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SECTION ONE - THE ASPIRANT AND THE MYSTERIES OF INITIATION - Part 9

The emphasis in the earlier teaching was upon character as the determining factor in deciding whether a man could "take initiation" (as it was called), and this was another of the presentations which have greatly misled aspirants.  Character is of major importance—of such recognised importance that it is not necessary to dwell upon it.  It is character, however, which enables a man to become a disciple with the aim in view of eventually entering [537] the Ashram of a Master and passing then through the processes of initiation.  It is character which is rightly regarded as the first requirement when a man steps off the Probationary Path on to the Path of Discipleship.  But he is still, however, a long way from his goal, and a long way from being accepted by a Master as a disciple.  The truth might be expressed this way:  When the disciple's eyes are removed from himself and his functioning in the three worlds is becoming spiritually controlled (or is in process of being controlled), then he is faced with becoming a truly mental being, with the focus of his life upon the mental level where it is subject to soul control; it then in turn becomes the directing agent of the man upon the physical plane.  This does not mean that he is occupied with making his lower concrete mind active, directing and illumined; that is taking place gradually and automatically through the pressure of the higher influences pouring into and through him.  He is occupied with the task of becoming aware of the activities of his higher or abstract mind and of the pure reason which controls and animates the buddhic plane, and which is itself susceptible to impression from the Monad.  That plane has to become the one toward which his mental consciousness looks and upon which it focusses its attention.  There it must be polarized, in the same sense as the consciousness of average humanity is today polarised on the plane of the emotions and of astral activity but is shifting with rapidity on to the mental plane.

This involves a dual activity; the lower mind becomes a potent factor in directing the service activities of the disciple.  These activities become the major motivating potency in the disciple's life and are a consequence of a growing soul fusion with the personality, thus developing and unfolding his sense of inclusiveness.  Inclusiveness is the supreme key to the understanding of consciousness.  At the same time, the higher mind is impressing the lower mind and drawing it into a higher fusion with itself.

This process of unfoldment creates certain major points of successive fusions, with consequent points of tension; [538] these points of tension (when consciously attained) become the actuating energy which enables the disciple to "stand in the light and in that light see greater Light; within that greater Light he knows and sees, grasps and absorbs that which has hitherto been dark and secret and unknown."  This is initiation.

Periods of search, periods of pain, periods of detachment, periods of revelation producing points of fusion, points of tension and points of energy projection—such is the story of the Path of Initiation.

Initiation is in truth the name given to the revelation or new vision which ever draws the disciple onward into greater light; it is not something conferred upon him or given to him.  It is a process of light recognition and of light utilisation in order to enter into ever clearer light.  Progress from a dimly lighted area in the divine manifestation into one of supernal glory is the story of the Path of Evolution.

In the Masters' Archives there are some Rules for Disciples of very ancient origin.  Among them is one that is so old and so abstruse that it is only now possible to bring it to the attention of humanity, owing to the increased mental and Spiritual perception of the modern aspirant.  It can be inadequately translated as follows:

"The light is seen, a tiny point of piercing light.  This light is warm and red.  It nearer draws as it reveals the things that are, the things which may be.  It pierces the third centre and removes all glamour and desire. 

"A light is seen through the medium of the lower light—a light of warmth and heat.  It pierces to the heart and in that light all forms are seen pervaded by a glowing light.  The world of lighted forms is now perceived, linked each to each by light.  This light is blue, and flaming is its nature.  Between the warm and reddish light and this clear light there burns a glow of flame—a flame which must be entered, ere the light of blue is entered and is used.

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"Another light is then perceived, the clear cold light which is not light but darkness in its purest purity—the LIGHT of God Himself.  It renders dark all else beside Itself; all forms fade out and yet the whole of life is there.  It is not light as we know light.  It is that pure essential essence of that Light which reveals Itself through light."

It was the second light to which the Buddha and the Christ both referred when They said:  "I am the light of the world."  It is the Light of God Himself, the Lord of the Worlds, in which the Lives within the Council Chamber of Shamballa live and move and have Their Being.

It is the recognition of the varying "lights" upon the Lighted Way that signifies readiness for initiation.  The initiate enters into light in a peculiar sense; it permeates his nature according to his development at any point in time and space; it enables him to contact and see the hitherto unseen, and on the basis of the newly acquired knowledge to direct his steps still further.

I am not here speaking in symbols.  Each initiation dims the light already acquired and used, and then immerses the initiate in a higher light.  Each initiation enables the disciple to perceive an area of divine consciousness hitherto unknown but which, when the disciple has familiarised himself with it and with its unique phenomena, vibratory quality and interrelations, becomes for him a normal field of experience and activity.  Thus (if I may so express it) the "worlds of living forms and formless lives become his own."  Again duality enters into his mental perception, for he is now aware of the lighted area from which he comes to the point of tension or of initiation; through the initiatory process he discovers a new and more brilliantly lighted area into which he may now enter.  This involves no leaving of the former field of activity in which he has worked and lived; it simply means that new fields of responsibility and of opportunity confront him because he is—through his own effort—able to see more light, to walk in a greater light, to prove more adequately than [540] heretofore his capacities within the greatly increased area of possibility.

Initiation is, therefore, a constant fusion of the lights, progressively entered, thus enabling the initiate to see further, deeper and more inclusively.  As one of the Masters has said:  "The light must enter vertically and be diffused or radiated horizontally."  This creates the cross of service upon which the disciple is pendant until the Cross of Sanat Kumara is revealed to him; he knows then why this planet is—for wise and adequate reasons—the planet of distress, dispassion and detachment.  When he knows this, he knows all that our planetary life can tell him and reveal to him.  He has transmuted knowledge into wisdom.

It is at the centre of this cross of service that the point of fusion and the point of tension must be found.  The point of fusion is created by the focussing of all the power, aims and desires of the disciple dynamically upon the mental plane; the point of tension is created when the invocative power of this focal point becomes capable of evoking response from that which is invoked.  For the average aspirant and for the disciple, this is either the soul or the Spiritual Triad.  The meeting of the two focussed energies produces a point of tension.  Disciples should not focus their attention upon the task of producing a point of tension.  They should remember the life of dual activity; i.e., that which he is at any given moment of endeavour, and that with which he can fuse and blend this sum total of his achieved development.  The potency of his thinking along these dual lines will automatically produce the point of tension, through the medium of the fusion of the appropriate dualities.  It is through the activity of the lower mind that fusion with the soul is brought about, with successive, intensifying points of tension; it is through the activity established between higher and lower mind that fusion with the Spiritual Triad becomes possible, with points of tension arising at many points along the bridge, the antahkarana; it is through the activity of pure reason that fusion with the Hierarchy becomes possible, and it [541] is that which produces those points of tension which we call Initiations.  There are necessarily still higher points of tension, but it is with those called initiations that we are dealing at this time.

Light may enter your mind in this connection if you will constantly bear in mind the essential duality of manifestation itself; the negative and the positive poles present within the consciousness of every form.  The achieved point of fusion (the result of active and positive work and effort) is rendered negative to that which is being invoked, and by this means another and positive point of tension can be achieved.  Initiation—a dramatic and a major point of tension—connotes essentially the fusion of the negative and the positive aspects.  Owing to this, in all initiatory processes, it is the will of the disciple which is active and which produces, first of all, a fusion and (as a consequence) the appearance of a point of tension.

Let me illustrate.  In the work of creating the antahkarana, the disciple first of all and as far as in him lies, through the medium of positive mental labour, focusses himself upon the mental plane.  The fusion of the soul and of the personality is then present and is the result of a positive activity.  The quality and the vibratory nature of that positive focal point is then rendered negative to that higher vibration or contact which is invoked by the existent radiance and potency.  The response from the opposite pole is (if the disciple could but realise it) immediate and to the extent possible, determined by the disciple's point of attainment.

This invocative-evocative activity produces a point of tension but not—as yet—a point of fusion with the positive pole.  From that point of tension the disciple works at the creation of the antahkarana; this will eventually bring about the desired fusion between the soul-infused personality and the Spiritual Triad.  The same general process dictates all the desired fusions and produces those points of tension which are the secret of all growth.  These [542] points of fusion and of tension the disciple consciously endeavours to bring about.

These are the broad and general lines governing the initiatory process; the work here indicated is followed by all disciple-initiates of all degrees, and even by the Lord of the World Himself.  He, in His high Place, holds the manifested world of energies in a state of fusion; points of tension successively occur as a consequence of a growing divine realisation within these forms of intelligent activity, of love-wisdom and of the will-to-good.  These points of tension vary according to the divine purpose and the individual initiatory problem of Sanat Kumara Himself, as He submits to a cosmic initiatory process.  Such a point of tension, of stupendous magnitude, is present in the world today; the intention behind this realised fusion and tension is to enable humanity (as an integral part of the divine body of manifestation) to move forward into greater light and nearer to the "heart of love," which is the Hierarchy.  As this takes place—and it is taking place—the Hierarchy Itself moves nearer to a conscious fusion with Humanity.  The point of tension thereby achieved—and this has not yet appeared—will produce the Kingdom of God on Earth in exoteric form.

We will now consider one of the lesser, though essential, fusions which must be achieved by the disciple, producing consequently in his life a point or points of tension.

Fusion of the Master's consciousness with that of the disciple

Earlier I stated that the disciple's private life automatically falls (once he has been accepted by the Master) into three stages:

a. The stage in which the lower concrete mind and the higher mind are related in such a manner that the lower mind is not only soul-illumined but is subject also to impression from the Spiritual Triad. 

b. His relation to the Master is the next and sometimes paralleling stage and involves the bringing together [543] of the Master's consciousness and his own.  This has to be slowly developed and consciously grasped, with very interesting consequences. 

c. Later comes the stage when the disciple's consciousness can be gradually brought into a rapport with the Hierarchy as a whole.  It might be mentioned, in clarification somewhat of this rather vague statement, that the disciple is absorbed into the Hierarchy and—at the same time—he assimilates in a new and mysterious manner certain united hierarchical impressions. 

The disciple by now has made his approach to the Ashram and has demonstrated his ability to serve and thereby utilise any ashramic energy which he may contact and occultly include.  He is slowly becoming aware of three vibratory impressions which are slightly differing though coloured by the ray which they express.  First of all, he is aware of the vibration of his own soul; then he registers that of the Ashram, in the early stages focussed for him through the mediation of some disciple senior to him; and finally, he becomes conscious of the vibration of the Master.  Slowly he learns to distinguish them and know them as constituting three different channels whereby energy reaches him.  They contact his consciousness upon the mental plane; later, he discovers that contact with them is facilitated once he can register them consciously upon their appropriate plane and through the appropriate centre; it naturally takes time to develop this facility and (until he passes through the third initiation when major changes take place) he is expected to "retain the impression" upon the mental plane.

The development of sensitivity to contact, and the registering of "that which is other than the Self and yet which is the Self Itself," are part of the great Science of Impression.  This development—in the early stages of human evolution—is carried forward through the medium of the five senses and is to be found in the animal kingdom also.  With this well-known and well-studied unfoldment I shall not deal, beyond saying that these five (in reality [544] seven) senses constitute avenues of spiritual approach to varying aspects of the divine manifestation in the three or five worlds of human evolution.  It might here be pointed out that (in a mysterious manner) the seven centres in the etheric body are correspondences to the seven senses, for they are responsive to vibrations coming from the world soul or the human soul, from the Ashram and from the Master, as well as registering eventually the energies of all the seven rays; these pour into the disciple and through him as part of the great circulatory system of the sevenfold divine energy which is the basis of manifestation.  I dealt with these senses and the circulating energies somewhat at length in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire.

With the theme of the fusion of the soul and the personality I have dealt adequately in other writings and in the teaching on the antahkarana.  I will confine myself here to the fusion of the Master's consciousness (as it is conditioned to the human kingdom) with that of the disciple.  There is no fusion possible or comprehensible between the Master's higher or Shamballic consciousness and that of any disciple who has not taken the fourth initiation.  The completeness of the fusion to which I refer is not possible in the early stages of the disciple's unfoldment; there again, the teaching hitherto presented by occult groups in connection with a Master's relation to His disciple has been erroneous and the result of wishful thinking.

The disciple is only permitted to have contact with the Master's mind when his spiritual life has become habitual to him and when he can, at will, flood his personality with soul energy.  Those who make occasional and rare soul contacts (and there are many who do) in their meditation work are not so privileged.  It is the disciple who has established a usable contact with his soul, of which he can avail himself at any time he so chooses, who can begin to register impressions coming directly to him from the Master.

Aspirants must not confuse teaching given to them by the Master in the work of the Ashram with this later [545] fusion of consciousness.  In group formation, disciples are gathered together at times to receive instruction and are thereby protected within the group aura from the tremendous potency of the Master's presence.  It is difficult for the average aspirant to realise the necessity for this, yet even disciples themselves, and in the early stages of their admission to the Ashram and of their training, have a potent effect upon those whom they may contact.  The effect is produced without intention and is caused by the higher quality of the disciple's vibration or radiance to that of the person or group he contacts.  The impression he makes produces stimulation—a stimulation which the person frequently finds it very difficult to handle, evoking not only good but also bad effects.

The application of this radiant energy is a definite mode of spiritual service and activity, but until a disciple has advanced in knowledge and can control his radiation (permitting only those streams of energy to escape from him which are appropriate to the need) the "passing-by" of a disciple can produce much difficulty, both for the individual and for the group.

It will be obvious to you, therefore, that the presence of a Master will have a potent effect where an individual disciple is concerned.  I have employed that separative term "individual disciple" because it indicates the cause of the possible difficulty or even danger.  Such difficulty is always possible as long as any separative or self-centered instincts exist in the disciple; it takes a long time for a disciple to attain that disinterestedness and that inclusive spirit which will enable him to stand in the presence of the Master and present no barriers to direct contact with the Master's mind.  This contact, leading to the desired fusion, falls into certain clearly defined stages:

1. Occasionally in the disciple's hours of meditation, at a moment of great tension or in a crisis (related to his service activities), there may occur a momentary fusion of the minds of the disciple and the Master.  This can only [546] occur when the mental focus is so steady and so firmly directed in intention that emotional reactions or the intrusion of personality affairs are eliminated.

2. Later on in his training, the Master may attempt to impress his mind unexpectedly, and thus train him to recognise what we might regard as a direct call from the Centre of the Ashram.

3. As the disciple proves his value and demonstrates that he is desiring nothing for the separated self, the interrelation between the two minds—of the Master of the Ashram and the disciple—finds no impediment; there is consequently no risk of overstimulation, of self-satisfaction or of the emergence of qualities which would disturb the rhythm of the Ashram.  There can take place (as the Master wills it) a flow of thought between the two.  At first, the impression is carried forward entirely on the side of the Master, and the disciple is simply an agent who can be impressed by ideas and instructed along some particular line which may be of service to humanity; he can, however, produce no current of thought flowing back to the Master.  Later on, as a disciple moves forward into light and is simultaneously a server, he can be permitted to reach the Master with his own reaction to the impression.

4. Then comes the final stage wherein the disciple can be trusted to be the initiatory agent of impression and of contact and is allowed to evoke the Master's attention and to penetrate to the Centre of the Ashram.  Students would do well to relate these four stages to the Six Stages of Discipleship, dealt with in the latter part of Discipleship in the New Age, Vol. I; these four stages correspond to the final four considered in that book.

These contacts are naturally in the field of telepathy, which is an aspect of the Science of Impression, and are entirely in the realm of mental interplay.  I have dealt with the basic science itself in the book Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle.  The relation considered above is between the instrument of contact used by the Master—that of the higher or abstract mind, for the Masters do not work [547] through the lower mind at all—and the lower or concretising mind of the disciple.  The Masters are therefore dependent upon the use of the antahkarana which the disciple is in process of building; this is rapidly becoming a part of the group Antahkarana, built by disciples (working in the three worlds but on mental levels) who have been admitted into the Ashram.  You can see why, therefore, the teaching anent the Antahkarana was deemed by us to be timely and wise.  Relationship to the Ashram and contact with the Master are dependent upon the existence of the Antahkarana.  In the early stages of its creative construction, the Antahkarana is adequate to permit some contact with the Ashram and with certain of the disciples, though not with those of very high degree.  Later, as the Antahkarana perfects itself, higher and more durable contacts become possible.

The results of these developed and registered contacts are finally seen in the complete impressibility—at any time and without any effort on either side—of the disciple's mind.  It is now so attuned to the Ashram and to the Master's ray quality that his mind is one with that of the Master at the centre.  Reciprocal activity becomes possible.

It is needless, surely, for me to point out that the theme of all impressions coming from the Master to the disciple, and from the disciple to the Master, is the service of the Plan, the problems connected with group work in the Aquarian Age, or with the life and relationships within the Ashram.  Forget not that the Ashram has its own objectives, intentions and inner techniques which are unconnected with the disciple's life and his service in the three worlds.  The work of the disciple in preparation for initiation is not basically concerned with his daily world service, though there would be no initiation for him if that life of service were lacking.  His life of service is, in reality an expression of the particular initiation for which he is being prepared.  This is a theme too vast for us to consider here, but it is an idea upon which you could well ponder.

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One hint I will give you, based on the life of the Christ.  The life history and the experiences of the great Initiates are rarely given, but much has been communicated to us anent the life of the Christ, both in the Gospels and in connection with His earlier incarnations.  As you know, He took one of the greatest of the initiations (the sixth initiation, that of Decision).  This initiation is related to the throat centre and also to its higher correspondence, the throat centre of the planetary Logos; this is the centre which we call Humanity.  Thus "the WORD came forth."  He had a dual mission to fulfill in order to prove His fitness (if one may use such a word in connection with an initiate of His exalted standing).  He had, first of all, to give a great impetus to human evolution by proclaiming two things:

1. That "the blood is the life."

2. That all men everywhere are sons of God, and therefore divine.

Secondly, He had to bring to an end the Jewish dispensation which should have climaxed and passed away with the movement of the sun out of Aries into Pisces.  He therefore presented Himself to them as their Messiah, which was His reason for manifesting through the Jewish race.  They not only rejected Him, but have succeeded in perpetuating the Jewish dispensation through the medium of its religious presentation throughout the era of the Christian dispensation.  This lies at the root of their trouble and is the cause of their constant emphasis upon the past—a past which is based on their experiences in Aries and not upon their growth in Pisces.

This entire subject of the telepathic interplay between the disciple and the Ashram, and between the Master and the disciple, is one of unique interest.  It is part of the dual life which all disciples must lead.  It is that which intensifies the life of introspection which is only rightly understood and carried forward when the man is in truth a soul-infused personality.  It is the source or origin of the extraverted life which the disciple must also lead, producing an intense activity in the three worlds—an activity [549] which in no way disturbs the calm procedures of the life of ashramic contacts.  Rightly followed, it produces the possibility with which our third point deals.

Impression on the mind of the disciple of hierarchical intent

This is something far greater and more inclusive than the ability of the mind of the disciple to register the content of the minds within the Ashram with which he is affiliated or even the mind of the Master.  The purpose aspect of the Plan begins to impress his now highly illumined abstract mind, for the integrated purpose—as far as the Hierarchy is concerned—begins slowly to impress him.  Little by little, he begins to register impressions from Shamballa.  With this I cannot deal; it concerns the growth which follows the fourth and fifth initiations, and therefore training given to a Master.  With it you have no concern.

Your major task, as aspirants, is to cultivate the higher sensitivity; to render yourselves so pure and selfless that your minds remain undisturbed by the happenings in the three worlds; to seek that attentive spiritual sense which will enable you to be impressed, and then to interpret correctly the impressions received.

I have said that initiation is in reality a great experiment with energy.  The life of the occult student is consciously lived in the world of energies.  Those energies have always been present, for the whole of existence in all the kingdoms of nature is manifested energy, but men are not aware of this.  They are not conscious, for instance, when they succumb to irritation and find themselves voicing that irritation in loud words or in angry thoughts, that they are taking astral energy and using it.  The use of this energy admits them with ease to a level of astral living which is not suitable for them; continual use of this energy brings about what the Master Morya has called "habits of residence which imperil the resident."  It is when the aspirant recognises that he himself is composed of energy units—held in coherent expression by a still stronger energy, that of integration—that he begins consciously to [550] work in a world of forces similarly composed; he then begins to use energy of a certain kind, and selectively, and takes one of the initial steps towards becoming a true occultist.  This world of energy in which he lives and moves and has his being is the living, organised vehicle of manifestation of the planetary Logos.  Through it energies are circulating all the time and are in constant movement, being directed and controlled by the head centre of the planetary Logos; they create great vortices of force or major points of tension throughout His body of manifestation.  The Spiritual Hierarchy of our planet is such a vortex; Humanity itself is another, and one which is today in a condition of almost violent activity, owing to its becoming a focus of divine attention.

Certain great readjustments are going on in that centre, for it is beginning to conform at long last to divine intention.  I have elsewhere pointed out that for the first time in the long history of human development, energy from Shamballa has made a direct impact upon this third planetary centre.  This is not due entirely to the point in evolution attained by mankind; this attainment is only a secondary reason or cause.  It is due to the will of Sanat Kumara Himself as He prepares for a certain cosmic initiation.  This initiation requires the reorganisation of the energies flowing through and composing that "centre which we call the race of men"; this creates a rearrangement within the centre itself, and thus brings into manifested expression certain aspects and qualities—always inherent in those energies—which have not hitherto been recognised.  This creative crisis has been made possible by three major happenings:

1. The conclusion of a twenty-five thousand year cycle or movement around what is called the lesser zodiac.  This connotes a major cycle of experience in the life of our planetary Logos.  It is related to the interplay between the planetary Logos and the solar Logos as the latter responds to energies emanating from the twelve zodiacal constellations.

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2. The end of the Piscean Age.  This simply means that the energies coming from Pisces during the last two thousand years are now being rapidly superseded by energies coming from Aquarius.  These result in major changes in the life of the planetary Logos and potently affect His body of manifestation through the medium of His three major centres: Shamballa, the Hierarchy and Humanity.

3. The increasingly dominant activity of the seventh Ray of Order or Ceremonial Magic, as it is somewhat erroneously called.  This ray is now coming into manifestation and is in close cooperation with the two above factors; it produces also the lessening of the power of the sixth Ray of Idealism.  This has had a long cycle and has greatly hastened the evolutionary process; it demonstrates its effective work in the emergence today of the great world ideologies.  I am necessarily considering these energies only in relation to the human consciousness.

There are other factors present in our planet today, but these are the ones which will (in a vague sense) mean something to you, as you think and seek to understand.

The great cosmic initiation through which our planetary Logos is passing (forget not my words, "initiatory process") produces an entire reorganisation of all the energies of which His body of manifestation is composed; it heightens the quality or the vibration of certain of the ray energies, and lessens the potency of others.  Direction also enters in; certain planetary centres become the recipients (in a new and vital manner) of the redirected ray potencies.  Among these, at this time, the human family (or the third vital centre) becomes a prime objective.  The three major centres in the body of the planetary Logos are:

The head centre—Shamballa—1st Ray of Will

The heart centre—Hierarchy—2nd Ray of Love-Wisdom

The throat centre—Humanity—3rd Ray of Active Intelligence

The impact of the new incoming energies upon Humanity [552] will result from a planned redirection.  This will bring in an era of greatly enhanced creative activity; it will be an activity such as has never been seen before, and which will express itself in every department of human living.

In this connection I would remind you of the relation existing between the sacral centre (the physical creative centre) and the throat centre, and of the teaching anent the raising of the energies from this lower centre to the throat centre.  This can be seen happening in the human being as he progresses along the Path of Evolution, and is equally present in the life and experience of the planetary Logos.

This progressive "creative raising" necessarily produces a cycle of tremendous difficulty in the life of the aspirant to initiation, for the microcosm undergoes—in his minute living process—what the planetary Logos undergoes in a cosmic process.  When—as is the case today—Humanity itself is in process of becoming creative in the higher sense, and when this synchronises with a major creative planetary activity, then a cycle of very great disturbance eventuates which necessarily affects every individual within "the race of men."  Hence the sexual disturbance to be seen everywhere, with the license present in every country and the apparent breakdown of the marriage relation.  This indicates the emergence eventually of a creativity of such wondrous dimensions that the world will stand amazed; nothing like it will have been seen before.  A creative planning for human well-being and a political expression, implementing this planning, will demonstrate in every country; a creative thinking will be apparent which will express itself in writing and in poetry; creative imagining will produce the new art, the new colours, the new architecture and the new culture; a creative responsiveness to the "music of the spheres" will bring forth the new music.  All this will be in response to the creative reorganisation and the newly directed energies which are engaging the attention of the planetary Logos at this time.

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All this reorganisation and redirection of energies is carried forward in the realm of the divine third aspect, that of divine active intelligence.  Therefore the human centre registers this major aspect and becomes intensely invocative; this invocative appeal, being unitedly directed towards the second major centre, the Hierarchy, inevitably evokes a response.  Invocation, accompanied by the creative imagination, will produce that new creative activity which will bring "the new heavens and the new earth" into being.

Three points I would like to make here; they have a definite bearing upon our subject:

1. This intense creative activity falls into two parts:

a. A destructive cycle, wherein the old order passes away and that which has been created—human civilisation with its accompanying institutions—is destroyed.  With this destructive action Humanity is today occupying itself—mostly unconsciously.  The major creative agents are the intelligentsia of the race. 

b. A cycle of restoration, with many accompanying difficulties in which the mass of men take part, under the influence and inspiration of a regenerated intelligentsia.

2. This process received its initial impulse as a result of a group decision within the Hierarchy itself.  Certain Masters Who were facing the sixth Initiation of Decision at the time—a relatively small but powerful group—decided together to tread the Path of Earth Service (technically understood) in order to bring about the changes which They sensed as desirable and as already existing within the consciousness of the One Initiator, the planetary Logos.  It was Their decision, taken early in this century, which precipitated—in the centre which we call "the race of men"—those potencies and stimulating energies which produced that major destructive agency, the world war (1914-1945).  As these energies occultly "fell into the centre," the effect produced was both good and bad.  Human unity and unanimity, human planning for group welfare, and human [554] creativity (expressed primarily at this time through science) received a tremendous stimulation.  Simultaneously, the entering potencies released by this decision produced an up-surging of evil in the hearts of men so inclined, leading to an analogous or paralleling unity, unanimity and creative activity of separative and hateful evil.  This, in its turn, "opened the door where evil dwelt" and let loose on earth the full fury of the Black Lodge.

That this would be the result the Masters knew when making Their decision; They consciously struck a blow at the materialism which was binding humanity and imprisoning the human spirit.  This evoked a prompt reaction from the Forces of Evil which had created and "held in being" the modern materialistic world, with its emphasis upon forms and money.  The Masters had confidence that the human spirit would be able to live through the period of upheaval and emerge eventually into the new era, ready to build the new world and to reorganise all human resources—material, mental and spiritual.

3. The response of humanity, from the angle of a spiritual realisation of the presented opportunity, was the emergence of the New Group of World Servers.  They appeared in every country, conscious of their task of crystallising and making effective human goodwill, though generally unconscious of their hierarchical relationship.  Their appearance evoked an immediate reaction from the Spiritual Hierarchy, and experienced disciples made their appearance in the ranks of the New Group of World Servers, directing their efforts, voicing their aims and stimulating their understanding.  The new group worked in and through every department of human thinking, human welfare and human planning; as a result, and almost immediately, the men of goodwill everywhere in the world took heart of grace (a most appropriate phrase) and became active.

The three points made here will demonstrate to you the factual nature of the circulation of energies.  All these happenings are part of a process of planetary initiation; [555] such an initiation cannot take place without important effects, both in the Hierarchy and in the human family.  In old Atlantean days, it was the Masters (facing the same sixth initiation) Who "decided" to bring that ancient civilisation to an end; They therefore sacrificed the form aspect of manifestation and created a situation in which the soul of humanity was liberated from the prison in which it found itself.  Today, a material catastrophe, such as the flood, has not been deemed necessary; it is believed that humanity can and will find its own way out of the world difficulties.

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