The group, therefore, to whom I address this instruction is not the group or groups who will first receive these papers. The instruction is intended for a group which will come later and which will prepare the way, and of which some of the more advanced aspirants can form part if they “walk humbly with their God.” This, my brother, is one of the most advanced injunctions in any of the world Scriptures and is found in The Bible. It has no reference to humility as usually interpreted and understood. It signifies the ability to view all life with a sense of divine proportion and from the angle of spiritual mathematics, and (paradoxical as this may sound) with no sense of dualism. The usual meaning is not correct. It involves acceptance and comprehension of purpose, and this in such a manner that the consecrated personality—under control of the Monad, via the antahkarana, and in cooperation with the one known God—walks the ways of Earth as a channel for the three divine qualities (love, will and intelligence), but also as a channel for that which these three qualities will enable him later to sense, know and reveal.
These are solemn and important statements. They have within them the element of prophecy, but it is prophecy which has no relation to the salvation of humanity in any sense at all. It is related to an active Appearance which will, under the Law of Synthesis, indicate That which the three great planetary centres of divine life are unitedly intended to reveal. Something lies behind the three divine aspects of so great an importance, beauty and revelatory strength that all the happenings of all time, up to the present emerging Aquarian Age, have been only the initial and the initiatory preparation.
In this rule we find posed two preparatory steps and four major undertakings or demonstrations of fitness, if you like so to call them, for the work to be done. These latter correspond to the “four things the disciple must learn and comprehend before he can be shewn the inmost mystery,” [259] as it is said in the Rule for Applicants. There is a definite relation between the two sets of rules and it is one which we shall note as we proceed. The two preparatory injunctions simply summarise the effects in the life of the disciple who has applied and learned the significance of the Rules for Applicants, but they are this time demonstrated by a group of disciples who have passed through certain initiations and are functioning as a unified group. The simplicity of the subject is great and yet it is ever deemed to be complex. The applicant has become soul conscious, and is therefore an initiate; remember always that the soul on its own plane is an initiate of all degrees. Initiation is, in the last analysis, the realisation, the recognition in the brain consciousness of various spheres and states of divine awareness, with a consequent life demonstration of this fact, this eternal fact. Because of this, the man thinks only in group terms and does this automatically and without any consciousness that he is so doing; he expresses this group integrity simply as a part of his nature, just as in the personality stage and during the elapsing aeons since individualisation, he has thought only and naturally in terms of the separated self.
As long as a person makes a conscious effort to be group-conscious and has to train and discipline himself to work in group formation and as part of a group, he is still centred in the personality. This personality expression may be of an exceedingly high order and the aspirant or disciple may be the highest kind of selfless person, but true group living is as yet not present. The transition stage is most difficult and oft bewildering; it presents its own problems, based upon a newly presented phase of dualistic consciousness. The disciple reacts to group conditions and group problems; he tunes in with facility on the consciousness of those in the group; he is aware of group reactions and aspirations, but he is still himself; he is still passing through a stage of inner adjustment to a state of being and of awareness for which all past relationships have provided no guiding precedent. The group and the group personnel which are capable of adjustment (and which can carry out and [260] conform to Rule XIII for disciples and initiates) have become so merged with the soul (within themselves and within all other selves) that the situation is reversed. It would now be an effort for such people to think and react as personalities. I word the problem thus, so as to clarify it for you, if possible.
When this stage of centralisation is achieved, then the group can begin to reveal the hidden mystery. All that I can tell you about that mystery is that it concerns the purpose and the reason for which our planetary Logos took incarnation and became the informing Life of our planet, the Earth; it concerns the necessity, inherent in His Own nature, to reach a point upon the cosmic ladder of evolution which would make Him—as a result—the informing Life of a sacred planet. Forget not that our planet is not yet a sacred planet, though it is close to that great transformation. The cosmic secret of this transforming process is one that Sanat Kumara is now learning, and when That which overshadows Him during this incarnation has wrought the needed changes through a process of transformation and transmutation, then a great Transfiguration will take place and He will take His place among those empowered to work through a sacred planet.
This process is that which implements the evolutionary process. Evolution is an effect of this hidden work, emanating from cosmic levels; only when evolution has run its course through all the multiplicity of forms, of cycles, chains and spheres, of rounds and races and of world periods, will we know something of the true nature of the hidden mystery. In the Council Chamber of Shamballa it is being dimly sensed. The Buddha and the Christ are expressing the qualities which—when more universally demonstrated—will indicate its nature, if I might so express it. They are together mobilising the equipment upon our planet which will make the revelation of the mystery inevitable. This should give you a hint and much food for thought. More I cannot say, and even this you will only vaguely [261] understand. Let us pass now to the second of the preparatory steps.
2. Let the group demonstrate the higher meaning of the lessons learnt, and these are four and yet are one.
Aspirants learn, as they proceed upon the Path of Probation, to see the meaning of their physical plane activities in terms of the world of desire, of the astral plane. What they do originates upon that plane and gives their deeds meaning. This is the a.b.c. of elementary occultism and of true psychology. Later, they enter a higher world of meaning and find that “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Thus the lesson of kama-manasic impulse is slowly mastered and (in the process of learning) desire, prompted by the mind and implemented by the personality, loses its hold upon the aspirant. Later again, and as the soul begins to dominate, he learns the meaning of love and slowly, and oft through the mastering of pain, he absorbs the significance or meaning of group activity, group relation, and group initiation. He stands, therefore, at this stage ready (as this Rule expresses it) to learn the higher meaning of four lessons, processes or stages which are in themselves, nevertheless, one lesson. The four lessons which he has learnt up to this point have prepared him for the four lessons which—as an initiate and as one whose consciousness is focussed in the Spiritual Triad—he must now master. To summarise, they constitute the four phases of an activity which will bring him to a point of tension which will indicate the next possible initiatory stage. Four words could be used to express these processes: Radiation. Magnetisation. Transmutation. Impartation. Let me very briefly indicate some of the elementary significances of these words to the initiate-consciousness:
1. Radiation. The initiate is a radiating centre of light and love. This radiation has two effects:
a. It has made him an essential and vital factor for unity in the Master’s Ashram. [262]
b. It has enabled him to gather around him his own group and thus begin to form his own ashram. The personnel of the world group which will reveal the hidden mystery will all of them be “radiant centres” to a greater or lesser degree. They will thus be invocative and evocative. This thought holds the clue to the Law of Synthesis, of unity and of fusion as given in Rule XIII for initiates.
2. Magnetisation. The initiate who is radiating light and l
ove is himself being magnetised by the highest of the present known divine aspects—Life. This expresses itself through will and purpose and is therefore dynamic in character. The initiate is charged constantly with life, and consequently can work with the impelling Law of Evolution which (as worded in the rule we are considering) will “carry the group together towards the Higher Three.” See you not how the different phases of the teaching lead from one to another and provide a great ladder of approach to reality? I would call to your attention that in the Fourteen Rules for Applicants and in the Fourteen Rules for Disciples and Initiates you have the two great foundational courses of the coming Schools of the Mysteries, for which I have prepared the world in Letters on Occult Meditation.
3. Transmutation. This indicates here an achievement and not a process; the work of transmuting the lower nature into the higher and desire into love, of transforming personality purpose into group livingness and being, has led to that complete transfiguration which makes the entire process of transmutation no longer needed. But—and this is the point to be emphasised—because of this achievement, the art of transmutation is now the instrument which the initiate can use and transmute that which is not himself, and thus consciously and with clear purpose further the ends of evolution. Transmutation “disappears” out of his own life, but the forces which have been transmuted into spiritual energy begin now to have a dynamic transmutative effect in the world of forms wherein he now chooses to work and serve, according to his ray and ashramic intent. [263]
4. Impartation. Reference to this is made in the Book of Revelation, found in The New Testament. There we are told that the initiate is given a white stone, and in the stone “a new name” is found written; this is the “hidden name egoic.” I am at a loss at this point as to how to express the higher significance of this. This impartation marks a climaxing point in the attainment of the point of tension where the Sound can be heard and not the Word alone. Never forget that the O.M. is simply a symbolically sounded word which is intended to bring into the minds of those upon the Path those two great points of tension wherein
a. The “hidden name egoic” is conferred upon the disciple. This, as far as he is concerned, is the Word of his soul ray.
b. The Sound heard of which the O.M. is a symbol. This is the first letter of the sevenfold Name of the planetary Logos. More upon this subject may not be given, nor am I in a position to give it.
These two preparatory injunctions will give you some idea of how abstruse is the teaching conveyed in the rules for initiates. The understanding and the expressing of the four rules for applicants, as demonstrated by the disciple now functioning in a group, can all be summed up in the word: Being. Having said that, what does it mean to you? Being, per se, can only be grasped by those who have “come alive” monadically, who function in the three worlds of the Spiritual Triad with even greater positivity than the highly advanced personality functions in the three worlds of human evolution; and who have grasped somewhat the purpose for which Sanat Kumara has come into being and through directed livingness is working out His intention.
We can now take up the four major injunctions given to the initiated disciple as he prepares to work under the Laws of the Spirit, as a conscious soul, and (for purposes of service) through a personality. There are many initiates working without a body of contact which a personality provides, but we shall not consider them in our studies. We shall only deal with those disciples who can work as a group [264] on the physical plane, fulfilling ashramic intent on the one hand and preparing themselves to tread the Way of the Higher evolution upon the other. The first major injunction in this Rule XIII reads as follows:
3. Let the group understand the Law of Synthesis, of unity and fusion.
The Law of Synthesis, as you know, is the law of spiritual existence, and one of the three major laws of our solar system, as well as of our planet. It is a basic cosmic law, applied from sources of which we know nothing, as are the Laws of Attraction and of Economy. I dealt with these somewhat at length in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, and of these two other laws I have given much and hinted more. Of the Law of Synthesis, I can tell you but little. It is the law governing the activities of the Spiritual Triad, and the conditioning law of monadic living. It works neither through the use of the energy of love nor through the application of the principle of economy. The fulfillment of these laws is necessary and preparatory to an understanding of the Law of Synthesis, and under the Law of Synthesis the worlds of illusion and glamour are mastered and the control of maya is negated; under the Law of Attraction the nature of love is revealed, first of all through desire for form life, and then through attraction to the soul and a consequent resolution of the dualities of soul and personality. This brings about a unity which—in due time—serves to reveal a greater potential dualism—that of soul and spirit; this fundamental duality must also be resolved, leaving the essential, universal planetary duality, Spirit-matter, present in time and space.
The Law of Synthesis has reference to this relationship and to the factual nature of the tremendous assertion of H. P. Blavatsky that “Matter is spirit at its lowest point of manifestation and spirit is matter at its highest.” It is of this synthesis that the group must learn; it is this relation which they must begin to comprehend, and the distinction (for there is a distinction) between synthesis, unity and fusion must in due time be mastered. [265]
To you, it may seem that these three words connote the same thing, but that is not so; fusion is ever related to the conscious merging of soul and substance until a point of equilibrium is achieved; at this point, unity becomes possible and the point of balance—through the attainment of a point of tension—is disturbed. This takes place in three definitely defined stages when the fusion of personality and soul is brought about through the self-initiated effort of the disciple: first of all upon the Probationary Path, then upon the Path of Discipleship, and finally at the third initiation, upon the Path of Initiation. It is essential that you ever remember that this third initiation, the Transfiguration, is the first major initiation from the standpoint of the Hierarchy, though the third from the limited vision of the aspirant. The initiate then goes on to learn the significance of unity in its true sense; this is only possible when monadic influence can be consciously registered and when the antahkarana is in process of conscious construction. I emphasise the word “conscious” here; much of the work of fusion and of attainment proceeds unconsciously under the fundamental Law of Evolution, which is a Shamballic law, embodying as it does the working out of the inscrutable will of Deity. The work now being done on the three stages of the Path has to be intentional and, therefore, consciously undertaken and intelligently planned; it must be backed, first of all by determination, then by the spiritual will, and finally as an implemented aspect of purpose.
Fusion might therefore be regarded as the individual process of spiritual integration, relating—in full waking consciousness—the three divine aspects in man. Unity might be regarded as the conscious adaptation of the initiated disciple to the greater whole, as his absorption into the group through his obedience to the laws of the soul, and as governing his attitude to that in which he lives and moves and has his being. This goes on until he sees no distinction, registers no differences and is aware of no separative reaction, and all this because the instinct to separation no longer exists in him. It refers to his oneness in the world of [266] energies in which he moves, making him an unimpeded channel for energy and, therefore, an integral and smoothly working part of his total environment and, above all, of the group to which, automatically and under the laws which govern his soul, he has been attracted. He has learnt all that he can learn through the processes of differentiation to which he has been subjected for aeons. The principle of intelligence controls him and the principle of love motivates him, and he has consequently attained unity. But, my brothers, it is the unity of his ray, of his Ashram and of the Plan; it is the unity of the Hierarchy which exists for purposes of service
and active work in its seven major groups and its three main departments or divisions. It is indeed attainment and liberation. But more must still be learnt if the Way of the Higher Evolution is to be trodden and a choice between the seven cosmic Paths made—a choice which curiously enough is not dependent upon ray, for all rays are to be found on all these paths.
This can only be done through synthesis. This Law of Synthesis
“works through the Seven which yet are One; which points to the seven ways and yet those upon the seven ways are one; which initiates the universal into the many but preserves its integrity; which originates the plan but preserves intact the purpose; which sees the multiplicity needed under the Law of Sacrifice but subordinates that law unto the Law of Synthesis; which breathes forth the many Breaths and yet is Life Itself.”
In this attempt to paraphrase an ancient definition of the Law of Synthesis, I have said all that I can upon the theme. Only as disciples build the antahkarana and function as the Spiritual Triad within the monadic Life will inspiration come, just as they learnt to make contact with the soul and to function as the threefold personality within the soul, and then revelation ensued. Naught is gained by further elucidation. Proceed with the work of building the antahkarana and light will shine upon your way and revelation will attend your steps.
The Rays and the Initiations Page 29