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Esoteric Psychology I - Foreword
In the books already published three basic lines of teaching can be traced: First, a relatively new technique has been given as to the control of the body. [xix] Second, teaching has been given anent the formation of the New Group of World Servers. Third, the general lines of the magical work of creation have received attention. The first line of teaching concerns the individual and his development; the second indicates the nature and ideals of the group into which he may find his way if he profits by the teaching and learns control; the third, could you but realize it, details in some measure the methods and modes of work during the coming new age. Ponder upon these three main approaches to truth, and think upon them with clarity of thought. Mental appreciation of their significance will produce understanding and will likewise increase the group apprehension of the teaching which I have sought to impart. Any student who thinks clearly and applies the teaching to his daily life is contributing most valuably to the group awareness. Oft an aspirant says to himself: "Of what real use am I? How can I, in my small sphere, be of service to the world?" Let me reply to these questions by pointing out that by thinking this book into the minds of the public, by expressing before your fellow men the teaching it imparts, and by a life lived in conformity with its teaching, your service is very real. This will necessarily involve a pledging of the entire personality to the helping of humanity, and the promise to the Higher Self that endeavor will be made to lose sight of self in service - a service to be rendered in the place and under the circumstances which a man's destiny and duty have imposed upon him. I mean a renewal of the effort to bring about the purification of all the bodies so that the entire lower man may be a pure channel and instrument through which spiritual force may flow unimpeded. I mean the attaining of an attitude [xx] wherein the aspirant desires nothing for the separated self, and in which he regards all that he has as something which he can lay upon the altar of sacrifice for the aiding of his brethren. Could all who read this book see the results of such a united effort, there would emerge a group activity, intelligently undertaken, which would achieve great things. So many people run hither and thither after this individual or that, or this piece of work or that, and, working with lack of intelligent coordination, achieve nothing and no group results. But united group effort would eventuate in an inspired reorganization of the entire world, and the elimination of hindrances; there would be the making of real sacrifices and the giving up of personal wishes and desires in order that group purposes may be served. Above all, there must be the elimination of fear. With this I have dealt at length in A Treatise on White Magic, and have given likewise certain rules and formulas for its control. How many who have read the teaching profited by the information imparted? Will you not, with determination and because the world cries out for help, cast away fear and go forward with joy and courage into the future? There has been, behind all the books which I have written, a definite purpose and a planned sequence of teaching. It may be of interest to you if I trace them for you: The first book issued was Initiation, Human and Solar. This book was intended for the average aspirant, to lead him on from where he was to a vision of an organized band of teachers who were seeking to aid humanity (and incidentally himself), and to give some idea of their technique of work and modes of procedure. Letters on Occult Meditation indicated how these teachers could be reached and the discipline of life that the treading of the Path involved. These two are especially for aspirants. [xxi] A Treatise on Cosmic Fire is in an entirely different category. In the last analysis, it is for the guidance of the initiates of the world, and will lift the aspirant's eyes away from himself and his own growth to a vaster conception and a universal ideal. The mark of the initiate is his lack of interest in himself, in his own unfoldment and his own personal fate, and all aspirants who become accepted disciples have to master the technique of disinterestedness. Their eyes have also to be lifted away from the group of workers and from the hierarchy which they constitute and to be fixed on wider horizons and vaster realms of activity. The great creative Plan, its laws and technique of unfoldment, and the work of the Builders of the Universe was dealt with; emerging out of the mass of imparted facts, and underlying all the teaching, was the idea of a great Life with Its own psychology and ideas. It was an attempt to give a synthetic picture of the unfolding Mind of God as It works out Its plans through the lesser Sons of Mind. In symbolism and archaic phrases it veiled the truths and principles which lie at the root of the creative process, and in its entirety is beyond the grasp of the advanced student. At the same time, it is a most valuable compendium of information, and will serve to convey truth and to develop the intuition. The last book, A Treatise on White Magic, is a parallel volume to A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. Just as the first dealt with the psychology of Deity, the work of the Macrocosm, and the laws whereby the Solar Logos works, so this book constitutes a treatise on the psychology of a Son of God and the work of the Microcosm. It intimately concerns His place in the larger whole and is of practical application to daily life in that whole. I have also aided A.A.B. in getting out a translation of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which is a bridging book, intended to show the aspirant the rules whereby the light within him [xxii] may be developed and the power of the intuition be brought to bear on all problems and on the phenomena of life itself. This book was given the name The Light of the Soul. Here I am fulfiling my intention to write a book on the subject of the Seven Rays. This topic has always been of real interest for students, but about these rays little is known. We know, from The Secret Doctrine, that they are the building Forces and the sum total of all that is in the manifested universe, but their effect in the human kingdom, and their essential quality and nature, remain as yet a mystery. It will be necessary for me to avoid the cosmic note, if I may so call it, for I seek to make the information of practical value to the student and to the intelligent reader. I shall therefore approach the subject entirely from the standpoint of the human family and deal with the subject in terms of psychological values, laying the foundation for that new psychology which is much needed, and so dealing primarily with the human equation. What I have to say will be a commentary upon an expansion of the words found in the proem of The Secret Doctrine, that "All Souls are one with the Oversoul." We shall, from the outset, accept the fact of the soul. We shall not consider the arguments for or against the hypothesis of there being a soul - universal, cosmic, and divine, or individual and human. For our purposes of discussion, the soul exists, and its intrinsic reality is assumed, as a basic and proven principle. Those who do not admit this assumption can, however, study the book from the angle of a temporarily accepted hypothesis, and thus seek to gather those analogies and indications which may substantiate the point of view. To the aspirant, and to those who are seeking to demonstrate the existence of the soul because they believe in its existence, this expression of its laws and tradition, its nature, origin and [xxiii] potentialities will become a gradually deepening and experienced phenomenon. What I indicate and the suggestions I may make, will, I forecast, be demonstrated, in the scientific sense, during the coming Aquarian Age. Science will then have penetrated a little further into the field of intangible yet real phenomena; it will have discovered (mayhap it has already made this discovery) that the dense and concrete do not exist; it will know that there is but one substance, present in nature in varying degrees of density and of vibratory activity, and that this substance is impelled by urgent purpose and expressive of divine intent.
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