The Rays and the Initiations

by Alice A Bailey

  We have been considering Shamballa, and I have given you some information (hitherto not communicated in words) re the Council Chamber of Sanat Kumara and of Those Who constitute its membership. I would pause here to remind you of two facts:

  1. Shamballa is a state of consciousness or a phase of sensitive awareness wherein there is acute and dynamic response to divine purpose—a response made possible by the synthesis of purpose and of spiritual relationship which exists between Those Who are associated with Sanat Kumara.

  2. Brotherhood, as it essentially is, constitutes a major mystery; also it is one which is only in process of solving, and that only on the two higher levels of the cosmic physical plane—those levels which we call the logoic and the monadic.

  I am aware that you understand brotherhood in terms of the One Father and His children. That understanding is in itself so limited and inaccurate that it serves mainly to distort the truth; yet all that you can grasp at this time is [277] embodied in this concept. The nearest description of the true relationship might be said to be as follows: Brotherhood is an expression of the relation which the planetary Logos (on the cosmic mental plane) bears to His Personality as it expresses itself through the planet with all its forms of life, upon the cosmic physical plane; this relationship is focussed through Sanat Kumara Who is the individualised Mind of that great Life. Wording it otherwise, the planetary Logos on His Own plane is to Sanat Kumara what the soul is to the human personality upon the physical plane in the three worlds. The sum total of the relation and of the relationships set up is, therefore, inadequately covered by the word “brotherhood.” “Fellowship,” so frequently used to express a similar idea, is in reality the mode whereby a dimly sensed brotherhood seeks to make its presence felt. The words “the fellowship of Christ” indicate the emergence of this concept subjectively upon the mental plane; this will be followed, as time elapses, by concrete manifestation upon the physical plane. It is this idea which lies behind the glibly used words “idea, ideal and idol,” and which is also responsible for the growing sense of responsibility which characterises all human advancement upon the way of life. It is this basic idea which governs the Council Chamber at Shamballa and which constitutes the motivating impulse behind the planetary expression of livingness. It is this also which characterises the ideal for which the Hierarchy stands and which implements the Plan; it is this spiritual planning which results in the growing “forms of relationship” which today seem to be taking definite shape in the concretising of the divine project: Right Human Relations.

  I have written these opening remarks because it is this elevated understanding of brotherhood which conditions divine purpose and which leads to the spiritual planning that will give you the due to the third major injunction, with this we shall now deal. This injunction is worded as follows:

  5. Let Transfiguration follow Transformation, and may Transmutation disappear.

  [278] I would here remind you that in these fourteen rules we must approach our theme from the angle of the initiate-consciousness and not from that of the blended soul-personality consciousness. It is the higher approach which is here indicated, the problem of the initiate-group and not that of the individual within the group. Hence the great difficulty in putting any of these teachings into words. To the average aspirant to accepted discipleship, the three words which distinguish this third major injunction (but which symbolically constitute the fifth injunction in the rule) might be defined as follows: The ideas conveyed are those of an aspirant to the Mysteries as he faces initiation. Let us take these words in the order given in Rule XIII.

  1. Transfiguration—that stage upon the Path of Initiation wherein the third initiation is undergone, wherein the personality is irradiated by the full light of the soul and the three personality vehicles are completely transcended; they have become simply forms through which spiritual love may flow out into the world of men in the salvaging task of creation.

  2. Transformation—the evolutionary process which is carried on upon the Path of Discipleship, in which the disciple transforms his lower threefold “appearance” or personality and begins to display divine “quality.” His physical body becomes obedient to the dictates of his mind, which is becoming responsive to the higher mind through the medium of the soul; his emotional nature becomes the receptacle of buddhi or of the intuition; then, after the third initiation it disappears altogether, and the buddhic vehicle becomes the main instrument of sentiency. The mind, in due course, is equally transformed by impression from the higher mind, as it endeavours to implement the will nature of the Monad.

  3. Transmutation—the method whereby that which is lower is absorbed by the higher, whereby force is transmuted into energy, whereby the energy of the three lower centres is carried up into the three higher centres (head, heart and throat) and which later enables the initiate to [279] centralise all the energies in the three directing centres in the head. This transmuting process goes forward under the pressure of daily life experience, under the magnetic effect of soul contact, and as the inevitable result of evolution itself.

  All these three spiritualising processes are well known, in theory at least, to all spiritual aspirants; they are expressions of soul-personality intention and effective interplay; they also constitute a paralleling activity to the task of building the antahkarana, as modes of alignment play a large part in the process of transmutation.

  It is not, however, with these attitudes, processes and interpretations that the initiate is concerned, but with the significance of these processes in terms of the completed antahkarana and from the point of view of the “angle of intention” of the Monad. In other words: What do Transfiguration and Transformation signify to Members of the Hierarchy as They face the Way of the Higher Evolution? What can these words imply to Those for Whom the soul, the mediating principle, no longer has any factual significance?

  Consider for a moment that the initiate who has undergone the first major initiation (the Transfiguration) and the two initiations of the threshold (the Birth and Baptism of the Christian Mysteries) has created the antahkarana in order to establish direct relation between the Monad and the personality, between the centre of universal awareness or identification and the form-expression in the three worlds. The antahkarana is constructed and constitutes an active channel of contact. The soul which has for ages directed the various and varying personalities is no longer in existence; the causal body has disappeared, shattered at the moment when the initiate (at the fourth initiation) cries out and says: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” The Temple of Solomon, the spiritual temple “not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens,” is no longer required; it has served its ancient purpose, and that which has been deemed eternal must disappear in the light of [280] THAT to which eternity is only a phase of that which shall later be revealed. All that now remains for the initiate are the two points of living purpose to which we give the names of spirit-matter or life-appearance. The lesson ahead of the initiate is to realise the inner meaning (not the obvious and easily grasped meaning) that spirit is matter at its highest point, and matter is spirit at its lowest. This involves the free interplay of life-energy, consciously applied as the result of age-long processes, and matter-force, via the antahkarana. The “rainbow bridge” becomes a channel for the impact of monadic or life energy upon substance, so that substance, taking form under the cyclic intention of the planetary Logos, may become increasingly coloured or qualified by the energy of universality. You can see from the above somewhat involved sentences how inadequate is language to express the understanding and the intention of the Hierarchy.

  To the initiate, therefore, the two words, Transfiguration and Transformation, mean something quite different than they mean to a disciple, whilst Transmutation is now meaningless to him, for there is nothing within him which requires transmuting. It might consequently be stated that:

  1. Transmutation concerns the expression of the life force upon the three lower planes of human
living and evolution.

  2. Transformation concerns in a most peculiar manner the three aspects of mind upon the mental plane:

  a. The lower mind

  b. The son of mind, the soul

  c. The higher mind.

  3. Transfiguration concerns the life of the Spiritual Triad upon its own three levels of identification.

  To this might be added the fact that:

  1. The three lower planes of transmutation are the dense, liquid and gaseous sub-planes of the cosmic physical plane.

  2. The mental plane is a unique location (or state of consciousness) whereon or wherein the lower planes are [281] subjected to impression from the three higher. The higher three and the lower three are subjected to a definitely esoteric and mysterious process, and it is on this plane that the work of transmutation is completed—from the angle of the initiate.

  3. The three planes of the Spiritual Triad are the spheres whereon transformation goes forward. This transformation has naught to do with the transforming of the personality, but is uniquely related to the interior work of the Hierarchy and the effect of this living, developing intensity upon the Members of the Hierarchy. Five planes are therefore involved in these two phases of the divine work.

  4. The two highest planes (the monadic and the logoic) are the planes of transfiguration, from the point of view of the higher initiate. By then the processes of transmutation have dropped below the threshold of consciousness, and though the initiate (working with forms in the three worlds) has his instrument upon the outer physical plane, his own work and hierarchical activity is strictly triadal and monadic, with a steadily growing responsiveness to logoic intent.

  Let us now consider the phases of transfiguration and transformation as far as is possible in an exoteric instruction, and “may transmutation disappear” for all disciples as time elapses, and that with speed—owing to the great need today for hierarchical workers.

  It might here be asked: What is the work undertaken by the Masters Themselves upon the three planes of the Spiritual Triad? Students are well aware that many of the Masters are occupied with the evolutionary processes of the various kingdoms in nature in the three lower worlds. They forget that the majority are not so occupied. Have you ever wondered what it is that incites a Master to stay working in the three worlds and with His mind focussed upon its evolutionary processes? Have you ever considered what else it might be possible that intrigued and demanded His interest? The self-centred attitude of mankind is inclined to believe that human need, and incidentally the need of the [282] other kingdoms in nature, are all that prompts the Hierarchy to carry on its work of salvaging and stimulation. But that is only a partial estimate of the work which They are doing. In the processes of carrying forward Their work, the consciousness of the Master is being steadily expanded, and this because of the nature of Their work in the three worlds; it necessarily becomes more and more inclusive. That is the effect upon Him, as He works on behalf of humanity or on behalf of the other kingdoms in nature. There is a definite and evolutionary effect. But on the higher three levels of the Spiritual Triad, another type of evolutionary impulse is directing His activities. I have told you elsewhere that consciousness (as we understand it) is being transcended, and a new aspect of universal sentiency is taking its place. To this development I have given the inadequate name of Identification. This is a word which involves consciousness, which invokes the will, which is dynamic in nature, inclusive in contact, and which is also based upon the doctrine of non-separativeness.

  This, however, is only a beginning of an entirely new phase of development; consciousness eventually drops below the level of perception. It becomes as automatic and unregistered in its expression as animal instinct is to the human being. It functions, but the man is not consciously aware of it. It is a protective mechanism. The will aspect of the Monad supersedes but does not negate love (which has become, in its turn, instinctual); a one-pointed, rapier-like assumption of identification takes the place of the inclusiveness hitherto felt and practised. Perhaps I can convey to you something of what I mean by pointing out that the circle with the point at the centre is symbolic of the perfected man. He is rounded out; he is inclusive both vertically (soul contact) and horizontally (human relationship), yet he stands at the centre of his consciousness and of its self-imposed ring-pass-not. From thence he never moves, but is aware all the time of all that proceeds within his sphere of influence. Here is the symbol of the Master, from a specific point of attainment.

  [283] But the Master Himself is not static. His field of work is clear; His realm of contacts—human, subhuman and super-human—is also clear. Within the ring-pass-not and in the world of sentiency and in relation to the world of loving understanding, He stands the Master.

  It is at this precise point in time and space that the work of Transformation begins for the Master—a transformation which is brought about by the unfoldment and the development made possible upon the three levels of the Spiritual Triad. As this transformation takes place, a new activity supervenes which finally enables the Master to break through the planetary ring-pass-not, and thus arrive at the door of the Higher Evolution.

  What I have now to say may be made somewhat clearer by means of the following symbol. The Master has now penetrated into another cosmic level, but He is still within the aura of the One Life. Now the cosmic astral plane is revealed to Him. He sees the reason why, first of all, sentiency had to be developed; why it had then to be used and mastered and finally had to be completely negated—negated in such a manner that it dropped below the level of consciousness. There is no glamour upon the cosmic astral plane, and only those who have dominated sentient reaction upon all levels of the cosmic physical plane and are completely free from it, can then—through the illumined will and through the power of that mysterious quality (if I may so call a factual expression) of identification—direct the lowest aspect of cosmic desire upon the cosmic astral plane. This necessarily has to be tuned in with that to which they are irrevocably related. This identification is therefore the highest expression of divine purpose upon the cosmic physical plane, even whilst it is the lowest aspect of the cosmic astral desire. Therefore, my brothers, the transformation with which this rule deals is the transformation of consciousness into identification. More than that I may not say. To express the true meaning I have no words or symbols.

  In this line of approach through identification, the Master builds that of which the spiritual correspondence is [284] the manasic antahkarana. The antahkarana which is now emerging is a projection from the Ashram of a Master; there are, therefore, seven ways into the Way of the Higher Evolution. These seven ways correspond to the seven Ashrams upon the seven Rays; they are related also to the seven initiations, to the seven principles of man, and to all the other many septenates. It is the force of Will, generated by the Master, during the process of

  1. Attaining the fifth initiation

  2. Working in the three worlds of creative salvaging

  3. Achieving ashramic purpose and consequent group activity

  4. Manifesting ray energy

  5. Demonstrating a faculty which is known only to initiates who have passed beyond the third initiation.

  This provides the focussed intention which enables the Master to attain what is called transformation, and later, to project the dynamic impulse of His spiritual will in such a manner that He succeeds in piercing the planetary ring-pass-not; He is then given the freedom of the world, and not just the freedom of the worlds.

  It will be obvious that I am dealing with the subject of the sixth initiation. When this initiation has been consummated, the Chohan then transcends the three worlds of the Spiritual Triad and is focussed as a “projecting agent of the Lighted Will” as it expresses itself upon the monadic plane. This stage of unfoldment is in reality the Ascension initiation, the true significance of which will be revealed through the medium of the coming world religion.

  There then follows, as a result of th
is, what is called the true Transfiguration. This enables the initiate to function upon the logoic or highest plane of the cosmic physical plane. This—in Christian phraseology—is called the “sitting down upon the right hand of God in Heaven.” There the man who has attained this seventh initiation is transfigured. The first contact comes along the line which he has projected as a result of transformation; it is made with [285] That which has ever overshadowed Sanat Kumara. The Chohan has now taken the seventh initiation.

  6. Let the O.M. be heard right at the centre of the group, proclaiming God is All.

  It is not my intention to interpret this final phrase of Rule XIII. Its meaning lies beyond your most elevated comprehension. It concerns the transmutation of the O.M. into the originating SOUND, bringing certain basic transformation and resulting in a transfiguration which extends to the entire planet and has reference to a certain major planetary initiation. With these matters we are not concerned. With them, only a few of the more advanced Masters are concerned. Therefore we will wait until, through resolution, we have resolved our spiritual problems, transmuted our lower natures and undergone the lower aspects of both transformations, and are consequently ready for the third initiation—that of the Transfiguration.

  RULE FOURTEEN

  In this final rule for disciples and initiates, a great summation is embodied. I would here point out again (as I have so frequently in the past) that the obvious meaning—no matter how elevated—is not that with which we shall deal. It is the significance behind the meaning which is ever the concern of the initiate mind. Students would do well to remember the following sequence of words, embodying ideas: Symbol, Meaning, Significance, Light, regarding light as the emanating creative energy—the organiser of the symbol, the revealer of the meaning, the potency of the significance.