60. White magic and harmlessness

In this chapter "White magic and harmlessness" extracts from the book "A Treaties on White Magic" are quoted. The Author of this book is Alice A. Bailey. The book comes from the year 1934.

See www.lucistrust.org

The following saying of Jesus from Matthew 10:16 is a suitable one for the subject of this chapter:

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

The following quotes contain numerous descriptions of the qualities of a spiritual person and of groups of spiritual people and are therefore useful for members of the true church.

Now follow quotes from Alice A. Bailey’s book "A Treaties on White Magic:"

^  1
26-28
The highest types of consciousness work from the plane of the monad as the initiate of lower degree works from the plane of the soul and uses the organs of perception (if such an unsatisfactory phrase is legitimate) and means of knowledge of which average man has no idea; they penetrate or include within their radius of awareness that sum total of life, consciousness and form which we designate God. These initiates of high degree then begin to be aware of a vibration, a revealing light, a note or directional indicating sound which emanates from outside our solar system altogether. The only way in which [27] we can get an appreciation of the process followed in the expansion of the divine consciousness in man is to study the relation of the mind and the brain and note what follows when the brain becomes the intelligent instrument of the mind; then study the relation of the soul to the mind and what eventuates when man is directed by his soul and utilises the mind to control the physical plane activities through the medium of the brain. In these three — soul, mind and brain — we have the analogy and the clue to the understanding of spirit, soul and body, and their mutual functions. This was the subject matter of the book, The Light of the Sou1. Upon the perfecting of the conditions dealt with in that book there follows still another expansion when the spirit aspect, man's emanating source of energy, begins to use the soul (via the intuition) and to impress upon the soul-consciousness those laws, knowledges, forces and inspirations which will make the soul the instrument of the spirit or monad, just as the personal man became, at an earlier stage (via the mind), the instrument of the soul. In that earlier stage the development was two-fold. As the soul assumed control, via the mind, so the brain became responsive to the soul. Man was awakened to a knowledge of himself as he really was and to the three worlds of his normal evolution; later he became group conscious and was no longer a separated individual. As the soul is brought under the dominance of the spirit, an analogous two stages are likewise seen:

First, the disciple becomes aware not only of his group and allied groups, but his consciousness is expanded until it might be called planetary consciousness.

Secondly, he begins to merge that planetary awareness into something more synthetic still, and gradually develops the consciousness of the greater life which [28] includes the planetary life as man includes in his physical expression such living organisms as his heart or brain. When this takes place, he begins to comprehend the significance of spirit, the one life back of all forms, the central energy which is the cause of all manifestation.

The first reaction of the average student on reading the above is to think immediately of the body nature as it expresses some type or other of energy. Thus the duality is the thing noted, and that which employs the thing is present in his mind. Yet one of the main necessities before occult aspirants at this time is to endeavour to think in terms of the one reality which is energy itself and nothing else. Therefore, it is of value to emphasise in our discussion of this abstruse subject, the fact that spirit and energy are synonymous terms and are interchangeable. Only in the realisation of this can we arrive at the reconciliation of science and religion and at a true understanding of the world of active phenomena by which we are surrounded and in which we move.

The terms, organic and inorganic, are largely responsible for much of the confusion and the sharp differentiation existing in the minds of many people between body and spirit, between life and form, and have led to a refusal to admit the essential identity in nature of these two. The world in which we live is regarded by the majority as really solid and tangible, yet possessing some mysterious power (lying concealed within it) which produces movement, activity and change. This is of course putting it crudely, but it suffices to sum up the unintelligent attitude.

 

^  2
29-29
It should be noted here, that only as a man understands himself can he arrive at an understanding of that which is the sum total that we call God.

 

^  3
56-56
All that tends to lift the status of humanity on any plane of manifestation is religious work and has a spiritual goal, for matter is but spirit on the lowest plane, and spirit, we are told, is but matter on the highest. All is spirit and these differentiations are but the products of the finite mind. Therefore, all workers and knowers of God in or out of fleshly bodies, and working in any field of divine manifestation form part of the planetary hierarchy and are integral units in that great cloud of witnesses who are the "onlookers and observers". They possess the power of spiritual insight or perception as well as objective or physical vision.

 

^  4
93-93
Light ever signifies two things, energy and its manifestation in form of some kind, for light and matter are synonymous terms.

 

^  5
101-103
Harmful magnetic conditions, as the result of man's wrong handling of force are the causes of evil in the world around us, including the three sub-human kingdoms. How can we, as individuals, change this? By the development in ourselves of Harmlessness. Therefore, study yourself from this angle. Study your daily conduct and words and thoughts so as to make them utterly harmless. Set yourself to think those thoughts about yourself and others which will be constructive and positive, and hence harmless in their effects. Study your emotional effect on others so that by no mood, no depression, and no emotional reaction can you harm a fellow-man. Remember in this connection, violent spiritual aspiration and enthusiasm, misplaced or misdirected, may quite easily harm a fellow-man, so look not only at your wrong tendencies but at the use of your virtues.

If harmlessness is the keynote of your life, you will do more to produce right harmonious conditions in your personality than any amount of discipline along other lines. The drastic purgation brought about by the attempt to be harmless will go far to eliminate wrong [102] states of consciousness. See to it therefore, and bring this idea in your evening review.

I would like to urge each one who reads these pages to make a fresh beginning in spiritual living. I would say to him, forget all past achievements, realize fervour, and concentrate upon the Plan.

By this time some progress in group realization has surely been made, and less interest in the separated self has been gained. More faith in the Good Law which guides all creation to ultimate perfection has been visioned without doubt, and, through this vision, has come the capacity to take one's eyes off the affairs of individual experience, and fasten them on the working out of the purpose for the whole. This is the objective and the goal. Breadth of vision, inclusiveness of understanding and a widened horizon are the preliminary essentials to all work under the guidance of the hierarchy of adepts; the stabilizing of the consciousness in the one life, and the recognition of the basic unity of all creation has to be somewhat developed before any one can be trusted with certain knowledges and Words of Power and the manipulation of those forces which bring the subjective reality into outer manifestation.

Therefore, I say to you at this time, I - an older and perhaps more experienced disciple and worker in the great vineyard of the Lord - practice harmlessness with zest and understanding, for it is (if truly carried out) the destroyer of all limitation. Harmfulness is based on selfishness, and on an ego-centric attitude. It is the demonstration of forces concentrated for self-enforcement, self-aggrandisement, and self-gratification. Harmlessness is the expression of the life of the man who realizes himself to be everywhere, who lives consciously as a soul, whose nature is love, whose method is inclusiveness, and to whom all forms are alike in that they veil and hide the light, and are but externalizations of [103] the one Infinite Being. This realization, let me remind you, will demonstrate in a true comprehension of a brother's need, divorced from sentiment and expediency. It will lead to that silence of the tongue which grows out of non-reference to the separate self. It will produce that instantaneous response to true need which characterizes the Great Ones who (passing beneath the outer appearance) see the inner cause which produces the conditions noted in the outer life, and so, from that point of wisdom, true help and guidance can be given. Harmlessness brings about in the life caution in judgment, reticence in speech, ability to refrain from impulsive action, and the demonstration of a non-critical spirit. So, free passage can be given to the forces of true love, and to those spiritual energies which seem to vitalize the personality, leading consequently to right action.

Let harmlessness, therefore, be the keynote of your life.

 

^  6
138-138
They look to see who can struggle and contend for principle with personalities, and yet keep the link of love intact. This counts perhaps more than men realize and a man who can stand for principle and yet love all human beings - refusing compromise and yet refusing hate - has something rare to offer in these days and the Great Ones can use him.

 

^  7
150-152
In the science of Pranayama it is the moment following upon inhalation wherein all the forces of the body have (through the medium of the breath) been carried upward to the head and concentrated there, prior to the stage of breathing forth. This moment of retention, when [151] properly carried forward, produces an interlude of intense concentration and it is in this moment that the aspirant must seize opportunity. Herein lies a hint.

Then comes the process of exhalation. We read in Rule IV "he drives the thought-form from him." This is ever the result of the final stage of the science of the breath. The form, vitalized by the one who breathes in correct rhythm, is sent forth to do its work and fulfil its mission. Study this idea with care, for it holds the secret of creative work.

In the experience of the soul, the form for manifestation in the three worlds is created through intense meditation, which is ever the paralleling activity of breathing. Then by an act of the will, resulting in a "breathing forth", and engendered or arrived at dynamically in the interlude of contemplation or retention of the breath, the created form is sent forth into the phenomenal world, to serve as a channel of experience, a medium of expression and a response apparatus in the three worlds of human living.

In the life of the disciple, through meditation and discipline he learns to reach high moments of interlude whenever he concentrates his forces on the plane of soul life, and then again by an act of his will, he breathes forth his spiritual purposes, plans and life into the world of experience. The thought form that he has constructed as to the part he has to play, and the concentration of energy which he has succeeded in bringing about become effective. The energy needed for the next step is breathed forth by the soul and passes down into the vital body, thus galvanizing the physical instrument with the needed constructive activity. That aspect of the plan which he has appreciated in contemplation, and that part of the general purpose of the Hierarchy in which his soul feels called upon to co-operate is breathed forth simultaneously, [152] via the mind into the brain, and thus "he drives the thought forms from him."

Finally, in the science of Pranayama, this stage covers that exhaling breath which, when carried forward with thought and conscious purpose behind it, serves to vitalize the centres and fill each of them with dynamic life. More need not be said here.

Thus, in this science of "breathing deeply" we have the whole process of creative work and of the evolutionary unfoldment of God in nature covered. It is the process whereby the Life, the One Existence, has brought the phenomenal world into being, and Rule IV is a digest of the Creation. It is equally the formula under which the individual soul works as it centres its forces for manifestation in the three worlds of human experience.

The right use of the Life-Breath is the whole art at which the aspirant, the disciple, and the initiate work, bearing in mind however that the science of the physical breath is the least important aspect and follows sequentially upon the right use of energy, which is the word we apply to the divine breath or life.

Finally, in the mental life of the disciple, and in the great work of learning to be a conscious creator in mental matter and so produce results in the phenomenal world, this fourth Rule holds the instructions upon which the work is based. It embodies the science of the entire magical work.

 

^  8
250-253
Fire is the symbol of the intellect and all magical work is an intelligent process, carried out in the strength of the soul, and by the use of the mind. To make itself felt on the physical plane, a brain is required which is receptive to higher impulses and which can be impressed by the soul utilizing the "chitta" or mental substance in order to create the needed thought forms, and so express the ideas and purposes of the intelligent loving soul. These are recognized by the brain and are [251] photographed upon the "vital airs" found in the brain cavity. When these vital airs can be sensed by the magician in meditation, and the thought-forms imprinted on this miniature reflection of the astral light, then the real potency in magic can begin to make itself felt. The brain has "heard" occultly the injunctions and instructions of the mind as it relays the behests of the soul. The vital airs are swept into form-making activity just as their higher correspondence, the "modifications of the thinking principle, the mind stuff" (as Patanjali calls it), are thrown into an analogous form-making activity. These can then be seen interiorly by the man who is seeking to perform the magical work and much of his success is dependent upon his ability to register impressions exactly, and to see with clarity the forms of the process in magic which he is seeking to demonstrate as magical work in the outer world.

It might therefore be said that there are three stages in the form-making process. First, the soul or spiritual man, centered in the soul consciousness and functioning in "the secret place of the Most High", visualizes the work to be done. This is not a sequential act, but the finished completed work of magic is visioned by a process that does not involve the time element or spatial concepts at all. Secondly, the mind responds to the soul (calling attention to the work to be performed), and is swept into thought-form making activity by this impression. According to the lucidity and illumination of the mind-stuff so will be the response to the impression. If the mind is a true reflector and receiver of soul impress, the corresponding thought-form will be true to its prototype. If it is not true (as is usually the case in the early stages of the work) then the thought-form created will be distorted and incorrect, unbalanced and "out of drawing".

It is in meditation that this work of accurate reception [252] and correct building is learnt and hence the emphasis laid in all true schools of esoteric training upon a focussed mind, a capacity to visualize, an ability to build thought-forms, and an accurate grasp of egoic intent. Hence also the need of the magician beginning the practical work of magic with himself as the subject of the magical experiment. He begins to grasp the vision of the spiritual man, as he is in essence. He realizes the virtues and reactions which that spiritual man would evidence in physical plane life. He builds a thought-form of himself as the ideal man, the true server, the perfect master. He gradually coordinates his forces so that power to be these things in external reality begins to take shape so that all men can see. He creates a pattern in his mind which hews as true as he can make it to the prototype, and which serves to model the lower man and force conformity to the ideal. As he perfects his technique he finds a transmuting, transforming power at work upon the energies which constitute his lower nature, until all is subordinated and he becomes in practical manifestation what he is esoterically and essentially. As this takes place, he begins to be interested in the magical work in which it is the function of all true souls to participate.

Then the third aspect of the form-making process can manifest. The brain is synchronized with the mind, and the mind with the soul, and the plan is sensed. The vital airs in the head can be modified and respond to the force of the building magical work. A thought-form exists then as the result of the previous two activities, but it exists in the place of the brain activity and becomes a focussing centre for the soul, and a point through which energy can flow for the performance of the magical work.

This magical work, carried out under the direction of the soul (inspiring the mind which in its turn impresses the brain), leads then (as the result of this triple coordinated activity) to the creation of a focussing centre, [253] or form, within the head of the magician. The energy which flows through this focal point acts through three distributing agents, and hence all three are involved in all magical work.

1. The right eye, through which the vital energy of the spirit can express itself.
2. The throat centre, through which the Word, the second aspect or the soul expresses itself.
3. The hands, through which the creative energy of the third aspect works.

"The White Magician" works "with the eyes open, the voice proclaiming and the hands conferring."

These points are of technical interest to the experienced worker in magic, but of symbolic interest only to the aspirants for whom these letters are intended.

That the inner vision may be ours, the eye see clearly the glory of the Lord, and the voice speak only in benediction, and the hands be used only in helpfulness, may well be the prayer of each of us.

 

^  9
315-321
Everyone we meet, or contact, every person with whom we live or daily consort has an effect upon us, either for good or evil. They either stir up our emotional nature in a good and high sense, and so aid its work of re-orientation, or they lower its standard so that progress is hindered and [316] the work of drawing downwards towards materiality is carried forward. This we know well, and it is unnecessary for me to enlarge upon it here.

7. The emotional (astral sentient) equipment with which a man enters into life, which he utilises, and which he builds as life progresses. Many a man is the victim of an emotional body which he has himself constructed as he responded to the energies of the groups enumerated above. The astral body reacts to all emanations of a sensitive character in three ways:

1. Emotional. The astral body is swept into response of some kind to the emanations of the astral bodies - group bodies or individual - of those surrounding him. This phrase warrants careful study.
2. Sensitive. There is always a registering of all impressions by the sensitive astral body, even if emotional response lacks, and disciples have to learn to distinguish carefully between the two. Sometimes when emotional reaction lacks, as generally understood, there is nevertheless a registering of the originating cause which sought to bring about an effect on the emotional body.
3. Simple reaction. The registering or the refusal to register or respond to an impact, to an emotional impression. This can be either good or bad.

In all three cases, one or other of the pairs of opposites is chosen and the choice depends upon the quality of the astral mechanism of the man concerned. A fourth method involves complete detachment from the emotional body altogether, and a complete capacity to isolate oneself from any sensory impression at will - in order to serve with greater efficiency and to love with greater intelligence. Forget not that in the last analysis, love and emotion are not the same.

[317]

The practical question now arises: How is one to overcome the wrong vibration?

First: - It is necessary that one recognises what wrong vibration is, and that one is able to register reaction. A vibration, an impulse, an emotion, a desire originate in a lower aspect of the form side. They differ from an emanation coming from the soul. The two impacts upon the sentient body must be recognised as different. The question has to be asked: Is this reaction a response to personality life or is it a response to the soul consciousness? Does this impulse which seeks to sweep my sentient body into activity come from the divine Life within me or is it coming from the form aspect in any of its manifestations? Does it cause my astral body to become active in such a way that those who are en rapport with me are hurt thereby or helped? Are they hindered or aided?

A close study of one's emotional reactions brings one to the consideration of that basic characteristic which cannot be over-emphasized in view of the world's present condition. Harmlessness. I tell you that the achieving of harmlessness in the positive sense (not in the negative) means the attainment of that step which leads definitely to the Portal of Initiation. When first mentioned, it sounds of small moment, and to bring the whole subject of initiation into such small account that it becomes unimportant. But let him who so thinks practice that positive harmlessness which works out in right thought (because based on intelligent love), right speech (because governed by self-control), and right action (because founded on an understanding of the Law), and he will find that the attempt will call forth all the resources of his being and take much time to achieve. It is not the harmlessness that comes from weakness and sentimental loving disposition, which dislikes trouble because it upsets the settled harmony of life and leads to consequent [318] discomfort. It is not the harmlessness of the little evolved negative impotent man or woman, who has not the power to hurt because possessing so little equipment wherewith damage can be done.

It is the harmlessness that springs from true understanding and control of the personality by the soul, that leads inevitably to spiritual expression in every-day life. It emanates from a capacity to enter into the consciousness and to penetrate into the realisation of one's brother, and when this has been accomplished - all is forgiven and all is lost sight of in the desire to aid and to help.

Response to wrong vibration will not be basically prevented by the methods of either "building a shell", or by "insulation" through the power of mantrams and visualisation. These two methods are temporary expedients by which those who as yet have somewhat to learn seek to protect themselves. The building of a shell leads to separativeness, as you well know, and necessitates the eventual overcoming of the habit of shell-building, and a shattering and consuming of the shells already built. This latter can be more easily done than the overcoming of the habit. Automatically the building process goes on until finally the aspirant has built so many ramparts around himself that he can neither get out nor can any contacts be made with him. The process of insulation, which is a more advanced practice and calls for more magical knowledge, consists of the emanating of certain energies of the vital body in a particular direction, which serve to keep other energies at a distance through what is called impact. Through this impact upon approaching energies, they are reversed and sent in another direction. But those energies must go somewhere, and should they damage another person, is not the one who reversed their direction through a desire to protect himself responsible?

The practice of harmlessness is the best and easiest [319] way for the aspirant to work. There is then nothing in him which is inimical to any life in any form, and he therefore attracts to himself only that which is beneficent. He uses the beneficent forces thus attracted for the helping of other beings. This has to be the first step, and the discipline it entails and the constant supervision of all the activities on the three planes of human evolution and of all reactions bring the emotional body under the dominance of the illumined mind. They also bring about the understanding of one's fellow men.

There is secondly, a later stage wherein the disciple learns to absorb and transmute the wrong vibrations and the energies which are destructive. He has no shells nor barriers. He does not insulate himself nor isolate himself from his brothers. Through harmlessness he has learnt to neutralise all evil emanations. Now he acts with a positiveness of a new kind. Definitely and with full awareness of what he is doing, he gathers into himself all the evil emanations (destructive energies, and wrong forces) and he breaks them up into their component parts and returns them whence they came, neutralised, impotent and harmless, yet intact in nature. You say that this is a hard teaching and conveys but little to the average aspirant? Such is ever the way in esoteric teaching, but those who know will understand and for them I speak.

Another method is still more advanced and is utilised by the initiate. Through a knowledge of the law and of certain Words of Power he can command the energies to reverse themselves and to return to their originating centre. But with this method we have nothing to do. There must as yet be much practice in harmlessness and a close watch kept upon its application in the daily life.

The right direction of astral energy can be summed up in its three aspects from the ancient Book of Rules, given to chelas of the entering degrees. All true esoteric [320] schools begin with the control of the astral body and, the chela had to memorise and practice these three rules after he had made some real growth in the manifestation of harmlessness.

Rule I. Enter thy brother's heart and see his woe. Then speak. Let the words spoken convey to him the potent force he needs to loose his chains. Yet loose them not thyself. Thine is the work to speak with understanding. The force received by him will aid him in his work.

Rule II. Enter thy brother's mind and read his thoughts, but only when thy thoughts are pure. Then think. Let the thoughts thus created enter thy brother's mind and blend with his. Yet keep detached thyself, for none have the right to sway a brother's mind. The only right there is, will make him say: "He loves. He standeth by. He knows. He thinks with me and I am strong to do the right." Learn thus to speak. Learn thus to think.

Rule III. Blend with thy brother's soul and know him as he is. Only upon the plane of soul can this be done. Elsewhere the blending feeds the fuel of his lower life. Then focus on the plan. Thus will he see the part that he and you and all men play. Thus will he enter into life and know the work accomplished.

A note, appended to these three rules says:

"These three energies - of speech, of thought, and of purpose - when wielded with understanding by the chela and blended with the awakening forces of his brother whom he seeks to aid, are the three energies with which all adepts work."

It is almost impossible to translate these ancient formulas into adequate terms, but the above rough paraphrase will convey the idea to the illumined; these rules [321] sum up the few thoughts which the average aspirant needs to grasp about the right direction of energy, and for which he is ready.

 

^  10
327-331
Hence we are passing through an intermediate stage of change and of questioning, of rebellion and consequent apparent license. The methods of science, - investigation and analysis, comparison and deduction, - are being applied to religious belief. The history of religions, the foundations of doctrine, the origin of ideas and the growth of the God idea are being subjected to research and study. This leads to much disputation; to the rejection of old established ideas as to God, the soul, man and his destiny. Schools of thought have ever existed differing in their ideas and methods and the six Schools of Indian Philosophy have embodied in themselves practically all the basic speculations of man as to the why and wherefore of manifestation. Little which is new has been added by the occident to these six speculative schools, though the western mind, with its genius for scientific techniques and method, has elaborated the ideas and differentiated the six theories into a multiplicity of lesser propositions. Out of the medley of ideas, theories, speculations, religions, churches, cults, sects and organizations, two main lines of thought are emerging - one doomed eventually to die out, the other to strengthen and grow until it, in its turn, gives birth to that (for us) [328] ultimate formulation of truth which will suffice for the next age and carry man to a high pinnacle of the Temple to the Mount of Initiation. These two lines are:

1. Those who look back to the past, who hang on to the old ways, the ancient theologies, and the reactionary rejection methods of finding truth. These are the people who recognize authority, whether that of a prophet, a bible or a theology. These are those who prefer obedience to imposed authority to the self-imposed guidance of an enlightened soul. These are the followers of a Church and a government, who are distinguished by a pure devotion and love, but refuse recognition to the divine intelligence with which they are gifted. Their devotion, their love of God, their strict but misguided conscience, their intolerance mark them out as devotees, but they are blinded by their own devotion and their growth is limited by their fanaticism. They belong mostly to the older generation and the hope for them lies in their devotion and the fact that evolution itself will carry them forward into the second group.

To this first group is committed the work of crystallization which will result in the complete destruction of the old form; to them is given the task of defining the old truths so that the mind of the race will be clarified, that non-essentials and essentials will be recognized for what they are, and fundamental ideas so contrasted with the formulation of dogmas that that which is basic will be seen and the secondary and unimportant beliefs therefore rejected, for only the basic and causative will be of value in the coming age.

2. The second group is as yet a very small minority, but a steadily growing one. It is that inner group of lovers of God, the intellectual mystics, the knowers of reality who belong to no one religion or organization, but who regard themselves as members of the Church universal and as "members one of another". They are [329] gathered out of every nation, race and people; they are of every color and school of thought, yet they speak the same language, learn by the same symbols, tread the same path, have rejected the same non-essentials, and have isolated the same body of essential beliefs. They recognize each other; they accord equal devotion to the spiritual leaders of all races, and use each other's Bibles with equal freedom. They form the subjective background of the new world; they constitute the spiritual nucleus of the coming world religion; they are the unifying principle which will eventually save the world.

In the past we have had world Saviours - Sons of God who have enunciated a world message and brought an increase of light to the peoples. Now, in the fullness of time, and through the work of evolution there is emerging a group who perhaps will bring salvation to the world, and who - embodying the group ideas and demonstrating the group nature, manifesting in a small way the true significance of the body of Christ, and giving to the world a picture of the true nature of a spiritual organism - will so stimulate and energize the thoughts and souls of men that the new age will be ushered in by an outpouring of the love, knowledge and harmony of God Himself.

Religions in the past have been founded by a great soul, by an Avatar, by an outstanding spiritual personality, and the stamp of their lives and words and teaching has been set upon the race and has persisted for many centuries. What will be the effect of the message of a group Avatar? What will be the potency of the work of a group of knowers of God, enunciating truth and banded together subjectively in the great work of saving the world? What will be the effect of the mission of a group of world Saviours, not as Christs, but all knowers of God in some degree, who supplement each other's efforts, reinforce each other's message, and constitute an organism [330] through which the spiritual energy and principle of spiritual life can make their presence felt in the world?

Such a body now exists with its members in every land. Relatively they are few and far between, but steadily their numbers are increasing and increasingly their message will be felt. In them is rested a spirit of construction; they are the builders of the new age; to them is given the work of preserving the spirit of truth, and the reorganizing of the thoughts of men so that the racial mind is controlled and brought into that meditative and reflective condition which will permit it to recognize the next unfoldment of divinity.

Connected with these two groups, the reactionary doctrinaires and the subjective band of mystics, is the majority of the new generation of young people who are part of neither band and whose ideas are largely disorganized by the recognition of both. This majority do not belong to the past and refuse to accept the authority of that past. They do not belong to the inner group of Knowers who are working at the task of swinging the thoughts of men into right channels, for they have not reached as yet the point of knowledge. They only recognize two things: their need for freedom, and an intense eagerness for knowledge. They despise the tradition of the past; they reject the old formulations of truth; and because as yet they stand on no sure ground but are only in the position of seekers and enquirers, we have our present state of world upheaval, of apparent license and disruption. It should not be forgotten that this world state is therefore the result of the clashing of the three types of force prevalent in the world of today.

1. That emanating from the holders with the old tradition, who, emphasizing the forms and the past produce the destruction of those forms.
2. That emanating from the inner group of mystics, [331] who, under the guidance of the planetary Hierarchy are building the new form.
3. That emanating from the masses who belong to neither group and who are wielding force as yet blindly and often unwisely until such time comes when they recognize those constructive channels into which it can wisely be poured.

 

^  11
400-401
They are being gathered out of every nation, but are gathered and chosen, not by the watching Hierarchy or by any Master, but by the power of their response to the spiritual opportunity, tide and note. They are emerging out of every group and church and party, and will therefore be truly representative. This they do, not from the pull of their own ambition and prideful schemes, but through the very selflessness of their service. They are finding their way to the top in every department of human knowledge, not because of the clamour they make about their own ideas, discoveries and theories, but because they are so inclusive in their outlook and so wide in their interpretation of truth that they see the hand of God in all happenings, His imprint upon all forms and His note sounding forth through every channel of communication between the subjective reality and the objective outer form. They are of all races; they speak all languages; they embrace all religions, all sciences and all philosophies. Their characteristics are synthesis, inclusiveness, intellectuality and fine mental development. They own to no creed, save the creed of Brotherhood, based on the one Life. They recognise no authority, save that of their own souls, and no Master save the group they seek to serve, and humanity whom they deeply love. They have no barriers set up around themselves, but are governed by a wide tolerance, and a sane mentality and sense of proportion. They look with open eyes upon the world of men and recognise those whom they can lift and to whom they can stand as the Great Ones stand, - lifting, teaching and helping. They recognize their peers and equals, and know each other when they meet and stand shoulder to shoulder with their fellow workers in the work of salvaging humanity. It does not matter if their terminologies differ, their interpretations of symbols [401] and scriptures vary, or their words are few or many. They see their group members in all fields - political, scientific, religious, and economic - and give to them the sign of recognition and the hand of a brother. They recognise likewise Those who have passed ahead of them upon the ladder of evolution and hail Them Teacher, and seek to learn from Them that which They are so eager to impart.

 

^  12
413-415
Its members are all in physical bodies but must work entirely subjectively, thus utilising the inner subjective apparatus and the intuition. It is to be composed of men and women of all nations and ages, but each one must be spiritually oriented, all must be conscious servers, all must be mentally polarised and alert, and all must be inclusive.

One of the essential conditions imposed upon the personnel of the group is that they must be willing to work without recognition, on the subjective levels. They must work behind the scenes as do the Great Ones. Its members [414] therefore must be free from all taint of ambition, and from all pride of race and of accomplishment. They must be also sensitively aware of their fellowmen and of their thoughts and conditioning environment.

It is a group that has no esoteric organisation of any kind, no headquarters, no publicity, no group name. It is a band of obedient workers and servers of the WORD - obedient to their own souls and to group need. All true servers everywhere therefore belong to this group, whether their line of service is cultural, political, scientific, religious, philosophical, psychological or financial. They constitute part of the inner group of workers for humanity, and of the world mystics, whether they know it or not. They will be thus recognised by their fellow group members when contacted in the casual ways of world intercourse.

This group gives to the word "spiritual" a wide significance; they believe it to mean an inclusive endeavour towards human betterment, uplift and understanding; they give it the connotation of tolerance, international synthetic communion, religious inclusiveness, and all trends of thought which concern the esoteric development of the human being.

It is a group therefore without a terminology or Bible of any kind; it has no creed nor any dogmatic formulations of truth. The motivating impulse of each and all is love of God as it works out in love for one's fellow man. They know the true meaning of brotherhood, without distinction of race. Their lives are lives of willing service, rendered with utter selflessness and without any reservations.

The personnel of the group is known only to the Elder Brothers of the race, and no register of names is kept, and there are only three main requirements:

1. A certain amount of at-one-ment between the soul and its mechanism is essential, and that inner triplicity, [415] usually dormant in the majority, of soul-mind-brain must be in alignment and active.

2. The brain has to be telepathically sensitive in two directions and at will. It must be aware of the world of souls and also of the world of men.

3. There must also exist a capacity for abstract or synthetic thought. This will enable a man to leap over racial and religious barriers. When this is present also there is an assured belief in the continuity of life and its correlation to the life after death.

 

^  13
418-418
Watch them at their work. Note the emphasis laid by them upon personalities. If personal ambition seems to govern their activities, if their position is one of a determination to work in the group of mystics because of its novelty or because it gives them a certain standing or because it intrigues their imagination or gives them scope for gathering people around them, then proceed no further, but - preserving silence - leave time and the law to correct their attitude.

 

^  14
447-449
RULE ELEVEN
ANALYSIS OF THE THREE SENTENCES
This rule is, as you know, the last of those governing work on the astral plane and the magical task of motivating those thought-forms which are to be the expression of some type of energy. We have considered the various energies with which men work and the power a man can wield through building thought-forms. We have seen also how a man can manipulate the various grades of matter until the embodied idea has clothed itself with mental matter and with astral matter. It is therefore a vital entity, on the verge of materialising upon the physical plane. Nothing, it should be noted, can now stop its emergence into objectivity except the expressed act of the will of its creator, for the form, being vitalised by that creator, is subject always to his will, until he has severed his connection with it by the utterance of the "mystic phrase". We will assume that emergence into effective existence is the decision and that the creative work is carried forward.

It will here be noted that this work is either conscious or unconscious. In the unconscious building of thought-forms such as is the case with the average human being, many never produce the desired physical plane effects, and fail in their intended purpose. As long however, as man is animated by selfishness and by hatred, this is a beneficent thing. Fortunately for the human race, few people as yet work in mental matter. Most of them work with astral or desire matter and these forms are fluidic and changeable, and are powerful only through the faculty of persistence. There is an occult basis for [448] the statement that if one desires a thing for a sufficiently long period of time one will possess it. Such is the law governing the return to incarnation of the average human being. Lacking the one-pointedness of the mental plane matter as it is influenced by a concentrated mind, these desire forms fail to do the damage they otherwise might. Their effect is felt largely by the creator of these kama-manasic forms and not by his environing associates. The moment that the mind factor enters in and becomes dominant, that moment a man becomes dangerous or useful as the case may be - dangerous not only to himself but to those around him, or useful in the working out of the plan of evolution. He can then create thought-forms, capable of producing outward manifesting results and tangible effects. Given aspiration, however, and spiritual impulse, a man can become a true occultist, and produce organised results, and functioning organisms upon the physical plane. I use the word "organism" deliberately, for it will serve to convey the idea that any thought-form is regarded by us as a subjective and existing entity, clothed in subtle matter, and capable of manifestation. This is called popularly sometimes "the working out of an idea", or the "carrying through of a project"; it is termed at other times a "discovery", or an "invention", or something of that nature. All the time, quite unrealising it, man is talking in occult terms and evidencing an inner appreciation of the methods whereby all that has been thought (by God or man) comes into existence.

The embodied idea or thought (the former being potentially far more potent than the latter) has worked its way through to the verge of physical manifestation. Its creator who, in the case of a "white magician" is not an emotionally centred person, is consciously bringing it to the stage when its inner purpose and plan can be demonstrated. He holds the thought-form in his consciousness [449] and gives it shape and energy through the power of his own one-pointed mental focus.

We are told in the rule under consideration that the aspirant has three things to do:

1. Ascertain the formula which will crystallise the form he has built, much in the same way that we find architects and bridge builders reducing the desired form to a mathematical formula.
2. Pronounce certain words which will give the form vitality and so carry it forth on to the physical plane.
3. Utter the phrase which will detach the thought-form from his aura and so save the drain upon his energies.

It will be noted that the formula has relation to the thought-form, the words of power to the objective for which the form has been constructed, and the mystic phase concerns the severing of the magnetic link which binds together the creator and his creation. One therefore concerns the form, another the soul embodied in the form (whose lowest characteristic is desire, the reflection of love) and the last the life aspect with which the creator has endowed the creation. We are consequently face to face again with the eternal triplicities of spirit, soul and body. It should be remembered that the Rules for Magic, as understood by the true esotericist, are as true of a created universe, solar system or planet as they are true of the tiny thought creations of a chela or aspirant.

 

^  15
453-456
All forms in nature, as we well know, are made up of [454] myriads of tiny lives, holding a certain measure of awareness, of rhythm, and of coherency according to the force of the Law of Attraction, utilized by the builder of the form. This is true both of the Macrocosm and of the infinite world of microcosmic lives, which are contained within the greater whole. Embryo solar systems, coming into being under the impulse of divine thought, are at first fluidic and nebulous, are shifting in outline and are held together loosely by the central nucleus of energy - another way of expressing the embodied idea. As time progresses, they pass on to other conditions, they take more definite form, they enter into peculiar relations with allied and neighboring forms, and adjust themselves to varying relations of an internal nature with those forms, which in the earlier stage was not possible. Eventually we find a solar system such as ours and myriads of others - a solar system functioning as a sun with its revolving and rotating planets, preserving their differing orbits, holding their stated and relative positions, active as independent and inter-dependent organisms, and yet presenting, to the eye of the astronomer, a coherence, a unity and a structure that is unique in each case and yet which functions under cosmic law. It measures up to some vast purpose, conceived and held steadily in the Universal Mind, which is in its turn an aspect of that group-conscious and self-conscious entity who is the author of its being and the creator of its form.

This one intelligent Life may be posited as creating in his meditation (or its, if you prefer, for what do words matter when all is futile to express reality as it is!) and consequently in his reflective mind, that which we call a thought-form. This thought-form has four main characteristics:

1. It is brought into being through the conscious use of the Law of Attraction. [455]
2. It is formed of an infinite number of living entities who are attracted by the mind of the divine Creator and thus enter into relation with each other.
3. The form is the externalization of something that its Creator has:

1. Visualized.
2. Built intelligently and "coloured" or "qualified", so as to meet the purpose for which it was intended.
3. Vitalized by the potency of his desire and the strength of his living thought.
4. Held in shape as long as it is needed in order to perform its specific work.
5. Connected to himself by a magnetic thread - the thread of his living purpose and the strength of his dominant will.

4. This interior purpose, which has clothed itself in mental, astral and vital substance, is potent on the physical plane just as long as:

   1. It remains consciously in its Creator's thought.
   2. It "keeps its distance" occultly from its Creator. Many thought-forms remain futile as they are "too close" to their Creator.
   3. It can be directed in any desired direction, and under the law of least resistance, can find its own place, thus performing its desired function and carrying out the purpose for which it was created.

The "formula" therefore might be regarded as the idea emanating from the divine Thinker; it might be defined as the dynamic purpose, the thing, as the Thinker sees it and externalizes it in his mind, and visualizes it as the carrier of his intent. The mathematics which underlie the construction of a bridge, such as any of the great spans which signalize human achievement, convey [456] naught to the uninitiated, but to those who know and understand, they are the bridge itself, reduced to its essential terms. They are the bridge in latency, and in these mathematical formulas lie hid the purpose, the quality and the form of the completed structure and its eventual usefulness. So it is with the concepts and the ideas which give birth to a thought-form. These occult formulas exist on the archetypal plane which (for the aspirant) is the plane of the intuition, though in reality it is a state of consciousness far higher still. These formulas underlie a world of forms and must be contacted by those who are duly equipped to work under the Great Architect of the Universe. There are, symbolically speaking, three great books of formulas. Note the words "symbolically speaking", and forget them not. There is first the Book of Life, read and eventually mastered by initiates of all degrees. There is the Book of Divine Wisdom, read by aspirants of all degrees, sometimes called the Book of Knowing Experience, and there is the Book of Forms which is compulsory reading for all in whom the intelligence is awakening to functioning activity.

 

^  16
472-475
The necessity for clear thinking and the elimination of idle, destructive and negative thoughts becomes increasingly apparent as the aspirant progresses upon his way. As the power of the mind increases and as the human being differentiates his thought increasingly from mass thought, he inevitably builds thought substance into form. It is at first automatic and unconscious. He cannot help so doing, and fortunately, for the race, the forms constructed are so feeble that they are largely innocuous, or so in line with mass thought that they are negligible in their effect. But as man evolves his power and his capacity to harm or to help increases, and unless he learns to build rightly and correctly to motivate that which he has built he will become a destructive agency and a centre of harmful force - destroying and harming not only himself, as we shall see shortly, but equally hurting and harming those who vibrate to his note.

Granted all this you might appositely inquire: Are there some simple rules which the earnest and sincere beginner could apply to this science of building and which are so clear and concise that they will produce the needed effect? There are, and I will state them simply so that the beginner will, if he follows them, escape the dangers of black magic, and learn to build in line with the plan. He will, if he follows the rules I give, avoid the intricate problem which he has himself blindly constructed and which will indeed shut out the light of day, darken his world, and imprison him in a wall of forms which will embody for him his own peculiar great illusion.

These rules may sound too simple for the learned aspirant but for those who are willing to become as little children they will be found to be a safe guide into truth [473] and will eventually make them able to pass the tests for adeptship. Some are couched in terms symbolic, others are necessarily blinds, still others express the truth just as it is.

1. View the world of thought, and separate the false out of the true.
2. Learn the meaning of illusion, and in its midst locate the golden thread of truth.
3. Control the body of emotion for the waves that rise upon the stormy seas of life engulf the swimmer, shut out the sun and render all plans futile.
4. Discover that thou hast a mind and learn its dual use.
5. Concentrate the thinking principle, and be the master of thy mental world.
6. Learn that the thinker and his thought and that which is the means of thought are diverse in their nature, yet one in ultimate reality.
7. Act as the thinker, and learn it is not right to prostitute thy thought to the base use of separative desire.
8. The energy of thought is for the good of all and for the furtherance of the Plan of God. Use it not therefore for thy selfish ends.
9. Before a thought-form is by thee constructed, vision its purpose, ascertain its goal, and verify the motive.
10. For thee, the aspirant on the way of life, the way of conscious building is not yet the goal. The work of cleaning out the atmosphere of thought, of barring fast the doors of thought to hate and pain, to fear, and jealousy and low desire, must first precede the conscious work of building. See to thy aura, oh traveler on the way.
11. Watch close the gates of thought. Sentinel desire. [474] Cast out all fear, all hate, all greed. Look out and up.
12. Because the life is mostly centered on the plane of concrete life, thy words and speech will indicate thy thought. To these pay close attention.
13. Speech is of triple kind. The idle words will each produce effect. If good and kind, naught need be done. If otherwise, the paying of the price cannot be long delayed.
    The selfish words, sent forth with strong intent, build up a wall of separation. Long time it takes to break that wall and so release the stored-up, selfish purpose. See to thy motive, and seek to use those words which blend the little life with the large purpose of the will of God.
    The word of hate, the cruel speech which ruins those who feel its spell, the poisonous gossip, passed along because it gives a thrill - these words kill the flickering impulses of the soul, cut at the roots of life, and so bring death.
    If spoken in the light of day, just retribution will they bring; when spoken and then registered as lies, they strengthen that illusory world in which the speaker lives and holds him back from liberation.
    If uttered with intent to hurt, to bruise and kill, they wander back to him who sent them forth and him they bruise and kill.
14. The idle thought, the selfish thought, the cruel hateful thought if rendered into word produce a prison, poison all the springs of life, lead to disease, and cause disaster and delay. Therefore, be sweet and kind and good as far as in thee lies. Keep silence and the light will enter in.
15. Speak not of self. Pity not thy fate. The thoughts of self and of thy lower destiny prevent the inner [475] voice of thine own soul from striking upon thine ear. Speak of the soul; enlarge upon the plan; forget thyself in building for the world. Thus is the law of form offset. Thus can the rule of love enter upon that world.

These simple rules will lay right foundations for the carrying forward of the magical work, and will render the mental body so clear and so powerful that right motive will control and true work in building will be possible.

Much of the significance of this rule must remain theoretical, and be considered as holding a challenge until such time as the real magical work of thought-form building becomes universally possible. The formula, as we have seen, will remain unknown to all save the members of the Hierarchy of Adepts for long ages to come. The directional words are capable of ascertainment, but only to those who are working consciously under the guidance of their own souls, and who, through mind control merging into deep meditation, can manipulate the matter of thought and become "knowing creators." These can, and do, speak the impulsive words which bring into being those new forms and organisms, those expressions of ideas and those organisations which live their life cycle and serve their purpose, and so come, duly, to their timely and appointed end. These creators are the leaders and organisers, the teachers and the guides in all phases of human living. Their sound does go forth into all lands and their note is internationally recognised.

 

^  17
551-552
Is there some basic formula or proposition which must govern the magical activity?

This question is, of course, too general and vague, but until the inclusiveness of the human mind is greater than is now the case, such questions will inevitably be asked. I can, however, give a short reply which holds in it the clue to the entire process. When correctly understood, it will govern the method of work and the thought life of the worker in white magic. My answer is this: Potencies produce precipitation. In those three words lies the entire story. They sum up the history of the Creator and the life story and environing conditions of every human being. They account for all that is, and lie back of the law of rebirth. These potencies are driven into activity by the power of thought and hence, in training them to be creators and in teaching them to govern and control their own destinies, the Teachers of the race begin with the mind aspect of aspirants. They emphasize that which will govern the potencies; they deal with that which produces the objective form, which is qualified by them, is energized by them and which fulfills the purpose of the Thinker.

A thinker, then, is the essential factor, and it will become apparent to you, therefore, as you study these words, just what is going on in the world of today. The [552] trend of our modern civilization, in spite of all its mistakes and errors, is to produce thinkers. Education, books, travel, in its many and varied forms, enunciations of science and of philosophy, and the driving inner urge which we call religious, but which is, in fact, the drive towards truth and its mental verification - all these factors have one objective, and this is to produce thinkers. Given a real thinker, you have an incipient creator and (unconsciously at first, but consciously later on) one who will wield power in order to "precipitate" or cause to emerge objective forms. These forms will either be in line with Divine purpose and plan and, consequently, will further the cause of evolution, or they will be animated by personal intent, characterized by separated, selfish purpose, and constitute, therefore, part of the work of the retro-active forces and the material element. They will be of the nature of black magic.

Again the four appear:

1. The thinker.
2. The potency.
3. The quality of that potency.
4. The precipitation.

THE PRECIPITATION OF THOUGHT FORMS

What is a precipitation? Many definitions could be given and most of them - being clothed in words - would lose much of their true significance, but some idea may be conveyed in the following terms:

"A precipitation is an aggregation of energies arranged in a certain form, in order to express the idea of some creative Thinker, and qualified or characterized by the nature of his thought and held in that peculiar form as long as his thought remains dynamic."

 

^  18
553-554
The laws of thought are the laws of creation, and the entire creative work is carried forward on the etheric level. This constitutes practically a second formula. The Creator of the solar system confines his attention to the work performed on what we call the four higher planes of our system. The lower three, constituting the cosmic dense physical plane, are in the nature of precipitation. [554] They are objective, because the matter of space responds to, or is attracted by the potency of the four higher etheric vibrations. These, in their turn, are motivated or swept into activity by the dynamic impact of the divine thought. There is a similar procedure where man is concerned. Just as soon as man becomes a thinker and can formulate his thought, desire its manifestation and can energize "by recognition" the four ethers, a dense physical manifestation is inevitable. He will attract by his pranic energy, colored by desire high or low, and animated by the potency of his thought, just as much of the responsive matter in space as is needed to give body to his form.

 

^  19
554-554
There is, first of all, the study of the objective world in which the individual aspirant finds himself. He will need to consider the fact that his body of manifestation is a precipitation, that it is a result of his potent thought and desire and of his "recognition" of the four ethers. He will need to understand that this form which he has created will persist just as long as the dynamic power of his thought holds it together, and that it will dissipate when he (occultly speaking) "takes his eye away". He will need to consider also that his environment is the result of the work of an aggregate of group thinkers - group to which he belongs.

 

^  20
555-555
The word "recognition" is one of the most important in the language of occultism and holds the clue to the mystery of Being. It is related to karmic activity and on it the Lords of Time and Space depend. It is hard to illustrate this in simple terms, but it might be said that the problem of God Himself consists in this, that He must manifest a threefold recognition:

1. Recognition of the past, which necessarily involves a recognition of that matter in space which is, through past association, already colored by thought and purpose.
2. Recognition of the four grades of lives which, again through past association, are capable of response to His new thought for the present and can, therefore, carry out His plans and work in collaboration with Him. They subject their individual purposes to the one divine plan.
3. Recognition of the objective which exists in His Mind. This, in its turn, necessitates a one pointed focussing upon the goal and the holding of the purpose intact throughout the vicissitudes of the creative work, and in spite of the potency of the many divine Thinkers who have been attracted to Him by similarity of idea.

 

^  21
556-557
The work of the human being also, as he endeavors to become a creative thinker, lies along analogous lines. His creative work will be successful if he can recognize the tendency of his mind as that tendency emerges through the medium of his present interests, for these have their roots in the past. It will be successful if he can recognize the vibration of the group of lives in line with whose thought his creative work must proceed, for unlike the Deity in the solar system, he cannot work sole and alone. And who shall say whether in those greater spheres of existence in which our Deity plays His part, He is any more free from cosmic group influences than the human individual is free from impression by his environing impulses? He has to recognize the purpose for which he has deemed it wise to build a thought-form and he must hold that purpose steady and unimpaired throughout the whole period of objectivity. This we call one pointed attention, and this creative work is one of the, as yet unrecognized, goals of the meditation process. Hitherto the emphasis has been laid on the achieving of [557] a focussed attention and on the necessity, when that has been attained, of coming in touch with the soul, the spiritual thinker. But later decades will see the emerging of a technique of creation. When soul, mind and brain are unified and facility in unification has been achieved, further instructions will be given in the creative art. Meditation is the first basic lesson given when men have achieved the capacity to function on the mental plane.

 

^  22
557-561
It might be of use here if I expressed quite simply the requirements needed to bring about the manifestation of individual spiritual purpose or of group spiritual purpose. These can be summed up in three words:

1. Power.
2. Detachment.
3. Non-criticism.

So often simple words are used because of [558] their every day connotation their true significance and esoteric value are lost.

Let me give you a few thoughts anent each of these, with application only to the creative work of white magic.

Power is dependent for expression upon two factors:

1. Singleness of purpose.
2. Lack of impediments.

Students would be amazed if they could see their motives as we see them who guide on the subjective side of experience. Mixed motive is universal. Pure motive is rare and where it exists there is ever success and achievement. Such pure motive can be entirely selfish and personal, or unselfish and spiritual, and in between, where aspirants are concerned, mixed in varying degree. According, however, to the purity of intent and the singleness of purpose, so will be the potency.

The Master of all the Masters has said, "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light". These words which He enunciated give us a principle underlying all the creative work and we can link up the idea which He clothed in words with the symbol I have earlier described in this Treatise. Power, light, vitality, and manifestation! Such is the true procedure.

It will be obvious, therefore, why the manifested unit, man, is urged to be vital in his search and to cultivate his aspiration. When that aspiration is strong enough, he is then urged to achieve the capacity to "hold his mind steady in the light". When he can do this, he will achieve power and possess that single eye which will redound to the glory of the indwelling divinity. Before, however, he has mastered this process of development, he may not be trusted with power. The procedure is as follows: The individual aspirant begins to manifest somewhat soul purpose in his life on the physical plane. He is transmuting desire into aspiration and that aspiration [559] is vital and real. He is learning the meaning of light. When he has mastered the technique of meditation (and with this certain schools in existence at present are concerned) he can proceed to handle power, because he will have learned to function as a divine Thinker. He is now cooperative and is in touch with the divine Purpose.

As all true students know, however, the number of impediments is legion. Hindrances and obstacles abound. Singleness of purpose may occasionally be realized in high moments, but it does not abide with us always. There are the hindrances of physical nature, of heredity and environment, of character, of time and conditions, of world karma, as well as individual karma. What shall then be done? I have only one word to say and that is, persist. Failure never prevents success. Difficulties develop the strength of the soul. The secret of success is ever to stand steady and to be impersonal.

The second requirement is detachment. The worker in white magic must hold himself free as much as he can from identifying himself with that which he has created or has attempted to create. The secret for all aspirants is to cultivate the attitude of the onlooker and of the silent watcher, and, may I emphasize the word silent. Much true magical work comes to naught because of the failure of the worker and builder in matter to keep silent. By premature speech and too much talk, he slays that which he has attempted to create, the child of his thought is still-born. All workers in the field of the world should recognize the need for silent detachment and the work before every student who reads these Instructions must consist in cultivating a detached attitude. It is a mental detachment which enables the thinker to dwell ever in the high and secret place and from that center of peace calmly and powerfully to carry out the work he has set before himself. He works in the world of men; he loves and comforts and serves; he pays no attention to his personality [560] likes and dislikes, or to his prejudices and attachments; he stands as a rock of strength and as a strong hand in the dark to all whom he contacts. The cultivation of a detached attitude personally, with the attached attitude spiritually, will cut at the very roots of a man's life; but it will render back a thousandfold for all that it cuts away.

Much has been written anent attachment and the need to develop detachment. May I beg all students in the urgency of the present situation to leave off reading and thinking about it aspirationally and to begin to practise it and to demonstrate it.

Non-criticism is the third requirement. What shall I say about that? Why is it regarded as so essential a requirement? Because criticism (analysis and, consequently, separativeness) is the outstanding characteristic of mental types and also of all coordinated personalities. Because criticism is a potent factor in swinging mental and emotional substance into activity and so making strong impress upon the brain cells and working out into words. Because in a sudden burst of critical thought, the entire personality can be galvanized into a potent coordination, but of a wrong kind and with disastrous results. Because criticism being a faculty of the lower mind can hurt and wound and no man can proceed upon the Way as long as wounds are made and pain is knowingly given. Because the work of white magic and the carrying out of hierarchical purpose meets with basic hindrances in the relations existing between its workers and disciples. In the pressure of the present opportunity there is no time for criticism to exist between workers. They hinder each other and they hinder the work.

I have upon me at this time a sense of urgency. I urge upon all those who read these Instructions to forget their likes and their dislikes and to overlook the personality [561] hindrances which inevitably exist in themselves and in all who work upon the physical plane, handicapped by the personality. I urge upon all workers the remembrance that the day of opportunity is with us and that it has its term. This present type of opportunity will not last forever. The pettiness of the human frictions, the failures to understand each other, the little faults which have their roots in personality and which are, after all, ephemeral, the ambitions and illusions must all go. If the workers would practise detachment, knowing that the Law works and that God's purposes must come to an ultimate conclusion and if they would learn never to criticize in thought or word, the salvaging of the world would proceed apace and the new age of love and illumination would be ushered in.

 

^  23
573-575
Let the student inquire [574] of himself whether the position he held mentally and whether the words which he spoke on any particular occasion were prompted by a desire to impose his will upon his hearers. This imposition of his will could be either right or wrong. When right, it would mean that he was speaking under the impulse of his spiritual will, that his words would be in line with soul purpose and intent and would be governed by love and, therefore, would be constructive, helpful and healing. His attitude would be one of detachment and he would have no desire to take prisoner the mind of his brother. But if his words were prompted by self-will and by the desire to impose his ideas upon other people and so to shine in their presence, or to force them to agree with his conclusions, his method would then be destructive, dominating, aggressive, argumentative, forceful, rude or irritable, according to his personality trends and inclinations. This would indicate the right or the wrong use of first ray force.

Should the type of force he wields be that of the second ray, he can submit it to a similar analysis. He will then find it to be based on group love, service and compassion, or upon a selfish longing to be liked, on sentiment and on attachment. His words will indicate this to him if he will closely study them. Similarly, if he is using third ray force, in a personal manner, he will be devious in his propositions, subtle and elusive in his arguments, using manipulation in his relations with his fellowmen, or be an interfering busybody, actively engaged in running the world, in managing other people's lives for them, or in grasping so firmly the reins of government in his own self-interest that he will sacrifice everything and everybody in the work of furthering his own busy ends. If he is, however, a true disciple and aspirant, he will work with the Plan and will wield third ray force to bring about the loving purposes of the spiritual Reality. He will be busy and active and his word will carry [575] truth, and will lead to the helping of others, for they will be detached and true.

 

^  24
582-587
Remember that no man is a disciple, in the Master's sense of the word, who is not a pioneer. A registered response to spiritual truth, a realised pleasure in forward-looking ideals, and a pleased acquiescence in the truths of the New Age do not constitute discipleship. If it were so, the ranks of disciples would be rapidly filled and this is sadly not the case. It is the ability to arrive at an understanding of the next realisations which lie ahead of the human mind which marks the aspirant, who stands at the threshold of accepted discipleship; it is the power, wrought out in the crucible of strenuous inner experience, to see the immediate vision and to grasp those concepts in which the mind must necessarily clothe it, which give a man the right to be a recognised worker with the plan (recognised by the Great Ones, if not recognised by the world); it is the achievement of that spiritual orientation, held steadily - no matter what the outer disturbance in the physical plane life may be - that signifies to Those Who watch and seek for workers, that a man can be trusted to deal with some small aspect of Their undertaken work; it is the capacity to submerge [583] and to lose sight of the personal lower self in the task of world guidance, under soul impulse, which lifts a man out of the ranks of the aspiring mystics into those of the practical, though mystically minded, occultists.

This is an intensely practical work, on which we are engaged; it is likewise of such proportions that it will occupy all of a man's attention and time, even his entire thought life, and will lead him to efficient expression in his personality task (imposed by karmic limitation and inherited tendency) and to a steadfast application of the creative and magical work. Discipleship is a synthesis of hard work, intellectual unfoldment, steady aspiration and spiritual orientation, plus the unusual qualities of positive harmlessness and the opened eye which sees at will into the world of reality.

Certain considerations should be brought to the notice of the disciple which - for the sake of clarity - we will tabulate. To become an adept it will be necessary for the disciple to:

1. Enquire the Way.
2. Obey the inward impulses of the soul.
3. Pay no attention to any worldly consideration.
4. Live a life which is an example to others.

These four requirements may sound at the first superficial reading as easy of accomplishment, but if carefully studied it will become apparent why an adept is a "rare efflorescence of a generation of enquirers." Let us take up each of these four points:

1. Enquire the Way. We are told by one of the Masters that a whole generation of enquirers may only produce one adept. Why should this be so? For two reasons:

First, the true enquirer is one who avails himself of the wisdom of his generation, who is the best product of his own period and yet who remains unsatisfied and with the [584] inner longing for wisdom unappeased. To him there appears to be something of more importance than knowledge and something of greater moment than the accumulated experience of his own period and time. He recognises a step further on and seeks to take it in order to gain something to add to the quota already gained by his compeers. Nothing satisfies him until he finds the Way, and nothing appeases the desire at the centre of his being except that which is found in the house of his Father. He is what he is because he has tried all lesser ways and found them wanting, and has submitted to many guides only to find them "blind leaders of the blind". Nothing is left to him but to become his own guide and find his own way home alone. In the loneliness which is the lot of every true disciple are born that self-knowledge and self-reliance which will fit him in his turn to be a Master. This loneliness is not due to any separative spirit but to the conditions of the Way itself. Aspirants must carefully bear this distinction in mind.

Secondly, the true enquirer is one whose courage is of that rare kind which enables its possessor to stand upright and to sound his own clear note in the very midst of the turmoil of the world. He is one who has the eye trained to see beyond the fogs and miasmas of the earth to that centre of peace which presides over all earth's happenings, and that trained attentive ear which (having caught a whisper of the Voice of the Silence) is kept tuned to that high vibration and is thus deaf to all lesser alluring voices. This again brings loneliness and produces that aloofness which all less evolved souls feel when in the presence of those who are forging ahead.

A paradoxical situation is brought about from the fact that the disciple is told to enquire the Way and yet there is none to tell him. Those who know the Way may not speak, knowing that the Path is constructed by the aspirant as the spinner spins its web out of the centre [585] of his own being. Thus only those souls flower forth into adepts in any specific generation who have "trodden the winepress of the wrath of God alone" or who (in other words) have worked out their karma alone and who have intelligently taken up the task of treading the Path.

2. Obey the inward impulses of the soul. Well do the teachers of the race instruct the budding initiate to practise discrimination and train him in the arduous task of distinguishing between:

1. Instinct and intuition.
2. Higher and lower mind.
3. Desire and spiritual impulse.
4. Selfish aspiration and divine incentive.
5. The urge emanating from the lunar lords, and the unfoldment of the solar Lord.

It is no easy or flattering task to find oneself out and to discover that perhaps even the service we have rendered and our longing to study and work has had a basically selfish origin, and resting on a desire for liberation or a distaste for the humdrum duties of everyday. He who seeks to obey the impulses of the soul has to cultivate an accuracy of summation and a truthfulness with himself which is rare indeed these days. Let him say to himself "I must to my own Self be true" and in the private moments of his life and in the secrecy of his own meditation let him not gloss over one fault, nor excuse himself along a single line. Let him learn to diagnose his own words, deeds, and motives, and to call things by their true names. Only thus will he train himself in spiritual discrimination and learn to recognise truth in all things. Only thus will the reality be arrived at and the true self known.

3. Pay no consideration to the prudential considerations of worldly science and sagacity. If the aspirant has need to cultivate a capacity to walk alone, if he has to [586] develop the ability to be truthful in all things, he has likewise need to cultivate courage. It will be needful for him to run counter consistently to the world's opinion, and to the very best expression of that opinion, and this with frequency. He has to learn to do the right thing as he sees and knows it, irrespective of the opinion of earth's greatest and most quoted. He must depend upon himself and upon the conclusions he himself has come to in his moments of spiritual communion and illumination. It is here that so many aspirants fail. They do not do the very best they know; they fail to act in detail as their inner voice tells them; they leave undone certain things which they are prompted to do in their moments of meditation, and fail to speak the word which their spiritual mentor, the Self, urges them to speak. It is in the aggregate of these unaccomplished details that the big failures are seen.

There are no trifles in the life of the disciple and an unspoken word or unfulfilled action may prove the factor which is holding a man from initiation.

4. Live a life which is an example to others. Is it necessary for me to enlarge upon this? It seems as if it should not be and yet here again is where men fail. What after all is group service? Simply the life of example. He is the best exponent of the Ageless Wisdom who lives each day in the place where is the life of the disciple; he does not live it in the place where he thinks he should be. Perhaps after all the quality which produces the greatest number of failures among aspirants to adeptship is cowardice. Men fail to make good where they are because they find some reason which makes them think they should be elsewhere. Men run away, almost unrealising it, from difficulty, from inharmonious conditions, from places which involve problems, and from circumstances which call for action of a high sort and which are staged to draw out the best that is in a man, [587] provided he stays in them. They flee from themselves and from other people, instead of simply living the life.

The adept speaks no word which can hurt, harm or wound. Therefore he has had to learn the meaning of speech in the midst of life's turmoil. He wastes no time in self pity or self justification for he knows the law has placed him where he is, and where he best can serve, and has learnt that difficulties are ever of a man's own making and the result of his own mental attitude. If the incentive to justify himself occurs he recognises it as a temptation to be avoided. He realises that each word spoken, each deed undertaken and every look and thought has its effect for good or for evil upon the group.

Is it not apparent therefore why so few achieve and so many fail?

 

^  25
603-604
You ask me to define more clearly what I mean by the words "esoteric sense". I mean essentially the power to live and to function subjectively, to possess a constant inner contact with the soul and the world in which it is found, and this must work out subjectively through love, actively shown; through wisdom, steadily outpoured; and through that capacity to include and to identify oneself with all that breathes and feels which is the outstanding characteristic of all truly functioning sons of God. I mean, therefore, an interiorly held attitude of mind which can orient itself at will in any direction. It can govern and control the emotional sensitiveness, not only of the disciple himself, but of all whom he may contact. By the strength of his silent thought, he can bring light and peace to all. Through that mental power, he can tune in on the world thought, and upon the realm of ideas and can discriminate between and choose those mental agencies and those concepts which will enable him, as a worker under the plan, to influence his environment and to clothe the new ideals in that thought matter which will enable them to be more easily recognised in the world of ordinary everyday thinking and living. This attitude of mind will enable the disciple also to orient himself to the world of souls and in that high place of inspiration and of light, discover his fellow-workers, communicate with them and — in union with them — collaborate in the working out of divine intentions.

This esoteric sense is the main need of the aspirant at [604] this time of the world history. Until aspirants have somewhat grasped it and can use it, they can never form part of the New Group; they can never work as white magicians, and these Instructions will remain for them theoretical and mainly intellectual, instead of being practical and effective.

To cultivate this inner esoteric sense, meditation is needed, and continuous meditation, in the early stages of development. But as time elapses and a man grows spiritually, this daily meditation will perforce give way to a steady spiritual orientation and then meditation as now understood and needed will no longer be required. The detachment between a man and his usable forms will be so complete, that he will live ever in the "seat of the Observer", and from that point and attitude will direct the activities of the mind and of the emotions and of the energies which make physical expression possible and useful.

 

^  26
609-609
We have seen that the objective of all inner training is to develop the esoteric sense, and to unfold that inner sensitive awareness which will enable a man to function, not only as a Son of God in physical incarnation but as one who also possesses that continuity of consciousness which will enable him to be interiorly awake as well as exteriorly active. This is accomplished through developing the power to be a trained Observer. I commend these words to all aspirants. It is persistence in the attitude of right observation that brings about detachment from form, a subsequent power to use form at will and with the end in view of furthering hierarchical plans and consequent usefulness to humanity.

 

^  27
610-610
When this stage has been reached and a man is in conscious touch with the Plan then true magical work can begin. Men and women, who are beginning to live as souls, can undertake the magical work of the new age, and can inaugurate those changes and that rebuilding which will bring about the manifestation of the new heavens and the new earth, to which all the Scriptures of the world bear eloquent testimony.

 

^  28
610-610
It, of course, refers to the work of those who through intellectual achievement have learnt to work as magicians but on what is called the black side, for the same rules of magical work hold good for both groups, though the motivating impulse differs. But with the work of the black magician we have naught to do. That which they do is powerful in transient effect, using the word transient in its cyclic sense; but these effects must in due time cease, and be subordinated to the claims and the work of the bringers of light and of life.

This is the end of "White magic and harmlessness"
Go to the German version of this chapter: Weiße Magie und Harmlosigkeit

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