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3. A Re-alignment of the Lower Sheaths so that the contact with the Real Man, the Thinker, the Solar Angel, on the higher levels of the Mental plane may become complete and continuous. This only becomes possible as the other two points are beginning to be grasped and the theory as to man's constitution and purpose is somewhat understood. As meditation is practiced, as the lower bodies are painstakingly dominated, and as the nature of the Sutratma or Thread is better comprehended it will become increasingly possible to bring into the lower personality on the Physical plane that Spiritual illumination and that divine energy which is the Soul's heritage.

Little by little the light will shine forth, year by year the strength of the higher contact will grow, gradually the downpour of divine love and wisdom into the Head centers will be increased until eventually the entire lower man will be transformed, his sheaths will be refined, controlled and used, and he will demonstrate upon earth the powers of Director, Teacher or Manipulator according to the major Ray upon which his Monad may be found.

4. A Series of Tests Leading to Initiation. When a man is beginning to demonstrate the qualities of his Ray and to prove of gradually increasing importance to his group, he will be prepared through tests, through trials, and through temptations for those final stages in development which put into his power:

1. The knowledge of certain laws governing matter and form.

2. The keys of the mysteries connected with energy, with polarity, and with group relation.

3. Certain Words of Power which will give him control over the elemental forces of nature.

4. Insight into the planetary plans.

The first work to be done is the stimulating of aspirants and the preparing of the few earnest ones to tread the Path of Discipleship. The final point of our theme concerns:

5. The Basic Essential of Pure Character. This is something more than just being good. It deals with the matter aspect and has relation to the hold or control that the form has over the man. We might express it this way and therefore give its more occult connotation. If one or other of the three lower elementals (the physical, the Astral and the mental) are the controlling factors in the life of the man, he is—by that very fact—put into a position of danger and should take steps to arrest that control prior to an attempt to enter into the formless realm.  

Under the governing law of matter, the law of Economy, the elemental life will attract to itself similar lives and this will result in a dual danger.

These dangers are:

1. The gathering into the form, through the dominant note sounded by the form elemental, of matter with a synchronous vibration. This will tend to increase the magnitude of the task before the Ego and sweep into increasing dominance the lower man. The "lunar lords" will become increasingly powerful and the solar Lord correspondingly less august.

2. The man will find himself surrounded in time with thought-forms of a lower order (from the standpoint of the Soul) and before he can penetrate into the Arcana of Wisdom and find his way into the Master's world he will have to dispel the clouds of thought-forms which he has attracted to himself.

Unless the disciple learns that aspiration and self-discipline must proceed side by side, he will find that the Spiritual energy he may appreciate and contact will only serve to stimulate the latent seeds of evil in his nature and thereby demonstrate the exactitude of the truth that the great Lord taught when He pictured the man who swept his house, cast out seven devils and eventually was in a worse condition than ever. It is essential that aspirants should understand the nature of the lower man and should grasp the fact that every coherent system has its varying types of energy, and that perfection is achieved when the highest type of energy inherently possible dominates.

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