Beyond this state of awareness there lies a state of being which is as far removed from the consciousness of Members of the Hierarchy as that is, in its turn, removed from the consciousness of the mass of men. Endeavour to grasp this, even if your brain and your power to formulate thought rejects the possibility of this exalted livingness. Be not discouraged at this inability to understand; remember that this state of being embraces the goal towards which the Masters strive, and which the Christ Himself is only now attaining.
It is for this reason that the symbolism of light and darkness is used in the words: Let the group know there is no colour, only light; and then let darkness take the place of light.
Just as the individual has to pass through the stage wherein all “colour” goes out of life as he emerges out of [174] the glamour which conditions the astral plane, so groups in preparation for initiation must go through the same devastating process. Glamour disappears, and for the first time the group (as is the case with the individual) walks in the light. As the group thus walks, unitedly its units learn a lesson (one clearly enunciated by modern science) that light and substance are synonymous terms; the true nature of substance as a field and medium of activity becomes clear to the initiate-members of the group. To this H.P.B. referred when he said that the true occultist works entirely in the field of forces and energies.
The next lesson which the group unitedly apprehends is the significance of the words that “darkness is pure spirit.” This recognition, realisation, apprehensive, comprehensive (call it what you will) is so overwhelming and all-embracing that distinctions and differences disappear. The disciple realises that they are only the result of the activity of substance in its form-making capacity and are consequently illusion and non-existent, from the angle of the spirit at rest in its own centre. The only realisation left is that of pure Being Itself.
This realisation necessarily comes to the disciple through the means of graded revelation and in balanced sequence; each contact with the Initiator leads the initiate closer to the centre of pure darkness—a darkness which is the very antithesis of darkness as the non-initiate and the unenlightened understand. It is a centre or point of such intense brilliance that everything fades out and at the place of tension, and at that darkest point, let the group see a point of clear cold fire.
It is a tension and a point of attainment that is only possible in group formation. Even in the earlier initiations, and when the initiate has proved his right to be initiated, the process is still a group proceeding; it is undergone in the protective presence of initiates of the same standing and unfoldment. It is their united focus that enables the candidate for initiation to see the point of clear cold light and their united will that “brings him upright, [175] standing, unafraid, with open eye before the One Who from the very first has conferred on him the gifts of life and light, and Who now—with lifted rod, surrounded by the fire, reveals to him the significance of life and the purpose of the light.” It is that of which the minds of men know naught, and which even the highest intellect is unable to grasp or even sense.
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 [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 [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 God is his. He is not yet a Member of the Great Council, but he has the right of entrance into Shamballa, and from that point he passes on to a more intimate relation, if that is his chosen destiny. He may not even finally become a Member of the Great Council; that is reserved for relatively few and for Those Who can take even still higher initiations within the ring-pass-not of our planet—a task of profound difficulty. There are other and interesting alternatives, as I have elsewhere told you. The initiate may pass out of this planetary life altogether along one or other of the various Paths by means of which a Master can start upon the Path of the Higher Evolution and for which all that has transpired in the past will have prepared Him. Whichever Way He goes, the Master remains a part of the purpose; He knows forever the secret of the darkness which brings light, and the “inscrutable will of God” is no longer a mystery to Him. He comprehends the divine idea and can now cooperate with it; He has reached a point of realisation which enables Him to fathom what lies behind the Plan for which the Hierarchy has worked for aeons.
Just as the disciple enters the world of meaning and so can interpret events, just as the Hierarchy works in the world of mediation, applying the Plan which the world of meaning has revealed, so the higher
initiate works consciously in the world of purpose which the Plan implements, the world of meaning interprets, and the world of events expresses in sequential order and under the evolutionary Law.
The symbol which expresses the door of evolution is the crescent moon; that of the process of evolution—as it affects the material or substantial life of the man—is the waxing and the waning moon—the symbol of growing desire and of the dying out of desire. The symbol of the world of meaning is Light—the light which shines upon the ways of men, interpreting events and bestowing revelation. The [178] symbol of the world of mediation is the revolving Cross, whilst the symbol of the world of purpose is a twofold one: the five-pointed star and then the radiant heart of the Sun. Remember that when we talk and think in symbols, we are placing something between ourselves and reality—something protective, interpretive and significant, but something nevertheless veiling and hiding. After the fifth initiation all veils are rent and naught stands between the initiate and Essential Being.
RULE TEN
We now come to one of the most abstruse and difficult of all the rules for initiates; yet at the same time it is one of the most practical in application and of the greatest usefulness. It concerns the etheric levels of activity. I would have you note that I did not say the etheric levels of consciousness, for there is no such thing as consciousness upon the etheric planes. The four planes which constitute the etheric levels of the physical plane are the lowest correspondence to the four planes whereon the Monad and the Spiritual Triad are active, and—as I have oft told you—upon those levels there is no such thing as consciousness as we understand it. There is only a state of being and of activity for which we have no adequate or illustrative words. 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.
In the above paragraph I have presented you with a new concept re initiation—one that has always been implicit in the teaching but one entirely and completely untouched as yet in any discussions on initiate-training.
In the rule as given to applicants, the disciple is cautioned to work within those levels according to the methods [179] of the deva or angel evolution. The rule runs as follows:
The Army of the Voice, the devas in their serried ranks, work ceaselessly. Let the disciple apply himself to a consideration of their methods; let him learn the rules whereby the Army works within the veils of maya.
These particular devas in “their serried ranks” are the directive agents of the divine energy which implements the purposes of Deity upon the physical plane. They work only on etheric levels—either upon our physical plane or on the cosmic etheric levels. They are therefore active in the realm of maya, which is the etheric plane as we usually understand it, or upon the planes of the Spiritual Triad. They are not active on the three gross physical levels or upon the astral or mental planes, nor are they active upon the highest or logoic plane. There they are implicit or latent but not active. They are the great “impulsive factors” in manifestation, organising substance, directing the multiplicity of lives and beings who constitute the forms through which God expresses divinity. In a peculiar sense, they are the embodiment of the divine purpose upon the planes of the Monad and of the Triad, just as the aggregate of energies in man’s etheric body is the result of his inner direction and the cause of his outer manifestation. To understand more fully the function of the deva forces, a man must arrive at some understanding of the forces in his etheric body which, in their turn, are the consequence of his point of attainment—an attainment demonstrated by his astral (emotional) and mental natures and activities. These indicate his point of development.
The devas are the agents of the divine will because they are a consequence of the point of attainment of our planetary Logos as He exists outside the seven planes of our sphere of existence, the cosmic physical plane. They are conditioned by His cosmic astral and mental vehicles. In a definite sense, they are the agents of the Universal Mind, even though they are not mental as we understand that term. They are sometimes regarded as blind forces, but that is only because they get their inspiration from levels of [180] divine awareness outside the range of the human consciousness, no matter how high, or when used in its widest connotation.
Their controlling Agent in manifestation is the Triangle of Energy to which we give the name the “Three Buddhas of Activity.” They are therefore closely connected with the third aspect of divinity. They are essentially the “eye within the Triangle”—a most familiar symbol to many today. They are the expression, in activity, of the “All-Seeing Eye”; through their agency God sees, and through them and the energy directed through them, He directs the creative process. They are under the complete control of the three Buddhas of Activity, Who are the cosmic Prototypes of the Lords of the three major rays, but not in the sense usually understood when the rays are considered in their relation to man. They are the correspondence of these three rays and are responsible for the entire manifested universe, but only within the orbit of the third aspect, the expression of the Universal Mind.
They come from the cosmic mental plane, just as the energy—distinctive of the second aspect—comes from the cosmic astral plane. God is mind. God is intelligent functioning. God is creative activity. These are the qualities of the deva evolution. God is love. God is relationship. God is consciousness. These are the three qualities of the Christ evolution. This latter evolution is carried on within the created sphere of influence of the third aspect. God is life. God is fire. God is pure being. These are the qualities of the spirit aspect, the omnipotent aspect of Deity. All these three aspects focus themselves and find an outlet for expression upon the levels of the cosmic etheric planes and upon the levels of the etheric planes known to humanity in the three worlds. The Law of Correspondences is infallible, if rightly approached and applied.
This broad and general presentation must be rightly grasped if the rule, as given to disciples and initiates, is to be correctly understood.
You have been taught that illusion is the characteristic [181] which must be mastered by the initiate as he “escapes” occultly from the three worlds via the mental plane. (Glamour: A World Problem.) Glamour, you are told, is the characteristic of the astral plane, and must be dissipated by the disciple as he “escapes” mystically on to the Path of Initiation, just as the initiate finds himself (after mastering illusion) on the Path of the Higher Evolution. Maya is the conditioning factor on etheric levels, and must be evaded and overcome by the probationary disciple as he “escapes” from the thralldom of the physical plane. Thus he learns to tread the Path of Discipleship. These characteristics are, however, only the reaction of humanity to the activities of the deva evolution, rightly and divinely proceeding with their task of implementing the divine will. When the sphere of their activity comes into contact with the human intelligence, the effect upon humanity (before mastery is gained) is to compel men “to wander in the fields of maya, to drown in the sea of glamour, and to respond to the pull of illusion.”
In this teaching, you have presented to you, though in a somewhat different form, the ancient problem of duality, involving as it does the immense potency of the deva evolution. It definitely affects humanity; this is due to the fact that it is an expression of the will aspect of Shamballa. As man develops the will aspect, he learns to break loose from the aura of the deva evolution, and the major task of the Hierarchy (as far as basic essentials are concerned) is to “provide sanctuary” to those who have liberated themselves from the ocean of deva energies in which their vehicles must perforce move and live and have their being, but with which they have otherwise no point of contact, once liberated by their own effort and will “from the angels.” Let us now study Rule Ten.
Rule X.
The rules for work within the veils of maya are known and have been used. Let the group widen all the rents within those veils and thus let in the light. Let the Army of the Voice be no more heard, and let the brothers onward move within the Sound. Then let them [182] know the meaning of the O.M. and let them hear that O.M. as it is sounded forth by Him Who stands and waits at the very centre of the Council Chamber of the Lord.
I would here remind you that we are considering work that the initiate must accomplish, and are not considering the usual effort of struggling aspirants to deal with and handle those forces which have worked through into physical expression. These, from the levels of the forty-eight subplanes are waiting to precipitate themselves into the dense physical manifested world. The aspirant must ever work from the outside to the within and must endeavour to direct his life from above downwards, if these forces are to be dominated by him and are not to control him. The initiate, however, works “from within the circle,” that is the circle or field of maya. His activity must therefore be carried forward from the very heart of the mystery of these forces; this he can do because he is in a position to know the type of energy with which he has to contend, to understand the nature of the forces with which he can and must manipulate the “mayavic energies,” and thus to dominate the etheric planes he is also aware where one veil ends and another begins, and from what level he can successfully bring the swirling and living energies into conformity with the divine pattern.
The Rays and the Initiations Page 20
