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1. "A man who has taken the first step into The Spiritual Kingdom, having passed out of the definitely Human Kingdom into the Superhuman, he has entered upon the life of The Spirit and for the first time has the right to be called a 'spiritual man' in the technical significance of the word. He is entering upon the 5th or final stage in our present 5-fold evolution."
2. "Each Initiation marks the passing of a Pupil in The Hall of Wisdom into a Higher Class, marks the clear shining forth of the inner fire and the transition from one point of polarization to another, entails the realization of an increasing unity with all that lives and the essential oneness of the self with all selves. It results in a horizon that continually enlarges until it includes The Sphere of Creation. It is a growing capacity to see and hear on all Planes. It is an increased consciousness of God's Plan for the world and an increased ability to enter into those Plans and to further Them. It is The Honor Class in The Master's School and is within the attainment of those souls whose karma permits and whose efforts suffice to fulfil the aim."
"Initiation leads to the mount whence vision can be had, a vision of The Eternal Now wherein past, present, and future exist as one."
3. "Initiation leads to the stream that, once entered, sweeps a man onward until it carries him to the feet of The Lord of The World (Sanat Kumara), to the feet of his Father in Heaven (The Monad), to the feet of The 3-fold Logos (The Solar Logos)."
"It leads through The Hall of Wisdom and puts into a man's hands the key to all information, System and Cosmic, in graduated sequence. It reveals the hidden mystery that lies at The Heart of The Solar System. It leads from one state of consciousness to another. As each state is entered, the horizon enlarges, the vista extends, and the comprehension includes more and more until the expansion reaches a point where the self embraces all selves, including all that is 'moving and unmoving' as phrased by an ancient Scripture."
4. "This ceremony of Initiation marks a point of attainment. It does not bring about attainment as is so often the misconception. It simply marks the recognition by the watching Teachers of The Race of a definite point in evolution reached by The Pupil and gives 2 things:
a. An expansion of consciousness that admits the personality into the wisdom attained by The Ego (Higher Self) and in The Higher Initiations into The Consciousness of The Monad.
b. A brief period of enlightenment wherein The Initiate sees that portion of The Path that lies ahead to be trodden and wherein He shares consciously in The Great Plan of Evolution."
5. "Initiation is strictly a personal matter with a universal application. It rests upon his inner attainment. The Initiate will know for Himself when The Event occurs and needs no one to tell Him of it. It is quite possible for men to be functioning on The Physical Plane and to be actively employed in world service who have no recollection of having undergone The Initiatory Process, yet who, nevertheless, may have taken The 1st or 2nd Initiation in a previous or earlier life."
6. "Initiation is in the nature of a great experiment which our Planetary Logos (Higher Self of Sanat Kumara) is making during this Round. In earlier and perhaps in later Rounds the whole process will follow natural Law. The whole process is optional, and a man may, if he so choose, follow the normal process and take eons of time to effect what some are choosing to do in a briefer period through a self-chosen forcing process."
7. "The partial subjugation of glamor and escape from the complete thralldom of illusion are indications to the watching Hierarchy that a man is ready for the process of Initiation."
8. "The mark of The Initiate is his lack of interest in Himself, in his own unfoldment, and in his personal fate, and all aspirants who become accepted disciples (of an Ascended Master) have to master the technique of disinterestedness."
9. "Initiation might be defined in 2 ways. It is first of all the entering into a new and wider dimensional world by the expansion of a man's consciousness so that He can include and encompass that which He now excludes and from which He normally separates Himself in his thinking and acts. It is, secondly, the entering into Man of those energies which are distinctive of The Soul and of The Soul alone, the forces of intelligent love and of spiritual will. These are dynamic energies, and they actuate all who are Liberated Souls."
10. "The concept which has to supersede the one at present extant is that of Group Initiation and not that of The Initiation of an individual Aspirant. In the past and in order to get the idea of Initiation into the minds of the people, The Hierarchy chose the mode of holding out the prospect of Initiation before the earnest disciple. Upon this They placed an early emphasis on its peculiarity, its rewarding nature, its ritual and ceremonies, and its place in the scale of evolution. Since the fact of Initiation has been grasped by many and achieved by some, it has become possible today to reveal what has always been implied, that Initiation is a Group Event."
"The Soul, in its own nature, is group conscious and has no individual ambitions or individual interests and is not at all interested in the aims of its personality. It is The Soul which is The Initiate. Initiation is a process whereby the spiritual man within the personality becomes aware of himself as The Soul, with Soul powers, Soul relationships, and Soul purpose. The moment a man realizes this, even in a small measure, it is the group of which he is conscious."
"Only the man whose sense of identity is beginning to expand and become inclusive can 'take Initiation'. If Initiation were a purely personal achievement, it would throw the man back into the separative consciousness out of which he is endeavoring to escape. This would not be spiritual progression. Every step upon The Path of Initiation increases group recognition. Initiation is esentially an expanding series of inclusive recognitions."
"Initiation admits The Aspirant into Membership in The Hierarchy. This involves, speaking esoterically, the relinquishing of all separative personality reactions in a series of progressive renunciations. These culminate in The 4th Initiation (The Renunciation or Crucifixion)."
"It dawns on The Initiate, as He proceeds from one Initiation to another, that each time He moves forward on The Path or penetrates into the heart of The Mysteries in company with Those Who are as He is, Who share with Him the same point in evolution, and Who are working with Him towards the same goal, that He is not alone, that it is a joint effort that is being made. This is, in fact, the keynote of an Ashram, conditioning its formation. It is composed of disciples and Initiates at various stages of Initiate unfoldment, Who have arrived at their point of Ashramic Consciousness together and Who will proceed together until They arrive at that complete liberation."
11. "No one is admitted, through the process of Initiation, into The Ashram of The Christ (which is The Spiritual Hierarchy) until such time as He is beginning to think and live in terms of group relationships and group activities."
12. "An Ashram (of a Master) has in it disciples and Initiates at all points of evolutionary developement and of all grades and degrees. These all work together in perfect unison and yet with their own established rapport, their coded telepathic interplay, and a shared occult secrecy and silence which guard the secrets and knowledges of one grade from another and from the unready."
13. "Initiation is only a Ceremony in so far that there comes a climaxing point in The Initiatory Process in which the disciple's consciousness becomes dramatically aware of The Personnel of The Hierarchy and his own position in relation to it. This realization He symbolizes to Himself as a great rhythmic Ceremonial of progressive revelation in which He, as a Candidate, is the center of the hierarchical stage. The point I seek to make is that the ceremonial aspect is due to the thought-form making capacity of The Disciple."
14. "Periods of search, periods of pain, periods of detachment, periods of revelation producing points of fusion, points of tension, and points of energy projection - such is the story of The Path of Initiation."
"Initiation is, in truth, the name given to the revelation of the new vision which ever draws The Disciple onward into greater Light. It is not something conferred upon Him or given to Him. It is a process of Light recognition and of Light utilization in order to enter into ever clearer Light. Progress from a dimly lighted area in The Divine Manifestation into one of Supernal Glory is the story of The Path of Evolution."
15. "It is recognition of the varying Lights upon The Lighted Way that signifies readiness for Initiation. The Initiate enters into Light in a peculiar sense. It permeates his nature according to his developement at any point in time and space. It enables Him to contact and see the hitherto unseen and, on the basis of the newly acquired knowledge, to direct his steps still further."
"I am not here speaking in symbols. Each Initiation dims The Light already acquired and used and then immerses The Initiate in a Higher Light. Each Initiation enables The Disciple to perceive an area of Divine Consciousness hitherto unknown but which, when The Disciple has familiarized Himself with it and with its unique phenomena, vibratory quality, and interrelations, becomes for Him a normal field of experience and activity."
"Through The Initiatory Process He discovers a new and more brilliantly lighted area into which He may now enter. This involves no leaving of the former field of activity in which He has worked and lived. It simply means that new fields of responsibility and of opportunity confront Him, because He is, through his own effort, able to see more Light, to walk in greater Light, to prove more adequately than heretofore his capacities within the greatly increased area of possibility."
"Initiation is, therefore, a constant fusion of The Lights, progressively entered, thus enabling The Initiate to see further, deeper, and more inclusively."
16. "An Initiation is a condition of consciousness wherein the fully prepared Disciple utilizes the available energies at the time of Initiation to bring about changes within consciousness of a momentous and revelatory nature. Each Initiation puts The Initiate in a position to control certain related energies and enables Him to become increasingly a trained Manipulator of those energies. Each Initiation gives Him understanding of the related energy and of its field of activity. Each Initiation reveals to Him the quality and the type of stimulation to be evoked when brought into contact with any particular Ray Energy (of The 7 Rays). Each Initiation establishes relationship between The Initiate and The Ray Energy involved so that gradually, no matter what may be his Soul Ray or his Personality Ray, he can work with the quality and the creative aspect of all The Rays, though ever retaining a greater facility to work on his own Soul Ray and later with The Ray of The Monad, one of The 3 Major Rays of Aspect (Will, Love-Wisdom, or Active Intelligence)."
17. "Initiation is far more a process of excessively hard work during which process The Initiate becomes what He is. The Initiate finds Himself in the company of Those Who have preceded Him, and He is not rejected but is seen and noted and then put to work."
"It is also a graded series of Liberations, resulting in the attainment of increased freedom from that which lies behind in his experience. This carries with it the permission (Soul enjoined or given) to proceed further on The Way. These freedoms are the result of detachment, dispassion, and discrimination. At the same time, discipline enforces and makes possible the hard work required to pass the grade. All these 4 techniques are preceded by a series of disillusionments which, when realized and comprehended, leave the aspirant no choice but to move forward into greater Light."
"I would like to have you study Initiation from the angle of liberation, looking upon It as a process of strenuously attained freedoms. This basic aspect of Initiation, when realized by The Initiate, ties his experience into a firm relation with that of the whole of Humanity whose fundamental struggle is the attainment of that freedom 'whereby The Soul and its powers can unfold and all men be free because of an individually attained freedom'."
18. "The Initiate, on his tiny scale, has to learn to work behind the scenes unknown and unrecognized and unacclaimed. He must sacrifice his identity in the identity of The Ashram and its Workers and later in the identity of his working disciples out in the world of daily life. He institutes the needed activities and brings about the required changes, but He receives no reward save the reward of souls salvaged, lives rebuilt, and Humanity led onward upon The Path of Return (to The Godhead)."
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