The Rays and the Initiations

by Alice A Bailey

  a. Bring into being upon the mental plane a widespread and recognised relation between the soul and the mind.

  b. Produce a measure of order in the emotional processes of the initiate, thus aiding the preparatory work of the second initiation.

  c. Enable the initiate—upon the physical plane—to establish certain service relationships, to learn the practice of elementary white magic, and to demonstrate the first stage of a truly creative life.

  As far as the individual initiate is concerned, the effect of seventh ray energy in his life is potent in the extreme; this is easily realised, owing to the fact that his mind and his brain are conditioned by the seventh ray at the time that the initiatory process is consciously taking place. The effect of this upon the mental plane is similar to that seen—on a much larger scale—in the planet, for it was this ray energy which the planetary Logos utilised when He brought together the major dualities of spirit and matter at the commencement of His creative work. The two aspects of the mind (the lower concrete mind and the soul, the Son of Mind) become more closely related and enter eventually into a conscious, recognised association on the [575] astral plane; it is the seventh ray which restores order within the astral consciousness, and (on the mental plane), it is this influence which produces creativity, the organising of the life, and the bringing together “within the head” of the lower and higher energies in such a manner that “the Christ is born.” This latter point we shall consider in some detail when we take up the significance of the initiations; we shall then find that the relationship between the pituitary body and the pineal gland is involved.

  Finally, it is seventh ray energy which—in the initiatory process between the first and the second initiations—enables the initiate (in his physical plane life) to demonstrate a developing sense of order and of organisation, to express consciously and increasingly a desire to help his fellowmen, and thereby establish relationship with them, and to make his life creative in many ways.

  All these factors are embryonic in his nature, but he now begins to consciously lay the foundation for the future initiatory work; the physical disciplines are at this time of great importance, though their value is frequently over-emphasised and their effect is not always good; the relationships established and fostered are sometimes of small value, owing to the disciple being usually self-centered and thus lacking—from ignorance and lack of discrimination—complete purity of motive. Nevertheless, the changes brought about by the influence of this ray become increasingly effective from life to life; the disciple's relation to the Hierarchy, the reorganising of his life on the physical plane, and his growing effort to demonstrate the esoteric sense of white magic will become more and more vital until he is ready for the second initiation.

  Initiation II. The Baptism in Jordan. Ray VI.

  The Energy of Idealism and Devotion.

  In the initiatory process between the first initiation of the Birth of the Christ and the beginning of the conscious unfoldment of the Christ life and awareness, the life of the initiate has undergone a pronounced reorientation. [576] He is now capable of an equally pronounced and often fanatical adherence to the programme of aspiration and of devotion to the good (as he sees it at this stage). This is symbolised for us in the story of the twelve year old Jesus Who was so conscious that He “must be about His Father's business” that He defied His parents, caused them distress, and astonished those older than He by His spiritual poise and knowledge. This He offset by going down to Galilee and being “subservient” to His parents. A somewhat similar attitude (without the developed and inclusive understanding manifested by the Christ) can be seen expressing itself in the disciple during the period wherein the new orientation is taking place; the disciple is learning to discipline his lower nature and to achieve a measure of mastery over his physical inclinations; he thus releases physical energy and brings order into his life. This takes a very long time and may cover a cycle of many incarnations. He is constantly fighting against his lower nature, and the requirements of his soul (as he somewhat ignorantly interprets them) are in constant session against the animal nature, and increasingly in relation to the emotional nature.

  Above all, he becomes aware of a secondary relation, involving a most difficult problem and one which enhances the fight and intensifies his problem. He discovers that his emotional nature, his lower psychic faculties, his astral development and the potency of glamour are now all arrayed against him.

  The reorientation with which he is now faced has to be brought about primarily upon the astral plane, because that has been for untold aeons the level of his major polarisation and the sphere of activity and the state of consciousness which has dominated him. The physical body is not a principle; his etheric body has, since Atlantean days, been the agent of his astral energy, for the mind nature is not yet developed and cannot, therefore, adequately take control. He discovers that he lives in a chaos of emotional reactions and of conditioning glamours. He slowly begins [577] to realise that in order to take the second initiation he must demonstrate emotional control; he realises also that he must have some knowledge of those spiritual energies which will dissipate glamour, plus an understanding of the technique whereby illumination from the mind—as the transmitting agent of the light of the soul—can dispel these glamours and thus “clarify the atmosphere”, in the technical sense.

  I might emphasise that as yet no initiate demonstrates complete control during the intermediate period between any initiation and the next higher initiation; the intermediate period is regarded as “a cycle of perfecting” That which is being left behind and subordinated to the higher realisation is slowly dominated by energies which are to be released into the consciousness of the initiate at the initiation for which he is being prepared. This interim period is always one of great difficulty. The energies being registered, made active and finally used, are steadily increasing in number and potency at each initiation; these impacts upon the rays of the soul and the personality rays of the initiate, and on the subsidiary vehicles through which he works in the three worlds and upon their individual conditioning rays, produce at first tremendous difficulties; these the initiate must master and the problems involved he must solve. 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.

  The initiatory process between the first and the second initiations is for many the worst time of distress, difficulty, realisation of problems and the constant effort to “clear himself” (as it is occultly called), to which the disciple is at any time subjected. The phrase stating that the objective of the initiate is “to clear himself” is perhaps the most [578] arresting and illuminating of all possible definitions of the task to be undertaken. The storm aroused by his emotional nature, the dark clouds and mists in which he constantly walks and which he has created throughout the entire cycle of incarnated living, have all to be cleared away in order that the initiate can say that—for him—the astral plane no longer exists, and that all that remains of that ancient and potent aspect of his being is aspiration, a sensitive response to all forms of divine life and a form through which the lowest aspect of divine love, goodwill, can flow without impediment.

  From the larger point of view, it is this struggle to clear the world atmosphere which will confront humanity after the first initiation, so close at hand today. You will see, therefore, why the Christ must come at this time, for He is the One Who presides at the first and second initiations, and it is His coming which will indicate that humanity has taken the first initiation, which will confirm and consolidate the work done and which will inaugurate the world cycle and period in which the task of reorganising the emotional and psychic life of humanity will take place; this p
eriod will release the energy of goodwill and thus automatically bring about right human relations.

  As regards humanity as a whole, polarised as it is in the emotional nature, the effect of this sixth ray is potent in the extreme. Its energy has been playing upon men ever since it came into incarnation, and the last one hundred fifty years have seen that potency become extremely effective. Two factors have enhanced this effect:

  1. The sixth Ray of Idealism or of Devotion is the ray which normally governs the astral plane, controlling its phenomena and colouring its glamour.

  2. The stream of energy, coming into our planetary life from the constellation Pisces, has for two thousand years conditioned human experience and is peculiarly fitted to blend with and complement this sixth ray energy and to produce exactly the situation which is today governing world affairs.

  [579] The united activity of these two great streams of cosmic energy, playing upon and through the third planetary centre, Humanity, has created the unique condition in which “the race of men” can stand before the planetary Initiator, the Christ, and under the focussed stimulation of the Hierarchy, pass through the appropriate initiation.

  It should here be remembered that the masses of men can and will take the first initiation, but that a very large group of aspirants (far larger than is realised) will pass through the experience of the second initiation, that of the purifying Baptism. These are the people who express the essential qualities of ideological recognition, devoted adherence to truth as sensed, profound reaction to the physical disciplines (imposed since they participated in the first initiation many lives earlier) and a growing responsiveness to the aspirational aspect of the astral body; this aspiration is occupied with reaching out towards contact with and expression of the mental principle. This particular group in the human family are “kama-manasic” initiates, just as those taking the first initiation are “physico-etheric” initiates.

  It is the activity of this sixth ray which has brought out into the light of day the growing ideological tendencies of mankind. These world ideologies (of which there are many present in the world today) are created by a triple reaction to the two streams of energy mentioned above:

  1. The unfoldment of the mental principle in mankind during this Aryan Age has forced desire into the form of great mass concepts; these unitedly are governing the mass tendency toward mental unfoldment.

  2. The steadily growing soul influence, working like a leaven on the astral plane, has lifted kama or desire out of its purely self-centred focus and brought in a new and hitherto unexpressed group emotional consciousness; this leads the fused emotional nature of men into great ideological mass expression, still selfish; expressed and impulsed as yet by emotional excesses, but indicating new and better goals. These goals will assume clearer and more desirable [580] outlines when the second initiation is undergone by the world aspirant.

  3. The influence generated by the Shamballa energy which has, for the first time, made direct contact with Humanity, is producing an emotional vortex in which old ideals and institutions are seen divorced from their hitherto controlling glamours, thus permitting the new and better ideologies to emerge in the consciousness of the race.

  All these factors are responsible for the world situation at this time; great ideologies, potent groupings of workers and thinkers dedicated to the changing of the old order, and massed efforts to end separativeness are all present simultaneously. The essential etheric world unity (of which the telephone, the radio and the airplane are the tangible expression) is swinging vast groups of men everywhere into united emotional activity, thus creating those preliminary testings which ever precede initiation, and by means of which those capable of taking the second initiation are today passing.

  I cannot here enlarge upon the various ideologies which are presenting themselves to the world of men—impulsed by the Hierarchy, precipitated into the human consciousness from the mental plane by the new group of world servers, implemented by the energy of the sixth ray, by the dominant Piscean energy and by the organising energy of the incoming seventh ray, and responded to emotionally by the masses of men focussed on the astral plane. To all intelligent observers, this ideological situation is clear; it is a needed and preliminary stage to the creation of the new world order; it provides a point of crisis and the required point of tension which will enable those aspirants who are ready today, in their thousands, to pass through the experience of the second initiation and to undergo the purification of the fluid emotional nature in the Baptism Initiation. Through this experience the kama-manasic aspirant will be in a positive and spiritual condition to bring about (on the astral plane) those fundamental changes, rearrangements and readjustments which will [581] bring that level of planetary consciousness into line with the immediate divine purpose: the manifestation of the Kingdom of God.

  The work of sixth ray energy, the result of the long cycle of Piscean energy, and the impact of the incoming Aquarian energy will bring a potent transformation in the “watery realm” of the astral plane. The symbol of that plane has ever been water—fluid, stormy, reflecting all impressions, the source of mist and fog, and yet ever essential to human living. The Piscean Age, now in process of passing away, is also closely related to this plane and to the symbol of water; it fixed in the human consciousness the realisation that “men are as fishes, immersed in the sea of emotions.” Aquarius is also known by the symbol of water, for Aquarius is the “water-carrier.” The sixth ray will bring together all these energies in time and space: ray energy, Piscean energy, Aquarian energy and the energy of the astral plane itself; this again produces a vortex of force which is invocative of mental energy; it is a controlling factor, which has plunged humanity into a tumultuous awareness of clashing ideologies, which has precipitated a reflected vortex in the world war, and which is responsible for the present crisis and point of tension. This critical point of tension will enable groups of aspirants who—having passed through the first initiation—can undergo the Baptism experience, again a word identified with water. Simultaneously, large masses of men will take the first initiation and “in the house of bread” stand before the Initiator.

  The coming Christ will therefore initiate two groups of aspirants within the near future and in preparation for His coming; it is the closer approach of the Christ and of the Hierarchy of Masters to humanity which is implementing the initiatory energies, which is crystallising the ideologies present today in the human consciousness, and fostering—if I may so express it—the latent ideology of the Kingdom of God.

  As regards the individual initiate who is to undergo the initiation of the Baptism, the effect of sixth ray energy [582] upon his nature is easily apparent, owing to the extreme potency of the second aspect of the personality in the three worlds, his astral body or nature. In the early stages of the impact of sixth ray energy upon his emotional nature a perfect vortex of force is generated, his emotional reactions are violent and compelling, his glamours are intensified and controlling, and his aspiration steadily mounts, but is at the same time limited and hindered by the strength of his devotion to some sensed ideology. Later, under the influence of an increasing soul contact (itself the second aspect of his essential divinity), his emotional, kamic and aspirational nature becomes quieter and is more controlled through the agency of the mind; his alignment becomes astral-mental-soul. When this state of consciousness has been achieved and the “waters” of the astral body are quiet and can reflect the beautiful and the true, and when his emotions have been purified by intense self-effort, then the disciple can step into the baptismal waters; he is then subjected to an intense purificatory experience which, occultly speaking, enables him “for ever to step out of the waters and be no longer in danger of drowning or of submergence”; he can now “walk on the surface of the sea and with safety proceed onward towards his goal.”

  The effect of sixth ray activity upon the mental nature is, as you may imagine, a tendency—first of all—to the crystallising of thought
, a reaction to imprisoning ideologies, and a fanatical mental adherence to mass ideals, with no understanding of their relationship to the need of the time or to their intended creative aspects. Later, as the disciple prepares for the second initiation, these tendencies are transformed into spiritual devotion to human welfare and to a one-pointed adherence to the Plan of the Hierarchy; all emotional reaction to the Hierarchy of Masters fades out, and the disciple can now work without being hindered by constant astral disturbances.

  The effect of sixth ray energy upon the integrated personality of the disciple can only be described as producing a condition wherein he is definitely astral-buddhic [583] in his nature; gradually his one-pointed emotional effort towards orientation to the soul makes him “an aspiring point of tension, oblivious of crisis and firmly anchored in the love which streams forth from the soul.”

  Let me sum up what I have said anent the effect of sixth ray energy:

  1. The energy of the sixth ray produces two major results:

  a. An embryonic realisation of the will nature which determines the life of the initiate.

  b. A pronounced conflict between the lower and the higher self. This reveals to the initiate the ancient conflict between the emotional nature and true realisation.

  This brings about a basic reorientation of the life of the initiate and of humanity as a whole.

  2. In connection with humanity, the effects of the sixth ray are as follows:

  a. The development of a tendency to clarify the world atmosphere, thus releasing the energy of goodwill.

  b. The production of a condition wherein “the race of men” can take either the first or the second initiation.

  c. The sudden and powerful emergence of the world ideologies.

  d. A basic transformation within the astral plane itself which is producing points of crisis and a point of tension.