The subject of Initiation is one that has a great fascination for thinkers of all schools of thought, and even those who remain sceptical and critical would like to believe that this ultimate attainment is possible.
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Excerpt:
Five Points to Remember
The reader is also asked to remember and weigh certain ideas prior to taking up the study of Initiation. Due to the extreme complexity of the matter it is an utter impossibility for us to do more than get a general idea of the scheme; hence the futility of dogmatism. We can do no more than sense a fraction of some wonderful whole, utterly beyond the reach of our consciousness,-a whole that the highest Angel or Perfected Being is but beginning to realise.
When we recognise the fact that the average man is as yet fully conscious only on the physical plane, nearly conscious on the emotional plane, and only developing the consciousness of the mental plane, it is obvious that his comprehension of cosmic data can be but rudimentary. When we recognise the further fact, that to he conscious on a plane and to have control on that plane are two very different conditions, it becomes apparent how remote is the possibility of our approximating more than the general trend of the cosmic scheme.
We must recognise also that danger lies in dogma and in the hide-bound facts of textbooks, and that safety lies in flexibility, and in a shifting angle of vision. A tact, for instance, looked at from the standpoint of humanity (using the word "fact" in the scientific sense as that which has been demonstrated past all doubt and question) may not be a fact from the standpoint of a Master. To Him it may be but part of a greater fact, only a fraction of the whole. Since His vision is fourth and fifth dimensional, His realisation of the place of time in eternity must be more accurate than ours. He sees things from above downwards, and as one to whom time is not.
An inexplicable principle of mutation exists in the Mind of the Logos, or the Deity of our solar system, and governs all His actions. We see but the ever changing forms, and catch glimpses of the steadily evolving life within those forms, but as yet have no clue to the principle which works through the shifting kaleidoscope of solar systems, rays, hierarchies, planets, planes, schemes, rounds, races, and sub-races. They interweave, interlock, and interpenetrate each other, and utter bewilderment is ours as the wonderful pattern they form unfolds before us. We know that somewhere in that scheme we, the human hierarchy, have our place.
All, therefore, that we can do is to seize upon any data that seems to affect our own welfare, and concerns our own evolution, and from the study of the human being in the three worlds seek to understand somewhat the macrocosm. We know not how the one can become the three, the three become the seven, and so proceed to inconceivable differentiation. To human vision this interweaving of the system forms an unimaginable complexity, the key to which seems not to be forthcoming. Seen from the angle of a Master we know that all proceeds in ordered sequence. Seen from the angle of divine vision the whole will move in harmonious unison, producing a form geometrically accurate. Browning had hold of a part of this truth when he wrote:
"All's change, but permanence as well"… and continued:
"Truth inside, and outside, truth also; and between each, falsehood that is change, as truth is permanence."
"Truth successively takes shape, one grade above its last presentment…"
We must remember also that beyond a certain point it is not safe nor wise to carry the communication of the facts of the solar system. Much must remain esoteric and veiled. The risks of too much knowledge are far greater than the menace of too little. With knowledge comes responsibility and power,-two things for which the race is not yet ready. Therefore, all we can do is to study and correlate with what wisdom and discretion may be ours, using the knowledge that may come for the good of those we seek to help, and recognising that in the wise use of knowledge comes increased capacity to receive the hidden wisdom.
Coupled also with the wise adaptation of knowledge to the surrounding need must grow the capacity for discreet reservation, and the use of the discriminating faculty. When we can wisely use, discreetly withhold, and soundly discriminate, we give the surest guarantee to the watching Teachers of the race that we are ready for a fresh revelation.
We must resign ourselves to the fact that the only way in which we can find the clue to the mystery of the rays, systems, and hierarchies, lies in the study of the law of correspondences or analogy. It is the one thread by which we can find our way through the labyrinth, and the one ray of light that shines through the darkness of the surrounding ignorance.