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The Rays and the Initiations - Part Two - Section One - The Aspirant and the Mysteries of Initiation
2. Visualization. Up to this point the activity has been of a mental nature. The creative imagination has been relatively quiescent; the disciple has been occupied within the mind and upon mental levels, and has "looked neither up nor down." But now the right point of tension has been reached; the reservoir or pool of needed energy has been restrained within the carefully delimited ring-pass-not, and the bridge-builder is ready for the next step. He therefore proceeds at this point to construct the blue print of the work to be done, by drawing upon the imagination and its faculties as they are to be found upon the highest level of his astral, or sensitive vehicle. This does not relate to the emotions. Imagination is, as you know, the lowest aspect of the intuition, and this fact must be remembered at all times. Sensitivity, as an expression of the astral body, is the opposite pole to buddhic sensitivity. The disciple has purified and refined his imaginative faculties so that they are now responsive to the impression of the buddhic principle or of the intuitive perception - perception, apart from sight or any recorded possible vision. According to the responsiveness of the astral vehicle to the [489] buddhic impression, so will be the accuracy of the "plans" laid for the building of the antahkarana and the visualizing of the bridge of light in all its beauty and completeness. The creative imagination has to be stepped up in its vibratory nature so that it can affect the "pool of energy" or the energy-substance which has been gathered for the building of the bridge. The creative activity of the imagination is the first organizing influence which works upon and within the ring-pass-not of accumulated energies, held in a state of tension by the "intention" of the disciple. Ponder upon this occult and significant statement. The creative imagination is in the nature of an active energy, drawn up into relationship with the point of tension; it there and then produces effects in mental substance. The tension is thereby increased, and the more potent and the clearer the visualization process, the more beautiful and strong will be the bridge. Visualization is the process whereby the creative imagination is rendered active and becomes responsive to and attracted by the point of tension upon the mental plane. At this stage the disciple is occupied with two energies: one, quiescent and held within a ring-pass-not, but at a point of extreme tension, and the other active, picture-forming, outgoing and responsive to the mind of the bridge-builder. In this connection it should be remembered that the second aspect of the divine Trinity is the form-building aspect, and thus, under the Law of Analogy, it is the second aspect of the personality and the second aspect of the Spiritual Triad which are becoming creatively active. The disciple is now proceeding with the second stage of his building work, and so the numerical significance will become apparent to you. He must work slowly at this point, picturing what he wants to do, why he has to do it, what are the stages of his work, what will be the resultant effects of his planned activity, and what are the materials with which he has to work. He endeavors to visualize the entire process, and by this means sets up a definite rapport (if successful) between the buddhic intuition and the creative imagination [490] of the astral body. Consequently, you will have at this point: The buddhic activity of impression. The tension of the mental vehicle, as it holds the needed energy-substance at the point of projection. The imaginative processes of the astral body. When the disciple has trained himself to be consciously aware of the simultaneity of this threefold work, then it goes forward successfully and almost automatically. This he does through the power of visualization. A current of force is set up between these pairs of opposites (astral-buddhic) and - as it passes through the reservoir of force upon the mental plane - it produces an interior activity and an organization of the substance present. There then supervenes a steadily mounting potency, until the third stage is reached and the work passes out of the phase of subjectivity into that of objective reality - objective from the standpoint of the spiritual man.
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