The Rays and the Initiations

by Alice A Bailey

  I am faced with difficulty in making these Words of Power clear to you, because essentially it is the Word made flesh or the soul in incarnation which at this point registers power; it is the symbol (the form aspect) and the power (the Spirit aspect) which acts as a great creative agency and bridges across all barriers and separative states of consciousness, thus establishing complete unity.

  I have indicated to you certain vowels and consonants [517] which are the nearest approach which I can make to making these Words clear, and I have done so in the case of the first and second rays. I shall give you no others, as it is entirely useless. I shall only give you the significances, the concepts involved and the meaning of which these archaic word-forms (which I have attempted to portray in Anglo-Saxon letters) are the embodiment. As the race passes more and more into the world of meaning, these word-forms assume less and less importance, and only the concentrated thought, based on understanding comprehension, can achieve the results. It is into this somewhat new form of work we are now pioneering.

  Ray Three... Active Intelligence

  The processes of Intention and Visualisation have been followed, and again the four stages of the Projection technique have been concluded. At the point of highest tension, the disciple utters the Word of Power for the third ray. It is not easy for the disciple on this ray to achieve the necessary focal point of silence; his intense fluidity leads to many words or to great mental activity, frequently carried forward under the impulse of glamour. This lessens the potency of what he seeks to do. But when he has succeeded in achieving “mental silence” and is simply a point of intelligent concentration, then he can use the Word of Power with great effectiveness. The difficulty is that he has to overcome the tendency to use it with the idea of physical plane results in his consciousness. Always he works from the angle of that divine quality which characterises matter; just as the second ray disciple works always from the angle of quality and the first ray disciple from the positivity of spirit. But once he intuitively comprehends and factually grasps the concept that spirit-matter are one reality, and once he has achieved within himself the sublimation of matter, then he can divorce himself from all that the human being understands in relation to form. He can then utter the Word of Power which will make possible his complete identification with spirit, via the antahkarana. This word is “PURPOSE ITSELF AM I”

  [518] As regards the other and remaining Words of Power connected with the four Rays of Attribute, I shall simply list them, as there is little that I can say about them. They can be comprehended in the light of what I have said anent the three Words of Power used upon the Rays of Aspect.

  Ray Four...Harmony through Conflict

  “TWO MERGE WITH ONE”

  Ray Five...Concrete Knowledge or Science

  “THREE MINDS UNITE”

  (This asserts the fact that the Universal Mind, the higher mind and the lower concrete mind are blended through the projected antahkarana.)

  Ray Six...Devotion or Idealism

  “THE HIGHEST LIGHT CONTROLS”

  Ray Seven...Ceremonial Law or Order

  “THE HIGHEST AND THE LOWEST MEET”

  You will note that in all these Words of Power, two obvious thoughts emerge; first, that the goal of all activity is the complete fusion of the three Aspects, and secondly, that consciousness of this comes through the building and use of the bridge between the Spiritual Triad and the Personality. You will note that these are all definite assertions, based on knowledge leading to conviction. The various schools of affirmation found today throughout the world are but the distorted efforts of humanity to arrive at the affirmative position which the blended soul and personality always necessarily assumes, and demonstrate a kind of instinctual reaction to a new realisation which is coming into the consciousness of humanity, via its disciples and initiates.

  We have practically concluded our study of the antahkarana; however, I want to enlarge a little further upon the three final stages of the building process as dealt with and outlined earlier. These three stages were most briefly considered, owing to their abstract nature. They are part, however, of the six building methods. The first [519] three were considered in greater detail than the last three, and I have felt that it might serve a useful purpose if I gave more teaching anent Invocation and Evocation in particular, for it will condition—consciously and exoterically—the new world religion, as it has hitherto conditioned it esoterically and unconsciously.

  Invocation and Evocation (continued from pages 493-495):

  These two words are descriptive of that mysterious something—emanation, voiceless appeal, inherent urge towards the light—which is innate in all forms, which produces interplay and relationship, and which is the cause of all progress or pushing forward along the path of an expanding consciousness and a penetration into the light. This is true of a plant pushing its way out of the darkness of earth into the light of the sun, a child extricating itself under the life impulse from the womb of its mother, of the human being pushing himself into realms of greater knowledge and effective physical living, of the aspirant driving forward out of the Hall of Learning into the Hall of Wisdom, of the disciple penetrating into the realm of soul light and life, of the initiate passing from grade to grade in the Hierarchy of Liberation, of the Christ moving on into the Council Chamber of Shamballa, and of the Lord of the World Himself undertaking those processes which will lead Him into realms of divine life—of which even the highest initiate on our planet has no conception. All comes about as part of a great system of invocation and evocation, of appeal and response, and all are distinctive of the “mode of Life” which governs the entire graded hierarchy of Being upon our planet.

  This evolutionary pushing forward along the Lighted Way, out of darkness into light, from the unreal to the real, and from death to immortality, is an inherent urge in all forms. It constitutes one of the most subtle and one of the least understood laws of the universe, being related to the Life principle, of which we know as yet naught; it underlies the Law of Evolution as well as the Law of Karma [520] and is, in reality, the Law of the Life Purpose of the planetary Logos; it is an expression of His dynamic intention as it forces all substance in manifestation and in time and space to act and react in conformity to His Will. He thus enables His form—the planet which is a compound of all the seven kingdoms in nature—to express logoic intention for the “duration of the Great Breath”; of this breath, time and space are the two aspects. It affects the tiniest atom and the most exalted Being within the sphere of His consciousness and the scope of His livingness; it affects the subhuman kingdoms, unconsciously to them, and is (in relation to them) sometimes spoken of as “the Law of Life of the Sun.” The human family, after the stage of personality integration is reached, reacts with increasing consciousness of the divine purpose. Once the antahkarana is constructed and the higher initiations are taken, the initiate then cooperates with that purpose in full understanding and intention. He no longer simply reacts to his own interior urges, which force him ever to invoke the higher aspect of life and of consciousness which he senses on ahead. He now knows. He sees; he participates in the Plan; he relates himself to the divine Intention through an understanding of the doctrine or Science of Tension; he makes the divine Intention his, as far as he can grasp it. This reciprocal interplay produces the mutability of form and the immutability of the divine nature which is distinctive of those liberated Consciousnesses which have freed Themselves from the prison of form.

  Elsewhere (The Reappearance of the Christ. p 157-158) I said that “The definition of religion, which will in the future prove of greater accuracy than any yet formulated by the theologians, might be expressed as follows:

  Religion is the name given to the invocative appeal of humanity and the evocative response of the greater Life to that cry.

  It is, in fact, the recognition by the part of its relationship to the Whole, plus a constantly growing demand for increased [521] awareness of that relation; it draws fo
rth the recognition of the Whole that the demand has been made. It is the impact of the vibration of humanity—oriented specifically to the Great Life of which it feels itself a part—upon that Life, and the responsive impact of that “All surrounding Love” upon the lesser vibration. It is only now that the impact of the human vibration can dimly be sensed in Shamballa; hitherto its most potent activity has only reached the Hierarchy. Religion, the science of invocation and evocation as far as humanity is concerned, is the approach (in the coming New Age) of a mentally polarised humanity. In the past, religion has had an entirely emotional appeal. It concerned the relation of the individual to the world of reality, of the seeking aspirant to the sought-for divinity. Its technique was the process of fitting oneself for the revelation of that divinity, of achieving a perfection which would warrant that revelation, and of developing a sensitivity and a loving response to the ideal Man, summarised for present day humanity in the Christ.

  Christ came to end the cycle of this emotional approach which had existed since Atlantean days; He demonstrated in Himself the visioned perfection and then presented to humanity an example—in full manifestation—of every possibility latent in man up to that time. The achieving of the perfection of the Christ-consciousness became the emphasised goal of humanity.”

  The activity of all previous Teachers and demonstrating Sons of God became only the presentation of the various aspects of a divine perfection which the Christ summarised in Himself. But He did far more than just this. Had this been all that He accomplished, He would have presented to humanity a picture of a static achievement, a culmination of perfection such as the evolutionary status of man at that time demanded; He would have given us, in fact, a Figure of very great, but at the same time, arrested development. This was of course impossible, but the religion which He founded has never recognised this fact or considered what lay beyond Christ, what was the nature of His [522] subjective background and what was His point of achievement, and whether He still had other possibilities. This was perhaps an unavoidable omission owing to the fact that the idea of evolution was unknown until relatively very late, in the human consciousness. Orthodox religion has been preoccupied with an emotional and aspirational approach to this Figure of Perfection; it has not looked beyond the Figure to the Reality which He represents. This Christ Himself foresaw as a possibility, and sought to obviate when He pointed out to His disciples that they could do “greater things” than He had done, because He was going “to the Father.” He, in those words, pointed beyond Himself to the One Who was responsible for His Being, and to the Way of the Higher Evolution—a subject with which the church has never satisfactorily dealt. In the above words He indicated a state of being which He had never demonstrated on earth, owing to the unpreparedness of man, and also to the fact that He Himself was only “on His Way.”

  The Way of the Higher Evolution has also its two phases, as has the Lighted Way. In the early stages of the unfoldment of the Christ consciousness and in the attainment of the third initiation, the Transfiguration, the aspirant and the initiate-disciple pass along the first part of the Path of Discipleship. In the treading of the Way of the Higher Evolution (for which we have as yet only this somewhat cumbersome name) the initiate-disciple treads the Way of Antahkarana and the Way of the Higher Initiations. In making this statement I would again remind you that the third initiation is regarded by the Hierarchy as the first major initiation, whilst the two previous initiations are considered as only preparatory in their nature. The training given in preparation for them, and the consequent expansions of consciousness, reveal to the initiate the nature of the soul, the scope (widespread and universal) of the divine consciousness, and his relation to the Father, the Monad. They enable him to become the soul in manifestation to such an extent that his awareness is definitely and unalterably [523] that of the soul; at the fourth initiation the soul-body, the causal vehicle, is no longer needed, and it then disappears, dissipates, and is entirely destroyed, thus leaving the initiate free to tread the Way of the Higher Evolution and to follow in the footsteps of the Christ. He was the first of our planetary humanity to blaze the trail (is not that a phrase much used?) to the higher spheres of revelation.

  I would here also remind you that, during this stage of human evolution, all these various phases exist simultaneously; this largely accounts for the relative differences and difficulties which characterise all the religions of the world and all relationships. Emotional appeal is needed by the masses, and their goal—some way ahead—is soul consciousness and soul control. It is the mystical way and the way of the early and preparatory stages of the science of Invocation and Evocation. It is the method to be followed by average humanity at this time, because men are largely Atlantean in their approach and their natures; they must learn to tread the Path by becoming the Path Itself, and in this way develop the mechanism and the capacities which are inherent in the divine Mind, which “spins the thread of connecting light and relates all beings within the planetary ring-pass-not into Itself.”

  By becoming the Path, symbolically speaking, and by a process of reorientation, the aspirant who is seeking to tread the Lighted Way of purification and of discipleship reaches a point where that light and that path have brought him to a specific goal. Then the light which he has generated from within himself, and is learning rapidly to use, reveals to him the Way of the Higher Evolution, the fact of a still greater goal further on ahead—called by the Christ “the Father's House.”

  At the fourth initiation he becomes aware, for the first time in his experience, that there is a hiatus or gap separating him from his distant goal. This constituted the major part of the agony upon the Cross. There was a fusion of agonies at that supreme moment, if I might attempt to express what occurred. The Master Jesus, crucified there, [524] felt the agony of human need and renounced His own life and gave His all (again symbolically speaking) to meet that need. The Christ, at that time over-shadowing His great Disciple, also passed simultaneously through a great initiatory experience. The agony of His yearning for revelation and increased enlightenment (in order to enhance His equipment as World Saviour) revealed to Him the new possibilities, from which—when confronted with them dimly in the garden of Gethsemane and later upon the Cross—His whole nature shrank.

  Great as is this mystery to you, and impossible as it is for you to comprehend that whereof I speak, it is wise to establish the fact in your consciousness that at the Crucifixion initiation, the Master Jesus took the fourth initiation and the Christ took the sixth initiation. The Master Jesus reached the culminating experience of the Lighted Way, whilst the Christ made that final effort which enabled Him entirely to complete and traverse the “rainbow bridge” and to “go to the Father” (as He told His disciples), thus moving forward on to the first stage of the Way of the Higher Evolution.

  The practical point for aspirants and disciples to remember is that the Science of Invocation and Evocation entered a new phase when Christ came and presented Himself before humanity; He then gave the teaching which summarised all the past and indicated the new aspects of the future teaching. He opened the door to the Way of the Higher Evolution, hitherto closed, just as the Buddha epitomised in Himself the achievements of the Lighted Way and the attainment of all knowledge and wisdom. Christ, in opening this “greater door beyond the lesser door,” anchored—if I may so inadequately express it—the Will of God on Earth, particularly in relation to the consciousness of men. He lifted the entire Science of Invocation and Evocation to the mental plane and made possible a new approach to divinity. It is difficult to give you a symbol which could clarify this matter in your mind. But the one given may carry some enlightenment: [525]

  [526] It must be remembered that intelligence and love were present upon Earth, the first in greater degree than the second, and that the task of all the great World Saviours (emerging from the Secret Place, from the illimitable past until the present time) has been to anchor, organise, and implement these divine aspects,
energies, attributes, and to further their development within the body of the planetary Logos. They also, from time to time, demonstrated to the humanity of Their period of appearing, the point in that development which had been reached. These Representatives of Deity have been of all grades, degrees and differing points of spiritual unfoldment; They have been chosen for Their aptitude to respond to invocation, to manifest certain divine qualities, and to attract around Themselves those who had latent the same divine qualities, and who could therefore step down the teaching that the World Saviour came to give, and translate into human equivalents as much of the divine inspiration as was possible. Many of Them have been forgotten even if Their work was successful. Others have been resolved into myths by the thoughtform-making faculty of man but Their work is still thereby remembered, and to this, monuments and tradition constantly testify; greater Sons of God possessed a potency and a love of humanity which, even at the close of many centuries, evokes the attention of mankind and conditions even yet the reactions of millions of people.