To Netnews Homepage Previous Next Index Table of Contents
The Rays and the Initiations - Part One - Fourteen Rules For Group Initiation
The result of these two is given in the two closing phrases of this rule: The lesser wheels must not for aye revolve in time and space. Only the greater Wheel must onward move and turn. There is one point here that I should like to make because it opens the door to new concepts, even if it is not yet possible for these concepts to be defined so that the mass can understand; even the disciples who read these words will fail truly to comprehend. Only those who have taken the third initiation will rightly interpret. Constantly in all esoteric literature reference is made to the factors of time and space as if there were a basic distinction between the worlds in which these two hold sway and in which the aspirants and initiates of all degrees freely move. Constantly the aspirant is reminded that time is cyclic in nature and manifestation, and that "space is an entity." It is necessary that there should be some comprehension of these terms if that which the will controls (when evoked) is to penetrate into the knowing consciousness of the thinker. Space and substance are synonymous terms; substance is the aggregate of atomic lives out of which all forms are built. With this the Treatise on Cosmic Fire largely dealt. [106] This is both an occult and a scientific truism. Substance is, however, a soul concept, and is only truly known to the soul. Therefore, after the fourth initiation, when the work of the soul is accomplished and the soul body fades out of the picture, only the quality which it has imparted in substance is left as its contribution - individual, group or planetary - to the sumtotal of manifestation. All that remains is a point of light. This point is conscious, immutable and aware of the two extremes of the divine expression: the sense of individual identity and the sense of universality. These are fused and blended in the One. Of this One the divine Hermaphrodite is the concrete symbol - the union in one of the pairs of opposites, negative and positive, male and female. In the state of being which we call the monadic, no difference is recognized between these two because (if I can bring such ideas down to the level of the intelligence of the aspirant) it is realized that there is no identity apart from universality and no appreciation of the universal apart from the individual realization, and this realization of identification with both the part and the whole finds its point of tension in the will-to-be, which is qualified by the will-to-good and developed (from the consciousness angle) by the will-to-know. These are in truth three aspects of the divine will which exists in its perfection in the solar Logos and finds a medium of expression through the planetary Logos. This will is therefore working out in seven ways, via the living qualities of the seven planetary Logoi Who express Themselves through the seven sacred planets; They are preoccupied with the endeavor of bringing all the forms of life within the orbit of Their influence up to the same measure of recorded recognition and of registered existence. It will be obvious to you, consequently, that on each of the seven sacred planets one aspect of the divine Will will be dominant. This is the significance of Space - the field wherein states of Being are brought to the stage of recognition. When that stage has been reached and the Knower, the Soul, is fully aware and fully conscious, then there enters [107] in a new factor which also affects space - though in a different way - but which is related to the monadic Life. That factor is Time. Time is related to the will aspect and is dependent upon the dynamic life, self-directed, which produces persistence and which demonstrates persistence in that dynamic focus of intention by periodic or cyclic appearance. From the angle of the Will or the Father, these appearances in time and through space are so small a part of the experience of the living Entity Whose life is lived on planes other than the physical, emotional or mental, that they are regarded as no life. To understand this, I would remind you again that we must seek to understand the sum total in the light of the part, the Macrocosm in the light of the Microcosm. That is no easy task and is necessarily most limited. The disciple knows or is learning to know that he is not this or that, but Life Itself. He is not the physical body or its emotional nature; he is not, in the last analysis (a most occult phrase) the mind or that by which he knows. He is learning that that too must be transcended and superseded by intelligent love (only truly possible after the mind has been developed), and he begins to realize himself as the soul. Then, later, comes the awful "moment in time" when, pendant in space, he discovers that he is not the soul. What then is he? A point of divine dynamic will, focused in the soul and arriving at awareness of Being through the use of form. He is Will, the ruler of time and the organizer, in time, of space. This he does, but ever with the reservation that time and space are the "divine playthings" and can be used or not at will. We could paraphrase the last two sentences of this fourth rule as follows: The evocation of the will involves identity with the larger purpose. The little will of the little lives must be merged in the larger will of the whole. Individual purpose must be identified with group purpose, which is as much of the purpose of the Whole or the One Life as the little life can grasp at any given point in time [108] and space. It is in this sense, esoterically understood, that time is an event - which philosophy now points out, groping towards an expression of the initiate consciousness.
To Netnews Homepage Previous Next Index Table of Contents
Last updated Monday, July 6, 1998 © 1998 Netnews Association. All rights reserved.