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The Rays and the Initiations - Part Two - Introductory Remarks
These three words will therefore indicate the first type of approach to our subject; what I have to say will therefore, in every case, have them in mind. Secondly, I would have you consider with me the various aspects of our sectional theme from the angle of the seven rays. By this I mean that disciples upon the different rays will all have the same goal, make the same experiments, go through the same experience and arrive equally at divine expression. However, their qualities and their modes of approach, their reactions and their distinctive natures will differ according to their ray type; this constitutes a most interesting and little known phase of our study of initiation. Initiation has been a blanket happening, and no note has been made of the ray implications. This I propose to remedy. Each of the seven initiations, for instance, is an exemplification or a revealer of one of the seven ray qualities or tendencies; it is governed and conditioned always by a certain ray, and this is one of the factors which disciples have to learn and grasp whilst preparing for an initiation, because it involves success in handling and manipulating certain types of divine energy. Each of the initiations brings one or other of the seven centers into full functioning activity, not from the angle of awakening or of stimulation, but from the angle of a "wheel turning upon itself." This is an Old Testament expression [339] and is wholly inadequate, but I can find none other to substitute. The wording is totally blind and inadequate and will prove to you somewhat meaningless, except to the initiate who has experienced that turning. As esoteric astrologers know well, there comes a life cycle wherein the disciple reverses himself upon the Wheel of Life (the zodiacal wheel) and from going clockwise around the zodiac, he now begins to go anti-clockwise; he learns that the substance aspect of his nature may still be conditioned by the forces flowing through them sequentially and serially, and according to his horoscope and according to the exoteric mode of the zodiacal revolution; at the same time, the disciple is receiving energy currents from the reversed wheel whereon he, as a soul, finds himself. He is consequently the recipient of two currents of energy, going in reverse directions; hence the increased conflict in his life and circumstances; these constitute the reason for the tests of initiation. This, on a tiny scale, is true of the centers in the etheric body of the disciple; they too evidence the same dual activity, once the Path of Discipleship is trodden and the Path of Initiation is entered. The zodiacal wheel is itself essentially a cosmic center; it is a twelve-petalled lotus, but it is a twelve-petalled lotus within the thousand-petalled lotus of an unknown cosmic Entity, the One referred to in my earlier books as the One about Whom naught may be said. The multiplicity of zodiacal influences have eventually a dual effect: one upon Shamballa (the planetary head center) and the other upon the Hierarchy (the planetary heart center); the effect is also felt in the head center and the heart center of every initiate. This final dual activity is registered by the initiate of the highest degrees when he undergoes the eighth and ninth initiations; the other seven initiations are governed by the seven rays. You have, therefore: [340]
Initation 1. Birth | Sacral center | 7th ray | Physical plane | Beginnings | Relationship | Sex Magic
Initiation 2. Baptism | Solar plexus center | 6th ray | Astral plane | Dedication | Glamor | Devotion
Initiation 3. Transfiguration | Ajna center | 5th ray | Mental plane | Integration | Direction | Science
Initiation 4. Renunciation | Heart center | 4th ray | Buddhic plane | Crucifixion | Sacrifice | Harmony
Initiation 5. Revelation | Base of spine | 1st ray | Atmic plane | Emergence | Will | Purpose
Initiation 6. Decision | Throat center | 3rd ray | Monadic plane | Fixation | Intelligent cooperation | Creativity
Initiation 7. Resurrection | Head center | 2nd ray | Logoic plane | The Eternal Pilgrim | Love-Wisdom | Attraction
Initiation 8. Transition | Hierarchy | Four minor rays | Planetary | Choice | Consciousness | Sensitivity
Initiation 9. Refusal | Shamballa | Three major rays | Systemic | Seven Paths | Being | Existence
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