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. Within the Hierarchy [141] itself, the two great Messengers who have embodied the dual Venusian energy were the Buddha and the Christ. The Messenger Who will later come and express the Shamballa urge to synthesis, the hierarchial aspiration towards love and the desire of humanity for intelligent activity with combined power will gather all into Himself. All these qualities will focus in Him, plus another quality or divine principle of which the race of men as yet knows nothing and for which there is, as yet, no name. He will be a great and potent Avatar and is not along the line of our humanity at all.
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.
5. The first truly divine race — the final race.
6. The third plane, which is in reality the first plane of soul consciousness, the reflection of the highest plane, the Logoic.
7. The first periodical vehicle — the monadic.
8. The first divine aspect — will or power.
9. The first or highest type of Mediator — the coming Avatar.
10. The sustaining Life, the spiritual sun — the central spiritual sun. [142]
We will now consider the trend of the times and seasons as far as the rays are concerned:
RAY I — This ray is still out of physical manifestation but is beginning to have a definite effect upon the mental plane; there it influences the minds of disciples everywhere and lays the stage for the appearance of a certain group of disciples from Shamballa. Two thousand years from today, the influence of this ray will be felt powerfully on the physical plane. One hundred years hence its potency will be noted upon the astral plane.
RAY II — This ray is always in subjective manifestation and very potent because it is the ray of our solar system and particularly so at this time as the Hierarchy is approaching closer to humanity in preparation for the “crisis of love,” and an imminent major planetary initiation. At this time, however, the second ray is becoming objective in its influence upon the physical plane. It will become increasingly so for the next two thousand two hundred years when it will gradually withdraw into the background.
RAY III — This ray will remain in objective incarnation from the point of view of humanity for a very long time — so long a time that it is needless for us to anticipate its waning influence. That planetary centre which is Humanity itself still needs the intensified application of these forces so as to stimulate even the “lowest of the sons of men.”
RAY IV — This ray, as you know, begins to come into incarnation early in the next century and — in collaboration with the developing Saturnian influence — will lead many on to the path of discipleship. When the peculiar energy [143] to which we give the somewhat unsatisfactory name of “harmony through conflict” and the forces of that planet which stage opportunity for the aspirant are working in combination and an ordained synthesis, we can then look for a very rapid adjustment in human affairs, particularly in connection with the Path. This fourth ray is, in the last analysis, the ray which teaches the art of living in order to produce a synthesis of beauty. There is no beauty without unity, without embodied idealism and the resultant symmetrical unfoldment. This ray is not the ray of art, as it is often claimed, but is the energy which brings about the beauty of those living forms which embody the ideas and the ideals which are seeking immediate expression. Many people claim to be on the fourth ray because they dream of the artistic expressive life. As I have told you before, creative art expresses itself upon all the rays.
RAY V — This ray has been in manifestation for nearly seventy years. It will pass out (by special and unique arrangement) in another fifty years, thus breaking into its own normal cycle, because it is deemed that the needed special impulse has been adequate and that the impetus given to the human “spirit of discovery” has served its purpose. Any further intensification of the mental processes just now (except through the general pervasive effect of the third ray) might prove disastrous. The ray cycles are usually set and determined, but, in collaboration with each other and because of the imminent spiritual Crisis of Approach, the Lord of the Fifth Ray and the Lord of the World have decided temporarily to withdraw this type of force. It will take about fifty years to do this. [144]
RAY VI — This ray has been passing out of manifestation for quite some time now, as you know, and will do so with increasing rapidity.
RAY VII — This ray is coming into effective expression now; there is little need for me to add here anything further to the mass of information which I have given you in this treatise and in my other books.
One small point of interest but one of no especial moment to you is that the Lords of the Rays, through Their planetary Representatives, constitute a body of directing Forces in collaboration with the Lord of the World at Shamballa. Their capacity is advisory and directive but not authoritative. This may be regarded by some of you as the most interesting piece of information in this book. If this is your attitude, then it only indicates your unpreparedness for true esoteric teaching. Students need a greater sense of the real governing values and a sense of spiritual proportion. Planetary facts and solar facts (under which heading the above item of information might well be placed) can stimulate your imagination and widen your horizon; for aspirants and disciples, that is the major value. All information and happenings which are connected with Shamballa are always exciting to the neophyte who is apt to forget that he must make his contact with the more familiar Hierarchy before true and related perception is his.
I would have you study the tabulation which I gave you in Initiation, Human and Solar, and which you will find in the appendix to the first volume of A Treatise on the Seven Rays. I insert it here for the benefit of those who have no copy of the first volume of the Treatise, and whose attention should be turned again from the magnitude of the Macrocosm to the responsibility of the microcosm. [145]
DISCIPLESHIP AND THE RAYS
Ray I – Force – Energy – Action – The Occultist.
Ray II – Consciousness – Expansion – Initiation – The true Psychic.
Ray III – Adaptation – Development – Evolution – The Magician.
Ray IV – Vibration – Response – Expression – The Artist.
Ray V – Mentation – Knowledge – Science – The Scientist.
Ray VI – Devotion – Abstraction – Idealism – The Devotee.
Ray VII – Incantation – Magic – Ritual – The Ritualist.
In the Aquarian Age, as a result of the existing combination of ray influences, humanity enters into an expansion of consciousness which will reveal to him group relations instead of his individual and self-centred personal relations. I would remind you that Aquarius is to be found in the upper half of the zodiacal circle and is exactly opposite to Leo which is found in the lower half. Leo is the sign of ind
ividual unfoldment and of the self as self-assertive. This highly individualised sign consummates in Aquarius wherein the individual finds full expression through the medium of the group, passing from service to himself and expression of himself as a personality to service of the group and a growing expression of the Hierarchy to which he steadily draws closer. To this end, the ray influences will increasingly and steadily be directed. Humanity has reached a stage where the sense of individuality is rapidly emerging. In every field of human expression, men and women are becoming definitely self-assertive. The Old Commentary refers symbolically to this in the following words: [146]
“The Lion begins to roar. He rushes forth and, in his urge to live, he wields destruction. And then again he roars and — rushing to the stream of life — drinks deep. Then, having drunk, the magic of the waters works. He stands transformed. The Lion disappears and he who bears the water pot stands forth and starts upon his mission.”
Those with vision can see this happening upon every side today. The water-carrier (another name for the world server) is starting upon his self-appointed task. Hence the anchoring upon earth of the New Group of World Servers, whose representatives are found in every land and in every great city. This, I would remind you, has taken place without exception in every land and they work on all the different rays; they express many points of view; their field of service is widely differing and their techniques so diverse that in some cases comprehension is not easy to the smaller minded person. But, they all carry the pitcher containing the water of life upon their shoulder, reverting to the language of symbolism, and they all emit the light in some degree throughout their environment.
To you, who live and work in this interim period and in this cycle of transition, with all its resultant outer chaos and upheaval, is given the task of expressing steadfastness, service and sacrifice. Those are the three words which I give you. I have no spectacular information to give you, as has sometimes been the case. Too much of this engrossing and novel information can lead to deep-seated insensitiveness. You need to absorb and to act upon the information you already have, before there is evoked from you that basic demand for further light which necessitates response from those of us who work within the limits of the Hierarchy. For that demand, we patiently wait.
CHRIST AND THE COMING NEW AGE
[147] As we come to an end of our consideration of the world today and its dominating rays, working through the nations and conditioning the people, there is a final point which I would like to make; it lies in the realm of religion and concerns the significance of Christmas. From the very night of time, as well you know, the period wherein the sun moves northward again has been regarded as a festival season; for thousands of years it has been associated with the coming of the Sun-God to save the world, to bring light and fruitfulness to the Earth and through the work of the Son of God to bring hope to humanity. The Christmas season is regarded by those who do not know any better as uniquely the Festival of the Christ, and this the Christian churches have emphasised and to this all churchmen testify. This is both true and false. The Founder of the Christian Church — God in the flesh — availed Himself of this period and came to us in the dark of the year and initiated a new era in which light was to be the distinguishing note. This has been true from several angles, even from the purely physical, for today we have a lighted world; everywhere lights are to be seen and the pitch dark nights of olden times are fast disappearing. Light has also descended on the earth in the form of the “light of knowledge.” Today, education whose objective is to lead all men on to a “lighted way,” is the keynote of our civilisation and is a major pre-occupation in all countries. The removal of illiteracy, the development of a true culture and the ascertaining of truth in all fields of thought and of research are of paramount importance in all lands.
Thus, when Christ proclaimed (as He assuredly did), along with all world Saviours and Sun-Gods, that He was [148] the Light of the worlds, He inaugurated a marvellous period in which humanity has been widely and universally enlightened. This period dates from Christmas Day, two thousand years ago, in Palestine. That was the greatest of all Christmas Days and its emanating influence was more potent than was any previous arrival of a Bearer of Light, because humanity was more ready for the light. Christ came in the sign of Pisces, the Fishes — the sign of the divine Intermediary in the highest sense, or of the medium in the lower; it is the sign of many of the world Saviours and of those Revealers of divinity Who establish world relationships. I would have you note that phrase. The major impulse driving the Christ towards special work was the desire to establish right human relations; it is also the desire — realised or unrealised — of humanity, and we know that some day the Desire of all nations will come, that right human relations will be found everywhere and that goodwill will implement that fulfilment, leading to peace in all lands and among all peoples.
Down through the ages, Christmas Day has been recognised and kept as a season of new beginnings, of better human contacts and of happier relations among families and communities. Yet just as the churches have descended into a profoundly materialistic presentation of Christianity, so the simple Christmas Day which would have pleased the heart of Christ has degenerated into an orgy of spending, of acquiring good things, and is regarded as a period which is “good for trade.” We need, therefore, to remember that when any phase of life-inspired religion is interpreted entirely materially, when any civilisation and culture loses its sense of spiritual values and responds mainly to the material values, then it has served its usefulness and must [149] pass away, and this in the interests of life itself and progress.
The message of the birth of Christ rings ever new but is not today understood. The emphasis during the Aquarian Age, the age into which we are fast entering, will shift away from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, and from the infant Saviour to the Risen Christ. Pisces has seen, during two thousand years, the spreading light; Aquarius will see the Rising Light, and of both of these the Christ is the eternal symbol.
The ancient story of the Birth will become universalised and be seen as the story of every disciple and initiate who takes the first initiation and in his time and place becomes a server and a lightbearer. In the Aquarian Age two momentous developments will take place:
1. The Birth Initiation will condition human thinking and aspiration everywhere.
2. The religion of the Risen Christ, and not of the newly born Christ or of the crucified Christ, will be the distinctive keynote.
It is seldom realised that hundreds of thousands of people in every land have taken, or are preparing to take, this first initiation, called the Birth at Bethlehem, the House of Bread. Humanity, the world disciple, is now ready for this. Indications of the accuracy of the above statement can be seen in the re-orientation of people everywhere to things spiritual, their interest in human good and human welfare, the perseverance they show in their search for light and their longing and desire for a true peace, based on right human relations, implemented by goodwill. This “mind as it is in Christ” can be seen in their revolt against materialistic religion and in the widespread effort to be [150] seen in Europe and elsewhere to return the land (Mother-Earth, the true Virgin Mary) to the people. It can be seen in the constant movement of people throughout the world from place to place, symbolised in the Gospel story by the journey of Mary with the infant Jesus into Egypt.
Then followed, as we are told in the New Testament, a cycle of thirty years wherein all we know is that the infant Jesus grew to manhood and could then take the second initiation, the Baptism in Jordan, and begin His public service. Today the many who in this life have taken the first initiation are entering the long silence of that symbolic thirty years wherein they too will grow to manhood and take the second initiation. This initiation demonstrates the complete control of the emotional nature and of all Piscean characteristics. The thirty years can be looked upon as a period of spiritual unfoldment during the three divisions into which Aquarius (and consequently
the New Age now upon us) will be divided. I refer to what is technically known as the three decans of each sign. In this sign the waters of the Piscean age will, symbolically speaking, be absorbed into the water-pot carried on the shoulder of Aquarius in the symbol which is distinctive of this sign, for Aquarius is the water-carrier, bringing the water of life to the people — life more abundantly.
In the Aquarian Age, the Risen Christ is Himself the Water-Carrier; He will not this time demonstrate the perfected life of a Son of God, which was His main mission before; He will appear as the supreme Head of the Spiritual Hierarchy, meeting the need of the thirsty nations of the world — thirsty for truth, for right human relations and for loving understanding. He will be recognised this time by all and in His Own Person will testify [151] to the fact of the resurrection, and hence demonstrate the paralleling fact of the immortality of the soul, of the spiritual man. The emphasis during the past two thousand years has been on death; it has coloured all the teaching of the orthodox churches; only one day in the year has been dedicated to the thought of the resurrection. The emphasis in the Aquarian Age will be on life and freedom from the tomb of matter, and this is the note which will distinguish the new world religion from all that have preceded it.
The Festival of Easter and the Feast of Pentecost will be the two outstanding days of the religious year. Pentecost is, as you must well know, the symbol of right human relations in which all men and nations will understand each other and — though speaking in many and diverse languages — will know only one spiritual speech.
The Destiny of the Nations Page 14
