy alliances and widespread evil relations.

(EH 487) As I have earlier told you, the astral plane has no factual existence, but is an illusory creation of the human family. From now on, however (through the defeat of the forces of evil and the disastrous setback suffered by the Black Lodge), the astral plane will slowly become a dying creation, [Page 487] and in the final period of human history (in the seventh rootrace), it will become nonexistent. Today this is not the case.

(EH 669) I have used the above illustration so as to make my theme somewhat clearer. The whole problem of evil is, however, too vast to contemplate here, nor is it advisable or wise to discuss the source of evil (not of imperfection), the Black Lodge. Energy follows thought, and the spoken word can be potently evocative: therefore, until one is a member of the Great White Lodge, it is the part of wisdom to avoid consideration of forces potent enough intelligently to use the latent imperfection in humanity and to impose the vast evil of war, with all its results and far-reaching effects, upon humanity. The Black Lodge is the problem of the White Lodge, and not the problem of humanity. For aeons the Hierarchy has handled this problem, and is now in process of solving it. It is essentially, however, the main consideration and problem of Shamballa, for it is connected with the will aspect, and only the will-to-good will suffice to blot out and annihilate the will-to-evil. Goodwill will not suffice, though the united and invocative appeal of the [Page 670] men of goodwill throughout the world-increasingly voiced through the Great Invocation-will serve "to seal the door where evil dwells."

It is behind that door and in dealing with the forces there concealed (and mobilised) that the Hierarchy is effective; the methods and modes whereby They protect humanity from mobilised evil, and are gradually driving the evil back, would not be understood by you who have not yet passed through the door which leads to the Way of the Higher Evolution.

Not understood until 6^th initiation

(EH 705) The techniques I shall have to give in the form of seven ancient symbolic statements or formulas, gathered out of the Book Of Rules for Initiated Disciples. I dare not yet give the simple physical application of these ray techniques, as it would be too dangerous. When rightly used and understood they carry terrific force and—in the wrong hands—could work real damage. May I remind you here that the Black Lodge initiates likewise heal or produce death and disease, and employ very similar techniques; the difference lies in the fact that they can work only with the personality rays of both healer and patient, and because they are more potent on the physical plane than are the Members of the Great White Lodge, their work is frequently most effective. The spiritual healer, working with the energies of light whenever possible, is seldom as effective physically.

The members of the Black Lodge, or healers working under its influence, are, however, totally unable to work on a patient who is spiritually oriented to the slightest degree, and is therefore coming under the control of the soul; neither can they work through a healer who is spiritually oriented. When they attempt to do so they find themselves combatted by energy coming from the Ashram towards [Page 706] which either the healer or the patient is moving or with which he is affiliated, even if he has his place only upon the periphery. Where the average unthinking man is concerned, the danger of "black" interference is nil; the dark forces do not interest themselves in any unimportant person, save with those of potency and influence who can serve their ends. Also their evil work is only possible at the moment (or cycle) wherein the man is making decision as to whether he will move in spiritual living, remain static where he is, or turn with deliberation (which is exceedingly rare) to the path of pure selfishness. This path leads to the Black Lodge.

(RI 14) There is therefore a line of descending energy which has its origin outside our planetary life altogether; the inflow of this energy, its inevitable effect under cyclic law and its consequences, as they work out upon the physical plane, has produced and is producing all the changes of which mankind is so terribly aware at this time. This swings into immediate conflict the past and the future, and in this statement I have expressed the deepest esoteric truth which mankind [Page 14] is competent to grasp; it brings into a culminating struggle the Great White Lodge and the Black Lodge and opens the door to great contending energies which we can call spirit and matter, spirituality and materialism, or life and death. These words are, in the last analysis, as meaningless as the terms good and evil, which have significance only in the human consciousness and its inherent limitations.

(RI 155) Coming down to the immediate practical issues, the initiate is confronted with the problem of work within the individual framework, for I am not here dealing with the [Page 155] requirements for the initiations above or beyond the third. Here the initiate has reached the point where he grasps the significant fact that the way into the innermost Centre is most securely guarded; no one can pass onward and take those more advanced steps which admit into the higher worlds of being and of unparalleled potency until he has demonstrated within the framework of his own life a definite control of energy (and this the black adept also possesses), purity of motive (which the black adept can likewise have, if by purity of motive you mean single-hearted and one-pointed intent), deep love of humanity (which the black adept never has), selflessness, willingness to follow the light wherever it may lead, ability to begin work within the larger framework the moment such an attempt becomes possible, clear vision and spiritual insight, a developed intuition, and an undeviating intention and strong faith in the future. When these qualities begin to show themselves, it then becomes possible to admit the initiate to further advancement upon the Way.

(RI 156) Thus he goes from strength to strength. All the time the Hierarchy is aiding in his development and at the same time protecting the Way from him until such time as glamour cannot reach him. This individual security of his [Page 156] is only reached between the time of taking the second initiation and the third. Prior to that, he is still regarded as a potential hazard and as unstable. After that, he may suffer from illusion, but there is then no fear of his permanently turning back and reaching the left-hand path and so perhaps, in rare cases, finding his way into the Black Lodge. The major liability of the average initiate is sloth or lack of speed. Ponder on that.

(RI 186) This potent vibration of desire was evoked by men who were as yet without any spiritual vision of any kind; they were purely material in their instinctive reactions (and rightly so at that particular time), and these reactions attracted the attention of certain purely evil energies or Beings. These Beings availed themselves of the situation in order to satisfy their desire for power—again a distortion of the will or first aspect. Thus the Black Lodge was founded. It fed upon human desire and resembled a vast overshadowing vampire. It vitiated human living and increased the growth of desire far beyond normal expectancy or hierarchical planning, thus creating false goals and standards, building a barrier between the lowest planetary centre, Humanity, and the "middle point" or centre, the Hierarchy. It will be apparent, therefore, that the following energies were let loose within the realm of maya:

(RI 187) All throughout this period, the organisation of the etheric plane has been going on, subject to the impact of energies and forces as listed above, plus certain other energies (latent or potent) with which we have no immediate concern. Both the great White Lodge and its opponent, the Black Lodge, increased steadily in potency. Gradually the forces took organised form and the four "veils of maya" or the seven separating energies became well-defined. When this differentiation was complete, two great planetary events (if I might call them so) were consummated:

Paralleling this activity and implemented, fed and sustained by the Black Lodge, was the appearance of glamour upon the astral plane, and to this thickening glamour humanity steadily contributed and responded. Then as evolution progressed and the human intellect began to make itself felt, "the four veils of maya" and the great "curtain of glamour" began to condition the mental plane. Illusion then appeared, and the distinction between truth and falsehood, between good and evil, and between the left hand Path and the Path of Initiation became apparent to the advanced humanity of the time. These distinctions had always been known to the Hierarchy, but now human beings were faced with them and recognised them: the great potency of intellectual choice confronted humanity and the Aryan race (as that name is correctly used to denote modern intelligent humanity) came into being.

(RI 189) As the ages slipped away, men contributed more and more both to the problem and to the solution of maya, of glamour and of illusion. The potency of human thought began to make itself felt; men in increasing numbers sought the Path of Liberation and so passed on into the Hierarchy; they became active and instructed opponents of the Black Lodge and intelligent wielders of energy as it can be projected downwards and used to destroy the four veils, to dissipate glamour and to dispel illusion. Humanity responded more and more sensitively to impacts—both subjective and objective—and their cooperation began to be [Page 189] effective and useful to the Hierarchy, necessitating some changes in hierarchical techniques, releasing hierarchical workers for other and different activities, and greatly complicating the problem and menacing the safety and the status of the Black Lodge.

One of the results of this mental development was the sending of the disciples out into the world of men; they issued forth in large numbers, and whilst preserving their conscious link with the Ashram with which they were affiliated, they could be trusted to live among men as men and to bring their potency to bear upon the problem of maya and glamour, doing so from below upwards. This work had to be done by disciples who could stand under pressure, who would, in spite of all difficulties, live nobly and prepare for and take the initiation which was for them their next step. Several hundred years ago, only a few could be so trusted. Today (1944) there are many in every land, though there are very few in

Germany

, owing to the concentration in that unhappy land of the power of the Black Lodge and also to the misuse of the Shamballa force. This force has been isolated and its destructive aspect utilised in

Germany

, and this has been done without the paralleling activity of the love energy of the Hierarchy. It is this fact that has made it impossible (since 1933) for disciples of the White Lodge to enter. Elsewhere, however, the concentration of active disciples is greater than at any other time in human history.

I have emphasised this point because our second phrase, "let the group widen all the rents within those veils," has reference here to disciples and the groups which they have everywhere gathered around themselves. It is these groups, many in number and differing in ray potency, which will lead the world through the post-war period into the New Age. It is their pressure upon the physical plane which has precipitated the crisis between the great White Lodge and the Black Lodge. Their work is to let in the light, and where the light goes the Black Lodge must fade out and disappear. It feeds on glamour and illusion and uses the [Page 190] veils of maya as a protection. Students would do well to avoid naming and differentiating the four veils. The veils themselves are transient and variable. They differ as they come under the impact of the seven rays. It is not possible or practical to distinguish them one from the other, except from the angle of the Hierarchy, and their destruction today (though it was not so earlier) has to come from the dense physical plane, and the attack must be made by personalities and individualities dwelling in physical bodies. This is a somewhat new mode of approach, for hitherto only a very few disciples and initiates have been able so to work. Today, hundreds and thousands of disciples are working, and thus learning to use the ancient rules for work within the veils of maya. Let me here give you some of these rules or formulas as they are to be found in The Masters' Book of Rules and as I can translate them. Some are untranslatable:

(RI 192) In the above you have in reality a great formula for group activity and also a potent method (once the group can unitedly work together) for the cleansing and the re-organisation of the forces active in the world today. These forces are now raging and running wild; their effect is almost tangible (being in etheric substance) and factually and visibly present under the control of the Black Lodge. This [Page 192] Lodge uses the voices of lying propaganda, the Word of death (which I shall not give to you for the O.M., the Word of Life, suffices), and the Sound of the densest aspect in manifestation—the sound of power in the mineral kingdom. This constitutes an unparalleled condition and creates a unique concentration of the Forces of Good and the forces of evil upon the etheric plane. The task of all groups which are working under the Masters of the Wisdom is to let in the light, utilising those rents which already exist within the Veils of maya.

(RI 234) The future holds within its silence other modes of saving humanity. The cup of sorrow and the agony of the Cross are well-nigh finished. Joy and strength will take their place. Instead of sorrow we shall have a joy which will work out in happiness and lead eventually to bliss. We shall have a strength which will know naught but victory and will not recognise disaster. Even the Black Lodge knew of this change in the mode of salvation, and hastily founded its groups of youths, banded together by the motto "joy through strength and strength through joy." It seems to be a law for group development to receive recognition from the side of evil, prior to that recognition coming from the good. But "after weeping cometh joy, and that joy cometh in the morning." Only the dawn is with us as yet—the dawn of the Aquarian Age. The full tide of light is inevitably moving upon its way towards us.

(RI 236) The war might be regarded as a revolt by the form side of nature against the old conditions, and [Page 236] against the new incoming conditioning factors on the part of the Black Lodge. Between the two forces—one sensitive, onward moving, ready for that which is new and better, and the other reactionary, static and determined to gain a strangle hold upon the life within the form—the Hierarchy stands at the midway point:

(RI 237) Of this situation the determination of the United Nations to win and to enforce complete surrender upon the aggressor nations which are the agents of the Black Lodge is symbolic and also symptomatic of the progress of the human spirit. (Written in September 1944.) This time, the Hierarchy refrains from outer action, but simply inspires and transmits the needed energy, leaving mankind to find its own way into freedom, and out of Pisces into the aura and the field of activity of Aquarius, guided by those who are responsive to the illumination which Taurus confers.

(RI 603) It is the dominant energy, always exerting pressure upon the fourth kingdom; this pressure began to exert itself primarily towards the end of the fourth human race, the Atlantean race of men; at that time men began to give evidence of a growing sense of responsibility, and therefore of the power to demonstrate discriminative choice. This led to the great war in the fourth race which culminated in the Flood, to which all parts of the world testify and to which the majority of the world Scriptures bear evidence. In that era, in which the then known world of men was extensively involved, the Black and the White Lodges of adepts were also implicated, and the first major fight between the demonstrators of evil and the Forces of Light took place; it was inconclusive, with the evidence for defeat to be found on the side of the good more than on the side of evil. Under the symbolism of the Flood, it is apparent to students that the fight was focussed primarily upon the astral plane, though fought out historically upon the physical plane; it resulted in the destruction of the world by water, as it might be symbolically expressed.

(RI 674) The concept of baptism is ever associated with that of purification. Water has ever been the symbol of that which purifies; it is also the symbol of the astral plane, with its instability, its storms, its tranquillities, its overwhelming emotional reactions and its pliability, which makes it such a good agent for the deceptive thought-forming faculties of the unregenerate man. It reacts to every impulse, every desire and every possible magnetic "pull" coming from the material or substantial form side of nature. In its cycles of tranquillity it reflects equally the good as well as the bad; it is the agent, therefore, of deception when manipulated by the Black Lodge, or of aspirational reaction when influenced by the great White Lodge, the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet. It is the battleground between the pairs of opposites; the problem is complicated by the fact that men have to learn to recognise these opposites before right choice, leading to spiritual victory, is theirs.

(RI 679) There is perhaps an ultimate opinion that it is the realm of the emotions and the susceptibility to emotional reactions which constitute the major human limitation—both from the individual angle and also from that of the national angle. It is everywhere realised that the demagogue, for instance, who sways public opinion, is one who also and emphatically plays on human emotions as well as upon human selfishness. As the race progresses towards mental expression, this distorting influence will become increasingly less important, and once the masses (composed of the millions of so-called "men in the street") begin definitely to think, the power of the demagogic approach will have disappeared. The major battle in the world today is that of the freedom of the average citizen to think for himself and to come to his own decisions and conclusions. It is here that the major quarrel between the Great White Lodge and the Black Lodge is to be found. It is a battle in which humanity itself is the decisive factor, and for this reason the Black Lodge is working through the group which is controlling the destiny of Russia and also through the Zionist movement. The leaders of the U.S.S.R. are working intelligently and potently against human freedom and particularly against freedom of thought. Communism per se has no such objective; it is the totalitarian policies of the national rulers which are so disastrous, plus their ambition and their hatred of true freedom. Zionism today stands for aggression and for the use of force, and the keynote is permission to take what you want irrespective [Page 680] of other people or of their inalienable rights. These points of view are against the position of the spiritual leaders of humanity, and therefore the leaders of the Zionist movement, and the group of men who direct and control the policies of Russia, are against the policies of the spiritual Hierarchy and are contrary to the lasting good of mankind.

Black Lodge do not know purpose of SK

(RI 727) At the eighth Initiation of Transition the purpose of all our planetary activity is revealed to the Master, and all Masters or initiates of this eighth initiation (working either through the Hierarchy or in Shamballa) are needed at this initiation so as to stimulate the point of tension of the new initiate in order to make the revelation possible.

It might be said that They act like a lens through which the living light flows which makes the revelation possible, and They also fulfill the need of acting as a protecting factor. This protection is needed because at this initiation the initiate is shown not only the eternal good [Page 727] underlying planetary purpose, but he is allowed "to see that which is hidden behind the fast sealed door and be in touch with cosmic evil for it can no longer hurt him." He needs nevertheless the protection of Those with Whom he has fitted himself to associate. What the planetary purpose is I know not; when I say that part of the purpose is to liberate light and love into a wider universe and to free the solar system from the attacks of cosmic evil, I am stating a truth, but a truth which remains as yet meaningless to those who have not been put in touch with the completed purpose; it remains a mystery, for the true nature of light, the mystery of electricity, the constitution of the good, the beautiful and the true, the origin of evil, the nature and purpose of the Black Lodge, the place which that Lodge plays within the divine scheme of being, are all unknown to you in their essential significance. Remember that when a Member of the Hierarchy uses the word essential, He does not mean (as you oft do) that which is needed or necessary; He is referring to the inmost essence which is found at the heart of all things—both the good and the evil. Therefore, when I say to you also that at this eighth initiation the nature and the purpose of duality is revealed to the initiate, it is again meaningless.

(RI 737) The planetary Lodge of Masters has absorbed Him and, at the final initiation, the Great Lodge on Sirius has recognised Him, and with the Black Lodge of Adepts He will have nothing to do. He will mitigate its evil effects and will struggle to offset its results, but He knows that the final overcoming of cosmic physical evil must be undertaken by Existences much further advanced than even the Members of the Council Chamber at Shamballa; certain solar Entities and certain great Lives from Sirius are dealing with the problem.

(CF 994) Further, unless a man is strengthened in his endeavour by right motive, he is liable to be led astray by the acquisition of power. Knowledge of the laws of magic puts into the hands of the student powers which enable him to create, to acquire, and to control. Such powers [Page 994] are fraught with menace to the unprepared and unready, for the student can, in this case, turn them to selfish ends, use them for his own temporal material advancement, and acquire in this way that which will feed the desires of the lower nature. He takes, therefore, the first step towards the left hand path, and each life may see him progressing towards it with greater readiness, until (almost unconsciously) he will find himself in the ranks of the black masters. Such a state of affairs can only be offset through the cultivation of altruism, sincere love of man, and a steady negation of all lower desire.

(CF 1003) Second. Through the thoughts and ideas of the man fitting in with the plans and purposes of those who do know, either on the path of white or black magic. Then they utilise the form with its inherent force and galvanise it into activity, and a temporary separate identity, thus sending it forth to accomplish its purpose. This accounts for many of the apparently phenomenal results achieved by selfish or by incompetent (though good) thinkers.

(CF 1096) In the comprehension of this, and in the realisation that there are forces present in nature which are in the nature of left-overs, we have the clue to much of the puzzling side of manifestation, to the cruelty and death, the suffering, and the agony which are seen in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. In the term animal kingdom I include man's physical body. We have also the clue to some aspects of the left hand Path, and a clue to the problem of the basic cause of the appearance of such existences as black magicians. Just as no human being can escape the effects of energy generated by him in an early life, so the solar Logos Himself is working out and so held back by influences which are the result of His earlier activities in System 1.

(CF 1123) There are, in connection with human evolution, certain factors which produce definite and important results, when connected with each other through linking streams of energy and therefore consciously functioning. These factors might be considered as follows, dividing them into two groups, each of them emphasising the duality of the microcosmic manifestation:

1. The Knowledge Petals.

2. The knowledge petal in each of the two inner circles.

3. The centres on the mental plane.

4. The throat centre in etheric matter.

5. The alta major centre.

6. The physical brain.

2. The love petal in each circle.

3. The centres on the astral plane.

4. The heart centre in etheric matter.

5. The pituitary body.

6. The sympathetic nervous system.

(CF 1124) These various alignments (when functioning with due adjustment) result in the transmission of energy in the first case from the manasic permanent atom, and in the second case from the buddhic permanent atom. It will be apparent, therefore, how important it is that the student duly considers the process of bringing about a uniform alignment, and a conscious appreciation of the vibratory processes of these two groups. As he brings this adjustment about, the effect upon the physical plane will be the manifestation of the powers of the Soul, and of the healing capacity; the man will become a focal point for egoic energy and a server of his race. The black magician brings about similar results by means of the first group, only with the exception that he cannot align the knowledge petals in the two inner groups, as the love-wisdom aspect is atrophied in his case. He does, however, bring through the energy of the manasic permanent atom, for the force of Mahat (of which Manas is an expression) is closely connected with what is erroneously called "evil." Mahat and cosmic Evil have a close connection.

The great Existences Who are the principle of Mahat in its cosmic sense are connected with the lesser existences who express systemic evil. They are the sum total of the separative instrument, and where separation in any form exists, there is to be found ignorance, and therefore evil. Separation negates comprehension, or knowledge of that which is to be found outside the separated consciousness, for separative knowledge entails identification with that which is expressing itself through the medium of a form. Therefore, the Brothers of the Shadow can, and do, reach high levels along one aspect of consciousness, and touch certain specific heights of [Page 1125] spiritual evil, going a great way along the line of Mahat, or knowledge, the principle of Universal Mind. They can reach, in their later stages, expansions of consciousness and of power that will take them far beyond the confines of our solar system, and give them attributes and capacities which prove a menace to the unfolding of the second Aspect.

The first group of alignments, when not balanced by the second group, is the line of the black magician; it will lead him eventually out of the stream of fivefold energy we call manasic on to the cosmic path of fohatic energy, the strictly mahatic. When on that Path two directions are possible to him; one will keep him in touch with the natural substance aspect concerned with the cosmic incarnations of our solar Logos; the other will sweep him on to that centre in the universe which is the emanating source of the mahatic principle; it is the focal point where is generated that type of energy which makes possible the dense physical manifestation of Gods and men.

In making this statement, it is necessary to bear in mind that the dense physical sheath is never considered a principle. It is ever deemed occultly evil. The matter might be more simply expressed by stating that the black adept is frankly concerned with what is termed "the residue of that which earlier was." He responds to the vibration of the solar system of an earlier greater cycle in which the knowledge, or the manasic principle, was the goal of achievement. He does not respond to the impulse of this solar system, but this lack of response is hid in the karma of the earlier manifestation. As we know, the Sons of Mind or the incarnating jivas are the returning nirvanis of a previous logoic incarnation. They have achieved mind, and need love. Some few, through a mysterious cycle of events inexplainable to man in this solar system, repudiated opportunity and linked themselves with that great deva existence which is the impulse [Page 1126] of the dense physical, and they cannot loose themselves. Their destination, as well as his, is hidden in the plans of the ONE ABOUT WHOM NAUGHT MAY BE SAID, and in this solar system there is no hope for them. Fortunately, they are little likely to make themselves known to average man; it is the Adepts of the Good Law Who meet them the most often.

The subject is most intricate, but some light may come, if we remember that manas on the mental plane is found in two expressions:—the mental unit on the form levels and the manasic permanent atom on the formless planes. These two types of manas may be regarded as embodying the qualities of the two kinds, white and black. The mental unit or the mind aspect of a man, for instance, is after all but the sixth sense, and has to be transcended by the higher mind and the intuition. The black brother carries the evolution of the senses on to a stage inconceivable to man now and this sixth mahatic sense is of vaster extent and service to them than it ever is to the white Adept. Therefore, it will be apparent that for a long cycle of time, the black magician can persist and develop his powers because one-third of the force of the egoic lotus (one third is achieved at the 1^st initiation under Leo) is his and he knows well how to utilise it to the best advantage. He builds also an antaskarana, but of quality and objective different to that of the student of the white magic. It is called "the path of manasic evil," and bridges a gap between the mental unit of the magician concerned, and certain correspondences on mental levels in the vehicles of the devas of that plane. Through this medium, and through identification with the devas, he can escape from the three worlds to spheres of evil incomprehensible to us. The point to be remembered here is that the black magician remains ever a prisoner; he cannot escape from substance and from form.

(CF 1128) These ideas can also be studied in their larger aspect; a clue to the mystery of cosmic evil may be found in the difference existing between the sacred and non-sacred planets, and in the purpose and place, hitherto unrecognised, of the lives of the informing existences of the many planets and planetoids in the solar system. Some are purely mahatic or of the third Aspect, dominated by the devas. Others (of which the sacred planets are examples) are controlled by the second Aspect, and that second aspect will work through unconquerably into manifestation. [Page 1128] A few, like our Earth planet, are battlegrounds, and the two Aspects are in collision, with the indication of the eventual triumph of the "white" magic.

(LOS222) I. The external control of the prana or life currents concerns those breathing exercises and rhythmic practices which bring the physical organs, allied with the etheric centres, into proper condition. These physical organs are themselves never specifically dealt with by the white magician or occultist. They are dealt with in black magic, and consist of the brain, the lungs, the heart, the spleen and the generative organs.

The black magician definitely utilizes these physical parts of the body to generate a type of force which is a mixture of etheric force and dense physical energy, to enable him to do certain [Page 223] forms of magical work and also to produce effects on the physical bodies of animals and men. It is the knowledge of this which is the basis of voodooism and of all those practices which cause the depletion and death of men and women who obstruct the path of the black magician or are regarded by him as enemies. With these the aspirant to the mysteries of the Brotherhood of the great White Lodge has nothing to do. He brings about the merging of the two parts of the dense physical, and the synchronization of the rhythm of the two bodies and the consequent unity of the entire lower man through attention to the etheric breath and rhythm. This inevitably produces the "external control of the life currents."

(LOS 347) 6. Irresistible will . . . prakamya. This is sometimes described as sovereignty, and it is that driving irresistible force found in every adept which bring about the fruition of his plans, the attainment of his desires, and the completion of his impulses. It is this quality which is the distinguishing characteristic of the black and the white magician alike. It necessarily demonstrates with greatest force on that plane in the three worlds which reflects the will aspect of divinity, the mental plane. All the elements obey this force of will as used by the yogin.

(LOS 380) It might, therefore, be observed that (for the seeker after truth) incarnation, intense desire and meditation are the three permissible methods, and the only ones to be practised; drugs and words of power or mantric incantations are the tools of black magic and concern the lower powers.

(LOS 390) Vyasa in his commentary points out that karma (or action) is of four kinds which are expressed for us as follows:

1. That type of activity which is evil, wicked and depraved. This is called black. This class of action is the product of the deepest ignorance, of the densest materiality, or of deliberate choice. Where it is the result of ignorance, the development of knowledge will gradually bring about a state of consciousness where this type of karma is no longer known. Where dense materiality produces what we call wrong action, the gradual development of the spiritual consciousness will change darkness to light and karma again is obviated. Where, however, it is the result of deliberate choice, or of preference for wrong action, in spite of knowledge and in defiance of the voice of the spiritual nature, then this type of karma leads to what the oriental occultist called "avitchi" or the eighth sphere,—a term synonymous with the Christian idea of the condition of being a lost soul. These cases are, however, exceedingly rare, and have relation to the left hand path, and the practice of black magic. Though this condition involves the severing of the highest principle (that of pure spirit from its two expressions, the soul and the body, or from the six lower principles), yet the life itself remains, and after the [Page 391] destruction of the soul in avitchi, a fresh cycle of becoming will again be offered.

(LOS 391) 2. That type of activity which is neither all good nor all bad, which is spoken of as the black-white. It concerns the karmic activity of the average man, who is governed by the pairs of opposites, and whose life experience is characterized by a swinging back and forth between that which is kindly, harmless, and the result of love, and that which is harsh, harmful, and the result of hate. Vyasa says:

"The black-white is brought about by external means, as in this, the vehicle of actions grows by means of causing pain to, or acting kindly towards others."

(LOS 393) 4. The final type of karma is described as neither black nor white. No karma of any kind is engendered; no effects are set up through causes initiated by the yogi that can serve to hold him to the form side of manifestation. Acting as he does from the standpoint of non-attachment, desiring [Page 393] nothing for himself, his karma is nil, and his acts produce no effects upon himself.

(LOS 393) 8. From these three kinds of karma emerge those forms which are necessary for the fruition of effects.

In every life, as it comes into physical manifestation, are latent those germs or seeds which must bear fruit, and it is these latent seeds which are the efficient cause of the appearance of the form. Those seeds have been sown at some time and must come to fruition. They are the causes or skandas which produce those bodies in which the effects are to work themselves out. They are the desires, impulses and obligations which keep a man upon the great wheel, which ever turning, carries a man down into physical plane existence, there to bring to fruition as many of those seeds, as under the law, he can handle or deal with in any one life. These are the subjective germs which produce the form in which they fructify, mature and come to completion. If the karmic seeds are black, the man will be grossly selfish, material, and inclined to the left hand path; if black-white, they will carry him into a form suitable for the working out of his obligations, of his debts, duties and interests and the fulfilling of his desires; if they are white they tend to build that body which is the final one to be destroyed, the causal body, the temple of Solomon, the karana sarira of the occultist. That body, at the final liberation, is itself destroyed and [Page 394] naught then separates the man from his Father in Heaven, and nothing keeps him linked to the lower material plane.

(TEV39) The moment that there is the least tendency on the part of a group, or of an individual in a group, to force an issue, to bring so much mental pressure to bear that an individual or group is helpless under the impact of other minds, you have what is called "black magic." Right motive may protect the group from any serious results to themselves, but the effect upon their victim will be definitely serious, rendering him negative, and with a weakened will.

(CF 455) The true occultist is a scientist and a devotee, and where these two are not merged, we have the mystic and the man in danger of black magic, being governed by the intellect and not by selflessness; there are dangers incident also upon contact with the deva evolution and the knowledge of the powers and forces made available through their agency.

The coming into incarnation of numbers of old magicians and occultists, and the rapid growth therefore of recognised psychic powers among the people. This psychism, being tinged with mentality and not being of a purely astral quality, will be even more dangerous than in Atlantean days, for back of it will be some degree of will, conscious purpose, and intellectual apprehension, and unless this is paralleled by the growth of spiritual realisation, and by the steady grip of the Ego upon the lower personality, a period of real danger may ensue. Hence the need of pointing out and of realising the menace, so that the truth of the inner life and the need of serving the race as an essential to advancement may be proclaimed far and wide.

(CF 483) All this knowledge as it concerns the three worlds is in the hands of the Masters of the Wisdom, and enables Them to work along the lines of energy or force, and not with what is usually understood when the word 'substance' is used. They work with electrical energy, concerning Themselves with positive electricity, or with the energy of the positive nucleus of force within the atom, whether it is the atom of chemistry, for instance, or the human atom. They deal with the soul of things. The black magician works with the negative aspect, with the electrons, if I might so term it, with the sheath, and not with the soul. This distinction must be clearly borne in mind. It holds the clue to the non-interference of the [Page 483] whole Brotherhood in material matters and affairs, and Their concentration upon the force aspect, upon the centres of energy. They reach the whole through the agency of the few centres in a form. With this preamble we will now take up the consideration of the

(CF 488) The problem of speaking clearly on this subject of transmutation is a very real one, owing to the vastness of the subject and the fact that in the transmutation process the magician or alchemist works with deva essence through the control of the lesser Builders in co-operation with the greater Devas. In order, therefore, to bring about clarity of thought and definiteness of conjecture in this respect, I desire primarily to lay down certain postulates which must be carefully borne in mind when considering this question of transmutation. They are five in number and concern specifically the field wherein the transmuting process is carried on. The student must [Page 488] recollect at this juncture the distinction that is made between the work of the black and the white magician. It might be helpful here before proceeding further to look at these distinctions as far as they concern the matter in hand:

First. The white Brother deals with positive electrical energy. The dark Brother deals with the negative electrical energy.

Second. The white Brother occupies himself with the soul of things. The black Magician centres his attention upon the form.

Third. The white Magician develops the inherent energy of the sphere concerned (whether human, animal, vegetable or mineral) and produces results through the self-induced activities of the central life, subhuman, human or super-human. The black Magician attains results through the agency of force external to the sphere involved, and produces transmutation through the agency of resolvents (if so I might term it) or through the method of the reduction of the form, rather than through radiation, as does the white Magician.

(CF 491) The process as carried on by the Dark Brotherhood is the reverse of this. They centre the attention upon the form, and seek to shatter and break that form, or the combination of atoms, in order to permit the central electric life to escape. They bring about this result through external agencies and by availing themselves of the destructive nature of the substance (deva essence) itself. They burn and destroy the material sheath, seeking to imprison the escaping volatile essence as the form disintegrates. This hinders the evolutionary plan in the case of the life involved, delays the consummation, interferes with the ordered progress of development, and puts all [Page 491] the factors involved in a bad position. The life (or entity) concerned receives a setback, the devas work destructively, and without participation in the purpose of the plan, and the magician is in danger, under the Law of Karma, and through the materialising of his own substance by affinity with the third aspect. Black magic of this nature creeps into all religions along this very line of the destruction of the form through outer agency, and not through the liberation of the life through inner development and preparedness. It produces the evils of Hatha Yoga in

India

and similar methods as practised in certain religious and occult orders in the Occident also. Both work with matter on some plane in the three worlds, and do evil that good may come; both control the devas, and attempt to produce specific ends by manipulation of the matter of the form. The Hierarchy works with the soul within the form and produces results that are intelligent, self-induced and permanent. Wherever attention is centred on the form and not on the Spirit, the tendency is to deva worship, deva contact and black magic, for the form is made of deva substance on all planes.

(CF 641) It is not advisable for us further to enlarge upon their functions. It should be noted that in connection with the matter aspect there is less to be said than on consciousness, and on the hylozoistic aspect of manifestation. The reason lies in the fact that exoteric science is slowly, yet steadily, finding out the nature of phenomena, and discovering for itself the character of electrical manifestation. In their slowness of discovery lies safety. It is not wise nor right yet for the true nature of these different forces and powers to be fully known; therefore, it is not possible for us to do more than indicate certain broad general lines. In due course of time, as the human family becomes centred in the higher, and not in the lower nature, and as the force from the higher planes can more easily impose itself on the lower, the facts concerning these Lives and Builders, their methods of work, and the laws of their being will be known. Knowledge at this time would be productive of two results. It would first of all bring the human family into the power (as yet blind and destructive) of [Page 642] certain elementals, who are of a nature analogous to that of the physical body. Hence destruction of the form would ensue, or paralysis and insanity on a large scale would eventuate. Secondly, it would put power into the hands of certain of the Brothers of the Left Hand Path11 and of a number of unconscious magicians (of whom there are quite a number) who would use it only for selfish, evil and material ends. Hence no more can be said anent dense physical substance and its embodiers. The Agnichaitans of the third group are as yet a menace to man, and are only handled in group formation, and on a large scale by the head of the Manu's department through their own rulers-certain devas of a development equal to that of the sixth Initiation.

(DON 35) When the nature of the present struggle is better understood and its subjective causes are considered instead of the superficial objective reasons, then real progress will be made in the process of releasing humanity from the thraldom and the narrowness of the present civilisation and from the influence of the forces and energies which are responsible for the situation. These will be understood, correctly handled and rightly directed towards constructive and desirable ends. In the realm of this conflict, the great and fundamental law that "energy follows thought" always holds good, and one of the conditions which is inducing the present stress and strain is due to the fact that so many millions of people are beginning to think. This means that the ancient simplicity which has held good up to five hundred years ago is no longer controlling and the situation is much more complex. In ancient days the forces were largely controlled by the Lords of Materiality (those whom the ignorant and the prejudiced esotericist call "the black forces"); the forces of spirituality plus the thought of a handful of advanced men in the different nations were not so potent as they are today. The situation was then relatively simple. It was part of the [Page 36] evolutionary plan that matter and substance should temporarily control and that spirit should learn to "mount on the shoulders of matter" as the Ancient Wisdom puts it. Now, however, owing to the widespread education of the masses and the many means of worldwide propaganda, these masses are themselves either thinking independently or are thinking as directed by the powerful minds everywhere to be found and which are seeking to control world events. Hence the increasing difficulty of the problem and one that is equally difficult for the Lords of the Left Hand Way as it is for the Great White Lodge. This is a point which you should consider and discover the implications.

(DON 36) Humanity itself is rapidly arriving at the point where its united will will be the determining factor in world affairs and this will be due to the unfoldment of the mind through the success of the evolutionary process. It is right here that many experiments will be made (and are being made today) and many mistakes must inevitably take place. The major requirement therefore at this time is the rapid educating of the people in the Plan and in the nature of the forces which are controlling evolution and their directing agencies. The fact of the Hierarchy must be announced in no uncertain terms, thereby arousing public interest, public investigation and public recognition. In the process of so doing much will be learnt of the balancing group of initiates and adepts who work entirely with the material side of life and in whom (for this major cycle) the love aspect of the soul remains totally undeveloped, whereas the mind nature is potently expressing itself. If you will study what I have earlier given anent certain of the higher and lower expressions of the rays you will see how these two fields of endeavour — that of the Hierarchy, animated by love and that of the opposite pole, the Black Lodge, working entirely [Page 37] through mind and substance — are engaged and their close relationship will emerge. You will realise then that the margin of difference is very slight and is to be found solely in intention, in the underlying purpose and the concrete objectives which this group of material workers have set themselves. The major instrument of the Black Lodge is the organising power of the mind and not the coherent influence of love, as is the case with the Masters of the Wisdom. Yet in the natural process of form evolution, these workers on the darker side of life have their useful function. Because they are working predominantly through the mental principle, we find the susceptibility of the untrained masses to this mental imposition and the facility with which they can be regimented and standardised. They have no power to think with clarity for themselves and their minds are consequently plastic and receptive to the powerful forces directed by the two contributing groups — the spiritual workers of the planet and the material workers. Because the bulk of human beings are still materially focussed, the forces which work on the side of matter find a line of least resistance which is not available to the Masters of the Great White Lodge. This danger is, however, lessening decade by decade.

(DON 42) Such is the task of the white magician and as evolution proceeds and becomes more complicated and complex it will nevertheless be more rapid and more accurately defined in the mind of the magician. All, therefore, that is conducive to human sensitivity and to increased awareness is the work of the white magician; all that tends to produce better forms through which the living principle of deity can express itself is the work of the white magician; all that serves to thin or tear away the veil between the worlds wherein those who have no physical bodies live and move and work and the worlds of outer form is the work of the white magician. Of all this type of work there is always much, but never more so than at this time owing to the coming into manifestation of this ray of the magician (black and white), the seventh ray. Hence the rapid growth of the sense of omnipresence and the recognition of the non-existence of time in relation [Page 43] to reality. This has taken place through the discovery and use of the radio and of the many means of communication and through the steady growth of telepathic interplay; hence also the spread of education, enlarging man's horizon and opening up to him new worlds for investigation and adventure; hence also the breaking down of the old and limiting forms through the invoked force of the first ray, which has hitherto always worked through the medium of the seventh ray, because the kingdoms in nature cannot yet stand pure first ray energy; hence also the keen interest in the life after death and the appearance of all the many groups which are today investigating the nature of survival and the probability of immortality; hence again the appearance of the modern spiritualistic movement. This is a direct effect of the coming into manifestation of the seventh ray. Spiritualism was the religion of old Atlantis and the seventh ray dominated that ancient civilisation for a very long period of time, particularly during the first half of its existence, just as the fifth ray is of such dominant potency in our Aryan age and race.

It is through the correct development of spiritualism along psychological lines and the withdrawal of its emphasis upon phenomena (which is its outstanding characteristic and emphasis today) that the true nature of death and of the hereafter will be revealed. But it is in connection with spiritualism that I can best illustrate the lower expression of the incoming seventh ray influences. The work of the seventh ray is, as you know, the relating of life and of form, but when the emphasis is laid upon the form aspect then the wrong procedure eventuates and the work of the black magician can begin, and his objectives come unduly into play. This is what has happened in the spiritualistic movement; its investigators are occupied with the form side of life and [Page 44] its adherents with the satisfaction of their emotional desires (again related to the form side) so that the true import of the movement is in danger of being lost.

(DON 54) A careful analysis of the idealism of

Russia

and of the Untied States may reveal no resemblances in the goal of their idealism; the Russian is driven by his seventh ray soul towards the imposition of an enforced ceremonial of ordered rhythms, leading to an idealised order and a community of interests. Because of this and because of the enforced work, some forces are present and active in

Russia

which need most careful handling by the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet. These forces working in

Russia

are concerned with the magic of form whereas pure white magic is concerned only with the soul or with the subjective aspect, as it conditions the objective. The "black forces," so called, are nowhere rampant in Russia any more than in other parts of the world, but the Russian reaction and attitude to enforced rule and order has in it more of the magical seventh ray influence than is the case in other countries; Germany also enforced a standardised order and way of living but this was definitely submitted to the control of the black forces.

(DON 88) I would remind you also that the life of the disciple is ever a life of risks and of dangers, entered into willingly and deliberately in the cause of spiritual unfoldment and the service of humanity. But I would ask each of you to watch your emotional life and reactions with greatly increased care; I would ask you to watch particularly for the least outcropping of glamour. I would call your attention to the fact that the emergence of emotional conditions or of glamour in your life-expression need not necessarily indicate failure. There is only failure if there is identification with these astral conditions and a succumbing to old rhythms. The success of the meditation work assigned and regularly followed may be proved to you by the appearance of these undesirable conditions; they must be then recognised for what they are, and evoke in you that "divine indifference" which permits the emotion or the glamour to die of attrition, because deprived of the "feeding-power" of the attention. The whole history of true emotional control is to be found in the sentence just given. The process of achieving this control constitutes one of the most difficult periods in the life of the disciple and quite one of the longest from the angle of time. For this you should be prepared. Particularly is it difficult at this time to triumph over emotion because of the intense emotional condition of the entire human family and the widespread fear and terror for which the energy of the Black Lodge of Adepts is responsible. This definitely complicates your problem and that of all disciples: it tends to foster a most potent glamour. [Page 89] So I beg of you to proceed with courage, joy, understanding, extreme caution and—at the same time—with speed.

(DINAII 41) I have given you much in this instruction. I seek to make my Ashram useful at this time of crisis. We have had a great crisis of materialism and the powers of darkness have very nearly assumed control. But we are seeing the slow domination of the good. Humanity has been the battleground for a major conflict between the two great Lodges—the great White Lodge and the Black Lodge. The former is now gradually gaining control.

The withdrawal (quite imminent in time, my brothers) of the evil group will leave humanity relieved but bewildered, beaten to the ground, but with enough strength to rise to greater heights than ever before. For this withdrawal I ask you to prepare—with intelligence, wise understanding and deep love.

(DINAII 438) The whole point, brother of mine, is that in both connections the incentive towards activity lies with the individual and there is no imposing authority. The only authority recognised is the truth as it emerges in the human consciousness, in any world or historical cycle. Today more truth is being recognised (and incidentally, repudiated) than at any other time in human history. Men have attained the point in evolution where they are able to know the truth if and when presented, because the concrete human mind is now more highly responsive to abstract truth, and therefore to the next evolutionary presentation. It is this which the Totalitarian Powers, the unconscious (and I mean that, brother of mine) agents of the Black Lodge are fighting; they will not win; in the long run they cannot, for the human spirit is eternally sound and sane.

(DINAII 382) 5. He indicates a growing sensitivity to all that is spiritually esoteric (forget not that there is an esotericism which is not spiritual, but which is strictly related to black magic); his inner hearing and his eye of vision are rapidly being brought into an occult focus.

(DINAII 582) Note that this seventh ray potency is concentrated in your personality, and when your second ray soul energy sweeps into prominence, the initial effect is oft to negate the activity of the personality. This is oft forgotten and is most confusing to the neophyte in its earlier manifestations. Later, the disciple learns from experiment and experience that all the rays are subrays of the great second ray. This you know theoretically, but that is different from the wisdom which comes from understanding as the result of action. Once this fact is grasped, you can begin to use all the forces in your equipment as the implements of loving service. Here lies your major technical lesson. Your line of least resistance is that of establishing relationship with the end in view of building a form. This is also the line of pure magic and—as you know—it can be either black or white. There are two modes of creative work: One mode is that which is implemented by seventh ray potency. This builds and creates within matter and within the periphery of the three worlds; it is exceedingly forceful when it is wielded through the medium of a seventh ray personality and a seventh ray physical body, as is the case with you. The other mode is that of the second ray, which is applied from without the three worlds and from soul levels; it works through radiation, magnetic appeal and coherent energy. Ponder on these two modes.

(DINAII 731) Your astral body is first ray in nature and hence the potent hold which glamour has had on you—a glamour inherited from three previous lives and rendered one-pointed and powerful in this life through your first ray astral nature. You willed to deal with glamour; you ran, last life, a great risk of wandering on to the path of black magic. Your recognition of me and my work and your instantaneous cooperation, completely negated that possibility, but the tendency to glamour remained and still does.

(EINA 61) 2. He is sensitive to and should be increasingly aware of certain energies, at present unknown and of no use to him; of these he must eventually become aware, if he is to move deeper into the world of hidden forces. They may be energies which, for him, would be evil were he to work with them, and these must be distinguished and discarded; there are others which he must learn to use, for they would prove beneficial and would increase his knowledge, and should therefore be regarded as good. Bear in mind, however, that energies per se are neither bad nor good. The Great White Lodge, our spiritual Hierarchy, and the Black Lodge employ the same universal energies but with different motives and objectives; both groups are groups of trained esotericists.

(EOH 41) The third function of this second group lies in a more distant future. The Hierarchy has necessarily a department of workers whose major task it is to work solely in the world of illusion and with astral matter. This department came into being in Atlantean days when the great controversy [Page 41] took place between those who embodied the consciousness or soul aspect of deity and those who were similarly representative of the matter aspect of deity. Symbolically speaking, the left-hand and the right-hand paths came into being; white and black magic were brought into conflict with each other and the pairs of opposites (always existent in manifestation) became active factors in the consciousness of advanced humanity. The battle of discrimination was opened, and humanity became active upon the field of Kurukshetra. Where there is no conscious response to a condition and no registered awareness, there is no problem of responsibility, as far as the soul is concerned. In Atlantean times, this condition was evoked and hence the problem facing the race today; hence the task of the Hierarchy to free the souls of men from the surrounding glamour and to enable them to achieve liberation. The culmination of the issue and the controversy, then initiated, is now upon us.

(EOH 34) The two other forces which tend to increase the already prevalent tension in the world are:

4. The forces of materialism, streaming out into the three worlds from the so-called "Dark Forces" or Black Lodge, and from those groups of lives and workers which are the antithesis of the Great White Lodge.

5. The force emanating from that section of humanity which is found in every part of the world and which we call the Jewish people. What I say here has no specific reference to any individual; I am considering the world problem, centering around the Jews as a whole.

These two forces greatly complicate the problem by which humanity and the Hierarchy are faced, but it should be remembered that they also produce that balancing which is ever needed for the production of right conditions.

There is little that I can tell you about the Dark Forces. They are not the problems of humanity but that of the Hierarchy. The task of these Forces is the preservation of the form life and the working out of methods and aims which are inherent in the processes of manifestation. The Black Lodge, so-called, is occupied with the form aspect of [Page 75] manifestation; the White Lodge, with the consciousness aspect. It might, therefore, be stated that:

1. Shamballa is occupied with the life aspect in its graded impulses.

2. The Hierarchy is occupied with the consciousness aspect in its graded series of expansions.

3. The Black Lodge is occupied with the matter aspect in its multiplicity of forms.

Again, light may come to you, if you relate this triple statement to the three solar systems and to the three aspects of divinity. Evil or wrong, therefore, exists only when the emphasis is retained in the wrong aspect from the point of view of the unfoldment attained or when that which has been used and developed to the necessary point, holds the life or consciousness too long. Hence, my brothers, the beneficent nature of death.

The Forces of Darkness are powerful energies, working to preserve that which is ancient and material; hence they are pre-eminently the forces of crystallisation, of form preservation, of the attractiveness of matter, and of the lure of that which is existent in the form life of the three worlds. They consequently block deliberately the inflow of that which is new and life-giving; they work to prevent the understanding of that which is of the New Age; they endeavour to preserve that which is familiar and old, to counteract the effects of the oncoming culture and civilisation, to bring blindness to the peoples and to feed steadily the existing fires of hate, of separateness, of criticism and of cruelty. These forces, as far as the intelligent peoples of the world are concerned, work insidiously and cloak their effort in fair words, leading even disciples to express hatred of persons and ideologies, fostering the hidden seeds of hatred found in many human beings. They fan to fury the fear and hate of the world in an effort to preserve that which is old and make the unknown appear undesirable, and they hold back the forces of evolution and of progress for their own ends. These [Page 76] ends are as inscrutable to you as are the plans of the Ruler of Shamballa.

(EOH 128) In Atlantean days, it was stated that the battle was between [Page 128] the Forces of Darkness (the so-called "Black Lodge of Adepts") and the Forces of Light (the so-called Great White Lodge, the Hierarchy of Masters). That was then approximately true, for the conflict was between two small groups and the masses of the people were simply the blind and miserable victims of the fight and of the situation.

Today, it is not possible to make such a clear distinction between the forces engaged, nor is it properly admissible. No nation or group of nations can be classed in a broad generalisation as either black or white. Bear this in mind. Only those with no vision and an intolerant and prejudiced spirit will speak thus. All nations have within them those who belong in their thousands to the category of those who are swayed by the Forces of Light and who, therefore, respond normally and easily to the concept of goodwill, to the desire for right relationship between all men and to the ideal of true international and world understanding. In all nations there are those to whom this position makes no appeal at all and they are still in darkness and blinded to the true issues. This is a statement of fact. Those who seek to see the establishment of goodwill and understanding are in the majority but are—as I pointed out in earlier writings—relatively futile to control the situation as yet or to force their leaders to follow the mass will-to-good. They are either inspired or protected by the Hierarchy of Light and it is with them that the task of stimulating the free expression of this goodwill must be carried forward when the conflict ends.

These are forces which it is well for you to recognise as existing, but there is little that you, as individuals or as groups, can do about them beyond seeing to it that there is nothing in you which could make you—unimportant as you are—a focal point for their efforts or an agent for the distribution of their peculiar type of energy—the energy of focussed and directed hate, of separation, of fear and pride. With them we who are connected directly with the Hierarchy have to deal, but you can aid more than you know through the regulation of thoughts and ideas, through the cultivation of a loving spirit and through the general use of the Great Invocation.

As for the other group, they are those who through inclination or ancient karma are the descendants of the Lords of darkness; their actions and ideals make possible the activity of the forces of materialism. I would have you note that phrasing. Even the most dangerous of them are nevertheless conscious of some form or another of idealism, but they are misguided and full of response to the will-to-power (power upon the physical plane and through the medium of form activity). This is stimulated by the inflow of the Shamballa energy. Because of these reactions and tendencies, they constitute focal points for those Lives and [Page 129] Energies which are inherent in matter itself and whose influence and work are dedicated to the preservation of form, and of that which is. They endeavour constantly to negate the new and to hold back the evolution and development of the human consciousness. Forget not that the real issue is in the field of consciousness and that the struggle is between form and the life within the form, and between progress, leading to the liberation of the human spirit, and reactionary activity, leading to the imprisonment of the human consciousness and the restriction of its free expression.

(EOH 340) Freedom, my brothers, can itself prove a limitation when it delays right action, when it centres attention upon the petty differences and the personality inclinations of people and when it serves to prevent that unity of action which can win the war. It has been necessary for the leaders of the peoples to take valuable time to bring them to a proper sense of values and to the realisation that individual and national differences and points of political and religious disagreement must all give place to the one supreme requirement—the winning of the war and the releasing of humanity from the threatened slavery, the steadily mounting fear, and the world domination of the Black Lodge.

(EOH 433) 3. The conflict at present involving humanity has its source not only in human weakness and selfishness, but in a situation which has existed for ages between the Great White Lodge of Masters and the Lodge of Black Adepts. This started in Atlantean times and must now be fought out to a finish. With the details of this struggle (fought on mental levels) you have no concern, except in so far as you and the rest of mankind react to lies or to truth. Two streams of mental energy or of thought-directed ideas impinge powerfully at this time upon the human consciousness. One is embodied in the lying propaganda emanating from the Axis Powers and affecting potently not only their own peoples but the selfish politicians, the intolerant and the racially conditioned people, and the well-intentioned but short-sighted appeasers and pacifists. The second stream is embodied in the idealism, the humanitarianism, and the clear presentation of the factual situation which characterise the best minds in every nation and which condition the thinking of the leaders of the United Nations; this stream has, for instance, conditioned the attitude and the changed orientation of the U.S.S.R., and has brought them to a position of cooperation and to a relinquishing of some of their separative ideas.

The leader of the conflict against evil in high places is the Christ, the Head of the Hierarchy. What is the attitude of the Christ at this time? In all reverence, and as one of His humblest friends and personal workers, I am permitted to tell you a little of His position as He nears the great event in May of this year. He knows Himself to be the inner spiritual Commander of the Armies of the Lord. His is the responsibility of awakening the souls of men to their presented opportunity and to the need of bringing [Page 434] to an end this ancient conflict between the Lords of Evil and the Messengers of Light. His has been the problem of teaching humanity that, in order to demonstrate true love and to provide scope and opportunity for a civilisation in which love, brotherhood and right human relations are governing factors, those essential steps must be taken which will accomplish this.

(EOH 438) "The focussed and concentrated work of the Hierarchy at the time of the Full Moon of May, 1944 is—by Their united effort, Their blended thought and Their illumined will power, under the trained guidance of [Page 438] the Buddha and the Christ—to withdraw the energy of the will-to-separation and aggression (a distortion of first ray energy) away from the Forces of Evil and channel it again, via the Hierarchy; it will then demonstrate as the Will-to-Good, and this will express itself via the men of goodwill on Earth. This requires a great Act of Absorption by the Hierarchy."

The Buddha will start the process at the time of His appearance, through the use of a great first ray mantram. This can be used only by someone of His initiate standing and in collaboration with the Lord of the World. He will thereby deflect the Shamballa force which the Adepts of the Black Lodge have turned loose into the Axis nations; this has been made possible by their receptivity to the will-to-power. He will "corral" it (if I may use such a colloquial and inappropriate term) and will place it at the disposal of the Christ. The reception and the acceptance of this first ray energy will require a tremendous effort upon the part of the Christ, the Custodian of the energy of the second Ray of Love-Wisdom. It is for this "reception" that He started to prepare at the time of the April Full Moon.

I have told you elsewhere that this direct impact of the Shamballa energy upon humanity very seldom occurs. It has been loosed only three times during the entire history of the human kingdom. At other times, it makes its impact directly upon the Hierarchy, and is then transmuted or stepped down so that humanity can take it. The three times it has been directed, unimpeded and untransmuted, towards humanity are:

1. At the time of the individualisation of animal-man when the mind principle was implanted. This was the birth hour of the human soul.

2. In Atlantean days when the power of the Black Lodge was so great that defeat faced the Hierarchy and the destruction of the human soul. Shamballa then interfered, and the world of that time was [Page 439] destroyed. This period is recognised in modern history as the time of the Great Flood.

3. Today, once again, the Powers of Darkness are attempting to destroy humanity and the spiritual values. The power of Shamballa was let loose, destroying old forms—political, social and religious—but at the same time this power was seized upon by the evil forces to destroy the souls of men, to precipitate war and to destroy the cities and all our centres of civilisation and culture. The first phase or form of destruction was directed by the disciples, the aspirants and the clear

thinking people of the world, and this was needed and very good. The old social, political and religious forms were stultifying the human soul and handicapping all progress. The second phase or form of destruction was directed by evil, and was focussed through those nations who had succumbed to the glamour of superiority, to the temptation of material aggression and to intolerant racial hatreds, implemented by cruelty and barbarism.

The time has now come when this divine energy must express itself through the second aspect of the will-to-good, and not through the first aspect, the will-to-power. Mankind has had to be shown that it is not yet ready for power, because the will-to-good is not adequately strong to balance this first aspect of the will.

This then is the task of the Christ and of the Buddha at the time of the May Full Moon—to channel and redirect the Shamballa force. If They can do this, the result will be a new realisation and accomplishment of the will-to-good by the New Group of World Servers, under the receptive guidance of the world disciples and a responsive activity of the men and women of goodwill.

(EOH 493) One point should here be remembered, and that is that this phase applies to both the great White Lodge and the Black Lodge—the one dedicated to the beneficent task of purifying and aiding all lives in the three worlds of material evolution and to the release of the soul in form, and the other to the retardation of the evolutionary process and to the continuous crystallising of the material forms which hide and veil the anima mundi. Both groups have been profoundly interested and implicated in this matter of the release of energy from the atom and the liberation of its [Page 493] inner aspect, but their motives and objectives were widely different.

2. The imminence of this release—inevitable and under direction—produced an enormous tension in hierarchical circles because (to express the idea colloquially) a race was on between the Dark Forces and the Forces of Light to acquire possession of the techniques necessary to bring about this liberation of needed energy. Had the Dark Forces triumphed, and had the Axis Powers obtained possession of the needed scientific formulas, it would have led to a major planetary disaster. The released energy would have been used first of all to bring about the complete destruction of all opposing the forces of evil, and then it would have been prostituted to the preservation of an increasingly materialistic and non-idealistic civilisation.

Germany

could not be trusted with this power, for all her motives were compelling wrong.

(EOH 615) As the disciple confronts both the inner and the outer events and possibilities, he is apt to register a sense of complete frustration; he longs to help, but knows not what [Page 615] to do; his grasp of the menacing difficulties, his analysis of his resources and of those with whom he works, and his clarity of perception as to the forces ranged against him, make him feel inclined to sit back and say: What is the use of any effort I can make? Why not let the two forces of good and evil, of the Black Lodge and the Spiritual Hierarchy, fight it out alone? Why not permit the pressure of the evolutionary current, eventually and at long last, to bring cessation to the fight and the triumph of the good? Why attempt to do it now?

(EOH 676) Initial opposition to the founding of these centres of clear thinking men and women, working freely and understandingly with one of the Masters or senior initiates, is already unhappily present; it is to be found in the narrowness, the biassed information and the lack of freedom of the totalitarian schools of thought. This was inevitable, for the Black Lodge ever endeavours to parallel, offset and undo the work of the White Lodge, and hitherto quite successfully. But the cycle of success is slowly closing because the energy of goodwill, emanated by the Will-to-Good, is rapidly becoming effective.

(EOH 685) Necessarily, the problem is one of a change in the orientation of perception but not necessarily in modes of living or in any definitely physical plane adjustments. Hierarchical orientation has for some centuries been one of a very strict internal consolidation, in order that the magnetic aura of the Hierarchy may unfailingly respond to impression from Shamballa, and also be of so potent a nature that it can form a protective screen around the human family. Forget not the nature of the protective service which the Masters have assumed on behalf of mankind, standing between humanity and the emanations and influences and the magnetic aura of the Black Lodge.

This internal consolidation has been greatly strengthened [Page 685] during the past one hundred years. Because of this, and because of the resultant clarity of impression and of the potent out-going influence, the Plan for humanity—as a Whole—was imparted with emphasis to disciples in the Ashrams, and by them was formulated clearly and presented to humanity.

(GAWP 20) Glamour has oft been regarded as a curious attempt of what are called the "black forces" to deceive and hoodwink well-meaning aspirants. Many fine people are almost flattered when they are "up against" some aspect of glamour, feeling that their demonstration of discipline has been so good that the black forces are interested sufficiently to attempt to hinder their fine work by submerging them in clouds of glamour. Nothing could be further from the truth. That idea is itself part of the glamour of the present time, and has its roots in human pride and satisfaction.

(GAWP 210) 2. The second stage of the focussing process is produced through the effort to meditate. In the previous stage, the blending of the two material lights was entirely a form process and the aspirant is actuated entirely by his personality forces and expediency. An illustration of this and of its effectiveness can be seen in the man who, from purely selfish motives and through an intense concentration, focusses his mind and brings about the gratification of his desires and the achievement of his goals. He kills out all emotional reactions and goes a long way towards dissipating glamour. He develops the ability to draw on the light of matter itself (physical matter and mental substance) and thus he generates a false light from which soul light is rigorously excluded. It is this power which eventually produces a black magician. He has developed the capacity to draw [Page 210] upon the light energy of matter itself and to focus it so powerfully and effectively that it becomes a great destructive force. It is this which has given Hitler and the six evil men associated with him their power to destroy upon the material plane. But, in the case of the aspirant, the power to meditate upon spiritual reality and to contact the soul offsets the dangers inherent in focussing on and using solely the light of matter; to the lesser light of matter is added the light of the soul and then these two blended lights, or aspects of the One Light, are focussed upon the mental plane through the power of the creative imagination. This enables man eventually to dissipate glamour and liberates him from the astral plane.

(OM 71) First let me say that certain information that may seem to be the natural sequence and corollary of that which I have to impart will have to be withheld. The dangers involved through the injudicious development of the centres are too great for us to venture yet to give full and detailed instructions. We seek to develop Masters of Compassion, dispensers of the love of the universe. We seek not to develop Masters of Black Arts and specialists in ruthless self-expression at the expense of the uninitiated. Certain facts have been, and can be, imparted. They will lead to the development of the intuition, and inspire the seeker after light to more earnest endeavour. Others must be withheld for they would be weapons of great danger in the hands of the unscrupulous. If then it seems to you that I have but imparted only sufficient to arouse interest, know then that that is my aim. When your interest and the interest of all aspirants is sufficiently aroused naught can then be withheld from you.

(OM 92) 3—Dangers arising from the subtle forces that you ignorantly call evil; such dangers consist in attack on the pupil by extraneous entities on some one plane. These entities may simply be discarnate human beings; they may be the denizens of the other planes who are nonhuman; later on, when the student is of sufficient importance to attract notice, the attack may come from those who deal purely with matter to the hindrance of spiritual growth,—the black magicians, the dark brothers, and other forces that appear destructive. This appearance is only such when viewed from the angle of time and in our three worlds, and is but incidental to the fact that our Logos Himself is also evolving, and (from the standpoint of the infinitely greater Ones Who assist Him in His development) it is dependent upon His transitory imperfections. The imperfections of nature—as we term them—are the imperfections of the Logos, and will eventually be transcended.

(OM 192) It is on the misuse of this knowledge that much of what we call black art or evil magic is based. By means of invocation and forms the Dark Brothers (or those who tamper with what you ignorantly term the powers of evil) tap forces connected with dark intelligences in high places. Thus they set in motion happenings on the physical plane that have their origination in the dark mysterious caves of cosmic evil as found within our solar system. Equally so, it is possible to tap the still greater forces of light and good and to make application of them on the side of evolution.

(LOS 200) This is done through continence, pure living and clean thinking, and not through any perversions of occult truth such as sex magic and the enormities of the sex perversions of various so-called occult schools. The latter are on the black path and do not lead to the portal of initiation.

(WM 126) You ask, whether workers in black magic possess not an equal power? I answer, no. They can work in the three worlds, but they work from and in the plane of mind, and do not function, therefore, outside their field of endeavour, as does the soul. They can achieve, from their proximity and identification with their working materials, results more potent temporarily and more rapid in accomplishment than the worker in the White Brotherhood, but the results are ephemeral; they carry destruction and disaster in their wake, and the black magician is eventually submerged in the resulting cataclysm.

(WM 229) One path leads back into the dreary land of rebirth, and the other leads through the golden gate to the city of free souls. One is therefore involutionary and involves him in deepest matter; the other leads him out of the body nature, and makes him eventually aware of his spiritual body, through which he can function in the kingdom of the soul. One path, later on (when he is a true and pledged chela) is known to him as the left hand path and the other the path of right activity. On one path, he becomes proficient in black magic, which is only the developed powers of the personality, subordinated to the selfish purposes of a man whose motives are those of self interest and worldly ambition. These confine him to the three worlds and shut the door which opens on to life.

(WM 231) Accepted disciples, who battle all the above enumerated factors, plus the black forces arrayed against the Elder Brothers, can call upon the spiritual energies of their group and at rare and indicated moments upon the Master under whom they work. Thus the work and labour expands; thus the responsibility and struggle steadily increases; yet at the same time there is also a steadily growing reception of potencies which can be contacted and utilized and which when correctly contacted insure victory at the end.

(WM 239) Second ray people are peculiarly a prey to this. For the majority of them it constitutes the "dweller on the threshold", just as ambition and love of power, backed by frantic desire and unscrupulousness form the "Dweller" for the first ray types. The crystallized thought form of intellectual achievement for selfish ends, and the use of knowledge for personality objectives stand before the portal of the path in the case of the third ray person, and unless broken up and destroyed will dominate him and turn him into a black magician.

(WM 382) Three things might be mentioned:

a. The relatively low point of evolution of many men and their naturally physical polarization.

b. The work of the black adepts and the followers of the left hand path. When the Ibezhan adepts (again under instructions from the Masters at Shamballa) began to withdraw into the Temples, to make the mysteries more difficult of attainment and to work against abuses and distortions, a number of Their erstwhile followers, many of great power and knowledge, fought Them and thus we have one of the causes of the appearing of [Page 382] black and white magic, and one of the reasons of the purifying waters of the flood being deemed necessary.

c. The powerful thought-forms built up in the early Ibezhan mysteries and which (particularly in

America

) are as yet undestroyed. This gigantic "Dweller on the Threshold" of all the true Mysteries has to be slaughtered before the aspirant can pass on.

(WM 481) It is right here, in the use of thought, that the difference between black and white magic can be seen. Selfishness, ruthlessness, hatred, and cruelty characterise the worker in mental substance whose motives are, for many lives, centred around his own aggrandisement, focussed on his personal acquisition of possessions, and directed entirely to the attainment of his own pleasure and satisfaction, no matter what the cost to others. Such men are happily few, but the way to such a point of view is easy to achieve, and many need to guard themselves lest they tread unthinkingly the way towards materiality.

(WM 472) Granted all this you might appositely inquire: Are there some simple rules which the earnest and sincere beginner could apply to this science of building and which are so clear and concise that they will produce the needed effect? There are, and I will state them simply so that the beginner will, if he follows them, escape the dangers of black magic, and learn to build in line with the plan. He will, if he follows the rules I give, avoid the intricate problem which he has himself blindly constructed and which will indeed shut out the light of day, darken his world, and imprison him in a wall of forms which will embody for him his own peculiar great illusion.

These rules may sound too simple for the learned aspirant but for those who are willing to become as little children they will be found to be a safe guide into truth [Page 473] and will eventually make them able to pass the tests for adeptship. Some are couched in terms symbolic, others are necessarily blinds, still others express the truth just as it is.

1. View the world of thought, and separate the false out of the true.

2. Learn the meaning of illusion, and in its midst locate the golden thread of truth.

3. Control the body of emotion for the waves that rise upon the stormy seas of life engulf the swimmer, shut out the sun and render all plans futile.

4. Discover that thou hast a mind and learn its dual use.

5. Concentrate the thinking principle, and be the master of thy mental world.

6. Learn that the thinker and his thought and that which is the means of thought are diverse in their nature, yet one in ultimate reality.

7. Act as the thinker, and learn it is not right to prostitute thy thought to the base use of separative desire.

8. The energy of thought is for the good of all and for the furtherance of the Plan of God. Use it not therefore for thy selfish ends.

9. Before a thought-form is by thee constructed, vision its purpose, ascertain its goal, and verify the motive.

10. For thee, the aspirant on the way of life, the way of conscious building is not yet the goal. The work of cleaning out the atmosphere of thought, of barring fast the doors of thought to hate and pain, to fear, and jealousy and low desire, must first precede the conscious work of building. See to thy aura, oh traveler on the way.

11. Watch close the gates of thought. Sentinel desire. [Page 474] Cast out all fear, all hate, all greed. Look out and up.

12. Because the life is mostly centered on the plane of concrete life, thy words and speech will indicate thy thought. To these pay close attention.

13. Speech is of triple kind. The idle words will each produce effect. If good and kind, naught need be done. If otherwise, the paying of the price cannot be long delayed.

(WM 519) In Instructions such as these, which are to be read by the general public it would be most unwise to give more explicit directions. Enough has been left unsaid to make it impossible for any but a deeply learned student to arrive at the necessary correlations which will enable him to carry forward the "work of the interludes", in which alone magical work can be done. You might ask: Why is this so? Why are the secrets of the breath so carefully guarded? Because the efficacy of black magic is found right here. There is a point where both black and white magic employ necessarily one similar stage in the work. [Page 519] Certain men, with potent wills and clear and trained minds, but animated by purely selfish purpose, have learnt to use the lower of the two soul interludes—that which concerns the relation of mind and brain. Through an intense application and a knowledge of the science of the centres they have been enabled to work out their selfish plans and to impose their will and mental authority upon the "prisoners of the planet". Thus they have wrought much harm. They have no desire to participate in the higher interlude wherein the soul is active, and the mind responsive. The intellectual activity and the responsiveness of the brain to mind impression is all that concerns them. Both white and black magicians, as you see, employ the lower interlude, and both know the significance of the physical breathing interludes. But the white magician works from the soul level out into the manifested world and seeks to carry out the divine plan, whilst the black magician works from the level of the intellect as he seeks to achieve his own separative ends. The difference is not only that of motive, but also of alignment and the radius of the consciousness and its field of expansion. Hence you will see why such extreme caution is evidenced by all true teachers, as they endeavor to teach the nature of the magical work. Only the tested and the true, only the unselfish and the pure can be given the full instructions. All can be given the information concerning the major interludes of soul-mind and mind-brain. Only a few can as yet be trusted with the significant information concerning the minor interludes, carried on in the physical body between breaths and in the brain consciousness.

(WM 544) You might well say here: We have also been taught that there exist those who work in the four ethers and who undoubtedly perform magical deeds, yet who do not possess this essential purity and loving-kindness to which reference has been made. This is undoubtedly true; they belong to a group of workers in matter whom we call Black Magicians; they are highly developed intellectually and can motivate mental substance or mind stuff in such a manner that it can achieve objectivity on the physical plane and bring about their deep intent. About this group there is much misunderstanding and profound ignorance. It is perhaps as well, [Page 544] for their destiny is tied up with the future race, the sixth, and their end and the cessation of their activities will come about in that far distant aeon which is technically called the Sixth Round. The final break or division between the so-called black and white forces, for this particular world cycle, will take place during the period of the sixth root race in the present round. Towards the close of the sixth root race, before the emergence of the seventh, we shall have the true Armageddon about which so much has been taught. A small cycle, corresponding to this final battle and cleavage, will appear during the sixth subrace which is now in process of formation. The world war which has just taken place and our present cycle of separativeness and upheaval, do not constitute the real Armageddon. The war which is told to us in the Mahabharata and the present war had the roots of their trouble and the seeds of the disasters which they brought about, one in the lower and one in the higher astral world. Selfishness and desire of a low order were the impulses back of them both. The coming great division will have its roots in the mental world and will consummate in the sixth subrace. In the sixth root race it will have the seeds of portentous disaster in the coordinated triplicity of mind, astralism, and physical nature, which will bring about a climaxing moment for the planetary duality.

Beyond that we need not go, for the humanity of the sixth round will be so different in nature to ours and those who will differentiate into the black and the white forces will be so unlike what we now understand by the words, that we need not concern ourselves with that far distant problem.

(WM 545) Let it be remembered that the true black magician (I refer not here to a person with a tendency to black magic) is a soulless entity. He is a being in whom the Ego is—as [Page 545] we understand the term today—non-existent. It is oft overlooked and seldom grasped or told that they, therefore, do not exist in physical bodies. Their world is ever the world of illusion. They work, from the lower mental plane, on desire matter and on the sentient desire bodies of those on the physical plane who are swept by delusion and held in the bonds of extreme selfishness and self-centeredness. What the ignorant call a black magician on the physical plane is only some man or woman sensitive to or en rapport with a true black magician on the astral plane. This relationship is only possible when there have been many lives of selfishness, low desire, perverted intellectual aspiration, and love of the lower psychism, and this only when the man has been held willingly in thrall by them. Such men and women are few and far between, for unadulterated selfishness is rare indeed. Where it exists, it is exceedingly potent, as are all one-pointed tendencies.

(WM 552) Given a real thinker, you have an incipient creator and (unconsciously at first, but consciously later on) one who will wield power in order to "precipitate" or cause to emerge objective forms. These forms will either be in line with Divine purpose and plan and, consequently, will further the cause of evolution, or they will be animated by personal intent, characterized by separated, selfish purpose, and constitute, therefore, part of the work of the retro-active forces and the material element. They will be of the nature of black magic.

(WM 610) These words mark the consummation of the magical work, and are equally true of the magical work of a solar Logos, of a planetary Logos, of an incarnating soul, or of that advanced human being who has learnt to work as a white magician under the plan of the great White Lodge. It, of course, refers to the work of those who through intellectual achievement have learnt to work as magicians but on what is called the black side, for the same rules of magical work hold good for both groups, though the motivating impulse differs. But with the work of the black magician we have naught to do. That which they do is powerful in transient effect, using the word transient in its cyclic sense; but these effects must in due time cease, and be subordinated to the claims and the work of the bringers of light and of life.

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