Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul - The Rays and the Initiations - Part I

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The Rays and the Initiations - Part One - Fourteen Rules For Group Initiation

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 focused in the Spiritual Triad - he must now master. To summarize, 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. Magnetization. Transmutation. Impartation. Let me very briefly indicate some of the elementary significances of these words to the initiate-consciousness:

Radiation. The initiate is a radiating center of light and love. This radiation has two effects:

It has made him an essential and vital factor for unity in the Master's Ashram. [262]

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 centers" 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.
Magnetization. The initiate who is radiating light and love is himself being magnetized 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.
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 emphasized - 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]
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 OM 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
1. The Sound heard of which the OM 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, fulfiling ashramic intent on the one hand and preparing themselves to tread the Way of the Higher Evolution upon the other.

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