These areas of sensitivity pass through three stages, upon which it is not my intention to enlarge:
1. Sensitivity to impression from other human beings. This sensitivity becomes of use in service when the needed magnetic aura has been engendered and is brought under scientific control.
2. Sensitivity to group impression—the passage of ideas from group to group. The disciple can become a receptive agent within any group of which he is a part, and this ability indicates progress in his part. [97]
3. Sensitivity to hierarchical impressions, reaching the disciple via the antahkarana and—later—from the Hierarchy as a whole, when he has attained some of the higher initiations. This indicates ability to register impression from Shamballa.
It would be of value if we now considered three points which are concerned with sensitivity to impression, with the construction of the resultant reservoir of thought, and with responsiveness to subsequent invocative appeals. These three points are:
1. Processes of Registration.
2. Processes of Recording Interpretations.
3. Processes of Resultant Invocative Response.
I would recall to your minds the knowledge that the aura which each of you has created around the central nucleus of your incarnated self or soul is a fragment of the over-shadowing soul which brought you into manifestation. This aura is (as you well know) composed of the emanations of the etheric body, and this in its turn embodies three types of energy for which you are individually responsible. These three types are (when added to the energy of prana which composes the etheric vehicles):
1. The health aura. This is essentially physical.
2. The astral aura, which is usually by far the most dominant factor, extensive and controlling.
3. The mental aura, which is in most cases relatively small but which develops rapidly once the disciple takes his own development consciously in hand, or once the polarisation of the personality is upon the mental plane. The time will eventually come when [98] the mental aura will obliterate (if I may use such an inadequate term) the emotional or astral aura, and then the soul quality of love will create a substitute, so that the needed sensitivity does not entirely disappear but is of a higher and far more acute nature.
In this threefold aura (or more correctly, fourfold, if you count the etheric vehicle) every individual lives and moves and has his being; it is this living, vital aura which is the recording agent of all impressions, both objective and subjective. It is this “agent of sensitive response” which the indwelling self has to control and use in order to register impression or to direct etheric or mental impression out into the world of men. Astral impression is purely selfish and individual and, though it may affect a man’s surroundings, is not directed as are the other energies registered. It is the aura which predominantly creates the effects which a person has upon his associates; it is not primarily his words which produce reactions even though they are supposed to embody his reactions and his thinking but which are, in reality, usually expressions of his emotional desires.
All of us, therefore, carry around with us a subjective mechanism which is a true and perfect picture of our peculiar point in evolution. It is the aura which a Master watches, and this is a factor of major importance in the life of the disciple. The light of the soul within the aura and the condition of the various aspects of the aura indicate whether or not the disciple is nearing the Path of Discipleship. As the emotional reactions lessen, and as the mental apparatus clarifies, the progress of the aspirant can be exactly noted. I would have you distinguish carefully between the astral and the mental bodies and that which they emanate. The bodies (so called) are substantial in nature; the aura is essentially radiatory and extends from each substantial [99] vehicle in every direction. This is a point which should be most carefully noted.
The problem of the aspirant as he “engenders” his magnetic aura is himself to withdraw, and thus lessen the extent and the power of the astral aura, and extend and increase the potency of the mental aura. It should be remembered that the large majority of aspirants are definitely polarised in the astral nature, and that therefore their problem is to achieve a different polarisation and to become focussed upon the mental plane. This takes time and vast effort. Eventually—as mentioned above—the radiation of the soul is substituted in place of the hitherto present emotional activity of the aspirant; this emanation is, in reality, a radiation from the love petals of the egoic lotus.
The moment an aspirant begins to work consciously at his own unfoldment and to consider and deal with the aura with which he is equipped, he then passes through three stages during his progress upon the Path of Return. These are:
1. The stage wherein he discovers the potency and the quality of his astral aura. Owing to the fact that this is (in this second solar system) the quality of love and its distortion into the astral nature, the development of emotional sensitivity is peculiarly and almost unnaturally strong. It is stronger than the mental body and its mental direction.
2. The stage wherein the mental vehicle increases its potency and produces, finally, a mental radiation which is so strong that it dominates and controls the astral aura.
3. The stage wherein the soul expresses its essential nature of love and begins to pour its radiation into the astral aura, via the astral body. Eventually the [100] sensitivity of love is substituted for emotional sensitivity and desire.
Aspirants are to be found at all these three stages of sensitivity. There comes a moment during the second initiation when the soul of the initiate sweeps into activity and fundamental force (if I might use such a term) submerges the astral nature, vitalising and inspiring the astral body, changing temporarily the quality of the astral aura, and establishing a control which will lead finally to the substitution which I have mentioned above. This is an aspect of the truth which underlies the doctrine of “vicarious atonement”—a doctrine which has been woefully distorted by Christian theology.
Registration, Recording and Interpretation
Let us now deal with the aforementioned “Processes of Registration, of Recording Interpretations, and the Resultant Invocative Response.” We must bear in mind always that I am stating general rules and that I am not dealing either with the ideal or with the undesirable; the sources of impression change as the disciple makes progress, though always the larger and the greater source will include all lesser sources.
The fact that a man is sensitive to hierarchical impression in his mental aura will not prevent his being sensitive in his astral nature to the invocative and emotional call of human beings. The two together are most useful in effect, if the disciple sees to it that they are related. Forget this not, brother of mine. The capacity to interpret recorded impressions is likewise learnt as the mental aura develops under the influence of the “mind held steady in the light” of the soul; the disciple learns that all recorded truth is susceptible to many interpretations, and that these unfold with increasing clarity as he takes one initiation after another, and as he develops conscious responsiveness. The ability to invoke demonstrates from life to life and involves [101] the invocation of conscious response from the anima mundi or from the subconscious soul of all things, as well as from the human consciousness and from the world of super-conscious contact.
This ability develops steadily as the aspirant treads the Path of Discipleship; it is frequently prefaced in the earlier stages by much confusion, much astral psychism and frequent wrong interpretations. There is no need at this stage, however, for undue distress, because all that is needed is experience, and that experience is gained through experiment and its expression in the daily life. In no case is the truism of learning through a system of trial and error proved more correct than it is in the life and experience of the accepting disciple. When he is an accepted disciple, the errors decrease in number even though the trials (or the experimental use of the many varying energies) become more extensive and, therefore, cover a much wider range of activities.
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nbsp; The Processes of Registration are founded upon what I might call invocative approaches from a wide area of possible contacts. The disciple has to learn to distinguish between these many impacts upon his sensitive aura. In the early stages the majority of them are unconsciously registered, though the registration is acute and accurate; the goal, nevertheless, is conscious registration; this is brought about through the constant and steady holding of the attitude of the Observer. It is developed through the attainment of detachment—the detachment of the Observer from all desires and longings which concern the separated self. It will therefore be obvious to you that the use of the word “observer” involves the concept of duality and, therefore, of separation. In this case, however, the motive prompting observation is not self-interest, but the determination to clarify the aura so that it can register only [102] that which will be illuminating and related to the divine Plan, which will be to the benefit of humanity and, therefore, to the creation of a new server within the Ashrams of the Hierarchy.
The divisions made by certain psychologists of the consciousness of man into subconscious, conscious or self-conscious, and superconscious have a real measure of value here. It must be remembered, however, that the disciple, first of all, becomes a truly conscious unit of humanity and thus develops a true self-consciousness. This he arrives at by discriminating between the lower self and the higher self, and this renders his magnetic aura sensitive to an aspect of himself which has not hitherto been a controlling factor. From that achieved point he begins to register impressions with increasing clarity and accuracy. Usually, in the early stages, the one desire of the disciple is to register impressions from the Hierarchy; he much prefers that idea to the idea of registering impressions from his own soul or from the surrounding human factors, his fellowmen and the environment and the circumstances which they create. He longs for what might be called “vertical impression.” This motive, being very largely self-centredness, turns the disciple introspectively in upon himself, and it is in this stage that many aspirants become prisoners, astrally speaking, because they register in their magnetic aura the many astrally motivated thoughtforms of what they believe and hope “vertical impression” supposedly would convey. They contact with facility the astral counterparts of the higher worlds, which are reflected (and thereby distorted) into the astral plane; the world there registered is glamoured by wrong and selfish desires and by the wishful thinking of well-meaning devotees. Upon this I need not enlarge. All disciples—at some point or another of their training—have to work through this phase of glamour; in so doing they [103] clarify and intensify the magnetic aura and, simultaneously, clarify the surrounding astral world with which they are in contact. They learn also that the longing to register impressions from the Hierarchy must give place to the determination to place their magnetic aura at the disposal of humanity; they then learn to register human need and to understand thereby where help is possible and their fellowmen can be served. By means of this conscious registration of invocative appeals from the world of horizontal contacts, the magnetic aura of the disciple is cleared of the hindering and engrossing thoughtforms, and from the aspirational desires and longings which have hitherto prevented right registration. The disciple then ceases to create them, and those which have been created die out or atrophy for lack of attention.
Later on, when the accepting disciple becomes the accepted disciple and is permitted to participate in ashramic activity, he adds the ability to register hierarchical impression; this however is only possible after he has learnt to register impression coming to him from his own soul (the vertical impression) and from the surrounding world of men (the horizontal impression). When he has taken certain important initiations, his magnetic aura will be capable of registering impression from the subhuman kingdoms in nature. Again, later on, when he is a Master of the Wisdom and, therefore, a full member of the fifth kingdom in nature, the world of hierarchical life and activity will be the world from which horizontal impression will be made upon his magnetic aura, and vertical impression will come from the higher levels of the Spiritual Triad and, still later, from Shamballa. Then the world of humanity will be to him what the subhuman kingdoms were when the fourth kingdom, the human, was the field of his registered horizontal impression. [104] You have here the true significance of the Cross of humanity clearly revealed.
The fact of registration is no unusual phenomenon. Sensitive people are constantly being impressed from some level of consciousness or other, and are receptive to these impressions according to the level of consciousness upon which they normally function; mediums, for instance, are exceedingly prone to receive impressions from etheric or astral levels, as are the vast majority of astral psychics—and their name is legion. Impressions from mental levels (concrete, abstract or of a more exalted nature) make their impress upon the minds of those who have attained a true measure of focus upon the mental plane. Scientists, mystics, mathematicians, occult students, aspirants and disciples, educators and humanitarians and all who love their fellowmen are all susceptible to such impression, and one of the outstanding needs of the disciple is to develop adequate sensitivity to ashramic impression and contact. Then he moves out of the group of mental sensitives listed above.
The problem with which I now deal is far deeper and concerns the interpretation and the clear and correct recording of the impression, which is a far more difficult matter. The subject who is impressed must know the source of the impression; he must be able to relate it to some field of demanded information, correction, instruction, or energy distribution. He must be able to state clearly on what aspect of his recording mechanism (the mind, the astral body, the energy body, or the brain) the imparted and registered impression has made impact. One of the difficulties, for instance, facing the aspiring disciple and the earnest occult student is to record directly in the brain impressions from the Spiritual Triad (and later from the Monad), via the antahkarana.
[105] This impression must be a direct descent from mental levels to the brain, avoiding all contact with the astral body; only in so far as this direct descent is attained will the recorded impression be devoid of error. It will not then be tinctured with any emotional complex whatsoever, for it is the astral level of consciousness which is the great distorter of essential truth. Impressions from the Ashram or from the Spiritual Triad (which are the only type of impressions with which I am here concerned) pass through three stages:
1. The stage of mental recording. The clarity and the accuracy of this recording will be dependent upon the condition of the channel of reception, the antahkarana; in this recording, curiously enough, a certain element of time enters in. It is not time as you know it upon the physical plane, which is but the registration by the brain of passing “events”; it is the higher mental correspondence to time. Into this, I cannot here enter as the theme is too abstruse; for time, in this connection, is related to distance, to descent, to focus, and to the power to record.
2. The stage of brain reception. The accuracy of this reception will be dependent upon the quality of the physical brain cells, upon the polarisation of the thinking man in the head centre, and the freedom of the brain cells from all emotional impression. The difficulty lies here, that the receiving aspirant or the focussed thinker is always aware emotionally of the descent of the higher impression and of the consequent clarification of the theme of his thought. This must, however, be recorded by a perfectly quiescent astral vehicle, and therefore you will see one of the main objectives of true meditation. [106]
3. The stage of recognised interpretation. This is an exceedingly difficult phase. Interpretation is dependent upon many factors: the educational background, the point reached in evolution, the mystical or the occult approach of the disciple to the centre of truth, his freedom from the lower psychism, his essential humility (which plays a major part in proper understanding), and his personality decentralisation. In fact, the character in its entirety is involved in this important matter of correct interpretation.
In this aspect of impression the subject of SYMBOLS must necessarily be involved. All impressions must necessarily be translated and interpreted in symbols, in word forms or in pictorial representations; these the aspirant cannot avoid; and it is in the word forms (which are, needless to point out, in the nature of symbols) that he is apt to go astray. They are the media through which the registered impression is conveyed to the brain consciousness, i.e., to the physical plane awareness of the disciple, thus making possible his useful comprehension of abstract ideas or of those aspects of the Path which it is his duty to understand and teach.
There is no need for me to elaborate this theme. The true disciple is ever aware of the possibility of error, of the intervention of psychic intrusions and distortions; he knows well that true and effective interpretation of the imparted impression is dependent largely upon the purity of the receiving channel and upon the freedom of his nature from all aspects of the lower psychism—a point oft forgotten. A thick veil of concrete thoughtforms can also distort the true interpretation, as can astral intervention; the teaching upon the Path and the spiritual impression can be interfered with by glamour from the astral plane or by separative and concrete [107] ideas emanating from mental levels. In this case it can be truly said that “the mind is the slayer of the real.” There is a deep occult significance to the words “an open mind”; it is as essential to correct interpretation as is freedom from glamour and the psychic expressions to be found upon the astral plane.
Here again you can grasp the necessity of a factual alignment so that a direct channel is created, along which the impression (directed by some higher source than the personality) can descend into the brain. At first, this channel and alignment must be established between the brain and the soul; this will involve all the three aspects of the personality—the etheric body, the astral vehicle and the mind nature; basically, this aligning process should be started and developed upon the Probationary Path and brought to a relatively high state of effectiveness upon the earlier stages of the Path of Discipleship. Later, as the disciple consciously creates the antahkarana and becomes a functioning part of the Ashram, he learns (whilst practising alignment) to by-pass—if I may use such a word—two aspects of himself which have hitherto been of major importance: the astral vehicle and the soul body or causal body. The astral body is thus by-passed before the fourth initiation, and the soul body before the fifth; the entire process of “by-passing” takes much time and must be worked at with intensity, first of all with the focus upon the emotional nature through conscious discrimination, and finally upon the soul nature under the inspiration of the Spiritual Triad which is eventually substituted for the soul. All this will take many incarnations. For the registration and the interpretation of the higher impressions is a basic occult science and takes much learning and application to perfect.
Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle Page 10