AM-139 DISCIPLESHIP (7)

We started to look at discipleship proper in the last presentation. Let’s delve further into this stage of human development by looking at the unconscious disciple. Laurency points out that although a disciple’s path to taking the (i3) encompasses several incarnations, as a general rule, the disciple will only know they are one, in three of those incarnations. These occur when the disciple acquires the necessary physical, emotional and mental capacities. Even when the disciple has reached the causal level of consciousness and focused its monad in the 47:1 permanent atom, the physical brain may not know of this fact until the disciple is ‘awakened’ to the fact by contact with esoteric teachings or a member of the Hierarchy. 

Laurency tells us that the individual is aware of their discipleship in three phases.  The first two are not remembered due to the loss of continuity of consciousness. So why does a disciple, who has taken such a long time to get to this state, then go and forget their achievement? The reason is that there are insufficient molecules of a higher kind in their envelopes to trigger a remembrance. This highlights the importance of clearing out your emotional and mental baggage so that the majority of remaining elemental essences are at the highest molecular and atomic levels. Sometimes, delayed reacquisition of memory of discipleship can be due to unresolved karma that has to be dealt with first. But this is not likely to be the case, as such a candidate for discipleship is unlikely to be accepted in the first place. The third time the disciple is directly confronted with who they are, occurs at the mental stage of their development, when they have already acquired subjective consciousness in the two lower subplanes of the causal envelope (47:2 & 3).

As has already been mentioned, disciples are active in all areas of human activity: cultural, political, scientific, religious, philosophical, psychological and financial. They may not be aware of their discipleship but “by their works you shall know them”. Another home for old disciples are the many occult sects that abound. In accordance with the Law of Self-Realisation and reaping, they have to find their way back to esoteric thought and the latent knowledge they, already, possess.

Laurency, as I have already mentioned, is at pains to point out that what the Theosophists and Rosicrucians have written about discipleship is, on the whole, misleading. The same applies to their presentation of the so-called initiations. The path one follows is one of ever-larger common consciousness that goes through ever-expanding group consciousness. Whether a disciple knows it or not, they always belong to an esoteric group. In fact, they belong to three different groups: their particular esoteric group, the group they gather around themselves when they teaching and the group of all disciples of the Planetary Hierarchy. Collaboration is required in all three cases. Another thing to note is that before an individual can be an accepted disciple, they must have entered into their esoteric group. It is the group that is the disciple, not the individual. The shared common material envelope of causal matter must also be formed. This envelope is the router and receives the “inspiration” from the Hierarchy. All communications, both individual and group are done via this envelope. This envelope started as an embryonic structure, with limited bandwidth. It has anchored within it, at least one 47:1 atom from each of its members. This is added slowly, increasing the size of the database. This database is a living causal elemental. The effectiveness that this group of disciples can achieve is determined by the quality and quantity of data they feed into this shared database. This database is the soul group. It should be noted that this group elemental is not dissolved until everyone in the group has reached the same stage as the elemental represents. 

This initial soul group, formed while still in the 4th Kingdom of Nature, is a precursor to what exists when the whole group moves into the 5th Kingdom (46). It is here that the monad learns to become a unit in this small group. The disciples’ personality has withdrawn into a subconscious state and become instinctive. This existence is very different from what mystics have described in the past. The monad has, however, moved from a personal to an impersonal life. This relates to the statement by Paul the gnostician who said, “I live; yet not I, but Christ in me”.

Now we come to the star attraction of discipleship, the initiation, whatever that is and whatever that word means. From an esoteric perspective, the term initiation denotes transmigration from the lower to a higher atomic world. It also means a transition from a lower to a higher stage of development. Finally, initiation can denote one’s acceptance into an esoteric order. Laurency tells us that initiation into an esoteric knowledge order should not be confused with planetary initiation. In the latter case, initiation is not a new stage of development but marks the conclusion of a stage of development.

Looking at our now familiar triad diagram, there are nine centres representing planes 43 to 49. Access to energies that are found in these worlds is also called “initiation”. Planetary initiation, on the other hand, which is the acquisition of a new type of superconsciousness, is ascertained by the Planetary Hierarchy, as a whole. Achieving this is like being awarded a diploma. This is what has been confused with initiation into an esoteric order.

We now know what happens when you initiate, but what is initiation, really, all about? Simply put, initiation is a process by which an individual becomes conscious of being part of something much bigger, ultimately, leading up to include all of creation. It is therefore the acquisition of group consciousness. Through this process, the monad transitions into higher kinds of atomic consciousness. It is an acquired objective perception of higher dimensions and mastery of the dimensions below. It may come as no surprise to you then that there are 49 initiations that a monad passes through in its return to the highest plane in the Cosmos, Plane-1. 

Initiation, as far as the consciousness aspect is concerned, requires the monad to completely rethink all aspects of what they know. After all, you are dealing with one more dimension and this adds all sorts of possibilities. Imagine playing hide-and-seek when you have one more dimension to lose yourself in? If you think of this as a Russian Doll analogy, the lower ideas present in a world, are contained inside a larger world. They don’t disappear, they are just encased within it. However, the newly acquired atomic consciousness does rewrite the rule book to the extent that one must wonder why one was fixated so much on what was in the world below. This applies to all three aspects of the Trinity, Matter, Consciousness and Motion. They are radically different now, yet blindly obvious at the same time. The concepts of space, time and energy are altered to the extent that you realise that those above regard what is below as an illusion. It must be made abundantly clear here that what is below is not an illusion, it just seems that way. Laurency tells us that when a monad reaches World 45, the concept of matter ceases to have any importance as a factor of life. As has been mentioned many moons ago, motion/energy, consciousness and matter alter along the horizontal axis of a triad, as well as between them. When one is, not just situated, like all quaternary monads are, but focused in World 43, the concept of consciousness ceases to have much meaning. The Trinity is still preset in World 43. It is always present on all planes of matter. What is interesting to note is that back on the 1st Plane, all three aspects of being are co-equal again.

To paraphrase the Master D.K., initiation is a process by which a monad acquires knowledge of all 49 atomic worlds and the ability to rightly apply the pertaining laws to be able to participate in the cosmic processes of manifestation. The monad becomes a co-worker in the greater cosmic evolution. “Initiation is the climax and successful fulfilment, a graded series of experiments with energy”.

We are not finished with discipleship, yet. In the next presentation, we start by taking a look at esoteric teachers. I have just mentioned the initials of a very significant one.