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SECTION ONE - THE ASPIRANT AND THE MYSTERIES OF INITIATION - Part 6

 

The mental plane which must be bridged is like a great stream of consciousness or of conscious substance, and across this stream the antahkarana must be constructed.  This is the concept which lies behind this teaching and behind the symbolism of the Path.  Before a man can tread the Path, he must become that Path himself.  Out of the substance of his own life he must construct this rainbow bridge, this Lighted Way.  He spins it and anchors it as a spider spins a thread [465] along which it can travel.  Each of his three divine aspects contributes to that bridge, and the time of this building is indicated when his lower nature is:

1. Becoming oriented, regulated and creative.

2. Recognising and reacting to soul contact and control.

3. Sensitive to the first impression of the Monad.  This sensitivity is indicated where there is:

a. Submission to the "will of God" or of the greater Whole.

b. Unfoldment of the inner spiritual will, overcoming all obstacles.

c. Cooperation with the purpose of the Hierarchy, the interpreting will of God as expressed in love.

I have enumerated these three responses to the totality of the divine aspects because they are related to the antahkarana and must become defined and conditioned upon the mental plane.  They are there to be found expressing themselves in substance:

1. The lower concrete mind.

The receptive common sense.

The highest aspect of the form nature.

The reflection of atma, the spiritual will.

The throat centre.

Knowledge.

2. The individualised mind.

The soul or spiritual ego.

The middle principle.  Buddhi-manas.

The reflection in mental substance of the Monad.

Spiritual love-wisdom.

The heart centre.

Love.

3. The higher abstract mind.

The transmitter of buddhi.

The reflection of the divine nature.

Intuitive love, understanding, inclusiveness.

The head centre.

Sacrifice.

[466]

There are necessarily other arrangements of these aspects in manifestation, but the above will serve to indicate the relation of Monad-soul-personality as they express themselves through certain focussed stations or points of power upon the mental plane.

In humanity, however, the major realisation to be grasped at the present point in human evolution is the need to relate—consciously and effectively—the spiritual Triad, the soul on its own plane and the personality in its three-fold nature.  This is done through the creative work of the personality, the magnetic power of the Triad, and the conscious activity of the soul, utilising the triple thread.

You can see, therefore, why so much emphasis is laid by esotericists upon fusion, unity or blending; only when this is intelligently realised can the disciple begin to weave the threads into a bridge of light which eventually becomes the Lighted Way across which he can pass into the higher worlds of being.  Thus he liberates himself from the three worlds.  It is—in this world cycle—pre-eminently a question of fusion and expressing (in full waking awareness) three major states of consciousness:

1. The Shamballa Consciousness.

Awareness of the unity and purpose of Life.

Recognition and cooperation with the Plan.

Will.  Direction.  Oneness.

The influence of the Triad.

2. The Hierarchical Consciousness.

Awareness of the Self, the Soul.

Recognition and cooperation with divinity.

Love.  Attraction.  Relation.

The influence of the Soul.

3. The Human Consciousness.

Awareness of the soul within the form.

Recognition and cooperation with the soul.

Intelligence.  Action.  Expression.

The influence of the consecrated personality.

The man who finally builds the antahkarana across the mental [467] plane connects or relates these three divine aspects, so that progressively at each initiation they are more closely fused into one divine expression in full and radiant manifestation.  Putting it in other words, the disciple treads the path of return, builds the antahkarana, crosses the Lighted Way, and achieves the freedom of the Path of Life.

One of the points which it is essential that students should grasp is the deeply esoteric fact that this antahkarana is built through the medium of a conscious effort within consciousness itself, and not just by attempting to be good, or to express goodwill, or to demonstrate the qualities of unselfishness and high aspiration.  Many esotericists seem to regard the treading of the Path as the conscious effort to overcome the lower nature and to express life in terms of right living and thinking, love and intelligent understanding.  It is all that, but it is something far more.  Good character and good spiritual aspiration are basic essentials.  But these are taken for granted by the Master Who has a disciple under training; their foundation and their recognition and development are the objectives upon the Path of Probation.

But to build the antahkarana is to relate the three divine aspects.  This involves intense mental activity; it necessitates the power to imagine and to visualise, plus a dramatic attempt to build the Lighted Way in mental substance.  This mental substance is—as we have seen—of three qualities or natures, and the bridge of living light is a composite creation, having in it:

1. Force, focussed and projected from the fused and blended forces of the personality.

2. Energy, drawn from the egoic body by a conscious effort.

3. Energy, abstracted from the Spiritual Triad.

It is essentially, however, an activity of the integrated and dedicated personality.  Esotericists must not take the position that all they have to do is to await negatively some activity by the soul which will automatically take place after a certain measure of soul contact has been achieved, and that consequently and in time this activity will evoke response [468] both from the personality and the Triad.  This is not the case.  The work of the building of the antahkarana is primarily an activity of the personality, aided by the soul; this in time evokes a reaction from the Triad.  There is far too much inertia demonstrated by aspirants at this time.

One might also look at this matter from another angle.  The personality is beginning to transmute knowledge into wisdom, and when this takes place the focus of the personality life is then upon the mental plane, because the transmutation process (with its stages of understanding, analysis, recognition and application) is fundamentally a mental process.  The personality is also beginning to comprehend the significance of love and to interpret it in terms of the group well-being, and not in terms of the personal self, of desire or even of aspiration.  True love is rightly understood only by the mental type who is spiritually oriented.  The personality is also arriving at the realisation that there is in reality no such thing as sacrifice.  Sacrifice is usually only the thwarted desire of the lower nature, willingly endured by the aspirant, but—in this phase—a misinterpretation and limitation.  Sacrifice is really complete conformity to the will of God because the spiritual will of the man and the divine will (as he recognises it in the Plan) is his will.  There is a growing identification in purpose.  Therefore, self-will, desire and those intelligent activities which are dually motivated are seen and recognised as only the lower expression of the three divine aspects, and the effort is to express these in terms of the soul and not, as hitherto, in terms of a dedicated and rightly oriented personality.  This becomes possible in its true sense only when the focus of the life is in the mental vehicle and the head as well as the heart is becoming active.  In this process, the stages of character building are seen as essential and effective, and are willingly and consciously undertaken.  But—when these foundations of good character and intelligent activity are firmly established—something still higher and more subtle must be erected on the sub-structure.

Knowledge-wisdom must be superseded by intuitive [469] understanding; this is, in reality, inclusive participation in the creative activity of divinity.  The divine idea must become the possible ideal, and this ideal must become unfolded and manifested in substance upon the physical plane.  The creative thread, now somewhat ready, must be brought into conscious functioning and activity.

Desire-love must be interpreted in terms of divine attraction, involving the right use or misuse of energies and forces.  This process puts the disciple in touch with divinity as a progressively revealed Whole.  The part, through the magnetic development of its own nature, comes into touch gradually with all that IS.  The disciple becomes aware of this sum total in increasingly vivid expansions of consciousness, leading to initiation, realisation and identification.  These are the three stages of initiation.

The consciousness thread, in cooperation with the creative thread and the life thread, awakens to a fully aware process of participation in the divine creative Plan—a Plan which is motivated by love and intelligently carried forward.

Direction-Will (which are words describing the orientation produced by the understanding of the two processes of knowledge-wisdom and desire-love) must produce the final orientation of the personality and the soul, fused and blended and at-one, towards the freedom of the Spiritual Triad; then the conscious attempt to use these three energies eventuates in creating the antahkarana upon the mental plane.  You will note that at this early stage of the process I am emphasising the words "orientation" and "attempt."  They simply indicate the final control of substance by the initiate.

One of the indications that a man is no longer upon the Probationary Path is his emerging from the realm of aspiration and devotion into the world of the focussed will.  Another indication is that he begins to interpret life in terms of energy and forces, and not in terms of quality and desire.  This marks a definite step forward.  There is too little use of the spiritual will, as the result of right orientation, in the life of disciples today.

[470]

In the future, this Science of the Antahkarana and its lower correspondence, the Science of Social Evolution (which is the joint or united antahkarana of humanity as a whole), will be known as the Science of Invocation and Evocation.  It is in reality the Science of Magnetic Rapport, in which right relationship is brought about by mutual invocation, producing a responsive process which is one of evocation.  It is this science which lies behind all conscious awakening of the centres and their interrelation; it lies behind the rapport between man and man, group and group, and eventually between nation and nation.  It is this invocation, and the consequent evocation, which eventually relate soul and personality and soul and monad.  It is the outstanding objective of humanity's appeal to God, to the Hierarchy and to the Spiritual Powers of the cosmos, no matter by what name you call them.  The appeal goes forth.  The invocation of humanity can and will and must evoke response from the spiritual Hierarchy and give the first demonstration upon a large scale of this new esoteric science—esoteric because it is based upon sound.  Hence the use of the O.M.  Into this science I cannot here go; we must confine our attention to our theme, which is the Science of the Antahkarana.

The Bridge as the Agent of Alignment

The word "alignment" is used much in modern esoteric training.  I would point out that in making his alignment, the aspirant is only establishing the first stage of his process of realisation; he is establishing in his own consciousness the fact of his essential dualism.  I would also point out that the critical aspect of this process is only arrived at when the distinction is sharply defined and recognised between the integrated and potent personality and the soul.  It is an occult truism to state that the aspirant is to be recognised by  or triplicity; the disciple  or recognised duality and the initiate by  or unity.  Note that the symbol of duality for undeveloped humanity is  in which the separation of the higher nature from the lower is depicted; in the case of the disciple, it is  showing the "path across" or the [471] narrow razor-edged Path between the pairs of opposites, forming later the antahkarana.  These symbols, simple as they are, embody and convey vast truths to the illumined mind.

Relatively speaking, and speaking in terms of the mental consciousness, the realisation of duality is only to be found in the three worlds and on the mental plane.  When the third initiation is taken, the power of the lower pair of opposites is no longer felt and exists no more.  A liberated consciousness and an unrestricted awareness—unrestricted as regards the initiate, moving within the orbit of the planetary Logos (though not unrestricted as regards that greater Life which moves within still other and greater defined limits)—are both understood and expressed.  Within the planetary ring-pass-not the initiate moves with freedom and knows no limitation in consciousness.  That is why the higher levels of our planetary and systemic planes are called formless.  It is this  which is the true symbol of alignment, involving as it does the sense of duality but indicating at the same time the way through what are called "the walls of limitation."

Students would do well to consider the building of the antahkarana as an extension in consciousness.  This extension is the first definite effort made upon the Path to bring in the monadic influence with full awareness, and finally directly.  This process constitutes the individual parallel to the present inflow of force from Shamballa, about which I have elsewhere spoken.  That highest Centre of energy upon our planet is now having a definite effect upon that centre which we call Humanity.  This is brought about by direct alignment, and not via the Hierarchy as has hitherto been the case.  When the individual antahkarana has been successfully started, and there is even a tenuous thread of living energy connecting the threefold personality and the Spiritual Triad, then the inflow of the will-energy becomes possible.  This, in the early stages, can be most dangerous when not offset by the love energy of the soul.  Only one thread of the threefold antahkarana passes through the egoic lotus. [472] The other two threads relate themselves directly with the Triad, and hence eventually with the Monad, the source of the triadal life.  This is true of the individual and of humanity as a whole, and the effects of this alignment can be seen demonstrating in the world at this time.

This rather unexpected responsive activity has necessitated much increased activity on the part of the Hierarchy, in order to offset the consequences of any premature inflow of the will force.  After the third initiation, when the soul body, the causal body, starts to dissipate, the line of relation or of connection can be and is direct.  The initiate then "stands in the ocean of love, and through him pours that love; his will is love and he can safely work, for love divine will colour all his will, and he can wisely serve."  Love and intelligence then become the servants of the will.  Soul energy and personality force contribute to the experience of the Monad in the three worlds of life service, and then the age-long task of the incarnating spiritual man is finally accomplished.  He is ready for Nirvana, which is but the Way into new fields of spiritual experience and of divine development—incomprehensible as yet, even to the initiate of the third degree.  This Way is revealed only when the antahkarana is built and completed and the man becomes focussed in the Triad as consciously as he is now focussed in the threefold lower nature.

Then, and then only, is the true dualism of the divine nature apparent and the illusory duality disappears.  Then you have Spirit-matter, Life-form.  For this the triple experience of the unfolding consciousness is only preparatory.  Through the unfolding consciousness, the initiate knows the significance of life and the uses of form, but stands completely unidentified with either, though blending these dualities in himself into a conscious synthesis.  The attempt to convey his state of mind, in words that but limit and confuse, leads to apparent contradictions, and this is one of the peculiar paradoxes of the occult science.  Do the above imparted facts make sense to you?  Have they meaning for your mind?  I think not.  You have not yet the needed equipment [473] through which the type of implied awareness can work, or the realisation of that true Self-consciousness which would produce in you an understanding reaction.  I simply make the esoteric assertion; later will come apprehension of the truth and that consequent energising which always comes when any abstract truth is truly appreciated and assimilated.  But the time has not yet come for the comprehension of the above information.  Disciples and aspirants grow through the means of a presented vision—unattainable as yet but definitely an extension of the known and previously grasped.  Such is the mode of evolution, for it is ever a pressing forward towards the sensed.

Today, through human effort and hierarchical endeavour, a great alignment and linking up is taking place, and Monad-Soul-Personality are being more directly related than has hitherto been possible.  One reason for this is that there are present in incarnation upon the planet many more initiates of the third degree than ever before; there are many more disciples being prepared for the third initiation; and in this third strictly human race, the Aryan (using this term in its generic sense and not in its prostituted German connotation), the three aspects of the personality are now so potent that their magnetic influence and their creative effect are making the building of the antahkarana an outstanding achievement, thus linking and aligning the three aspects in man.  The same is true of the three divine centres in the planet which embody these divine qualities:  Shamballa, Hierarchy, and Humanity.  These are now closely aligned, thus producing a fusion of energies which is causing an inflow of the spiritual will, as well as a demonstration of the Destroyer aspect.

I have here indicated much of interest; I have pointed out a goal and indicated a Way.  I have related (in consciousness) the Hierarchy and Shamballa.  This signifies a great and critical moment in human affairs and an opportunity hitherto unparalleled in history.  The need for a due appreciation of this will be evident, and should incite all who read to renewed effort and to fresh endeavour.  Students must [474] seek to meet all the planetary changes and opportunities with corresponding changes in their own lives.  They must seek those new attitudes and those new creative approaches which will result not alone in the building of the individual antahkarana, but also in the fusion of the many "radiant strands" which will produce those "connecting cables," speaking symbolically, which will relate the planetary centres and present the medium along which can pass the fiery will and the predetermined purpose of Deity.  This will bring about the reconstruction of the manifested worlds, and in this task each and every one of you can have his share.

Let us now take up our next point in this section and indicate the technique for the constructing of the antahkarana.  This will constitute an intensely practical teaching for which all that I have hitherto given should prove a firm foundation.

The Technique of Construction

It is my intention to be very practical.  The building of the antahkarana (which is consciously undertaken upon the Path of Discipleship) is a process which is followed under certain ancient and proven rules.  When these rules are correctly followed, the sequence of events and the appearance of the desired results are inevitable and unavoidable.  There is much that I could say which would be of small use to the average aspirant, as it would be concerned with subjective realities which—though existent and occult facts in a natural process—are as yet unrealisable.  My problem is to present the process in such a manner that—towards the end of this century—educators will be thinking, speaking and teaching in terms of bridging, and thus approaching basic statements which have a definite bearing upon this point which we are considering.  I would like here very succinctly to recall a few of them to your attention:

1. Knowledge-force expresses itself through the consciousness thread and the creative thread.

2. These two threads are, for the disciple, a fusion of [475] past knowledge (the consciousness thread) and the present (the creative thread).

3. The life thread or sutratma proper is closely blended with these two.  You then have atma-buddhi-manas (the latter being the agent of creation) functioning to a certain degree consciously in the aspirant.

4. The fusion of personality and soul is in process, but when it has reached a certain point it becomes apparent that a creativity or a creative activity of the Will is needed to bridge between the Spiritual Triad and the personality, via the soul.

5. The bridge which must be constructed is called, technically, the antahkarana.

6. This bridge has to be built by the aspirant who is focussed upon the mental plane, because it is mental substance (in three grades) which must be used, and the three aspects of the mind—the manasic permanent atom, the Son of Mind or Ego, and the mental unit—are all involved in the process.

Students would do well to learn that this process of building the antahkarana is one of the means whereby man, the trinity, becomes a duality.  When the task is completed and the antahkarana is definitely built—thus producing perfect alignment between the Monad and its expression upon the physical plane—the body of the soul (the causal body) is completely and finally destroyed by the fire of the Monad, pouring down the antahkarana.  There is then complete reciprocity between the Monad and the fully conscious soul on the physical plane.  The "divine intermediary" is no longer required.  The "Son of God Who is the Son of Mind" dies; the "veil of the temple is rent in twain from the top to the bottom"; the fourth initiation is passed, and there then comes the revelation of the Father.

This is the final and far-reaching result of the building of the bridge which is, in reality, the establishing of a line of light between Monad and personality as a full expression of the soul—between spirit and matter, between Father and Mother.  It is evidence that "spirit has mounted on the [476] shoulders of matter" to that high place from whence it originally came, plus the gain of experience and of full knowledge, and of all that life in material form could give and all that conscious experience could confer.  The Son has done His work.  The task of the Saviour or of the Mediator has been completed.  The unity of all things is known to be a fact in consciousness, and a human spirit can say with intention and with understanding:  "I and my Father are one."

The above is a brief and probably meaningless statement except theoretically, but it summarises the task which lies ahead and the work of the disciple who is in process of constructing the antahkarana.  There is a close connection between the fourth initiation, the quaternary in its evolved condition—vital body, emotional vehicle, mind and soul—and this fourth technical stage of building consciously the "rainbow bridge." You have therefore:

1. The Quaternary, the creative factor on Earth.

2. The fourth initiation, that of the Crucifixion.

3. The fourth technical stage of building the Antahkarana:

a. Sutratma, the life thread.

b. The consciousness thread.

c. The creative thread, itself threefold.

d. The technical antahkarana, bridging between the threefold personality and the Spiritual Triad.

4. The four stages of the Path of Return:

a. The stage of evolution itself.

b. The stage of the Probationary Path.

c. The stage of the Path of Discipleship.

d. The stage of the Path of Initiation.

Yet it is one and the same entity which participates in and is responsible for all the differentiated aspects, steps and stages—experimenting, experiencing and expressing consciously in every one of these stages or modes of life, until the fourth initiation.  Then consciousness itself gives place to life, and yet remains itself.  To the above statement, add [477] the fact that it is the fourth kingdom in nature which undergoes all that is indicated above and is conditioned by the four aspects of the one sutratma.  Once this is grasped, the beauty of the symbolism and the numerological relationships emerge significantly.

The Construction of the Antahkarana . . . Past

In connection with this there is no need for elaboration, as it must be obvious that only the man who is the product of a very long and fruitful past experience is equipped to undertake the task of bridge building.  The process involves much scientific experience in the art of living, and only the highly trained human enquirer can soundly and safely build the bridge between the highest and the lowest.  Each of the major human races has been responsible for the expression and the employment of the threads which together form the antahkarana:

1. In ancient Lemuria, the life thread, the sutratma per se, was the dominant factor in the life expression; the physical body, the animal form nature, and the dense outer factor was the focus of life exuberant, productive and vital.

2. In old Atlantis, the consciousness thread began to function in a way unrealised in Lemuria.  Sensitivity, awareness and—as a result—desire and reaction were the keynotes.  Active sensitivity as a prelude to full consciousness distinguished the human being.  The astral vehicle was a controlling factor.  The mind was relatively quiescent, except where the foremost members of the human race were concerned.  The humanity of that world cycle were, however, all of them extremely psychic and mediumistic; they were "sensitives," in the modern use of the term.  The state of awareness was astral, and human beings were—as a race—clairaudient and clairvoyant, though in no way able to interpret that which they contacted; they were not able to distinguish astral phenomena from ordinary physical life (particularly in the middle period of their racial history), and the interpreting mind revealed nothing to them.  They [478] simply lived and felt.  Such was their life history.  Two of the threads were functioning; one was not functioning at all.  The bridge was not built.

3. In our modern Aryan race—modern as far as racial histories are concerned—the third thread, the creative thread, comes into active expression and use.  I would remind you that all these threads exist from the beginning of human existence, and that all these three streams of energy have been indissolubly present from the beginning of human consciousness.  But for the greater part of human history, up to the present, men remained unaware of them, and quite unconsciously made use of and continued to make use of their presence.  The process of recognising creative ability and of opportunity falls into two phases or stages:

a. The stage wherein the mind principle is developed and unfolded and man becomes a mental creature.  This produces the full activity of the mental unit, the integration of the three aspects of the personality, and the consequent awareness of the Son of Mind or soul.

b. The stage of creative activity wherein the creative thread is brought into full use.  This personality use of the thread—as distinguished from racial use—is characteristic of the Aryan race.  It is only during the past five thousand years that it has gradually become the outstanding quality of mankind.  In the other two races, and in the early stages of the Aryan race, although great creative monuments appeared everywhere upon the planet, they were not the product of the minds of the men of the time, but were the imposition of the creative will of the planetary Hierarchy upon those who were sensitive to the higher impression.  The responsive sensitivity to creative impression was the outstanding quality of the later Atlantean consciousness and of the early Aryan period.  It is today giving place to individual creativity, and consequently to the conscious creation of the bridging [479] antahkarana, which is the outcome of the fused and blended threefold thread.

This brief summation of the past process is intended simply to give a synthetic background to all the work now to be done, and to convey to you an almost visual concept of the method whereby man has reached the stage of conscious life, of full self-awareness and creative expression.  All of these were the expression of divine energy as it poured into his mechanism, via the silver thread of divine potency.  This might be regarded as a threefold demonstration of the vertical life which becomes the horizontal life through the expression of creativity.  Man then indeed becomes the Cross.  When, however, he succeeds in constructing the rainbow bridge (which can only be done when man is upon the Fixed Cross), then finally the Cross gives place to the line.  This takes place after the fourth initiation—that of the Crucifixion.  There remains then only the vertical line "reaching from Heaven to Hell."  The goal of the initiate (between the fourth and the seventh initiations) is to resolve the line into the circle, and thus fulfill the law and the "rounding out" of the evolutionary process.

Another summation of the entire process may be found in the lines from Stanzas for Disciples which I gave out some time ago (June 1930) and which will also be found elsewhere in this volume.

"In the Cross is hidden Light.  The vertical and horizontal in mutual friction create; a vibrant Cross scintillates, and motion originates.  When the vertical assumes the horizontal, pralaya supervenes.  Evolution is the movement of the horizontal to upright positiveness.  In the secret of direction lies the hidden wisdom; in the doctrine of absorption lies the healing faculty; in the point becoming the line, and the line becoming the cross is evolution.  In the cross swinging to the horizontal lies salvation and pralayic peace."

It might be said that few, very few, people are today at the Lemurian stage of consciousness wherein the life thread, [480] with its physical implications, is the dominant factor.  Many, very many, people are at the Atlantean stage of development of "auric sensitivity."  A few—a very few in comparison with the untold masses of human beings—are utilising the results of the triple construction of energy within their own aura of awareness and their area of influence, in order to build, construct and utilise the bridge which links the various aspects of the mental plane.  These three aspects they must employ simultaneously, and then later supersede them in such a manner that personality and ego disappear and only the Monad and its form upon the physical plane remain.  In this connection, my earlier statement on the nature of form may be useful and lead to increased insight and understanding:

The physical plane is a complete reflection of the mental; the lowest three subplanes reflect the abstract subplanes, and the four etheric subplanes reflect the four mental concrete planes.  The manifestation of the Ego on the mental plane (or the causal body) is not the result of energy emanating from the permanent atoms as a nucleus of force, but is the result of different forces, and primarily of group force.  It is predominantly marked by an act of an exterior force, and is lost in the mysteries of planetary karma.  This is equally true of man's lowest manifestations.  It is the result of reflex action, and is based on the force of the group of etheric centres through which man (as an aggregate of lives) is functioning.  The activity of these centres sets up an answering vibration in the three lowest subplanes of the physical plane, and the interaction between the two causes an adherence to, or aggregation around, the etheric body of particles of what we erroneously term 'dense substance.'  This type of energised substance is swept up in the vortex of force currents issuing from the centres and cannot escape.  These units of force, therefore, pile up according to the energy direction around and within the etheric sheath till it is hidden and concealed, yet interpenetrating.  An inexorable law, the law of matter itself, brings this [481] about, and only those can escape the effect of the vitality of their own centres who are definitely 'Lords of Yoga' and can—through the conscious will of their own being—escape the compelling force of the Law of Attraction working on the lowest cosmic physical subplane.

A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, page 789

I have earlier told you that the astral body is an illusion.  It is eventually discovered to be nonexistent by the man who has achieved the consciousness of the initiate.  When buddhi reigns, the lower psychic nature fades out.

When the antahkarana is built, and the mental unit is superseded by the manasic permanent atom, and the causal body disappears, then the adept knows that the lower mind, the mental body, is also an illusion and is, for him, non-existent.  There are then—as far as his individual consciousness is concerned—only three focal points or anchorages (both of these expressions are inadequate to express the full meaning):

1. Humanity, in which he can focus himself at will through the medium of what is called technically the "mayavirupa"—a bodily form which he creates for the fulfillment of monadic purpose.

He then fully expresses all the energies of the Mutable Cross. [viii]*

2. The Hierarchy.  Here, as a focussed unit of all-inclusive buddhic awareness, he finds his place and mode of service, conditioned by his monadic ray.

He then expresses the values of the Fixed Cross [ix]*

3. Shamballa.  This is his highest point of focus, the goal of the exertions of all initiates of the higher degrees and the source of the sutratma, through which (and its differentiations) he can now consciously work.

Here he finds himself still crucified, but on the Cardinal Cross. [x]*

The task with which the human being in all his stages [482] of unfoldment has been occupied might therefore be stated to be the bridging of the gap between:

1. The Mutable Cross and the Fixed Cross.

2. Humanity and the Hierarchy.

3. The lower triplicity, the personality, and the Spiritual Triad.

4. The Monad on its own plane and the outer objective world.

This he does through a process of Intention, Visualisation, Projection, Invocation and Evocation, Stabilisation and Resurrection.  With these various stages, we will now deal.

The Construction of the Antahkarana in the Aryan Race . . . Present

I would like to pause here and make a few remarks anent this relatively new process of building the antahkarana.  It has been known and followed by those who were training for affiliation with the Hierarchy, but it has not been given out before to the general public.  There are two things which it is essential that the student should note:  One is that unless it is borne in mind that we are concerned with energy, and with energy which must be scientifically used, this whole teaching will prove futile.  Secondly, it must be remembered that we are dealing with a technique and process which are dependent upon the use of the creative imagination.  When these two factors are brought together (consciously and deliberately)—the factor of energy substance and the factor of planned impulse—you have started a creative process which will be productive of major results.  The human being lives in a world of varied energies which are sometimes expressing themselves as dynamic, positive energies, as receptive, negative energies, or as magnetic, attractive forces.  An understanding of this statement will substantiate that made by H.P.B. that "matter is spirit at its lowest point," and the reverse is equally true.  The whole process is one of establishing constructive relations between negative and positive energies and the subsequent production of magnetic force.  This is the creative [483] process.  It is true of the activity of a solar Logos, of a planetary Logos and of a human being—the only conscious creators in the universe.  It must prove true of the disciple, who is attempting to bring into a constructive relation the Monad and the human expression in the three worlds of human evolution.

There has been much emphasis upon the life of the soul and its expression upon the physical plane; this has been necessary and a part of the evolutionary development of the human consciousness.  The kingdom of souls must eventually give place to the rule of the spirit; the energy of the Hierarchy must become a force, receptive to the energy of Shamballa, just as the force of humanity has to become receptive to the energy of the kingdom of souls.  Today all three processes are going on simultaneously, though the receptivity of the Hierarchy to the second aspect of the Shamballa energy is only now beginning to be recognisable.  The Hierarchy has for long been receptive to the third or creative aspect of the Shamballa energy, and—at some very distant period—it will be responsive to the first aspect of that same energy.  The triple nature of the divine manifestation must also express itself as a duality.  This can be understood in a faint way when the disciple realises that (after the third initiation) he too must learn to function as a duality—Monad (spirit) and form (matter)—in direct rapport with the consciousness aspect, the mediating soul being absorbed into both of these two aspects of divine expression, but not functioning itself as a middle factor.  When this has been achieved, the true nature of Nirvana will be comprehended, the beginning of that endless Way which leads to the One; this is the Way whereon duality is resolved into unity, the Way that Members of the Hierarchy are seeking to tread and for which They are preparing.

The initial step towards bringing about this dualism is the building of the antahkarana, and this is consciously undertaken only when the disciple is preparing for the second initiation.  As I have already said, there are literally [484] thousands so preparing, because it can be assumed that all earnest and true aspirants and disciples who work undeviatingly for spiritual advancement (with pure motive), and who are oriented unswervingly towards the soul, have taken the first initiation.  This simply connotes the birth of the infant Christ within the heart, speaking symbolically.  There should be many who are preparing to begin this task of building the rainbow bridge and who, under the influence of the Ageless Wisdom, are grasping the necessity and the importance of the revelation which this process conveys.  What I am here writing has, therefore, a definite and useful purpose.  My task has been for a long time the giving out, in book form, information anent the next stage of intelligent and spiritual recognition for humanity.  Therefore, again, the understanding of the method of building the antahkarana is essential if humanity is to move forward as planned, and in this moving forward the disciples and aspirants must and do form the vanguard.  Humanity will awaken steadily and as a whole to the incoming spiritual urge; an overwhelming impulse towards spiritual light and towards a major orientation will take place.  Just as the individual disciple has to reverse himself upon the wheel of life and tread the Way counter-clockwise, so must humanity; and so humanity will.  The two-thirds who will make the goal of evolution in this world cycle are already beginning to do so.

In the process, however, the third divine aspect—that of the Creative Actor—comes into activity.  It was so in the creative process where the tangible universe was concerned.  It must also be when the individual disciple becomes the creating agent.  For aeons, he has built and has used his vehicles of manifestation in the three worlds.  Then came a time when advanced people began to create upon the mental plane; they dreamed dreams; they saw a vision; they contacted intangible beauty; they touched the Mind of God and returned to earth with an idea.  To this idea they gave form and became creators upon the mental plane; they became artists in some form of creative effort.  In the task [485] of building the antahkarana the disciple has to work also on mental levels, and that which he there constructs will be of so fine a substance that it may not and cannot appear on physical levels.  Because of his fixed orientation, that which he builds will "move upwards toward the centre of life," and not "downwards toward the centre of consciousness or toward light appearance."

Herein lies the difficulty for the beginner.  He has, so to speak, to work in the dark, and is not in a position to verify the existence of that which he is attempting to construct.  His physical brain is unable to register his creation as an accomplished fact.  He has to depend entirely upon the proved technique of the work outlined, and to proceed by faith.  The only evidence of success may be slow in coming, for the sensitivity of the brain is involved, and frequently where there is very real success the brain cells are not of the calibre which can register it.  The possible evidences at this stage may be a flash of the spiritual intuition or the sudden realisation of the will-to-good in a dynamic and group form; it may also be simply an ability to understand and to make others understand certain spiritual and occult fundamentals; it may be a "facility of revelation," both receptive and conditioning or distributing, and so world effective.

I am attempting to make a very abstruse subject clear, and words prove inadequate.  I can but outline to you process and method and a consequent hope for the future; on your side, you can only experiment, obey, have confidence in the experience of those who teach, and then wait patiently for results.

The Six Stages of the Building Process

I have employed six words to express this process and its resultant condition.  It might prove useful to study them from the angle of their occult significance—a significance which is not usually apparent except to the trained disciple who has been taught to penetrate into the world of meaning and to see interpretations not apparent to the neophyte.  [486] Perhaps by the time we have investigated these words, the method of construction and the means whereby the antahkarana is built will appear with greater clarity.

These words cover a building technique or a process of energy manipulation which brings into being a rapport between the Monad and a human being who is aspiring towards full liberation and is treading the Path of Discipleship and Initiation; it can create a channel of light and life between the higher and the lower divine aspects and can produce a bridge between the world of spiritual life and the world of daily physical plane living.  It is a technique for producing the highest form of dualism and of eliminating the threefold expression of divinity, thereby intensifying the divine expression and bringing man nearer to his ultimate goal.  Disciples must always remember that soul consciousness is an intermediate stage.  It is also a process whereby—from the angle of the subhuman kingdoms in nature—humanity itself becomes the divine intermediary and the transmitter of spiritual energy to those lives whose stages of consciousness are below that of self-consciousness.  Humanity becomes to these lives—in their totality—what the Hierarchy is to humanity.  This service only becomes possible when a sufficient number of the human race are distinguished by the knowledge of the higher duality and are increasingly soul-conscious and not just self-conscious.  They can then make this transmission possible, and it is done by means of the antahkarana.

Let us, therefore, take these six aspects of a basic building technique and endeavour to arrive at their occult and creative significance.

1. Intention.  By this is not meant a mental decision, wish or determination.  The idea is more literally the focussing of energy upon the mental plane at the point of greatest possible tension.  It signifies the bringing about of a condition in the disciple's consciousness which is analogous to that of the Logos when—on His much vaster scale—He concentrated within a ring-pass-not (defining His desired [487] sphere of influence) the energy-substance needed to carry out His purpose in manifesting.  This the disciple must also do, gathering his forces (to use a common expression) into the highest point of his mental consciousness and holding them there in a state of absolute tension.  You can now see the purpose lying behind some of the meditation processes and techniques as embodied in the words so often used in the meditation outlines:  "raise the consciousness to the head centre"; "hold the consciousness at the highest possible point"; "endeavour to hold the mind steady in the light"; and many similar phrases.  They are all concerned with the task of bringing the disciple to the point where he can achieve the desired point of tension and of energy-focussing.  This will enable him to begin the conscious task of constructing the antahkarana.  It is this thought which really lies unrecognised behind the word "intention," used so often by Roman Catholics and Anglo-Catholics when preparing candidates for communion.  They indicate a different direction, however, for the orientation they desire is not that towards the Monad or spirit, but towards the soul, in an effort to bring about better character equipment in the personality and an intensification of the mystical approach.

In the "intention" of the disciple who is consciously occupied with the rainbow bridge, the first necessary steps are:

a. The achievement of right orientation; and this must take place in two stages:  first, towards the soul as one aspect of the building energy, and second, towards the Triad.