Again there is little that I need to say to you at this time. Much that is found in the personal instructions of your group brothers must be also deeply studied by you and applied; but the Technique of the Way, the particular need which you may [423] have for a particular rearrangement - either of your life or of your desires - and the specific next step is, for you, adequately clear, is it not? A long period of learning and of recognitions directed toward the soul and the life of the soul in its own world, has been yours. An interlude of assimilation and of recognition directed towards the world of men is again - for you - an equal necessity. In this way a closer integration can be set up between the two major aspects through which you have to express yourself - the soul life, aspiration and nature (whose major attribute is love) and the personality life, aspiration and nature (whose major attribute is intelligence). The unfolding of the united life of these two must now go forward, with your predominant focus in the astral body. Does this seem strange to you? Here in the astral body (as you well know and as all true disciples know) is the battleground for those who are preparing for initiation. The weapon whereby the battle will be won is that of intelligent, loving service. Had you ever regarded service as a weapon for use? This statement is, as you will see, a simple and clear indication of the situation. It covers the work to be undertaken by you during the next six months and for which the difficulties and the pain of the past year have prepared you. Think not, my brother, that I regard service as a new thing for you or as something to which I am summoning you. Such is not the case, for your life is oriented thereto. But the strenuous aspiration and the active fight which you have waged over glamor and your personality, must cease for a while, so as to give your tired nerves and the temporarily disturbed nervous system time to recuperate.

In the last meditation outlined by me, I gave you two exercises to do with color, and it is this particular work which precipitated the crisis of the past year. Such was my intention, hard though that may seem. The meditations which I give to my disciples are full of purpose and are planned to produce certain effects, if faithfully carried out. I would have you think this out, and ponder upon the effect of the imposition of tranquility upon the astral body. May not the early stages of such imposition work out in potent agitations which can, in their due time, produce definite physical effects? Tranquility is the imposition of a quality of energy upon an agitated force, but - when [424] these two types of force first come into touch with each other - a result, differing from that expected oft ensues. The achieving also of a tranquil center in your environment comes to be recognized by your associates. This, in the early stages again, may call forth turmoil. I give you these hints, because when you have absorbed the implications they will lead to the higher understanding. So little do disciples, even the most intelligent, realize the effect, in the early stages, of the higher forces upon the lower! They realize much more clearly the ultimate goal and ideal, but the intermediate steps remain sealed to them.

Be not deterred or discouraged by pain and by difficulty. You are not alone. Carry the work forward as indicated by me in the group instructions but add to it the further work which I assign you.