Initiation, Human and Solar - Chapter IX - The Path of Initiation By Alice Bailey |
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THE PATH OF
INITIATION After a longer or shorter period of time
the disciple stands at the Portal of Initiation. We must remember that as one
approaches this portal and draws nearer to the Master it is as says
"Light on the Path," with the feet bathed in the blood of the
heart. Each step up is ever through the sacrifice of all that the heart holds
dear on one plane or another, and always must this sacrifice be voluntary. He
who treads the Probationary Path and the Path of Holiness is he who has
counted the cost, whose sense of values has been readjusted, and who
therefore judges not as judges the man of the world. He is the man who is
attempting to take the "kingdom by violence," and in the attempt is
prepared for the consequent suffering. He is the man who counts all things
but loss if he may but win the goal, and who, in the struggle for the mastery
of the lower self by the higher, is willing to sacrifice even unto death. The first two Initiations At the first initiation, the control of the
Ego over the physical body must have reached a high degree of attainment.
"The sins of the flesh," as the Christian phraseology has it, must
be dominated; gluttony, drink, and licentiousness must no longer hold sway.
The physical elemental will no longer find its demand obeyed; the control
must be complete and the lure departed. A general attitude of obedience to
the Ego must have been achieved, and the [83] willingness to obey must
be very strong. The channel between the higher and the lower is widened, and
the obedience of the flesh practically automatic. That all initiates measure not up to this
standard may be ascribed to several things, but the note they sound should be
on the side of righteousness; the recognition of their own shortcomings which
they will evidence will be sincere and public, and their struggle to conform
to the highest standard will be known, even though perfection may not be
achieved. Initiates may, and do, fall, and thereby incur the working of the
law in punishment. They may, and do, by this fall injure the group, and
thereby incur the karma of readjustment, having to expiate the injury through
later prolonged service, wherein the group members themselves, even though
unconsciously, apply the law; their progress will be seriously hindered, much
time being lost in which they must work out the karma with the injured units.
The very fact that a man is an initiate, and therefore the medium for force
of a greatly increased kind, makes his lapses from the straight path to have
more powerful effects than is the case with a less advanced man; his
retribution and punishment will be equally greater. Inevitably he must pay the
price before he is allowed to proceed further upon the Way. As for the group
he injures, what should their attitude be? A recognition of the gravity of
the error, a wise acceptance of the facts in the case, a refraining from unbrotherly criticism, and a pouring out of love upon the
sinning brother: all this, coupled with such action as will make clear to the
onlooking general public that such sins and
infringements of the law are not condoned. To this must be added an attitude
of mind within the group concerned which will lead them (whilst taking firm
action) to help the mistaken brother to see his error, to work out the
retributive karma, and then to reinstate him [84] in their regard and respect
when due amends have been made. All people do not develop exactly along the
same or parallel lines, and therefore no hard or fast rules can be laid down
as to the exact procedure at each initiation, or as to just what centers; are
to be vivified, or what vision is to be accorded. So much depends upon the
ray of the disciple, or his development in any particular direction (people
do not usually develop evenly), upon his individual karma, and also upon the
exigencies of any special period. This much can be suggested, however: At the
first initiation, that of the birth of the Christ, the heart center is
the one usually vivified, with the aim in view of the more effective
controlling of the astral vehicle, and the rendering of greater service to
humanity. After this initiation the initiate is taught principally the facts
of the astral plane; he has to stabilize his emotional vehicle and learn to
work on the astral plane with the same facility and ease as he does on the
physical plane; he is brought in contact with the astral devas;
he learns to control the astral elementals; he must function with facility on
the lower subplanes, and the value and quality of
his work on the physical plane becomes of increased worth. He passes, at this
initiation, out of the Hall of Learning into the Hall of Wisdom. At this
time, emphasis is consistently laid on his astral development, although his
mental equipment grows steadily. Many lives may intervene between the first
initiation and the second. A long period of many incarnations may elapse
before the control of the astral body is perfected, and the initiate is ready
for the next step. The analogy is kept in an interesting way in the New
Testament in the life of the initiate Jesus. Many years elapsed between the
Birth and the Baptism, but the remaining three steps were taken in three years.
Once the second initiation is taken [85] the progress will be rapid, the
third and fourth following probably in the same life, or the succeeding. The second initiation forms the crisis in
the control of the astral body. Just as, at the first initiation, the control
of the dense physical has been demonstrated, so here the control of the
astral is similarly demonstrated. The sacrifice and death of desire has been
the goal of endeavor. Desire itself has been dominated by the Ego, and only
that is longed for which is for the good of the whole, and in the line of the
will of the Ego, and of the Master. The astral elemental is controlled, the
emotional body becomes pure and limpid, and the lower nature is rapidly
dying. At this time the Ego grips afresh the two lower vehicles and bends
them to his will. The aspiration and longing to serve, love, and progress
become, so strong that rapid development is usually to be seen. This accounts
for the fact that this initiation and the third, frequently (though not invariably)
follow each other in one single life. At this period of the world's history
such stimulus has been given to evolution that aspiring souls - sensing the
dire and crying need of humanity - are sacrificing all in order to meet that
need. Again, we must not make the mistake of
thinking that all this follows in the same invariable consecutive steps and
stages. Much is done in simultaneous unison, for the labor to control is slow
and hard, but in the interim between the first three initiations some definite
point in the evolution of each of the three lower vehicles has to be attained
and held, before the further expansion of the channel can be safely
permitted. Many of us are working on all the three bodies now, as we tread
the Probationary Path. At this
initiation, should the ordinary course be followed, (which again is not at
all certain) the throat center is vivified. This causes a capacity to
turn to account in the Master's service, and for the helping of man, the
attainments [86] of the lower mind. It imparts the ability to give forth and
utter that which is helpful, possibly in the spoken word, but surely in
service of some kind. A vision is accorded of the world's need, and a further
portion of the plan shown. The work, then, to be done prior to the taking of
the third initiation, is the complete submerging of the personal point of
view in the need of the whole. It entails the complete domination of the
concrete mind by the Ego. |
The succeeding two
Initiations
After the second initiation the teaching
shifts up a plane. The initiate learns to control his mental vehicle; he
develops the capacity to manipulate thought matter, and learns the laws of
creative thought building. He functions freely on the four lower subplanes of the mental plane, and before the third
initiation he must, - consciously or unconsciously, - be complete master of the
four lower subplanes in the three planes of the three
worlds. His knowledge of the microcosm becomes profound, and he has mastered
theoretically and practically, in great measure, the laws of his own nature,
hence his ability experimentally to be master on the four lower subplanes of the physical, astral, and mental planes. The
last fact is of interest. The control of the three higher subplanes
is not yet complete, and here is one of the explanations as to the failures and
mistakes of initiates. Their mastery of matter in the three higher subplanes is not yet perfect; these yet remain to be
dominated.
At the third initiation, termed sometimes the
Transfiguration, the entire personality is flooded with light from above. It is
only after this initiation that the Monad is definitely guiding the Ego,
pouring his divine life ever more into the prepared and cleansed channel, just
as in the third, or Moon Chain, the Ego individualized the personality [87]
through direct contact, a method different to the individualization as shown in
this fourth chain. The law of correspondences, if applied here, might prove
very revealing, and might demonstrate an interesting analogy between the
methods of individualizing in the various chains, and the expansions of
consciousness that occur at the different initiations.
Again, a vision is accorded of what lies
ahead; the initiate is in a position at all times to recognize the other members
of the Great White Lodge, and his psychic faculties are stimulated by the
vivification of the head centers. It is not necessary
nor advisable to develop the synthetic faculties, or clairaudience and
clairvoyance, until after this initiation. The aim of all development is the
awakening of the spiritual intuition; when this has been done, when the
physical body is pure, the astral stable and steady, and the mental body
controlled, then the initiate can safely wield and
wisely use the psychic faculties for the helping of the race. Not only can he
use these faculties, but he is able now to create and vivify thought-forms that
are clear and well-defined, pulsating with the spirit of service and not
controlled by lower mind or desire. These thought-forms will not be (as is the
case with those created by the mass of men) disjointed, unconnected, and
uncorrected, but will attain a fair measure of synthesis. Hard and ceaseless
must the work be before this can be done, but when the desire nature has been
stabilized and purified, then the control of the mind-body comes more easily.
Hence the path of the devotee is easier in some ways than that of the
intellectual man, for he has learnt the measures of purified desire, and
progresses by the requisite stages.
The personality has now
reached a point where its vibrations are of a very high order, the matter in
all three bodies relatively pure, and its apprehension of the work to be done
in the microcosm, and the share to be taken in the [88] work of the macrocosm is
very advanced. It is apparent, therefore, why it is only at the third
initiation that the great Hierophant, the Lord of the World, himself
officiates. It is the first at which he contacts the initiate. Earlier it would
not be possible. For the first two initiations the Hierophant is the Christ,
the World Teacher, the Firstborn among many brethren,
one of the earliest of our humanity to take initiation. Browning brings out
this thought most beautifully in the words found in his poem "Saul":
...It shall be
A face like my face that receives thee;
a Man like to me,
Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever;
A Hand like this hand
Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee!
See the Christ stand!
But when the initiate has made still further
progress, and has taken two initiations, a change comes. The Lord of the World,
the Ancient of Days, the ineffable Ruler himself administers the third
initiation. Why has this become possible? Because now the fully consecrated
physical body can safely bear the vibrations of the two other bodies when they
return to its shelter from the Presence of the KING; because now the purified
astral and controlled mental can safely stand before that KING. When purified
and controlled they stand and for the first time consciously vibrate
to the Ray of the Monad, then with prepared bodies can the ability to see and
hear on all the planes be granted and achieved, and the faculty of reading and
comprehending the records be safely employed, for with fuller knowledge comes
added power. The heart is now sufficiently pure and loving, and the intellect
sufficiently stable to stand the strain of knowing.
Before the fourth initiation can be taken,
the work of [89] training is intensified, and the hastening and accumulation of
knowledge has to be unbelievably rapid. The initiate has frequent access to the
library of occult books, and after this initiation he can contact not only the
Master with whom he is linked and with whom he has worked consciously for a
long time, but he can contact and assist (in measure) the Chohans,
the Bodhisattva, and the Manu. He has also to grasp the laws of the three lower
planes intellectually, and likewise wield them for the aiding of the scheme of
evolution. He studies the cosmic plans and has to master the charts; he becomes
versed in occult technicalities and develops fourth dimensional vision, if he
has not already done so. He learns to direct the activities
of the building devas, and at the same time, he works
continually at the development of his spiritual nature. He begins rapidly to
coordinate the buddhic vehicle, and in its
coordination he develops the power of synthesis, at first in small measure, and
gradually in fuller detail.
By the time the fourth initiation is taken
the initiate has mastered perfectly the fifth subplane,
and is therefore adept, - to use a technical phrase, - on the five lower subplanes of the physical, astral, and mental planes, and
is well on the way to master the sixth. His buddhic
vehicle can function on the two lower subplanes of
the buddhic plane.
The life of the man
who takes the fourth initiation, or the Crucifixion, is usually one of great
sacrifice and suffering. It is the life of the man who makes the Great
Renunciation, and even exoterically it is seen to be strenuous, hard, and painful.
He has laid all, even his perfected personality, upon the altar of sacrifice,
and stands bereft of all. All is renounced, friends, money, reputation,
character, standing in the world, family, and even life itself. [90]
The final Initiations
After the fourth initiation not much remains
to be done. The domination of the sixth subplane goes
forward with rapidity, and the matter of the higher subplanes
of the buddhic is coordinated. The initiate is
admitted into closer fellowship in the Lodge, and his contact with the devas is more complete. He is
rapidly exhausting the resources of the Hall of Wisdom, and is mastering the
most intricate plans and charts. He becomes adept in the significance of color
and sound, can wield the law in the three worlds, and can contact his Monad
with more freedom than the majority of the human race can contact their Egos.
He is in charge, also, of large work, teaching many pupils, aiding in many
schemes, and is gathering under him those who are to assist him in future
times. This refers only to those who stay to help humanity on this globe; we
will deal later with some of the lines of work that stretch before the Adept if
he passes away from earth service.
After the fifth initiation the man is
perfected as far as this scheme goes, though he may, if he will, take two
further initiations.
To achieve the sixth initiation the Adept has
to take a very intensive course in planetary occultism. A Master wields the law
in the three worlds, whilst a Chohan of the sixth
initiation wields the law in the chain on all levels; a Chohan
of the seventh initiation wields the law in the solar system.
It will be apparent that, should he search
these subjects with application, the student will find much that concerns him
personally, even though the ceremony itself may be far ahead. By the study of
the process and the purpose he may become aware of the great fundamental fact
that the method of initiation is the method of: [91]
The initiate of every degree, from the humble
initiate of the first degree, making for the first time his contact with a
certain type of specialized force, up to the emancipated Buddha of the seventh
degree, is dealing with energy of some kind or other. The stages of development
of the aspirant might be expressed as follows:
The application of the Rod of
Initiation at the first two initiations by the Bodhisattva enables the initiate
to control and utilize the force of the lower self, the true sanctified energy
of the personality in service; at the third initiation the application of the
Rod by the One Initiator makes available in a vastly more extensive manner the
force of the higher self or Ego, and brings into play on the physical plane the
entire energy stored up during numerous incarnations [92] in the causal vehicle.
At the fourth initiation the energy of his egoic
group becomes his to use for the good of planetary evolution, and at the fifth
initiation the force or energy of the planet (esoterically understood, and not
merely the force or energy of the material globe) is at his disposal. During
these five initiations those two great beings, the Bodhisattva first, and then
the One Initiator, the Lord of the World, Sanat
Kumara, are the administrators or hierophants. After these ceremonies, should
the initiate choose to take the two final initiations which it is possible to
take in this solar system, a still higher type of energy in expression
of the one Self comes into play, and can only be
hinted at. At the seventh initiation that one of whom Sanat
Kumara is the manifestation, the Logos of our scheme on his own plane, becomes
the Hierophant. At the sixth initiation the expression of this Existence on an
intermediate plane, a Being who must at present remain nameless, wields the Rod
and administers the oath and secret. In these three expressions of hierarchical
government - Sanat Kumara on the periphery of the
three worlds, the nameless One on the confines of the high planes of human
evolution, and the planetary Spirit himself at the final stage - we have the
three great manifestations of the Planetary Logos himself. Through the
Planetary Logos at the final great initiation flows the power of the Solar
Logos, and he it is who reveals to the initiate that the Absolute is
consciousness in its fullest expression, though at the stage of human existence
the Absolute must be regarded as unconsciousness.
Each of the great initiations is but the
synthesis of the smaller ones, and only as man seeks ever to expand his
consciousness in the affairs of daily life can he expect to achieve those later
stages which are but culminations of the many earlier. Students must get rid of
the idea that if they are "very good and altruistic" suddenly some
day [93] they will stand before the Great Lord. They are putting effect before
cause. Goodness and altruism grow out of realization and service, and holiness
of character is the outcome of those expansions of consciousness which a man
brings about within himself through strenuous effort and endeavor. Therefore it
is here and now that man can prepare himself for initiation, and this he does,
not by dwelling upon the ceremonial aspect, as so many do in excited
anticipation, but by working systematically and enduringly at the steady
development of the mental body, by the strenuous and arduous process of
controlling the astral body so that it becomes responsive to three vibrations: