The Path of Initiation

ELEVEN

THE VARIOUS STAGES OF ADEPTSHIP

We now come to consider what have been described as the highest stages of initiation associated with our planetary Life. These are those associated with evolution into kingdoms of Nature beyond the purely human, even though some of the Adepts are said to maintain human physical bodies for particular purposes. Hence it is that they are widely known as the “Elder Brothers” of humanity. We shall look at the rationale of this in further detail, together with that associated with so-called ascended Masters, a term used more frequently than not by those completely ignorant of the real significance. What is suggested in this chapter, however, has to be seen as based largely on inference, derived from what little information is already available through existing literary or other sources.

Let us first of all deal with the issue of higher kingdoms of Nature than the human. This is something completely foreign to our general (at least Western) understanding, which has erroneously assumed for centuries past that the fourth or human kingdom is the highest or most evolved of all. To some extent this is the result of a misinterpretation of the ancient philosophical idea of man as the microcosm of the Macrocosm. After all, if man is made “in the image of God,” how can there be anything in between? In fact, what the ancient statement was saying is that the compound psycho-spiritual organism, which is Man, is constituted in the same way as is the manifest Logos. That is to say, Man is actually a sevenfold being within a soul organism, which latter is itself the octave of logoic vibration—the “soundless Sound.” The objective human being is itself merely a correspondence in this regard—a terrestrial soul with a sevenfold constitution of elemental substates, only part of which involves the objective human body, as described earlier—but also having a higher “Egoic” nature.

THE “DIVINE SPARK”

The inner human being, as described, is essentially a divine spirit, a (monadic) “spark” of the Kosmic Mind (actually from beyond the bounds of our solar system), a part of which has “fallen” into the terrestrial continuum provided by our planetary Life and taken on a quasi-animal form to provide it with a vehicle of experience and self-expression on behalf of its parent Logos. However, as we have already seen, only a small part of this divine spark is to be found in the objective human being. The real being remains within the spiritual state, merely watching over the terrestrial world scene. The parallel spiritual state within which it remains—the buddhi, or kosmic ether—is itself the fourth of seven such states, as we have also already seen in earlier chapters. However, only when the individuality in Man recognizes the greater part of itself, which exists in that state, does Man become spiritually Self-conscious.

Correspondingly, only when the individuality in Man recognizes the even greater and more powerful aspect of itself, which exists in the third of the seven states (Atma), does he become a full Master and member of the fifth kingdom in Nature. Then again, when he later recognizes the yet greater aspects, which exist in the second and first planes of solar existence, he progressively becomes a member of the nascent sixth and seventh kingdoms in our planetary Nature. Thereafter, he becomes a truly kosmic being. So, by virtue of each cycle generating its own humanity, we may also suggest that our humanity generates its own higher future kingdoms through its own efforts.

Thus what the higher initiates are effectively doing is literally paving the way for the future generations of superhuman types by developing out of their own natures an archetypal evolutionary progression. That same subjective progression, however, will only produce objective beings of an equivalent nature and quality in the mass hundreds of thousands of years hence. It is inferred by The Secret Doctrine that by the end of this current Fourth Round cycle, all those on this planet of our particular humanity will have achieved at least the fifth initiation.1 That of course is quite distinct from the lesser “sparks” currently evolving through the animal kingdom, whose consciousness will by then have individualized, thereby allowing them to move into the human kingdom.

It follows from this that the fourth initiation (that of “renunciation”), which was described in the previous chapter, sees the final completion of the spiritualizing evolution of the present fourth kingdom in Nature. But as the latter is the objectively most evolved on our planet at this stage of the greater cycle, the still-evolving fifth kingdom has as yet no objective prototype. That prototype, so we are told, will make its first appearance during the Age of Aquarius. That will take place alongside the externalization of the Adept Hierarchy itself, for the latter is itself the nucleus of the fifth kingdom-to-be.2 Hence, despite the immensity of the achievement involved, the fourth initiation in this cycle is itself merely a preparation for a form of suprahuman experience as yet unknown to us.

THE MASTER SOUL

Thus it is that the first of the higher degrees (that of the fifth) is that of the “risen (but not ascended) Master Soul.” He has already passed beyond the “great transition” rather misleadingly known as “the crucifixion,” which we saw described in the previous chapter and which is rather understandably associated with death. However, the Master conquers death by recognizing that it was due to association with the lower world of temporary objectivity, self-limitation, and constant change. Once the Adept consciousness is fully re-polarized in the transcendent spiritual state and is thus focused in its own true nature, the associated Self-realization produces the immediate recognition that the lower, form-based life involves an illusion, because based on a projection. Hence the fifth degree is known as the initiation of “revelation.”

The Voice of the Silence tells us that the characteristic energy of the one who has achieved the degree of Master of the Wisdom is that of Virya, “the dauntless energy that fights its way to the supernal TRUTH, out of the mire of lies terrestrial.”3 The description goes even further in saying of the requirements of Masterhood: “Thy Soul has to become as the ripe mango fruit: as soft and sweet as its bright golden pulp for others’ woes, as hard as that fruit’s stone for thine own throes and sorrows.”4

In other words, the initiate of this degree has to have conquered every purely human sense and faculty and brought them under such total control that even the cycle of personal birth and death is transcended. In fact, one of the demonstrations of the faculties thus attained is said to involve the capacity to create a completely new human body by kriyasakti, a Sanskrit word indicating the use of spiritual knowledge plus the (controlled) Will-force (atma) emanating from Man’s own higher divinity. In short, he has to be able (through the use of higher creative imagination) to control a certain quality of light itself in order to produce a coherent human form within which he can abide for as long as he wishes. The changes that take place in the Adept’s faculties following the achievement of Masterhood are described as follows:

The five senses, where a Master is concerned, exist and are used at need, but the contact established and maintained with disciples and aspirants in the world (through whom they primarily work) is largely telepathic; hearing and sight, as you understand their uses, are not involved. The science of impression with its greatly increased effectiveness over individual contact through the senses, has entirely superseded the more strictly human method. Except in the case of Masters working on the physical plane and in a physical body, the outer physical senses are in abeyance; for the majority of Masters who still use these senses, the use is strictly limited; their work is almost entirely subjective.5

Notwithstanding this, we are told that as part of the future “externalization of the Hierarchy,” those Masters who are themselves involved in the return to external contacts will have to relearn the use of those same human faculties. That this will involve great sacrifice and even pain is implicitly self-evident.

USE OF THE HIGHER AND LOWER SENSES

Whereas the initiate of the fourth degree has (only just) attained the capacity to function self-consciously within the buddhic state, he is still as yet only beginning to be faintly aware of the nature of atmic (purely spiritual) energy—the emanation of divine Will-force. The Master of the fifth degree, however, in order to exercise conscious association with and adaptation of atmic energy, has to have developed the capacity to generate and distribute spiritual (i.e., buddhic) light down into the “Underworld” below.

Just as a beam of light from a torch or searchlight has to be contained and then focused by a lens in order to illuminate an area properly, so the attention of the Master (now that he has spiritual sight) has to be directed according to the same general principles. He is able to draw on the will-force of his own Monad as necessary to provide power, but he must contain and project that same power while holding his own buddhic and higher mental faculties in absolute check. It is worthy of note to quote at this point a comment made by the Master Kuthumi to A. P. Sinnett regarding the very nature of Masterhood, where he says:

An Adept—the highest as the lowest—is one only during the exercise of his occult powers. Whenever these powers are needed, the sovereign will unlocks the door to the inner man (the Adept) who can emerge and act freely but on condition that his jailor—the outer man—will be either completely or partially paralysed, as the case may require . . . no Adept can be supposed to keep his will in constant tension and the inner Man in full function, when there is no immediate necessity for it. . . . The inner Adept is ever ready, ever on the alert and that suffices for our purposes.6

THE RAY ASSOCIATION WITH THE FIFTH DEGREE

Although those senior initiates approaching the fifth degree will naturally be of various Ray types, the particular association of this degree is with the First Ray—that of spiritual Will. This is the “Siva” Ray, particularly concerned with creativity in relation to prototypal form, hence also with the first of the five elements, that of the quintessential aether. The latter is the emanation of the second plane or state (Akasa) in the sevenfold system, that of the Monad or “divine spark” itself—known in ancient times as the akh, as mentioned earlier. Hence, because the Ak(h)asa is the state of archetypal knowledge, that which emanates from it out into the lower world system is (relatively speaking) perfect. This emanation is then that of the Atman, the vehicle of the Monad—that which conceals the latter by its very auric radiance.

It follows quite logically that the Adept’s ability consciously to associate with the powerful energies of the Atman makes him at-one with it—at least with its direct radiance. Once he has done so, he is “safe.” That is to say, he has then “crossed the bridge” of the buddhic state, which, as stated several times already, is the kosmic etheric double of the Logos. As all etheric doubles—whether kosmic, solar, or terrestrial—are naturally dissipated and so destroyed at the end of their associated (Macrocosmic or microcosmic) cycle of existence, the Master Adept has overcome this danger. He is now a Self-conscious, creative agent of the Demiurge (i.e., the Planetary Logos) and a full member of the planetary Hierarchy, with a far greater range of responsibilities than ever before considered possible. These extend to the other kingdoms of Nature (including that of the devas) as well as to humankind.

THE REQUIREMENTS OF MASTERSHIP

The Voice of the Silence confirms for us what the Adept must achieve before he becomes a Master Soul. First of all, it says:

Thou hast to feel thyself ALL-THOUGHT, and yet exile all thoughts from out of thy soul. [Secondly] thou hast to reach that fixity of mind in which no breeze, however strong, can waft an earthly thought within. Thus purified, the shrine must of all action, sound or earthly light be void; e’en as the butterfly, o’ertaken by the frost, falls lifeless at the threshold—so must all earthly thoughts fall dead before the fane.7

The teaching goes on grimly to warn of the consequences to the Adept if he fails:

Exposed to shifting breeze, the jet will flicker and the quivering flame cast shadows deceptive, dark and ever-changing, on the Soul’s white shrine. And then O thou pursuer of the truth, thy Mind-Soul will become as a mad elephant that rages in the jungle. Mistaking forest trees for living foes, he perishes in his attempts to kill the ever-shifting shadows dancing on the wall of sunlit rocks. Beware, lest in the care of Self thy Soul should lose her foothold on the soil of Deva knowledge. Beware, lest in forgetting SELF, thy Soul lose o’er its trembling mind control and forfeit thus the due fruition of its conquests.8

If anything were needed to confirm to us that Mastership is not achieved by mere mystic contemplation, this surely is it. The spiritual Path is no bed of roses but a way of achievement through intense effort, while even the higher initiations carry with them threats of extreme psychological danger and potential failure. As the Mahatma Kuthumi tells us: “We are not gods; and even they our chiefs—they hope.”9 In addition, it should not be forgotten that the test has to involve the Adept continuing with his normal duties as a human being (if still incarnate) while striving to attain to the state of subjective perfection just described. In this, what is called “All-Thought” describes the capacity to be self-consciously and telepathically sensitive to literally the whole field of planetary (not just human) thought. Thus, we might suggest, the Master Soul does not himself “think” unless there is some specific reason for such mental projections. He has no further need of reactive or creative thought for himself. Such activity merely destroys his higher sensitivity, which immediately perceives the underlying (hence real) nature within all forms.

We are otherwise told that, until fairly recently in historic terms, the Masters normally projected their influence down into the higher mental state, this being the state in which the majority of the evolved intelligentsia of the human race practices their own highest subjective function. Centuries ago, at an earlier stage in human development, their focus was correspondingly on the lower levels of the mental plane, thereby encouraging human intellectual development. Even earlier, many millennia ago, the focus was on the higher levels of the astral plane, encouraging spiritual aspiration via the devotional impulse.

However, the capacity of relatively large numbers of human beings in our own day to use the faculty of the abstract mind in conjunction with the intuitive faculty has apparently resulted in the Masters being able to withdraw their primary focus yet further, back into the buddhic state itself. By virtue of their disciples—the lesser initiates—then passing on as best they can to the rest of humanity the influences received by them from the Adepts (in due proportion according to the capacity to receive), so the whole spectrum of human consciousness evolves by self-generated psychological progress.

ASSOCIATION WITH THE STAR SIRIUS

We are otherwise told that the degree of Master of Wisdom is but the first of the seven degrees associated with the Lodge of an even greater celestial Brotherhood (as briefly mentioned earlier) associated with the Hierarchy of the great star Sirius, itself supposedly a great center in the body of the greater Logos,10 hence our third and fourth initiatory degrees being merely equivalent to probation and discipleship in that Lodge. This statement is of truly staggering proportions because it opens up a spiritual perspective beyond our wildest imagination. However, we have already been told that it lies merely within the wider consciousness of our Solar Logos. Hence it has an immediate logic once the various associated relationships and experiences are also known and understood to exist in direct correspondence to what has already been described in relation to our objective human experience.

Those relationships are said to involve a direct parallel between the Sirian Lodge of kosmic Adepts and the human Spiritual Ego. Just as the latter inspires and endeavors to control its human expression in order to develop its evolutionary intelligence, so the Sirian Lodge, we are told, concerns itself with the same problem in relation to the even more senior hierarchies of life within the seven solar schemes of our local universe and the various planetary schemes of our whole solar system. While the details of this spectrum of interactive kosmic relationships must as yet remain for us a complete mystery, it perhaps provides one answer as to why the most ancient traditions (for example in Egypt) held the “dog star” Sirius in such reverence. It perhaps also helps us to begin understanding why astronomy and esoteric astrology were considered such important sciences to the Ancients.

If the Spiritual Ego in man is the primary influence that initiates each cycle of human incarnation, it naturally follows that an equivalent cycle of far greater magnitude, emanating from the star Sirius, would perhaps lead to the very appearance of the Heavenly Men (Planetary Logoi) within our solar system. Those same Heavenly Men, so we are again told, are senior Dhyani Buddhas, some of whom are to be found comprising the Great Planetary Council of our own Planetary Logos or “Heavenly Man” at Shamballa. (More about Shamballa and its inhabitants is to be found in appendix B at the back of the book.)

These same Heavenly Men are the “Lords of the Rays,” the planetary Logoi associated with each planetary scheme, the greater Intelligences who are responsible for the spiritual individualization of the human kingdom. They, so it would appear, have already long ago passed beyond the seven degrees of initiated self-consciousness of a planetary Life. However, they would themselves have provided the prototypal expressions of self-conscious human existence as the lowest possible correspondence to their own nature.

ASSOCIATION WITH THE PLEIADES AND URSA MAJOR

So we are otherwise told, our mankind (i.e., the mass of higher “divine sparks”) had its spiritual origins in the Pleiades.11 As I have described in my other books, the fact that there are (esoterically, not literally) seven Pleiades and that the seventh was mythically described as “the missing sister” leads one to surmise that our solar system is in fact the latter. Hence there would appear to be a direct correspondence between the human terrestrial soul and its seven emanations—the seven main chakras in the body—and the Oversoul of the Pleiades system as a whole, incorporating the seven stars as its higher equivalent of the chakras. The ancient tradition extends even further, however, to incorporate the circumpolar stars in the same overall picture, particularly Ursa Major, the seven stars of which are described in Vedic literature as the seven Prajapati “husbands” of the seven “sisters” of the Pleiades.

Through the Adepts we learn that Ursa Major bears a relationship to man indirectly corresponding with that of the monad.12 This is via the further suggestion that the monadic life behind humanity in general (together with all the deva monads) form the “body” of our Planetary Logos 13 whose own mass archetype originally emanated from Ursa Major long eons ago.14 It was then seemingly inseminated into the Pleiades system, there to begin its long cycle of involutionary and evolutionary development. Inferential study of the esoteric philosophy propounded in The Secret Doctrine and A Treatise on Cosmic Fire leads one to believe that there must logically be a celestial progression within the sevenfold Pleiadic system. Hence, so it would appear, when The Secret Doctrine confirms that part of our present humanity arrived here on Earth from the Moon and that the latter was the last of a chain of planets, there is at least an implied suggestion that the Moon may have belonged to a previous solar system—as described in the appendices to this book.

Thus, logically speaking, our solar system would be the second in the celestial series,15 our Earth playing its own particular, intermediate role within that progression. But for this author to extend the hypothesis much further than that would be utterly pointless, as it would clearly involve knowledge of realms of celestial Purpose of which no ordinary human being could have the remotest conception. All we can do is note the possible (or even probable) celestial correlations in order to infer a logical sequence of evolutionary progression in the Macrocosm, of which we are but a small part. Having said as much, let us now return to the issue of the highest initiations available to our humanity and the associated influences of control over the lesser hierarchies of our planetary Life.

UNDERSTANDING THE DISTRIBUTION OF LOGOIC PURPOSE

This whole issue of the Spiritual Hierarchy projecting its influence down upon humankind, thereby supposedly achieving “world governance” from behind the scenes, is very poorly understood. It has regrettably led to all sorts of foolish conspiracy theories (particularly concerning the “Illuminati”) among those who evidently have too few useful things to occupy their waking hours. We should therefore pause a moment in order to clarify the issues involved, as follows.

The first thing to be understood—something that needs to be constantly reiterated—is that the whole of our planetary consciousness is part of the consciousness of the Solar Logos. Thus the general circulation of ideas, forms, and influences—whether higher or lower in the evolutionary scale—are all part of the psychological and psycho-sensory processes of the Logos. We ourselves are merely participants in this great kosmic drama by virtue of being aspects and agents of his Mind. We, as members of the fourth kingdom in Nature, are therefore here to fulfill a particular purpose by exercising our creative influences (on his behalf) upon the lesser kingdoms of Nature—the animal, plant, and mineral, as well as (quite unconsciously) the invisible elemental kingdoms. By our doing so, he (the Logos) manages to make his body organism function. This is our task and our responsibility as his direct agents. Similarly, the members of the fifth kingdom—that of the Adepts and Masters—have the responsibility to pass on higher creative influences to us.

However, there is a paranoid anxiety shared by some—particularly among simple-minded conspiracy theorists—that the Masters are in fact extraterrestrials who have come here from some other planet or star system merely to dominate our world. This, frankly, is a ludicrously ignorant travesty of what actually appears to be involved in the wholly natural and progressive sequence of transmission (and thus evolution) of consciousness around the greater celestial system of which ours is but a small part. Esoteric philosophy has always taught us that there is in truth but One (Universal) Consciousness in the Omniverse and that each of us is but an evolving, holographic fragment of it. It consequently follows that the sequence of creative Hierarchies extends from one infinity to another. The spectrum of direct hierarchical influence is thus dependent upon our range of inner perceptual faculty, which is not great—and is much less developed in the case of conspiracy theorists.

THE CHOHAN OF THE SIXTH DEGREE

The Master of the fifth degree, so we are told, has complete control over the elemental nature of the three lower worlds of the physical, astral, and mental planes. However, he does not have a correspondingly total control over the fourth state, that of the fourth kosmic ether, which itself, most critically, constitutes the kosmic etheric double of the Logos. Consequently, he himself is not regarded esoterically as “fully liberated.” This liberation only occurs with the achievement of the sixth initiatory degree, which corresponds with full monadic consciousness. The reason why the fifth degree Master is not fully “liberated” appears to be because he is not yet fully at-one with his own monadic Source.

The initiation of the sixth degree (which, seemingly, only becomes available to groups of Masters every forty-nine years)16 is described as that of “decision.”17 In other words, as the Monad or “divine spark” is in fact the emanating cause behind the whole projected phenomenon of human existence, full Self-consciousness at this level of being effectively denotes the capacity to project or withdraw that creative influence (atma, the “divine breath”) at will. Hence its direct sense of association with a higher Purpose literally provides the power of life and death over all forms in Nature on our planet.

However, there is also a highly important Ray association, by virtue of all monadic groups on our planet being the expressions of the Seven Rays emanating from the kosmic buddhic plane of being (Mahat). This itself constitutes the etheric double of that inconceivable kosmic Intelligence Who informs the seven solar schemes, of which ours is but one. Hence the Chohan, through this initiation of “decision,” has the opportunity of leaving this planetary scheme altogether in order to progress his own further evolution in one or another of seven different ways, thereby extending the faculty of the Logos within the greater system. Those seven alternative “Ray Paths” are as described in Bailey’s work A Treatise on Cosmic Fire.18

THE INFLUENTIAL WORK OF THE CHOHANS

The last four occasions on which a group initiation of Chohans took place appear to have been in the years 1854, 1903, 1952, and 2001.19 The second of these seemingly led not only to that pan-human crisis known to us as the World Wars of 1914–1918 and 1939–1945 but also to the great expansion in the field of nuclear physics that resulted in the appearance of atomic power, plus radio and television. The objective of the third was perhaps related to worldwide computerization (and instant intercommunication) on one side and the expansion of worldwide ecological awareness on another, as well as breaking down the social, economic, and political barriers between East and West. The latest one, in 2001, looks as though it may well have been orientated toward worldwide reorganization of the fields of international law and finance—these being primarily associated with First and Seventh Ray influences—involving the onset of long overdue major changes in these areas. It otherwise appears that the sudden “Islamic Spring,” which has appeared and proliferated in the last few years, is itself a result of influences originating with the Spiritual Hierarchy. Other culturally innovative impulses of similarly large scale may well be looked for in the next decade or so.

The most senior Chohans of the sixth degree are described as seven in number, each having control over one of the seven human Ray Groups on our planet. Fig. 1.2 thus confirms that they act as the distributive “anchors” within our planetary scheme of those emanations originating from the seven planetary Logoi on the kosmic buddhic plane. Those same emanations are what the Indian esotericist refers to as emanations of Mahat, that is, the projections of Kosmic Mind. As elsewhere observed, this is the same as the ancient Egyptian Ma’at, meaning Universal (or Kosmic) Order and Truth, hence Ma’at and Shu (the god of Light and Air) are both shown wearing the feather—which symbolizes both purity and subtlety—in their respective headbands (see fig. 11.1).

Fig. 11.1. Ma’at and Shu (illustrations by Jeff Dahl)

The Chohans of the Rays are thus the primary local exponents of those energies emanating from the Kosmic Mind of the Logos that give rise to the objective manifestation of group Purpose. Hence it is that they are also able unitedly to discern and maintain contact, as necessary, with the Interplanetary Spirits within our solar system, in order to avail themselves of those higher influences, as and when necessary. Although some readers might find the suggestion preposterously akin to science fiction, something of this was explained by the Tibetan Adept DK in describing how the planetary Hierarchy invoked such influences during the latter part of the Second World War.20 This was in order to ensure that the united triple force of kosmic evil behind the regimes of Germany, Japan, and Italy did not prevail. That such malign forces should exist in the Macrocosm just as they do in the microcosm should come as no surprise if ordinary logic and common sense are applied. That they should arise in a particular form of political power at the same time as a major forward development of human consciousness also makes sense. That is because universal deva Nature always seeks balance and does not necessarily see the difference between good and evil in quite the way that we do. Consequently, a forward or upward evolutionary surge will almost automatically invoke an equivalent counter-influence in Nature.

We are told (quite logically) that the Mind principle is the principle cause of creative separation. Hence it is that the Chohans, between them, might be said collectively to play the part of lesser creative demigods on behalf of the Mind of the Planetary Logos. In that sense, they are the arbiters of what both subjectively and objectively takes place on our planet within the various kingdoms of Nature. By invoking other systemic influences for the betterment of our planetary Life, they might also be said to take some inevitable risks, which may automatically attract the attention of negatively orientated higher powers. Consequently, we might suggest that part of their task (as essential elements of the “Guardian Wall”) is to ensure the protection of our planetary Life from external “infection.” In that sense, the Akasa might itself be regarded as part of the protective sheath surrounding our planet.

THE RAY ASSOCIATION WITH THE SIXTH DEGREE

The second systemic plane—that with which the Chohans are particularly associated—is itself associated with the Third Ray and, correspondingly, with the Akasa itself. This is the state from which the essence of All-Knowledge emanates—that is to say, within our particular and necessarily limited field of planetary and solar existence. As all knowledge comprises the mass of all powers, it follows that the Chohan’s primary faculty is that of decision as to what knowledge shall become manifest within the higher field of our planetary Nature—which itself comprises the etheric-physical body of the Logos. Correspondingly, the Chohans’ power must include the capacity to bring about the withdrawal from that same field of activity of any group of lesser entities that they (as a group) consider to have fulfilled their originally commissioned role. However, this dual role is perhaps more evident in the nature of the Second Ray, the characteristics of which are Love-Wisdom, concerning which we shall deal further later on in relation to the Buddha-Bodhisattva nature.

Regarding initiatory access to this highly advanced state of being of the Chohan, The Voice of the Silence says, briefly but succinctly: “The Dhyana gate is like an alabaster vase, white and transparent; within it there burns a steady golden fire, the flame of Prajna that radiates from Atma. Thou art that vase.”21

This may not say much to the average reader, but it should certainly do so with the intuition of the true esotericist, for the creative prajna (itself threefold in nature) is the very radiance of the monadic essence itself. In considering this, it perhaps makes a little more sense if we remember that, at the sixth initiation, the Chohan gains his freedom from the kosmic etheric double of the Logos. From then on he instead begins to function within the logoic vehicle of pure kosmic physical vitality, the atmic energies of which he now consciously learns to wield.22

THE SEVENTH INITIATION

We thus next come to the stage of the seventh initiation, that associated with conquest (as a human Buddha) of the first and highest of the seven planes. This is that of Adi—the “Sea of Flame,” that noumenal light that is “the first radiation from the Root . . . [that of] undifferentiated cosmic substance,” otherwise known as “the Fiery Serpent.”23 Of this The Voice of the Silence poetically has to say:

Know O Conqueror of Sins, once that a Sowanee hath cross’d the seventh Path, all Nature thrills with joyous awe and feels subdued. . . . He standeth now like a white pillar to the west, upon whose face the rising Sun of thought eternal poureth forth its first most glorious waves. His mind, like a becalmed and boundless ocean, spreadeth out in shoreless space. He holdeth life and death in his strong hand.24

How can we possibly describe this state, except entirely by inference? In fact, we can perhaps suggest one or two characteristics using a reversed process of logical deduction. That is to say, if the third plane (Atma) involves the energetic emanation of the monadic second plane (Anupadaka or Akasa), which is elsewhere described as comprising the mass of “sparks” within the “One Flame,” the “Flame” must itself be descriptive of the nature of the dualistically unified Life within the planetary Oversoul. From that viewpoint, it must logically be seen as a plasmic “sea” of living electrical hyperactivity, the fundamental vitality of the planetary Demiurge. This is the fiery sheath originally projected (as Binah, from the kabbalistic Hokmah) from the Kosmic Mind, out of which all the monads of the many kingdoms of our planetary Nature themselves emerge as “divine sparks.” This, we learned earlier, was also given the name Fohat (the vehicle of the Dhyani Buddhas) by H. P. Blavatsky in her work The Secret Doctrine.

There is a further interesting and very direct parallel here with ancient Egypt, for, as Jeremy Naydler tells us:

According to ancient Egyptian Creation mythology, the birthplace of Ra was regarded as being the “First Land” that arose out of the dark primordial ocean of Nun. This “First Land”—sometimes also pictured as a lotus or an egg—was referred to as the Isle of Fire, because it was alight with Ra’s dazzling presence.25

If one were here to substitute the Kosmic Mind for Ra and the planetary Oversoul for the lotus or world egg, the correspondence, it is suggested, immediately becomes self-evident.

For the Chohan of the sixth degree—a now Self-realized “divine spark” in his own right—to contemplate the possibility of being able to retain his independent Self-consciousness while being reabsorbed into this apparently hypercharged miasma of pure Life essence, and its direct association with Shamballa, would logically seem a trial of belief of the ultimate degree. Hence this seventh initiation (and not that of the fifth degree) is known as that of the true ”resurrection.”26 Self-consciousness, so we are told, is the crown of the whole evolutionary process, at whatever level of being is under consideration. Consequently, Self-consciousness in this state would necessarily consist not only of containing the whole of the sevenfold state of our planetary Life within one’s own percipient faculty but also of gradually uniting the latter with the Demiurgic nature of the Logos, which contains the whole and which also thereby forms the foundation of the whole sevenfold kosmic world “above” it. Hence the human Buddha-nature would simultaneously provide first access to the kosmic astral state.27 With that in mind it is worth remembering Blavatsky’s own definition of the Monad as of the essence of a Dhyani Buddha—hence that, at the seventh and final planetary initiation, the now full Adept comes face-to-face with its true “image.”28

Merely imagining the potent expansion of consciousness required to achieve what has just been described is simply staggering. It is perhaps slightly more understandable, however (albeit only marginally so), when considered in relation to the following comment from the Adepts, defining monadic consciousness itself:

When the student realises that the great universal Oneness which he associates with Monadic consciousness is only the registration of impressions localised (and therefore limited) and defined within the etheric levels of the cosmic physical plane, he can perhaps grasp the implications of the wonder which will be revealed to the initiate who can transcend the entire cosmic physical plane.29

In connection with this latter remark, The Secret Doctrine provides us with a morsel of information that is equally of really rather astounding value. It is that the visible plasmic substance of the Sun consists of matter of the lowest subplane of the highest of the seven planes in our system—what is esoterically called “Mother Substance.” The root of the latter is substance of the highest subplane, which is itself the nucleus of the Sun and also “the heart and matrix of all the living forces in our solar universe.”30 Furthermore, so we are told, the corporeal substance of the hierarchy of Dhyani Chohans who effectively comprise the Demiurgic consciousness is itself of fifth sub-plane matter of this same highest plane.31

THE ACHIEVEMENT OF BUDDHAHOOD

Thus it is that the seventh (atomic) plane of the system sets the rate of vibration (that of the Second Ray) for the whole system.32The Voice of the Silence, however, tells us rather more of what is required of the initiate who has now attained to that state and thus also to human Buddhahood:

Know, if of Amitabha, the “Boundless Age,” thou wouldst become coworker, then must thou shed the light acquired . . . upon the span of all three worlds. Know that the stream of superhuman knowledge and the Deva-Wisdom thou hast won must from thyself, the channel of Alaya, be poured forth into another bed. Know, O Narjol, thou of the Secret Path, its pure fresh waters must be used to sweeter make the Ocean’s bitter waves—that mighty sea of sorrow formed of the tears of men.33

The Voice of the Silence then adds still more gravely:

Alas! When once thou hast become like the fix’d star in the highest heaven, that bright celestial orb must shine from out of the spatial depths for all—save for itself; give light to all, but take from none. Alas! . . . Self-doomed to live through future kalpas [great cycles] unthanked and unperceived by men; wedged as a stone with countless other stones which form the “Guardian Wall,” such is thy future if the seventh gate thou passest. Built by the hands of many Masters of Compassion, raised by their tortures, by their blood cemented, it shields mankind . . . protecting it from further and far greater misery and sorrow.34

For those individuals who one comes across from time to time, who imagine (and proclaim) themselves to be in direct touch with archangels or Buddhas, or even to be acting as their direct agents on Earth, these descriptive texts should perhaps act as a purgative, or at the very least a caution. However, few such seem willing to listen, having already made up their minds as to how they see their Masters and Buddhas and wish them to behave. It is perhaps for this reason that the Spiritual Hierarchy—faced with their own cyclical duty to reemerge among humankind—saw the necessity to explain these matters in such detail, some considerable time in advance of any such emergence. Respect for them as Elder Brothers in the stern face of their achievements is one thing; hero-worship is quite another and the logically last thing they would want is the development of a religion (or rather a cult) based on that.

LIBERATED PLANETARY SPIRITS

While the seventh degree is described as the highest possible on this planet, in which the consciousness of Man and deva merge at their most advanced level (hence its dualistic Second Ray association), it is made implicitly clear that there are initiatory expansions of consciousness even beyond this. These—of the eighth and ninth degrees (those respectively of “transition” and “refusal”)—would seemingly turn the initiate into a Nirmanakaya or a Sambhogakaya Dhyani Buddha respectively. These two closely connected hierarchies are described as liberated “Planetary Spirits” whose aegis covers, respectively, the whole of the kosmic physical plane and the whole of the kosmic astral plane. In a very real sense, they together comprise the intelligence of the planetary Demiurge. It is thus highly interesting to note what the Mahatma Kuthumi says in relation to the achievement of (Dhyani) Buddhahood, as follows:

When our great Buddha—the patron of all the Adepts, the reformer and the codifier of the occult system, reached first Nirvana on Earth, he became a Planetary Spirit i.e., his spirit could at one and the same time rove the interstellar spaces in full consciousness and continue at will on Earth in his original and individual body. For the divine Self had so completely disenfranchised itself from matter that it could create at will an inner substitute for itself, leaving it in the human form. . . . That is the highest form of Adeptship man can hope for on our planet; but it is as rare as the Buddhas themselves, the last Khobilgan (supreme Adept) who reached it being Tzon-kha-pa of Kokonor.35

It will be remembered that we mentioned Tzon-kha-pa in an earlier chapter as the fourteenth-century Tibetan Buddha who issued instructions to his Adept followers that, following his death, they were to ensure that a fresh cultural impulse was to be transmitted to the West toward the close of every century, to aid the progress of overall human evolution.

THE SEVENTH DEGREE RAY ASSOCIATION

In concluding this section we should also mention the close association of the seventh and highest state of our planetary world (that of the Christ nature) with the First as well as the Second Ray. As we saw earlier, this First Ray is concerned with that primary isolation or self-limitation which generates and maintains a field of consciousness and creativity—in either the microcosm (man) or the Macrocosm. Thus the Self-evolved human Buddha of the seventh degree must learn to become at-one with this First Ray energy before his achievement is complete. In association with that, it is important to remember that the seventh and lowest kosmic plane—which contains our seven solar and planetary states—is ruled by the kosmic Seventh Ray. Thus the First Ray of the lower world system and the Seventh Ray of the higher kosmic system are, in a very real sense, one and the same in occult terms. This fact is of particular importance to us in our current approach to the Age of Aquarius, because Aquarius, so we are told, is ruled by the Seventh (kosmic) Ray, focused through the synthesizing planet Uranus. Therefore, those of our humanity who attain to the fullness of the highest initiatory degree possible during this coming cycle will also bring about a permanently sustained link of consciousness between the higher kosmic system and our own.

Following sequentially on from that, the human Buddha becomes progressively familiar with the various substates and associated faculties of true kosmic consciousness. He becomes a Dhyani Buddha or Planetary Spirit (first Nirmanakaya and then Sambhogakaya) of the eighth and ninth initiatory degrees. Beyond even the Nirmanakaya and the Sambhogakaya, however, we find the hierarchies of the Dharmakaya Buddhas, whose completely liberated field of endeavor is the kosmic mental plane and whose contact with our planetary Life is said to exist only through the former two hierarchies. These three groups of Planetary Spirits are then to the Planetary Logos of our Earth what our human Permanent Atom is to each of us—the living factor of logoic continuity. Interestingly, however, we find the following further comment about the nature of the Planetary Spirits:

However ethereal and purified of gross matter they may be, the pure Spirits are still subject to the physical and universal laws of matter. They cannot (even if they would) span the abyss that separates their world from ours. They can [however] be visited in spirit; their Spirit cannot descend and reach us.36

By this it is meant that the Planetary Spirit cannot, under normal circumstances, physically (i.e., even ethereally) materialize in our world. However, by virtue of being able to project itself by association into other forms—such as the spiritual consciousness of the highest initiates—the Planetary Spirit would still be able to influence our humanity. However, there is an exception to the general rule, which the same source confirms as follows:

But these (the highest Planetary Spirits) appear on Earth but at the origin of every new humankind; at the junction and close of the two ends of the great cycle. And they remain with men no longer than the time required for the external truths they teach to impress themselves so forcibly upon the plastic minds of the new races as to warrant them from being lost or entirely forgotten by the forthcoming generations. The mission of the [highest] Planetary Spirit is but to strike the KEYNOTE OF TRUTH [sic] . . . The vibrations of the Primitive Truth are what your philosophers name “innate ideas.”37

GNOSTIC ASSOCIATIONS

Following on from this, it is perhaps worth mentioning here the gnostic writings of the Egyptian Nag Hammadi texts. Although still considered generally rather opaque as to their true meanings (as far as non-esotericists are concerned), some parts stand out quite clearly if looked at from a non-personal and a non-Christian viewpoint. The two to which we can refer quite specifically at this point are titled “The Bridal Chamber” (sometimes “The Pleromic Union”) and “The Eighth Reveals the Ninth,” in which we find the following:

If I may utter a mystery, the Father of the All united with a virgin who came down and a fire shone for him on that day. He revealed the great bridal chamber. Because of this His body which came into being on that day came out of the bridal chamber in the manner of Him who came into being from the bridegroom and the bride.38

As Stephen Hoeller comments in relation to this:

The sacrament of the Bridal Chamber is in fact an initiation signifying individuation, the grand symbol of the restoration of the Pleroma, or wholeness, the sacred marriage of the opposites within and thus the attainment to the true and ultimate gnosis. The archetypal symbolism of the saviour as the bridegroom, Sophia the wandering soul as the bride and the state of wholeness, the Pleroma, as the bridal chamber in their personal analogues, are thus the process of individuation.39

THE EIGHTH AND NINTH INITIATORY DEGREES

In fact, we might suggest, the Bridal Chamber is esoterically analogous to the Oversoul of our planetary Life, which itself gives rise to the phenomenon of duality within its own field of creativity. We saw in earlier chapters that the eighth principle contains the seven. This is the kabbalistic Binah, as the Zohar confirms,40 although it is esoterically counted from above to below as the third in the overall sequence of ten sephirotic principles. Hence it is that the advanced initiate who passes from the seventh to the eighth initiation necessarily passes beyond all sense of the duality of spirit and matter, of separated angelkind and humankind. However, one might suggest that it is in the further, SELF-conscious experience of the eighth state that the initiate comes to understand the esoteric analogy of himself as the gnostic “bridegroom.” He himself becomes the “serpent” of Kosmic Mind, which enfolds the “egg” of the local universe, thereby making “Creation” possible. So what is his response? Perhaps it might be described as follows.

How shall I describe the All? I see another Nous [the kosmic Mind] who moves the psyche [the Oversoul]. I see the one who speaks to me through a holy sleep. Thou givest me strength. I see myself! I am willing to discourse! I am overcome with a trembling: I have found the origin of the Power above all powers which has no origin: I see a well-spring bubbling up with life! I have said, O my son, that I am the Nous. I have seen what discourse cannot reveal, for the entire Eighth, O my son, with the souls therein and the angels are singing in silence. But I, the Nous, understand.41

Before passing on, we might otherwise mention here the experience of Gautama Buddha at his final initiation, as reported in Sir Edwin Arnold’s poetic masterpiece The Light of Asia where, we are told:

The Prince of Darkness, Mara—knowing this was Buddh

Who should deliver men, and now the hour when He should find the Truth

And save the worlds—gave unto all his evil powers command,

Wherefore there trooped from every deepest pit

The fiends who war with Wisdom and the light . . .

All hating Buddh, seeking to shake his mind; nor knoweth one

Not even the wisest, how those fiends of Hell

Battled that night to keep the Truth from Buddh . . .

[Yet] in the third watch, the Earth being still,

the hellish legions fled . . . [and] our Lord attained Sammasambuddh.42

FURTHER GNOSTIC AND KABBALISTIC CORRELATIONS

What appears to be described latterly here then is the transcendental illumination to be experienced by the immensely advanced initiate of the ninth degree, the Dhyani Buddha, who already contains within his consciousness the all-enfolding knowledge of the entire kosmic physical plane, plus parts of the kosmic astral and mental planes as well. As we have already seen, however, the Oversoul of our planetary Life is itself contained and held in sustained existence by the downwardly serpentine projection and union with it of what esoteric Buddhism calls Fohat.

This is the spiral-cyclic emanation of kosmic Mind—which kabbalism otherwise refers to as Hokmah and which the Christian gnostics of two thousand years ago referred to as the descending Sophia, which devolved into a more mundane counterpart called Sophia Ackamoth. The latter idea is symbolized in the picture of the serpent enfolding the egg (see fig. 4.2). Thus the latter is what ancient gnosticism referred to as the “Demiurgos.” Hence, one might logically suggest, that this—the Demiurgic Nous, the gnostic “bridegroom”—is itself the projection of an apparently ultimate state, the originating point of projection that Kabbalism calls Keter, the very “Crown” of Being. The very same description is given (in different terms) in the Hermetica where it says:

And then, stripped of the effects of the [lower] cosmic framework, the human enters the region of the ogdoad; he has his own proper power and, along with the blessed, he hymns the Father. Those present there rejoice together in his presence and, having become like his companions, he also hears certain powers that exist beyond the ogdoadic region and hymn God with sweet voice. They rise up to the Father in order and surrender themselves to the Powers and, having become Powers, they enter into God.43

By comparison, it is interesting to note what the Platonists and neo-Platonists had to say about the same stage. As the philosopher Proclus tells us: “the Demiurgus constitutes the [Over]Soul in conjunction with the vivific Goddess and mingles the genera of it in the Crater.”44

What is being referred to here as “the Goddess” is in fact what the Christian gnostics referred to as Sophia Ackamoth, that projection of the Higher Mind principle that enfolds and unites with the Oversoul, thereby “mingling its genera” in the chakra system (i.e., the “Crater”)—the crown center in particular. In order to understand this properly, it is of course necessary to associate the statement both Macrocosmically and microcosmically, for the terrestrial soul of man is itself a “Demiurge.”

The Light of Asia otherwise goes on to tell us how the Buddha, having attained perfected mastery over all the powers in our solar Nature, now achieved an extra-systemic vision

of insight vast, ranging beyond this sphere to spheres unnamed,

system on system, countless worlds and suns moving in splendid measures,

band by band, linked in division, one yet separate, the silver islands of a sapphire sea,

shoreless, unfathomed, undiminished, stirred with waves which roll in restless tides of change.

He saw those Lords of Light who hold their worlds by bonds invisible.45

Interestingly, so we are told, it is only at the ninth initiation that the previously “human” intelligence becomes “a full and true expression of divinity.”46 However, yet further beyond lies that point of originating emanation, which Plato referred to as “the GOOD” and which the Hermeticist consequently refers to as “God,” where lies Creation’s own manifesting source—the plane of Kosmic Buddhi (Mahat). This same state is described as that in which the hierarchies of Amitabha Buddhas have their existence (see fig. 3.4) and from which the Seven Rays are emanated downward into the various planetary schemes, expressing themselves as the groups of entities known as “solar angels.”47 It is directly associated with the Pleiades.48

It also seems to be the case (from the sketchy descriptions given to us) that the Amitabha Buddhas (the O-mi-t’o-Fo of Chinese esotericism) are thus the objectively manifesting kosmic lives of the great Hierarchy of Sirius, which was mentioned earlier as one of the seven solar schemes in the super-kosmic etheric double of the inconceivable Being known as “The One About Whom Naught May Be Said.” Hence it is also this hierarchy of Amitabha Buddhas that (to us at least) represents the origin of the initiatory number Ten—that of Man’s true completeness as a Dharmakaya god.

However, we might also mention here the parallel correspondence between their comprising the eleventh stage in the progressive sequence under consideration and the fact that one half of our own solar sunspot cycle is itself eleven years. Interestingly and in support of the suggestion just made, we find in the Ismaili gnostic tradition the following:

At the end of the cycle of his individual life, at the seventh grade of his ascension, the Adept finds himself at the threshold of perfect angelhood of the Tenth Intelligence. This is the dawn of the Great Resurrection.49

As just indicated, the “Tenth Intelligence” logically appears to be that of the Dharmakaya Buddha hierarchy of the third kosmic plane (that of kosmic Mind), which is itself responsible for the “Round” emanations that give rise to the various sevenfold planetary “Chains” of which The Secret Doctrine speaks (see appendix A). Hence the “threshold” referred to is exactly as just described in the preceding paragraphs. We might add to this the further suggestion that additional corroboration is provided by the kabbalistic philosophy of the ten sephiroth emanated from Ain Soph. As earlier described, Binah is the third sephira, which contains the lesser seven. In reverse order it is thus synonymous with the Demiurge and the eighth initiation. Hokmah, the second sephira—which we have already described as synonymous with the Tibetan Fohat (vehicle of the Dhyani Buddha)—corresponds with the ninth initiation, while Keter, the “Crown” and point of primordial emanation from Ain Soph, itself completes the tenth initiation and thus returns the consciousness back to its Source—within the super-kosmic etheric double (Mahat).

From a theosophical perspective, the eighth initiation results in conscious containment of the whole of the kosmic physical plane, as already described. It follows logically from this that the ninth and tenth initiations then correspondingly result in complete containment and control of the kosmic astral and kosmic mental planes, respectively. However, these are associated with the areas of concern of the Sambhogakaya and Dharmakaya Buddhas respectively, whose consciousness is so far beyond anything of which we can even begin to faintly conceive that it is hardly worthwhile here even trying to speculate upon them.

THE TRANSFER OF HIGHER POWERS

The question of the powers conveyed through the initiatory process is also one that has excited great discussion among esotericists and would-be occultists. Many have hitherto fondly imagined that the “descent of the Holy Spirit”—the Arabic bharaka (Grace), which is what we are now discussing, is a fairly simple and nonthreatening event. But to those who have made any real study of the subject, it rapidly becomes obvious that this is not so. The idea that the Holy Spirit (Atma) conveys the (akasic) capacity to “speak in many tongues” has itself been grossly misinterpreted, through the failure to recognize that it actually involves the capacity to “speak” and “listen” telepathically within the psycho-spiritual states. It does not result in the altogether ludicrous outward babble that some modern Christian movements (such as the “Alpha System”) persuade themselves to be the expression of the Holy Spirit, yet which reduces human nature and its creative self-expression to a derisory state of activity, which even animals would be ashamed to follow. The descent of the Holy Spirit raises human consciousness. It does not lower it.

As suggested earlier, the old adage that “knowledge is power” conceals the fact that “a knowledge” is the manifesting power of a higher spiritual being of some or other degree. Thus the invocative human individual is drawing down this power into his existing (deva) field of consciousness, thereby causing its immediate, expansive revitalization in response. However, he not only has now to contain it safely, he has to learn how to integrate it and coordinate it with his own existing range of powers. In other words, as his Self expands, so must his Self-discipline. Unless he follows this principle, the new powers will become destructive, leading quite understandably to lesser or greater degrees of personal insanity. That is why one of the tasks of the Master is sometimes to slow down the progress of his student,50 so that the whole evolutionary process is safely and thoroughly achieved. This is something that one hardly ever hears about in the vast majority of books on the subject.

This in turn highlights another issue of which we have already spoken. It is the fact that, just as we have to project our perceptual faculties “upward” in order to contact and (at least partially) draw down spiritual insights into our mundane consciousness, so even the highest Adepts have to follow the same principle. While progressing their own faculty into kosmic dimensions, by way of the highest meditation, they “bring down” (by sympathetic association) essential elements of the kosmic states of being and anchor them in their own lower nature, the latter being of course far more advanced than ours. However, as their own nature is part of the organism of the Earthly state, which we all share, its magnetism is automatically passed on and shared in degree relative to the capacity of others to absorb it. In this way, the whole organism of our planetary Life is gradually transmuted according to the same principle.

MAN BECOMES PROGRESSIVELY DIVINE

The fact that the initiate is progressively absorbing higher powers into his field of consciousness helps us to understand the practical rationale of initiation and of evolution itself. By absorbing such powers from each and every plane and subplane as he ascends within the system of our planetary scheme, Man (the Divine Spirit) increasingly becomes the Macrocosm of the microcosm. He becomes a demigod and then ultimately “sits on the right hand of the Father” as the “Son of God,” to use the Christian terminology. However, “God” in this sense is the Planetary Logos, the composite nature of the hierarchy of Kumaras (see appendix B), whose demiurgic natures comprise merely the kosmic physical expression of the Amitabha Buddhas, those even higher celestial Beings who are the begotten of the kabbalistic Ain Soph and are themselves the Ain Soph Aur. Thus “God” is not actually a separate Being.

As previously suggested, there is but One Life and One Consciousness, and we are all part of it in a universal process of “ever-becoming.” Thus, within the solar scheme, Man gradually develops all the powers of the seven planetary states, unified within the eighth state—that of the Oversoul, or expression of the Pure Mind of Platonic tradition. He is thereby progressively able to associate with the powers of the lower kosmic states, so entering the ninth and tenth “spheres of glory” in the scale of final perfection.51 As mentioned earlier, it is this tenfold sequence that we see in reverse in the ten emanating sephiroth of kabbalism and the divine tetraktys of Pythagoras.

It might be worth mentioning again here the gnostic perception of “God,” more particularly as expressed in the works of C. G. Jung. Here God is perceived “as an autonomous [divine] complex of great strength and intensity which is ultimately the expression of the intensity and strength of life itself,” while appearing within human consciousness “as a star which glimmers in immeasurable distance above, but nevertheless represents the individual’s goal, guidance, repose and even the destination of his journey after physical death.”52 This rather anthropocentric view does not properly coincide, however, with the ancient principle that the ultimate Deity is inexpressible because of its infinite universality. The latter would render any attempt at experiential description of it completely and utterly futile. It has to be suggested therefore that what Jung is seeking to describe is actually no more than an interim point of human causal emanation, no matter how supremely advanced it might appear.

This brings us to another important point, much misunderstood on a broad scale by Western philosophers endeavoring to understand the metaphysics of Eastern philosophy—Hinduism and Buddhism in particular. It is the curious idea that in leaving behind the human state the Adept Intelligence concerned quickly or progressively loses his sense of individuality through “the dewdrop slipping back into the shining sea,” thereby becoming (or re-becoming) merely a part of the amorphous oceanic mass. Even Carl Jung, despite his deep insights into gnostic philosophy, failed to understand the background principle 53 that (as one of the Adepts put it) Self-consciousness is the continuing crown of the whole evolutionary process. Hence an evolved intelligence always carries with it (in its self-conscious nature) at least some of the character (NOT personality) derived through experience from its own many and varied past achievements. However, this inevitably becomes gradually secondary to the far more powerful evolutionary experiences to which further adaptation must still be made in passing into and through yet higher states of being. Yet SELF-consciousness remains.

The Adepts—no matter how advanced—are all quite different in character, as H. S. Olcott discovered to his astonishment when experiencing the use of H. P. Blavatsky’s body by several Adepts, in rotation, during the writing of her first major work, Isis Unveiled.54 This difference, however, is again not one of mere personality. It is immediately distinguishable in the magnetic character of the Adepts’ psycho-spiritual nature, which is itself (partially at least) related to the Divine Ray with which they are or have been directly associated. It needs to be remembered that, in essence, they are (increasingly liberated) Spirits of a definitely kosmic origin who work through the agency of soul. They are not souls per se.

As already explained, the essence of the initiatory process is that Man is a hierarchy of spirit-beings that, at the dawn of Creation, is emanated en masse from the so-called Mind of God. As it “falls” into the lesser Underworld of matter, it automatically subdivides into three groups of souls—kosmic, solar, and planetary. The masses within each of the latter three groups then themselves subdivide into a variety of greater and lesser group-soul kingdoms of Nature. The subdivision continues until it reaches a point of optimum outreach consistent with the maximum development in the previous cycle. Then the unified consciousnesses of the group souls begin to fragment (or rather, to individualize), thereby generating increasingly individualized souls. These individual souls then begin—at the lowest planetary level—to reach out to the next higher soul group, thereby resulting in a sense of duality of consciousness. It is at this point that the human being is generated, with the capacity of self-consciousness. Thereafter, the human consciousness slowly starts to become aware of higher deva powers, which it then sets out to absorb and control, and so on until the highest Adeptship is achieved.

INITIATION AS A CELESTIAL FORCING PROCESS

There is nothing particularly extraordinary about the process of initiation, except insofar as—on this planet—it is representative of a forcing process, or so we are told.55 In almost all other planetary schemes, the process of individualization apparently does not extend so far or so fast. It therefore does not result in such pain and sorrow to those involved in the experience. It is apparently only on this planet and two others that this occurs. The reason for this—again, so we are told 56—is tied up in the past history of our solar scheme and seemingly involves the evolutionary development of Man that took place on the Moon Chain before its hierarchies were transferred to this planet, thus causing its own “death.” This story—although introduced to the West (through Blavatsky and Bailey) during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries—has never been thoroughly explained and, when mentioned, usually draws an astonished reaction, which is perhaps understandable. Yet it was never intended as mere science fiction and there are elements of it that we can perhaps use to speculate logically, as further outlined in appendix D.

In the next chapter we shall take a necessarily cursory look at some of those members of the Adept Hierarchy who have become known to us through the modern theosophical movement. However, in line with our primary concern to gain a better understanding of how the whole evolutionary scheme works, as seen from the inside, we shall do so by considering them in relation to the spiritual functions they are said to fulfill, rather than in relation to their “personalities.” In relation to any question as to their actual existence it is perhaps worth quoting the following statement by the academic researcher and author Dr. David Frawley:

There is a class of human beings, perhaps very small in number, who have always looked over humanity. These are the great gurus, avatars and spiritual teachers. In ancient times they had a much greater role developing and shaping human culture. As humanity declined from the ancient ages of light, they gradually withdrew into seclusion. Today, they still exist, though they may be hard to find by the outer mind. . . . The prime area they relate to is the Himalayas. . . . While many occult teachings glorify such masters and may put up a cloak of illusion or mystery about them, there is still a core of truth about them which we cannot ignore.57