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This gives you much food for thought; it indicates the personality goal and the mode whereby it is attained. After the third initiation, we reach out in consciousness to higher expansions of consciousness and will then enter a realm of ideas which are not yet easy for the disciple to appreciate or to understand. Much that I will have to say anent Ray energy and the higher initiations will mean little to many, but it will mean much to the initiate-consciousness. The world initiates will be coming into incarnation at this time, and will read my words towards the end of this century with great understanding.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INITIATIONS
We now start our consideration of the nine initiations, only this time we shall be occupied with the relationship and the detail connected with each initiation, viewing them when possible from the angle of the Hierarchy and its effort on behalf of the evolutionary progress of the race, and not so much from the angle of the Soul-infused personality of the disciple. It must be remembered from the start that no disciple can pass through the initiatory experience unless he is a Soul-infused individual and is consciously aware on Soul levels of the various happenings, possibilities, undertakings and implications.
In all the many books which I have given to the world I have taught much anent initiation; I have sought to bring a saner, more reasonable presentation of these great crises in the life of every disciple. It is wise to note that an initiation is in reality a crisis, a climaxing event, and is only truly brought about when the disciple has learnt patience, endurance and sagacity in emerging from the many preceding and less important crises. An initiation is a culminating episode, made possible because of the self-inspired discipline to which the disciple has forced himself to conform.
Much has been said in the occult books about the preparatory work to be done and the effort which such a task entails, plus the realisation of the consequences initiated and expressing themselves through the individual aspirant. Little has been said anent the more important truth that initiation admits a man into some area or level of the divine consciousness—into a plane or rather a state of being hitherto regarded as sealed and closed.
Initiation I - The Birth at Bethlehem
I have preserved the above Christian nomenclature because of its familiarity and because (symbolically speaking) it conveys an aspect of a major truth. Just as the birth of a child is an entrance into light, literally speaking, and the beginning of an entirely new way of life, so each successive initiation is in an exactly similar manner an entrance into light, involving the revelation of a different world to the one hitherto known, and the undergoing of entirely new experiences.
The first initiation might be regarded as the goal and the reward of the mystical experience; it is fundamentally not an occult experience in the true sense of the term, for it is seldom accurately realized or consciously prepared for, as is the case of the later initiations, and this is why the first two initiations are not considered major initiations. In the mystical realisation there is naturally and normally an emphasis upon dualism, but in the new area of unfoldment—visioned and later to be struggled for and attained, initiation by initiation—unity is achieved and dualism disappears. Students should therefore have in mind the following definite occult concept:
The mystical Way leads to the first initiation. Having achieved its purpose, it is then renounced, and the "lighted Way" of occultism is then followed, leading to the lighted areas of the higher states of consciousness.
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