The issues are now entirely clear. It is a question of timing and of decision. I would remind you that in all these processes, it is the disciple who, in full consciousness, acts. He initiates all the processes himself. It is not the Angel or the Dweller but the spiritual man himself who has to employ the will and take definite forward moving action. Once the disciple has taken the necessary steps and moved irrevocably forward, the response of the Angel is sure, automatic and all-enveloping. Complete obliteration of [271] the personal self in three successive stages is the immediate and normal result. It was to this that John the Baptist referred when he said "He shall increase but I must decrease." When he spoke these words, he spoke as a disciple, prior to the second initiation of the threshold. This occult waxing and waning is portrayed for us in the phases of the moon and, for the planet as a whole, in the sign Gemini, where the light of one of the twins is slowly dimming and the light of the other is gaining in intensity.

When this "occult obliteration" has taken place, what then is the destiny of the disciple? It is complete control by the soul and this, in practice, connotes group realization, group work, group service and eventually group initiation. With these developments, it is not my intent to deal, for I have covered much of these matters in my other books. Here I have been dealing in this short elucidation with the effects that substances and the substantial forces, found in the three worlds, produce in the disciple and as they affect the aspirant. I have not considered the problem of glamor, illusion and maya from the angle of average man. The latter is necessarily immersed in them, and under their constant impact he passes his life. By their means he learns. He is not at the point where he seeks deliverance from them as does the man upon the Path. I have, therefore, considered the problem from the angle of the disciples and aspirants.

That the Angel of the PRESENCE may make His nearness felt and inspire you to pass courageously through [272] the fires of the burning ground is my earnest prayer; that the fact of the PRESENCE may be sensed by you and lead you to greater activity - once the burning ground is passed - is my deepest wish for you; and that the light may shine upon your way and bring a certain and assured consummation of all the travail and struggle which has characterized your way of life is my heart's desire for you. To more active and steady enterprise I call you.

See also the Techniques of Fusion and Integration in A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol. II, Esoteric Psychology, pp. 345-401.