(The nature and purpose of occult training)
The reason lies in the fact, which cannot be too clearly understood by its would-be neophytes, that occult science is a mental, not a spiritual thing, and is neither good nor bad in itself, but only as it is used. It is potent for good or for evil; it can save souls which no other means could approach, and it can, even without evil intention, destroy them. It is no child’s play, and few there be who are suited to that path to the heights. Nevertheless, for such as can adventure it, here is a noble quest for the soul, a true crusade against the Powers of Darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places. In the hidden places of the world there is so much occult evil, little suspected by those who have not met it face to face, that men and women of courage, strength, and the necessary knowledge are needed to deal with it. The training given in occult schools is designed to produce the adept, a human being who, by intensive training has raised himself or herself beyond the average development of humanity, and is dedicated to the service of God.
Their actual training it may be said, is given on the Inner Planes, and only the preliminary training which fits them for the Inner Schools takes place on the physical planes. Consciousness is prepared for its Great Quest, and adventures alone into the Unseen. Not much can be told concerning this training and not many are suitable for it, but enough has been said to give food for thought.
Esotericism, Occultism and Mysticism
In the Lesser Mysteries are unfolded the latent capacities of man; but in the Greater Mysteries are unfolded the hidden capacities of nature.
(Discipline, purification, and the hunger for universalization)
It is not possible for a man to command the elemental essences of nature unless he is master of the elemental aspects of his own nature, for the powers within, if rebellious, will betray him to the powers without. Discipline must precede dominion. We operate upon that which is without by the corresponding aspect that is within. If the nature be not purified, it will make a mixed contact when it touches the Unseen. The operations of occultism are based upon the powers of the will and the imagination; both blind forces. Unless they are controlled and directed by a motive which has relation to the universe as a whole, no ultimate synthesis is possible. The personality must be universalized by the ideal at which it aims in order that it may function as an organized part of the cosmic whole. It is this urge towards universalization which is the ultimate hunger of the soul; the lesser self seeks to achieve it by drawing all things into itself in a rage of possession; the greater self seeks to achieve it by transcending the bounds of self and becoming one with the universe
The ultimate integration can only be achieved by means of universal sympathy and absolute devotion united in one nature. Into such a one all things are gathered by means of sympathy, and he is in his turn gathered into the All by means of devotion.
Not in one incarnation can this be achieved. Three incarnations of absolute devotion without error may serve; but who is without error, and how far must we be upon the Path before absolute devotion is attained? We cannot step out of the march of evolution with one foot, into the Cosmic Light with the other; it takes many steps to tread the Path, and some of them slip and have to be retraced. The difficulties are emphasized because many embark lightheartedly upon this great and terrible venture, but the fruits of it are not minimized, for they transcend all that eye can see or heart can dream. Neither do we have to wait until the end of the journey before we begin to reap. Day by day the manna fell during all the journey through the wilderness, though Egypt had to be abandoned and the Red Sea over-passed before it appeared.
the safety of human habitations has to be left, and the soul journeys houseless and alone into the wilderness and comes to the Red Sea; here it is that the weak turn back and return into slavery to make bricks without straw for which they receive no wages. But if the supreme test of the Red Sea is faced, the waves are parted by an unseen force and the traveller passes through dry-shod, with a wall of waters standing up on either hand; this is the test of faith, for by mundane law those waters should fall; it is only a higher law that keeps them back.
The Origin of the Mysteries
(The great ones and the origin of the mysteries)
After evolution had proceeded a certain distance, these individualized entities attained a degree of independence which rendered them difficult of control by the over-shadowing groupsoul; and the Logos summoned to His aid those of His children who had completed the cycle of their growth in a previous evolution and attained cosmic adulthood.
These Great Ones influenced the forerunners of humanity by presenting images to their minds by means of a process which we should call telepathic suggestion. The images necessary to enable sensation to be translated into mentation were thus provided ready-made, as it were, and mankind was saved the lengthy and laborious necessity of building these images out of accumulated experiences.
These Great Ones, who are the nearest kin to humanity of all the Lords of Evolution, having attained their development in the Cosmic Day immediately preceding our own, appeared upon the earth during the middle of the Atlantean Period. These are the ‘High Priests after the Order of Melchizedek,’ being without father or mother and building their physical vehicles without human assistance. It was their office to communicate with the concrete mind of humanity, and forge a connecting chain of associated ideas from consciousness to subconsciousness, thereby enabling man to pick up the subtler vibrations which are the voice of the higher spheres.
For these Great Ones were the actual gods of myth and fable, the Divine Founders of racial cultures to which all primitive traditions look back. (They must not, however, be confused with the personifications of the nature forces of later periods; these are the culture gods or divine progenitors.)
This having once been accomplished, the Manus were able to withdraw to those planes upon which they could function with greater ease and freedom, summoning their pupils to ‘rise upon the planes’ and attend them there for instruction, and leaving it to those same pupils to train others as they themselves had been trained, thus recruiting the occult school through succeeding generations.
The Manus were able to tell their pupils of the formations of the spheres because they themselves had been present when the spheres were being builded; they could inform them of the phases through which evolution had passed because they were either eyewitnesses, having themselves developed in certain of the phases, or were the initiated pupils of those who
The Three Great Traditions
Now the Manus, like all else, function under the aspects of the cosmic phases, and as the Logos of our system is a triune entity whose three phases are wisdom, power and love, the Logoidal phases run through a cycle of three, so that although all three aspects are always there, yet at one time one, and at another time another, will predominate, just as a triangle, revolving upon its centre, would present first one angle, and then another to the observer’s gaze, while still remaining triangular.
Although it is not permissible in a book of this nature to enter into questions which involve practical occultism, those who know the nature of the Sin of the Mindless may be able to deduce its results.
Those of the Power Ray work from below upwards, and by operating upon objects of the plane of manifestation, seek to influence their subtle aspects.
All Rays unite in the sun; and therefore their paths converge, and after a certain stage is reached they coalesce, so that an initiate of the higher degrees of any mystery school will stand upon common ground with the initiates of any other school; but in the lower degrees, and especially in their methods of work on the astral and physical planes, the schools are widely divergent, as the differences in their invocations testify.
Many students ignore the differences and concentrate upon the similarity, believing the alterations to be due to local peculiarities of pronunciation, and therefore superficial, and that having identified the different sun-gods throughout the world, they are dealing with one and the same potency. It is, of course, quite true that the same force is behind all of them, but one might just as well attempt to use indiscriminately a telephone, a dynamo, and an electric cautery because the same force is behind them all. The correct pronunciation and orthography of Words of Power is extremely important in all occult operations, and they do not undergo permutation without reason, but according to definite laws. The change in the Sacred Names from country to country is to make the forces fit the conditions, and is not lightly to be tampered with.
(Eastern and western paths diverge in method)
Meditation and asceticism will bring the Eastern chela to the feet of his Master but the Western initiator, working in the much denser material conditions of that civilization, has to employ ritual to get his results—rituals that very few Eastern bodies could stand. The meditative methods of the East will not get results in the West unless the vitality is lowered, and it is a very risky thing to attempt to handle high potencies on a lowered vitality; nor will the aspirant fare well in the rush and drive of our civilization.
The Eastern forces require very purified and rarefied vehicles for their operation, and therefore the primitive aspects of the nature have to be pruned away. The Western forces are much stronger and more drastic in their action, because they take hold of the primitive aspects and use them for their own ends, sublimating the base metal into gold, not precipitating the gold from the ether. You may enable yourself to receive wireless signals beyond normal range either by increasing the
The Paths of the Western Tradition
The Western Tradition has several different aspects which really constitute schools within the Tradition, and these are generally spoken of as the Rays. These Rays are generally named after the colours of the spectrum with which they are held to equate. There is some difference of opinion concerning the colour-notation to be assigned to the Rays; the popular system of assigning the first Ray to the first Plane, and so on, is purely arbitrary and exoteric, for the Planes did not develop in a single Ray-cycle, periods of Pralaya intervening at different points. The true esoteric colour-notation differs from this in several respects. A terminology has therefore been employed which names the Rays according to the school which saw their highest development, and correlates them with the planes and the states of consciousness.
They are then known as the Lords of the Rays or Star Logoi. The planes of human consciousness correspond with the planes laid
Each soul possesses all seven aspects, but in a given incarnation some of these may be latent. There is very seldom an even, all-round development. One of these planes will be the focus of consciousness and the other aspects will be subordinate and contributory thereto.
When these folk come to initiation it is the difficult task of the initiator to try and persuade them to develop the complementary aspects and so effect a balance
The seventh plane, the Plane of Abstract Spirit, is never contacted at the present stage of evolution while in the body; the ego must withdraw from the body for that contact, and the body then goes into deep trance. This aspect has been most highly developed in the East, and therefore this Ray is generally known as the Buddhic Ray; but we have examples of it in the West in our ecstatics; St Theresa is our principal authority upon it. It is exceedingly rare at the present day, and can only be developed in retreat under ascetic conditions.
The operations of these contacts involve the withdrawal of the soul from the world, and are never undertaken until the time is approaching when freedom from the Wheel of Birth and Death may be claimed. Concentration on this contact before the time is ripe causes an arrestation of spiritual growth.
It is the power of the Christian Ray that shines through the Grail; and it is to the Church of the Grail that the aspirant comes who elects to follow the Way of the Cross. This is the Church behind the church which is not seen, but realized; it is to this that devotion to the Sacraments brings a man.
The Ray of the Concrete Mind is the highest aspect of the incarnate personality Thrice-greatest Hermes is its Ray Logos. Its highest development was in the Egyptian and Qabalistic systems, and it was blended with Christian thought in the schools of the Neo-platonists and the Gnostics; but the persecuting energy of the Church, long since exotericized, stamped it out as an organized system.
The Celtic Ray is essentially elemental and deals with the nature aspect of things; being an initiation of the emotions, its standards of value are aesthetic, not ethical; its ideals are beauty and joy, not truth and goodness, and we must bear this in mind when judging its votaries. It is far removed from the world of men and mundane values; but without its leaven, utilitarianism would crush out the wider vision.
It must not be thought that this Ray is evil in itself, however Nothing that God has created is evil in itself; it is only in its perversion and distortion that it becomes evil.
These seven Rays constitute the gamut of initiation, and no one can be justly called an adept who does not possess the degrees corresponding to them. The Buddhic Ray lies ahead of evolution; the Etheric Ray in its original aspect lies behind it. The Christian Ray is the focussing point in the present age.
The Evolution and Functions of the Masters
(Masters, adepts, and the hierarchy of evolution)
This has led to much misunderstanding and to a cheapening of the concept of these Divine Beings and supermen with whom it is possible for humanity to come into touch. The misunderstanding is largely due to the fact that all superhumanity has frequently been classed together by thoughtless students, and the functions of the Adept, the Master, and the Master of Masters, Star Logos, or Ray Chohan (according to the terminology employed) have been confused and their gradations confounded. In the terminology employed in these pages the word Master is never applied to a being incarnated on the physical plane, but is reserved for those who no longer need to incarnate for the performance of their work. The term Adept is used for those beings who have passed beyond the stage which evolution has as yet reached on our planet, and have therefore nothing to learn from its conditions, but elect to incarnate for the purpose of performing certain work; and they are not regarded as Divine Beings, but as elder brethren.
As each fresh phase of human evolution
was entered upon, one of the Lords of Humanity undertook to incarnate upon the physical plane in order to introduce into human consciousness the archetypal ideas which it was intended to work out during that phase, and these He taught to a chosen band of disciples by precept, but to the multitude by example; that is to say, He lived the ideal life, He manifested the ideal character; thus presenting a new concept of human perfection to men’s consciousness, and forming a standard against which they could measure their lives and actions. They are thus the Great Exemplars, and represent the Archetypal Man to which humanity attains when it has completed the phase of evolution thus ushered in.
When a Master has incarnated as Redeemer and passed through the sacrificial death, He does not reincarnate, but becomes the Star Logos of His Ray, one of the Seven Spirits before the throne, and he brings that aspect of Logoidal force to a focus through the lens of His personification. Now a personification is not the same as a personality, but is the image which the individuality builds of a particular incarnation in order to manifest upon the plane of matter.
When psychics report that the Master Jesus is incarnated at the present time at such-and-such a place, it is not an incarnation they have perceived, but a personification, a thought-form in the consciousness of the Star Logos which is being used to focus His Ray;
Now the Christ is not, and never has been, a personality; it is not even individualized, but is simply the regenerative and reconciling aspect of the Logoidal force, and as such is spoken of as the Cosmic Christ in order to distinguish it from the manifestation of that force coming through the channel of a Redeemer’s consciousness. It is this force that has functioned through all the World Saviours, Eastern, or Western, but Jesus the Christ, being the Saviour of the Western civilization phase of evolution, is for us ‘the only Name under heaven whereby we shall be saved’, that is to say, whereby we shall obtain the supreme initiation available at present to us in this sphere.
The Master Jesus is ‘an High Priest after the Order of Melchisedec’, and had, according to the Western Esoteric Tradition, but two manifestations on this plane before He passed beyond the planes of form after the third, last and highest manifestation which was the completion of His work. He was never of our humanity, and is now of the grade of Cosmic Fire in the hierarchy, and therefore the sun is His appropriate symbol and His Church keeps the seasons of the solar year and identifies them with the incidents of His career; thus giving rise to the hypothesis of the Solar Myth.
The First Manifest sustains all things, and will sustain them whether we pray to It or not, and in the end we shall all be gathered back into that Infinite Life, but at the present state of our evolution It is, for all practical purposes, beyond our ken (save in certain advanced meditations when It is approached by means of a symbol); we are carried in the great streams of Its force like animalculae in the tides of the sea, borne in a movement so vast that our senses cannot cognize it. It will function whether we worship It or not, and no prayer of ours can turn It a hairsbreadth from Its course
Should the individual consciousness, thus developed, perceive the brooding spirit that overshadows the whole of which it is a part and transmits to it the Divine forces, should it conceive the idea of co-operating with the Divine Life rather than experimenting with its own personal life, then it comes out from under the dominion of the group-soul and into the jurisdiction of the Lodge of the Masters concerned with that group.
Many souls, of course, have received initiation in previous lives, and therefore soon recapitulate and recall their old knowledge when they come in touch with the Mysteries again, but even for these it is well to rub up their past memories and be sure that they have brought them through into waking consciousness in their entirety before undertaking the perilous task of occult development; but for the soul that is coming on to the Path for the first time, such a preliminary training is absolutely essential.
The united action of all the officers builds a group-mind which is capable of transmitting and focussing potencies of a much more massive or cosmic type than could be transmitted through the channel of a single consciousness.