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Initiation II - The Baptism in Jordan
Ray VI - The Energy of Idealism and Devotion
In the initiatory process between the first initiation of the Birth of the Christ and the beginning of the conscious unfoldment of the Christ life and awareness, the life of the initiate has undergone a pronounced reorientation. He is now capable of an equally pronounced and often fanatical adherence to the programme of aspiration and of devotion to the good (as he sees it at this stage). This is symbolised for us in the story of the twelve year old Jesus Who was so conscious that He "must be about His Father's business" that He defied His parents, caused them distress, and astonished those older than He by His Spiritual poise and knowledge. This He offset by going down to Galilee and being "subservient" to His parents. A somewhat similar attitude (without the developed and inclusive understanding manifested by the Christ) can be seen expressing itself in the disciple during the period wherein the new orientation is taking place; the disciple is learning to discipline his lower nature and to achieve a measure of mastery over his physical inclinations; he thus releases physical energy and brings order into his life. This takes a very long time and may cover a cycle of many incarnations. He is constantly fighting against his lower nature, and the requirements of his Soul (as he somewhat ignorantly interprets them) are in constant session against the animal nature, and increasingly in relation to the emotional nature.
Above all, he becomes aware of a secondary relation, involving a most difficult problem and one which enhances the fight and intensifies his problem. He discovers that his emotional nature, his lower psychic faculties, his Astral development and the potency of glamour are now all arrayed against him.
The reorientation with which he is now faced has to be brought about primarily upon the Astral plane, because that has been for untold aeons the level of his major polarisation and the sphere of activity and the state of consciousness which has dominated him. The physical body is not a principle; his Etheric body has, since Atlantean days, been the agent of his Astral energy, for the mind nature is not yet developed and cannot, therefore, adequately take control. He discovers that he lives in a chaos of emotional reactions and of conditioning glamours. He slowly begins to realize that in order to take the second initiation he must demonstrate emotional control; he realizes also that he must have some knowledge of those Spiritual energies which will dissipate glamour, plus an understanding of the technique whereby illumination from the mind—as the transmitting agent of the light of the Soul—can dispel these glamours and thus "clarify the atmosphere", in the technical sense.
As regards humanity as a whole, polarised as it is in the emotional nature, the effect of this sixth Ray is potent in the extreme. Its energy has been playing upon men ever since it came into incarnation, and the last one hundred fifty years have seen that potency become extremely effective. Two factors have enhanced this effect:
The united activity of these two great streams of cosmic energy, playing upon and through the third planetary center, Humanity, has created the unique condition in which "the race of men" can stand before the planetary Initiator, the Christ, and under the focussed stimulation of the Hierarchy, pass through the initiation.
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