We will look at the topic of initiation over the next two presentations. The previous series on The Emotional Envelope and The Mental Envelope looked at issues relating to Discipleship and its impact on the emotional and mental bodies of pupils of a Master. Let us briefly summarise the key information about the stages of Probation, Acceptance, and Sonship, as these stages also affect the causal envelope to some extent. After that, we will describe the significant step of Initiation, focusing on the soul and its causal envelope, which marks the culmination of Discipleship in the Human Kingdom.
During Probation, the Master creates a living image of a pupil using mental, emotional, and etheric matter, forming a replica of the pupil’s causal, mental, emotional, and etheric bodies. This image is kept in a magnetic connection with the pupil, accurately reflecting any changes in the pupil’s thoughts or feelings. This allows the Master to monitor the pupil’s progress and determine when the pupil will be ready for the next stage.
Upon Acceptance, the Master dissolves these “living images” as they are no longer needed. The pupil’s consciousness is then linked with that of the Master so that the Master can experience and understand the pupil’s thoughts and emotions. If necessary, the Master can create a barrier to disconnect the pupil’s consciousness from His own temporarily.
Probation, Acceptance, and Sonship stages are significant in preparing an individual for the first great Initiation (i3). However, technically, they are distinct from the steps on the Path leading to Initiation. Probation, Acceptance, and Sonship relate to the pupil’s connection with their Master, while Initiations signify the individual’s relationship with the Great White Brotherhood and its esteemed Head.
The Great White Brotherhood, also known as the Hierarchy, is not involved in the relationship between the Master and the pupil; this is solely a matter for the Master’s private consideration. When the Master deems the pupil ready for the first Initiation, He notifies the individual and presents them for it. The Hierarchy only inquires about the individual’s readiness for Initiation, not about their relationship with any Master.
At the same time, a candidate for initiation must indeed be proposed and seconded by two of the higher members of the Hierarchy. Certainly, the Master would not propose a person for the tests of initiation unless they had the certainty of their fitness, which could only come from close identification with the student’s consciousness, as we have already discussed.
It has already been mentioned in a previous presentation that there are three great stages of evolutionary development in a person’s existence, which outweigh the importance of all others. They are:
I. Individualisation: This is when a person begins their journey as a self-conscious monad, a human soul.
II. The First Initiation: A person becomes a member of the Great White Brotherhood. We refer to this as the (i3).
III. The Fifth Initiation: This is when a person leaves the human kingdom and enters the superhuman phase of evolution. It is the ultimate goal set before all humanity.
These three significant stages need to be clarified in relation to the system we have been using to describe the stages of initiations in the Adventures of Monad. The First Initiation corresponds to the (i3), and the Fifth Initiation remains the (i5). What Arthur Powell termed the superhuman stage is when a monad evolves from a 2nd to a 3rd self and takes the (i6). The monad is now focusing its attention on the 3rd Triad.
A person who has taken the First Initiation (i3) is said to “enter the stream.” The words used in admitting the candidate to the Brotherhood include this statement: “You are now safe forever; you have entered upon the stream; may you soon reach the further shore.” The Christian calls this person the man who is “saved” or “safe”. The meaning is that the person is quite sure to go on in this present stream of evolution, that they are certain not to drop out at the “day of judgment” or the “great separation” in the next (fifth) Round, like a child in school who is too backward to go on with the rest of its class.
The importance of Initiation does not lie in the exaltation of the individual but in the fact that they have now become one with a great Order, the “Communion of Saints,” as it is called in Christian terminology.
The candidate has now become more than just an individual person. They are a unit in a tremendous force for good. The Brotherhood is not only an envelope of humanity, each of whom has its duties to perform; it is also a stupendous unity – a flexible instrument in the hand of the Lord of the World (Sanat Kumara), a mighty weapon that He can wield. No unit in the whole scheme loses the least fraction of its individuality, but it has added something a thousand times greater.
When a monad is initiated, the student will notice that the soul is initiated, not the personality. It becomes part of the closest organisation in the world, one with the great sea of consciousness of the Great White Brotherhood, as the Theosophists called it, the Hierarchy as we call it. For a long time, the new initiate will not be able to understand all that this union implies. They must penetrate far into its sanctuaries before they can realise how close the link is and how great the consciousness of the King Himself, the Lord of the World, which all humans, to a certain extent, share with Him. It is incomprehensible and inexpressible down here. Metaphysical and subtle, it is beyond words, but nevertheless a glorious reality, so real that everything else seems unreal when we begin to grasp it.
As we previously discussed in the series on The Mental Envelope, the accepted pupil may lay their thought beside that of their Master. Similarly, the initiate may place their thought beside that of the Brotherhood and draw into itself just as much of that tremendous consciousness as it, at its level, can respond to.
During the great initiation ceremony, a line of dazzling light extends from the Star of Initiation to the heart of the Initiator and from Him to the heart of the candidate. The tremendous magnetism influences the candidate’s tiny Silver Star of Consciousness, representing the Monad, causing it to glow brilliantly and fill the candidate’s causal envelope. At this moment, the Monad and the soul become one, as they will be permanently when Adeptship (45) is attained. In our model of the triads, this is joining the Second to the Third triad, assisted by the good offices of a Protogonos, the big brother of the solar deva.
During this occasion, the Monad temporarily identifies with the fraction of itself, which is the soul, and takes the vows. A presentation on The Emotional Envelope has described the impact of initiation on the emotional envelope.
The expansion of the Initiate’s consciousness is so remarkable that it is apt to describe the change as a new birth. The Initiate begins to lead a new life “as a little child”, the life of the Christ; the buddhic or intuitional consciousness is born within the Initiate’s heart.
The Initiate also gains the power to bestow the blessing of the Brotherhood. This tremendous and overwhelming force can be given or sent to anyone as deemed appropriate and useful. The power of the Brotherhood will flow through the Initiate as much as they allow it to. It is the Initiate’s responsibility to use the power and to remember that they have the entire responsibility of directing it for any purpose they choose. The blessing given by the Officiant at Initiation signifies: “I bless you; I pour my force and blessing into you; make sure that you, in turn, constantly pour out this blessing to others.”
If the initiate possesses the qualification of Shraddha – which is perfect trust in his Master and in the Brotherhood, and the utter certainty that, because they are one with them, all things are possible to them – they may go through the world as a veritable Angel of light, shedding joy and benediction around their path.
Before initiation, the pupil has probably already begun to establish contact with its next envelope, that of buddhic consciousness (46). But if this is not the case, their first experience occurs at initiation (i3).
Nevertheless, at initiation, the person does not attain the full buddhic consciousness (46), nor do they in any way develop a buddhic vehicle at that time. But since some of the teachings which must be given at the buddhic level could not otherwise be understood, a certain amount of development of the buddhic vehicles is required.
When the consciousness rises into the buddhic envelope at the (i4), a remarkable thing happens to the causal envelope: it vanishes, and the initiate is under no compulsion to take it up again. This cannot be done until all the karma of the lower planes are exhausted.
For a person to be free from binding results on lower planes, they must have no attachments to those planes and behave selflessly toward them. If a person, when helping another, feels perfect unity with them, then they obtain the result of their action on the buddhic plane only and not on any of the lower planes. Why? Because this is where unity consciousness can be experienced.
Another interesting factor to bear in mind is that there is always a general karma belonging to a kingdom of nature or a nation and that each individual is, to a certain extent, responsible for the action of the whole. Thus, for example, a priest has a certain responsibility for all that the collective priesthood does, even though he may not personally approve of it.
When a person focuses on the buddhic vehicle and transitions to it at the (i4), the causal envelope disappears. However, when the consciousness returns to the higher mental plane, the causal envelope reappears, although it is not the same as before due to the dissipation of its particles. Where have all those memories gone? The essence must be transferred when the monad focuses in the 46:1 permanent atom. The 47:1 permanent atom is still present and must contain the essence of all those memories.
On the Unity plane (46), an ordinary person is represented by the finest thread, which thickens as they regularly think about higher matters. It eventually becomes like a funnel that widens at the top and comes down into the causal envelope. As incoming forces enlarge the causal envelope, the funnel becomes more extensive and spherical when the individual abandons the causal envelope and enters the Unity plane (46).
The time remaining for the Initiate before reaching Adeptship (45) does not necessarily involve a descent to the physical plane and, therefore, may not include what we typically mean by incarnations. Why would this be the case? If you remember, when a monad reaches arhatship (46), it can choose to walk one of seven paths, and a number of those paths are not directly linked to human development. However, in most cases, individuals decide to incarnate on the physical plane because they have work to do for the Great Brotherhood.
We will conclude this topic by looking at further processes involved in initiating in the following presentation.