Tag: Illusion

There is no need for me to enter into the symbolic details anent this initiation. The whole theme is adequately dealt with in a book written by A.A.B. entitled From Bethlehem to Calvary – a book to which I gave my approval and endorsement as presenting the subject of the five initiations in a form suitable for the Christian West. I would like to recall to you the fact that this third initiation is in reality the first of the major initiations and is so regarded by the emanating Source of our planetary Logos, Sanat Kumara, and in the two great planetary centers, Shamballa and the Hierarchy. I refer to that stupendous Source of our entire planetary life, the sun Sirius, and to the Lodge of Divine Beings Who work from this heavenly Center.

The first two initiations – regarded simply as initiations of the threshold – are experiences which have prepared the body of the initiate for the reception of the terrific voltage of this third initiation. This voltage is passed through the body of the initiate under the direction of the planetary Logos, before Whom the initiate stands for the first time. The Rod of Initiation is used as the transferring agent. The second initiation freed the initiate from the astral level of consciousness, the astral plane – the plane of glamor, of illusion and of distortion. This was an essential experience because the initiate (standing before the One Initiator for the first time at the third initiation) must be freed from any magnetic or attractive “pull” emanating from the personality.

The mechanism of the personality must be so purified and so insensitive to the material attractions of the three worlds that there is henceforth nothing in the initiate which could offset the divine initiatory activity. The physical appetites are subdued and relegated to their rightful place; the desire nature is controlled and purified; the mind is responsive primarily to ideas, intuitions and impulses coming from the soul, and begins its true task as an interpreter of divine truth and a transmitter of ashramic intention.

You will note, therefore, how this third initiation is a climaxing point and also inaugurates a new cycle of activity leading to the seventh Initiation of Resurrection. I would call your attention to the fact that the third, fifth and seventh initiations are under the control of the fifth, first and second rays. These, as you might expect, will constitute the emanating energies transmitted through the application of the Rod of Initiation.

1. Initiation III. The fifth Ray of Science. This inflowing energy produces its major effects upon the mind, or upon manas, the fifth principle; it enables the initiate to use the mind as its major instrument in the work to be done, prior to passing through the fourth and fifth initiations.
2. Initiation V. The first Ray of Will or Power. At this initiation the disciple appreciates for the first time the significance of the will and uses it to relate the head center and the center at the base of the spine, thus completing the integration started at the third initiation.
3. Initiation VII. The second Ray of Love-Wisdom is here active, as the major planetary ray. The application of the Rod of Initiation by the Initiator (working this time from the highest plane, the logoic plane) produces in a mysterious way an effect on the totality of humanity and – to a lesser extent – upon the allied kingdoms. The effect is similar to that produced in the individual at the fifth initiation, wherein the head center and the center at the base of the spine became closely en rapport – through the use of the will.

Aspirants and disciples should remember that after the third initiation, the effects of the initiation which they may be undergoing are not confined simply to the individual initiate, but that henceforth at all the later initiations he becomes the transmitter of the energy which will pour through him with increasing potency at each application of the Rod. He acts primarily as an agent for the transmission, for the stepping down and for the consequent safe distribution of energy to the masses. Each time a disciple achieves an initiation and stands before the Initiator, he becomes simply an instrument whereby the planetary Logos can reach humanity and bring to men fresh life and energy. The work done prior to and at the third initiation is purely preparatory to this type of service required from an “energy transmitter.” That is why, at the seventh initiation, the dominating ray of our planet – the second Ray of Love-Wisdom – is employed. There is no energy upon our planet of equal potency, and no expression of it has so pure and constructive a quality as that to which the initiate is subjected at the seventh initiation. This seventh initiatory climax marks another culminating point in the career of the initiate, and indicates his entrance into an entirely different cycle of experience.

You will have noted, if you are comparing these instructions with the outline given by me on page 340, that in this third initiation it is the ajna center (the center between the eyebrows) which is stimulated. This is a fact of great interest, because it is at this initiation that the disciple begins consciously and creatively to direct the energies being made available to him, doing so via the ajna center and directed towards humanity as a whole. These energies are:

1. The energy of his own soul. This has a purely group effect and though working through his personality, is consciously directed outward into the world – after the transforming process brought about as the energy received permeates his threefold mechanism.
2. The energy of the Ashram to which he belongs. Both this energy and the one above mentioned are necessarily the energy of his soul ray and of the Ashram which is representative of that ray. The effect produced – according to his capacity of absorption and direction – will further the working out of the divine Plan.
3. The energy of the Hierarchy Itself. The Hierarchy is primarily controlled by the energy of the second Ray of Love-Wisdom, though this dominant ray is modified and enriched through blending with the other six rays. His use of this energy will at first be largely an unconscious use and he will register at this point no definite intention. This is due to the magnitude of the great reservoir of energies; he is a recipient of the incoming energy largely because he is an initiated member of the Hierarchy and is also a pure channel for transmission.
4. The peculiar energy which is transmitted to him by Sanat Kumara at the time of his initiation. This is a totally different energy to that transmitted to him at the earlier initiations. It comes from Shamballa and is uniquely (in a sense undefinable and hence incomprehensible to you) the energy of the planetary Logos Himself. He directs extra-planetary energy (in the initiations which follow the third initiation) from the ajna center of which He is possessed, to the head center of the initiate and from thence immediately to the ajna center of the initiate. Then this energy is directed outward into its destined field of service. This energy is of so high a quality that there is nothing of a registering mechanism in the initiate’s equipment capable of registering its admission and circulation through his three head centers. Nevertheless, this energy does pour through him and out into the world, in spite of the fact that he remains unconscious of its presence.

The ajna center is the “center of direction”; it is placed symbolically between the two eyes, signifying the twofold direction of the life energy of the initiate – outward into the world of men and upward towards the divine Life and Source of all Being. Where the direction of the energy is consciously undertaken (and there are certain energies of which the initiate is constantly aware), the ajna center is controlled and dominated by the indwelling spirit of man; this spiritual man bases all action in relation to these entering energies on the ancient premise that “energy follows thought.” His thought life becomes, therefore, the field of his major effort, for he knows that the mind is the agent of direction; he endeavors to concentrate within himself so that eventually he may consciously control and direct all the incoming divine energies. This is, in reality, the major hierarchical endeavor and the work to which the Masters are pledged and for which They are in constant training. As the evolutionary process proceeds, new and higher energies become available. This is particularly the case now, as They prepare for the reappearance of the Christ.

There are three words which are directive words for the disciple as he handles his life, his environment and his circumstances. They are: Integration, Direction, Science. His task – as he faces it after the third initiation – is to produce a greater personal integration so that he becomes increasingly a soul-infused personality, and also to integrate himself with his environment for service purposes. To this must be added the subtler task of integrating himself into the Ashram so that he becomes an integral part of the Master’s band of workers.

As the work of integration proceeds, he is striving all the time to learn the uses of the ajna center and consciously and with right understanding to work with, absorb, transmute and distribute energy as his major ashramic service. His keynote is right direction as the result of right reaction to hierarchical intention and the injunctions of his own soul. Both integration and direction, he discovers, require understanding of occult, scientific knowledge. He works then as a scientist, and for this reason all the three keynotes of his life as an initiate – before and immediately after the third initiation – are conditioned by and directed by the mind; the mental plane becomes the field of his major endeavor as a server.

Again you see that I am presenting you with no glamorous picture of the initiatory process but only one of hard work, constant effort and strenuous mental and spiritual living. There is much here for you to consider, and what I have here given warrants sound reflection and much thought. It is my earnest hope and wish that you may realize that the teaching here given can be appropriated by you and that the initiatory process is one that eventually you will understand and in which you will participate.

Ray Five

It posits an ability to function with clarity upon the mental plane, to collate information, rightly to interpret and relate that information, and to create the needed thought-forms or concepts for those interpretations.

These thought-forms fall into three major fields of thought or thought-form areas of consciousness:

• Science. Under this word I include all that which the educational processes cover or are supposed to cover, and such a useful science as medicine.
• Philosophy, with its presentation of great conditioning ideas.
• Psychology, with its effort to account for humanity and to discover what man is essentially and how he functions.

You will note that I have not included religion in this analysis. The reason for this is that If the world religions were really controlled by concrete knowledge or science, they would not be the vague, speculative, mystical and glamor-controlled systems which they are at present. Some day the minds of men – illumined by the light of the soul – will formulate the one universal religion, recognizable by all. Then the Kingdom of God will be known for what it is, another kingdom in nature. Speculation, wishful thinking and hopeful aspiration will disappear. The science of occultism is the first step upon the way of true religion, and the scientific investigation of human psychology will greatly help toward this end.

Today we find this ray energy expressing itself mainly through science – a science sadly debased and corrupted by materialism and human greed, but a science which (when animated entirely by goodwill) will lift humanity on to higher levels of consciousness, thus laying the foundation for that time when humanity on a large scale can pass through the Transfiguration Initiation. Steps in this direction are already being laid and the existence of the press, the radio and the rapid means of transportation have done much to further the revelation of that unity and that Oneness which is the major characteristic of the Universal Mind.

These developments can be regarded as the initial steps of the initiatory process for the third initiation – far ahead as that initiation may lie for the mass of men. It is unification and a growing sense of oneness which is required in order to take this initiation, and it is the integrated personality which takes it. The major sin of Russia, and that which has prostituted and warped the initial divine impulse underlying the ideology of that country, is the determination she demonstrates at this time to be separate and to shut the Russian people away from world contact, using the implements of deception and the withholding of information. It is not the totalitarian nature of the Russian government which is the prime disaster; it is the refusal to develop the universal consciousness. Many governments today are totalitarian in nature, either openly or subtly, but – at the same time – their peoples have free access to press and radio and are not kept in ignorance of world events. Russia is drifting into a pronounced expression of the great heresy of separateness. There lies her problem – a problem which is refused recognition by her rulers.

The existence of a closed mind on a national scale is dangerous in the extreme, just as the individual is in a dangerous “state of mind” when he closes it to world contact, world news and world understanding, and when he refuses to admit new ideas and new modes of behavior. Fortunately, the influence of this fifth ray energy – which is always present, whether the ray is in incarnation or not – is steadily leading humanity towards illumination.

This ray energy operates always in connection with the Law of Cleavages. Today, tremendous cleavages between the past and the present are in order. The importance of this statement is to be found in the fact that – for the first time in human history – humanity is aware of cleavage at the time it is being brought about. Hitherto cleavages have been noted during an historical retrospect. Today, all men everywhere are conscious of the fact that the old order, the old cultures and civilizations are rapidly passing away, and they are universally clamoring for the new. Everywhere men are laying the foundation for the new order, the coming of which is threatened only by one country, Russia, owing to its separativeness (and not because of its ideology), and by one world group in every country, those guilty of financial greed and consequent aggressiveness.

Before humanity can pass through the Transfiguration Initiation the new world order must be functioning and the coming civilization must be at its height. It is useless for me to consider with you this third initiation in connection with humanity as a whole, or its preparatory or subsequent initiatory process. All this lies too far ahead for even advanced humanity to consider; there are, however, senior disciples who are preparing for this initiation, just as there are a few who are passing through the initiatory process, prior to taking the fourth initiation.

The outstanding expression of this fifth ray energy can be seen in the rapid formulating of the many ideologies which have taken place since the year 1900. Such words as Fascism, Communism, National Socialism, Socialism as the British accept it, and the names of many schools of psychology and philosophy, were unknown one hundred years ago; today they are the common talk and phrases of the man in the street. The inflow of this mental energy into the world of men, the attainment in consciousness of mental ability by many thousands, and the achievement of mental polarization by aspirants all the world over, are all due to the activity of this fifth ray energy; this may be regarded as preparatory work for the first and the second initiations. Some of this success is due also to a little-realized function of this fifth ray energy – that of telepathic interplay. Few people realize in the slightest degree how naturally telepathic every human being is or how impressionable are their minds; this again is an effect of fifth ray influence.

The creation (and, I should add, the over-creation) of the millions of material things which men everywhere regard as essential to their well-being is also the result of the creative activity of the fifth ray consciousness. This is, of course, as it demonstrates upon the physical plane. When it demonstrates upon the mental plane, we then talk of ideas, concepts, philosophies and ideologies. When it demonstrates upon the astral plane, we are aware of the religious impulse, of mysticism and of the emotional and conditioning desires. All these aspects are present in the consciousness of men everywhere today. Everything is crystallizing in human consciousness, and this takes place in order to make man aware of where he stands upon the ladder of evolution, and of what is wrong and what is right. All this again is due to the influence of fifth ray energy. This will begin to transform human living and human desires and also human affairs and attitudes, and will lead eventually (in the middle of the sixth root race) to the great Transfiguration Initiation in which the reality that lies behind all human phenomena will stand revealed.

Let us now consider the effect of this ray energy upon the life of the individual, as he faces the third initiation. This third initiation is, as earlier said, the first initiation, from the angle of the Hierarchy; it is the one in which the spiritual man demonstrates his complete control of the personality. The physical body has been controlled through the medium of the physical disciplines; the emotional nature has been reorganized and made receptive to spiritual impression coming from the plane of pure reason (the buddhic plane) through the transforming processes of the mind or the fifth principle. In this connection, the mind has acted as an organizer of astral reaction and as a dispeller of glamor. The disciple is now focused in his everyday consciousness upon the mental plane, and the triangular relation of the three aspects of the mind upon this plane is now dominant. In the next initiation, the Renunciation, this relationship becomes a dual one instead of a triangular one, through the destruction of the soul vehicle which is no longer needed. Soul fusion with the personality is now completed.

During the initiatory process preceding the third initiation, the mind works in a new manner. Its transmuting work with the physical body has been accomplished; its transforming work with the emotional nature has been successful, and now its transfiguring work with the personality as a whole is carried forward, making the initiation of the Transfiguration possible. It is of value to the student to consider these three activities of the mind. The transmuting agent in the first case is the lower or concrete mind; the transforming agent is the soul, whilst the transfiguring agent is the Spiritual Triad, working through the higher or abstract mind. You will here note the wonderful synthesis of the spiritual work. When this work is concluded, you have the initiation of the third degree made possible. This produces impelling and new contacts. It should here be remembered that when I use the word “new” I mean that which is new in consciousness, for the basic synthesis and fundamental relationship always exists in factual recognition, but is only progressively realized by the evolving spiritual man.

It is well nigh impossible to differentiate the results of fifth ray energy in the various aspects of the personality, for the reason that the initiate is now functioning as a soul-infused personality, and therefore the three aspects of that personality are nothing more or less than agents of the soul, and thus are progressively responsive to the inflow of triadal energy. It might therefore be said that, as a result of the Transfiguration Initiation – the culminating point of strictly human unfoldment – the three types of energy which are expressed through the Spiritual Triad can begin – only begin – to flow through the reflection of itself in the three worlds. Let me state this as follows:

• The directing energy of the higher mind is – as a result of the Transfiguration Initiation and via the antahkarana – thrown into the brain; therefore the man upon the physical plane is guided, directed and controlled by group purpose and by the hierarchical plan.
• The illuminating energy of pure reason, emanating from the buddhic plane, pours down into the clarified and organized body of sensitive response which is all that remains of what has been called the astral body. This produces complete freedom from glamor and the creation of “a limpid pool of such reasonable response to the love of divine relationship” that the initiate becomes a sensitive revealer of that love.
• The dynamic energy from the atmic plane (the highest aspect of the Spiritual Triad) pours into the mind and begins slowly to reveal the will-to-good, which is essentially the will of God.

Behind these three differentiations which are all of them expressions or aspects of the divine or the universal mind, the initiate dimly senses or becomes consciously aware of what has been called the Monad or Spirit or Life. This is subtly revealed in the Transfiguration Initiation of the Master Jesus Who re-enacted all the five human initiations for the benefit of humanity. In this dramatic picturing of the third initiation, the three disciples (or the three vehicles of the personality) prostrate themselves upon the ground and the Master Himself (the glorified personality) is transfigured before them. At this climaxing point they hear that which is called “the voice of the Father” speaking to the transfigured Jesus.

The personality is now possessed of knowledge, for fifth ray energy has done its needed work; the disciple is also aware that he is in possession of the wisdom which enables him to use knowledge in the furtherance of the Plan, and therefore to work as an illuminating factor in the world of men. He knows clearly what has been accomplished and senses something of what lies ahead. The great principle of cleavage (which the fifth ray governs) is the dominating factor in his time sense; he now differentiates sharply between past and present and that which has to be ascertained in the future. Cleavage, in the sense of separateness, is finished for him and he now feels and knows something of the essential unity of all manifested life; therefore, from the angle of space, he has dominated and overcome cleavage and division; in the sense of time he has not. The great heresy of separateness no longer exists in his consciousness; the consciousness of the initiatory process is not yet over, however for that involves the recognition of time.

During the initiatory process between the second and the third initiations, the initiate has to battle with illusion in exactly the same sense as he earlier had to battle with glamor. Illusion is, in the last analysis, the control of the mental processes by great and massive thought-forms; this conflict persists from the moment that the disciple has achieved mental polarization (at a midway point between the second and the third initiations) until he stands before the Initiator at the sixth Initiation of Decision, when the last illusion disappears. You will feel and comment that the Masters are therefore subject to illusion. This They definitely are, and there are great and basic illusions governing life within the Hierarchy. Nevertheless, they are illusions of such a high order that – for advanced humanity – they would signify achievement. I may not give you more than one instance of such illusion, but that should prove clear and sufficient. It is not until the sixth Initiation of Decision that the illusion of the planetary ring-pass-not finally disappears. The Master then knows that such a limitation is non-existent. For Him, the choice between the seven Paths becomes possible. This basic illusion constitutes for mankind a great hierarchical mystery and is based upon the Principle of Privation, by means of which the planetary Logos chooses to circumscribe His freedom and to limit His activities.

This curious freedom from successive limitations is experienced at the third, the sixth and the ninth initiations; these are, all three of them, related in a mysterious manner to each other. Transfiguration leads eventually to Decision, which culminates in due time with a final refusal to accept any planetary limitations whatsoever.

It will be obvious to you that the higher the initiation, the less will any involved energy have a personality control or connection. Progressive and recognized fusions have taken place as one initiation after another is undergone; the effect of the energy involved will be noted in relation to humanity as a whole, to the work of the Ashram within the Hierarchy and to the planetary life. This must ever be borne in mind and must necessarily limit the scope of the teaching which I am able to give you.

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Excerpted from

The Rays and the Initiations – Part Two – Section Two – The Aspirant and the Major Initiations

By Alice Bailey and Djwhal Kuhl