The Rays and the Initiations

by Alice A Bailey

  Vyasa—the original Vyasa, Who was the Great Individuality evoked by the invocation of the early animal-men—is still more than just a name, even though He has passed out of our planetary scheme millions of years ago. He opened a door into the human kingdom through His response to the animal kingdom in its higher invocative ranks; His work brought about the process known as individualisation. Down through the ages, these Sons of God have come, evoked by human invocation; in Their turn, They have invoked certain aspects of the divine nature, deeply hidden in mankind—all related hitherto to consciousness and to responsiveness of the part to the Whole. [527] Eventually Hercules came forth and opened the door on to the Path of Discipleship, His work being preserved for us in the Twelve Labours of Hercules. These epitomised the various tests to which all disciples are subjected, prior to the various initiations. Shri Krishna came and opened the door through which mankind could pass to the Second Initiation. The Buddha, a still greater Figure, the One Who is known as the “Enlightened One,” also came and demonstrated to humanity the nature of the Lighted Way, its revelations and its effects in consciousness. He enacted for us the supreme achievements of the mystic way. Then came the Christ and performed a triple work:

  1. He opened the door to the third initiation.

  2. He anchored on Earth “the Will of God in the matrix of love” (as it has been esoterically called).

  3. He pointed the way through “the needle's eye” which gives entrance to the passage through the Pyramid (the symbol of the Spiritual Triad in this case. A.A.B.) which leads out on to the Way which terminates in Shamballa.

  His work was of a major consummating nature; He demonstrated in Himself two divine aspects, thus giving “shape and substance to love”; this had been sequentially fostered by several preceding lesser World Saviours, of Whom Shri Krishna was the greatest.

  The Christ completed the work of the Buddha by manifesting in its fullness the nature of love, thus permitting the full expression of love-wisdom in its dual aspect—the one aspect demonstrated by the Buddha and the other by the Christ. But His greatest work has not yet been emphasised in the worlds of thought and of religion—the revelation of the Way of the Higher Evolution. This entails the bringing through of pure divine will and the relating of the spiritual Hierarchy to the great Council at Shamballa. It will be apparent to you, therefore, that He was the first to carry through—from stage to stage—the complete revelation of humanity to the Hierarchy and of the Hierarchy to Shamballa. This He did by virtue of a [528] completely finished and constructed antahkarana, and thus He facilitated the work of all future aspirants and disciples. He made possible their unimpeded progress, as far as the opening of each stage of the planetary antahkarana is concerned. He presented the “first thread of living substance, irradiated by love, intelligently woven and energised by will” which any human being of our Earth humanity had interwoven with the planetary antahkarana. Here lies the secret of the sixth initiation, which has not yet received the attention of the occultist—it is that of the Ascension.

  Here comes a climaxing note. The whole evolutionary scheme is based upon a series of ascensions. These ascensions are the result of a process, a technique, a method (choose which word you will) of invocation by the lesser individual, group or kingdom, and the evocation of that which is greater, more inclusive and more enlightened. This is true, whether it concerns a lonely aspirant upon the Way or an entire kingdom in nature. The greatest of the incarnating Sons of God are necessarily Those Who can include whole kingdoms or states of divine Being in Their consciousness. Here is the key as to why the invocation by a group “standing with massed intent” can bring forth, and has done so many times in our planetary history, One Who could meet the need which the invocation voiced, upon “a way of escape,” and embody in Himself the required vision or goal.

  You will note here that I have carried the teaching (earlier given upon the subject) into the realm of the whole. Previously, I dealt with the process as it applied to the disciple invoking his soul; later I carried the concept farther, and we considered the disciple invoking his Father in Heaven, the Monad. Now, we have briefly touched upon humanity as a whole, standing at a great point of invocation wherein the entire human kingdom is involved. Thus you have the final three of the six great stages in the process we are considering: Invocation, leading to Evocation, to Revelation (at the Fifth initiation) and to Decision (at the sixth).

  [529] To sum up. We have carried our study of the esoteric aspects of mental unfoldment to a point where we have lifted the entire spiritual man into realms which are neither those of the soul nor of the personality; they are those which make him an integral part of monadic experience. We are therefore dealing definitely with initiate experience. That the personality remains as an instrument or vehicle of expression for the one universal soul in its many personality aspects upon the physical plane has been duly emphasised; that the soul per se has been lost to consciousness in the sea of universal realisation has also been made clear; that the state of being which the initiate has now reached, as a result of the six stages of conscious building of the antahkarana, has been detailed; but I have pointed out in this connection that what has transpired lies beyond what we call consciousness, and is consequently undefinable by the human intellect. We have dealt with certain high stages of unfoldment which remain impossible to any human comprehension outside that of Those Who can function in the Courts of Shamballa. When these stages have been passed, then the goal of all the evolutionary processes has been reached, as far as humanity is concerned. These concepts cover our presentation of truth and of our theme up to the present point. Further we cannot go, for it would be profitless; nor would the human constitution prove adequate to the imposed task.

  I have in these previous sections carried our theme to the point where it climaxes all that has been hitherto given out anent the human mind and its capabilities. I have indicated the method whereby the mind, trained in meditation, and therefore soul-conscious, can—through the construction of the antahkarana—reach heights and stages of inclusiveness which will introduce to it certain aspects of the so-called Universal Mind, the mind of God, as it is familiarly called. What I have really done is to deal very briefly with the mode whereby the disciple or the initiate can, with increasing power, tune in on the mind of the planetary Logos, Sanat Kumara. Just as the disciple can, [530] when soul conscious, tune in on the mind of his Master, so the initiate, upon a higher turn of the spiral, can register the thoughts of the divine Being in Whom we all live and move and have our being.

  Through the development of the antahkarana and its conscious, scientific use, the initiate becomes aware of what transpires in the Council Chamber of Shamballa; he can then efficiently begin to work as an exponent of the Will aspect of divinity. Yet all this time we have confined ourselves entirely to the consideration of the mind aspect in its three phases upon the mental plane, and with their extension into states of being unknown to all except trained disciples and initiates. It has been my intention thus to give a theoretical, though not yet practical insight into modes of activity and possible states of being to which you can some day aspire and eventually attain.

  THE MEANING OF THE INITIATORY PROCESS

  Before proceeding with our next point concerning the fusion of the Master's consciousness with that of His disciple, I would like to refer to the significance of the words I earlier emphasised, “the initiatory process.” I have dealt at length with the theme of initiation in many of my books and have endeavoured to present the subject in such a manner that it becomes apparent that it fits into the evolutionary process as a normal and inevitable procedure. Initiation has been so frequently presented as being a ceremony that I have felt it necessary to offset strenuously that erroneous significance. If, however, you are to comprehend that which I have to say, you will have to call in what measures of enlightened understanding you may possess.

  Initiation is only a ceremony in so far that there comes a climaxing point i
n the initiatory process in which the disciple's consciousness becomes dramatically aware of the personnel of the Hierarchy and of his own position in relation to it. This realisation he symbolises to himself—successively and on an increasingly large scale—as a great [531] rhythmic ceremonial of progressive revelation in which he, as a candidate, is the centre of the hierarchical stage. This is definitely so (from the ceremonial angle) in the first two initiations, and in relation to the Christ as the Initiator. After the third initiation, the ceremonial angle lessens in his consciousness because the higher initiations are not registered by the mind (with its ability to reduce realisation into symbolic form) and thus transmitted to the brain, but they reach the brain and are there registered via the antahkarana; the results of the experience of expansion are now definitely of such a nature that they cannot be reduced to symbols or to symbolic happenings; they are formless and remain in the higher consciousness.

  I am not here saying that the teachings given in the past by various occult groups, or in my book Initiation, Human and Solar, are not correct or do not recount accurately what the candidate believes has taken place. The point I seek to make is that the ceremonial aspect is due to the thoughtform-making capacity of the disciple and (which is of major importance) constitutes his contribution to the future externalisation of the initiatory process in its earlier stages. When an adequate number of disciples will have succeeded in relating the Spiritual Triad to the soul-infused personality and have occultly “precipitated” the energies of the Monad through the medium of the antahkarana, then the first and second initiations can be “ceremoniously” enacted on earth.

  The higher initiations cannot be thus presented but will be enacted on the mental plane, through the medium of symbols and not through the details of ceremonious happenings. This symbolic representation will hold good for the third, the fourth and the fifth initiations. After these five great expansions have taken place, the initiations will no longer be registered as factual ceremonials on earth or as symbolic visualisations on the mental plane. It is hard to find a word or a phrase which can express what occurs; the nearest I can approach to the truth is the “existence of illumination through revelation.” You [532] will note in this connection that the fifth initiation is given the name of Revelation. You therefore have a sequence of consequences or of the results of spiritual attainment which are as follows:

  1. Factual Ceremonials, based on externalisation.

  Initiation 1—The Birth.

  Initiation 2—The Baptism.

  2. Symbolic Representation, based on spiritual visualisation.

  Initiation 3—The Transfiguration.

  Initiation 4—The Renunciation.

  Initiation 5—The Revelation.

  3. Illumination through Revelation, based on living Light.

  Initiation 6—Decision.

  Initiation 7—Resurrection.

  Initiation 8—Transition.

  Initiation 9—Refusal.

  It will be obvious that these three attempts to define the process of initiation present only the outer form aspects each initiation has three aspects, as has all else in nature, for initiation is a natural process. There is first, its form aspect; then its soul or consciousness aspect; and finally, its life aspect.

  The form aspect culminates experience and presents the disciple's comprehension of the initiatory process; the consciousness aspect indicates in a mysterious manner the rate of expansion as the disciple has undergone the process; the life aspect permits of extra-planetary contact, thus indicating the possible future and the eventual processes of identification. It might be added that the factual ceremonial admits the disciple into full fellowship with the Hierarchy; that the symbolic representation indicates to the disciple the Way into Shamballa, and that illumined revelation presents to the initiate the bridge between our cosmic physical plane and the inner subjective and cosmic worlds; this entrance to the bridge (I am speaking in symbols) [533] reveals the existence of the cosmic Antahkarana, created by the Lord of the World and His group of Executives.

  This information concerning the initiatory process is coordinating in its nature and is of service to you only in this connection. It demonstrates the underlying solar synthesis which was the fundamental platform I gave out in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. Beyond that implication, the information is of no use to you. It enables you, however, to begin to develop the esoteric sense of synthesis.

  These three grades of appreciation or of comprehension of the initiatory process are hinted at in the Masonic Work. The ceremonial aspect can be related to the degrees of Entered Apprentice and of Fellow Craft, plus certain little-practiced degrees, as for instance that of Mark Mason degree and one or two others; these are expansions of the implied teaching. The initiations, covered by the term symbolic representation, find their first hint in the sublime third degree, that of Master Mason, in the Holy Royal Arch and in one or two succeeding degrees; the higher degrees of the Scottish Rite constitute a vague and nebulous attempt to hold before the Masons of the world those expansions of consciousness and of growth into the Light which are experienced in the remaining higher initiations—those subject to the process called illumination through revelation.

  The Masonic Work is an ancient and laudable attempt to preserve in some germinal form the spiritual truth anent initiation. In spite of distortion, some loss of the Ancient Landmarks and a deplorable crystallisation, the truth is there and at a later date (in the early part of the next century) a group of enlightened Masons will re-arrange the rituals and adapt the present forms and formulas in such a manner that the spiritual possibilities, symbolically indicated, will emerge with greater clarity and a deepened spiritual potency; the coming form of Masonry in the New Age will necessarily rest upon the foundation of a newly interpreted and enlightened Christianity, having no relation to theology and being universal in [534] nature. Its present form, resting as it does on a Jewish foundation which is nearly five thousand years old, must disappear. This must take place, not because it is Jewish, but because it is old and reactionary and has not followed the evolutionary passage of the sun through the zodiac. That passage should and does symbolise human evolution, and just as the sin of the children of Israel in the wilderness was their reverting to a dispensation and religious ritual which had passed and gone (the religion of the people in the time of Taurus, the Bull, symbolised by their falling down and worshipping the golden calf), so today modern Masonry is in line to do the same; and the ancient usages and forms, consistent and right in the Jewish dispensation, are now obsolete and should be abrogated. It is equally true of the Jewish race that in the rejection of the Christ as the Messiah they have remained, metaphorically and practically, in the sign of Aries, the Ram, or of the Scapegoat; they have yet to pass into the sign (again speaking symbolically) of Pisces, the Fishes, and recognise their Messiah when He again comes in the sign Aquarius. Otherwise they are repeating their ancient sin of non-response to the evolutionary process.

  Let us now consider what the initiatory process signifies to the disciple as he seeks to lead the dual life which it demands. You will note that I call it a process in contradistinction to the theosophical definition which regards it as a culminating ceremony of a period of training.

  The initiatory process is in reality the result of the activity of three energies:

  1. The energy generated by the disciple as he seeks to serve humanity.

  2. The energy made available to the disciple as he succeeds in building the antahkarana.

  3. The energy of the hierarchical Ashram into which he is being “absorbed” or integrated.

  It is these three energies, each with its own mode of expression and each producing its own specific results, which implement or engineer the initiatory process; these [535] energies are evoked by the disciple himself, and their increasing strength and revelatory capacity depend largely upon the disciple's determination, purpose and will, his persistence and spiritual integrity. It is through his understandi
ng of the word “process” that the disciple discovers the true meaning of the occult statement that “before a man can tread the Path he must become that Path himself.” Increasingly the disciple finds what it is to become a creative agent, using the creative faculties of the mind and conforming increasingly (as he creates) to the Plan of the Creator, the Lord of the World.

  The first three initiations are definitely and in a most mysterious way concerned with the creative work, and with the spiritual expression in a human being of the third aspect of divinity, that of intelligent activity. The fourth, fifth and sixth initiations are as definitely related to the second aspect of love-wisdom as it expresses itself through created forms; the seventh, eighth and ninth initiations are occultly “inspired” by the first divine aspect, that of the Will. Only, therefore, at the ninth initiation is the human being a full and true expression of divinity; he then realises that in him all the divine aspects meet. Through them he is consciously, creatively and constructively en rapport with the consciousness of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being. All this is the result of a process and the effect of the inherent livingness which is found in all forms of life from the tiny atom up to Those great Lives Who are little more than names to the disciple.

  This initiation process governs the dual life of the disciple in three ways:

  1. It is expressed in the results effected in the three worlds and in the tangible and growing proof he gives of definitely defined areas of attainment.

  2. It is demonstrated as effects in his consciousness in the form of an increasing fusion of soul and personality as well as growing power to invoke the inflow of the higher light, through the medium of the antahkarana. [536]