The Final Initiation

After the fourth Initiation, not much remains to be done. The domination of the sixth sub-plane goes forward with rapidity, and the matter of the higher sub-planes of the buddhic is co-ordinated. The initaite is admitted into closer fellowship in the Lodge, and his contact with the devas is more complete. He is rapidly exhausting the resources of the Hall of Wisdom, and is mastering the most intricate plans and charts.He becomes adept in the significane of colour and sound, can weild the law in the three worlds, and can contact his Monad with more freedom than the majority of the human race can contact their egos.

He is in charge, also, of larger work, teaching many pupils, aiding his many schemes, and is gathering under him those who are to assist him in future times. This refers only to those who stay who stay to help humanity on this globe; we will deal later with some of the lines of work that stretch before the Adept if He passes away from earth service.After the fifth initiation the man is perfected as far as this scheme goes, though he may, if he will, take  two further initiations. To achieve the sixth initiation the Adept has to take a very intensive course in planetary occultism. A Master wields the law in the three worlds, whilst a Choha of the sixth initiation wields the law in the chain on all levels; a Chonan of the seventh initiation wields the law in the solar system.

It will be apparent that, should he search these subjects with application, the student will find much that concerns him personally, even though the ceremony itself may be far ahead. By the study of the process and the purpose he may become aware of the great fundemental fact that the method of initiation is the method of :-

a. Force realisation

b. Force application

c. Force utilisation

The initiate of every degree, from the humble initiateof the first degree, making for the first time his contact with a certain type of specialised force, up to the emancipated buddha of the seventh degree, is dealing with energy of some kind or other. The stages of development of the aspirant might be expressed as follows:-

1. He has to become aware , through discrimination, of the energy or force of his own lower self.

2. He has to impose upon that energetic rhythm one that is higher, until that lower rhythm is superseded by the higher, and the old method of expressing energy dies out entirely.

3. He then is permitted, by gradually expanding realisations, to contact and - under guidance - to employ certain forms of group energy, until the time comes when he is in a position scientifically to wield, planatary force. The length of time take over his final stage is entirely dependent upon the progress he makes in the service of his race and in the development of those powers of the soul which are the natural sequence of spiritual unfoldment. 

The application of the Rod of Initiation at the first two initiations by the Bodhisattva enables the initiate to control and utilise the force of the lower self, the true sanctified energy of the personality in service; at the third initiation the application of the Rod by the One Initiator makes available in a vastly more extensive manner the force of the higher self or Ego, and bring into play on the physical plane the entire energy stored up during numerous incarnations in the casual vehicle.

At the fourth initiation the energy of his egoic group becomes his to use for the good of planetary evolution, and at the fifth initiation the force or energy of the planet  (esoterically understood, and not merely the force or energy of the material globe) is at his disposal. During these five initiations those two great beings, of the World, Sanat Kumara, are the administrators or hierophants.

After these ceremonies, should the initiate choose to take the two final initiations which it is possible to take in this solar system, a still higher type of energy in expression of the One Self comes into play, and can only be hinted at. At the seventh initiation that One of Whom Sanat Kumara is the manifestation, the Logos of our scheme on HIs own plane, becomes the Hierophant. At the sixth initiation the expression of this Existence on a intermediate plane, a Being Who must at present remain nameless, wields the Rod and administers the oath and secret.

In these three expressions of hierarchical government-Sanat Kumara on the periphery of the hreee owrlds, the Nmaeless One on the confines of the high planes of human evolution, and the planetary Spirit himself at the fianl stage-we have the three great manifestations of the Planetary Logos Himself. Through the planetary Logos at the final great initiation flows the power of the Solar Logos, and He it is Who reveals to the initiate that the Absolute is consciousness in its fullest expression, though at the stage of human existence the Absolute must be regarded as unconsciousness.

Each of the great initiations is but the synthesis of the smaller ones, and only as man seeks ever to expand his consciousness in the affairs of daily life can he expect to achieve those later stages which are but culminations of the many earlier. Students must get rid of te idea tha if they are "very good and alttruistic" suddenly some day they will stand before the Great Lord. They are putting effect before cause. Godness and altruism grow out of realisation and service, and holiness of character is the outcome of those expansions of consciousness which a man brings about within himself through strenuous effort and endeavour.

Therefore it is here and now that man can prepare himself for initiation, and this he does, not by dwelling upon the ceremonial aspect, as so many do in excited anticipation, but by working systematically and enduringly at the steady development of the mental body, by the strenuous and arduous process of controlling the astral body so that it becomes responsive to three vibrations:-
a. That from the Ego

2.That from the Master

3.Those from his brothers everywhere around him. He becomes sensitive to the voice of his higher self, thus working off Karma under the intilligent guidance of his own ego. He becomes conscious, via the Ego, of the vibration emanating from his Master; he learns to feel it ever more and more, and to respond to it ever more fully, finally, he becomes increasingly sensitive to the joys and pains and sorrows of those he daily contacts; he feels them to be his joys and pains and sorrows, and yet he is not incapacitated thereby.

Reference: Initiation Human and Solar: Author: Alice A Bailey