Tag: fourth initiation

ॐ, Esoteric, Esoteric Psychology, New Age, Rāja yoga

How Would You Recognize an Initiate?

If you are a regular reader you will know that I read / have read the blue books opus. From time to time, I quote extensively from them and add emphasis. This is because every time I read a piece I “see” something I have missed and almost never fail to get some additional insight on a re-read.

The number of people who have familiarity with the blue books is high and growing.

They talk about an externalising hierarchy of initiates, disciples and probationers alongside regular humanity.

If the principle excitement for someone is publishing inane selfies on social media their orientation towards life will differ markedly from those who delve with application into the blue books.

There are masonic societies and they have initiates. My ex special forces pathfinder hairdresser was trying for one of these. He thought I was possibly ex-military and therefore at ease to talk with me. There are academic societies who have fellows {jolly good}. I was once a member of two of these. There are shamanic initiations and these can include strong hallucinogens. There are sweat lodge initiations and tribal rites of passage. One can be initiated into gang culture.

What would a first or second degree initiate be like, would they even know that there were, an initiate? One of the American presidents was an initiate if memory serves me right. The Tibetan says that teachings are best given out by disciples and early stage initiates because the presentation will be closer and therefore more palatable and comprehendible to humanity. Inherent in that is the notion that first or second degree initiates would be similar to noninitiates though probably less selfish and with a larger dosage of goodwill.

If I understand it correctly an initiate of the fifth degree has taken the fourth initiation and is awaiting the fifth. At this stage they have no causal body, no self and no personality {occultly understood}. It is likely therefore that they would appear as a strange fish to those who are obsessed with their personality whether integrated or otherwise. Their vehicle may look human, but the contents would differ from Joe public.   

They could walk around in the world “well disguised” and at first look / seem normal. On interaction that similarity might start to cease. They would probably not be interested in posting selfies, nor in what happened in East Enders, or the World Cup.

Many people have attended a correspondence course on the blue books opus. These will have a particular style of writing and responding. Some of these might be initiates. Most would be probationary disciples or disciples. If you recognised the style of writing because you had practised it yourself, you could recognise a fellow traveller.

I’ll speculate that it would only be through interaction that one might to start to recognise an initiate, but you would also have to be sufficiently evolved and ready so to do.

ॐ, Cause & Effect, Esoteric, Esoteric Psychology, Quotations, Rāja yoga

Hierarchical Adjustment and Alignment

What do I mean by the use of the word “adjustment” in connection with the Hierarchy? Adjustment to karma, to the personality, to the soul, to circumstances in the three worlds, to the impact of astral forces, or to the thought currents of those not oriented to the Kingdom of God, does not constitute part of the training of Those Who are beyond the third degree of initiation. Initiates on and beyond that level have transcended reaction along these lines, whilst those below the third initiation are in process of rapid adjustment. I use the word ‘adjustment’ here definitely in the sense of reorientation, and in this sense much can be noted.

For aeons and for countless cycles, the Hierarchy has functioned withdrawn into a silence on the higher levels of the mental plane and on the buddhic levels where contact has had to be made with Them by those disciples who have, by discipline, development and service, fitted themselves to establish such a relationship. This reorientation and emergence into physical plane publicity is going to demand much from the Members of the Hierarchy. Just as it has not been easy for me to establish and retain contact with you, even when you have established the right to such a contact, so – for Them – it is going to be still more difficult to be in touch with those who are not even disciples.

For aeons and for cycles, the Members of the Hierarchy have been submitting Themselves to the needed training in order to react correctly when fuller contact has been established by Shamballa with the Hierarchy. I would have you note the phrasing here. That contact has now been established as a result of the inflow of certain extra-planetary forces and by an “act of determined direction,” emanating from the Council Chamber of the Lord of the World. Misunderstand me not. The Hierarchy has always been in touch with the “Place of Purpose” (as it has been called) through the medium of its Chohans and its senior Directors, such as the Christ, the Manu and the Lord of Civilization. These great Beings have steadily revealed this purpose to the Members of the Hierarchy so that They have been able to grasp and work out the emerging Plan. But even to the Masters the Shamballa force has had to be stepped down, just as the force of the Hierarchy requires modifying for the average disciple and aspirant, if they are to respond constructively to it.

Today, however, things are somewhat changed. New inflowing energies and the partial “sealing” of evil in its own place (a sealing which will be progressively effective) have made a closer relationship possible. The Masters are somewhat freer from certain of the arduous labors of the past cycles. Some of the available inflowing Shamballa forces are being absorbed directly by humanity and by certain of the subhuman kingdoms, particularly the mineral kingdom. This latter absorption will lead eventually, when complete, to those volcanic episodes and those basic earthquakes which will change the face of the earth by the time the sixth root-race comes into manifestation. It is this direct inflow to the kingdoms functioning exoterically in the three worlds which has relieved and will to some extent relieve the otherwise overpowering pressure upon the Hierarchy, and will also act as a great aligning antahkarana between the three planetary centers. It is to this alignment I refer in this  instruction – the alignment of the three centers upon this planet and the adjustments that this necessitates and inevitably enforces.

For the sake of humanity in the first place, and secondarily for the development of the subhuman kingdoms, the Hierarchy has made certain difficult adjustments and alignments between the planetary centers, and these have been compulsory in their effects. Therefore, bear in mind that the adjustments which the Hierarchy may impose upon Itself bear small resemblance to the adjustments which you have to make in relation to your personality life. They are all hallmarked by the idea of service to the whole. The Hierarchy in Its true sense has no personality through which to express Itself, and this greatly complicates the problems which have to be faced as It contemplates exoteric manifestation and work.

Adjustments and Alignments within the Hierarchy

What, in the last analysis, is this Hierarchy? It is a great salvaging corps of dedicated, liberated Units of Life, working in group formation with all forms and lives in all kingdoms and with all souls particularly. As the Hierarchy so works, Its emphasis is solely on the consciousness aspect of all forms; Its present agency of salvage and of service is the mind, as it expresses Itself through the minds of all humanitarians, all aspirants, all disciples (of all rays and degrees) and of all initiates; the Hierarchy also can express Itself through the medium of thought currents and ideas and through them impose Its hierarchical concepts upon the embryonic minds of the general and average public; and It also directs the educational work of all nations, so that the undeveloped masses can become – in due turn – the intelligent general public.

The Hierarchy works, as you know, in or through three major departments, each possessing its full Personnel, and under three Great Lords. I have dealt with this in some detail in Initiation, Human and Solar, as well as elsewhere in my writings; more information at this point is needless and of no real service to you.

The Hierarchy works also through the seven major Ashrams and their affiliated Ashrams, and these “seven which are the forty-nine” represent in their totality the seven rays with their subrays, and are the custodians, transmitters and distributors of the seven ray energies to the seven planetary centers and – via these seven centers – to those in the fourth kingdom in nature (as they gradually unfold over the aeons) and then, via these, to the seven centers in individual man. Such is the synthesis.

The seven major centers or Ashrams within the Hierarchy are each presided over by Masters of Chohan rank; the seven subsidiary centers or Ashrams are presided over by Masters and Adepts (of the fifth and fourth initiations), aided by initiates of the third degree and certain picked and senior disciples. Several of the seven affiliated Ashrams are, as yet, incomplete as regards personnel, but vacancies are rapidly being filled as the spiritual effects of the world war (1914-1945) make themselves felt. These effects are very real and have been a source of great encouragement to hierarchical workers.

Before the Hierarchy can emerge (as is the intention), the relation between a major Ashram and its subsidiary Ashrams must be firmly established, whilst that between a major Ashram and other major Ashrams has to be brought more definitely and unquestionably closer to Shamballa, and under the influence of that great first ray center. The energy which will align and adjust the subsidiary forty-nine Ashrams is that of the second Ray of Love-Wisdom. That, however, which will bring about a similar adjusting and aligning impetus in the seven major Ashrams is the energy of the first Ray of Will or Power. I have here given you a most important item of occult information, but one which is of no importance to you individually; it serves, however, to present proof of the significant occult relation between the three planetary centers. Just as the third planetary center, Humanity, has now reached a point of intelligent development so that a closer rapport can be set up between it and the Hierarchy, so the Hierarchy also has moved forward as a unit so that a closer corresponding rapport can also be set up between It and Shamballa. Just as the rapport between the Hierarchy and Humanity is established via aspirants, disciples and initiates in physical existence who are responding to the love-wisdom of the universe in some measure and who work via the intelligent people in incarnation primarily, so rapport between Shamballa and the Hierarchy is being more closely established via the senior Ashrams, and not via the secondary ones. You have, therefore, a situation which might be depicted somewhat as follows:

  1. First Planetary Center – Shamballa – working through
    • The seven Rays or the seven Spirits before the Throne.
    • Certain great Intermediaries.
    • The Council Chamber of the Lord of the World.
  2. Second Planetary Center – Hierarchy – working through
    • The seven major Chohans and Their Ashrams.
    • The forty-nine Masters of the secondary Ashrams.
    • The sumtotal of the secondary Ashrams.
  3. Third Planetary Center – Humanity – working through
    • Disciples in manifestation – of the seven ray types.
    • The new group of world servers.
    • The sumtotal of humanitarians, educators and men of goodwill.

This is but a rough picture and one which is not totally correct; it will, however, show you certain direct lines of contact and of relationship which are true and which will suffice to give you a vague and general idea of the new alignment being set up between the three major planetary centers, requiring new adjustments.

At this particular time, the emphasis of the needed alignments and adjustments with which the Hierarchy is faced is being placed upon activity within the Hierarchy Itself. The secondary Ashrams are being stimulated; new ones are being gradually formed, for there are not as yet forty-nine minor Ashrams; vacancies in the major Ashrams are being filled as rapidly as possible from the ranks of those working in minor Ashrams and the places of these latter are being taken by accepted disciples who are being fitted for this work through experience, difficulties and the tension of world service. All these changes necessitate much adjustment. The interior work of hierarchical alignment is in the charge of the Chohans of the Major Ashrams, whilst the task of superintending the interior adjustments incident to new alignments and the admission of new personnel is being watched over and directed by the forty-nine Masters who are in charge of minor Ashrams – either Ashrams with what is regarded as a full complement of workers, or Ashrams in process of attaining that full complement, or embryonic Ashrams of which there are already quite a few.

One of the results of this hierarchical alignment and adjustment will be the establishment, for the first time, of a fluid interplay and movement between the three planetary centers. Chohans are today passing out of the Hierarchy into the Council Chamber of the Lord of the World, or on to one or other of the Seven Paths; senior Masters in charge of Ashrams are taking higher grades of initiation and taking the rank of Chohans; initiates above the third degree are rapidly taking the fourth and fifth initiations and becoming Masters (taking both initiations in one life), and their places are being taken by lesser initiates; these, in their turn, have been training disciples to take their places, until in this process of substitution and replacement we arrive at the door which symbolically stands between humanity and the Hierarchy, and today stands wide open, so that accepted disciples are taking initiation, pledged disciples are being accepted, and accepting disciples are taking their pledges.

Thus a great and new movement is proceeding and a tremendously increased interplay and interaction is taking place. This will go on until A.D. 2025. During the years intervening between now and then very great changes will be seen taking place, and at the great General Assembly of the Hierarchy – held as usual every century – in 2025 the date in all probability will be set for the first stage of the externalization of the Hierarchy. The present cycle (from now until that date) is called technically “The Stage of the Forerunner”. It is preparatory in nature, testing in its methods, and intended to be revelatory in its techniques and results. You can see therefore that Chohans, Masters, initiates, world disciples, disciples and aspirants affiliated with the Hierarchy are all at this time passing through a cycle of great activity.

In the adjustment necessitated by the rapidly advancing alignment, the Members of the Hierarchy are fitting Themselves for the objective work of public expression. This entails far more difficulty than you might imagine or anticipate, because it entails the development of that form of “resistance to the pull of the lower vibration” of which you can know nothing, for that lower vibration is a necessary aspect of your normal expression – little as you may like to realize this. You need to realize that there is nothing in the Masters or higher initiates which can respond to any vibration of this nature. Though They cannot absorb it or react to it or redevelop it again, it can cause Them the acutest discomfort and pain; that is the reason why the Son of God was called in The Old Testament a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”. This did not in reality refer to His sufferings for poor miserable humanity (as orthodox theology so selfishly interprets it) but to the fact that He had to submit Himself to contact with humanity. The Hierarchy is therefore, along all lines (many of which I may not indicate or upon which I may not enlarge), preparing Itself for the experience of physical manifestation; It is also endeavoring to “create” the needed responsive apparatus which will be of such a nature that Members of the Hierarchy may function with the minimum of difficulty on earth and will experience the least possible measure of handicap; They will thus be enabled to give full time and attention to the work to be done by Them in physical manifestation.

They are endeavoring also to establish a closer telepathic rapport and a more intimate (though strictly impersonal) relationship with Their disciples on all rays, so that there can be a free interplay of thought and a consequent better hierarchical integrity and one which – no matter what may happen in the three worlds – cannot be disrupted or in any way lessened.

Although for Them no astral plane exists and glamor is entirely non-existent, They have to learn to do a most peculiar thing: to work on the astral plane (because it exists for humanity and for the animal kingdom), to traverse this region of glamor and then to “demonstrate light in dissipating fog” in a manner for which there has hitherto been no call. None of this information may make much sense to you, but I am simply seeking to go on record for the sake of those who will come after you. There is little more that I may give you anent adjustment and alignment within the Hierarchy. It is rapidly proceeding, and just in so far as disciples demonstrate upon the outer physical plane and in the three worlds their affiliation with an Ashram will they share in this dual process. Are you prepared for this?

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Excerpted from “The Externalization of the Hierarchy – Section IV – Stages in the Externalization”

By Alice Bailey and Djwhal Kuhl