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What has happened, technically speaking? The energies of the Solar Plexus center are being transferred from the major clearing house below the diaphragm to the Heart center—one of the three major centers into which all the lower energies must transfer. At the first initiation he was granted a vision of a higher creativity and the energy of the sacral center began its slow ascent to the Throat center. At the second initiation, he is granted a vision of a higher focus, and his place in the larger whole begins slowly to reveal itself. A new creativity and a new focus become his immediate goals, and for him life can never again be the same. The old physical attitudes and desires may still at times assume control; selfishness may continue to play a potent part in his life expression, but—underlying these and subordinating them—will be found a deep dissatisfaction about things as they are and an agonising realisation of failure. It is at this point that the disciple begins to learn the uses of failure and to know certain fundamental distinctions between that which is natural and objective and that which is supernatural and subjective.
We therefore come back to the problems of the Astral plane, of the emotional level of consciousness, and to the second initiation; this initiation releases men from emotional control and enables them to shift their consciousness on to mental levels, and from that higher point of focus to control their normal and well developed emotional attitudes. If you will turn back, you will find that the three keynotes are given for this second initiation and for its technique. I would like to call your attention to them because they present those keynotes which give us the clue to the world problems and indicate at the same time the solution and the way out of the present impasse. These three words are: Dedication. Glamour. Devotion.
It is the dedication of the aspirant which invokes the fire. You have here a statement of major importance. The aspirant upon the higher levels of the Astral plane is swept by the "fire of dedication." This immediately focusses his will as it demonstrates on the Mental plane, and this focussing in due time starts the serious undertaking of the shifting of his consciousness on to mental levels. Then immediately the "fire" works, and the first reaction (as I have earlier pointed out) is the "meeting of fire and water," and consequently the production of fog, mist, of glamour and illusion. All of these four words must be understood symbolically. The glamours thus induced are dependent upon the Ray and the point of evolution of the individual and the nation. It is essential that you learn to think in the widest possible terms.
What will be the result of the combination in one's life of these three factors? Primarily two things:
As a result of both of these, a great transforming agency is set in motion by the quality of devotion, and the Solar Plexus center becomes not only a clearing house but the main factor in lifting both physical and emotional active energies from below the diaphragm into the Heart center. This constitutes a long process which the aspirant is forced to face in the interim between initiations. We are told (and it is factually true) that the longest period between initiations is that to be found between the first and the second initiations. This is a truth which must be faced, but it should also be remembered that it is by no means the hardest period. The hardest period for the sensitive, feeling aspirant is to be found between the second and the third initiations.
It is a period of intense suffering, of the penalty of applying factors of glamour and illusion, of pronounced involvement in situations which, for a long time, remain unclarified, and of a steady moving forward as best the beleaguered aspirant can—under the influence of right direction and Spiritual determination. This he has usually to do in the dark, working under the action of the logical and understanding mind, but seldom under the influence of inspiration. Nevertheless, the good work goes on. The emotions are brought under control, and necessarily the factor of the mind assumes an increasingly right importance. Light—flickering and as yet uncertain and unpredictable—pours occasionally in from the Soul, via the mind, adding frequently to the complications but producing eventually the needed control which will lead to and result in freedom.
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