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The Rays and the Initiations - Part Two - Section Two - The Aspirant and the Major Initiations
Initiation VI - The Decision We have been studying along three lines which, in spite of the unavoidable abstruseness of the subject, have meant much to the earnest individual disciple because the words used to express the initiations concerned have been: Renunciation. Ascension. Revelation. All these convey practical and useful concepts to the mind, and yet - at the same time - their true meaning involves a detachment, a divine indifference and the spiritual perception of which no disciple has had more than a glimpse and a dim sensing of possibility. I then lifted these three ideas on to wider levels and endeavored to show how the crises through which humanity is today passing and will continue to pass [719] during the next fifty years (though with lessening effects of discomfort, if right attitude is assumed) can also be related to these three words. I do not wish you to infer that mankind is, in fact, undergoing these initiatory experiences. The renunciation is being imposed by circumstances and is not a free undertaking; the moving onward is the result of a somewhat inchoate and uncontrolled momentum and is not the effort of a liberated soul. The revelation which is to come will be the result of hierarchical activity, focused through the Christ, though not presented by His coming; it will come as a result of His work and hierarchical activity. All these initiations have their lower correspondences, and the one we are to consider at this time is no exception; all of them can appeal to the aspirant as embodying for him some immediate goal, but the concept is only preparatory in its nature; this can be illustrated by pointing out that the Great Renunciation becomes possible because, for many lives, the disciple has learnt to renounce and - when treading the Path of Initiation - to renounce consciously and with a formulated purpose. In the same manner, the sixth Initiation of Decision also becomes possible because the initiate has, since his affiliation with the Hierarchy, learnt to make right choice, and his ability to do that emerges out of his effort whilst on the Probationary Path and on the earlier stages of the Path of Discipleship to make correct choices and spiritually motivated decisions. I am pointing this out because, as we now begin to study the final four initiations (which are far beyond the understanding of even the advanced disciple), it will not be waste of time; in spite of a lack of true comprehension, qualities and attributes and certain needed lessons will be indicated to the true aspirant, and these he can now begin to develop. I would like first of all to point out that the sixth initiation is to the Master Who stands before the planetary Logos what the second initiation is to the disciple; the fifth Initiation of Revelation and the sixth Initiation of Decision are the higher correspondences to the first two initiations which are regarded by the Lodge on Sirius as initiations of the [720] Threshold. Have this carefully in mind. Much earlier in this treatise (page 361) I made the comment that the second initiation with its evidenced control of desire (indicating right choice) was "the threshold...to those levels of impression, of contact and of future ascension which are the sevenfold goal set before the Master when the sixth initiation (the true ascension) is consummated. It is for this reason that this initiation is called the Initiation of Decision." This is a point of real interest and of practical value; it reveals in a new sense and quite definitely that all happenings on our planet are in truth simply preparatory to other much greater events and opportunities. They put the Master or the Chohan (we seem to have no word to express the type of consciousness of the initiate who has taken the five initiations of strictly human evolution) in a position where at each initiation He expresses the sum total of all past attainment. His entire past is involved in what He demonstrates. This is not consciously so. All that He is or knows has dropped below the threshold of consciousness, in the same way that the instinctual nature of man is today automatic and spontaneous and not consciously used. In spite of this subjective activity, men are nevertheless in full possession of a definite part of their equipment. So it is with the Master; all that He has been in the spiritual sense and in wisdom, perception and full comprehension is now instinctual, and the powers, knowledges, attributes involved are instantaneously His without effort or conscious activity. He can depend fully upon what He is and has, and - as a result of initiation - He is free from the questionings, the doubts and the uncertainties which are so distinctive of the disciple. Earlier (Page 396) I pointed out that the Masters, at the sixth Initiation of Decision, face realms of service where They will have to "impart, strengthen and enlighten that which is already fused, already strong, and already full of light but which needs that which They bring in order to express the all-encompassing Whole." This is, of course, a mysterious and rather paradoxical statement, but [721] a certain measure of light can be thrown upon it if it is remembered that this sixth initiation is related, in a peculiar way, to Path VI. This is the Path upon which our planetary Logos is found. This Path is necessarily related to the sixth Ray of Devotion or Idealism, and also to the sixth plane, the astral plane - he plane of glamor and of desire. I would have you bear these relationships in mind, but I would have you also remember that at this Initiation of Decision the Master can move forward on any one of the seven Paths which He may decide is, for Him, the field of His future service. This expression of His choice is, as you know, not dependent upon His ray energy or upon what might be the impelling force of the planetary rays; i.e., that of the planet itself (the personality ray of the planetary Logos) or upon the soul ray of Sanat Kumara. It is not for me to tell you whether this dominating ray is His soul ray or the monadic or universal ray.
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