Compilation Third Initiation (78 pages)
(GAWP 256) Behind this lies a third and even more important factor—the WILL. Therefore, the only person who can safely [Page 256] and usefully practise breathing exercises is the man whose will is active—his spiritual will and, therefore, the will of the Spiritual Triad. Any disciple who is in process of building the antahkarana can begin to use, with care, directed breathing exercises. But, in the last analysis, it is only the initiates of the third degree and who are coming under monadic influence who can properly and successfully employ this form of life direction and reach effective results…..
Jupiter in Gemini when powerful (aspects) indicates the initiate-Gemini
rising can also indicate those who are linking Soul and Spirit rather than Soul
and personality
(EA 365) Thus again the essential dualism of this sign becomes apparent. When the Jupiter influence becomes strong and powerful in this sign, it indicates the initiate and the rapidly attained "dualism in synthesis" of soul and spirit. Through the activity of Mercury, the man whose Sun is in Gemini is aided to attain the synthesis of soul and form; through the activity of Jupiter, the man whose rising sign is Gemini is enabled to attain the conscious integration of soul and spirit. Note these two points for they are of real significance.
(EA 331) The initiate who has taken the three lower initiations is occupied henceforth with the effects of the cosmic influences upon the planet and incidentally upon the fourth kingdom in nature and with the higher mental study of their effects as they produce basic and fundamental changes in the systemic life which, in its turn, affects our planet, its kingdoms in nature and incidentally human beings. You can see from this, therefore, that as the evolutionary changes are brought about and as human, planetary and solar consciousness progressively develops, the influences pouring from the constellations, via their intermediaries, the planets, will produce very diverse changes and significant happenings to which man will consciously or unconsciously respond according to his point of development.
(EA 162)
The initiates, in their turn, are being subjected to the impact of energies from Scorpio,
Capricorn and Pisces (Mars, Saturn Pluto)—an inflow of
force from each of the three Crosses. These three forces enable the initiates to take the third
initiation.
(EA 218)
This latter constellation is ruled by Mars, bringing the man into
control or closer touch with the lunar lords, the sixth Creative Hierarchy.
Students should study their charts with care, remembering to differentiate between the five Hierarchies
which are the non-manifesting Hierarchies, and the seven Hierarchies which are in expression
now, and of which the sixth Creative Hierarchy
is a part. This Hierarchy, from the larger angle of the entire twelve
hierarchies and not simply the seven manifesting hierarchies, is the eleventh
or the second. The sixth Ray of Devotion is consequently most
powerful in this age or cycle and hence the
expression in every land today of its best and its worst features, of which the
intense devotion to material things and the intense devotion to spiritual
values are dramatic instances.
(EA 465) These three Crosses make together twelve arms and it is the energy flowing through the twelve arms and their place in the soul horoscope which will assume the major importance. This I will enlarge upon when we take up the theme of the three Crosses. The twelve houses concern the personality. The four arms of the three Crosses concern the soul and it is these twelve and their appearance in the horoscope or their failure to appear which will govern the horoscope of the soul. All the four influences of the three [Page 465] Crosses will be found present in the chart of a Master. Therefore an indication of which constellations are primarily related to the unfoldment of consciousness and to the evolution of spiritual understanding is of significant use here.
(EA 163) When he has taken the third initiation and can consciously mount the Cardinal Cross, he is then released from the ruling of Saturn and comes under the influence of Venus, who is governor or ruler of the Hierarchy which is that of the Crocodiles. A reference to the tabulation heretofore given will show this. It is only when a man is upon the Cardinal Cross that the significance, purpose and potencies of the Creative Hierarchies become clear to [Page 164] him and the "doors of entrance" into all of them stand wide open.
(EA 216) Astrologers would do well to remember that the influence of the constellations, signs and planets, work out upon three levels of awareness—three descending levels—and are felt first of all upon the mental plane, then upon the astral plane and finally upon the physical plane. But it is with this last plane that astrologers are primarily concerned, emphasising happenings and events and not their conditioning causes. At present, astrology deals with effects and not with that which is causing them. There is much confusion over this matter and the horoscopes of the three levels are often much distorted. A horoscope which could be interpreted purely upon the mental plane is given a physical interpretation, and thus happenings which are entirely mental are portrayed as physical occurrences. A clue to this triple interpretation which astrology must eventually recognise can be found in the relation of the orthodox, the esoteric and the hierarchical planets and the rays of which they are the expression.
(DINAI 34) Among the disciples of the New Age groups and ever in a Master's inner Ashram, there is no need for this theory of reticence. You are co-disciples and co-workers. If any of you have in the past or may in the future become initiates, it will not affect your relation to your fellow-disciples in these groups. The knowledges of initiation cannot be passed on by word of mouth within the initiate ranks, for they are not communicated in speech or by letters. Only those who possess certain transcendental senses can take initiation and should they try to communicate the secrets and mysteries of initiation in symbol or form, you would fail to react to or to understand their meaning.
(EPII
346) About this later stage, little can
be profitably said. Teaching which would be intelligible to an
initiate of the third degree would be profitless and unintelligible even to the highly integrated and
intelligent disciple, especially as such teaching is
given necessarily through the use of most abstract and complicated symbols, requiring careful analysis and
interpretation. None of this higher teaching is given
through the medium of words, either spoken or written.
(EPII
341) Eventually, the monadic ray takes control, absorbing into itself the rays of the
personality and of the soul (at the third and fifth initiations) and thus duality is finally and
definitely overcome and "only the One Who Is remains."
(MW 383) Up to the third initiation therefore, disciples have to endeavour to work entirely with mental energy in an effort to control, master and use it. Their attempt is concentrated then upon transmitting (from egoic levels) the will aspect of the soul. That will has to be imposed upon the personality until it has become the automaton of the soul. Then the intuition takes control, and energies from the intuitional or Buddhic plane begin to make their impact upon the form nature, the personality. Prior to this period of intuitional control, there are many lives wherein the intuition may begin to play its part, and the student learns the meaning of illumination. Until after the third initiation, however, it is the illumined mind which is the dominant factor, and not the pure intuitive perception, or pure reason. After this great initiation, which marks a definite transition out of the form consciousness, the initiate can function at will on the plane of the intuition, and the mind is steadily relegated into the background...
(
(DINA1 761) "After the third initiation, the lower centres have
no control whatsoever over the outer mechanism of response; from the
standpoint of the highest occult training and when the disciple is in the
Ashram itself, the centres are
viewed as simply channels for energy."
(WM 438) "The signs which fall therefore into the four categories of earth, water, fire and air, concern
primarily the man who lives below the diaphram, and who utilises the lower four centres"
(EA 23-24)"The zodiacal signs affect
primarily the man who lives below the diaphram. This is the ordinary Average man. These signs thus condition four of the centres: base of spine,
sacral, solar plexus and spleen. The inner group of solar
systems, working in conjunction with the zodiacal signs, affect primarily those
who live above the diaphram. They therefore, condition the heart, throat, ajna and
head centres. Three of the energies work through the head centre but only after
the third initiation."
(
(
The Lost Word. It is the word of the first aspect, and only the initiate of the third degree can truly begin the search for this word...it concerns the highest initiations. (4th,5th 6th,7th )
(CF) "One of the most powerful among the seven creating Angels of the third order being Saturn, the presiding genius of the planet and the God of the Hebrews ... namely Jehovah ... to whom is dedicated the seventh day or Sabbath, Saturday or Saturn's day." (S.D. III. 115.)
(CF 452) The "Words" are used for the manipulation of matter and its bending into form along the line of evolution. Until the inner faculty of clairvoyance is somewhat developed, this knowledge of mantrams remains practically useless and may be even a menace. When a man can see a need for correction and for adjustment in a brother's vehicle, and can awaken in his brother a desire to adjust that which is amiss, wise assistance can be given by the one who sees and sounds. Think this out, for it holds the key to the reason for the safeguarding of the words.
(CF 574)
the Law of Vibration, therefore
comprises eighteen lesser vibrations and three major, making the twenty-one of our
three systems. Two multiplied by nine (2*9),
makes the necessary eighteen, which is the key number of our love system. Twenty-seven holds hid the mystery of the third
system.
(CF 427)
The laws of fire will be gradually permitted exoteric publication; there are twenty-seven occult laws which are only
revealed after initiation at this stage of
evolution. In them are summed up the
basic laws of color and of music and rhythm.
(CF 573) ...the laws of the system on the seven planes, remembering always that these seven laws hold good on the numerically corresponding subplane on each plane. Let me briefly illustrate;
The fourth law, Magnetic Control, for instance, holds sway on the fourth subplane of each plane, in the fourth round, and in the fourth root-race specially. We shall then have the correspondence as follows:
4th Law.......Magnetic Control
4th Ray........Harmony or beauty
4th Plane......The buddhic
4th Subplane..Buddhic Magnetic Control
4th Round.......Dense Physical Magnetism, etc
4th Root-Race.....The Atlantean
(
(
These mantrams
are one of the secrets of the last three initiations and may not be sounded by the pupil before that time without
permission, though he may participate at times in the chanting of the mantram under the Master's direction.
(
(
(
b. Mantrams that permit of intercourse with the devas once they have been called. Speech, as we know it, is not understood by the devas, but impulses, forces, vibrations can be set up by the use of specific forms that lead to the desired result and obviate the need of speech.
c. Mantrams that
influence groups, and others that influence specific devas. I would like
to point out here that as a rule devas are handled in groups
and not as individuals until you contact
devas of a very high order.
(
(
There are a few very esoteric mantrams that exist in the original Sensa, and that have remained in the knowledge of the Brotherhood from the early days of the founding of the Hierarchy. They were brought by the Lords of Flame when They came to earth and are only thirty-five in number. They form the key that unlocks the mysteries of each subplane on the five planes of human evolution. The adept receives instruction on their use, and can employ them in the right place and subject to certain conditions. They are the most powerful known on our planet and their effects are far-reaching. As you know, each plane vibration responds to a different key and note, and its matter is manipulated, and its current tapped, by the sounding of certain words in a specific manner, and in a specific tone. When so sounded, the adept enters into the consciousness of that plane and of all contained therein. Mantrams in any tongue are founded on them, even though so far removed and unlike as to be practically useless.
(
(
(CF 452) The "Words" are used for
the manipulation of matter and its bending into form along the line of
evolution. Until the inner faculty of clairvoyance is
somewhat developed, this knowledge of mantrams
remains practically useless... Selflessness,
sight, and sincerity of purpose must all
three exist before the sounds can be imparted.
Selflessness and sincerity are sometimes found but the occult use of the
inner vision is still rare.
Only third degree initiates and above can
work directly with the deva evolution
(CF 451) Words concerning the deva
evolution are the most dangerous and all
knowledge of them is withheld from men
below the rank of the
third order (3rd
initiation)
It
is not advisable or necessary to develop clairaudience or clairvoyance until
after the 3rd initiation
(IHS 87) Again, a vision is accorded of
what lies ahead; the initiate is in a position at all times to recognise the
other members of the Great White Lodge, and his psychic faculties are stimulated by the vivification of the head
centres. It is not necessary nor
advisable to develop the synthetic faculties, or clairaudience and
clairvoyance, until after this initiation.
(DINAI
111) The psychic
life of a disciple is a definite part of his spiritual expression. It is only when it is
uncontrolled, over-emphasised and overestimated that it is undesirable. It is a
hindrance when it is misused or regarded as a substitute for other forms of
divine expression. Then it produces that which is undesirable and immerses the
disciple in the world of glamour and illusion. The psychic powers are valuable
aids to service when rightly developed and sanely used; they can be unfolded safely by the man who is
mentally polarised (after second initiation ) and rightly oriented towards service.
(OM 74) ...it is useless to lay down rules
for the developement of the centres and to formulate
methods whereby the fire can be circulated until such time as trained teachers with expert knowledge and clairvoyant faculty are in charge of the
work on the physical plane.
(RI 83) This initiate realisation is all brought about by the sudden appreciation of apprehension of sound, by the awakening of the inner ear to the significance of the Voice...That is why, at the third initiation , the initiate sees the star and hears the sound.
(DINA1 742) Stage IV. Chela on the Thread.
"The stage wherein the disciple is taught how (in emergencies) to attract the Master's attention..."
The whole question of psychic sensitivity of the higher kind is involved at this stage.
(DINA1 743) This fourth stage is only possible to a disciple who has been an accepted disciple for more than one life and who has demonstrated his ability to work with selflessness and pertinacity.
(DINA1 741)
He (a disciple) has to be prepared for all experiences and to face the
fact that eventually all disciples
have to become psychics, both higher and lower,
as was the Christ. The only safeguard for which he works is to prevent the lower powers demonstrating until the
higher psychic faculties are functioning...
(DINA1 716) These stages are all of them related to one or other of the initiations...Atlantean stage of a Chela in the Light, to the Aryan stage of Accepted Discipleship. At this stage, the third and real preparation for initiation is consciously undertaken.
(DINA1 728) The term, therefore, of Accepted Disciple covers the stages of the first and second initiations; when a disciple has taken the third initiation, he is no longer technically an accepted disciple, (he is a Chela on the thread) even though he still remains in a Master's group until he has taken the fourth initiation. I am pointing out these technicalities so that there may be clarity and proportion in your thinking.
(DINA1 710)
At the fourth stage, (when he has taken the 4th initiation and
becomes a Chela within the aura) the disciple
emerges out of his Master's group ... He comes then under the influence of Shamballa... involves the unfoldment of the will and the attainment of the stage to which Patanjali gives the name of
"isolated unity." This is a phrase which is quite meaningless
to any one below the degree of the third initiation.
(DINA1 717) Isolated
unity describes the stage which the Master has reached; isolated individuality is that of the disciple; isolated identity
(with the soul) is that of the disciple up to
and including the third initiation.
(
(DINAII 121) The relation between the ajna centre (between the eyebrows) and the thousand-petalled lotus. When these two centres are correctly related to each
other, then the man can take the third initiation at which time the potency of the Monad can begin to make its
presence felt, linking heart and head
and solar plexus.
(EPII 345) We will also touch very briefly
upon the efforts of the initiate as he works through and with the subdued
mechanism of the personality in the service of the Plan. He in his turn—as a functioning soul and
body, united, aligned and used—becomes gradually aware of a still higher
synthesis. After the third initiation, he enters upon a renewed effort to produce a
more inclusive fusion and integration,—this time with the monad or life
aspect. About this later stage, little
can be profitably said. Teaching which
would be intelligible to an initiate of the third degree would be profitless
and unintelligible even to the highly integrated and intelligent disciple, especially as such teaching is given necessarily
through the use of most abstract and complicated symbols, requiring careful
analysis and interpretation. None
of this higher teaching is given through the medium of words, either spoken or
written.
(CF 422) The time for the sounding of the final mantric phrase by ordered active groups lies ahead in the sixth and seventh rounds, and will not reach its full vibration in this solar system at all. "I am That" will peal forth fully consummated in this system of duality, for the third initiation sees the initiate comprehending its mantric force. Nevertheless, initiates of the sixth and seventh Initiations will not preponderate in this system. After the fifth round and the passing into temporary obscuration of two fifths of the human family, the remaining units will achieve an approximate standing as follows:
One fifth will mantrically sound the words "I am That I am. "
Two fifths will achieve the fifth Initiation and will know themselves as "I am That." They will also be cultivating response to the higher note.
One fifth and a half will attain the third Initiation, and will know themselves as "I am That" in full consciousness.
(EOH 529) …initiates above the third degree are rapidly taking the fourth and fifth initiations and becomg Masters (taking both initiations in one life)…
(IHS 85) Many lives may intervene between the first initiation and the second. A long period of many incarnations may elapse before the control of the astral body is perfected, and the initiate is ready for the next step. The analogy is kept in an interesting way in the New Testament in the life of the initiate Jesus. Many years elapsed between the Birth and the Baptism, but the remaining three steps were taken in three years. Once the second initiation is taken [Page 85] the progress will be rapid, the third and fourth following probably in the same life, or the succeeding.
The aspiration and longing to serve, love,
and progress become so strong that rapid development is usually to be
seen. This accounts for the fact that this initiation and the third, frequently
(though not invariably) follow each other in one single life. At this period of the
world's history such stimulus has been given to evolution that aspiring
souls—sensing the dire and crying need of humanity—are sacrificing all in order
to meet that need.... A vision is accorded of the world's need, and a further
portion of the plan shown. The work,
then, to be done prior to the taking of the
third initiation, is the complete submerging of the personal point of view in
the need of the whole. It entails the complete
domination of the concrete mind by the Ego.
(DINAII 336) It is this test which I have been applying in my work with all of you in this special group; the related state persists also on the inner plane after death, and in the consciousness of those (at present non-affiliated) who are still part of the group chosen for the experiment, on my part, of group preparation for initiation. Other Masters are doing the same as I am doing. We hope during the next five hundred years to present several such groups to the One Initiator. All who are in these groups have taken the first initiation, as have so many thousands of people in the world today. Many have taken the second initiation, particularly those who are working in fifth ray Ashrams and in third ray Ashrams, for such disciples are distinguished by a lack of emotional emphasis.
Before the end of this century, thousands will stand before the Initiator and take initiation in group form; they will pass through the door of initiation together and together take their vows. This statement applies to the second and the third initiations. The higher initiations will still be taken individually or in groups of three, but not more. When the Masters take the sixth initiation, They perforce take it alone at the "midway point" between Shamballa and the Hierarchy, apparently deserted by both attentive groups. There, in complete silence and in a condition of "isolated unity," They will make Their great decision. Then and only then will They become aware of the vast attentive spiritual audience which has awaited Their will.
(EH 115) 4. The five major types of
disease, with their allied and subsidiary effects, can and do produce results
where the disciple is concerned; he is not immune until after the
third initiation.
(EH 138) 1. The objective before the initiate is to have every centre in the etheric body responsive to the ray energy of the soul and with all the other seven ray energies subsidiary to it. This process of stimulation, of readjustment, and the attainment of established control goes on until after the third initiation. Then, when that initiation has been taken, the physical vehicle is of a totally different calibre and quality, and the Rules and Laws of Health no longer apply.
(WM 438) he signs which fall therefore into the four categories of earth, water, fire and air, concern primarily the man who lives below the diaphragm, and who utilises the lower four centres:—the centre at the base of the spine, the sacral centre, the solar plexus and the spleen. The inner group of seven major or systemic energies produce their effect upon the man who is living above the diaphragm, and work through the seven representative centres in the head. Four of them focus through the throat centre, the heart centre, the ajna and head centres. Three are held latent in the region of the head centres (the thousand petalled lotus) and only enter into functioning activity after the third initiation.
(EA 24) 2. The inner group of solar systems, working in conjunction with the zodiacal signs, affect primarily those who live above the diaphragm. They, therefore, condition:
a. The heart centre.
b. The throat centre.
c. The ajna centre.
d. The head centre.
3. Three
of the energies work through the head centre but only after the third
initiation.
(IHS 144) It will be apparent, therefore,
to the student that when the Initiator is the Lord of the World, or the
physical reflection of the Planetary Logos of our scheme, the force comes more
directly to the initiate than at the first two initiations, wherein the
Bodhisattva is the Hierophant. Only at
the third initiation will the
initiate be in a condition to receive direct planetary force.
(TEV 137) The throat centre of the average integrated personality is governed by the third ray and is strongly energised by third ray energies (again seven in number), whilst the throat centre of the spiritual aspirant, of disciples and initiates below the third initiation is responding primarily to seventh ray influence, and this is peculiarly the case now as the seventh ray is in incarnation. The rays which are manifesting at any particular time affect powerfully all the other centres as well as the one through which they are normally expressing. This is a point oft forgotten.
(RI 159) This Law of the Supplementary Seven is concerned with the inflow of energy from the seven planetary centres to the seven groups or types of men, via the seven groups within the Hierarchy. In this work of transmission the seven centres of the initiate are used as agencies; their work, therefore, is not the interrelated work of right transmission of energy within the septenary constitution of the etheric body of the individual initiate, implementing his life expression, but is the task of being responsive to the seven types of planetary energy which are received in a pure state...The high Initiates (Those above the rank of Master) work with the energies coming from the seven planets of the solar system at this time active; these feed or implement the seven planetary centres. But the Law of the Supplementary Seven is applied by initiates below the rank of Master, and they are therefore working solely with the seven centres within the Form of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being.
(DON 129) 1. The energy of the mind. This will be the dominant controlling energy used during the period of accepted discipleship and until the second initiation.
2. The energy of the soul. This will be wielded, used and creatively
employed from the second until the third initiation.
3. The energy of soul and mind, blended and synthesised. This combination is of tremendous potency. After the fourth initiation, this will be augmented by energy coming from the Monad.
(DON 137) c. The coming into activity of the throat centre and (because the third ray is closely connected with the first ray) the first faint orientation of spiritual man towards Shamballa can take place, becoming more and more intensified and pronounced at the time of the third initiation. I would like here to point out the numerical correspondences:
1. The third great world centre — humanity.
2. The activity of the third ray — active intellect.
3. The third
initiation which marks the consummation of the 1st, just as the 4th initiation marks the consummation of the second,
and the fifth of the third.
(DON 140) The third initiation is connected with Shamballa as a planetary centre and to the activity of the first ray. It should be borne in mind that this is the first initiation in which personality and soul are united and fused so that the two aspects form one unit. When this initiation has taken place, it happens that for the first time some of its broader group implications become a reality and henceforth constitute the motivating impulse of the initiate's life. Aspiration ends and the intensest conviction takes its place. It is interesting also to note that Venus now comes into control in the third decanate of the Aquarian Age. Venus is esoterically recognised as that mysterious force which is a blend of love and knowledge, of intelligence and synthesis, and of understanding and brotherhood.
The numerical correspondences might be noted as follows, remembering that the third initiation is, in reality, the first initiation of the soul, after complete identification with the personality within the life and consciousness of the Monad, the One and the First.
1. The first planetary centre — Shamballa.
2. The activity of the first ray — will or power.
3. The third initiation which is the first soul initiation, relating the base of the spine to the head centre, and the soul to the Monad.
4. The first major centre — the head.
(DINA1 269) One point might here be noted. The extremity of the disciple in service finally draws out the interest of the soul. After the third initiation, the extremity of the soul (speaking symbolically and conveying no true meaning to the aspirant) evokes the cooperation of the Monad. Thus service is the scientific mode, par excellence, to evoke spiritual integration and to call forth the resources of a divine son of God. I am emphasising this to you as I seek to have you note, during this coming year, the points of crisis in your life which are the outcome of the pressure to serve.
(DINA1 678) There is a curious and ancient Atlantean chant which is no longer used but in those far off times was chanted by the initiate who took the third initiation—the consummating initiation of that period. It goes as follows. The translation of the symbols in which it was written necessitates the loss of rhythm and potency.
(DINA1 710) It will not be possible for me
to indicate the work in detail. I intend only to show you as far as is possible
how a Master prepares the
probationer to step from off the Probationary Path on to the Path of
Discipleship. At this point, I would like to
point out that I shall be dealing with a period covering the stages of
discipleship from the first stage to
that of adept. At the fourth stage, the disciple emerges out of his
Master's group and becomes what is esoterically
called "a fixed aspect of the Hierarchy." This is a phrase which is
necessarily quite meaningless to you. He
comes then under the influence of Shamballa and the mode of preparing people for association with that first
major centre is very different to that of preparing
them for participation in the work of the centre which we call the Hierarchy.
The one involves the development of
love and of group consciousness; the other
involves the unfoldment of the will and the attainment of the stage to which Patanjali gives the name of
"isolated unity." This is a phrase which is quite meaningless to any one below the degree of the third
initiation.
(DINA1 716) The disciple is now,
irrevocably and finally, ready. This takes place
at the third stage, that of Accepted Discipleship.
These stages are all of them related to one or other of the initiations...Atlantean stage of a Chela in the Light, to the Aryan stage of Accepted Discipleship. At this stage, the third and real preparation for initiation is consciously undertaken, because by then integration has been stabilised and the man is full grown and mature in his consciousness and is ready to subject himself to hierarchical impression without reservation.
(DINA1 717) Between
the stages of "isolated individuality" and "isolated unity" lies one to which the name of "isolated identity"
is given. It is with this stage we are concerned and its esoteric implications.
Isolated unity describes the
stage which the Master has
reached; isolated individuality
is that of the disciple; isolated identity (with the soul) is that of the disciple
up to and including the third initiation.
a. Isolated unity is the consummation of the Aryan [page 718] consciousness (5th initiation). Isolated identity is related to the Atlantean consciousness, from the angle of the higher correspondence.
(DINA1 726)
He begins to work with and to comprehend something of planetary karma,
though as yet he undertakes no responsibility in this connection. Only after the third initiation does he consciously and
as an individual cooperate
with the karmic responsibility of the planetary Logos.
I would here like to point out that I am referring to good karma as well as bad. It is the task of the helping disciple to guide the chela in the Light so that he does adjust his karma. This the senior disciple does by thought impression. All karma, when consciously faced, is precipitated by the power of thought; this is perhaps the major lesson which the senior disciple has to teach the neophyte. In this way the latter is aided to see "in the light" which falls upon his way, and the disciple who is preparing him for the stage of accepted discipleship is in constant touch with the Master. Thus a triangular relationship is set up which is of occult value.
(DINA1 728) Disciples who have taken the second initiation are regarded as "probationary initiates," and only when they have taken the third initiation are they truly initiate from the standpoint of the Hierarchy. The first initiation is sometimes spoken of as the "Lemurian Initiation" and the second as the "Atlantean Initiation," but the third initiation—that of our Aryan race—is technically regarded by Them as the first initiation. This is a new angle upon which I would ask you to think. The term, therefore, of Accepted Disciple covers the stages of the first and second initiations; when a disciple has taken the third initiation, he is no longer technically an accepted disciple, even though he still remains in a Master's group until he has taken the fourth initiation. I am pointing out these technicalities so that there may be clarity and proportion in your thinking.
(DINA1 762) I would like, however, to make clear at this point that the Master never uses a disciple's centres as distributing agencies for force. In the last analysis, the centres are (when functioning correctly) reservoirs of force and distributors of energy, coloured by specific quality and of a certain note, vibration, and strength. On the final stages of the Path of Discipleship, they are entirely controlled by the soul, via the head centre, but it should be borne in mind that after the fourth initiation and the disappearance of the causal body, there is no form aspect or vehicle which can hold the disciple a prisoner or any way limited. After the third initiation, the lower centres have no control whatsoever over the outer mechanism of response; from [page 762] the standpoint of the highest occult training and when the disciple is in the Ashram itself, the centres are viewed as simply channels for energy. Until the time of the third initiation, they assume temporary importance in the training process because it is through them that the disciple learns the nature of energy, its distinction from force and the methods of distribution—the latter being one of the last stages in the training process.
(DINA1 767) The "Master's Heart" is a technical term, indicating the sources of life and many analogous interpretations. There is at this stage and after a certain major initiation, (after the 5th ZR) a direct line of energy or of life—sensed, recognised, active and utilised—between the conscious disciple and
1. The disciple's heart centre.
2. The heart
centre in the head.
[page 768]
3. The egoic
lotus, which (until the fourth initiation) is the heart centre of the monadic
life.
4. The Master at the centre of His group.
5. The Christ, the heart centre of the Hierarchy.
6. The life
of the Monad which begins to make itself felt at the third initiation.
7. The Lord of Life Himself, the heart centre of Shamballa.
(DINAII 18) You will note, therefore, that it is my intention to give you such hints. This I shall do from the angle of initiation and in preparation for the second or the third initiation. Bear this in mind. Hitherto I have not taught you from that particular angle, but I have instructed you as accepted disciples in training for preparation—a much earlier stage.
(DINAII 65) The difference between such disciples as you and the more advanced initiates is that your basic orientation is different to that of the Masters. They are oriented to Shamballa; They are relatively unaffected by affairs and happenings in the three worlds, even though that is the sphere wherein Their work lies; there is nothing within Them to react to these phases of planetary livingness. Disciples and all initiates below the third initiation are oriented to the Hierarchy. Not the Council Chamber at Shamballa or the Way to the Higher Evolution engrosses their attention, but the life of the Ashram with which they are affiliated and the Way of Initiation. This is a useful point to bear in mind. There is much in them which can and will react to qualities and events within the three worlds, and—from the angle of the human consciousness—life for them is very difficult because the dualism of existence is apt to produce violent strain.
(DINAII 70) ...a very small minority—may achieve the goal. Or initiation may be taken in the interim period between incarnations, or else immediately upon return to physical plane life. This latter is the most probable for those who are not taking initiations higher than the third; and, at present, for that initiation I am not preparing disciples. It is usually regarded as essential that disciples who are taking the second or third initiations should register them in their brain consciousness. As I have often told you, the initiate consciousness is not the factor which requires to be thus recorded; it is seldom so. Recognition of it comes when the candidate is participating in the "esoteric installation" of a candidate into the ranks of the Great White Lodge. What the disciple undergoing initiation (and I choose the word "undergoing" with deliberation) must and eventually does record are the crises which brought about his fitness to take initiation, as it is erroneously called in theosophical circles. These, correctly handled and surmounted, will result in his being an initiate—a very different interpretation to the current theosophical one. As I often told you, a man is an initiate, prior to any initiation ceremony. The ceremony concerns hierarchical recognition of the disciple and does not concern the candidate's fitness. I find it needful to reiterate this fact.
(DINAII 126) Forget not that the aspirant to the Mysteries proceeds blindly in the early stages; only after the third initiation do the scales fall from his eyes. Therefore, follow obediently (though voluntarily) my requests as I endeavour to teach you the ancient rules.
(DINAII 246) The question might be voiced thus: "If I am in preparation for the second or the third initiation, I must have been in a group of disciples—presumably the Tibetan's—for some lives at least. Why then the need for an integrating formula?" Because, my chela, though you have been in a group of disciples prior to this, it was not my group but [Page 246] the group of either the Master M. or the Master K.H.
(DINAII 259) His "robe of glory" (symbolised by the [Page 259] partition of His garment by the Roman soldiery) and also calling the attention of all future disciples and initiates to the disappearance of the "middle principle," the soul; He was projecting (into the world consciousness) the recognition which must come of relation to the Father or the Monad. This great dissolution is culminated for us at the time of the third initiation when the Light of the Monad obliterates the light of the soul and the material atomic light of the threefold personality. But—and here is the point—the recognition of this death and its effects is only symbolically enacted and recognised at the time of the fourth initiation, the Crucifixion.
(DINAII 267) 1. By
Hints. These—if seen and followed—will evoke the intuition. Initiation is never
taken unless the intuition is becoming active. Spiritual instinct, the lowest
aspect of the intuition, indicates readiness for the first initiation; an
illumined mind and spiritual intelligence are the
definite sign that a man can take the second initiation, whilst spiritual
perception or intuitive instinct signifies preparedness for the
Transfiguration, the third initiation.
(DINII 271) Whilst doing this, They Themselves are preparing to tread the "Way of the Higher Evolution." What that Way is I cannot tell you, for you would be unable to grasp its meaning; it is related to the spiritual condition and purpose of the Monad whose goal is not expansion of consciousness, but of that which such expansions of consciousness will reveal—a very different matter and one which is as yet entirely meaningless to anyone who has not taken the third initiation. Forget not, the Christ and His great Brothers, and all of an even higher initiate-rank than They possess, have a definite goal, but it is one which will only define itself clearly in the third solar system, the system in which the Will of God is the dominant idea, as the Love of God conditions this system in which we now function.
(DINAII 282) The initiate works from his place upon that inner side. During the early stages of the initiatory process he works in the world of meaning. After the third initiation he works consciously in the world of causes, until such time as he is advanced enough to work in the world of being. The aspirant is endeavouring to grasp the purpose of the world of meaning and to apply the knowledge gained to his daily life with understanding. The disciple is endeavouring to comprehend the significance of the world of causes and to relate cause and effect in a practical manner. The initiate of higher degree utilises the potencies of these three worlds of meaning, cause and being to implement the purpose of Sanat Kumara.
(DINAII 284) This third formula concerns Time and the consciousness of the spiritual man who is unaware of separation, of divisions in time and space or of the spell of the Great Illusion. It deals with the fact of immortality and with the unshatterable continuity of consciousness and life. It is this formula which—at the third initiation—produces the transfiguration which comes when the Eternal Now is realised and when the continuity of awareness and of identity is seen as an aspect of Being. This formula has been called by one of the Masters "the seed of all philosophies," and in that phrase you may find light on the subject—provided you know what philosophy is!
(DINAII 291) 1. The third eye, not the pineal gland but its etheric correspondence. This is the responsive mechanism to the directing eye of the soul.
2. The right eye and the left eye, which take the incoming energy, symbolically speaking, and divide it into two streams which are the correspondence in etheric matter of buddhi-manas.
a. Right eye . . . spiritual energy. Buddhi. Pure reason. Understanding.
b. Left eye . . . mental energy. Manas. Thought substance.
It is the conscious use of these energies and the intelligent utilisation of this triple mechanism which is the goal of the initiate up to the third initiation. He learns consciously to direct force in the correct manner through the needed organ, doing so as the soul working in full consciousness on its own level, but so fully identified with the personality that the [Page 291] mechanism (now developed within the personality) can be used in the work of the Hierarchy.
(DINAII 321) The formula with which I present you today consists of three closely related words, and the theme with which the student must concern himself is the nature of the relationship which is indicated—not by the words but by the very [Page 321] nature of that which relates them. This is not an obvious relation but the esoteric and subtle meaning which the intuition will reveal and that the outer words hide.
THE SUN . . . BLACK . . . ANTAHKARANA
These words constitute, and when placed in
their correct order create, a most potent magical
and mantric formula.
It has a tenuous yet definite connection with the third
initiation, but it is not this angle with which you are asked to concern
yourselves but with the triangle created and the lines of force set in motion
when the right word finds itself at
the apex of the triangle.
(DINAII 104) You need to bear in mind that a Master of an
Ashram may, for instance, attract to Him other Masters of equal rank of his
own. I have five Masters working
in my Ashram.
(DINAII 331) The
strength, availability and usefulness of an Ashram is that of the sum total of
all that its members can contribute, plus that which Those
above the third degree of initiation can "import" from still higher
sources or the Masters of the Ashrams can make available at need. Students are apt to think that an Ashram has only one initiate of the fifth degree (that of
Master) within it. Such is seldom the case. There are usually three
"cooperating Masters" in every Ashram, with one at the apex of the
triangle; He acts as the Master of the Ashram and is responsible for the
preparation of disciples for initiation; frequently there are also
"associated Masters," particularly during cycles of rapid initiation,
as is the case [Page 331] today. There are also Masters Who
are preparing for the sixth initiation.
(DINAII 370) 3. The Monad is to the planetary Logos what the third eye
is to man.
[Page 370]
Involves the mental plane.
Relates to the
third initiation.
Concerns the head centre, the light of Purpose.
(DINAII 374) 3. The energy is then projected on to a particular plane or into the mind consciousness of those disciples who are en rapport with the Master, or of those groups of disciples or aspirants who are working in close association with some hierarchical group. If I say to you that the initiated disciple uses the ajna centre, I am only stating a partial [Page 374] truth; many of the Masters work through no physical or etheric mechanism whatsoever, but utilise what might be termed "a point of projection" within the ashram; this is a point of sevenfold contact, available at all times for the use of all those initiates who have taken the third initiation. They work consequently from that high place within the Hierarchy and do not need to employ the ajna centre or any other centre within the etheric body. Writing as I am, for disciples and initiates who have not yet taken the third initiation and who are still "confined" within physical vehicles, the information that the "eye directs the energy" is sure and far more easily understood.
(DINAII 383) Another question which might well be asked
is: Do all the members of the group have to be at the same point upon the Path
of Discipleship, or can they be at many differing [Page 383] stages of
discipleship or initiation? What you really mean when you ask this question is:
Is the group—composed as it is of individuals—taking the same initiation? Are
all its members at exactly the same point in evolution? By no
means. A group should be (and is) composed of individuals at varying
points of development; some may be preparing for the second initiation; others may be in training for the third initiation,
and a few may be ready for the fourth or the fifth initiation. The nature of the initiation to be undergone is known only to the
disciple and his Master; it is of no interest to the group itself; the
diversity of the initiations for which preparation is being made tends to
enrich the group content; the more ray types which are found functioning in the
group, the more valuable will be its service. It is the bringing together of
groups in preparation for initiation which has led to the present basic change
in the methods of the Hierarchy. A would-be-initiate does not, at first, work
solely under the care of the Master of a particular Ashram. Certain of the Masters (usually Masters like myself who have only
lately passed through the fifth initiation) have been chosen to train and instruct aspirants on all the
rays until after the third Initiation of Transfiguration.
... After
the third initiation he is attentive to that "veiled Presence of awful
Power Who tests his fitness for working in the will of God." I would ask you to note the
peculiar phrasing "working in the will of God," and to remember that
that Will, centred or focussed in Shamballa, is one
of the great basic energies; the initiate has to
learn to work in and through that Will.
(DINAII 397) We have already dealt with two of the points of revelation and have therefore considered the two which have reference to the first two initiations; these are taken upon the physical and the astral planes respectively. At the second initiation, the initiate begins for the first time (though in the most elementary form) to employ the will aspect and—in the revelation accorded—he takes a major step toward the third Initiation of the Transfiguration. This connotes the transfiguration of the personality and its liberation from the alluring imprisonment of the three worlds. Now he faces that great transitional initiation and is confronted with the revelation which has been expressed for us in the following words:
2. At the third Initiation of Transfiguration, the control of the personality in the three worlds is broken in order that the Son of Mind, the soul, may be substituted finally for the concrete and hitherto directing lower mind. Again, through the Law of Sacrifice, the personality is liberated and becomes simply an agent of the soul.
3. At the fourth Initiation of Renunciation, the destroying aspect of the Law of Sacrifice brings about the destruction of the causal body, the soul body, in order that the unified soul-infused personality may function directly under the inspiration of the Spiritual Triad—the triple expression or instrument of the Monad.
The significance of these "destructive
episodes which produce the freeing of the prisoner of the planet" (i.e.,
the divine, spiritual man) lies in the fact that, after the fourth initiation,
the light of purpose is the sole controlling factor in the career of the
initiate; he enters then upon a stage wherein he steadily approaches closer to
the "centre where the will of God is known." It is an elementary revelation of the divine Purpose
which is given at the third initiation; only
the first stage of that
mysterious all-embracing Purpose is at that
time revealed; the remaining six
initiations progressively reveal (to the Master) the all-enfolding Purpose.
(DINAII 399) The location of this
particular point of revelation is on the mental plane; through the alignment of
the concrete, lower mind, the Son of Mind and the abstract mind, a direct
channel for vision is created. The medium of revelation at this initiation is
the antahkarana, which is rapidly being constructed
and can thus prove the connecting link and the esoteric mode of vision. The
instrument of reception is the third eye which—for a moment—is temporarily
suspended from its task of directing energy upon the physical plane and then
becomes a stationary, receptive organ, turned inward toward the higher light.
The head centre is therefore involved, and a secondary alignment takes place
between the ajna centre, the head centre and the soul
body. All this takes
place at a
This is the objective of the initiation,
and the triangle of procedure, location and objective is created, flashes into
being, and then—at the close of the initiatory process—fades out, leaving
however a permanent, new, spiritual and instinctual
trend towards monadic perception and livingness.
You will note, therefore, how this
information—by pointing out the attitude
of the third eye during this initiatory process and its new function in
relation to the Monad—throws fresh light upon the work of the Monad. This third
eye is now receptive to light from the highest source, is arresting in
its outward-going activity and functions like a lens for the reflection of
light and for the attaining of the highest possible inner vision for the
particular point in evolution reached. All this embodies an activity which (except in the case of the
highest initiates) remains very mysterious. However, a study
of the use of the third eye at the third initiation will bring illumination of the teaching
that the Monad is to the planetary Logos what the third eye (in
its initiatory function) is to the disciple of the third degree of initiation.
The
third eye is subjected to training from the time of the third initiation
(DINAII 401)... and an ability to register in the physical brain (if the initiate is functioning through karma, decision or service in the physical body) that which is undergone; in this registration process the third eye is acutely involved. From the time of the third initiation this third eye is subjected to training and begins to function in the two following ways:
1. It is (in a measure) a correspondence to the concrete mind, with its capacity to interpret environment and experience.
2. It can also act as a lens or a light-gatherer from the inner and higher worlds.
For years we have talked about group initiation, and it remains as yet, for you, an unsolved problem. The phrase, "group initiation" is only used by the Members of the Hierarchy in reference to the first two initiations—initiations of the threshold, from the angle of the Lodge on Sirius. After these two preparatory events, the initiate—at and after the third initiation—reaches the point wherein he "undergoes initiation" in his own right (as the phrase runs), for he can now be trusted to ask nothing for the separated self; his personality is tempered and adjusted to group conditions; increasingly he is manifesting as a soul-infused personality, and the antahkarana is being rapidly created and effectively used. To phrase it otherwise: as the number and expressions of soul-infused personalities grow and initiates of the third degree increase numerically on Earth, what will be the result? Three great happenings will take place with spiritual and focussed intention; they are today taking place, which is the point I wish to bring to your attention; it is this conscious intention which confers potency in the life of each disciple and initiate.
(DINAII 433) That in which the energies, transferred by the Initiator into the aura
of the initiate, are precipitated by him. This is
preceded by a short primary phase in which the initiate polarised the energies
of which he is the recipient into whichever centre
is active in any particular initiation. For the
second and third initiations
he polarises them or focusses them in the heart
centre. After the third
initiation they are focussed in the head centre,
but are precipitated and distributed through the medium of the centre between
the eyes, the ajna centre. This latter centre is, as
you know, the directing agency
of the soul within the soul-infused personality.
(DINAII 445) For you, I would repeat, service by radiation is the way. To bring this about, it will be necessary for you to evoke the latent will which must be developed and controlling in you by the time the third initiation comes; at that time the monadic influence is predominantly that of the divine, purposeful [Page 445] will. The expression of this higher aspect of the will, in relation to the three rays of aspect on which all initiates are eventually to be found, is likewise threefold:
1. There is the dynamic
will, as it is expressed by first ray egos.
2. There is the inclusive radiatory will of second ray souls. This is the kind of will-expression and recognised life purpose with which you must learn to put yourself in direct contact.
3. There is the magnetic will of the third ray ego which draws, attracts, manipulates and arranges in accordance with divine purpose. This is not the same kind of magnetism as that of love.
(DINAII 469) In the final race the process will be repeated on a still higher spiral, and all that concerns the higher centre will be unfolded and occultly consummated, again through the medium of two stages:
1. Wherein the massed energies of the solar plexus (the [Page 469] great clearing house) and the heart and throat will be carried—at the third initiation—to the ajna centre, and the complete racial "transfiguration" will take place.
2. The process will then be carried forward
and at the fourth initiation the
energies will be centralised in the head centre.
(DINAII 501) The future ahead of my workers and the work
to be done which will emanate from my
Ashram is one of great activity. The plans are
outlined and the work assigned is clearly proposed. I receive my instructions
from a "joint committee" of the spiritual leaders behind the world
scene; They are the senior members of the Hierarchy,
working under the Christ. They arrive at Their
decisions after due consultation with senior workers, such as myself—Masters and initiates above the third initiation.
(DINAII 580) Here I have given you a definition of meditation given by a Master to a group of disciples. He is not one of the Masters known to you or the outer world, for He only takes into His Ashram those who are in preparation for the third initiation, and then only those who are pledged to undertake certain definite activities for which He trains them. These "focal points of emphasis" are of many differing kinds and should distinguish your type of meditation throughout the coming year. Such focal points are brief, dynamic, potent and emphatic and are only possible when [Page 580] the antahkarana is in process of definite construction, as is the case with your work along this line.
(DINAII 604) After the third initiation, they will register energy flowing in from the Monad—again through three types of force. If this can be grasped, disciples in training will not over-emphasise the system of centres through which the expressive energy must come.
(DINAII 614) The problem with which you are faced falls, in your mind (if you would only think clearly), into two parts: the problem of your reaction to the minorities question, and the problem of your relation to D.R.S. The first problem you say does not exist; the second problem you consider entirely the fault of D.R.S., and therefore, my brother, you stand clear of all blame and responsibility on both scores. As you are still dwelling in a personality and have not yet taken the third initiation, such complete innocence is far from likely.
(DINAII 699) The relation of the Christ to the entire Hierarchy is that of Supreme Master. His group of disciples includes all initiates over the third initiation. But through these initiates and certain of the Masters, and at their suggestion, He is slowly selecting a band of lesser disciples who can be trained for special work during the next two or three lives. Of these, you can be one. The first phase of the training given is to impose at least one life of most drastic discipline and difficult circumstances, not karmically ordained but of an educational and disciplinary nature. You have had two such lives and have consequently built up and established a persistent endurance and a trained response to events which is a guarantee to the watching Master that your stability is assured and immovable.
(DINAII 681) My love goes out to you. Much in your present situation and spiritual dilemma reminds me of myself when I was in preparation for the third initiation; therefore, I understand and with this thought I leave you and will not fail you.
(EINA 31) Applicants for initiation and initiates up to the third initiation use both the sutratma and the antahkarana, employing them as a unit. The power of the Triad begins to pour through, thus energising all human activities upon the physical plane, and vitalising in ever increasing degree the man's thought forms. The key to the formation of the Mayavirupa is found in the right comprehension of the process.
(EINA 33) Many, too, are in process of linking the three lower aspects, which we call the personality, with the soul itself, through meditation, discipline, service and directed attention. When this has been accomplished, a definite relation is established between the sacrifice or will petals of the egoic lotus and the head and heart centres, thus producing a synthesis between consciousness, the soul and the life principle. The process of establishing this interlinking and interrelation, and the strengthening of the bridge thus constructed, goes on until the third initiation. The lines of force are then so interrelated that the soul and its mechanism of expression are a unity. A higher blending and fusing can then go on.
(EINA 58) 2. The quality of the soul in the three subhuman kingdoms, with particular emphasis upon the animal and the vegetable kingdoms. The consciousness of the mineral kingdom is so far removed from the human that it is not possible for us to formulate anything about it in words, or to identify ourselves with it until after the expansion of consciousness which takes place after the third initiation—that of the Transfiguration.
(EOH 158) What do these names and these great Individualities mean to you and to average humanity? Nothing at all and this is necessarily so. They remain but names and possible hypothetical expressions of divinity until after the third initiation when the conscious recognition of the Monad becomes possible; then Forces and Energies, personified for us in these great and stupendous Lives, can be demonstrated as having true existence.
(EOH 524) What do I mean by the use of the word "adjustment" in connection with the Hierarchy? Adjustment to karma, to the personality, to the soul, to circumstances in the three worlds, to the impact of astral forces, or to the thought currents of those not oriented to the Kingdom of God, does not constitute part of the training of Those Who are beyond the third degree of initiation. Initiates on and beyond that level have transcended reaction along these lines, whilst those below the third initiation are in process of rapid adjustment. I use the word `adjustment' here definitely in the sense of reorientation, and in this sense much can be noted.
3rd
degree initiates often take both the 4th and 5th
initiations in the same life
(EOH 529) ...initiates above the third degree are rapidly taking the fourth and fifth initiations and becoming Masters (taking both initiations in one life), and their places are being taken by lesser initiates;
(EOH 538) hese adjustments are proceeding with rapidity; the technique being employed is realignment, through a definite action of the Will, as far as Shamballa is concerned, and by an outpouring of Love, as far as humanity is concerned. This Act of the Will is carried out by the three Heads of Departments in the Hierarchy, under the guidance of the Christ and by the Chohans of the seven major Ashrams. They constitute a group of ten to Whom this task has been committed, for the reason that They are the only Members of the Hierarchy Who possess the needed qualifications and in Whom the Will aspect is adequately developed. The task of pouring out the Love principle in a new and dynamic manner is being carried out by all the Masters and by all initiates who have taken the third initiation. This stream of love will focus itself each coming Full Moon in a special act or demonstration of love.
The
restoration of the mysteries and the physical expression of the Christ will be
preceded by large numbers of 3rd degree initiates and lesser degrees
preparing the field
(EOH 570) 1. The senior Members of the Hierarchy will not at first be the ones who will make the needed approach. Under Their direction and Their close supervision, this approach will be made—in the early stages—by initiates of and under the degree of the third initiation, and also by those disciples who will be chosen and designated to implement Their efforts and so will work under Their direction. It is only in the later stages, and when the time has come for the return into recognised physical expression of the Christ, leading to the definite restoration of the Mysteries, that certain of the senior Members of the Hierarchy will appear and take outer and recognisable physical control of world affairs. The time for this will be dependent necessarily upon the success of the steps taken by the members of the Hierarchy who are not so advanced.
(BTC 100) A new factor now enters in, the discriminating faculty of the mind. By means of it, the disciple can bring
the mental life under control and dedicate it to the life of the
(GAWP 3) Intuition is the synthetic
understanding which is the prerogative of the soul and it only becomes possible
when the soul, on its own level, is
reaching in two directions: towards [Page 3] the Monad, and towards the
integrated and, perhaps (even if only
temporarily) coordinated and at-oned personality. It
is the first indication of a deeply subjective unification which will find its consummation at the third initiation.
(GAWP 33) Glamour, as we have seen, is of more ancient standing and of earlier emergence than is illusion. It has little in it of the mental quality and is the major factor controlling the majority. The objective of all training given on the Path of Discipleship and up to the third initiation is to induce that clear thinking which will render the disciple free from illusion and give to him that emotional stability and poise which gives no room for the entrance of any of the world glamour. This freedom becomes possible when there is in the aspirant no personal glamour, and no deliberately self-induced response to the determining factors which have produced glamour down the ages. With these factors we will later deal.
(GAWP 40) 4. The Dweller on the Threshold arrives at full potency at
the end of this race, the Aryan, and in the lives of all initiates prior to taking the third
initiation.
(GAWP 101) 3. The stage wherein the intelligent thinking man, whether disciple or well-meaning aspirant, or an initiate of the first and second degrees, has to learn to distinguish between the truth and the truths, between knowledge and wisdom, between reality and illusion. When this stage has been passed through it leads to the third initiation, wherein the personality (which is prone to maya, glamour and illusion) stands free. It again experiences a sense of at-one-ment. This is due to the development of the sense of the intuition which puts into the disciple's hand an infallible instrument whereby to discriminate and to discern. His perception is becoming accurate and he stands relatively free from deception and wrong identifications and interpretations.
(GAWP 103) 2. In the second initiation, the initiate demonstrates that he can choose between the pairs of opposites and proceed with decision upon the "middle way."
3. In the third initiation, the initiate can employ the intuition for the right perception of truth, and in that initiation he catches the first real glimpse of the Dweller on the Threshold and the Angel of the Presence.
4. In the fourth initiation, the initiate demonstrates his ability to produce complete at-one-ment between the higher and lower aspect of the soul in manifestation and sees the Dweller on the Threshold merge into the Angel of the Presence.
5. In the fifth
initiation—and here words fail to express the
truth—he sees the Dweller on the
Threshold, [Page 104] the Angel, and the Presence merged into a divine
synthesis.
(GAWP 171) 1. The Technique of the Presence.
By means of this technique, the soul assumes control of the integrated
personality and of its relations, horizontal and vertical. This technique
involves the unfolding of the flower of the intuition, dispelling illusion,
revealing the Angel, indicating the Presence, and opening up to the disciple
the world of ideas and the door of the higher initiations. Through the disciple's grasp and application of these divine
ideas or seed thoughts, he becomes initiate and the
third initiation becomes possible as an
immediate goal. The intuition is the applied power of transfiguration. This technique is related to the little known yoga called
Agni Yoga or the yoga of fire.
(GAWP 173) The story of illusion is one
which must not be confounded with glamour; illusion is related to the whole
process of revelation. Glamour can be and often is related to the distortion of
that which has been revealed, but it must be borne in mind that illusion is
primarily concerned with the reaction of the mind to the unfolding revelation,
[Page 173] as the soul registers it and seeks to impress it on the highest
aspect of the personal lower self. Illusion is, therefore, the failure of the
mind correctly to register, to interpret or translate that which has been
transmitted and it is consequently a sin (if you care for that word) of the
intelligent and highly developed people, of those who stand on the Path and who
are in process of becoming rightly oriented; it is also a sin of accepted
disciples as they seek to expand their consciousness in response to soul
contact. When they have "seen through
illusion" (and I use this phrase in its esoteric sense) then they are
ready for the third initiation.
(GAWP 183) The presentation of the revelation or of the imparted truth and its precipitation into the world of illusion comes next. In that world of illusion, it undergoes the "fiery ordeal" wherein "some of the fire within that which is revealed wings its way back to the source from whence it came; some of it serves to destroy the revealer, [Page 183] and some to burn those who recognise the revelation." This is a phase of Agni Yoga which, as you can see, is only for those who can penetrate beyond the Angel into the place "where fire dwelleth," and where God, the Presence, functions as a consuming fire and waits for the hour of total revelation. This is a symbolic rendering of a great truth. In the case of the individual initiate, the third initiation, the Transfiguration, marks the consummation of the process. Only glory then is seen: only the voice of the Presence is heard and union with the past, the present and the future is reached.
(203) This dualistic consciousness culminates at the time of the third initiation in the final fight between the pairs of opposites and the triumphant victory of the Angel—the embodiment of the Forces of Good in the individual, in the group and in humanity. Then dualism and the desire for that which is material and not oneself (as identified with the Whole) dies out. Unity and the "life more abundantly" is achieved.
(204) 4. The stage of identification with the Real as it is contacted after the dissipation of the glamour. In the added light which is now available, there will be a further recognition of still subtler glamours which in their turn must be dissipated.
This process of recognition, focussing,
dissipation and consequent revelation goes on continually from the time a disciple treads the Path of Accepted Discipleship
until the third initiation.
By
the 3rd initiation the disciples vehicles
contain three-quarters atomic matter
(IHS 17) Again, the four initiations, prior to that of the adept, mark respectively the attainment of certain proportions of atomic matter in the bodies—for instance, at the first initiation one-fourth atomic matter, at the second one-half atomic matter, at the third three-quarters atomic matter, and so on to the completion. Since buddhi is the unifying principle (or the welder of all), at the fifth initiation the [Page 17] adept lets the lower vehicles go, and stands in his buddhic sheath. He creates thence his body of manifestation.
(IHS 41) Co-operating with these karmic Lords are the large groups of initiates and devas who occupy themselves with the right adjustment of:—
a. World karma,
b. Racial karma,
c. National karma,
d. Group karma,
e. Individual karma,
and who are responsible to the Planetary Logos for the correct manipulation of those forces and building agencies which bring in the right Egos on the different rays at the correct times and seasons.
With all these groups we have little
concern, for they are contacted only by
initiates of the third initiation, and by those of even more exalted rank.
Jesus
(who is a separate Soul to the Christ) took his third initiation as Joshua as
related in the book of Zechariah, and then took the fourth initiation as
related in the New Testament
(IHS 57) He is well known in the Bible history, coming before us first as Joshua the Son of Nun, appearing again in the time of Ezra as Jeshua, taking the third initiation, as related in the book of Zechariah, as Joshua, and in the Gospel story He is known for two great sacrifices, that in which He handed over His body for the use of the Christ, and for the great renunciation which is the characteristic of the fourth initiation. As Appollonius of Tyana, He took the [Page 57] fifth initiation and became a Master of the Wisdom.
Either
a Master or Initiate will be in control of certain great groups
(HIS 62) Very definitely may the assurance be given here, that prior to the coming of the Christ, adjustments will be made so that at the head of all great organisations will be found either a Master, or an initiate who has taken the third initiation. At the head of certain of the great occult groups, of the Freemasons of the world, and of the various great divisions of the Church, and resident in many of the great nations [Page 62] will be found initiates or Masters.
(IHS 66) Thirdly: Instruction is given in what might be termed
synthesis.
This information is only possible as the intuitional vehicle co-ordinates. It is really the occult
apprehension of the law of gravitation or attraction, (the basic law of this,
the second solar system) with all its
corollaries. The disciple learns the
meaning of occult cohesion, and of that internal unity which holds the system
as a homogeneous unit. The major part of this instruction is usually given
after the third initiation, but a beginning is made early in the training.
The succeeding
two initiations.
After the second initiation the teaching shifts up a plane. The initiate learns to control his mental vehicle; he develops the capacity to manipulate thought matter, and learns the laws of creative thought building. He functions freely on the four lower sub-planes of the mental plane, and before the third initiation he must,—consciously or unconsciously,— be complete master of the four lower sub-planes in the three planes of the three worlds. His knowledge of the microcosm becomes profound, and he has mastered theoretically and practically, in great measure, the laws of his own nature, hence his ability experimentally to be master on the four lower sub-planes of the physical, astral, and mental planes. The last fact is of interest. The control of the three higher sub-planes is not yet complete, and here is one of the explanations as to the failures and mistakes of initiates. Their mastery of matter in the three higher sub-planes is not yet perfect; these yet remain to be dominated.
At the third initiation, termed sometimes the Transfiguration, the entire personality is flooded with light from above. It is only after this initiation that the Monad is definitely guiding the Ego, pouring His divine life ever more into the prepared and cleansed channel, just as in the third, or Moon Chain, the Ego individualised the personality [Page 87] through direct contact, a method different to the individualisation as shown in this fourth chain. The law of correspondences, if applied here, might prove very revealing, and might demonstrate an interesting analogy between the methods of individualising in the various chains, and the expansions of consciousness that occur at the different initiations.
Again, a vision is accorded of what lies ahead; the initiate is in a position at all times to recognise the other members of the Great White Lodge, and his psychic faculties are stimulated by the vivification of the head centres. It is not necessary nor advisable to develop the synthetic faculties, or clairaudience and clairvoyance, until after this initiation. The aim of all development is the awakening of the spiritual intuition; when this has been done, when the physical body is pure, the astral stable and steady, and the mental body controlled, then the initiate can safely wield and wisely use the psychic faculties for the helping of the race. Not only can he use these faculties, but he is able now to create and vivify thoughtforms that are clear and well-defined, pulsating with the spirit of service and not controlled by lower mind or desire. These thoughtforms will not be (as is the case with those created by the mass of men) disjointed, unconnected, and uncorrelated, but will attain a fair measure of synthesis. Hard and ceaseless must the work be before this can be done, but when the desire nature has been stabilised and purified, then the control of the mind-body comes more easily. Hence the path of the devotee is easier in some ways than that of the intellectual man, for he has learnt the measures of purified desire, and progresses by the requisite stages.
The personality has now reached a point where its vibrations are of a very high order, the matter in all three bodies relatively pure, and its apprehension of the work to be done in the microcosm, and the share to be taken in the [Page 88] work of the macrocosm is very advanced. It is apparent, therefore, why it is only at the third initiation that the great Hierophant, the Lord of the World, Himself officiates. It is the first at which He contacts the initiate. Earlier it would not be possible. For the first two initiations the Hierophant is the Christ, the World-Teacher, the Firstborn among many brethren, one of the earliest of our humanity to take initiation. Browning brings out this thought most beautifully in the words found in his poem "Saul":—
But when the initiate has made still further progress, and has taken two initiations, a change comes. The Lord of the World, the Ancient of Days, the ineffable Ruler Himself administers the third initiation. Why has this become possible? Because now the fully consecrated physical body can safely bear the vibrations of the two other bodies when they return to its shelter from the Presence of the KING; because now the purified astral and controlled mental can safely stand before that KING. When purified and controlled they stand and for the first time consciously vibrate to the Ray of the Monad, then with prepared bodies can the ability to see and hear on all the planes be granted and achieved, and the faculty of reading and comprehending the records be safely employed, for with fuller knowledge comes added power. The heart is now sufficiently pure and loving, and the intellect sufficiently stable to stand the strain of knowing.
Before the fourth initiation can be taken, the work of [Page 89] training is intensified, and the hastening and accumulation of knowledge has to be unbelievably rapid. The initiate has frequent access to the library of occult books, and after this initiation he can contact not only the Master with Whom he is linked and with Whom he has worked consciously for a long time, but he can contact and assist (in measure) the Chohans, the Bodhisattva, and the Manu.
(92) The application of the Rod of
Initiation at the first two initiations by the Bodhisattva enables the initiate
to control and utilise the force of the lower self, the true sanctified energy
of the personality in service; at the third
initiation the application of the Rod by the One Initiator makes available in a
vastly more extensive manner the force of the higher self or Ego, and brings into play on the physical plane the entire energy stored up during numerous incarnations
[Page 92] in the causal vehicle.
(IHS 107) 3. For
the higher three initiations at
which Sanat Kumara wields the Rod.
At all initiations the Lord of the World is
present, but at the first two He holds a position similar to that held by the
Silent Watcher, when Sanat Kumara administers the oath at the third, fourth
and fifth initiations. His power streams forth and the flashing forth of the star before the initiate is the signal of His approval, but the initiate does not see Him face to face until the third
initiation.
The function of the three Kumaras, or the three Buddhas of Activity at initiation is interesting. They are three aspects of the one aspect, and the pupils of Sanat Kumara. Though Their functions are many and varied, and concern primarily the forces and energies of nature, and the direction [Page 108] of the building agencies, They have a vital connection with the applicant for initiation, inasmuch as They each embody the force or energy of one or other of the three higher subplanes of the mental plane. Therefore at the third initiation one of these Kumaras transmits to the causal body of the initiate that energy which destroys third subplane matter, and thus brings about part of the destruction of the vehicle; at the fourth initiation another Buddha transmits second plane force, and at the fifth, first subplane force is similarly passed into the remaining atoms of the causal vehicle, producing the final liberation. The work done by the second Kumara, with second subplane force, is in this solar system the most important in connection with the egoic body, and produces its complete dissipation, whereas the final application causes the atoms themselves (which formed that body) to disperse.
(IHS 111) In the case of the first two initiations, two Masters stand, one on each side of the applicant, within the triangle; at the third, fourth and fifth initiations, the Mahachohan and the Bodhisattva perform the function of sponsor; at the sixth and seventh initiations two great Beings, Who must remain nameless, stand within the esoteric triangle. The work of the sponsors is to pass through Their bodies the force or electrical energy emanating from the Rod of Initiation. This force, through radiation, circles around the triangle and is supplemented by the force of the three guardians; it next passes through the centres of the sponsors, being transmitted by an act of will to the initiate.
(IHS 117) At the third initiation the Ego stands before the initiate as a perfected triplicity. Not only is the Self known to be intelligent, active love, but it is revealed also as a fundamental will or purpose, with which the man immediately identifies himself, and knows that the three worlds hold for him in the future naught, but only serve as a sphere for active service, wrought out in love towards the accomplishment of a purpose which has been hid during the ages in the heart of the Self. That purpose, being now revealed, can be intelligently co-operated with, and thus matured.
These profound revelations shine forth before the initiate in a triple manner:—
As a radiant angelic existence. This is seen by the inner eye with the same accuracy of vision and judgment as when a man stands face to face with another member of the human family. The great solar Angel, Who embodies the real man and is his expression on the plane of higher mind, is literally his divine ancestor, the "Watcher" Who, through long cycles of incarnation, has poured Himself out in sacrifice in order that man might BE.
(IHS 116) As a many tinted Lotus of nine Petals. These petals are arranged in three circles around a central set of three closely folded petals, which shield what is called in the eastern books "The Jewel in the Lotus." This Lotus is a thing of rare beauty, pulsating with life and radiant with all the colours of the rainbow, and at the first three initiations the three circles are revealed in order, until at the fourth initiation the initiate stands before a still greater revelation, and learns the secret of that which lies within the central bud. In this connection the third initiation differs somewhat from the other two, inasmuch as through the power of a still more exalted Hierophant than the Bodhisattva, the electrical fire of pure Spirit, latent in the heart of the Lotus, is first contacted.
(IHS 121) At the third initiation there is revealed to the initiate
the purpose of the subray of the ray to which he belongs, that upon which his Ego finds itself. All egoic units are
upon some subray of the monadic ray. This knowledge is conferred upon the initiate
so as to enable him eventually to find for himself (along the line of least
resistance) the ray of his Monad. This subray bears upon its stream of energy many groups of Egos,
and the initiate is therefore made aware not only of his egoic
group and its intelligent purpose, but of many other groups, similarly
composed. Their
united energy is working towards a clearly defined goal.
(IHS 127) Planetary, used by a Planetary Logos for initiatory purposes, and for the third, fourth, and fifth major initiations, with the two higher. At the planetary initiation the Rod of Power, wielded by the solar Logos, is charged with pure electrical force from Sirius, and was received by our Logos during the secondary period of creation, from the hands of that great Entity Who is the presiding Lord of the Lords of Karma. He is the repository of the law during manifestation, and He it is Who is the representative in [Page 127] the solar system of that greater Brotherhood on Sirius Whose Lodges are found functioning as the occult Hierarchies in the different planets. Again, it is He Who, with the solar Logos to assist Him, invests the various Initiators with power, gives to Them that word in secret which enables Them to draw down the pure electric force with which Their rods of office must be charged, and commits to Their keeping the peculiar secret of Their particular planetary scheme.
(IHS 139) The centre has its activity intensified, its rate of revolution increased, and certain of the central spokes of the wheel brought into more active radiance. These spokes [Page 139] of the wheel, or these petals of the lotus, have a close connection with the different spirillae in the permanent atoms, for instance, and in their stimulation comes into play one or more of the corresponding spirillae in the permanent atoms on the three lower planes. After the third initiation a corresponding stimulation takes place in the permanent atoms of the Triad, leading to a co-ordination of the buddhic vehicle, and the transference of the lower polarisation into the higher.
(IHS 161) At the third initiation is given the Word for the lower
mental plane.
At this initiation, in which, as earlier
said, the Hierophant is the Lord of the World, not only is the Word given for
the lower mental plane, but a word which
synthesises the three Words for the three worlds is also committed. It is given to the initiate as a topic for meditation,
until he takes the fourth initiation, but he is
forbidden to use it until the final liberation, as it gives entire control on the three lower planes.
At the fourth initiation the Word for the higher mental plane is imparted.
At the fifth initiation the Word for the buddhic plane is given.
(IHS 168) c. In the Hall of Wisdom he comes to the knowledge of the first aspect of energy, the dynamic use of will in sacrifice, and to him is then committed the key to the threefold mystery of energy. This energy in its threefold aspect he became aware of, in the other two Halls. At the third initiation, and at the fourth and fifth, the three keys to the three mysteries are given to him.
The key to the mystery sensed in the first Hall, the mystery of Brahma, is handed to him, and he can then unlock the hidden energies of atomic substance. [Page 168] The key to the mystery of sex, or of the pairs of opposites, (at 4th) is thrust into his hand, and he can then unlock the hidden forces of the will aspect. The dynamo of the solar system (at 5th) is shown to him,—if it might be so expressed—and the intricacies of the mechanism revealed.
(IHS 169) The secrets,
as imparted sequentially to the initiate, are roughly three in number, though within them may be found lesser mysteries which are earlier
revealed. At the third initiation the first of the three fundamental
secrets of the solar system is imparted to the initiate, immediately after he has taken the oath. This we might, for lack of a better term,
call "the secret of
electricity." It concerns the phenomena of the dense
objective manifestation of the Logos. It
would be wise here for the student to remember that the three planes of the
three worlds, physical, astral, and mental, form the dense physical body of the
solar Logos, whilst the [Page 169] four higher form His etheric
body. Students are apt to forget that
our seven planes are the seven sub-planes of the cosmic physical. This has a very definite bearing on the
secret of electricity. This is why the secret is not revealed till the third initiation, and is prepared for by the impartation
of two lesser secrets which concern the
physical and astral planes, and which are imparted at the first two initiations by the Bodhisattva.
(IHS 170) At the third initiation "the secret of fohat" is given to him, and then the mystery of the threefold body of the triple Logos is his, and the why of the phenomena of the dense liquid and gaseous bodies of the Supreme Being is enfolded before his amazed vision. The two secrets previously imparted, and the knowledge which they gave having been utilised, the initiate is now in a position to profit by this greater revelation, and to understand somewhat the following facts:—
1. The creative
process of thought form building.
2. The transmission of energy from the Ego to the physical body via the force centres on the various planes.
[Page 171]
3. The uprising of kundalini, its geometrical progression, and its vivification of all the centres.
By the knowledge thus imparted, and the progress which the initiate has made in the study of the law of analogy, he can comprehend the manipulation of the same forces on a vastly larger scale in the planetary scheme and in the solar system. The method of development in the three earlier rounds is revealed to him, and he understands, practically as well as theoretically, the evolutionary process in its earlier stages. The key to the three lower kingdoms of nature is in his hands, and certain ideas anent the subject of polarity, of at-one-ment, and essential union, are beginning to come within his range of consciousness, only waiting for the fourth initiation to complete the revelation.
This secret of electricity, which is essentially triple in its nature, deals with the Brahma or third aspect, and is called sometimes by the following names:—
1. The Secret of Brahma.
2. The Revelation of the Mother.
3. The Secret of Fohatic Force.
4. The Mystery of the Creator.
5. The Secret of the Three Who issued from the First (solar system),
and also by four mystic phrases conveying much light to the intuition:
6. The Boat of Mystery which Ploughs the Ocean.
7. The Key to the Divine Storehouse.
8. The Light that Guides through the triple caves of Darkness.
9. The Clue to the Energy uniting Fire and Water.
[Page 172]
In all these names much information will come to the student who carefully ponders them, remembering that they deal with the Brahma aspect in its lowest manifestation and with the three worlds of human endeavour, and thus meditating, the student must relate this present solar system to the preceding one, in which the Brahma aspect dominated, as the Vishnu, or consciousness aspect dominates in this.
The initiate, through the knowledge imparted, is now in a position to understand his own triple lower nature, and therefore to balance it in relation to the higher, to read the records and understand his place within the group, to manipulate the forces in the three worlds and thereby effect liberation for himself, thus helping the ends of evolution, and to co-operate intelligently with the plans of the Planetary Logos as they may be revealed to him stage by stage. He can now wield power, and becomes a centre of energy in a greatly increased degree, being able to dispense or retract force currents. The moment a man becomes consciously powerful on the mental plane, his power for good is a hundredfold increased.
(
(
(
(
Before initiation, all the centres will be rotating in fourth dimensional order, but after initiation they become flaming wheels, and—seen clairvoyantly—are of rare beauty, The fire of Kundalini is then awakened and is progressing in the necessary spirals. At the second initiation the emotional centres are similarly awakened, and at the third initiation those on the mental plane are touched. The initiate can then stand in the Presence of the Great King, the One Initiator.
(
(LOS X) All the various Yogas have had their place in the unfoldment of the human being. In the first purely physical race, which is called the Lemurian, the Yoga at that time imposed upon infant humanity was Hatha Yoga, the Yoga of the physical body, that Yoga which brings into conscious use and manipulation the various organs, muscles and parts of the physical frame. The problem before the adepts of that time was to teach human beings, who were then little more than animals, the purpose, significance and use of their various organs, so that they could consciously control them, and the meaning of the symbol of the human figure. Therefore, in those early days, through the practice of Hatha Yoga, the human being reached the portal of initiation. At that time the attainment of the third initiation, resulting in the transfiguration of the personality, was the highest initiation that man was capable of achieving.
(LOS 8) The following triplicities may be found of value to the student, especially if he remembers that it is the central column which contains the terms applicable to the soul or second aspect. The union to be achieved is that of the third and second aspects. This is consummated at the third initiation (in Christian terminology, the Transfiguration). A later synthesis is then effected between the united third and second aspects and the first:
(LOS 169) 3. The union of the spiritual man or divine thinker with its Father in Heaven, the Monad or spirit aspect. Stage I covers the period from the first incarnation up to the treading of the Probationary Path. Stage II covers the period of the Probationary Path up to the third initiation [Page 169] upon the Path of Discipleship. Stage III covers the final stages of the Path of Initiation.
(TEV 50) More understanding will come also
if you grasp the fact that this Science of Impression is concerned with the
activity of the head centre as an anchoring centre for the antahkarana,
and that the ajna centre is concerned with the process of translating
the recorded intuition into a form (through
recognition of and reaction to a
mental thoughtform)
and its subsequent direction, as an ideal objective, into the world of men. In the early stages and until the third initiation,
the Science of Impression is concerned with the establishing of a sensitivity (an invocative
sensitivity) between the Spiritual Triad
(temporarily expressing itself through the abstract mind and the soul or the
Son of Mind) and the concrete mind. This mental
triangle is a reflection, in time and space, of the Monad and of the two higher
aspects of the Triad, and is reflected (after the process of invocation and a
succeeding process of evocation) in another triad—that of the lower mind, the
soul and the vital body. When the relation between the lower and the higher
mind is correctly and stably established, you have the swinging into activity
of the lowest triad connected with the Science of Impression—the head centre, the ajna
centre and the throat centre.
(TEV 72) True capacity to invoke and evoke (within initiate ranks) is based upon a mysterious development—impossible before the time of the third initiation—of the esoteric sense. The active use of the esoteric sense in the occult training offered to aspirants, disciples and initiates of lesser degree produces certain changes within the brain, with corresponding changes within the buddhic vehicle; these changes enable one at will (after the third Initiation of Transfiguration) to contact the Being, Life, or the monadic POINT of contact with Whom he will be increasingly affiliated, or the Member of the Hierarchy Whom he may desire to consult. It does not involve the use of speech or words but is simply a technical method whereby an initiate within the Hierarchy or en rapport with Shamballa can make his presence felt and certain ideas can be presented by him. Upon this I will not further enlarge.
... All disciples who [Page 73] have taken the third initiation have the power to invoke and to be evoked, and hence this technique is not permitted to those of lower status. A highly developed discriminative faculty is here needed. It is in reality an advanced part of the technique whereby—in the earliest stages—the disciple is permitted to attract the attention of the Master. This he does through the very importunity of his desire; later, through the use of his acquired knowledge, he proceeds to what is called "the regulated nature of his appeal." The appeal is then less regulated by desire and more under the control of will.
(TEV 87) For the aspirant and particularly for the conscious disciple, the impression to be considered comes from four sources:
1. From the disciple's own soul.
2. From the Ashram with which he is to be affiliated.
3. Directly from the Master.
4. From the Spiritual Triad, via the antahkarana.
[Page 87]
The first
two stages cover the period of the first two initiations; the third precedes
the third initiation and persists until the disciple is himself a Master; the fourth type of informative impression can be registered after the third initiation and reach the
disciple in the Ashram; he then has the task himself of impressing his mind with what he has
been told and known within the Ashram;
eventually, as a Master of an Ashram, he starts upon one of the major hierarchical tasks of
mastering the Science of Impression. There are therefore, two aspects to this
work of impression: one deals with the capacity to be impressed; the other with the ability to be an
impressing agent. The disciple is not permitted to practise the art of impressing
until he himself is among those who receive Triadal impression (after 3rd initiation
ZR) and therefore impression from Shamballa, within the protective area or aura of the Ashram
with which he is affiliated. It must be remembered that this Science of Impression is in reality the science of thoughtform-making, thoughtform
vitalisation and thoughtform direction; and only a disciple
who has passed through the processes of Transfiguration and is no longer the
victim of his own personality can be entrusted
with so dangerous a cycle of powers. As long as there exists
any desire for selfish power,
for unspiritual control and for influence over the minds of other human beings or over
groups, the disciple cannot be trusted, under the hierarchical rules, with the deliberate creation of thoughtforms
designed to produce specific effects, and with
their dispersal to men and groups. After he has
passed the tests of the Transfiguration Initiation he may do so.
The Science of Impression is the bedrock or the foundation for the practice of telepathy. If a major world test were to be made, those receptive to impression would be found to fall into two groups:
[Page 88]
1. Those possessing unconscious receptivity to telepathic impression. They at present constitute a majority wherein the impression is received via the solar plexus, and the thoughtforms thus generated are dispatched from the throat centre of the one who is the impressing agent.
2. Those who are developing or have developed a conscious receptivity wherein the impression is, first of all, received by the mind and then imparted to and registered by the brain. The one who is the impressing agent in this case works via the centre between the eyebrows, the ajna centre.
(TEV 90) There are consequently (to this final stage of impression) three lesser though definite states, each marking an expansion in the realm of service and each related to the last three initiations of the total possible nine initiations which confront developing humanity. The sixth initiation, in which only Masters can participate, marks a transition from the first three stages of impressibility required by the disciples as preludes to the fifth initiation—or in reality to the third, fourth and fifth—and are related to the three stages of Triadal communication, each of which is related to the seventh, the eighth and the ninth initiations.
(CF 170)
Spiritual man to
the third Initiation.
a. The heart.
b. The throat.
c. The seven head centres.
(CF 176) The second period, wherein the egoic ray holds sway, is not so long comparatively; it covers the period wherein the fourth and fifth triangles are being vivified, and marks the lives wherein the man throws his forces on the side of evolution, disciplines his life, steps upon the Probationary Path, and continues up to the third Initiation. Under the regime of the Personality Ray, the man proceeds upon the five Rays to work consciously with Mind, the sixth sense, passing first upon the four minor Rays and eventually upon the third. He works [Page 176] upon the third Ray, or that of active Intelligence, and from thence proceeds to one of the subrays of the two other major Rays, if the third is not his egoic Ray.
(CF 176) The Dragon of Wisdom is in manifestation, and He brings into incarnation those cosmic Entities who are in essence identical with Himself. After the third Initiation all human beings find themselves on their monadic ray, on one of the three major rays, and the fact that Masters and Initiates are found on all the rays is due to the following two factors:
(CF 184) d. When kundalini has blended with the pranic fire, the centres become three-dimensional. When it blends with mind or solar fire and the two fires are perfectly united, the centres become fourth-dimensional. When it blends with the electric fire of pure Spirit after the third Initiation, they take on two more dimensions.
e. Kundalini, as it is aroused, steadily increases the vibratory action, not only of the centres, but of every atom of matter in all the bodies—etheric, astral and mental. This quickening of activity has a dual effect of great interest:
1. It causes the elimination of all matter that is coarse and unsuitable, and casts it off in exactly the same way as a rapidly rotating wheel casts off or rejects from its surface.
2. It sweeps into its sphere of influence matter that is keyed to its own vibration, and builds it into its vibratory content. This is but a reflection of the action of the Logos in sweeping into differentiation the matter of the solar system. Kundalini is likewise the fire or force of matter, and therefore the life of the third Logos.
f. Kundalini has two effects upon the etheric web, as it is called.
1. By its gradually increasing action it purifies that etheric form and cleanses it from "dross," as the Christian expresses it.
2. Eventually, after the two fires of matter and the fire of mind have begun to blend (a slow and gradual process), the web itself is destroyed [Page 185] and by the time the third Initiation is reached, the man should have continuity of consciousness. This is so unless for certain work and for certain specific ends, the man consciously and willingly foregoes the burning of the web, a thing which can be brought about by the conscious action of the will.
(CF 259) Second, the greater part of the possible explanation is only revealed to initiates who have passed the third Initiation, and even to them in a carefully guarded manner.
(CF 358) Third, one of the mysteries revealed at initiation is that of the logoic centre which our scheme represents, and the type of electrical fire which is flowing through it. The "Seven Brothers," or the seven types of fohatic force, express Themselves through the seven centres, and the One Who is animating our scheme stands revealed at the third Initiation. It is by knowledge of the nature and quality of the electrical force of our centre, and by realisation of the place our centre holds in the body logoic, that the Hierarchy achieves the aims of evolution. It will be obvious that the Heavenly Man Who stands for the kundalini centre, for instance, will work differently, and have a different purpose and method, from His Brother Who stands for the heart centre in the body logoic, or to the Heavenly Man Who embodies the logoic solar plexus. From this it is apparent that:
a. The type of electrical force
b. The vibratory action
c. The purpose
d. The evolutionary development
e. The dual and triangular interaction
(CF 381) The different polarities of the schemes will be studied, and information, that is now imparted only to initiates of the third Initiation, will eventually become exoteric. In due course of time systemic information along the lines of:
a. The vitalisation of the schemes
b. Interaction between two schemes
c. The periods of incarnation of a planetary Logos on the physical plane
d. The initiation
of the planetary Logos,
will be reduced to law and order. As yet but dim speculations and hints that appeal only to the spiritual and the intuitive are in any way possible. The early part of the next round will see more widespread knowledge and interest in this matter.
(CF 433) It might be tabulated thus:
1. The magical force of the seventh Logos is felt at the first Initiation.
2. The aggressive fire of the sixth Logos is felt at the second Initiation.
3. The illuminating light of
the fifth Logos is felt at the third Initiation.
4. The harmonising life of the fourth Logos is felt at the fourth Initiation.
5. The blending power of the third Logos is felt at the fifth Initiation.
6. The unifying heat of the second Logos is felt at the sixth Initiation.
7. The dynamic electricity of the first Logos is felt at the seventh Initiation.
(CF 485) Initiates learn to transmute and superintend the passage of the life out of the animal kingdom into the human after the third Initiation, and during the earlier stages of initiation, formulas that control the lesser devas, and which produce results in the merging of the second and third kingdoms are communicated; they work under safeguards and supervision.
(CF 510) rst. The septenary status governs the time from individualisation till he enters upon the Path.
Second. The threefold status governs the time up till
the third Initiation.
Third. He achieves the unity of his Ray by the fifth Initiation, and is then consciously a part of the body of the Heavenly Man.
(CF 542) The causal body is then (expressed in terms of fire) a blazing centre of heat, radiating to its group warmth and vitality. Within the periphery of the egoic wheel can be seen the nine spokes rotating with intense rapidity and—after the third Initiation—becoming fourth dimensional, or the wheels "turn upon" themselves.78 In the midst forming a certain geometrical triangle (differing according to the ray of the Monad) can be seen three points of fire, or the permanent atoms and the mental unit, in all their glory; at the centre can be seen a central blaze of glory growing in intensity as the three inner petals respond to the stimulation.
(CF 688) Considering the same subject from below upwards it is the animal in the third kingdom which individualises. Viewing it from above downwards it is the fifth kingdom, the spiritual, which ensouls the third and produces the fourth, or self-conscious human kingdom. These figures [Page 688] should be studied for they hold the mystery hid, and though the true occult meaning will not be revealed until the third major Initiation, nor fully comprehended until the fifth, yet light may stream in on a difficult point. Equally so in the next solar system, individualisation (if such an inadequate term may be applied to a state of consciousness inconceivable even to an initiate of the third Initiation) will not be possible until the second or sixth stage of Pleroma. Consciousness will blaze forth then on the Monadic plane, and it will be the plane of individualisation. All states of consciousness below that high level will be to the Logos what the consciousness of the three worlds is to Him now. Just as the physical body of man is not a principle, so all planes at this time below the fourth cosmic ether are not considered by the Logos to be a principle.
(CF 713) Secondly, they work through the
mental units, impressing upon the atom that portion, microscopic as it may be,
of the logoic purpose which the individual can work
out on the physical plane. At first
their influence is unconsciously assimilated, and the man responds to the plan
blindly and ignorantly. Later, as
evolution proceeds, their work is recognised by the man in a conscious
co-operation with the plan of evolution.38 After the third initiation, the will or purpose aspect
predominates.
(CF 726) This influence meets with little response from the Monad until after the third Initiation when its conscious life becomes so strong that it grips afresh its egoic expression in one direction, and awakens to planetary realisation in another. This type of avatar appears only at the time of the initiation of a planetary Logos. The number of initiations taken by a planetary Logos in this system vary from two to four.
(CF 730) The Vishnu aspect, that in which the love-wisdom aspect gradually predominates and emerges through the medium of the Brahma aspect. It covers the final two stages of the human personality life, and that period of egoic growth which embraces the final two Initiations:
a. First cycle.............The Path of Probation.
b. Second cycle........The
Path of Initiation.
(till
the third Initiation)
c. Third cycle............That covering the fourth and
fifth Initiations.
(CF 752) At the moment of initiation (after the second Initiation) Sanat Kumara becomes the direct mouthpiece and agent of the Planetary Logos. That great Entity speaks through Him and for one brief second (if one can use such a term in connection with a plane whereon time, as we understand it, is not) the planetary Logos of a man's Ray consciously—via His etheric brain—turns His thought upon the Initiate, and "calls him by His Name."
(CF 758) Certain initiates of the third Initiation have taken feminine bodies,—one in India will in due time do much toward the emancipation of the women of India, whilst another has a peculiar work to do in connection with the animal kingdom which likewise is awaiting the day of His appearing.
(CF 763) By the time the third Initiation is reached, a wondrous transformation has transpired. The outer sphere is palpitating with every colour in the rainbow, and is of wide radius; the streams of electrical energy circulating in it are so powerful that they are escaping beyond the periphery of the circle, resembling the rays of the sun. The nine petals are fully unfolded, forming a gracious setting for the central jewel, and their orange hue is now of a gorgeous translucence, shot with many colours, that of the egoic ray predominating. The triangle at the base is now quickened and scintillating, and the three points are small blazing fires, showing to the eye of the clairvoyant as sevenfold whorls of light, circulating their light from point to point of a rapidly moving triangle.
(CF 791) According to the position assumed by the man, he is seen as a symbol of the cross and is then fourfold (the two legs being considered as one lower limb) or, if separated, as fivefold, and has been then considered as the symbol of the five-pointed star. This fivefold nature of the dense physical body is brought about through the fact that only five centres primarily are really active in average man [Page 791] up to the third Initiation; all are there, and all are vitalised, but only five in this fivefold normal evolution are dominant. The force emanating from these five, therefore, sweeps the dense substance into a close aggregation. As two of the centres are not functioning as actively as the other five, an ovoid is not formed as in the case of the etheric, astral and mental sheaths. The fivefold shape of physical man is the result of the fivefold direction of force currents from five centres.
(CF 830) By the time the third Initiation is taken, the inner circle of petals is opened and the full-blown lotus in all its beauty can be seen. At the fourth Initiation the inner bud bursts open through the effect of the electrical force of the Rod, which brings in the power of the synthetic ray of the solar system itself; the inner jewel is thus revealed.
(CF 883) At the first, the second, and the third Initiations, one of the three petals opens up, permitting an ever freer display of the central electric point. At the fourth Initiation, the jewel (being completely revealed) through its blazing light, its intense radiatory heat, and its terrific outflow of force, produces the disintegration of the surrounding form, the shattering of the causal body, the destruction of the Temple of Solomon, and the dissolution of the lotus flower. The work of the Initiator in this connection is very interesting. Through the medium of the Rod of Initiation and of certain Words of Power, He brings about results of a co-ordinating, transmuting and liberating nature.
(CF 960) Applicants for initiation and initiates up to the third initiation use both the sutratma and the antaskarana, employing them as a unit. The power of the Triad begins to pour through, thus energising all human [Page 960] activities upon the physical plane, and vitalising in ever increasing degree the man's thought forms. The key to the formation of the Mayavirupa is found in the right comprehension of the process.
(CF 962) The pituitary body (in all cases
of correct normal development) forms the centre which receives the threefold
vitalisation pouring through the sutratma from the
lower mental, the astral, and the etheric
planes. The pineal gland comes into
activity when this action is enhanced by the pouring through of energy from the
Ego on its own plane. When the antaskarana is in process of utilisation the alta major centre is likewise
employed, and the three physical
head centres begin to work as a unit, thus forming a kind of triangle. By the time the third Initiation is reached, this triangle
is fully awakened and the fire (or energy) is circulated freely.
(CF 963) a. That much of the fire of spirit, or electric fire, which any particular Ego is embodying (relatively little prior to the third Initiation) or is able to transmit, coupled with,
b. That much of the fire of the solar Angel
(solar fire) or the egoic aspect which the Ego is
able to transmit. This is but little in
average man, a good deal in the man on the probationary path, and a full downpour by the time the third Initiation is
reached.
(CF 964) The condition of the Magician. It is of value to remember that when the physical head centres are awakened (through alignment of the etheric centres) we have the very lowest aspect of egoic influence. From these three centres, man on the Probationary Path, and up to the third Initiation, directs and controls his sheath, and from them spreads that illumination which will irradiate the physical plane life. By the time the third Initiation is reached, the internal triangle is in full process of circulatory transmission, and the whole life of the Personality is subjected to the will of the Ego. "The Star absorbs the light of the moon, so that the rays of the Sun may be reflected back" is the occult way of expressing the truth anent this point in evolution. It might be of value here also to point out the condition of the etheric centres during this process of direct solar control.
(CF 965) Before the three physical head centres awaken, man is largely subjected to force flowing through the four minor etheric centres; later the three major centres—the head, the heart, and the throat—begin to vibrate, gradually assuming a greater sweep of activity, till their energy tends to negate that of the lower centres, to absorb their vitality and deflect the direction of their vitality, until the three higher wheels are in full fourth dimensional activity. As this proceeds, the three physical head centres begin to awake from dormancy into activity, the effect being felt as follows:
a. As the major head centre awakens, the pineal gland begins to function.
b. As the heart centre becomes fully alive, the pituitary body enters into activity.
[Page 965]
c. As the throat centre assumes its right place in the process of evolution, the alta major centre vibrates adequately.
When the triangle of force that these three physical centres form is in circulatory effect, the greater triangle can be seen in circulation; it then becomes a "wheel turning upon itself." The major etheric centres are in full action, and the man is nearing the moment of liberation.
(CF 986) 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.
(CF 1077) It was the intensive stimulation
of the third kingdom of nature during the third root race which artificially
unified the three aspects. The process
of stimulating through the medium of Venusian energy
was really begun in the third round when the triangle of force was completed,
and ready to function. It is this factor which occultly
makes the third Initiation of such tremendous importance. In it the human triangle is
linked, the Monad, the [Page 1077] Ego
and the personality, or Venus, the Sun and the Earth are symbolically allied.
(CF 1229) In connection with this final
section of the Treatise on Cosmic Fire, dealing with the Electric Fire of
Spirit it should be remembered that it will be quite impossible to impart
information of a definite character; this subject is considered (from the
standpoint of the esoteric student) to be devoid
of form and therefore incognisable by the lower
concrete mind.
The nature of Spirit can only be intelligibly revealed to the higher
grades of the initiates, that is, to those
who (through the medium of the work effected in the
third Initiation) have been put in conscious contact with their "Father in
Heaven," the Monad. Esoteric students, disciples and the
initiates of lower degree are developing contact with the soul, or the second
aspect, and only when this contact is firmly established can the higher concept
be entertained. The nature of Spirit is
dealt with in the New Testament in one of the esoteric statements addressed by
the Great Lord to the initiate, Nicodemus.
As he was an initiate of the second degree it may be supposed that he
had some glimmering of understanding as to the meaning of the words, which were
spoken to him as part of his
training in preparation for the third Initiation.
(CF 1244) These seven Paths are not
concerned with nature or the balancing of the pairs of opposites. They are concerned only with unity, with that which utilises the pairs of opposites as
factors in the production of LIGHT. They deal [Page 1244] with that unknown
quantity which is responsible for the pairs of opposites; therefore they are
primarily concerned with that which lies outside the manifested forms, with the
true abstraction or the Absolute. Spirit
and matter are never dissociated during manifestation; they are the duality
lying back of all that is objective. Yet
some factor is responsible for them—that which is neither Spirit nor matter,
that which will be regarded as nonexistent by anyone except the initiate. At the third
Initiation some glimmering light upon this Abstraction is sensed by the
initiate, and by the time the fifth Initiation is reached enough is
apprehended by him to enable him to set forth with ardour on the search for its
secret.
(CF 1251) 2. The burning-ground of the dead
personality which lies between the Hall of Learning and the Hall of
Wisdom. It is found upon the shores of the river of life and has to be passed
prior to the third Initiation.
(EPI XXIV) The ego or soul may find itself upon still a third type of ray, thus responding to another type of ray energy. The question of the monadic ray brings in still another factor in many cases, but this can only be implied and not really elucidated. As I have oft told you, it is only the initiate of the third initiation who can come in touch with his monadic ray, or his highest life aspect, and the humble aspirant cannot as yet ascertain whether he is a monad of Power, of Love or of Intelligent Activity.
(EPI 14) 2. A subsequent and painful differentiation of the consciousness into a realised duality. In this condition, the man is distinctly aware of what is termed his essential duality; he knows he is spirit-matter, is form-life, and is the soul in manifestation. During this stage, which covers many lives and carries the man along the path of probation and discipleship as far as the third initiation, the centre of gravity (if I may so express it) shifts steadily out of the form side and centres itself more and more in that of the soul. There is a growing consciousness that there is a [Page 14] Reality which embraces, and at the same time extinguishes, duality.
(EPI 16) All our considerations therefore in this Treatise on the Seven Rays will necessarily be held within the realm of thought which involves awareness of duality. I shall employ the language of duality, and this I shall do, not because I seek to emphasize it to the neglect of unity (for this unity is to me somewhat of a reality and I glimpse more than a possibility), but because all aspirants and disciples and all initiates up to the third initiation—as I earlier said—are swinging as a pendulum between the pairs of opposites, spirit and matter. I speak not here of the pairs of opposites of the astral or emotional plane, which are illusory reflections of the true pairs of opposites, but of the basic duality of manifestation.
(EPI 38) Thus from a consciousness of himself, man arrives at an awareness of the interrelation between the seven basic energies or rays; and from that he proceeds to a realisation of the triple deity, until at the final initiation (the fifth) he finds himself consciously at-one with the unified divine intent lying behind all appearances and all qualities. It might be added that initiations, higher than the fifth, reveal a purpose wider and deeper than that which is working out within our solar system. The purpose of our manifested Logos is but a part of a greater intent. It might also be noted that in the fourth kingdom of nature, on the path of evolution and of probation, a man arrives at a knowledge of his individual soul, and glimpses the quality and purpose of that soul. On the path of discipleship and of initiation, he glimpses the quality and purpose of his [Page 38] planetary Life, and discovers himself as a part of a ray Life, Which is appearing through the form of a planet and is embodying an aspect of the divine purpose and energy. After the third initiation he glimpses the quality and purpose of the solar system; he sees his ray life and energy as a part of a greater whole. These are but modes of expressing the emerging quality and the hidden purpose of the graded Lives which inform all appearances and colour them with quality
(EPI 48) These three are the sum total of all forms or appearances, the givers of all qualities, and the emerging Life aspect behind the tangible manifestations. They correspond, in the human family, to the three aspects of Personality, Soul and Monad. The Monad is dynamic will or purpose, but remains unrevealed until after the third initiation. The Monad is Life, the sustaining force, a Lord of persevering and ceaseless devotion to the pursuit of a seen and determined objective.
(EPI 61) For the purpose of this treatise students will have to accept [Page 61] the hypothesis that every human being is swept into manifestation on the impulse of some ray, and is coloured by that particular ray quality, which determines the form aspect, indicates the way he should go, and enables him (by the time the third initiation is reached) to have sensed and then to have cooperated with his ray purpose. After the third initiation he begins to sense the synthetic purpose towards which all the seven rays are working; but as this treatise is written for aspirants and disciples, and not for initiates of the third degree, it is needless to speculate upon this ultimate destiny.
(EPI 88) The Chohans of the sixth initiation have the guidance of those units of consciousness in whom their particular ray vibration and colour predominate. The vast importance of this fact is often overlooked, even when theoretically acknowledged by aspirants to initiation. Hence the importance of determining the ray of the ego and of the Monad,—something of vital moment after the third initiation. A majority and a minority always exist in every department of life. So it is in the work of the Logos, for at the end of the greater cycle (manvantara) the majority will find their way to the synthetic love ray; a small minority will find their way to the power ray. This minority are destined for an important function. They will constitute the nucleus which (in the next solar system) will constitute the majority, finding their synthesis on ray one. This is a great mystery and not easily understood. [Page 88] Some hint towards its solution will be found hidden in the real meaning of the words "exoteric" and "esoteric."
(EPI 128) 4. It is of course to the human interest that a study of the rays makes its main appeal. It is this study that will vivify and awaken psychologists to the true understanding of man. Every human being finds himself upon one of the seven rays. His personality is found, in every life, upon one of them, in varying rotation, according to the ray of the ego or soul. After the third initiation he locates his soul (if one may use such an inappropriate word) on one of the three major rays, though until that time it may be found in one of the seven ray groups. From that exalted attitude he strives towards the essential unity of the Monad. The fact of there being seven ray types carries great implications, and the intricacy of the subject is baffling to the neophyte.
(EPI 131) As evolution proceeds, these dim points of "dark light" intensify their glow; the light within the head flickers at intervals during the life of the average man, and becomes a shining light as he enters upon the path of discipleship. When he becomes an initiate, the light of the atoms is so bright, and the light in the head so intense (with a paralleling stimulation of the centres of force in the body), that the light body appears. Eventually this body of light becomes externalised and of greater prominence than the dense tangible physical body. This is the body of light in which the true son of God consciously dwells. After the third initiation, the dual light becomes accentuated and takes on a still greater brilliancy through the blending with it of the energy of spirit. This is not really the admission or the re-combining of a third light, but the fanning of the light of matter and the light of the soul into a greater glory through the Breath of the spirit. Something anent this light has been earlier indicated in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. Study it and seek to understand the significance of this process. In the understanding of these aspects of light comes a truer perspective as to the nature of the fires in the human expression of divinity.
(EPI 150) As to the significance of the word "life" our task is wellnigh insuperable, for no human being has, or can have, any comprehension of the nature of life until he has attained the third initiation. I repeat this with emphasis, and in order to impress upon you the futility of idle speculation upon this subject. Disciples who have undergone the third initiation and have climbed the mount of Transfiguration can—from that high point—glimpse the radiance of the subjective centre of energy (the central spiritual sun of The Secret Doctrine) and so gain a flash of realisation as to the meaning of the word "life." But they cannot, and they dare not, pass on the knowledge gained. Their efforts to convey such information would be futile, and language itself would be inadequate to the task. Life is not what anyone has hitherto surmised. Energy (in contradistinction to force, and using the word to express the emanating centre which differentiates into forces) is not what idle speculation has portrayed it to be. Life is the synthesis of all activity—an activity which is a blend of many energies, for life is the sum total of the energies of the seven solar systems, of which our solar system is but one. These, in their totality, are the expression of the activity of that Being Who is designated in our hierarchical archives as the "One About Whom Naught May Be Said." This seven-fold cosmic energy, the fused and blended energies of seven solar systems, including ours, sweeps automatically through each of the seven, carrying the qualities of
(EPI 156) On the path of discipleship, and until the third initiation, he learns to respond to the energy and to the spiritual purpose of
the Life of his own planet. At the first
and second initiations, and until the third
initiation, he has been led on and initiated by the influence of the Christ, and under His direction he has submitted to two expansions of
consciousness and [Page 156] has prepared himself for a third. When ready for this, he comes under the
initiatory power of the planetary Logos; and through the mediating activity of
that great Being the initiate becomes
actively aware of energy emanating from the solar Deity. He is therefore learning to respond to the second type of synthetic force.
(EPI 230) 2. The standard metals astral plane. Self-consciousness. The second initiation.
3. The semi-precious stones mental plane.
Radiant consciousness. The third initiation.
4. The precious jewels egoic consciousness and achievement. The fourth initiation.
(EPI 238) After the third initiation, the disciple has three rays active in him, for the ray of the Monad begins then to make its presence felt. An analogous condition is found in all the kingdoms in nature. Two rays are [Page 238] dominant in each kingdom, but in the vegetable kingdom three rays control, for that kingdom is more evolved (along its own peculiar lines) than any other.
(EPI 247) At the third initiation, the Moon and Mars struggle to assume ascendancy, and there is his battle-ground. Hence at the great Transfiguration, the body is "transfigured" as the indication of triumph.
(EPI 329) This purpose is the
Transfiguration. This is the esoteric goal set before humanity. This was the tremendous event which was
enacted before humanity by the greatest of all the sons of God in His Own Body,
Whom I and all true disciples regard as the Master of all the Masters, the
Christ. What shall I say about this culminating event for which the entire personality
of man waits?
This third great initiation marks
a crisis in the initiatory work, and produces a further synthesis experienced in the life of the spiritual man. Up to the third initiation, man has been
occupied with the process of fusing soul and body into one unity. After the third
initiation (and owing to an event which takes place) man is [Page 329] oriented
towards, and becomes occupied with, a further fusion in consciousness, that of
spirit-soul-body. I speak of a fusion in consciousness. The unity is ever there, and man in evolution
is really becoming aware of
that which already exists.
(EPI 402) 2. All egos found upon the
fourth, the fifth, the sixth and the seventh rays must eventually, after the third initiation, blend with the three
major rays, or monadic rays.
(EPI 407) All the above propositions could
be summed up in the statement that the personality ray induces a separative attitude and causes a detachment from the group
of souls of [Page 407] which the personality is an externalisation, and a
constituent attachment to the form side of manifestation. The egoic ray
induces group consciousness and detachment from external forms, causing
attachment to the life side of manifestation and to the subjective whole. The monadic
ray has an effect which can be understood only after man has taken the third
initiation.
(EPII 7) With the monadic realisation. This is a phrase that means absolutely nothing to us, for it concerns the consciousness of the planetary Logos. This begins to be realised at the third initiation, dominating the soul and working out through the personality.
(EPII 14) When initiation becomes possible, it indicates that two great groups of energies (those of the triple integrated personality [Page 14] and those of the soul or solar angel) are beginning to fuse and blend. The energy of the soul is beginning to dominate and to control the lower types of force, and—according to the ray of the soul—so will be the body in which that control will begin to make its presence felt. This will be elaborated later in the section dealing with the rays as they govern the various bodies,—mental, emotional and physical. It should be remembered that very little egoic control need be evidenced when the first initiation is taken. That initiation indicates simply that the germ of soul life has vitalised and brought into functioning existence the inner spiritual body, the sheath of the inner spiritual man, which will eventually enable the man at the third initiation to manifest forth as "a full-grown man in Christ", and present at that time the opportunity to the Monad for that full expression of life which can take place when the initiate is identified consciously with the One Life. Between the first and second initiations, as has been frequently stated, much time can elapse and much change must be wrought during the many stages of discipleship. Upon this we will later dwell as we study the seven laws of egoic unfoldment.
(EPII 17) When the ray of the soul focusses itself fully through him, and all his centres are controlled by that focussed soul ray, then he becomes the transfigured Initiate, and takes the third initiation. The ray of the personality is occultly "extinguished" or absorbed by the ray of the soul, and all the potencies and attributes of the lower rays become subsidiary to and colored by the soul ray.
(EPII 18) Then, in time, the soul ray begins (at the third initiation) to blend with the ray of the Monad, the life ray. The higher initiate is therefore a dual and not a triple expression.
6. In time, however, this realised duality gives place to the mysterious, indescribable process called identification which is the final stage of soul unfoldment. It is useless to say more for what might be said could only be comprehended by those preparing for the fourth initiation, and this treatise is written for disciples and initiates of the first degree.
(EPII 20) c. The energy of life itself, a meaningless phrase, and one that only initiates of the third initiation can grasp,
for even the discoveries of modern science give no real idea as to the true
nature of life.
Life or essential energy is more than the
activity of the atom, or of that living principle which produces
self-perpetuation, reproduction, motion, growth, and that peculiar something
which we call "livingness". It
may be possible to "create" or [Page 20] produce the lowest or third
aspect of life in the scientific laboratories so-called, but to reproduce or
create the other and more essential aspects which work out as the conscious
response, the intelligent embryonic purpose which seems to animate all
substances, that is not possible. When the third initiation is reached, man will
understand why this impossibility exists.
More cannot be said, for until that initiation is experienced it would
not be understood.
(EPII 23) Upon the Path of Initiation, until the third initiation, the ray of the mental body is subdued by the force of the petals of sacrifice, found in the third tier of petals. Thus the three aspects of the personality are brought into subjection by the energy emanating from the nine petals of the egoic lotus. After the third initiation, the whole personality, composed of the three aspects, becomes sensitive to the energy of pure electric fire or life, as it pours through the "closed bud at the heart of the egoic lotus."
(EPII 27) The above is a simple and direct
statement of a long and difficult evolutionary unfoldment. Its very simplicity will indicate that we
have only dealt with the broad outlines, and [Page 27]
have ignored the infinite detail of process.
The work starts at Individualisation, and continues through the two final stages of Initiation and Identification. These three stages mark the
progress of the soul consciousness from that of identification with the form to
that of identification with the Self.
These three words—individualization, initiation and
identification,—cover the whole process of man's career from the time he
emerges into the human kingdom till he passes
out of it at the third initiation, and functions freely in the fifth kingdom, the kingdom of God. By that
time, he has Iearnt that consciousness is free and
unlimited, and can function in form or out of form according to the behest of
the soul, or as the Plan can best be served.
The soul is then in no way conditioned by form. Just as man can express himself in what is
called three-dimensional living, so, by the time
he takes the third initiation, he can function actively and consciously in four
dimensions, and in the final stages of the Path of Initiation he becomes active
fifth-dimensionally.
(EPII 45) It will not be possible for me to
make clear the ray reactions to the final process which we have considered
briefly, namely the stage in the liberation of the spirit which we call
Identification. All that is possible,
even in the case of Initiation, [Page 45] is to give the elementary stanzas which
convey to accepted disciples some of the significance of the first
initiation. As regards identification,
the reactions of the illumined initiate are made available to his intelligence
in symbolic form, but if these forms
were described, they would be completely misunderstood. When the third initiation takes place and the wider open door
looms before the initiate, he will then discover the meaning of that type of
realisation which is here called (for lack of a better name) Identification.
(EPII 48) These phrases are an attempt to express some of the realisations of the true initiate when he stands—at the third initiation—before the Angel and sees that Angel also pass away, so that naught is left but conscious knowledge and realisation. Although this statement may signify but little to us at present, it will, nevertheless, serve to demonstrate the futility of dealing with the secrets of the mysteries and with initiation through the medium of words. When this is better realised, the true work of the Masonic dramas will begin to measure up to the need.
(EPII 56) When, at the third initiation, union of the pattern and the conditioned form is achieved, the Transfiguration of the initiate takes place, leading to that final crisis wherein the two are known as one, and the form nature (including in this phase the causal body as well as the lower vehicles) then is dispersed and disappears.
(EPII 66) . The
entire aura is coordinated and illumined, and the soul can then, at will,
withdraw from its physical vehicle in full waking consciousness, or stay in it
as an incarnated Son of God, Whose consciousness is complete on the physical
plane, the astral plane, and on the mental levels, as well as in the three
aspects of lower mind, causal consciousness and nirvanic
realisation. This
process finds its consummation at the third initiation.
(EPII 69) By the time the third initiation is undergone, this way is completed, and the initiate can "pass to higher worlds at will, leaving the lower worlds far behind; or he can come again and pass upon the way that leads from dark to light, from light to dark, and from the under, lower worlds into the realms of light".
(EPII 70) After the third initiation the "Way" is carried forward with great rapidity, and the "bridge" is finished which links perfectly the higher spiritual Triad and the lower material reflection. The three worlds of the soul and the three worlds of the Personality become one world wherein the initiate works and functions, seeing no distinction, viewing one world as the world of inspiration and the other world as constituting the field of service, yet regarding both together as forming one world of activity. Of these two worlds, the subjective etheric body (or the body of vital inspiration) and the dense physical body are symbols on the external plane.
(EPII 103) In the cases mentioned above, and where the antaskarana is not a consummated, established fact, the tiny thread of the partially constructed "way of escape", under tremendous pressure and excitation, shoots forward like a quivering band of light, and momentarily touches the light that is the Self. Hence ecstasy and exaltation. But it does not last, and cannot be consciously recovered until the third initiation has been taken. After that the "way of escape" becomes the "way of daily livingness" (to translate inadequately the occult and ancient phrase). Then pain is steadily transcended, and the pairs of opposites—pleasure and pain—have no longer any hold over the disciple.
All this constitutes the theme of esoteric psychology and, when rightly understood, will explain
1. The Saturnian influence in human life.
2. The cessation of rebellion, or the ending of the Martian influence.
3. The building of the antaskarana, which releases the man from the control of personality life.
4. The evocation of the group consciousness.
5. The consequent negation of pain and sorrow.
6. Entrance into Nirvana, and the beginning of the real Way.
(EPII 150) This fourth Law of Repulse works through the first Law of Sacrifice and carries to the aspirant the quality, influence and tendency of the Spiritual Triad, the threefold expression of the Monad. Its full force is felt only after the third initiation, in which the power of the Spirit is, for the first time, consciously felt. Up to that time it has been the growing control of the soul which was primarily registered. Therefore we have:—
(EPII 161) Service, an
understanding of the Way, and the building of the true line of escape—that is
the task to be carried forward upon the Path of Discipleship. Such is the object set before all the
students of the esoteric sciences at this time,—provided they desire it enough,
and can train themselves to [Page 161] work selflessly for their fellow
men. As they succeed in doing this and
approximate ever more closely to that which is not the pairs of opposites (and
thus achieve "the Central Way"), steadily the Law of Repulse begins to swing into operation.
When the third initiation is
taken, this law will begin to hold the dominant place in the ruling of the
life.
(EPII 242) This instinct of Deity is closely connected with the Law of Economy and is an expression of the Principle of Materialisation. For man, it has to be studied, grasped, and wrought out through the right use of the mental body, working under the influence of Atma or Spirit. The principle of Continuance has to be wrought out into conscious knowledge by the right use of the astral or desire nature, working under the influence of Buddhi. The Trend to Synthesis has finally to be wrought out in the brain consciousness upon the physical plane, under the influence of the Monad, but its real expression and man's true response to this urge only become possible after the third initiation. So it is easily to be seen that this Treatise is indeed written for the future.
(EPII 267) d. Coordination between soul, mind and brain to the exclusion of the body of illusion, the astral body. This is the peculiar goal of the world disciples.
e. Coordination then has to be established between the soul, the purified personality and the Hierarchy. This is the goal of the initiates in the world at this time, and of all who are in preparation for the first, the second and the third initiations. This consummation is finally achieved at the Transfiguration initiation.
f. Coordination between the soul, the personality and the spirit. This takes place via the
Hierarchy of Souls—a phrase which only initiates can properly interpret and
understand. This
process is carried on after the third initiation.
(EPII 270) The first three initiations are expressions of these three stages or impacts, and it might also be stated that the Lemurian, the Atlantean and the Aryan races are also expressions of man's reactions to these three soul approaches.
[Page 270]
The third
initiation sees the soul and the personality perfectly blended so that the
light blazes forth and the great Approaches
between soul and form are
consummated.
(EPII 288) 6. Initiates are becoming conscious of the sixth type of energy, that of atma, the will aspect of Spirit. This causes them to work with the Plan and through the lotus petals of sacrifice to bring the service of the Plan into being. This is ever the aim of the initiate members of the Hierarchy. They understand, express and work with the Plan.
7. After the third initiation, the disciple begins to work with, and to understand the significance of Spirit and his consciousness shifts gradually out of the Soul into that of the Monad in the same way as the consciousness of the personality shifted out of the lower awareness into that of the soul.
(EPII 294) Through the seven centres in the
etheric body, the seven ray energies make their
appearance and produce their effects, but at the very heart of each chakra or
lotus, there is a vortex of force to be found which is composed of pure manasic
energy, and, therefore, is purely energy of the first three rays. This energy is quiescent
until an advanced stage of discipleship is reached. It only sweeps into its divine rhythm and
activity when the three tiers of
petals, found in the egoic lotus (the higher
correspondence), are beginning to unfold, and
the centre of the egoic lotus is becoming
vibrant. Though the etheric
body of man is an expression of the seven ray qualities in varying degrees of
force, the etheric body of a Master is an expression
of monadic energy, and comes into full
activity after the third initiation.
1. Only initiates are in a position to
sense, determine, or discover the nature of their monadic ray or that of their
disciples. The monadic ray is that life
element in man with which They have definitely to deal
as They seek to prepare him for initiation.
It is the "unknown quantity" in a man's nature. It does not, however, greatly complicate his
problem in the three worlds of ordinary human endeavor,
as it remains relatively
quiescent until after the third initiation, though it basically conditions the etheric body itself.
(EPII 302) These are the three major centres for the advanced man.
4. The throat centre Mind. The mental aspect and energy.
5. The solar plexus centre Emotion. The astral aspect and energy centre.
6. The sacral centre Physical.
7. The centre at base of the
spine Life itself. Monadic centre.
The latter centre is only awakened in its true and final sense at the third initiation. At that time the circle is completed. As was earlier stated, the etheric body is related to the monad and is the exteriorisation of the life aspect. It is the etheric body, with all its seven centres, which is swept into activity when the basic centre is awakened, and the kundalini fire is aroused.
(EPII 308) At the stage of Initiation, the
domination continues and at the third
initiation the highest kind of energy which a man can express in this solar
system—that of the monad, begins to control.
(EPII 317) The comprehension of each of us will depend upon where we each, as individuals, lay the emphasis, and where we are awake and alive, and of what we are conscious. When we have achieved the experience of the third initiation and are no longer identified with the vehicles of expression, then—on a higher turn of the spiral—another shift in the life expression and experience will take place. Then neither the centre [Page 317] of experience, the soul, nor the vehicles of expression, the lower threefold man, will be considered from the angle of consciousness at all. The Life aspect will supersede all others. Of what use is it for us to discuss this stage when for many of us, as yet, the lower expressions of divine manifestations are dominant (or should one say "rampant"?) and even the soul fails to assume vital control?
(EPII 391) This brings the disciple to the period wherein the third initiation can be taken; then still higher forces can be brought into play and the Technique of Duality can be considered, mastered and used. It will be obvious to you that I cannot give you the rules of this technique, as they constitute part of the veiled secrets of initiation. Though duality is emphasised, it is a duality which produces simplification, merging and synthesis. Man is then viewed as a duality of spirit and matter and not as the well known triplicity of spirit, soul and body.
(EPII 528) 2. The stage wherein transference is made into the ajna
centre and the personality life becomes integrated and powerful.
Period.......... The later stages of the Path of
Discipleship and up till the time of the third initiation.
Keynote....... Expression of the soul, through the medium of the personality.
Objective...... The understanding of the Plan and consequent cooperation with it.
Then comes the third and final stage with which we need not concern ourselves wherein there is a complete blending of the bodily forces (focussed through the ajna centre) with the Soul forces, (focussed through the head centre). It is at this time that there comes the final evocation of the personality will (purified and consecrated) which has been "sleeping, coiled like the serpent of wisdom" at the base of the spine; this surges upward on the impulse of devotion, aspiration and enlightened will and thus fuses itself in the head with the spiritual will. This is the final raising, by an act of discriminating determination, of the kundalini fire. This raising takes place in three stages, or impulses:
(EA 30) As regards the influence of the seven solar systems, I should suggest (more I cannot do) that they are linked up astrologically with the constellations, the Great Bear, the Pleiades, and Sirius. They are intimately related to them, but their exact effect is a transmitted one and cannot be noted as producing noticeable results, as yet, upon humanity and the other kingdoms in nature. The effect of the three great constellations also cannot be noted by individual man until such time as he becomes conscious of the monadic vibration, after the third initiation. There are many potent influences playing upon our solar system and the planet all the time but—as far as man is concerned—his response apparatus and his mechanism of reaction remain what is called "occultly unresponsive," for they are not yet of a quality which will permit any noticeable recognition, either in the dense or subtler vehicles or even by the soul. Later in the evolutionary process, recognition and response will come, but for all astrological purposes and recognisable produced effects, they may be regarded today as non-existent except as they react upon the fourth kingdom of nature as it constitutes a living unit in the body of the planetary Logos.
(EA 31) 3. Disciples and initiates can
begin consciously to respond to all the above influences, handling them
constructively, plus those potent yet
infinitely subtle forces which pour into our solar system from the three major
constellations referred to above. In the early
stages, the response is in the subtler bodies
and the brain fails to register them, but after the third initiation, there is a recognition of them upon the physical plane.
(EA 55) 3. Upon the mental plane the Angel of the Presence and the Dweller on the Threshold are brought face to face. Their synthesis is brought about upon the Path of Initiation.
...The analogy can also be carried forward onto the mental plane and when the energies of the sun sign and the rising sign are coherently blended and expressed (in the case of both the individual or a planetary Life) there comes a point of crisis wherein the soul and the personality are brought face to face. The Angel of the Presence, distributing solar fire and holding focussed electric fire, and the Dweller on the Threshold, expressing and utilising fire by friction, know each other "with intimate occult knowledge." The door then stands open wide through which the life and light of the three major constellations can—after the third initiation—be occultly available to the initiate, be he a liberated human being or a planetary Logos.
(EA 71) c. At the third initiation, the Moon (veiling a hidden planet) and Mars bring about a fearful conflict, [Page 71] but at the end the man is released from personality control.
(EA 85) In our study of the interlocking system of energies, in so far as they affect and condition a human being, the theme of the Three Crosses is of profound and practical interest, especially as they provide those points of crisis wherein a man steps off the ordinary path of evolution and treads the path of discipleship or—after the third initiation mounts a third Cross. It will underlie our thought and all that I have to say. A steady recollection of the twelve basic energies [Page 85] (five major and seven minor which are in reality, and apart from astral reversion due to the Great Illusion, seven major and five minor) will be of value. These work out into human expression via the Lords of the twelve signs and the twelve planetary Rulers. These twelve basic energies emanate from the seven stars of the Great Bear (transmitted through seven stars of the Little Bear); two of them come from Sirius and three from the Pleiades.
(EA 88) . Spiritual man to the third
Initiation.
a. The heart.
b. The throat.
c. The seven head centres.
6. Spiritual man to the fifth Initiation.
a. The heart.
b. The seven head centres.
c. The two many-petalled lotuses.
(EA 90) New planetary potencies (conveying zodiacal energies) will control and take precedence of the old ones, thus putting the man in touch with different forces. Finally the time will come when he will be sensitive to the whole range of vibrations; charts will then be set up which will be called "charts of the crosses" and not simply indications of planetary influences in the twelve houses. I question whether there is any living astrologer capable of doing this as yet. These are the kind of charts by which the Masters gauge Their disciples and they are most interesting; I touched upon them somewhat earlier in this treatise. These "charts of the crosses" are the ones that are prepared prior to the third initiation, at which time the man begins his "approach" to the Cardinal Cross of the heavens. I would here remind you, e'en though it is a piece of useless information, that the fifth major initiation of our planet is the first cosmic initiation, just as the third initiation is the first systemic. The two first initiations are planetary in their implications. The above statement has deep and esoteric astrological significance.
(EA 120) It is only when the soul is becoming more alive within the form and the man is aware of his duality that the energies of the Fixed Cross supersede in effectiveness those of the Mutable Cross, just as after the third initiation the energies of the Cardinal Cross begin to control the man and are of more insistent incentive than those of the other two crosses.
(EA 136) As the interplay goes on between
Leo and Aquarius (for they are polar opposites) there comes a deepening of all
qualities and the superficialities disappear until—upon the reversed wheel—the
intensive self-consciousness of Leo expands into the group awareness of
Aquarius. The individual becomes the universal. Man, alone and separative, becomes mankind in his reactions and awareness
and yet, at the same time, preserves his individuality; he is no longer just a
human being, individually self-centred [Page 136] and separative,
but becomes humanity itself, losing his personal identity in the good of the
whole yet retaining his spiritual Identity. From self-service, he proceeds to world service and yet is always the individualised
Son of God until after the third initiation.
(EA 152) It should be remembered that Aries is definitely that divine manifestation to which Christ referred when He said "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." The significance of this can, however, only be grasped when the experiences of the Mutable Cross and of the Fixed Cross have been transcended and the Cardinal Cross has been consciously mounted after the third initiation.
(EA 162) 3. The initiates, in their turn,
are being subjected to the impact of energies
from Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces—an inflow of
force from each of the three Crosses. These three
forces enable the initiates to take the third initiation.
(EA 262) Capricorn.—Labour—three signs from Capricorn to Pisces, until the third initiation, including Capricorn.
(EA 163) The exoteric and the esoteric planetary rulers of Capricorn are the same, and Saturn rules the career of the man in this sign, no matter whether he is on the ordinary or the reversed wheel, or whether he is on the Mutable or the Fixed Cross. When he has taken the third initiation and can consciously mount the Cardinal Cross, he is then released from the ruling of Saturn and comes under the influence of Venus, who is governor or ruler of the Hierarchy which is that of the Crocodiles. A reference to the tabulation heretofore given will show this. It is only when a man is upon the Cardinal Cross that the significance, purpose and potencies of the Creative Hierarchies become clear to [Page 164] him and the "doors of entrance" into all of them stand wide open.
(EA 165) Capricorn—Guards the secret of the soul itself and this it reveals to the initiate at the time of the third initiation. This is sometimes called the "secret of the hidden glory."
(EA 166) Initiation 1
and 7 Vulcan. Uranus. Taurus. Libra. Pisces.
Pluto.
(EA 166) Third, that on the Path of Discipleship three constellations control and lead up to the activity of Capricorn, at which time initiation becomes possible.
Fourth, on the Path of Initiation the activity of all the three Crosses is felt simultaneously through the medium of the "released powers" of Taurus, Libra and Pisces. You will note also that the first ray influence, expressing through Pluto and Vulcan, is only felt in a positive manner upon the Path of Discipleship. This first ray potency has only lately been experienced by humanity as a whole as it neared the stage of being the world disciple, and vast numbers relatively stood upon the Path of Discipleship and Probation. Hence the recent discovery of Pluto and the sensed power of Vulcan, veiled by the potency of Mercury and hidden behind the planet.
(EA 173)
Saturn relates Capricorn to the previous sign Aquarius, upon the
ordinary wheel, and Jupiter, exoterically understood, relates Capricorn to
Sagittarius upon the reversing wheel. It will be obvious to all esotericists that the Sun
is the obvious ruler of the third decanate, veiling
as it does a hidden and deeply significant planet and being that which reveals
divinity at the time of the third initiation.
You will note how, in this great sign of initiation, Saturn reveals the nature
of the third aspect of divinity, the nature of intelligent substance; Venus
reveals the nature of the second aspect, which is consciousness or intelligent
love, whilst the Sun—the physical Sun and the heart
of the Sun together—reveals the synthesis of these two.
(EA 199) b. The disciple for the first, second and third initiations. After the third initiation, its peculiar testing potency is no longer felt. (Scorpio)
(EA 213) One of the reasons for this travesty of the truth has been that St. Paul, that great initiate, prior to taking the third initiation which he did at the time he was functioning as related in The Acts of the Apostles, was potently under Martian influence and was born in Scorpio; a study of his horoscope would demonstrate this were you in a position to study as can we who are connected with the Hierarchy.
(EA 388) 1. The secret of Aries is the secret of beginnings, of cycles and of emerging opportunity. At the third initiation, the initiate begins to understand the life of the spirit or the [Page 388] highest aspect; until that time, he has expressed first the life of the form and then the life of the soul within that form. This experience is of so high a nature that only those who have passed through it could in any way comprehend anything I might say.
(EA 390) That which is fluid and changeable in Gemini produces the great shift in consciousness which distinguishes the initiate from the disciple. This, at the third initiation becomes a fixed attitude in Capricorn. The concrete form life is transcended and the inner man reorients and assumes an unchangeable direction.
(EA 144) 4. In Aquarius—In this sign, the long effort of the soul is consummated and concludes the experience of the disciple upon the Fixed Cross. The man then takes the third initiation and becomes free from personality control, taking the next two initiations upon the Cardinal Cross.
(EA 146) We come now to a very interesting point in connection with Aquarius. There is apparently no planet which is either exalted or "falls" in this sign. The only planet affected is the Sun, whose power is lessened. What is the symbolic significance of this? It consists in the relation of Aquarius to Capricorn and of the Fixed Cross to the Cardinal Cross and of the third initiation to those succeeding it, of the point of balance reached between Pisces and Capricorn, which focus in Aquarius. I am not here considering the orthodox mathematical or astronomical reasons, for they are, in reality, dependent upon the subjective and spiritual reasons, and it is with these that we are concerned.
(EA 147) In Aquarius, the initiate consummates all that has been achieved in Leo through the influence of the Sun, for in Leo there is an almost unique condition where humanity is concerned as the Sun governs all expressions—exoteric, esoteric and hierarchical. It rules the personality, the soul and the fourth Creative Hierarchy. Hence the Sun (the physical Sun) is lessened in its power in Aquarius. The third initiation has been undergone and the light of the personality has been "put out" or dimmed by the light of the subjective Sun, influencing the soul. There is much to think out here but little more can be directly indicated, as the curious fact of this triple control by a planet constitutes one of the mysteries of initiation. It is tied up with the relation between Leo and Aquarius, for Leo is unusual in having all its ruling influences concentrated through the medium of one planet. Leo indicates the height of achievement of the human soul. We are apt to think that initiation and liberation are the achievement of the human kingdom [Page 148] and the attainment of humanity. This is not the case. Initiation is an achievement and an attained success of the soul which has at last succeeded in dominating the personality and in manifesting its true nature and character, in spite of the personality and the antagonism of the human being intent upon his own purposes. It is literally the attainment of certain desired objectives, towards which the units of the fifth kingdom in nature have been working for aeons, and expresses the end of the enforced task and sacrifice and planetary service. This achievement reaches its goal at the third initiation and from that time on man, liberated and free, serves from free choice and as a soul, conscious of intent and purpose upon the physical plane.
(EA 144)
Aquarius concludes the fixed
cross at the
third and fourth initiations.
(EA 555) e. The energies of this Cross continue to
evoke response until the time of the third initiation.
(EA 141) The majority
take their last incarnation in aquarius
(fourth initiation), a rare few under Pisces.
(EA 320) 3. In Pisces, the influence of Shamballa claims the initiate as its field of activity and the dualism of soul and spirit emerges instead of that of soul and body which has hitherto been of major importance. The power of the [Page 320] form to hold the soul in captivity has been negated and tests and trials of the initiate up to the third initiation are directed to this end.
Such is the way of the initiate.
(EA
565) The Piscean aspect in its
highest expression is demonstrated by His sensitivity
to immediate and unbroken contact with His "Father in Heaven"; He was
in constant communication with the Monad, thereby proving to the world that He
was initiated into states of
consciousness of which the third initiation is but the beginning.
(IHS 217) No
need for rebirth after 4th initiation.
(IHS 85)
After 2nd initiation, 3rd and 4th often
take place in same incarnation.
(EH 529)
Many taking 4th and 5th
initiations in one life.
(EA 365) Gemini
rising enables the initiate to fuse soul and spirit (3rd, 4th and 5th initiations)
(EA 449) With these triangles of supernal forces I shall not deal because conscious response to their influence will not be possible till the time cycle of the third initiation arrives. I simply mention this influence so that you will realise that there is no real contradiction or discrepancy.
(EA 276) I would like here to add something more to the teaching about the wheel of life and its reversed motion which occurs at a particular stage of evolution. I want to call your attention to the fact that the difficulty of the problem and the intensification of the life of conscious duality which marks the earlier stages of the Path of Discipleship, up to and immediately preceding the third initiation, is based upon the wheel of the zodiac contributing its influences to the life of the form nature in a normal manner; the myriads of lives which constitute the form are conditioned by the signs of the zodiac proceeding in its normal manner—clockwise, due to the precession of the equinoxes, whilst the life of the disciple, focussed in the soul consciousness, is governed (or should I remark, should be governed?) by the wheel, proceeding anti-clockwise.
(EA 280) What will be the objective and the
consummation of the activity of the Cardinal Cross during the next solar system
[Page 280] is hidden in the
revelation which comes to the man who has taken the third initiation. It is connected naturally with the Spirit or first aspect of
divinity, or with the Monad and with the expression of the divine
consciousness. Until a man has, however, taken this initiation, he profits not
from anything that I could tell him in this connection. For its impartation also, words are useless and in
fact do not exist.
(EA 300) The above tabulation gives you the clue to the basic reality and necessity of meditation as practised by the disciple and the initiate. This may not be apparent to you at first sight and I may not further expand these suggestions, but the directed reflection of the illumined mind may bring insight to you in time. The influence of Sirius is not consciously felt until after the third initiation when the true nature of the spirit aspect begins to dawn upon the liberated, intuitive perception of the initiate. For the advanced initiate in this sign, and after the third initiation, Sirius becomes a major life factor. He begins to respond to its vibration because he now rules the Sun and the Moon and is controlling those two planets, for that is what the Sun and the Moon have become to him—simply planets to be ruled. This is a great mystery and I simply state the fact. Sirius, Leo, the Sun, the Moon and Mercury are now the influences with which the initiate is concerned. The influences of Sirius, three in number, are focussed in Regulus, which is, as you know, a star of the first magnitude and which is frequently called "the heart of the Lion." There is more real occultism hidden in the names given to the various stars by astronomers down the ages than has yet been realised, and here you have a case in point.
(EA 313) This sign, Cancer, being concerned primarily with the world of causes, has about its inner meaning much indefiniteness [Page 313] and an apparently vague subtlety which proves most elusive to the ordinary thinker. This also is true of all the signs which go to the forming of the Cardinal Cross of the Heavens. In the last analysis, it is only the initiated disciple who can fathom the true meaning of these zodiacal influences as they pulsate throughout the manifested universe, because they are primarily the expression of spirit or life more than of soul or body. Therefore, until after the third initiation—as you have oft been told—there is little to be known or said about that "mysterious essence which is divinity in motion."
(EA 316) There are two words also which
convey the purpose and intent of expression upon the Cardinal Cross. They give
the reason why the two "Doors of the Zodiac" open [Page 316] wide to
the impulse and demand of the divine Spirit. One is the word "self-preservation"
which leads to the impulse to incarnate in Cancer, which is the Door to the
physical plane expression of spirit. This impulse (when the form is the prime
object of the attention of the soul and that with which it primarily identifies
itself) brings about the stage of static concretion in the earth sign
Capricorn. The other word is "immortality" which is the divine aspect
of self-preservation; it is the major conditioning factor in the creative
process and leads to the whole revelation of evolution, to the recurrent
appearance of life in form, and to the revelation
of life in form. In Capricorn, at the third initiation, this life aspect
assumes primary importance.
(EA 335) 2. Through a study of the Fixed Cross—Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius—he will arrive at a right interpretation of the lives:
a. Of initiates.
b. Of group absorption into synthesis.
c. Of the significance of the third initiation.
(EA 354) There is a third [Page 354] aspect of Mercury which begins to function when the other two are perfected or in process of rapid perfecting. Mercury, in this case, is the abstract mind—removed from all form contact as we understand it—and relates soul and spirit, and this again in two stages. Mercury is the revealer of the Spiritual Triad (atma-buddhi-manas or spiritual will, spiritual love and the higher mind) to the soul, and this carries the disciples to the stage of the third initiation. It is then the revealer of the life aspect during the processes of the higher initiations, but upon these it is not necessary for us to enlarge.
(EA 359) Mercury, as it relates Gemini to Scorpio and to our planet, has a mass or general effect, for it is the hierarchical ruler of Scorpio and its effect is of a planetary nature far more than is usually the case, and is, therefore, far more difficult to trace at our present point of planetary development and human consciousness. Its true significance will not be understood until the consciousness of individual man is also planetary in its scope and grasp, which is never the case until after the third initiation. I have here emphasised two of these relationships between the constellations and the Earth even though it is not possible for you to grasp the implications.
(EA 363) We have here considered the rays which directly affect our planet, the Earth, which are focussed through the three ruling planets and which emanate from certain of the constellations. In the last analysis, the planet is the result or the effect (should I say, resultant effect) of the ray influence, just as in the human being the physical body is the effect of the governing rays. Through the planets certain potencies manifest. These are three in number, and I might here point out that the sacred planets—so-called—are those ray potencies which are expressive of soul and spirit, with the personality ray of the great informing Life, the planetary Logos, subordinated to the two higher rays, such as is the case with the man after the third initiation. A non-sacred planet, such as the Earth, is still subject to the ray of the personality of the informing Life, and the correspondence to the esoteric monadic ray is non-effective.
(EA 384) The entire relationship has been summed up in the words: The planet Venus is to the planet Earth what the higher Self is to the Personality. Remember that the planet Venus is one of the seven sacred planets whereas the Earth is not. This statement involves, as you can see, a deep mystery of relativity, of interplay and of eventual revelation. This revelation as to the relation of the Earth's alter ego to the world of human life will only be revealed at the third initiation, at which time all glamour and illusion is dissipated [Page 384] and "the light which shines through the eye of the Bull will be unimpeded" and carry light into the darkness.
(EA 494)
The whole problem is one concerning our planetary Logos. It might be
said (in order to make our theme comprehensible to you) that the evolutionary
process—from the standpoint of the ordinary human being—is to make the non-sacred
planet, our Earth, responsive to cosmic impacts thus bringing more
inter-related and inner integration into the logoic
body of expression. There are other
purposes but it is only after the third initiation that a man begins to
comprehend them.
(EA 504) d. The Logos of a solar system is esoterically called the "Sacred Triangle of all-inclusive Force" because this great Being includes within His focussed awareness the fields of expression of the Great Bear, the Pleiades and Sirius. They are to Him what the heart, the head and the throat centres are to the developed initiate on this planet. He has taken those initiations of which the highest initiate upon our Earth has no faintest conception. Forget not, that I have told you elsewhere that there are divine aspects and divine characteristics which are [Page 505] as yet totally unrevealed even to the most advanced humanity. No human being of a lower degree to that of the third initiation can even faintly sense and dimly react to these underlying factors in the existent divine manifestation.
(EA 506) Some understanding of the distinction between a sacred and a non-sacred planet will come if you can realise that there is a paralleling correspondence between the consciousness of the initiate (up to and including the third initiation) and the consciousness of the Logos of a non-sacred planet. Soul and body, consciousness and form are blended and a [Page 506] definite fusion is taking place. Two divine aspects are in process of intimate relation. The disciple brings about this relationship within his little system, and the planetary Logos on a far larger scale within His range of influence and control. In this process He carries with Him all the four kingdoms in nature. For both these lives—microcosmic and macrocosmic—this fusion produces Transfiguration, the third initiation. The Logos of a sacred planet has carried the divine work further along and is occupied with the task of synthesising into one unit of conscious response and activity, the higher divine aspect, that of the Monad, the will aspect. When this is accomplished, will, love and intelligence are blended and spirit, soul and body are at-one. Then the quality of the divine expression will be divine purpose, impulsed by will, motivated by love and carried forward with intelligence.
The four arms of this Cross are Taurus—Leo—Scorpio—Aquarius. It is called the Fixed Cross because the man is stretched upon it by the directed choice and immovable intent of his soul. From that decision there is no turning back.
(EA 604) 4. The nature of the will is as yet undefinable for only the Monad responds to its impact, and only after the third initiation does man somewhat grasp the nature of the will. All that is possible to understand in this brief summation is the effect of the will as it makes its presence [Page 604] felt and the result of its expression, emphasised through the three constellations.
(EA 607) 2. The three aspects of the will which the three constellations are expressing and to which human beings will consciously respond after the third initiation. These three aspects are:
a. The will which conditions and initiates.
b. The will which brings fulfilment.
c. The will which conquers death.
(EA 614) 3. Path of Initiation.
a. Unfoldment of the will.
b. Achievement of synthesis.
c. Response to the centre called Shamballa.
d. Dynamic Purpose in control. The will-to-good. The Monad functions.
This covers familiar ground for all of you but in the effort to achieve a vision of the whole, constant repetition has its place. We are now concerned with the third stage of the evolutionary process, carried forward upon the Path of Initiation and entered into (as far as humanity is concerned) at the third initiation, and consummated at the seventh initiation—an initiation far more easily reached by people upon the first Ray than on any of the others.
(EA 618) Students would do well to shift their eyes off the goal of
transfiguration (achieved at the third initiation and increasingly present at each previous initiation) and pay more
attention to the recognition of that in them which "having pervaded their
little universe with a fragment of itself remains." They will then have
anchored their consciousness in the centre of transcending power and guaranteed
the flow of the will-to-achieve. From that
(EA 620) 2. The will-to-good, demonstrated at the third initiation when self-consciousness gives place to group consciousness. This is the second stage of divine fulfilment. It connotes soul, quality. It is the expression of the second aspect.
(EA 625) It knows itself as the transcending will because behind its expression of cosmic love (attracting, fusing and producing cohesion) lies a synthetic vision of divine Intention. It differentiates between process and goal, between initiation and that which is revealed by the initiatory process and that is something which as yet is unknown to initiates below the third degree. Herein lies the distinction between the Christ and the Buddha. The latter revealed the process, but the Christ embodied in Himself both goal and process. He revealed the cosmic principle of love and by its means—embodied in Himself—He produced effects also and momentous changes in the world through those presented to Him for initiation.
(EH 116) The disciple reverses the entire situation and falls a victim (prior to the third initiation) to the terrific inflow of soul energy—the energy of the second aspect—coming to him from:
a. His own soul, with which centre of energy fusion is rapidly taking place.
b. His group or the Ashram with which he, as an accepted disciple, is affiliated.
c. His Master, with Whom he has spiritual relation and to Whose vibratory influence he is ever susceptible.
d. The Hierarchy, the energy of which can reach him through the medium of all the three above factors.
(EH 139) These generalisations will be useful only if you remember that they are generalisations. No aspirant at any stage is perfectly clear cut in his endeavour until after the third initiation, nor is he entirely particularised in his life and effort. Men are at all imaginable stages of development, and many of these stages are intermediate to the five stages above mentioned. These all merge and blend into each other, and often constitute a formidable and confusing arena for thought and activity. It is only in the life of the undeveloped individual that clear simplicity is to be found. In between—from the stage of infancy of the race or of the man to that of the state of liberation from personality life—there is nothing but complexity, the overlapping of states of consciousness, difficulty, disease, psychological problems, illness and death.
(EH 145) 1. The Head Centre. This is located at the very top of the head. It is frequently called "the thousand-petalled lotus" or the Brahmarandra.
a. It corresponds to the central spiritual sun.
b. It is brought into functioning activity after the third initiation and is the organ for the distribution of monadic energy, of the will aspect of divinity.
g. It is the organ of synthesis because, after the third initiation and prior to the destruction of the causal body, it gathers into itself the energies of all the three aspects of manifested life. Where man is concerned, this means the energies of the Spiritual Triad, of the threefold egoic lotus and of the triple personality, thus again making the nine of initiation. The energies thus synchronised and focussed in, around and above [Page 146] the head are of great beauty and extensive radiation, plus dynamic effectiveness. They serve to relate the initiate to all parts of the planetary life, to the Great Council at Shamballa, and to the Lord of the World, the final Initiator—via the Buddha and one of the three Buddhas of Activity. The Buddha, in a most peculiar sense, relates the initiate to the second aspect of divinity—that of love—and therefore to the Hierarchy; the Buddhas of Activity relate him to the third aspect of divinity, that of active intelligence. Thus the energy of will, of consciousness and of creativity meet in him, providing the synthesis of the divine aspects.
(EH 147) 2. The Ajna Centre. This is the centre between the eyebrows and is found in the region of the head just above [Page 147] the two eyes, where it "acts as a screen for the radiant beauty and the glory of the spiritual man."
a. It corresponds to the physical sun and is the expression of the personality, integrated and functioning—first of all as the disciple, and finally as the initiate. This is the true persona or mask.
b. It achieves this functioning activity fully by the time the third initiation is taken. I would remind you that this initiation is regarded by the Hierarchy as the first major initiation, a fact which I have already communicated. It is the organ for the distribution of the energy of the third aspect—the energy of active intelligence.
(EH 151) a. The throat centre is ruled by Saturn just as the two head centres are ruled respectively by Uranus (ruling the head centre) and Mercury (ruling the ajna centre). This is only where the disciple is concerned; the rulership changes after the third initiation or before the first. These three planets constitute a most interesting triangle of forces and in the following triplicities and their inevitable inter-relations you have—again only in the case of disciples—a most amazing picture story or symbol of the ninefold of initiation:
1. The head centre
The ajna centre
The throat centre
2. The third eye
The right eye
The left eye
3. The pineal gland
The pituitary body
The carotid gland
thus presenting the mechanism through which the Spiritual Triad, the soul and the personality work. [Page 152] The key to a right understanding of process lies in the relation of the three planets: Uranus, Mercury and Saturn, as they pour their energies through these nine "points of spiritual contact" upon the physical plane into the "grounded sphere of light and power which is the man in time and space."
(EH 173) The energies of the centre at the base of the spine have to be transferred to the head centre. After the third initiation, these basic energies are raised, controlled or distributed by an act of the will of the Spiritual Triad. Then "the light generated in Lemuria" (the sacral light) and "the light generated in Atlantis" (solar plexus light) will die out, and those two centres will simply be recipients of spiritual energies from on high; they will possess no direct, inherent light of their own; the light which they will transmit will come to them from collective sources on etheric planes.
(EH 185) 8. These three paths of life are the channels for electric fire, solar fire and fire by friction, and are related in their usage to the three stages of the path of evolution: the path of evolution in the material, earlier stages; the Path of Probation, and the early stages of the Path of Discipleship until the third initiation; and the Path of Initiation itself.
9. The Kundalini Fire, about which so much is taught and written in the East, and increasingly in the West, is in reality the union of these three fires, which are focussed by an act of the enlightened will, under the impulse of love, in the basic centre. This unified fire is then raised by the use of a Word of Power (sent forth by the will of the Monad) and by the united authority of the soul and personality, integrated and alive. The human being who can do this in full consciousness is therefore an initiate who has left the third initiation behind him. He, and he alone, can safely raise this triple fire from the base of the spine to the head centre.
(EH 210) 2. The head centre (called in the Hindu philosophy, the thousand-petalled lotus) conditions the pineal gland and is related to the life of the soul and—after the third initiation—to the life of the monad; it conveys to the centres the energy of the three major types of spiritual being of which the three forces of the personality are the reflections or physical counterparts.
(EH 216) 3. The stage of energising the entire man, via the basic centre thus bringing:
a. The head centre and the basic centre,
b. These two and the ajna centre,
c. All the three, simultaneously and
consciously, into rhythmic, coordinated expression. This is a final stage of great importance,
and only takes place in its
completeness at the time of the third initiation, that of the Transfiguration.
(EH 342) One thing I will add, however, for
your encouragement. As the race, as a
whole, becomes governed by the solar Lord, the sun god, the Soul, then the
cycles of the moon will steadily lose their baleful effect and there will be a
dying out of the various neurotic complaints and mental diseases today so
prevalent. The time is not yet. It is not easy for me to give more information concerning the moon and its phases, as
it constitutes one of the major mysteries to be revealed at the third
initiation.
(EH 406) There is a curious counterpart to this experience upon a much lower level in the death of all astral emotion which takes place for the individual aspirant at the time of the second initiation. It is then a complete episode and is consciously registered. Between the second and the third initiations, the disciple has to demonstrate a continuity of nonresponse to astralism and emotionalism. The second death, to which I am here referring, has to do with the death or the disappearance of the causal body at the time of the fourth initiation; this marks the completion of the building of the antahkarana and the institution of direct, unimpeded continuity of relationship between the Monad and the personality.
(EH 435) All these phases, rightly understood, illustrate or demonstrate the unique potency of the Law of Attraction and its relation to the Law of Synthesis, which governs the first divine aspect. Integration eventually produces synthesis. The many cyclic integrations which are carried forward in the great life cycle of an incarnating soul lead to the final synthesis of spirit and soul, which is the goal of the evolutionary process where humanity is concerned. After the third initiation, this results in the complete liberation of the man from the "pull" of substance in the three worlds and in his consequent ability to wield, with full understanding, the Law of Attraction in its various phases, as far as [Page 435] the creative process is involved. Other phases will then be later mastered.
(EH 507) b. A transitional phase wherein a conflict rages
between personality and soul. The
soul begins to seek liberation from form life and yet—in the last analysis—the
personality is dependent upon the life principle, conferred by the soul. Wording it otherwise, the conflict between
the soul ray and the personality ray starts and the war is on between two focussed aspects of energy. This conflict terminates at the third
initiation.
(EH 516) 2. That the elimination of the thoughtform of the personality, which is consummated at the third initiation, is a great initiation for the soul on its own plane. For this reason, the third initiation is regarded as the first major initiation, since the two previous initiations have very little effect upon the soul and only affect the incarnated soul, the "fragment" of the whole.
From the angle of the personal self,
regarding itself as the Dweller on the Threshold, the attitude or state of mind
has been inadequately portrayed as one of complete obliteration in the light of
the soul; the glory of the Presence, transmuted [Page 516] by the Angel, is
such that the personality
completely disappears, with its demands and its aspirations. Naught is left but the
shell, the sheath and the instrument through which the solar light can pour for
the helping of humanity. This is true to
a certain degree, but is only—in the last analysis—man's attempt to put into
words the transmuting and the transfiguring
effect of the third initiation, which cannot be done.
(517) None of the above realisations may be registered in the brain consciousness or in the mind of the illumined personality. Theoretically, some dim vision of the inherent possibilities may be sensed, but the consciousness is no longer that of the serving disciple in the three worlds, using mind, emotions and physical body to carry out behest and hierarchical intent, as far as may be. That has disappeared with the death of the personality consciousness. The consciousness is now that of the soul itself, aware of no separation, instinctively active, spiritually obsessed by the plans of the Kingdom of God, and completely free from the lure or the faintest control of matter-form; the soul is, however, still responsive to and immersed in substance-energy, and its higher correspondence is still functioning on the levels of the cosmic physical plane—the buddhic, atmic, monadic and logoic planes.
What then must take place if the life of the soul is to be full and complete and so thoroughly inclusive that the three worlds form part of its area of awareness and its field of service? The only way in which I can make clear to you what the soul must do after the third initiation is to sum it up in two ways:
First: The soul now becomes a conscious creator because the third aspect—developed and mastered through experience in the three worlds during the long cycle of incarnations—has reached a point of perfected activity. Putting it technically: the energy of the knowledge petals and the energy of the love petals are now so actively fused and blended that two of the inner petals, surrounding the jewel in the lotus, are no longer acting [Page 518] as veils to that jewel. I am here speaking symbolically. Because of this happening, the death or the elimination of the personality is the first activity in the drama of conscious creation, and the first form created by the soul is a substitute for the personality. Thus an instrument for service in the three worlds is created. This time, however, it is an instrument with no life, no desire, no ambition and no power of thought of its own. It is only a sheath of substance, animated by soul life but—at the same time—responsive to and suited to the period, race and the environing conditions wherein the creating soul chooses to work. Think this statement out and emphasise the words "suited to."
Second.
The soul then prepares itself
for the coming fourth initiation. This is basically a monadic
experience and results—as you know—in the disappearance or destruction
of the soul vehicle or causal body, and the establishment, therefore, of a direct relation between the monad on its own plane
and the newly created personality, via the antahkarana.
(EH 571) It might be of interest to you to correlate what I have said in my other writing anent the eyes with the point made above. As you well know, and as stated in The Secret Doctrine, the right eye is the "eye of buddhi" and the left eye is the "eye of manas"—this (when in relation to buddhi) referring to the higher mind and to man as he finally will appear. In the average human being, and before reaching perfection, the right eye transmits the energy of the astral body when directed consciously towards an object of attention, and the left eye directs the energy of the lower mind. In between these two directing eyes is to be found the ajna centre, which is like a third eye or directing agent for the blended and fused energies of the personality; related to this third eye as it awakens and comes into functioning activity is what we call "the eye of the soul"; this is a point within the highest head centre. This eye of the soul can and does transmit energy to the ajna centre and is itself the agent (before the fourth initiation) of the energy of the Spiritual Triad. This esoteric relationship is only set up when the soul is dominating its instrument, the personality, and is bringing all the lower activities upon the physical plane under soul direction.
(EH 598) The "secret" referred to is the revelation of the manner in which good health may be preserved. It is not the secret [Page 598] of how to cure the physical vehicle when "bodily ills" are present. But there is a secret of good health which is known to all initiates above the third initiation; and this they can simply employ, if they so choose. However, they may not so choose always unless they are working with other parts of the Plan which have nothing to do with humanity. If them are among those who are occupied with the unfolding consciousness in man and who are workers for and in the human kingdom, they may know the secret but may, at the same time, choose not to profit by it because of the need they feel to be completely identified with mankind; they therefore choose to share consciously all human experience and to die along lines which are common to the rest of men.
(EH 640) This is followed later by the conflicts upon the Path of Discipleship and the Path of Initiation. Then the livingness of the spiritual man, and his will to manifest divinely, dominate to such an extent that the death of the personality is brought about; this culminates at the time of the third initiation. At that experience the monadic will comes in with such dynamic potency that the will of the elemental lives of the threefold personality is completely negated.
(EH 672) These three basic requirements concern attainment on various planes of the universe; though I dealt with them in connection with the approach to the sixth initiation, they have— on a lower turn of the spiral—their correspondences, and are therefore of practical application by the initiated disciple, particularly one who has taken the third initiation. Let us take them, one by one, into our thinking:
(EH 678) We come now to the final and the most mysterious law of all that I have given you. I called your attention to it earlier, and there pointed out that this "last law is an enunciation of a new law which is substituted for the Law of Death, and which has reference only to those found upon the later stages of the Path of Discipleship and the stages upon the Path of Initiation." By these later stages I refer to the period after the second initiation and prior to taking the third. This law does not apply in any way as long as the emotional nature can disturb the clear rhythm of the personality as it responds to the impact of soul energy, and later to monadic.
(RI 34) Had you grasped the fact that after the third initiation, the initiate is not concerned with consciousness at all, but with the fusion of his individual will with the divine will. He is not then occupied with increasing his sensitivity to contact, or with his conscious response to environing conditions, but is becoming increasingly aware of the dynamics of the Science of the Service of the Plan.
(RI 36) We now come to my third point in relation to the Rules or Formulas and their objective. They are concerned—above everything else—with group initiation. They have other applications, but for the present here lies their usefulness. What, you may ask, is group initiation? Does it involve the taking of initiation by every member in the group? Can one person have so extensive an influence that he can hold up or delay or even prevent (in time and space) the group initiation? The group need not necessarily contain members who have all taken the same initiation. By this I mean that the necessary initiation of all the members simultaneously into the same group development is not required. Basically, what I am endeavouring to say anent these Rules has relation to the third initiation—the initiation of the integrated personality. They necessarily, however, have a correspondence to the second initiation, and are consequently of more general interest, for it is that initiation which faces so many aspirants today—the demonstration of the control of the formidable emotional nature.
(RI 39) These two factors, when brought
into living activity, bring the disciple into the centre of the burning ground
which separates the Angel of the Presence from the Dweller on the
Threshold. The burning ground is found
upon the threshold of every new
advance, until the third initiation has been taken.
(RI 42) Note how this passage reverses the usual presentation. Hitherto, in the occult books, the Door of Initiation has been presented as ever moving forward ahead of the initiate. He passes through door after door into a wider experience and expansion of consciousness. But in the initiate consciousness, after the first two initiations, this is not the realisation. It is simply the adhering to an old form of symbolism with the implied limitations of the truth. I would here remind you that the third initiation is regarded by the Hierarchy as the first major initiation, and that the first and second initiations are initiations of the Threshold. For the bulk of humanity, these first two initiations will for a very long time constitute major initiatory experiences, but in the life and realisation of the initiate-soul, they are not. After the two initiations of the threshold have been undergone the attitude of the initiate changes and he sees possibilities and factors and revelations which have hitherto [Page 42] been totally unrealised and unknown, even to his consciousness at his highest moments.
The door of initiation looms large in the consciousness of the neophyte; the higher Way is the determining factor in the life of the initiate of the third degree. It is the Transfiguration; and a new glory pours through the transfigured initiate who has been released from every type of grip by either the personality or the soul. For the first time, the goal of the higher Way and the attainment of Nirvana (as the Oriental calls it) appears before him, and he knows that no forms and no spiritual complexes and no pull by either soul or form, or by both united, can have any effect upon his attaining his final destination.
(RI 45) The clue to the seventh initiation
which lies ahead for such high Beings as the Christ would be of no service to
you at all. The clue to the initiation of the Transfiguration can be
of importance, as it involves the personality,
and many of you in the not so distant future (from the angle of the aeonial life cycle of the soul) will face that. The secret
of the third initiation is the demonstration of complete freedom from the
claims and demands of the personality. It does not involve the achievement of [Page
45] a completely perfect expression of the spiritual life, but it does indicate
that the service of the initiate and his life demonstration—regarded in a broad
and general way, from the angle of the life-tendency and of entire dedication
to humanity—remains untouched by the
limitations, still existent, of the personal lower self.
(RI 54) his discovery is consummated at the time of the third initiation. The initiate and the Master, along with those of higher rank who are approaching identification with Shamballa, are steadily and ever more clearly hearing the Sound emanating from the Central Spiritual Sun and penetrating all forms of divine life upon our planet—via our Planetary Logos Who hears it with clarity and with understanding—the Sound of the lowest syllable of the Ineffable Name of the One in Whom all the Planetary Logoi live and move and have Their Being, for They are centres in the LIFE which is expressing itself through the medium of a solar system.
(RI 56) When a man perfectly empresses the A.U.M., he can then sound the O.M. with effectiveness from progressive points of tension, until the third initiation. Then the effect of the O.M. is such that the personality as a separate identity disappears, the soul emerges in all its glory, and the first faint sound of the originating SOUND breaks upon the ear of the transfigured initiate. This is the Voice referred to in the Biblical account of the Transfiguration. This Voice says, "This is my beloved Son." The initiate registers the fact that he has been accepted by Shamballa and has made his first contact with the Planetary Logos, the Hierophant, the Initiator at the third initiation, just as the Christ, the Master of all the Masters, is the Initiator and the Hierophant at the first two initiations.
(RI 63) Therefore, it is the material aspect, "the perfected third of the Personality," which makes possible the activity of the initiate as he sounds out his three demands. The "dominant fifth of the ego" makes itself heard at the third initiation, marking the attainment of at-one-ment, and this fades out at the fourth initiation. At that time the egoic vehicle, the causal body, disappears. Then only two divine aspects remain; the perfected, radiant, organised and active substance through which the initiate can work in full control, the matter aspect, and the dynamic life principle, the spirit aspect, with which that "substantial divine Reality" still awaits identification. It is this thought which underlies the initiate's three demands which (according to the Rule earlier given to aspirants and disciples) must sound forth "across the desert, over all the seas and through the fires."
(RI 79) To this centre we give the name Shamballa, the component letters of which are numerically: S.H.A.M.B.A.L.L.A. or 1.8.1.4.2.1.3.3.1. This word equals the number 24 which in its turn equals 6. I would call your attention to the fact that the word has in it nine letters, and—as you know—nine is the number of initiation. The goal of all the initiatory process is to admit mankind into realisation of and identification with the will or purpose of Deity. The number 6 is the number of form or of manifestation, which is the agent or medium through which this realisation comes and by which the consciousness is unfolded so that it can become the foundation of the higher process which is instituted at the third initiation. That initiation is closely related to the third major centre, Shamballa; it is the third, from the angle of man's perception and understanding, but the first from the angle of Deity Itself.
(RI 80) Technically speaking, until the third initiation, the initiate is "occupied with the relationship of the 2 and the 4; these, when placed side by side, connote relation; and when placed the one above the other, the initiate passes from the 4 into the 2." Needless to say, there is much more to say anent these figures, but the above will suffice to show the satisfactory nature of esoteric numerology—not numerology as understood today.
(RI 83) This initiate realisation is all brought about by the sudden appreciation or apprehension of sound, by the awakening of the inner ear to the significance of the Voice, just as the disciple in the earlier stage awakened to the significance of vision. That is why, at the third initiation, the initiate sees the star and hears the sound. At the first two initiations, he sees the light and hears the Word; but this is something different and is the higher correspondence to the earlier experience. It will be obvious that I can say no more upon this subject.
(RI 85) There is naturally a close connection between the first Ray of Will or Power, the energies concentrated at Shamballa and the Law of Karma, particularly in its planetary potency and in relation to advanced humanity. It will be apparent, therefore, that the more rapidly the individual aspirant approaches the third initiation, the more rapidly and directly will the individual's karma be worked out. Monadic relation, as it becomes established, lets loose the destructive aspect of the basic energy, and all hindrances are destroyed with expedition.
(RI 99) 4. The purposes of time and space, of events and extension, of matter and consciousness have been achieved and are eventually superseded by something for which we have as yet no term and of which we have no conception. It is that which begins to express itself after the third initiation, when the Father aspect "comes into view"—I know not how else to word it.
(RI 105) There is one point here that I
should like to make because it opens the door to new concepts, even if it is
not yet possible for these concepts to be defined so that the mass can
understand; even the disciples who read these words will fail truly to
comprehend. Only
those who have taken the third initiation will rightly interpret. Constantly in all esoteric
literature reference is made to the factors of time and space as if there were
a basic distinction between the worlds in which these two hold sway and in
which the aspirants and initiates of all degrees freely move. Constantly the aspirant is reminded that time is cyclic in nature and manifestation, and that
"space is an entity." It is necessary that there should be some comprehension of these terms if that which the will
controls (when evoked) is to penetrate into the knowing consciousness of the
thinker.
(RI 110) The will-to-good is dynamic, powerful and effective; it is based on realisation of the plan and on reaction to the purpose as sensed by those who are either initiate, and consciously in touch with Shamballa, or disciples who are likewise a part of the Hierarchy but are not yet able to contact the central Purpose or Life. Not yet having taken the third initiation, the monadic vibration is to them largely unknown. It would be just as dangerous for them to be able to reach Shamballa (prior to the third initiation when all personality tendencies are obliterated) as it would be to teach the masses of men today techniques of will which would render their still selfish will effective. The main difficulty would be that the disciples would destroy themselves, whilst the ordinary man would damage himself.
(RI 116) Faced by the rich young man who possessed so much, Christ indicated that he needed to prepare himself for a great negation and for a step forward. The true significance of this has never [Page 116] been grasped and lies in the fact that the phrase "rich young man" is in reality a technical term which is frequently applied to an initiate of the third degree, just as the words "little ones" or "little child" apply to an initiate of the first or second degree. This rich young man was rich in his range of awareness, rich in his personality equipment, rich in his aspiration and in his recognition; he was rich as the result of age-long experience and evolutionary development. He is told by the Christ that he must now prepare himself for what is called in Rule V "the Triad shining forth"; he must now prepare for the unfoldment of the monadic consciousness and for the fourth initiation. In that initiation, the causal body, the body wherein the soul experiences and reaps the fruit of experience, must be and will be destroyed. This has to take place before the initiate can enter into the Council Chamber of the Most High and express the will-to-good and the will of God in fulfillment of the purposes of God. The will of this particular "rich young man," initiate though he was, was not yet adequate to the requirements, so he went sadly away; he had to prepare himself for the fourth initiation, the Great Renunciation, the Crucifixion, and thus fit himself to pass through the needle's eye.
(RI 124) What I am now writing is a series of instructions for disciples in process of training for initiation. I did not say in training for the higher initiations, for these are given in a different manner and the teaching is imparted in the inner Ashram. Therefore, as you have not taken the third initiation, monadic comprehension lies far beyond you; and only this highest state of understanding suffices for the clear perception of the fundamental divine intent lying behind all world phenomena, all evolutionary development, all unfoldment within the capacity of the four kingdoms in nature, and all preparatory extensions and expansions of consciousness.
(RI 127) I would point out that the third initiation is approached from a level tableland of experience and of consciousness, and not from the heights of aspiration, or from fanatical sacrifice, or from the standpoint of a devotion which handicaps the service of the devotee and of the Master he seeks to serve. He knows, as a candidate for initiation, that:
(RI 127) I would point out that the third initiation is approached from a level tableland of experience and of consciousness, and not from the heights of aspiration, or from fanatical sacrifice, or from the standpoint of a devotion which handicaps the service of the devotee and of the Master he seeks to serve. He knows, as a candidate for initiation, that:
(RI 140) The manifestation of divinity on the physical plane.
The doctrine of Avatars. This religious history reveals.
The nature of consciousness, through the development of psychology.
The doctrine of the Trinity, as it expresses itself through the aspects and the attributes.
These four expressions of truth will be found to convey all the knowledge with which the initiate must stand equipped [Page 140] when he climbs the Mount of Transfiguration at the time of the third initiation. They have given him a spiritual perception of the Plan.
(RI 141) This spiritual will is something of which humanity knows nothing; it is hidden and veiled by the self-will of the individual and the group will of the soul. Through both of these experiences the human being moves until his individual will is developed and grounded, focussed and reoriented, and his group will is unfolded so that it includes and swallows up the dedicated, conscious, individual will. When this fusion has taken place (at the third initiation) a [Page 141] great revelation unfolds itself, and for the first time the initiate senses and then contacts the universal will; from that moment the initiate says, "Father, not my will but Thine be done." Just a little of what that will includes may emerge as we study this seventh rule and some of the succeeding rules.
(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 158) The Law of the Supplementary Seven is the great synthetic Law of Life or of Spirit and is the law with which the initiate works; it is this law he wields. From acceptance of the laws of nature and obedience to the laws of the soul, he passes into the positive phase of understanding and wielding the Law of Life. Because this is a governing law for all initiates, and because we know that the nature of life-energy or of spirit cannot be grasped until after the third initiation, it is exceedingly difficult for me to write in explanation of this law. You have not yet the initiate consciousness. [Page 158] I have therefore had to express this law in terms of form, whereas the initiate understands it from its formless angle.
(RI 172) The greatest problem facing aspirants and disciples prior to the third initiation is that of comprehending the nature of identification. This concerns (in the first instance) the relation of the self to the Self and of all selves to the all-inclusive SELF. It involves the mystery of duality with which they are occupied, and the very moment that theory as to essential unity becomes definite realisation, then the realm of synthesis is entered. For that type of realisation, language as we now have it has no words, and it is therefore impossible to formulate concepts to interpret the consequent and resultant state of being. "Identification with" is the phrase which approaches the closest to the initial idea, and until man has grasped his identical at-one-ness with even one human being, it is not possible for him even to think about it in any truly constructive manner. The complete fusion of the negative and the positive aspects in marriage, at the moment that life is transmitted and transferred, is the only tangible though unsatisfactory symbol of this life-sharing process which takes place when an individual or a group knows actually and not simply theoretically that "there are no other selves."
(RI 175) In the familiar words (familiar to all esotericists) which are so often said or chanted at moments of highest spiritual aspiration, the neophyte refers to the time when "we stand where the One Initiator is invoked, when we see His star shine forth." Two ideas then stand forth: the idea of invocation and of the result of that invocation, which is the sudden and unexpected shining forth of the Star. This star is simply a point of vivid light. This invocation, though used as the affirmation of a fixed objective by the aspirant to initiation, is nevertheless a mantram definitely appropriate to the third initiation. It is only effective in its invocative appeal when used in conjunction with a Word of Power. This Word of Power is communicated to the candidate (ever an initiate of the second degree) by the Christ Who has initiated him in the first two initiations but Whose protective aura (in conjunction with the initiate's Master and another Master or an adept of the fourth initiation) is required before the star can shine forth—the focussed light of the One Initiator. For the first time the expanded consciousness of the initiate can contact Shamballa and the One Who rules there, the Lord of the World. For the first time, the focussed purpose which brought Sanat Kumara into incarnation makes an impact upon the enlightened brain of the initiate, bringing something new and different into his equipment, into his nature and his consciousness. I know not how else to express these ideas. It is a blinding conviction of an unalterable will, carrying all before it, oblivious of time and space, aware only of intensity of direction, and carrying with it two major qualifications or basic recognitions to the initiate: a sense of essential being which obliterates all the actions and reactions of time and [Page 176] space, and a focussed will-to-good which is so dynamic in its effect that evil disappears. Evil is after all only an impelling sense of difference, leading inevitably to separative action.
The dualities are then resolved in synthesis and, again for the first time, the initiate comprehends the meaning of the ancient words, so inappropriately translated "isolated unity." To him, in the future, there is no light or dark, no good or evil, no difference or separation. The star that has shone forth, veiling and standing between him and the Lord of the World, the Ancient of Days, is seen as the entrance or doorway and as the admitting agency into something other and larger than simply the planetary life. In the earlier two initiations, the Angel of the Presence stood between the disciple-candidate and the Presence. At the later initiations, the Angel of the Presence is the Christ Himself, one with the soul of the candidate (the individual Angel of the Presence). Through the heart of Christ passes the dynamic power of the One Initiator, as a stream of light, stepped down or toned down by the Christ in order that the candidate can appropriate its potency without risk or danger.
After the third initiation,
the candidate must face the One Initiator alone, with no protective Individual
standing between him and the eternal source of all-power. The Christ is present,
supporting and attentive. He stands directly behind the initiate so as to
arrest and distribute the potency passing through the initiate's body and
centres; the candidate is also flanked on
either side by a Master. Nevertheless,
he faces the Initiator alone and unprotected.
Even now, at this much later initiation, he cannot see "eye to
eye"—as the phrase goes. He becomes aware of a growing point of light which,
from a pin-point of intensest brilliance develops
before him into a five-pointed star. At the fourth initiation, it is not a star which shines forth before
him, but a triangle; and within
that triangle he will perceive an eye regarding him, and for the first time he
does see the Most High "eye to eye." At the fifth
initiation no [Page 177] symbol or light substance separates or protects him, but he stands before the Initiator face to face, and the freedom of
the City of
(RI 193) The second, and much the most
important rent, was made by the power of the second aspect when the Christ
subjected the Master Jesus to
the fourth initiation and Their
joint influence was triumphant over death.
Then we read [Page 193] that the veil of the
(RI 216) On first reading this rule it is obvious that it concerns the fourth initiation and the consequent destruction of the [Page 216] causal body—the vehicle through the means of which the Monad has created first of all the personality, and then an instrument for the expression of the second divine aspect. We are therefore dealing with one of the major initiations. I would here call to your recollection the fact that (from the angle of the Hierarchy) this initiation is the second major initiation, and not the fourth, as it is regarded from the human angle; the third initiation is technically regarded as the first major initiation. The major initiations are really possible only after the transfiguration of the personality.
(RI 230) Initiates do their main work upon mental levels and from behind the scenes, and because of this their potency is great; this is particularly so with those who have taken the third initiation. A certain percentage of them are, however, active out in the world of daily living.
(RI 271) Can you grasp something of what I am endeavouring somewhat unsuccessfully to convey? There is an ashramic activity of which disciples know nothing in their brain consciousness until such time as the third initiation has been taken and the results of it are then dimly but increasingly sensed. It is related to the interplay between Shamballa and the Hierarchy, but not between the Hierarchy and Humanity. It concerns the purpose and the plan as the latter is the instrument of the former. The event of realisation takes place via the triad formed by a Master and His two senior disciples, or it is formed by three Masters all upon the same ray, as for instance, the Master K.H. and his Ashram, myself and my Ashram and another affiliated Ashram.
(RI 278) 1. Transfiguration—that stage upon the Path of Initiation wherein the third initiation is undergone, wherein the personality is irradiated by the full light of the soul and the three personality vehicles are completely transcended; they have become simply forms through which spiritual love may flow out into the world of men in the salvaging task of creation.
(RI 311) If this is so, it will be apparent to you that only initiates who have taken the fifth initiation and higher initiations can wield effectively this particular form of death—for monadic potency only becomes available after the third initiation, and its first successful use is the destruction of the causal body of the initiate. It is the reward of Transfiguration.
In connection with the use by the initiate of what we might call pure will, it should be remembered that this pure will works into manifestation through one or other of the three aspects of the Spiritual Triad. This activity is determined by the major ray upon which the initiate finds himself, from the angle of his monadic ray. Every spiritual man is upon one or another of the three major rays, for the minor four rays of attribute are all eventually absorbed into the third Ray of Active Intelligence.
(RI 316) When the third initiation is taken the initiate becomes aware, not only of the significance of the command to Know and of his innate ability to Express the will nature of the monad in carrying out the Purpose of Shamballa, but that (through his fused personality-soul) he is now in a position to "make revelation" to the Hierarchy that he is en rapport with the monadic source from which he originally came. He can now obey the command to Reveal, because the Transfiguration is consummated. He is not now revealing the soul only, but all the three aspects now meet in him and he can reveal the life aspect as will and not only the soul aspect as love or the matter aspect as intelligence. This is, as you know the first major initiation from the angle of the greater Lodge on Sirius, because it is the first initiation in which all the three aspects meet in the initiate. The first two initiations—oft regarded by humanity as major initiations—are in reality minor initiations from the Sirian point of view, because the relation of the man "under discipline and in training" is only a tendency; there is only a developing recognition of the Father and a slowly growing response to the monad, plus an unfolding sensitivity to the impact of the will aspect. But in the third initiation these developments are sufficiently present to merit the phrase, "revelation of the glory," and the Transfiguration initiation takes place.
(RI 317) The three aspects of the will, as focussed in the Spiritual Triad, are now in full expressions the initiate is animated by Purpose, but faces still greater evolutionary developments; of these I do not need to speak, as they concern divine aspects as yet unknown and unregistered by man. The reason for this complete ignorance is that the vehicles of any man below the third initiation contain too much "impure matter" to record the impact of these divine qualities. Only the "created body" (the mayavirupa) of an initiate of the fourth initiation can begin to register these divine impacts; it is therefore waste of our time to consider even the possibility of their existence. Even I, a Master, and therefore an initiate of a relatively high degree, am only faintly sensing them, and that because I am learning to obey the fifth word which we will briefly, very briefly, now consider.
(RI 349) 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.
(RI 352) This monadic process begins at the third initiation. It might be added that the third initiation (culminating in the Transfiguration) is taken on the three higher levels of the mental plane, and that it is therefore upon the fourth level of the mental plane that the aspirant first of all stands before the door, seeking initiation. That electrical unit or phenomenon of electricity [Page 352] which we call the fourth kingdom in nature, on this fourth subplane of the mental plane esoterically "ejects" the unit of electricity which is ready to be absorbed by the higher form of electricity. Fire by friction dies out and solar fire takes its place, and the relationship between the two higher forms of electricity becomes established.
(RI 353) 3. The electrical energy of the mind now creates the door for the third initiation, and the obstruction which confronts the initiate is that of the electrical figments of his own thinking, shining with a light which is all their own (for they are of the highest order and type), but veiling the pure light which shines behind them. They constitute the sumtotal of illusion. This "door" is formed by the coming together of the three types of energy: fire by friction, solar fire (playing in full force at this third initiation), and electrical fire from the Spiritual Triad, making its first impact on the other two fires, for all three are in full activity at this initiatory crisis. All are localised and concentrated in that symbol of progress, the "door of initiation."
(RI 368) The centre which we call Shamballa controls that mysterious centre which is the correspondence to that which we call "the centre at the base of the spine"; this is the inadequate name given to the reservoir of threefold fire, latent and quiescent, which is found at the base of the human spine; it is entirely inactive except in those people who have [Page 368] taken the third initiation. The planetary centre is related to the three fires (electric fire, solar fire, and fire by friction) which are the source of the life, warmth, moisture and growth of all forms upon our planet.
(RI 386) As you know, the first human being out of that "centre which we call the race of men" to achieve this point was the Christ; in that first great demonstration of His point of attainment (through the medium of what was then a new type of initiation) the Christ was joined by the Buddha. The Buddha had attained this same point prior to the creation of our planetary life, but conditions for taking the third initiation [Page 386] were not then available, and He and the Christ took the initiation together. At this initiation, and since then for all initiates of that degree of attainment, They stood in the Presence of the One Initiator, the Lord of the World, and not in the Presence of the Initiate Who was then Head of the Hierarchy. This third initiation was taken in a fourth ray Ashram, the Ray of Harmony through Conflict.
(RI 437) You will see, therefore, the great necessity for a constant emphasis, at this stage in the training of the average aspirant, on the need for alignment, or for the creation of a channel of direct relation from the brain to the desired point of contact. To this trained alignment must eventually be added the building of the antahkarana and its subsequent use in a growing system of alignments. The antahkarana must be completed and direct contact must be established with the Spiritual Triad by the time the third initiation has been taken. Then follows the fourth initiation with its destruction of the egoic, causal or soul body, owing to the complete fusion of soul and personality. The dual life of the disciple ends.
(RI 444) ...Thus is the first half of the "bridge," the antahkarana, constructed. By the time the third initiation is completed, this Way is completed, and the initiate can "pass to higher worlds at will, leaving the lower worlds far behind; or he can come again and pass upon the way that leads from dark to light, from light to dark, and from the under lower worlds into the realms of light."
(RI 445) After the third initiation the "Way" is carried forward with great rapidity, and the "bridge" is finished which links perfectly the higher spiritual Triad and the lower material reflection. The three worlds of the Soul and the three worlds of the Personality become one world wherein the initiate works and functions, seeing no distinction, regarding one world as the world of inspiration and the other world as constituting the field of service, yet regarding both together as forming one world of activity. Of these two worlds, the subjective etheric body (or the body of vital inspiration) and the dense physical body are symbols on the external plane.
(RI 473) Today, through human effort and hierarchical endeavour, a great alignment and linking up is taking place, and Monad-Soul-Personality are being more directly related than has hitherto been possible. One reason for this is that there are present in incarnation upon the planet many more initiates of the third degree than ever before; there are many more disciples being prepared for the third initiation;
(RI 531) Initiation is only a ceremony in so far that there comes a climaxing point in the initiatory process in which the disciple's consciousness becomes dramatically aware of the personnel of the Hierarchy and of his own position in relation to it. This realisation he symbolises to himself—successively and on an increasingly large scale—as a great [Page 531] rhythmic ceremonial of progressive revelation in which he, as a candidate, is the centre of the hierarchical stage. This is definitely so (from the ceremonial angle) in the first two initiations, and in relation to the Christ as the Initiator. After the third initiation, the ceremonial angle lessens in his consciousness because the higher initiations are not registered by the mind (with its ability to reduce realisation into symbolic form) and thus transmitted to the brain, but they reach the brain and are there registered via the antahkarana; the results of the experience of expansion are now definitely of such a nature that they cannot be reduced to symbols or to symbolic happenings; they are formless and remain in the higher consciousness.
I am not here saying that the teachings given in the past by various occult groups, or in my book Initiation, Human and Solar, are not correct or do not recount accurately what the candidate believes has taken place. The point I seek to make is that the ceremonial aspect is due to the thoughtform-making capacity of the disciple and (which is of major importance) constitutes his contribution to the future externalisation of the initiatory process in its earlier stages.
(RI 532) The higher initiations cannot be thus presented but will be enacted on the mental plane, through the medium of symbols and not through the details of ceremonious happenings. This symbolic representation will hold good for the third, the fourth and the fifth initiations. After these five great expansions have taken place, the initiations will no longer be registered as factual ceremonials on earth or as symbolic visualisations on the mental plane.
(RI 571) At the first initiation, through the stimulation brought about by seventh ray energy, the personality of the initiate and the hovering overshadowing soul are consciously brought together; the initiate then knows that he is—for the first time—a soul-infused personality. His task is now to grow into the likeness of what he essentially is. This development is demonstrated at the third initiation, that of the Transfiguration.
(RI 577) He thereby becomes a Master, and the process, as it goes forward from initiation to initiation, becomes (after the third initiation, the Transfiguration) less hard and distressing; the reason for this is that he is increasingly master of his own individual situation. He is, however, occultly involved in the difficulties and the problems of the group and of that totality of groups which we call humanity.
(RI 585) The initiation of the Transfiguration is not yet for the mass of men. We can, however, study the effects of these rays where the individual disciple is concerned, because the later initiations—from the third initiation onward—are administered by the Lord of the World from His high place in Shamballa; in the present world period, these initiations are individually administered and registered, and are undergone consciously and with an entirely awakened awareness.
It will be apparent to you that I shall necessarily have more to say anent the first three initiations and the ray effects upon the initiate and upon humanity than will be possible when the higher initiations come under consideration. The effects of ray impacts in the first three initiations come via the soul, and the initiate is—during this period—a struggling aspirant, under the inspiration and the stimulation of the Hierarchy of which he is becoming increasingly aware. After the third initiation, which is in reality as you well know, the first major initiation, the ray energy is applied (if I may use such an inadequate word) via the Spiritual Triad, utilising the antahkarana.
(RI 588) 3. The ashramic group of which the initiate is a part and within which his influence or spiritual radiation is increasingly felt.
The awareness of the initiate and his
ability to work consciously within this triplicity of
groups becomes the major objective of all his efforts, once the third
initiation is left behind. His magnetic
radiation and the expression of his controlling energies-prior to this stage of
unfoldment—is [Page 588] that of the soul, working
through the personality. After the third initiation this radiation and the
energy expressed become increasingly monadic and subject to three stages:
1. The stage wherein the lowest aspect of the Spiritual Triad (that of the abstract mind) becomes potent as the conveyor of ideas; these are transformed by the initiate into ideals for the service of humanity.
2. The stage
wherein pure reason, plus the spiritual will, makes
him an effective server of the Plan and a
transmitter, in a progressive manner, of the Purpose
underlying the Plan.
3. The stage wherein pure monadic energy pours through him, focussing the will-to-good, as registered by the Hierarchy, and the sense of universality (not a vague phrase, but a specific potency) upon the physical plane. A close study of these developing ranges of activity and of expanded consciousness will indicate why and how our planetary life is one immense synthesis of ordered activity.
(RI 589) at the third initiation, he has to bring into visible activity the mental element, and thus function in the three worlds as a soul-infused personality, utilising the illumined mind as the fusing and synthesising factor. These things [Page 589] accomplished, he can—again in full consciousness—begin to be active as "a radiating point of crisis and a producer of the needed tension."
(RI 595) Today we find this ray energy expressing itself mainly through science—a science sadly debased and corrupted by materialism and human greed, but a science which (when [Page 595] animated entirely by goodwill) will lift humanity on to higher levels of consciousness, thus laying the foundation for that time when humanity on a large scale can pass through the Transfiguration Initiation. Steps in this direction are already being laid and the existence of the press, the radio and the rapid means of transportation have done much to further the revelation of that unity and that Oneness which is the major characteristic of the Universal Mind.
These developments can be regarded as the initial steps of the initiatory process for the third initiation—far ahead as that initiation may lie for the mass of men. It is unification and a growing sense of oneness which is required in order to take this initiation, and it is the integrated personality which takes it.
(RI 596) Before humanity can pass through the Transfiguration Initiation the new world order must be functioning and the coming civilisation must be at its height. It is useless for me to consider with you this third initiation in connection with humanity as a whole, or its preparatory or subsequent initiatory process. All this lies too far ahead for even advanced humanity to consider; there are, however, senior disciples who are preparing for this initiation, just as there are a few who are passing through the initiatory process, prior to taking the fourth initiation.
(RI 598) Let us now consider the effect of this ray energy upon the life of the individual, as he faces the third initiation. This third initiation is, as earlier said, the first initiation, from the angle of the Hierarchy; it is the one in which the spiritual man demonstrates his complete control of the personality. The physical body has been controlled through the medium of the physical disciplines; the emotional nature has been reorganised and made receptive to spiritual impression coming from the plane of pure reason (the buddhic plane) through the transforming processes of the mind or the fifth principle. In this connection, the mind has acted as an organiser of astral reaction and as a dispeller [Page 598] of glamour. The disciple is now focussed in his everyday consciousness upon the mental plane, and the triangular relation of the three aspects of the mind upon this plane is now dominant. In the next initiation, the Renunciation, this relationship becomes a dual one instead of a triangular one, through the destruction of the soul vehicle which is no longer needed. Soul fusion with the personality is now completed.
During the initiatory process preceding the third initiation, the mind works in a new manner. Its transmuting work with the physical body has been accomplished; its transforming work with the emotional nature has been successful, and now its transfiguring work with the personality as a whole is carried forward, making the initiation of the Transfiguration possible. It is of value to the student to consider these three activities of the mind. The transmuting agent in the first case is the lower or concrete mind; the transforming agent is the soul, whilst the transfiguring agent is the Spiritual Triad, working through the higher or abstract mind. You will here note the wonderful synthesis of the spiritual work. When this work is concluded, you have the initiation of the third degree made possible. This produces impelling and new contacts. It should here be remembered that when I use the word "new" I mean that which is new in consciousness, for the basic synthesis and fundamental relationship always exists in factual recognition, but is only progressively realised by the evolving spiritual man.
t is well nigh impossible to differentiate the results of fifth ray energy in the various aspects of the personality, for the reason that the initiate is now functioning as a soul-infused personality, and therefore the three aspects of that personality are nothing more or less than agents of the soul, and thus are progressively responsive to the inflow of triadal energy. It might therefore be said that, as a result of the Transfiguration Initiation—the culminating point of strictly human unfoldment—the three types of energy which are expressed through the Spiritual Triad [Page 599] man begin—only begin—to flow through the reflection of itself in the three worlds. Let me state this as follows:
1. The directing energy of the higher mind is—as a result of the Transfiguration Initiation and via the antahkarana—thrown into the brain; therefore the man upon the physical plane is guided, directed and controlled by group purpose and by the hierarchical plan.
2. The illuminating energy of pure reason, emanating from the buddhic plane, pours down into the clarified and organised body of sensitive response which is all that remains of what has been called the astral body. This produces complete freedom from glamour and the creation of "a limpid pool of such reasonable response to the love of divine relationship" that the initiate becomes a sensitive revealer of that love.
3. The dynamic energy from the atmic plane (the highest aspect of the Spiritual Triad) pours into the mind and begins slowly to reveal the will-to-good, which is essentially the will of God.
Behind these three differentiations which are all of them expressions or aspects of the divine or the universal mind, the initiate dimly senses or becomes consciously aware of what has been called the Monad or Spirit or Life. This is subtly revealed in the Transfiguration Initiation of the Master Jesus Who re-enacted all the five human initiations for the benefit of humanity. In this dramatic picturing of the third initiation, the three disciples (or the three vehicles of the personality) prostrate themselves upon the ground and the Master Himself (the glorified personality) is transfigured before them. At this climaxing point they hear that which is called "the voice of the Father" speaking to the transfigured Jesus.
(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 the third initiations) until he stands before the Initiator at the sixth Initiation of Decision, when the last illusion disappears.
(RI 614) True
sharing definitely involves many little renunciations, and it is upon these
small renunciations that the capacity for freedom is slowly being generated and
the habit of renunciation can eventually be stabilised; this capacity and these
habits, these unselfish activities and these spiritual habitual attitudes are
the preparatory stages for the Initiation of Renunciation, just as the effort to serve one's fellowmen is preparatory to
the taking of the third Initiation, of the Transfiguration.
(RI 653) He
realises, through the revelation accorded, more clearly than has hitherto been
possible, the Purpose of the planetary Logos.
From the time of the third
initiation, this purpose has been gradually revealing itself; he sees it expressing itself through Sanat
Kumara, Who is the Personality expression of the planetary Logos. During the coming interval and cycle of
preparation for the sixth [Page 653] initiation, that purpose will burst upon him in blazing and synthetic
glory.
(RI 674) At the third initiation the control of the soul-illumined mind is finally established, and the soul itself assumes the dominant position and not the phenomenal form. All the limits of the form nature are then transcended. It is the vision of this transcendence which is communicated at the time of the second initiation under the symbolism of a positively applied purification.
(RI 688) The first two initiations—regarded simply as initiations of the threshold—are experiences which have prepared the body of the initiate for the reception of the terrific voltage of this third initiation. This voltage is passed through the body of the initiate under the direction of the planetary Logos, before Whom the initiate stands for the first time. The Rod of Initiation is used as the transferring agent. The second initiation freed the initiate from the astral [Page 688] level of consciousness, the astral plane—the plane of glamour, of illusion and of distortion. This was an essential experience because the initiate (standing before the One Initiator for the first time at the third initiation) must be freed from any magnetic or attractive "pull" emanating from the personality.
The mechanism of the personality must be so purified and so insensitive to the material attractions of the three worlds that there is henceforth nothing in the initiate which could offset the divine initiatory activity. The physical appetites are subdued and relegated to their rightful place; the desire nature is controlled and purified; the mind is responsive primarily to ideas, intuitions and impulses coming from the soul, and begins its true task as an interpreter of divine truth and a transmitter of ashramic intention.
Initiation III. The fifth Ray of Science. This inflowing energy produces its major
effects upon the mind, or upon manas, the fifth
principle; it enables the initiate to
use the mind as its major instrument in the work to be done, prior to passing
through the fourth and fifth initiations.
Initiation V. The first Ray of Will or
Power. At this initiation the
disciple appreciates for the first time the significance
of the will and uses it to relate the head centre and the centre at the base of
the spine, thus completing the integration started at the third initiation.
(RI 689) Aspirants and disciples should remember that after the third initiation, the effects of the initiation which they may be undergoing are not confined simply to the individual initiate, but that henceforth at all the later initiations he becomes the transmitter of the energy which will pour through him with increasing potency at each application of the Rod. He acts primarily as an agent for the transmission, for the stepping down and for the consequent safe distribution of energy to the masses. Each time a disciple achieves an initiation and stands before the Initiator, he becomes simply an instrument whereby the planetary Logos can reach humanity and bring to men fresh life and energy. The work done prior to and at the third initiation is purely preparatory to this type of service required from an "energy transmitter."
You will have noted, if you are comparing these instructions with the outline given by me on page 340, that in this third initiation it is the ajna centre (the centre between the eyebrows) which is stimulated. This is a fact of great interest, because it is at this initiation that the disciple begins consciously and creatively to direct the energies being made available to him, doing so via the ajna centre and directed towards humanity as a whole. These energies are:
1. The energy of his own soul. This has a purely group effect and though working through his personality, is consciously directed outward into the world—after the transforming process brought about as the energy received permeates his threefold mechanism.
2. The energy of the Ashram to which he belongs. Both this energy and the one above mentioned are necessarily the energy of his soul ray and of the Ashram which is representative of that ray. The effect produced—according to his capacity of absorption and direction—will further the working out of the divine Plan.
3. The energy of the Hierarchy Itself. The Hierarchy is primarily controlled by the energy of the second Ray of Love-Wisdom, though this dominant ray is modified and enriched through blending with the other six rays. His use of this energy will at first be largely an unconscious use and he will register at this point no definite intention. This is due to the magnitude of the great reservoir of energies; he is a recipient of the incoming energy largely because he is an initiated member of the Hierarchy and is also a pure channel for transmission.
4. The peculiar energy which is transmitted to him by Sanat Kumara at the time of his initiation. This is a totally different energy to that transmitted to him at the earlier initiations. It comes from Shamballa and is uniquely (in a sense undefinable and hence incomprehensible to you) the energy of the planetary Logos Himself. He directs extra-planetary energy (in the initiations which follow the third initiation) from the ajna centre of which He is possessed, to the head centre of the initiate and from thence immediately to the ajna centre of the initiate. Then this energy is directed outward into its destined field of service. This energy is of so high a quality that there is nothing of a registering mechanism in the initiate's equipment capable of registering its admission and circulation through his three head centres. Nevertheless, this energy does pour through him and out into the world, in spite of the fact that he remains unconscious of its presence.
(RI 692) the
work of integration proceeds, he is striving
all the time to learn the uses of the ajna centre and consciously and with right understanding to work with, absorb,
transmute and distribute energy as his major ashramic
service. His keynote is right direction
as the result of right reaction to hierarchical intention and the injunctions
of his own soul. Both integration and
direction, he discovers, require [Page 692] understanding of occult, scientific
knowledge. He works then as a scientist, and for this reason all
the three keynotes of his life as an initiate—before and immediately after the
third initiation—are conditioned by and directed by the mind; the mental plane
becomes the field of his major endeavour as a server.
(RI 715) The
will ever implements the purpose. The
repository of the will aspect of man's innate divinity is to be found at the base of the spine; this can only function
correctly and be the agent of the divine will after the third initiation. The head centre is the one
which is the custodian of the purpose;
the centre at the base of the spine indicates the will as it implements the
purpose.
The purpose is slowly, very
slowly, revealed to the initiate during the final five [Page 715] initiations and this only becomes possible after the Initiation of Renunciation.
(WM 146) We have touched upon two words of significance in the fourth Rule,—sound and light,—and one paramount idea emerges. The soul is to be known as light, as the [Page 146] revealer, whilst the Spirit aspect will later be recognized as sound. Complete light and illumination is the right of the disciple who attains to the third initiation, whilst the true comprehension of the sound, of the triple AUM, the synthesizing factor in manifestation appears only to the one who stands master of the three worlds. (at the 5th)
(DINAII
383) When, for instance, the Master R.
assumed the task of Mahachohan or Lord of
Civilisation, His Ashram was
shifted from the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order to the third Ray of Active
Intelligence; the majority of those who have taken the second and the third initiations were
transferred with Him under what might be called
a "special dispensation"; the rest of the members of His Ashram remained for tuition and training in service under
that Master Who took His place as the central
point of the seventh ray Ashram.
(TEV 71) Within the Hierarchy, the Science of Impression conditions the relation between senior and junior members in the various Ashrams. All do not respond in the same way, for in its higher aspects it is a science in process of mastering. It might be said, in order that you may understand more easily, that "impression" governs and conditions all those within the Hierarchy whose abstract mind is highly developed. It is not fully developed in the case of many disciples in the Ashram, and hence only certain Members of the Hierarchy (the Masters, the Adepts and Initiates of the third degree) are permitted to know the details of the Plan; these are protected by means of this very Science [Page 71] of Impression. The remaining members of the Hierarchy take their orders from their seniors.
(CF 451) 4. Words
concerning the deva evolution which control, and bring different groups of devas
into the line of the will of
the utterer. These are in many ways the most dangerous and all knowledge of them is withheld
from men below the rank of initiates of the third order.
(CF 677) 4. Certain
devas who—being of the third order—form the Heaven of
the average orthodox Christian or believer of
any faith. Another
group—being the seventh order—form the Hell for the same class of thinker.
(CF 487) Conscious transmutation is possible only when a man has transmuted the elements in his own vehicles; then only can he be trusted with the secrets of divine alchemy. [Page 487] When through the latent internal fires of the matter of his own sheaths he has transmuted the chemical and mineral atoms of those sheaths, then can he safely—through affinity of substance—aid the work of mineral transmutation of the first order. Only when (through the radiatory fires of the sheaths) he has transmuted the correspondence to the vegetable kingdom within his own organism can he alchemically do work of the second order. Only when the fires of mind in himself dominate, can he work with the transmutative processes of the third order, or with the transference of life into the animal forms. Only when the Self within, or the Ego in the causal body, is in control of his threefold personality can he occultly be permitted to be an alchemist of the fourth order, and work in connection with the transmutation of the animal monad into the human kingdom, with all the vast knowledge that is included in that idea.
(CF 554) He responds to vibrations of the first, second, third and fourth order quite fully at this time, but as yet (though responding) cannot fully, and consciously, utilise these types of energy. The vibration of the fifth order is recognised by Him, particularly in three of His centres, but is not as yet fully under His control. The other two are sensed, and felt, but so remotely as to be almost outside the range of His consciousness.
(CF 1252) The hierarchies connected with this Path (Path II of Magnetic Work- Gemini) are mainly the third and the fourth. Only the human units can pass on to these two paths. The deva hierarchies of the third order have already passed upon them, and it is their previous work which enables man to do so. This is a great mystery and more must not be revealed about it. The group of the Silent Watchers of all degrees are closely connected with this second cosmic path. All of Them are Lords of Sacrifice, and are animated solely by love, and all have therefore passed through the sacrificial burning grounds.
(EPII 56) When, at the third initiation, union of the pattern and the conditioned form is achieved, the Transfiguration of the initiate takes place, leading to that final crisis wherein the two are known as one, and the form nature (including in this phase the causal body as well as the lower vehicles) then is dispersed and disappears.
(DINAI 64) You too must work from mental levels but knowledge and love must be called into play together, producing only those results which are harmoniously and intelligently in line with the Plan. Disciples are not permitted to call into play and functioning activity the Will aspect of the soul, unless they are initiates of the third degree. Prior to that, they seldom realise the distinction between the imposition of the will and the directed impression of ideas. There is too much desire (which is embryonic will) in their equipment for them to be trusted as yet with this higher aspect of mental activity. I would ask you to get clearly in your minds in connection [Page 65] with any telepathic work which these groups (working under me) should do, that it is the impression of ideas and not imposed direction which is the group ideal—a very different thing, my brother.
(DINAI 300) This particular group of my disciples has
the problem of arriving at an understanding of glamour—a glamour in which all human beings move who are as
yet below the grade of an initiate of the third degree.
(DINAI 710) The one involves the development of love and of group consciousness; the other involves the unfoldment of the will and the attainment of the stage to which Patanjali gives the name of "isolated unity." This is a phrase which is quite meaningless to any one below the degree of the third initiation.
(DINAII 159) In the third three lines, we find reference to Shamballa—"the Centre where the Will of God is known"—the centre from whence the Hierarchy draws its life, as it draws its impulse towards service from humanity. You well know that there is indication in these lines that humanity itself cannot as yet grasp the purpose of Sanat Kumara. Only advanced Members of the Hierarchy and initiates of at least the third degree (the first degree of the Lodge on Sirius) have any idea as to the nature of the purpose which underlies the Plan. Ponder on that phrasing.
(DINAII 294)
When we come, therefore, to the great organ of universal revelation, the
monadic principle, functioning through the medium
of an extra-planetary light, we enter realms which are indefinable and for which no terminology has been created, and which only initiates above the third degree are able to
consider.
(DINAII 328) This is not easy to understand. Perhaps I can make it clearer to you if I point out that this sharing involves complete knowledge of all the personality reactions of all the members of the Ashram, i.e., of all preparing for the lesser initiations, and therefore of all below a certain degree. There is nothing secret which will not be known, and you can understand that the discovery of the factual nature of this constitutes a major test for all disciples. There is nothing in the mind of a disciple which cannot be telepathically known to all the other members of the Ashram who are at the same degree of development or to all of a higher degree, for it is a law that the greater can always include the lesser.
(DINAII
331) The strength,
availability and usefulness of an Ashram is that of the sum total of all that
its members can contribute, plus that which Those above the third degree of initiation can
"import" from still higher sources or
the Masters of the Ashrams can make available at need. Students are apt to
think that an Ashram has only one initiate of the fifth degree (that of Master)
within it. Such is seldom the case. There are usually
three "cooperating Masters" in every Ashram, with one at the apex of
the triangle; He acts as the Master of the
Ashram and is responsible for the preparation of disciples for initiation;
frequently there are also
"associated Masters," particularly during cycles of rapid initiation, as is the case [Page 331] today. There are also Masters Who are
preparing for the sixth initiation.
(EOH 527) The seven major centres or Ashrams within the Hierarchy are each presided over by Masters of Chohan rank; the seven subsidiary centres or Ashrams are presided over by Masters and Adepts (of the fifth and fourth initiations), aided by initiates of the third degree and certain picked and senior disciples.
(EOH 529) Chohans are today passing out of the Hierarchy into the
Council Chamber of the Lord of the World, or on to one or other of the Seven
Paths; senior Masters in charge of Ashrams are taking higher grades of
initiation and taking the rank of Chohans; initiates above the third degree are rapidly taking
the fourth and fifth initiations and becoming Masters (taking both initiations
in one life),
(GAWP 256) Behind this lies a third and even more important factor—the WILL. Therefore, the only person who can safely [Page 256] and usefully practise breathing exercises is the man whose will is active—his spiritual will and, therefore, the will of the Spiritual Triad. Any disciple who is in process of building the antahkarana can begin to use, with care, directed breathing exercises. But, in the last analysis, it is only the initiates of the third degree and who are coming under monadic influence who can properly and successfully employ this form of life direction and reach effective results. This is fundamentally true. However, a beginning has to be made and to this effort all true disciples are invited.
(IHS 159) When any initiate desires to use, for evolutionary purposes, the entire Word as a unit, the sanction of the assembled Lodge has to be gained, for such a Word affects the matter of an entire plane within a planetary scheme, and consequently the matter of those planes which are subsidiary to the one involved. For instance, an initiate of the third degree, in sounding the Word of his degree, affects the matter of the lower mental subplanes, and subsequently the matter of the astral and physical planes. An initiate of the second degree similarly affects the astral plane, and subsequently [Page 159] the physical. Far reaching results are thus achieved, and the work of many is thus affected.
(CF 960) Applicants for initiation and initiates up to the third initiation use both the sutratma and the antaskarana, employing them as a unit. The power of the Triad begins to pour through, thus energising all human [Page 960] activities upon the physical plane, and vitalising in ever increasing degree the man's thought forms. The key to the formation of the Mayavirupa is found in the right comprehension of the process.
(CF 1077) It was the intensive stimulation of the third kingdom of nature during the third root race which artificially unified the three aspects. The process of stimulating through the medium of Venusian energy was really begun in the third round when the triangle of force was completed, and ready to function. It is this factor which occultly makes the third Initiation of such tremendous importance. In it the human triangle is linked, the Monad, the [Page 1077] Ego and the personality, or Venus, the Sun and the Earth are symbolically allied.
(EA 209) t is in this sign that the prodigal son comes to himself, and having eaten of the husks of life and having exhausted the resources of worldly desire and ambition—he says: "I will arise and go to my Father." There are two such major crises in the life of the aspirant:
2. When the initiate of the third degree—upon a higher turn of the spiral—re-orients himself to the Monad and passes through most subtle tests to certain undefinable [Page 209] and spiritual recognitions. Upon these we need not enlarge.
(EA 271) It has
been remarked by a profound astrological expert Who [Page 271] works with the
Masters of the Great White Lodge that "when humanity comprehends the
distinction between the signs and the constellations, understands the nature of
the polarity of energies and responds to the three
cosmic Realities, the twelve cosmic Energies and the seven planetary Impacts
and the interplay of the twelve Creative Hierarchies, then and not till then, will a radiant light be seen and the
destiny of our solar Logos be finally determined." Behind this statement
are to be found three meanings: one for average intelligent man, another for disciples, and a third one for initiates above the third degree.
(EA 505) d. The Logos of a solar system is esoterically called the "Sacred Triangle of all-inclusive Force" because this great Being includes within His focussed awareness the fields of expression of the Great Bear, the Pleiades and Sirius. They are to Him what the heart, the head and the throat centres are to the developed initiate on this planet. He has taken those initiations of which the highest initiate upon our Earth has no faintest conception. Forget not, that I have told you elsewhere that there are divine aspects and divine characteristics which are [Page 505] as yet totally unrevealed even to the most advanced humanity. No human being of a lower degree to that of the third initiation can even faintly sense and dimly react to these underlying factors in the existent divine manifestation. Today, the significance of will and its distinction from determination, strength and fixed intention is only just beginning to be understood. Just as a discussion of the intuition or of the nature of the eternal revelation would be utterly meaningless to the savage in the darkest part of the undeveloped areas of the world, so would a discussion of these unknown divine attributes be equally meaningless to you. All that you can comprehend (and that with the utmost difficulty) is the three divine aspects—will, love and intelligence. There are others, for our Logos is a sevenfold Being and four remaining aspects are as yet unrevealed to humanity, though sensed by the Hierarchy. These are "objectives of esoteric spiritual attention" by the Logoi within the solar ring-pass-not.
(EA 625) It knows itself as the transcending will because behind its expression of cosmic love (attracting, fusing and producing cohesion) lies a synthetic vision of divine Intention. It differentiates between process and goal, between initiation and that which is revealed by the initiatory process and that is something which as yet is unknown to initiates below the third degree. Herein lies the distinction between the Christ and the Buddha. The latter revealed the process, but the Christ embodied in Himself both goal and process. He revealed the cosmic principle of love and by its means—embodied in Himself—He produced effects also and momentous changes in the world through those presented to Him for initiation.
(EH 128) Healers would do well to remember this, and to have in mind that disciples and all good men and aspirants share in this universal disease of humanity which must take its toll psychologically or physically or both. The trouble is of ancient origin and of long established habit and inevitably affects the physical vehicle of the soul. Exemption from the effects of human ills is no indication of spiritual superiority. It might simply indicate what one of the Masters has called "the depths of spiritual selfishness and self-satisfaction." The initiate of the third degree can hold himself exempt, but this is only because he has completely freed himself from glamour and no aspect of the personality life has any further power over him.
(RI 116) The
true significance of this has never [Page 116] been grasped and lies in the
fact that the phrase "rich young
man" is in reality a technical term which is frequently applied to an
initiate of the third degree, just as the words
"little ones" or "little child" apply to an initiate of the
first or second degree. This rich young man was rich in his range of awareness,
rich in his personality equipment, rich in his
aspiration and in his recognition; he was rich
as the result of age-long experience and evolutionary development. He is told by the Christ that he must now prepare
himself for what is called in Rule V "the
Triad shining forth"; he must now prepare
for the unfoldment of the monadic consciousness and
for the fourth initiation.
(RI 118) Here I would remind you that just as the light of the soul revealed to the struggling aspirant a new vision, set for him new goals, enhanced all qualities present in his equipment, and revealed the past, the present and the future of the individual, so this still greater light reveals to the initiate a horizon so vast that it has hitherto escaped his capacity and is yet but possible to vision by an initiate of the third degree, endows him with an occult perception hitherto not realised as existing—a perception which permits him to penetrate increasingly and to cooperate understandingly in the purpose of the Lord of the World. It enables him later to develop the equipment—qualities and gifts of a divine nature—which will eventually enable him to take his place in the Council Chamber at Shamballa and work in full unanimity with the Lords of Karma.
These qualities and gifts concern divine attributes and capacities for which we have as yet no words as they lie beyond the scope of human consciousness, being utterly unknown even to advanced human beings. They only begin to manifest as tendencies between the second and the third [Page 119] initiations, in the same way as the instincts in a small child are, in reality, the germs of later intellectual attitudes and activities. It is needless, therefore, for me to enlarge upon them; unless you are an initiate of the third degree, my words would be meaningless to you and would convey naught. The clue lies for you in understanding the three words—Happiness, Joy, Bliss. Do you, as you speak of bliss, understand wherein it differs from happiness and joy? Bliss is associated with complete Being; it concerns the interior attitude of the Whole.
(RI 138) Great movements and progressions have always taken place upon the subjective side of life; it is these subjective activities which have made it hard for disciples to grasp the truth and arrive at some true realisation of the subjective situation which ever exists between the Hierarchy and Shamballa. The energies concerned are so subtle, and the Beings involved are so advanced and so highly developed (even from the angle of the initiate of the third degree), that it is well-nigh impossible for the teachings (which I seek to give) to be worded in such a manner that they become comprehensible. All that I can do is to make certain statements which (from the standpoint of those I teach) are not verifiable; they have to be accepted on trust and with the reservation that time and the point of view of the individual disciple will later prove their truth—or their non-truth.
(RI 178) The four higher planes of our solar system
are the four cosmic etheric planes, and one of the lines of development (confronting the
initiate) is to function adequately in response to the life of the planetary
Logos upon those planes. That, in the last analysis, constitutes the main field of unfoldment
and of acquired wisdom for all initiates above the third degree.
(WM 26) To the Master of the Wisdom, the nature of the spirit, or that positive centre of life which every form hides is no more a mystery than is the nature of the soul to the esoteric psychologist. The source of the one life, the plane, or state from which that life emanates is the great Hidden Mystery to the members of the hierarchy of adepts. The nature of spirit, its quality and type of cosmic energy, its rate of vibration and its basic cosmic differentiations are the study of initiates above the third degree and the subject of their investigations. They [Page 26] bring to that study a fully developed intuition, plus that mental interpretive capacity which their cycle of incarnation has developed. They employ the awakened and developed inner light of their souls to interpret and comprehend that life which (divorced from the world of form) persists on the higher levels of consciousness and penetrates into our solar system from some exterior centre of being. They throw this light (which is in them and which they manipulate and use) in two directions therefore, standing as they do in the midmost state and functioning as they choose to function on the plane of the intuition or of buddhi. They cast that light into the world of form and know all things, interpreting all with correctness; they cast that light into the formless realms of the higher three planes (formless from the standpoint of man in the three worlds below the intuitional plane) and seek to understand, through steady expansive growth, the nature and purpose of that which is neither body nor soul, neither force nor matter, but which is the cause of both in the universe.