It is only possible to touch very briefly upon the effect of the application of the Rod to the causal body of the initiate. The subject is immense, and will be more fully dealt with in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. There are just two ways in which some idea of the fundamental truth will be conveyed to the mind of the student, which we might now consider.

First, the student should bear in mind the interesting significance of the fact that he, on the physical plane, is a functioning personality, with known and realized characteristics, and yet withal, that he is a subjective Life, who [136] uses that personality as a medium of expression, and who - through the agency of the physical, emotional, and mental bodies which comprise the threefold lower man - makes his contacts with the physical plane and thus develops. The same general idea of development must be now extended to the higher Self, the Ego on its own plane. This Ego is a great solar angel, who is the medium of expression for the Monad or pure spirit, just as is the personality for the Ego on the lower level. From the point of view of man in the three worlds, this Ego, or Solar Lord, is eternal; he persists throughout the entire cycle of incarnations, just as the personality persists during the tiny physical life cycle. Nevertheless, this period of existence is only relatively permanent, and the day dawns when the life which expresses itself through the medium of the Ego, the Thinker, the Solar Lord or Manasadeva, seeks to loose itself from even this limitation, and to return to the source from which it originally emanated.

The life then, which manifested as a solar angel, and which, through inherent energy, held together through long ages the form egoic, withdraws itself gradually, and the form slowly dissipates; the lesser lives of which it has been constituted, return to the general fount of deva substance, plus the increased consciousness and activity which is theirs through the experience of being built into a form and utilized by a still higher aspect of existence. Similarly, in the case of the personality, when the life egoic withdraws, the threefold lower self dissipates; the little lives which form the body of what has been called the lunar self (in contradistinction to the solar self, being but its reflection) are absorbed into the general reservoir of deva substance of a lower vibration to that which composed the body egoic. Similarly, also, their evolution has been furthered through [137] having been built into a form for the use of the higher Self.

Through the application of the Rod of Initiation, the work of separating the spiritual self from the higher self is furthered, and the imprisoned life gradually escapes, whilst the causal body is slowly absorbed or dissipated.

This has led to the expression, sometimes used in occult books, of "the cracking of the causal body" at each initiation, and to the idea of the inner central fire gradually breaking through and destroying the confining walls, and also of the destruction of the Temple of Solomon through the withdrawal of the Shekinah. All these phrases are symbolic wordings, and are attempts to convey to the mind of man fundamental truth from different angles.

By the time the fourth initiation has been reached, the work of destruction is accomplished, the solar angel returns to his own place, having performed his function, and the solar lives seek their point of emanation. The life within the form mounts up then in triumph to the bosom of its "Father in Heaven," just as the life within the physical body at the moment of death seeks its source, the Ego, and this likewise in four stages:

1. By the withdrawal from the dense physical body.
2. By the withdrawal from the etheric body.
3. By a later vacating of the astral body.
4. A final leaving of the mental body.

Another way of emphasizing the same truth is to regard the egoic body as a center of force, a wheel of energy, or a lotus, and to picture it as a lotus with nine petals, hiding within these petals a central unit of three petals; these in their turn secrete the central life, or the "jewel in the lotus." As evolution proceeds, these three circles of three petals gradually unfold, having a simultaneous effect on one or [138 ] other of the central three. These three circles are called respectively the petals of Sacrifice, Love, and Knowledge. At initiation the Rod is applied to the petals in a scientific manner, and regulated according to ray and tendency. This brings about the opening of the central bud, the revelation of the jewel, the withdrawal of that jewel from the casket which has so long shielded it, and its transference to "the crown," as it is occultly called, meaning its return to the Monad whence it came.