Letters on Occult Meditation

by Alice A Bailey

  The divine activity has developed the solar plexus centre, is controlling all the centres below the solar plexus, and is passing upward in ordered progression until it is focussed and vivifying the head centres.

  Earlier we divided the life of the man into five main periods, tracing his development in each. We might (if we are careful to generalise widely) apply the same to the five centres.

  Period I—wherein the base of the spine is the most active in the purely rotary sense and not in a fourth-dimensional. The inner fire is focussed on the vivification of the organs of generation and on the functional physical life of the personality.

  Period II—wherein the solar plexus is the goal of the attention of the fire and when the emotional counterpart vibrates synchronously. Two centres are thus vibrating, even though the measure be slow; the others are alive; pulsation can be seen, but there is no circular movement.

  Period III—The divine fire now mounts to the heart centre and the three rotate in ordered measured unison. I would point out that the vivification of any one centre. causes an accession of force in all, and I would further point out that in the head are seven centres (three major and four minor) and that these centres directly correspond to one or other centre in the body. They are the synthesis, and, on the stimulation of their corresponding centre, receive themselves a corresponding acquisition of rotary power. [75]

  Period IV—marks the definite stimulation of the throat centre. All the creative activity of the three-fold man—physical, emotional and mental—is turned upward in service, and his life begins occultly to sound. He is occultly productive. He manifests forth and his sound goes out before him. This is an occult statement of fact definitely apparent to those who have the inner vision. Coordination between the centres becomes apparent; rotation is intensified, and the centres themselves change in appearance, becoming unfolded, and the rotary movement becomes fourth-dimensional, turning inward upon itself. The centres are then radiating nuclei of light, and the corresponding four lower head centres are equally alive.

  Period V—marks the application of the fire to the head centres and their complete awakening.

  Before initiation, all the centres will be rotating in fourth dimensional order, but after initiation they become flaming wheels, and—seen clairvoyantly—are of rare beauty, The fire of Kundalini is then awakened and is progressing in the necessary spirals. At the second initiation the emotional centres are similarly awakened, and at the third initiation those on the mental plane are touched. The initiate can then stand in the Presence of the Great King, the One Initiator.

  I seek to point out that the student must ever remember that here generalisations only are given. The complexity in the development of the microcosm is as great as in the macrocosm. The awakening of the centres and their particular order is dependent on several factors, such as:

  a—The Ray of the Spirit or Monad.

  b—The Ray of the Ego, Higher Self, or Son, or the sub-ray. [76]

  c—Race and nationality.

  d—The special type of work to be done.

  e—The application of the student.

  Fundamental centres of average man.

  Fundamental centres of developed man.

  Fundamental centres of man on Path.

  Hence you can see for yourself that it is useless to lay down rules for the development of the centres and to formulate methods whereby the fire can be circulated until such time as trained teachers with expert knowledge and clairvoyant faculty are in charge of the work on the physical plane. It is not desirable for aspirants to focus their thought on any one centre. They run the risk of overstimulation, [77] or of attrition. It is not wished that effort be made to turn the fire towards any particular point; in ignorant manipulation lies insanity and fell disease. If the aspirant but seeks spiritual development, if he but aims at sincerity of purpose and at compassionate altruism, if he, with serene application, concentrates on the subjugation of the emotional body and the enlargement of the mental, and cultivates the habit of abstract thinking, the desired results upon the centres will be produced from necessity and danger will be eliminated.

  When these triangles are paths of threefold fire, emanating from the base of the spine, when the interlacing is complete and the fire progresses along the path from centre to centre in the correct manner, and when this is accomplished in the order required by the man's primary ray, then the work is completed. The fivefold man has attained perfection for this present greater cycle and the goal is reached.

  (Note that this order has to be attained in the head centres likewise.)

  Tomorrow we will continue the study of the centres more specifically and somewhat describe them, pointing to the effect upon the life through the awakening of these wheels.

  June 25, 1920.

  The growth and development of the centres.

  We will now enumerate the centres again, this time considering their psychic correspondences and will note the colours and the number of the petals.

  1—The base of the spine. Four petals. These petals are in the shape of a cross, and radiate with orange fire. [78]

  2—The solar plexus. Ten petals. The colour rosy, with an admixture of green.

  3— The heart centre. Twelve petals. Colour glowing golden.

  4—The throat centre. Sixteen petals. Colour silvery blue, the blue predominating.

  5—The head centres. These are in a twofold division;—

  a—Between the eyebrows. Ninety-six petals. Colour, one-half of the lotus is rose and yellow, and the other half is blue and purple.

  b—The top of the head. There are twelve major petals of white and gold, and 960 secondary petals are arranged around the central twelve. This makes a total of 1068 petals in the two head centres, or 356 triplicities. All these figures have an occult significance.

  This description is taken from “The Inner Life.” This description applies to the etheric centres, which are themselves the working out into physical plane manifestation of corresponding vortices on the emotional plane, with emotional vitality playing through. They have their mental counterparts, and in their awakening as aforesaid, and in their growth and development, comes the final vivification, and the resultant liberation.

  The connection between the centres, the causal body and meditation lies hid in the following hint: it is through the rapid whirling and interaction of these centres and their increased force through meditation (the ordered occult meditation) that the shattering of the causal body is effected. When the inner fire is circulating through each centre and when kundalini is spiralling [79] accurately and geometrically from vortex to vortex, the intensification interacts in three directions.

  a—It focuses the light or the consciousness of the Higher Self into the three lower vehicles, drawing it downward into fuller expression and widening its contact on all the three planes in the three worlds.

  b—It draws down from the threefold Spirit more and more of the fire of the Spirit, doing for the causal body what the Ego is doing for the three lower vehicles.

  c—It forces the unification of the higher and lower, and it attracts the spiritual life itself. When this is done, when each successive life sees an increase of vitality in the centres, and when kundalini in its seven-fold capacity touches each centre, then even the causal body proves inadequate for the influx of life from above. If I might so express it, the two fires meet, and eventually the egoic body disappears; the fire burns up entirely the Temple of Solomon; the permanent atoms are destroyed, and all is reabsorbed into the Triad. The essence of the Personality, the faculties developed, the knowledge gained, and the remembrance of all that has transpired becomes part of the equipment of the Spirit and eventually finds its way to the Spirit or Monad on its own plane.

  Now let me enumerate for you the things as to which it will not be possible as yet to furnish more information; the risks involved would be too great.

  l—The method of arousing the Sacred Fire.

  2—The order
of its progression.

  3—The geometrical forms it makes as it mounts.

  4—The order of the development of the centres. according to the ray of the Spirit. The complexity is too great. [80]

  You will therefore observe that the subject really becomes more abstruse, the longer it is studied. It is complicated by ray development, by the man's own place upon the ladder of evolution, by the uneven awakening of the different centres due to the type of a man's lives; it is rendered more complex by the threefold nature of the centres themselves,—etheric, emotional and mental—by the fact, that some people have one or other emotional centre completely awakened and demonstrating etherically whilst the mental counterparts may be quiescent; others may have the mental centres awake and the emotional not so vivified and be etherically quiet. Therefore, it will be obvious how great is the need for conscious clairvoyant teachers, who can judiciously work with the pupils, stimulating through scientific knowledge and methods the dormant or sluggish centres, and aligning them so that the current can freely flow back and forth between the external vortices and the inner centre. Later the teacher can train the pupil in the safe awakening of the inner fire, in its scientific culture and transmission, and instruct him in the order required for its convolutions along the path of the triangles until it reaches the head centres. When kundalini has traversed these geometrical lines the man is perfected, the personality has served its purpose, and the goal is reached. Hence the fact that all the centres have petals whose numbers are multiples of four, for four is the number of the lower self, of the quaternary. The total number of petals in the centres, if we eliminate the spleen which has a purpose all its own, and the three lower organs of creation, is one thousand, one hundred and ten, the total number signifying the perfection of the microcosm,—ten the number of perfected personality, one hundred the number of causal perfection, and one thousand the number of spiritual [81] achievement. When every petal vibrates in all the dimensions, then the goal for this manvantara is reached. The lower lotus is full blown, and reflects the greater with precision.

  June 26, 1920.

  The effect of occult meditation on the centres.

  We shall study today the effect of occult meditation upon the centres and their consequent vivification, positing a meditation prefaced always by the use of the Sacred Word, uttered according to rule.

  We speak also of a meditation followed under the guidance of a teacher. The man therefore will meditate correctly or approximately so; thus what we are to consider today is the factor of time, in its relationship to the centres, for the work is slow and necessarily gradual. Here I would pause to emphasize to you the need of ever remembering that in all work that is truly occult expected effects are very slowly achieved. Should a man seem in any one incarnation to make spectacular progress it is due to the fact that he is but demonstrating what has already been earlier acquired (the manifesting forth of innate faculty, acquired in previous incarnations) and is preparing for a fresh period of slow, careful and painstaking endeavor. He recapitulates in the present life the processes surmounted in the past, and thus lays the foundation for renewed effort. This slow and laborious effort, which is the consistent method of all that evolves, is after all but an illusion of time and is due to the fact that consciousness is at present for the majority polarised in the lower vehicles and not in the causal. The states of consciousness succeed each other apparently slowly, and in their slow progression lies the chance for the Ego to assimilate the fruit of these stages. [82] It takes a long time to establish a stable vibration, and it takes as long to shatter it, and to impose another and still higher rhythm. Growth is one long period of building in order to destroy, of constructing in order to disorganise later, of developing certain rhythmic processes in order to later disrupt them, and to force the old rhythm to give place to the new. What the Personality spends many thousands of lives in establishing is not going to be lightly altered when the Ego—working in the lower consciousness—seeks to effect a change. The shifting of polarisation from emotional to mental, and thence to the causal and later to the three-fold Spirit inevitably entails a period of great difficulty, of violent conflict both internally and with the environment, intense suffering and apparent darkness and disruption—all these things characterise the life of the aspirant or the disciple. What causes this and why is this so? The following reasons may make it apparent why the path is so hard to tread and the process of mounting the ladder (as one nears the higher rungs) becomes ever more complicated and difficult.

  1—Each body has to be dealt with and disciplined separately and thus purified.

  2—Each body has to be readjusted and aligned.

  3—Each body has to be subjected to repolarisation.

  4—Each body is practically reconstructed.

  5—Each subplane above the fourth (for on the fourth the life of the aspirant starts) has to be dominated.

  6—Each centre has to be gradually, carefully and scientifically awakened, its revolutions have to be intensified, its radiations electrified (if I may borrow that term and apply it to the centres) and its force must demonstrate through the higher dimension. [83]

  7—Each etheric centre has to be magnetically linked, in full alignment, with the corresponding centres in the emotional and mental bodies, so that the flow of force is unimpeded.

  8—Each centre has then to be awakened afresh by the Sacred Fire till the radiations, the velocity and the colours are keyed to the egoic note. This is part of the work of Initiation.

  As each change is gradually made, it responds to the same law that governs all cyclic growth in the macrocosm:

  l—First comes the clashing of the old with the new rhythm.

  2—This is followed by a period of gradual dominance of the new, elimination of the old, and the stabilisation of the new vibration.

  3—Then finally comes the passing on and out, and again a repetition of the process.

  It is this work that is done on the bodies and on the centres by the work of meditation and the use of the Sacred Word. This Word aids in the adjustment of the matter, its vitalisation by fire, and enables the aspirant to work in line with the law. This unfoldment of the centres is a gradual process, paralleling the work done on the bodies, the refining of the vehicles and the slow development of causal consciousness.

  Concluding remarks.

  In concluding this division upon the use of the Sacred Word in meditation, I would like to indicate certain things, though more than a hint is not possible. This matter has been difficult for you to comprehend, and I fully realise it. The difficulty lies in the fact that so little [84] can be safely said, that the real use of the Word is one of the secrets of initiation and may not therefore be divulged, and that what little can be indicated is of small value to the student apart from the wise attempt to experiment, which experiment must be carried on under the guidance of one who knows. Still, I will indicate certain things which, wisely pondered upon, may lead to illumination.

  When meditating in the heart centre, picture it as a golden lotus closed. When the Sacred Word is enunciated, picture it as a lotus slowly expanding until the inner centre or vortex is seen as a radiating whirlpool of electric light, more blue than golden. Build there the picture of the Master, in etheric, emotional and mental matter. This entails the withdrawing of the consciousness ever more and more inwards. When the picture is fully built then gently sound the Word again, and with an effort of the will withdraw still further inwards and link up with the twelve petalled head centre, the centre of causal consciousness. Do all this very slowly and gradually, maintaining an attitude of perfect peace and calm. There is a direct relationship between the two twelve petalled centres and occult meditation, and the action of the kundalini fire will later reveal its significance. This visualization leads to synthesis, to causal development and expansion, and eventually conducts a man into the presence of the Master.

  The solar plexus is the seat of the emotions and should not be centred upon in me
ditation. It is a basis for physical healing and will later be more completely understood. It is the centre of activity—an activity which must later be intuitional. The throat centre works radiantly when the polarisation is shifting from the physical atom to the mental permanent atom as dealt with earlier. [85] The mental permanent atom becomes the centre of pure reason or of abstract thought. Then comes a time in the development of consciousness when the emotional force which governs so many is transcended and superseded by the force of the higher intellect. It often marks a period when a man is swayed purely by reason and his emotions do not control him. This may demonstrate in the personal life on the physical plane as intellectual hardness. Later, the emotional permanent atom gives place to the intuitional, and pure intuition and perfect comprehension through love is the motive power, with the faculty of reason added. Then the solar plexus is distinguished by the preponderance of the green of activity, for the emotional body is actively the agent of the higher, and engenders but little of the rose of human desire.

  In the whirling of the force through the vortex (which whirling forms the petals of the lotus) it will be observed that certain petals predominantly stand out, and each centre demonstrates one particular type of cross, with the exception of the two head centres which are the synthesis of the lower crosses. The four-armed cross of the third Logos is found at the base of the spine and the cross of the fourth human Hierarchy in the heart.

  When the Sacred Word is intoned by the average aspirant, it carries force through all the inner centres to the etheric, and causes a definite stimulation of the petals in each centre. If the lotus is only partially unfolded, then only some of the petals receive the stimulation. This stimulation creates a vibration (especially in the centre in which a man meditates—the head or the heart) which causes reflex action in the spine and down to the base. This is not in itself sufficient to arouse the fire; that can only be done in due form, in the right key and subject to certain rules.