The Rays and the Initiations

by Alice A Bailey

  It is in the New Group of World Servers that the training of the needed disciples for the Ashrams of the Masters takes place at this time in world history. This is a new hierarchical venture. In this group also accepted disciples learn to work in the same manner as does the Hierarchy. The Hierarchy works within the field of the world of human living; the New Group provides a similar field for the new disciple. It is towards that group also that initiates in the various Ashrams converge at times, in order to study the calibre and quality of the disciples who are engaged in world salvage, for it is through these disciples that the Hierarchy carries out its plans. 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.

  You need ever to remember that at this time the main technique of the Hierarchy is that of conveying inspiration. The Masters are not openly lecturing or teaching in the great cities of the world; They work entirely through Their disciples and initiates. It will, however, be possible for Them to appear increasingly among men and evoke recognition as the influence of Aquarius is more firmly established. The Masters, in the meantime, must continue to work “within the silence of the universal Ashram,” as it has been called, and from there They inspire Their workers, and these latter in their time and way, inspire the New Group of World Servers.

  You will note, therefore, that the effect of Aquarius upon the Hierarchy (as far as you, at your particular point in evolution can determine it) is to bring in the energy of Shamballa which is essentially the energy of life itself, implemented [231] by the will. This necessarily has created (and will increasingly create) major adjustments within the Hierarchy itself. The principal type of energy hitherto used by the Hierarchy is—as you well know—the energy of love. Now, to that must be added the energy of the life-giving will. New methods, new approaches to the human problem and new modes of work will have to be tried; experiment with the incoming forces will necessarily be the order of the day, though they will be experiments based upon vast knowledge and implemented with wisdom and understanding. It is the reaction of modern man to the ancient forces which produces the need for care. Mankind is oft unpredictable, owing to the factor of free will. It is this which lies behind the training given to disciples, upon which I have already given you much instruction. The new techniques and the changed approach from that of individual culture to united group progress will bring about many types of development. It is this different approach to the same basic problems which lies behind the new capacities which are emerging among disciples; it is this which enables disciples of experience to work at high speed and with a life potency that is unusual. I would have all disciples begin to train themselves to respond to the Aquarian energy now pouring into the Hierarchy. Some of you can do so as accepted disciples, and as members of my Ashram. Take advantage, therefore, of the opportunity for re-energising that comes to all those who have established contact, via their souls, with the Hierarchy, or who are members of an Ashram, or who, as probationers, are upon the periphery of the great Ashram of Sanat Kumara, the Hierarchy. This Aquarian influence produces mainly the intensifying of the hierarchical relationship to Shamballa, and therefore affects every member of His Ashram, from the Christ down to the most newly accepted disciple.

  It is through the disciples that the New Group of World Servers are brought under the stepped-down Aquarian influences; this has to be an individual matter, largely dependent upon the point of evolution. Some members of [232] the New Group of World Servers will not respond in any way; they cannot. Others will respond as fully as their spiritual status permits. This inflow of Aquarian energy is one of the factors which will enable the Christ to complete His task as World Saviour and World Teacher; it will also enable Him to take the initiation which lies immediately ahead of Him and for which He has been preparing for close upon three thousand years—so exalted and peculiar an initiation it is. It is this influence also which has enabled the Master R. to assume the mantle of the Mahachohan and become the Lord of Civilisation—a civilisation which will be conditioned by the rhythm of the seventh ray.

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

  The group, therefore, which “serves as Aquarius indicates” is the Hierarchy; the group which is “speeded upon the upward Way” is the New Group of World Servers. This group is ruled by Taurus, and to it that divine Taurian energy brings “illumination and the attainment of the vision.” This group is, figuratively speaking, the “bull, rushing forward upon a straight line with its one eye fixed upon the goal and beaming light.” But what is that goal? It is not the goal of Self-illumination, for that lies far behind; it is the goal of providing a centre of light within the world of men and of holding up the vision to the sons of men. Let this never be forgotten, and let the New Group of [233] World Servers realise its mission and recognise the demands of humanity upon it. What are these demands? Let me enumerate them, and then let me ask you to take them in all simplicity and act upon them.

  1. To receive and transmit illumination from the kingdom of souls.

  2. To receive inspiration from the Hierarchy and go forth, consequently, to inspire.

  3. To hold the vision of the Plan before the eyes of men, for “where there is no vision, the people perish.”

  4. To act as an intermediate group between the Hierarchy and humanity, receiving light and power and then using both of these, under the inspiration of love, to build the new world of tomorrow.

  5. To toil in Pisces, illumined by Taurus and responsive in degree to the Aquarian impulse coming from the Hierarchy.

  These objectives are not only individual objectives, but the goal for the entire group. All who respond to the life-giving force of Aquarius and to the light-giving force of Taurus can and will work in the New Group of World Servers, even though they have no occult knowledge and have never heard of their co-workers under that name. Forget this not.

  Recognition of the successful work of the New Group of World Servers will be accorded by the Hierarchy, and the testimony of the recognition will be the appearing of a symbol in the aura of the group—of the entire group. This will be a symbol projected by the Hierarchy, specifically by the Christ. What that symbol will be it is not for me to say. It is not yet fully earned, and only its dim and uncertain outline can be seen from the level on which the Masters work, and not at all from the level on which the group itself works. It is “the mark of a Saviour” and it will embody the mark or indication (the signature as medieval occultists used to call it) of a new type of salvation or salvage. Up till now the mark of the Saviour has been the Cross, and the quality of the salvation offered has been freedom from substance [234] or the lure of matter and from its hold—a freedom only to be achieved at a great cost. The future holds within its silence other modes of saving humanity. The cup of sorrow and the agony of the Cross are well-nigh finished. Joy and strength will take their place. Instead of sorrow we shall have a joy which will work out in happiness and lead eventually to bliss. We shall have a strength which will know naught but victory and will not recognise disaster. Even the Black Lodge knew of this change in the mode of salvation, and hastily founded its groups of youths, banded togeth
er by the motto “joy through strength and strength through joy.” It seems to be a law for group development to receive recognition from the side of evil, prior to that recognition coming from the good. But “after weeping cometh joy, and that joy cometh in the morning.” Only the dawn is with us as yet—the dawn of the Aquarian Age. The full tide of light is inevitably moving upon its way towards us.

  This Rule tells us that “the group toils in Pisces.” This simply means that the field wherein the New Group of World Servers works is that of mankind, conditioned and ruled for the past two thousand years by Piscean energy. This is, as you know, the energy which produces mediation and which develops sensitivity in the individual. The work accomplished by and through this energy is so successfully accomplished that it has produced a mediating group of servers; this group acts as an intermediary between the Hierarchy and Humanity, and it has also developed the sensitive response of humanity to contacts, and to such a degree of sensitivity that the response to be accorded to the activities of the New Group of World Servers is very real and cannot be negated.

  It should be remembered that the Piscean energy with which the group has to work is opposed to the incoming energies from the Hierarchy and the New Group of World Servers. This is owing to the fact that the energy of this constellation is passing out concurrently with the sixth ray energy, with which it peculiarly “coincided,” as it is esoterically [235] called. Hence the present difficulties. The passing out of the influence of Pisces, the slow withdrawal of the sixth ray force, the incoming Aquarian energy, via the Hierarchy (affecting at this time mainly the Hierarchy itself and the mental and astral planes) are conditions to which we must look for the origin of all our present troubles. In this involved situation, you have a planetary demonstration of the significance of inner causes, producing outer effects. Slowly, however, the Hierarchy is beginning to implement both the Shamballa energy and that of Aquarius; the Masters Themselves have to learn how to use new incoming energies in the service of the Plan, just as the individual has to learn, in any particular incarnation, to work with and use the available astrological forces which make their impact upon one or other of his bodies or upon his entire personality; such energies, as you well know, can be turned to good uses or to bad. It is not possible for the Masters to turn energy to evil ends, but They necessarily have to master new techniques and the new methods of work called for by the new conditions; these can either affect the Hierarchy itself or will produce reactions in the fourth kingdom and in the other kingdoms, producing rapidly changing orientation and attitudes.

  These forces and energies—from the zodiac or from one or other of the seven rays—have poured into and through our planetary Life for countless aeons. Each time that they cyclically make their appearance, the forms and substance in the three worlds upon which they impinge and through which they pass are different in the degree of evolutionary response and of sensitive reaction to impact. The response and the reactions of the human family as a whole, or of the individual within that whole, will differ from that of the previous cycle; with these factors the Hierarchy has to contend, changing cyclically its technique and altering its modes of work in order to meet the changing need. Bear this in mind. This has never been more evident to the Masters than today. The war might be regarded as a revolt by the form side of nature against the old conditions, and [236] against the new incoming conditioning factors on the part of the Black Lodge. Between the two forces—one sensitive, onward moving, ready for that which is new and better, and the other reactionary, static and determined to gain a strangle hold upon the life within the form—the Hierarchy stands at the midway point:

  a. Throwing all its weight on the side of that which is new, spiritual and desirable.

  b. Adapting itself simultaneously to new conditions and new emerging factors.

  c. Standing like a wall of steel, unshatterable and immovable between humanity and the forces of evil.

  This has been an epoch of crisis, and the great moment for which the Hierarchy has been preparing ever since it was founded upon the Earth. Slowly down the ages, men have been trained and prepared for initiation; they have been taught to develop the initiate-consciousness; they have taken then their place within the ranks of the Hierarchy and have—later—passed into the higher centre, Shamballa.

  Paralleling this line of unfoldment of the individual, there has also been a great though slow expansion of the human consciousness and a gradual steady progress forward into light. It has now become possible to create the New Group of World Servers—men and women sensitive to the inner and newer vision and to the incoming forces and energies. Each group, therefore, whether it is the Hierarchy, the New Group of World Servers, or mankind itself, is wrestling with its own interior problems of response, of recognition and of responsibility; each also is actuated by an outgoing movement in two directions: towards that which is higher and which indicates a better and more spiritual future, with all that that implies, and also towards that which is rooted in and related to the past, which is crystallising, reactionary, blind in its selfishness and materiality, and which is implemented to retain the old things which should pass away and to fight that which is new.

  As individual aspirants, you all know that this condition [237] exists in the conflict waged interiorly and expressed exteriorly between the soul and the personality. The same conditioning factors can be seen also working in every group, organisation, world religion, and in every nation, as well as in the planet as a whole. Millions of years ago, the Hierarchy realised that such a time of crisis and of conflict was inevitable. The easiest way to handle it would have been as lesser conflicts were dealt with in the past—by a process of final intervention. Shamballa and the Hierarchy could have unitedly ended this world crisis, but it would then have again arisen and have gone on arising until humanity itself ended it once and for all upon the physical plane.

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

  See you not the beauty of this plan and its synthesising, culminating usefulness? See you not how the present crisis only indicates the success of the previous evolutionary cycles wherein humanity mastered certain lessons? All the post-war planning, the widespread reaction to ideals (in spite of all the efforts of the evil and reactionary forces), and the seething turmoil reaching throughout all levels of the human consciousness, plus the inspiration of disaster and suffering, are blasting open hitherto sealed areas in the minds of men, letting in illumination, sweeping away the bad old conditions. This is symbolised for us in the destruction of ancient cities and by the intermixture of races through the processes of war; this also signifies progress and is preparatory to great expansions of consciousness. These expansions in the human understanding will, in the next [238] one hundred and fifty years, completely alter the manner of man’s thinking; they will change the techniques of religion; they will bring about comprehension and fusion. When this work has been accomplished we shall record an era of world peace which will be symbolic of the state of the human spirit. Men will then settle down to the great task which confronts all of us in the New Age—the task of dissipating glamour and of bringing about a clearer light upon the astral plane, in the same way that better physical conditions will have been brought about upon the physical plane. All is planned and ordered; the right energies and forces will be available, for the Hierarchy works ever under the Law of Cycles and of Cyclic Compensation. The Masters know exactly that which must be done by right timing and by what has been called “the crisis of spatial extension.” They call
this the interchangeableness of time and space—a meaningless phrase to you but one which is already being dimly sensed.

  The two Rules which remain for us to study concern the work of the Hierarchy in the Aquarian Age. Hence they are specifically for the more advanced disciples and for initiates. We have seen in many ways that—at this time—the Hierarchy, because it is the Ashram of Sanat Kumara Himself, is coming peculiarly and in a new sense under the influence of His will nature. This means that the Members of the Hierarchy, familiar as They may be with the Plan for the immediate cycle with which They and humanity are confronted, are being brought to a new and more “appropriate” conception of the divine Purpose which lies behind the Plan and which motivates it. The will of God is becoming plainer to Them. It is taking on more definite lines. As our planetary Logos nears the climaxing point of the initiation which He is now undergoing, His Ashram, the Hierarchy, must and does (as part of a normal development) feel the effect. From the Christ down to the newest and latest accepted disciple, each in his own place, all are becoming increasingly responsive to the “will of God.” This [239] does not take place in a blind, acquiescing manner, but with understanding and “fortitude.” This receptive attitude on the part of the Hierarchy will bring about great, necessary and unexpected changes. Some of these, I have earlier hinted, may now be taking place; some will follow later. The following ideas may serve to clarify the whole concept in your minds: