The
Rays and the Initiations,
Volume V |
The final volume in this treatise on the seven rays contains the
fundamental spiritual structure on which the next presentation
of the Ageless Wisdom teaching will build. The book is in two
parts; the first part enumerates and details the Fourteen Rules
for Group Initiation. These are the rules for disciples and initiates,
paralleling on a higher turn of the spiral, the rules for applicants
contained in the book "Initiation, Human and Solar". The second
part of this volume is concerned with the Rays and the Initiations,
those nine major expansions of consciousness through which the
initiate becomes progressively liberated from the various forms
of our planetary life, ultimately proceeding upon his chosen Path
of development and service within the universe.
One of the outstanding principles unfolded through the pages
of this book is that of the growth of the group idea--group
service, group responsibility and group initiation. The possibility
of group initiation seems to be one of the new emerging developments
of the Aquarian era; therefore, the profound value to the disciple
of the Fourteen Rules for Group Initiation. These rules embody
great truths in symbolic form, into which the consciousness
expands with the acceptance of occult obedience, and
the meeting of all requirements oil the Path of Initiation in
a group penetrating together towards the centre of an ashram,
and into the heart and will of the presiding Master.
Because "the way to the innermost sanctum is the way of outer
service and because initiation is the effect of an increasing
capacity to intuit the Plan, to register ashramic purpose and
to act accordingly, "these rules are in reality great
Formulas of Approach . . . approach to a specific section of
the Path and not approach to the Initiator. I would have you
reflect on this distinction. The initiate is beconung increasingly
aware of the dynamics of the Science of the Service of the Plan.
This distinctive realisation can only come when his fused and
blended personality and soul expression of will has disappeared
in the blazing light of the Divine Purpose."
Much of this teaching, while beyond the grasp of the average
student today, is invaluable in expanding the mind to contemplate
the larger patterns and processes in which the individual function
may be viewed in perspective. In dealing with such abstruse
matters, the author again demonstrates a marvelous capacity
to relate the deepest and most profound aspects of the Master's
teaching to the life and the consciousness of the aspirant in
the world today. Since there is no separation in life, and since
the aphorism "As above so below" applies in every particular
throughout the cosmos, and recognisably within the solar and
the planetary lives, there is great value in the clear delineation
of continuity.
"Revelation concerns Oneness and nothing else. The practical
nature of this truth is only recognised when the disciple attempts
to do two things: To realise it individually and to bring the
nature of planetary unity and of non-separateness to the minds
and into the lives of men everywhere."
