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The Rays and the Initiations - Part One - Fourteen Rules For Group Initiation
We now come, after these preliminary remarks, to a consideration of the next rule. Rule XI Let the group together move the fire within the jewel in the Lotus into the Triad and let them find the Word which will carry out that task. Let them destroy by their dynamic Will that which has been created at the midway point. When the point of tension is reached by the brothers at the fourth great cycle of attainment, then will this work be done. On first reading this rule it is obvious that it concerns the fourth initiation and the consequent destruction of the [216] causal body - the vehicle through the means of which the Monad has created first of all the personality, and then an instrument for the expression of the second divine aspect. We are therefore dealing with one of the major initiations. I would here call to your recollection the fact that (from the angle of the Hierarchy) this initiation is the second major initiation, and not the fourth, as it is regarded from the human angle; the third initiation is technically regarded as the first major initiation. The major initiations are really possible only after the transfiguration of the personality. What, therefore, brings about the destruction of the soul body? The destroying agent is the second aspect of the Will. The third or lowest aspect of the Will, working through the mind or the manasic principle, was the sustaining factor in the long cycle of personality development; it was the principle of intelligent synthesis, holding the life principle intact and individualized through the long series of successive incarnations. During that cycle the will demonstrated first as the lower man; then it focused itself in the Son of Mind, the divine Agnishvatta, the soul, and became increasingly a factor of potency. Later, as the disciple builds the antahkarana and thus establishes a direct channel of communication between the Monad and the personality, the lower mind becomes fused with the abstract mind or higher mind (the manasic principle, sublimated and purified), and gradually the soul is - to use a peculiar but sensitively expressing word - by-passed. It has by now served its purpose. Love and light are in expression in the physical plane life. Neither the personality vehicle nor the soul body is required, as under the old conditions. Their place can now be taken by the Spiritual Triad and the Monad; the essential life of both the lower aspects (creative in nature and expressive of loving intent as to purpose) can now be withdrawn. Triplicity, from the angle of the three periodical vehicles - Monad, soul and personality - is resolved into duality, and the Monad (reflected in the Triad) can now work upon the lower planes through the medium of a definitely created personality or "point of tension" in the [217] three worlds. It is to this that the rule applies when studied in terms of the individual initiate, whilst the life in which the soul is "by-passed" and its ring-pass-not is destroyed, is of such profound difficulty that it is called the life of crucifixion or of renunciation. We are, however, concerned with the interpretation of the rule as it affects a group which is preparing for the joint initiation of its members. It is by adhering to the ancient dictum that "as it is with the Macrocosm so will it be with the microcosm," and by the application, therefore, of the Law of Analogy, that we shall eventually arrive at understanding. I cannot hope to do more than indicate significances, but it will now be clear to you why I have dealt with the four qualities which a group must develop in unison prior to initiation. We shall find it useful to relate these qualities to the various phrases or injunctions in this Rule XI. We must consider each of them separately. Let us now look at the first sentence.
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