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RULE EIGHT

Rule VIII now comes up for consideration.  The previous seven rules have been of a wide and general connotation.  They have been largely postulates, emphasising group life, group planetary relationships, and the fundamental Science of Invocation and Evocation which underlies all world processes, which is the inspiring energy behind all evolutionary unfoldment, and which creates the medium or channel of related communication between the great centres in our planet, through which the life of our Logos flows and His purposes are worked out.  I would remind you that the creative process was initiated by Sound, and in that Sound the Logos both invoked and evoked.  He issued the call and He engineered and implemented the response and thus the "Army of the Voice" (as The Secret Doctrine calls it) came into being.

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The Head (the idea), the Heart (the ideal) and the Throat (the creative agent of the resulting idol, the temporary and fleeting expression of the ideal, inspired by the idea) came into being; three great Centres emerged in time and space and—at this point in the evolutionary cycle—we call them Shamballa, the Hierarchy and Humanity.

With these fundamental factors the first seven rules have been occupied, and I have tried to help you to see their significance somewhat, from the angle of the initiate-consciousness.

We come now to a close consideration of this Rule VIII, where it might be said that the specific rules for the training of initiates begin.  These remaining seven rules must be studied most carefully from that angle.  They are not susceptible of casual and superficial analysis.  I realise that only those who have taken initiation will be in a position to grasp the esoteric significance of the words I use and of much that I may say, but it is for them I write; their numbers are even today more than are suspected, and their ranks will be steadily increased in the post-war period, both through the strenuous effort of disciples in training to "make the grade," and through the coming into incarnation of initiates of all degrees—some of whom are the children of today.

Rule VIII.

For Applicants:  When the disciple nears the Portal, the greater seven must awaken and bring forth response from the lesser seven upon the double circle.

For Disciples and Initiates:  Let the group find within itself response to the greater seven groups which carry out the hierarchical will with love and understanding.  The group contains all seven, the perfect group.  The lesser seven, the greater seven and the planetary seven form one great whole, and these the group must know.  When this is realised and the Law of the Supplementary Seven is understood, let the group understand the Three and then the ONE.  This they can do with the united breath and the united rhythm.

On the surface, this rule appears to be one of surprising [149] complexity and immense difficulty.  It deals with so many groups and septenates and this seems to complicate understanding considerably.  Yet every person in the world is dealing with the multiplicity of units and combinations of forces which make up his entire daily life and which create his environment and his life circumstances.  Life would be simple indeed if the average man had only seven factors to consider, with which to conform, to work with and to use.  Advance into the world of spiritual values and into the realm of triadal existence (in which the initiate moves) is definitely an advance into simplicity.  It is an advance from the complications of the multiplication table and its resultant arithmetic into the simplicity of the symbolic formulas as used in the higher mathematics; it is a moving out of the world of kaleidoscopic figures in constant movement, into the world of meaning; it is a process of getting behind the world of effects into the world of causes, realising that one simple cause or directed movement of energy can set in motion a myriad of effects.  The way of the initiate is not a complicated one, once he has grasped the fact that he must release himself from the world of seeming and of illusion and stand free in the world of light, where all stand clearly revealed.  Then he can begin to face the lessons and take the training which will enable him to handle energy—having released himself from the control of forces—and begin to direct energy in conformity with the great Plan.  The complexity lies in the thinking of the neophyte.  The initiate knows it not.

First let us clearly define the various septenates referred to in this rule.  I will first tabulate them in the order of their appearance and define them, and then I will enlarge upon them in order to point out where the training enters in, where the rule applies, and how the embodied rule is in the nature of a Law which the initiate may not evade.

I would ask you here to refer to what I earlier said anent rules, laws and orders when starting with you this particular study.

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1. The seven greater groups . . . The seven groups or Ashrams within the Hierarchy.

THE HIERARCHY

These carry out the hierarchical will, which is love.

They work through love and understanding.

Each is presided over by a Chohan and a group is called an Ashram.

These major Ashrams have many affiliated Ashrams, presided over by a Master on the same ray as the Chohan, and are capable at any moment of being absorbed into the primary Ashram.

The perfect or complete group is the Hierarchy itself, containing all the seven major Ashrams and their affiliates.

2. The Planetary seven groups . . . the seven rays, the central septenate of energy.

SHAMBALLA

These embody the will of Shamballa, which is divine purpose.

They work as life energy, as quality, and produce appearance.

Each is presided over by one of the seven Spirits before the Throne; by one of the seven Ray Lords.

Each of these rays has its seven subrays which relate it to all the other rays.

These seven rays can, under divine purpose, be re-absorbed into the Three and then into the One.

3. The lesser seven . . . the seven types of men and also the seven root races.

HUMANITY

These embody the intelligence of the Logos as it expresses itself through creativity.

They are learning to work intelligently with matter in order to develop love in response to divine purpose—which is will or life.

Each of the seven types, responsive to one or [151] other of the seven rays, is conditioned or ruled by its prototype, the soul on its own plane.

These major types or races of men have many subraces and subsidiary types, developed during the evolutionary process; all will eventually demonstrate the seven major types.

The perfect type is the Christ, the Heavenly Man, Who expresses all the major types and Who is the "pattern of things as they are."

4. The supplementary seven . . . the seven centres of energy in the individual man.

HUMANITY

These together embody the combined forces of the planetary life as registered by the perfected individual.  They will eventually enable the man to achieve perfection.

They enable the individual to respond to material forces, to soul energy and spiritual life, and they constitute a complete response apparatus to the planetary life, purpose, intent and form.

Each of the seven centres is responsive to one or other of the seven rays and their qualities under the conditioning energy of the soul ray and the forces, emanating from the environment.

These centres develop progressively and under the impact of circumstances and the Law of the Supplementary Seven, but all will eventually express in some measure the seven types of ray energy.

The Law of the Supplementary Seven can be worded as follows:

"The Law demands the entrance of that which can effect a change.

The Law demands that right direction should then guide the entering forces.

The Law demands that the changes thus effected remove the form, bring quality to light and lay the emphasis upon life.

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The Law demands that this is brought about by the One, working through the Three, energising the Seven and creating the straight line from there to here, and ending in a point which ignores the Three."

When, the rule goes on, this is understood and applied, then four things happen:

1. The group must understand the nature of the Three.

2. The nature of the One must be grasped and comprehended.

3. The group must work through the medium of the united breath.

4. The group must attain a unified rhythm.

Here you have a relatively simple analysis (on the face of it, though not in reality) of a complex rule which the initiate has to apply to himself once he has grasped the significance of the seven basic postulates.  The first seven rules provide the framework within which his work has to be done.  The last seven rules concern various significant matters which, step by step, are revealed to the initiate as his consciousness is expanded.  They relate to:

1. The work which the initiate must accomplish within himself.

2. The group relations of the initiate and his absolute need to work with his group and as an integrated and conscious part of it.

3. The place which invocation and evocation must take as instruments in his pledged intelligent service.

4. The blending of the four lessons which the applicant has to master and the four lessons which the initiate has to complete in order that a complete fusion of personality and Monad can be brought about.

5. The significance of resurrection and ascension, particularly the latter, because little has been given out to date anent ascension.

There are certain major frameworks (if I may continue to use this phrase) within which the initiate has to learn [153] consciously to work, recognising them for what they are; once he has learnt to master that which lies within some particular framework, he finds that it is only a part, a small fraction, of a still greater whole, within which he must also learn to function and play his part.

First he, as a disciple, has to learn to work within the framework of his blending soul-personality.  This task at first takes the form of character building and disciplining (whilst upon the Probationary Path), of a struggle to see, of an endeavour to make a continuity of his soul contact.  Finally, this leads to the beginning of the stage of soul and personality merging and at this point he steps upon the Path of Discipleship, technically understood.  From then on his problem is to know himself as he truly is, to direct energy to the needed centres which are awaiting scientific attention, to superintend consciously the fitting of himself, as a personality, to act as the instrument of the soul and later of the Hierarchy, to learn to contact energy, to handle and direct it.  This entails a comprehension of the mechanism within himself—the seven centres within the vital body—through which the contacted energy must flow under soul direction, and it also means the perfecting of the response apparatus and the newly constructed spiritual mechanism which exoterically enables him to contact the outside world, and esoterically enables him to contact the world of souls.  It implies a steady process of interior perfecting until nothing further remains to be done within that individual framework.  The bulk of this work has been covered by the time the fourth initiation has been taken, and has been completely covered when the fifth initiation is undergone.

This all takes much time, but when a certain measure of success has been achieved, when the initiate's understanding is somewhat enlightened and his energy-use and his power of direction are becoming intelligently applied, he can then begin to work within the framework of the greater seven groups, that is, within the Hierarchy.  This he does first upon the periphery of the hierarchical aura and later as a conscious, accepted and pledged worker in some [154] Ashram—the Ashram being dependent upon his ray type.  He then is in a position to discover the close interlocking that exists between the supplementary seven (his own seven centres) and the seven great groups within the Hierarchy; he comes to realise that only when his centres are somewhat awakened and attuned is it possible for him to work within the larger framework of the Hierarchy, and this because the quality of the greater groups and the life expression of the seven planetary groups, the seven rays, are being slowly developed by him under the influence of hierarchical supervision through the medium of his own seven centres—the supplementary seven.

Thus, from a new angle which is practical and not simply theoretical, it begins to dawn on him that he is an inalienable part of a group whole and that this incontrovertible fact involves responsibilities and duties.  He discovers that his major responsibility—spiritually speaking—is to permit no hindrance, on the part of the supplementary seven, to the free flow of love from the greater seven, and later the free flow of life (inspired by purpose) from the planetary seven.  He knows now that all form a great interlocking directorate through which the will of God is working out.  He now knows himself to be a minute part of that great interlocking Whole, a responsible conscious atom within its periphery.  Then as he goes on and learns to submit to the Law of the Supplementary Seven, he finds that from the life angle and through his own conscious direction, gradually developed, all the potencies of divinity are his to use, once he can be trusted, as the advanced initiate can ever be trusted.  He is then set free for complete cooperation with the purpose lying behind the Plan.  He has passed out of the human kingdom into the Hierarchy; later he will pass out of the hierarchical group into Shamballa, or out of our planetary life altogether, and either here or there will begin a greater and more extended service.

Coming down to the immediate practical issues, the initiate is confronted with the problem of work within the individual framework, for I am not here dealing with the [155] requirements for the initiations above or beyond the third.  Here the initiate has reached the point where he grasps the significant fact that the way into the innermost Centre is most securely guarded; no one can pass onward and take those more advanced steps which admit into the higher worlds of being and of unparalleled potency until he has demonstrated within the framework of his own life a definite control of energy (and this the black adept also possesses), purity of motive (which the black adept can likewise have, if by purity of motive you mean single-hearted and one-pointed intent), deep love of humanity (which the black adept never has), selflessness, willingness to follow the light wherever it may lead, ability to begin work within the larger framework the moment such an attempt becomes possible, clear vision and spiritual insight, a developed intuition, and an undeviating intention and strong faith in the future.  When these qualities begin to show themselves, it then becomes possible to admit the initiate to further advancement upon the Way.

It is believed to be safe for him now to move on a few more steps into greater light, and then—having reached his next point of testing—he must there again demonstrate the rightness of his work within the individual framework and his ability to work within the greater framework in group formation.  He must appreciate the fact that as he passes upon the upward way he may not safely so do without the safeguards which protect the Way from him until he knows more; he must learn also that the group protects him and that only with the group can he proceed with security; he begins to realise that the group is not only a protection but also his chosen and destined field of service.  He begins to learn with his group the meaning of the "united breath" referred to in the rule, and also to work with the group in "unified rhythm."

Thus he goes from strength to strength.  All the time the Hierarchy is aiding in his development and at the same time protecting the Way from him until such time as glamour cannot reach him.  This individual security of his [156] is only reached between the time of taking the second initiation and the third.  Prior to that, he is still regarded as a potential hazard and as unstable.  After that, he may suffer from illusion, but there is then no fear of his permanently turning back and reaching the left-hand path and so perhaps, in rare cases, finding his way into the Black Lodge.  The major liability of the average initiate is sloth or lack of speed.  Ponder on that.

I would have you grasp clearly the highly condensed presentation I have given you.  Some of it you know already but it is the synthetic presentation which I would have you appreciate and appropriate.  We can then take up the work to be done within the individual framework by the initiate; I will endeavour to help you to understand somewhat more clearly what the initiate-consciousness would read into the Law of the Supplementary Seven.

Beginning with this eighth rule which we are now studying, we enter upon the consideration of certain major unfoldments, major spiritual happenings and a series of major awakenings in consciousness which are in the nature of events.  These involve likewise certain major recognitions and appreciations which will affect the initiate increasingly and bring about his eventual attainment.  These are the factors which condition the date of his achievement and not the character undertakings and the soul contacts which are so necessary upon the Path of Probation and upon the Path of Discipleship.

We are principally concerned at this point with the interpretation of the Law of the Supplementary Seven.  It must be remembered that the Laws of Nature are imposed upon the mass of men, and cannot be avoided.  If these laws are broken, infringed or evaded, they carry their own penalty within themselves, and this also cannot be avoided.  These great protective laws are intended to guard the personalities through which the soul incarnates and eventually to cement and further all the great and possible relationships.  The man passes from the stage of antagonism (as an individual) to the control of these natural though divine [157] laws, to a recognition of their inevitability and of their wisdom.  They automatically then control him.

When this control by the Laws of Nature has become complete, the man becomes an aspirant and begins to come under the Laws of the Soul, which are laws concerned primarily with the establishing of the great Fellowship of the Universe.  There has been much confusion among esotericists upon these points.  They confuse the discipline to which the personality has to submit when coming under soul influence, with the Laws of the Soul which have naught to do with the petty little affairs of the personality—unimportant and unnoticed by the soul on its own plane—but with the growing recognition of right group relations; these are based upon a growing understanding of the hierarchical mode of work and of inter-hierarchical relationships.  The Laws of Nature, therefore, concern the activities of the soul in form and are mandatory and accepted by the form nature.  The Laws of the Soul concern the life of the soul upon its own plane, and the relation which the blending soul and personality learn to establish with other souls and with the Hierarchy.  These are consciously and voluntarily obeyed, and are not just accepted as mandatory and as forced upon the man by force of circumstances, experience and evolution.  They tend to bring about increasing relation between the Hierarchy of Souls and Humanity as a whole, between the great planetary centre which is the custodian of the principle of love and the planetary centre, humanity, which nurtures and distributes the energy of mind.

The Law of the Supplementary Seven is the great synthetic Law of Life or of Spirit and is the law with which the initiate works; it is this law he wields.  From acceptance of the laws of nature and obedience to the laws of the soul, he passes into the positive phase of understanding and wielding the Law of Life.  Because this is a governing law for all initiates, and because we know that the nature of life-energy or of spirit cannot be grasped until after the third initiation, it is exceedingly difficult for me to write in explanation of this law.  You have not yet the initiate consciousness. [158] I have therefore had to express this law in terms of form, whereas the initiate understands it from its formless angle.

This law is concerned with the wielding of energy in the world of the Spiritual Triad and not with the distribution or the transmission of this energy to the three worlds in which average humanity habitually dwells.  Right wielding of this law (controlling energy in the initiatory world of causes) automatically brings about activity, movement, force expression, and right distribution of these forces in the lower three worlds.  These are, under the evolutionary law, direct reflections of the three higher worlds of the triadal light and life.  Motivation, the use of the eye of vision (turned this time by the initiate functioning in the world of causes upon the worlds of human living), and the correct direction of force in cooperation with the hierarchical Plan condition all the activities of the initiate working with this law.  Clearer than this I cannot be.

This Law of the Supplementary Seven is concerned with the inflow of energy from the seven planetary centres to the seven groups or types of men, via the seven groups within the Hierarchy.  In this work of transmission the seven centres of the initiate are used as agencies; their work, therefore, is not the interrelated work of right transmission of energy within the septenary constitution of the etheric body of the individual initiate, implementing his life expression, but is the task of being responsive to the seven types of planetary energy which are received in a pure state.  It is then channeled through the seven centres in the initiate's etheric vehicle and out into the world of men as regenerative and constructive forces.  These living spiritual energies—transmitted by the individual initiate from the planetary centres—are handled by him under a great uniform plan and are the means whereby salvation (to use an old familiar word) can come to the aid of humanity.  This is the "saving force" in its various aspects, of which the Great Invocation speaks:  "The hour of service of the Saving Force has now arrived".  (The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, page 249.) [159] The high Initiates (Those above the rank of Master) work with the energies coming from the seven planets of the solar system at this time active; these feed or implement the seven planetary centres.  But the Law of the Supplementary Seven is applied by initiates below the rank of Master, and they are therefore working solely with the seven centres within the Form of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being.

One of their first tasks is to bring about a free flow and right energy relations between the three major centres in our planet which correspond to the head, heart and throat centres in man.  They are occupied with the circulation of energy between Shamballa, the Hierarchy and Humanity.  This circulation, which for the first time in planetary history includes the highest centre, Shamballa, is not yet completely established.  Shamballa has been in touch with the centre called Humanity by impact several times in the history of the race.  But there has been no reciprocal action and no free flow.  Humanity has taken the impact of energy and this impact has wrought changes in the activity of the centre, but there has been no "responsive return," as it is esoterically called, and hence no circulation.  The Shamballa force has hitherto been transmitted via the Hierarchy.  For the first time, and in this century there has been direct impact.  The diagram on page 160 may make this clearer.

We shall eventually have a free circulation and a veritable vortex of force set up between the three centres; it will be of such an increasing radiatory activity that—moving in both directions around the three centres—it will eventually contact the radiations emanating from the other four centres of the planetary Life, thus completing the interplay and the interrelation between all seven.  These four include the three lower kingdoms of nature and a certain basic centre (corresponding to the centre at the base of the spine in man) about which nothing is as yet known nor will be known for ages to come.

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Diagram

The importance, therefore, of the centre which we call Humanity will be apparent.  The Secret Doctrine has ever taught that mankind has a special function in saving and regenerating nature.  The "saving force"—a circulatory combination of the three major energies—is radiated by humanity as a group-creative impulse, and this gradually sweeps all forms of life into the field of its magnetic potency, thus relating them (or rather the soul of each kingdom) to the Hierarchy and to Shamballa.  This involves a great mystery which is closely tied up—little as you may realise it—with the doctrine of Avatars or of World Saviours.

It is in this connection that the words I gave you previously are pertinent:

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1. "The group must understand the nature of the Three."  This will be seen to refer to the three major centres and the nature of their relationship, and not specifically to the Trinity.

2. "The nature of the One must be grasped and comprehended."  This has reference to the fact that our planetary Life is Itself a centre within a still greater Life, and is today one of the three planetary centres (even if not yet one of the seven sacred planets) which are the custodians of the force, in process of transmission, which will be to the greater Life what Shamballa, the Hierarchy and Humanity are to Our planetary Logos.

3. "The group must work through the medium of the united breath."  This deals with the processes of circulation, for the breath is the life and pours through all the centres.

4. "The group must attain a unified rhythm."  This has no reference in reality to the work of a group of disciples, but to a group of centres of life, such as the three major centres or the entire group of seven centres.

A study of these ideas may carry illumination, but I would again remind you that I write for initiates, living at a later period in this century and in the next.

In considering this Law of the Supplementary Seven, I would like to point out that the word "supplementary" is of real significance.  It brings in a factor of great interest, from the angle of initiation.  You must bear in mind that when the antahkarana is constructed and in use, there is consequently a free play of energy in a direct line between the Spiritual Triad and the personality; i.e., between the Monad and its "earthly anchor."  You will also remember that the soul body, the form on the higher levels of the mental plane which has "shrouded" the soul, eventually disappears.  This, as you know, takes place at the fourth initiation and is one of the best recognised facts in the occult teaching.  In the three worlds, the correspondence to this disappearance of the form of the second divine aspect, the soul, is the dissolution of the astral body—the second aspect [162] of the personality.  Then the personality stands free from its control.  Sensitivity and reaction to contact in the three worlds has been perfectly developed, but it no longer holds the disciple a prisoner.

Then, at a later stage upon the Path of Initiation, the causal body also disappears and the initiate stands free in the three worlds.  The astral body and the causal or soul body are—in the language of esotericism—supplementary to reality.  They have had a temporary reality during the evolutionary process, but (having served their purpose and having endowed man with certain required assets—consciousness, feeling, sensitivity, the ability to establish and register contact) they pass away and the initiate remains, possessed of power over form and a fully awakened consciousness.  He is a soul and the fusion is complete.

What is true of the individual is true too of the Heavenly Man, the planetary Logos.  In the long period of a world cycle there comes a time when the Hierarchy itself, as a body organised and functioning in order to implement certain evolutionary ends, is no longer needed.  It is then regarded as "supplementary," and under the Law its life, its potency and its entire consciousness are absorbed into the planetary head centre, Shamballa.  A great process of abstraction or of withdrawal takes place, covering necessarily a long period of time, and which is consummated only when evolution—as we know it—comes to an end and the planetary Life (again as we know it) also comes to an end.  This process of abstraction is always going on.  Men become disciples and then initiates.  Some stay as hierarchical workers, choosing to work with the planetary forces of evolution.  Others pass on into the great Council Chamber of the Lord of the World, and still others pass out of our planetary ring-pass-not altogether.

Thus the Law of the Supplementary Seven is ever in force.  It functions in the processes going on in the seven centres of the individual man, gathering energy from one centre into another until all are centred, controlled and directed in the head.  In the stage of what the Hindus call [163] "samadhi" the vital energies from all the centres are concentrated in the highest head centre in the etheric body, in the area just above the physical head.  Thus the analogy is complete.  The processes of abstraction are (as you may thus see) connected with the life aspect, are set in motion by an act of the spiritual will, and constitute the "resurrection principle which lies hidden in the work of the Destroyer," as an old esoteric saying expresses it.  The lowest manifestation of this principle is to be seen in the process of what we call Death—which is in reality a means of abstracting the life principle, informed by consciousness, from the form or the bodies in the three worlds.

Thus, the great synthesis emerges, and destruction, death, and dissolution are in reality naught but life processes.  Abstraction is indicative of process, progress and development.

It is this aspect of the Law of Life (or the Law of Synthesis as it is called in certain larger connotations) with which the initiate specifically deals when wielding the Law of the Supplementary Seven.  The group angle of the matter can be seen if you remember that the individual initiate, when wielding this law, draws upon the united energy of the Will as the group is expressing it in "unified rhythm."  It is by the use of the "united breath" of the entire group (as much of it as his individual will can assimilate, focus, use and direct) that he augments his own will and its directed force.  The breath, as we well know, is the life; this Law is the one wielded by the living or risen Christ, in perfect harmony with the will of Shamballa.  Herein lies one of the mysteries of the resurrection initiation about which so little has been told, and it is the very heart of the mystery of the ascension initiation.  In this latter initiation the living risen Christ withdraws or abstracts Himself and enters consciously and permanently into the great centre, Shamballa.  The resurrection and the ascension are the results of the death or destruction of the causal body.  It can be seen, therefore, how true the Gospel story is to the purposes of Shamballa.

Let us now briefly interpret or rather paraphrase the [164] four sentences by means of which I have sought to embody this law, or as much of it as it is possible to put into words, for the enlightenment of the initiates of the future.

1. The Law demands the entrance of that which can effect a change.

Bearing in mind what I have elsewhere given, it is obvious that that which must find entrance is that vital concentrated will which, when set in motion in an individual, in a group, in a nation, in a kingdom of nature (a planetary centre), and in the planet as a whole, i.e., in all the planetary centres simultaneously, will cause a stirring, a changed measure, a new movement and momentum, an uprising and a consequent abstraction.  The changes wrought in the centres when the death of the physical body is taking place have never yet been observed or recorded; they are, however, definitely present to the eye of the initiate and prove most interesting and informative.  It is the recognition of the condition of the centres which enables the initiate to know—when in process of bestowing healing—whether the physical healing of the body is permissible or not.  He can see whether the will principle of abstraction to which I have been referring is actively present or not.  The same process can be seen taking place in organisations and in civilisations in which the form aspect is being destroyed in order that the life may be abstracted and later again rebuild for itself a more adequate form.  It is the same under the great processes of initiation, which are not only processes of expanding the consciousness but are rooted in the death or the abstraction process, leading to resurrection and ascension.

That which effects a change is a discharge (to use a totally inadequate phrase) of directed and focussed will-energy.  This is so magnetic in quality that it draws to itself the life of the centres, bringing about the dissolution of the form and the release of the life.  Death comes to the individual man, in the ordinary sense of the term, when the will-to-live in a physical body goes and the will-to-abstract [165] [165] takes its place.  This we call death.  In cases of death in war, for instance, it is not then a case of the individual will-to-withdraw, but an enforced participation in a great group abstraction.  From its own place, the soul of the individual man recognises the end of a cycle of incarnation and recalls its life.  This it does through a discharge of the will-energy that is strong enough to bring about the change.

2. The Law demands that right direction should then guide the entering forces.

The entering forces, working under this law, are directed first of all to the head centre, from thence to the ajna centre and then to that centre which has been the governing and most active centre during the incarnation of the life principle.  This varies according to the point reached upon the ladder of evolution, and according to the personality ray, with later the soul ray bringing about a major conditioning and change.  In the work of the initiate who is consciously wielding this law, the principle of abstraction (when entering the body) is held focussed in the head and is of such a magnetic potency that the energy of the remaining centres is rapidly gathered up and withdrawn.  What is true of the individual process of abstracting the life principle, under the Law of the Supplementary Seven, is equally true of the process in all forms and in all groups of forms.  Christ referred to this work of abstraction, as regards the third great planetary centre, Humanity, when He said (and He was speaking as the Representative of the Hierarchy, the second planetary centre into which all human beings achieving initiation are "withdrawn" esoterically), "I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me."  A different word to this word of His will be spoken at the end of the age when the Lord of the World will speak from Shamballa, will abstract the life principle from the Hierarchy, and all life and consciousness will then be focussed in the planetary head centre—the great Council Chamber at Shamballa.

3. The Law demands that the changes thus effected remove the form, bring quality to light, and lay the emphasis upon life.

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Here the three great aspects—form, quality and life—are brought into relation and the point of the evolutionary objective is seen in its true light—LIFE.  Note this phrasing.  Form or appearance, having served its purpose, disappears.  Death of the form takes place.  Quality, the major divine attribute being developed in this planet, becomes dominant and is "conscious of itself "—as the ancient writings put it.  It is identified and individual but has no implementing form, except that of the greater whole in which it finds its place.  Neither form nor quality (body nor consciousness) are paramount in the new state of Being, but only the life aspect, the spirit on its own plane, becomes the dominating factor.  Some faint dim light on the significance of this may come if you bear in mind that our seven planes are only the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane.  The process of developing sensitivity in this sevenfold evolution has been undergone in order to enable the initiate to function upon the cosmic astral plane, when withdrawn or abstracted after the higher initiations.  He is abstracted from our planetary life altogether.  Only one factor could prevent this, and that might be his pledge to serve temporarily within the planetary ring-pass-not.  Such Members of the Hierarchy Who pledge Themselves to this work are stated to have the Buddhic consciousness, and the line of Their descent (occultly understood) is from the Eternal Pilgrim, the Lord of the World, then the Buddha, and then the Christ.  They remain identified through the free choice with the "quality seen within the light," and for the term of Their freely rendered service They work with the consciousness aspect in order to lay the emphasis later upon the life aspect.

4. The Law demands that this is brought about by the One, working through the Three, energising the Seven and creating the straight line from there to here, and ending in a point which ignores the Three.

Let me paraphrase this, for detailed comment is not possible or permissible.  The One directed will (of the individual, [167] of humanity, of the Hierarchy) and the great Lords of Shamballa, working through the three major centres (head, heart and throat; Humanity, the Hierarchy and Shamballa), thereby energise all the seven centres (to the point of abstraction), using the straight line of the antahkarana from above downwards (from the centre of power, the head or Shamballa), and gather all upwards into a point which is neither of the Three (Shamballa, the Hierarchy and Humanity) and ignores them, for they must no longer limit the life.  This point lies outside manifestation altogether.  Abstraction is complete.

Ponder, therefore, upon this doctrine of abstraction.  It covers all life processes, and will convey to you the eternally lovely secret of Death, which is entrance into life.