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The Rays and the Initiations - Part Two - Section Two - The Aspirant and the Major Initiations
The initiatory process between the first and the second initiations is for many the worst time of distress, difficulty, realization of problems and the constant effort to "clear himself" (as it is occultly called), to which the disciple is at any time subjected. The phrase stating that the objective of the initiate is "to clear himself" is perhaps the most [578] arresting and illuminating of all possible definitions of the task to be undertaken. The storm aroused by his emotional nature, the dark clouds and mists in which he constantly walks and which he has created throughout the entire cycle of incarnated living, have all to be cleared away in order that the initiate can say that - for him - the astral plane no longer exists, and that all that remains of that ancient and potent aspect of his being is aspiration, a sensitive response to all forms of divine life and a form through which the lowest aspect of divine love, goodwill, can flow without impediment. From the larger point of view, it is this struggle to clear the world atmosphere which will confront humanity after the first initiation, so close at hand today. You will see, therefore, why the Christ must come at this time, for He is the One Who presides at the first and second initiations, and it is His coming which will indicate that humanity has taken the first initiation, which will confirm and consolidate the work done and which will inaugurate the world cycle and period in which the task of reorganizing the emotional and psychic life of humanity will take place; this period will release the energy of goodwill and thus automatically bring about right human relations. As regards humanity as a whole, polarized as it is in the emotional nature, the effect of this sixth ray is potent in the extreme. Its energy has been playing upon men ever since it came into incarnation, and the last one hundred fifty years have seen that potency become extremely effective. Two factors have enhanced this effect: The sixth Ray of Idealism or of Devotion is the ray which normally governs the astral plane, controlling its phenomena and coloring its glamor. The stream of energy, coming into our planetary life from the constellation Pisces, has for two thousand years conditioned human experience and is peculiarly fitted to blend with and complement this sixth ray energy and to produce exactly the situation which is today governing world affairs. [579] The united activity of these two great streams of cosmic energy, playing upon and through the third planetary center, Humanity, has created the unique condition in which "the race of men" can stand before the planetary Initiator, the Christ, and under the focused stimulation of the Hierarchy, pass through the appropriate initiation. It should here be remembered that the masses of men can and will take the first initiation, but that a very large group of aspirants (far larger than is realized) will pass through the experience of the second initiation, that of the purifying Baptism. These are the people who express the essential qualities of ideological recognition, devoted adherence to truth as sensed, profound reaction to the physical disciplines (imposed since they participated in the first initiation many lives earlier) and a growing responsiveness to the aspirational aspect of the astral body; this aspiration is occupied with reaching out towards contact with and expression of the mental principle. This particular group in the human family are "kama-manasic" initiates, just as those taking the first initiation are "physico-etheric" initiates. It is the activity of this sixth ray which has brought out into the light of day the growing ideological tendencies of mankind. These world ideologies (of which there are many present in the world today) are created by a triple reaction to the two streams of energy mentioned above: The unfoldment of the mental principle in mankind during this Aryan Age has forced desire into the form of great mass concepts; these unitedly are governing the mass tendency toward mental unfoldment. The steadily growing soul influence, working like a leaven on the astral plane, has lifted kama or desire out of its purely self-centered focus and brought in a new and hitherto unexpressed group emotional consciousness; this leads the fused emotional nature of men into great ideological mass expression, still selfishly expressed and impulsed as yet by emotional excesses, but indicating new and better goals. These goals will assume clearer and more desirable [580] outlines when the second initiation is undergone by the world aspirant. The influence generated by the Shamballa energy which has, for the first time, made direct contact with Humanity, is producing an emotional vortex in which old ideals and institutions are seen divorced from their hitherto controlling glamors, thus permitting the new and better ideologies to emerge in the consciousness of the race.
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