Initiation, Human and Solar - Introductory Remarks - 2

The reader is also asked to remember and weigh certain ideas prior to taking up the sudy of In Initiation. Due to the extreme complexity of the matter it is an utter impossibility for us to do more than just get a general idea of the scheme; hence the futulity of dogmatism. We can do no more than sense the fraction of some wonderful whole, utterly beyond the reach of our consciousness, - a whole that the Highest Angel of Perfected Being  is but beggining to realise.

When we recognise the fact that the average man is as yet fully conscious only on the emotional plane, and only developing the conscious only on the physical plane, nearly conscious on the emotional plane, and only developing the consciousness on the mental plane, it is obvious that this comprehension of cosmic data can be but rudimentary. When we recognise the further fact, that to be conscious on a plane and have conrol  on that plane are two very different conditions, it becomes apparent how remote is the possibility of our approximating more than the general trend of the cosmic scheme.

We must recognise also that danger lies in dogma and in the hide-bound facts of textbooks, and that safety lies in flexibility, and in a shifting angle of vision. A fact, for instance, Looked at from the standpoint of humanity (using the word "fact" in the scientific sense  as that which has been demonstrated  past all doubt and question)  may not be a fact from the standpoint of a Master. To him it may be but part of a greater fact, only a fraction of a whole . Since His vision is fourth and fifth dimensional, his realisation of the place of time in neternity must be more accurate than ours. he sees things fom above downwards, and as one to whom time is not.

An inexplicable principle of mutations exists in the Mind of the Logos, or the Diety of our solar system, and governs all His actions. We see but the ever changing forms, and catch glimpses of the steadily evolving life within those forms, but as yet have no clue to the principle which works through the shifting kaleidscope of solar systems, rays, heirarchies, planets, planes, schemes, rounds, races, and sub-races. They interweave, interlock and interpenetrate each other, and utter bewilderment is ours as the wonderful pattern they form unfolds before us.

We know that somewhere in that scheme we, the human hierarchy, have our place. All, therefore, that we can do is to seize upon any data  that seems to affect our own welfare, and concerns our own evolution, and from the study of the human being in the three worlds seek to understand somewhat the macrocosm.

We know not how the one can become the three, the three become the seven, and so proceed to inconcievable differentiation. To human vison this interweaving of the system
forms an unimaginable complexity, the key to which seems not to be forthcoming. Seen from the angle of a Master  we know that all proceeds in ordered sequence. seen from the angle of divine vision the whole will move in harmonious unison, producing a form geometrically accurate. Browning had hold of a part of this truth when he wrote:

"All's change, but permanence as well".........and continued "truth inside, and outside, truth also; and between each, falsehood that is change, as truth is permanence."
"Truth successively takes shape, one grade above its last presentment....."

We must remember also that beyond a certain point it is not safe nor wise to carry the communication of the facts of the solar system. Much must remain esoteric and veiled. The risks of too much knowledge are far greater than the meance of too little. With knowledge comes responsibility and power,- two things for which the race is not yet ready. Therefore, all we can do is to study and correlate with what wisdom and discretion may be ours, using the knowledge that may come for the good of those we seek to help, and recognising that in the wise use of knowledge comes increased capacity to receive the hiodden wisdom.

Coupled aslo with the wise adaptation of knowledge to the surrounding need must grow the capacity for discreet reservation, and the use of the discriminating faculty. When we can wisely use, discreetly withold, and soundly discriminate, we give the surest guarantee to the watching  Teachers of the race that we are ready for a fresh revelation.

We must resign ourselves to the fact that the only way in which we can find the clue to the mystery of the rays, systems, and hierarchies, lies in the study of the law of correspondences or analogy. It is the one thread by which we can find our way through the labyrinth, and the one ray of light that shines through the darkness of the surrounding ignorance.

H.P. Blavatsky, in "The Secret Doctrine," has told us so, but as yet very little has been done by students to avail themselves of that clue. In the stiudy of this Law we need to remember that the correspondence lies in its essence, and not in the exoteric working out of detail as we think we see it from our present standpoint.

The factor of time leads us astray for one thing; we err when we attempt to fix stated times or limits; all in evolution progresses through merging, with a constant process of overlapping and mingling. Only broad generalities and a recognition of fundamental points  of analogy are possible to the average student. The moment he attempts to reduce to chart form and to tabulate in detail, he enters realms where he is bound to err, and staggers through a fog that will ultimately overwhelm him/her.

Nevertheless, in the scientific stiudy of this law of analogy will come a gradual growth of knowledge, and in the slow accumulation of facts will gradually be built up an ever-expanding form, that will embody much of the truth. The student will then awake to the realization that after all the study ahd toil he/she ahs at least a wide general conception of the Logoic thought form into which he can fit the details as he acquires them through many incarnations. This brings us to the last point to be considered before entering upon the subject proper, which is:

That the development of the human being is but the passing from one state  of consciousness to another. It is a succession of expansions, a growth of that faculty of awareness that constitutes the predominant characteristic of the indwelling Thinker. It is the progressing from consciousness polarised in the personality, lower self, or body, to that polarised in the personality, lower self, or body, to that polarised in the higher self, ego, or soul, thence to a polarisation in the Monad, or spirit, till the consciousness even eventually is Divine.

As the human being develops, the faculty of awareness extends first of all beyond the circumscribing walls that continue it within the lower kingdoms of nature (the mineral, vegetable and animal) to the three worlds of the evolving personality, to the planet whereon he plays his part, to the system wherein that planet revolves, until it finally escapes from the solar system itself and becomes universal.

Reference: initiation, Human and Solar: Alice A. Bailey