It should also be noted here that the energies projected by the initiate into the world of maya are directed by him from the various centres in his own body and from the central point of energy in each particular centre employed. It is the central “jewel in the lotus” from which the initiate works, and these seven central focal points, these seven jewels, so-called, are the correspondence of the jewel in the egoic lotus. This means, therefore, that successful work “within the veils of maya” involves ever the use of the will aspect and the conscious employment of that quota of the Shamballa force which the initiate is able to appropriate and to use because he has begun to work as a focussing agent of the Spiritual Triad and is no longer working as a [183] soul or as a personality under soul control. This is an important point to remember.
It is along the antahkarana that the force used by the initiate must pour, and according to the nature of the work to be done will be the particular strand or thread of the rainbow bridge which the initiate employs. There are four veils of maya, constructed necessarily of seven forces, and these produce the factual and phenomenal aspect (in time and space) of the Great Illusion, in its three forms of illusion, glamour and maya. There are seven points of energy through which different aspects of the force needed to produce the desired effects within the veils of maya can flow, and these correspond to the seven ray types or qualities. But the major type of energy with which the initiate works upon the physical plane is the seventh, the ray or energy of ritual, of ceremony, of order and of law. The work done within the veils is one of rearrangement and the ordination and coordination of the forces, present as existent maya; this must provide, in time and space, the forms through which the plans of the Hierarchy can materialise, the souls of all forms can be subjected to the needed experience, and so progress towards the fulfillment of the will of God.
Maya is not something to be destroyed, dissipated, dissolved or negated. Maya is in reality an aspect of time, and connotes to the initiate the mass of creative forces with which he must work; these are swept into form generation and activity, and embody in the transitional, ephemeral, present moment the phenomenal point in evolution reached by the life of God. The work of the initiate, acting under hierarchical inspiration, is to change the present forms into the more adequate forms demanded by the descending life and its dynamic activity. We are therefore dealing with the precipitated aspect of divine evolutionary process. We are concerned with the relation of the Army of the Voice to the SOUND which conditions evolution, and with the supervisory work of the Hierarchy as it sustains the work of the [184] soul to be found within all forms—built by the Army of the Voice and by the devas in their serried ranks.
The supervisory, directive work of the Hierarchy, carried forward by the Masters and Their groups and by the initiates within those groups, is seldom considered; it is, however, a work of major importance and is one definitely referred to in this rule. Fundamentally, the task set before the Hierarchy is to “let in the light”; but this time not in the sense of revelation, of vision or of illumination. These latter are all aspects of soul light; the work of the initiate is to aid in the construction of the planetary body of light—substance which will finally reveal the nature of Deity and the glory of the Lord. It is the planetary correspondence to the light-body through which Christ and all the Sons of God Who have reached perfection finally manifest. It is a vehicle created by the energy of Will, and it is implemented and “held in being” by the Will. It expresses itself exoterically by the projection of this will energy, via the central point in each of the seven chakras or lotuses.
In studying these rules for the initiate, it must ever be remembered that they concern primarily the use of the will or first aspect. This is the energy of the Monad, utilised via the Spiritual Triad and related to the personality via the antahkarana. Secondary interpretations and tertiary correspondences are always possible, but the main significance of these rules is related to the first divine aspect. You have therefore, as you reflect, think, study and correlate, to bear constantly in mind:
1. The seven ray types.
2. The Monad, the Spiritual Triad and the threefold personality; these constitute another septenate.
3. The seven groups of Masters.
4. The seven centres and their seven central points, or jewels.
5. The four veils of maya.
Various other septenates could also be related, but such relationship is not required by the initiate who has consciously discarded all these lower septenates and works now [185] with the seven major energies, the sevenfold field of their activity and the septenary aspect of the implementing instrument, whether planetary or individual.
Simplification proceeds rapidly as one nears the goal of the spirit. Will ever concerns itself with the essentials and not with the details of manifestation. Love concerns itself with transitional, evolutionary fundamentals, whilst intelligence concerns itself with the detail and its coherent coordination in response to the impulse and attractive force of divine love and the dynamic impulse of the spirit.
Let us now proceed, after these few preliminary remarks, to take this tenth rule sentence by sentence. These are five in number, and the first which we will consider is:
1. The rules for work within the veils of Maya are known and have been used.
Students should remember that the work of the Hierarchy is constantly conditioned by the point in evolution of the human hierarchy. In the early days of human history, thinking, and progress had practically no place, and therefore little or no effect upon the forces and energies which were active upon etheric levels. At that period, they were left in a relatively quiescent state or else were swept into activity by definite and planned impression from the Hierarchy; any effect coming from the human kingdom was due solely to mass impulse or impression. This was very little, owing to the lack of coordinated relation between units and groups within the human family. Later, as family units massed together and formed tribes, and then tribe united with tribe to form larger tribes or embryonic nations, this mass effect increased, but there was still but little thinking or direction connected with it; it was largely instinctive and—if I might so express it—the etheric plane was in reality more in the nature of a matrix surrounding a valuable creation, and was essentially protective, separating and slightly energising.
In Atlantean days, the plane whereon humanity received its major direction or unfoldment was such that the [186] emotional, impulsive nature and the field of maturing desire became dominantly active. Then the real difficulty within the realm of maya started. Hitherto only two energies had been felt upon the etheric plane: the energy of life itself, via the sutratma, as it passed through the etheric plane in order to produce exoteric livingness upon the physical plane, and secondly, the energy of the Hierarchy as a whole, producing a slow, broad, though somewhat negative organisation of the prevalent forces. But then a third and most potent force, generated by humanity, was beginning to make an impact upon the etheric forces. Men were beginning, at this early period of human history, to desire, and this desire was not, as hitherto, of a purely animal nature and hence an emanation from dense physical substance (and, therefore, not related to a principle), but it embodied a new type of energy and was—in reality—man’s first expression of the highest divine aspect. Desire is the lowest reflection within the human consciousness of the will aspect.
This potent vibration of desire was evoked by men who were as yet without any spiritual vision of any kind; they were purely material in their instinctive reactions (and rightly so at that particular time), and these reactions attracted the attention of certain purely evil energies or Beings. These Beings availed themselves of the situation in order to satisfy their desire for power—again a distortion of the will or first aspect. Thus the Black Lodge was founded. It fed upon human desire and resembled a vast overshadowing vampire. It vitiated human living and increased the growth of desire far beyond normal expectancy or hierarchical planning, thus creating false goal
s and standards, building a barrier between the lowest planetary centre, Humanity, and the “middle point” or centre, the Hierarchy. It will be apparent, therefore, that the following energies were let loose within the realm of maya:
1. The instinctive force of animal desire. This was not wrong in itself and is subject to negation in time, and normally is controlled. [187]
2. The stream of descending life, and this in two aspects:
a. The life aspect, as it bestows being.
b. The life aspect, as it preserves form.
3. The steady impact of the attractive power of the soul, implemented by the Hierarchy and increasing in potency as time elapses.
4. The impelling power of material desire, focussed in the Black Lodge, both feeding human desire and drawing a form of life from the massed desire of humanity.
5. Human development along astral lines, expressing itself as certain well-defined energies or force directions:
a. Material desire for possessions.
b. Desire for that which is owned by others. To this the commandment “Thou shalt not steal” has reference.
c. Personality aims and ambitions; these constitute a form of focussed desire of a compelling, life-determining nature.
d. Aspiration, leading to vision and to the mystic Way.
e. Purification, the conscious handling of desire upon the Probationary Path.
f. Initiation. The first two initiations are taken, as you know, upon the astral plane, and bring complete release both from that plane of glamour and from the realm of maya.
All throughout this period, the organisation of the etheric plane has been going on, subject to the impact of energies and forces as listed above, plus certain other energies (latent or potent) with which we have no immediate concern. Both the great White Lodge and its opponent, the Black Lodge, increased steadily in potency. Gradually the forces took organised form and the four “veils of maya” or the seven separating energies became well-defined. When this differentiation was complete, two great planetary events (if I might call them so) were consummated: [188]
1. The seven centres in the human body (five up the spine and two in the head) were esoterically “in shape.” The seven lotuses or chakras were functioning, some powerfully, whilst others remained unawakened. These seven were now visible to clairvoyant vision.
2. The seven Ashrams of the Masters in Their seven groups (conditioned by the seven Rays) appeared, motivated from Shamballa, organised at this time upon the higher levels of the mental plane, and gradually supplied with personnel from the ranks of humanity itself, as one by one men achieved initiation.
Paralleling this activity and implemented, fed and sustained by the Black Lodge, was the appearance of glamour upon the astral plane, and to this thickening glamour humanity steadily contributed and responded. Then as evolution progressed and the human intellect began to make itself felt, “the four veils of maya” and the great “curtain of glamour” began to condition the mental plane. Illusion then appeared, and the distinction between truth and falsehood, between good and evil, and between the left hand Path and the Path of Initiation became apparent to the advanced humanity of the time. These distinctions had always been known to the Hierarchy, but now human beings were faced with them and recognised them: the great potency of intellectual choice confronted humanity and the Aryan race (as that name is correctly used to denote modern intelligent humanity) came into being.
As the ages slipped away, men contributed more and more both to the problem and to the solution of maya, of glamour and of illusion. The potency of human thought began to make itself felt; men in increasing numbers sought the Path of Liberation and so passed on into the Hierarchy; they became active and instructed opponents of the Black Lodge and intelligent wielders of energy as it can be projected downwards and used to destroy the four veils, to dissipate glamour and to dispel illusion. Humanity responded more and more sensitively to impacts—both subjective and objective—and their cooperation began to be [189] effective and useful to the Hierarchy, necessitating some changes in hierarchical techniques, releasing hierarchical workers for other and different activities, and greatly complicating the problem and menacing the safety and the status of the Black Lodge.
One of the results of this mental development was the sending of the disciples out into the world of men; they issued forth in large numbers, and whilst preserving their conscious link with the Ashram with which they were affiliated, they could be trusted to live among men as men and to bring their potency to bear upon the problem of maya and glamour, doing so from below upwards. This work had to be done by disciples who could stand under pressure, who would, in spite of all difficulties, live nobly and prepare for and take the initiation which was for them their next step. Several hundred years ago, only a few could be so trusted. Today (1944) there are many in every land, though there are very few in Germany, owing to the concentration in that unhappy land of the power of the Black Lodge and also to the misuse of the Shamballa force. This force has been isolated and its destructive aspect utilised in Germany, and this has been done without the paralleling activity of the love energy of the Hierarchy. It is this fact that has made it impossible (since 1933) for disciples of the White Lodge to enter. Elsewhere, however, the concentration of active disciples is greater than at any other time in human history.
I have emphasised this point because our second phrase, “let the group widen all the rents within those veils,” has reference here to disciples and the groups which they have everywhere gathered around themselves. It is these groups, many in number and differing in ray potency, which will lead the world through the post-war period into the New Age. It is their pressure upon the physical plane which has precipitated the crisis between the great White Lodge and the Black Lodge. Their work is to let in the light, and where the light goes the Black Lodge must fade out and disappear. It feeds on glamour and illusion and uses the [190] veils of maya as a protection. Students would do well to avoid naming and differentiating the four veils. The veils themselves are transient and variable. They differ as they come under the impact of the seven rays. It is not possible or practical to distinguish them one from the other, except from the angle of the Hierarchy, and their destruction today (though it was not so earlier) has to come from the dense physical plane, and the attack must be made by personalities and individualities dwelling in physical bodies. This is a somewhat new mode of approach, for hitherto only a very few disciples and initiates have been able so to work. Today, hundreds and thousands of disciples are working, and thus learning to use the ancient rules for work within the veils of maya. Let me here give you some of these rules or formulas as they are to be found in The Masters’ Book of Rules and as I can translate them. Some are untranslatable:
1. Focus the force at the jewel’s point and find the veil that it can touch.
2. Carry the force from point to point and then project.
3. Look for the energy in form behind the veil attacked. A rent within the veil exists. Find it and see.
4. A path lies through the veils, giving access to the several courts. Walk on that path, wielding destruction and clearing out the refuse in the court. The court of the money changers is the last.
5. Meet the descending forces and find the current which is yours.
6. Watch for the evil stream of force which seeks to mend the rents. Project upon that stream the energy of which you know. It led you from the Ashram into the veils. Use it and drive the evil back unto the astral plane.
7. Work with the Sound and know it as the source of power. Use first the Voice; then use the O.M., and later use the Sound. All three together will suffice.
There are other rules, but these will give you the [191] major recognitions needed to do this type of work; these are the rules which the adventuring disciple needs to know. They have been used, and should not be interpreted by the lower mind, but with the aid of the initiate consciousness.
The second phrase runs as follows:
/> 2. Let the group widen all the rents within those veils and thus let in the light.
We come now to a definite group injunction or instruction. The aid of the group is invoked almost in the form of an order. The point of this formulated injunction is that in the new era and in the interlude between the past (wherein prominent disciples worked within the veils of maya) and the New Age (wherein humanity itself will consciously function upon the etheric plane), the work of the esoteric groups, under the direction of the New Group of World Servers, is needed. They will have the capacity to recognise the distinction between the various veils. This is the next needed development. The groups must focus the energy at the very centre of the group being; the group must carry the force from point to point and from veil to veil; the group must project the destroying energy and become unitedly aware of what each veil hides; the group must perform the activities (seven in all) of purification; the group must meet, accept and distribute the descending spiritual energy which will finally consummate the work done. The group—through the use of that descending current—will drive the forces of evil back on to the astral plane and will together work with the three aspects of the first ray. These are typified by the Voice, the O.M. and the Sound.
In the above you have in reality a great formula for group activity and also a potent method (once the group can unitedly work together) for the cleansing and the re-organisation of the forces active in the world today. These forces are now raging and running wild; their effect is almost tangible (being in etheric substance) and factually and visibly present under the control of the Black Lodge. This [192] Lodge uses the voices of lying propaganda, the Word of death (which I shall not give to you for the O.M., the Word of Life, suffices), and the Sound of the densest aspect in manifestation—the sound of power in the mineral kingdom. This constitutes an unparalleled condition and creates a unique concentration of the Forces of Good and the forces of evil upon the etheric plane. The task of all groups which are working under the Masters of the Wisdom is to let in the light, utilising those rents which already exist within the Veils of maya.
The Rays and the Initiations Page 21
