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The Rays and the Initiations - Part One - Fourteen Rules For Group Initiation
Rule IX Let the group know there are no other selves. Let the group know there is no color, only light; and then let [172] darkness take the place of light, hiding all difference, blotting out all form. Then - at the place of tension, and at that darkest point - let the group see a point of clear cold fire, and in the fire (right at its very heart) let the One Initiator appear Whose star shone forth when first the Door was passed. The greatest problem facing aspirants and disciples prior to the third initiation is that of comprehending the nature of identification. This concerns (in the first instance) the relation of the self to the Self and of all selves to the all-inclusive Self. It involves the mystery of duality with which they are occupied, and the very moment that theory as to essential unity becomes definite realization, then the realm of synthesis is entered. For that type of realization, language as we now have it has no words, and it is therefore impossible to formulate concepts to interpret the consequent and resultant state of being. "Identification with" is the phrase which approaches the closest to the initial idea, and until man has grasped his identical at-one-ness with even one human being, it is not possible for him even to think about it in any truly constructive manner. The complete fusion of the negative and the positive aspects in marriage, at the moment that life is transmitted and transferred, is the only tangible though unsatisfactory symbol of this life-sharing process which takes place when an individual or a group knows actually and not simply theoretically that "there are no other selves." Identification (to use the only word available for our purpose) is connected with dynamic life, with conscious enhancement, with completion and with creative sharing, plus process. It is a process of participation - consciously and constructively undertaken - in the life actions and reactions of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being; it is related to the network of life channels which keep the form aspect of the planetary Logos functioning as a "Divine Representation." Note that wording. It is connected with the circulation of that "life more abundantly" to which the Christ referred when dealing with the true nature of His [173] mission. It might be said that as He uttered this phrase this mission dawned on Him and He made a preliminary effort to serve Shamballa, instead of the Hierarchy of which He was even then the Head. Later, He enunciated as best He could the extent of this realization, in the words so familiar to Christians, "I and the Father are One." This He also attempted to elucidate in the seventeenth chapter of St. John's Gospel. There is no other passage in the literature of the world which has exactly the same quality. Oneness, unity, synthesis and identification exist today as word related to consciousness and as expressing what is at present unattainable to the mass of men. This manifesto or declaration of the Christ constitutes the first attempt to convey reaction to contact with Shamballa, and can be correctly interpreted only by initiates of some standing and experience. A concept of unity, leading to cooperation, to impersonality, to group work and to realization, plus a growing absorption in the Plan are some of the terms which can be used to express soul awareness in relation to the Hierarchy. These reactions to the united Ashrams which constitute the Hierarchy are steadily increasing and are beneficently conditioning the consciousness of the leading members of the forefront of the human wave at present in process of evolution. Beyond this state of awareness there lies a state of being which is as far removed from the consciousness of Members of the Hierarchy as that is, in its turn, removed from the consciousness of the mass of men. Endeavor to grasp this, even if your brain and your power to formulate thought rejects the possibility of this exalted livingness. Be not discouraged at this inability to understand; remember that this state of being embraces the goal towards which the Masters strive, and which the Christ Himself is only now attaining. It is for this reason that the symbolism of light and darkness is used in the words: Let the group know there is no color, only light; and then let darkness take the place of light. Just as the individual has to pass through the stage wherein all "color" goes out of life as he emerges out of [174] the glamor which conditions the astral plane, so groups in preparation for initiation must go through the same devastating process. Glamor disappears, and for the first time the group (as is the case with the individual) walks in the light. As the group thus walks, unitedly its units learn a lesson (one clearly enunciated by modern science) that light and substance are synonymous terms; the true nature of substance as a field and medium of activity becomes clear to the initiate-members of the group. To this H.P.B. referred when he said that the true occultist works entirely in the field of forces and energies. The next lesson which the group unitedly apprehends is the significance of the words that "darkness is pure spirit." This recognition, realization, apprehensive, comprehensive (call it what you will) is so overwhelming and all-embracing that distinctions and differences disappear. The disciple realizes that they are only the result of the activity of substance in its form-making capacity and are consequently illusion and non-existent, from the angle of the spirit at rest in its own center. The only realization left is that of pure Being Itself. This realization necessarily comes to the disciple through the means of graded revelation and in balanced sequence; each contact with the Initiator leads the initiate closer to the center of pure darkness - a darkness which is the very antithesis of darkness as the non-initiate and the unenlightened understand. It is a center or point of such intense brilliance that everything fades out and at the place of tension, and at that darkest point, let the group see a point of clear cold fire. It is a tension and a point of attainment that is only possible in group formation. Even in the earlier initiations, and when the initiate has proved his right to be initiated, the process is still a group proceeding; it is undergone in the protective presence of initiates of the same standing and unfoldment. It is their united focus that enables the candidate for initiation to see the point of clear cold light and their united will that "brings him upright, [175] standing, unafraid, with open eye before the One Who from the very first has conferred on him the gifts of life and light, and Who now - with lifted rod, surrounded by the fire, reveals to him the significance of life and the purpose of the light." It is that of which the minds of men know naught, and which even the highest intellect is unable to grasp or even sense.
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