Pointing to planetary Harmony through Group Initiation

3.4 THE FOURTEEN RULES FOR GROUP PROGRESS.

The [human] System, understood as an organized group of pupils who study and seek the Truth … is an experiment aimed at group initiation. It must be said that the third Goal [of the evolutionary Plan: Group Initiation] is perhaps that which is least thought about: it has been learned by now that initiation is not a prize or a goal in itself, but the assumption of greater responsibilities.

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Such a detachment from itself is asked of the System as to consider also its own progress as an occasion for serving. In modern language one could say that it proposes itself as a “pilot experiment”, freely accepting risks involved and without thinking too much of eventual results. Seen from this angle, the third Goal assumes certain characteristics. Rather than straining towards that Height, the System lets itself be attracted, and the approach is in proportion to the progress realized in the other six directions [Goals].

This reciprocity helps one understand that the third Goal has a value of synthesis and that the signals emanating from it clarify the general situation. If one makes progress in its direction, it is only because one advances in the others; otherwise one is hindered in every way.

The Hierarchy has foreseen this difficulty and has prepared and transmitted a series of instructions, which are luminous, although, for various reasons, veiled by the arcane. These Rules, with a commentary, indicate the safe route which goes from the lower level of the rational and concrete mind to the highest intuitive level. There are fourteen phases, the subject of the same number of Rules.

This authoritative collection of precepts is certainly a Vortex of energy and, in drafting the Plan for the System, it seemed to be recognizable in the relationship between Three and Four. Both these values are in fact active in the phase of discipleship, during which communion with and the imitation (4) of the Master (3) is indispensable.

This implies abandonment of a usual and familiar world, to force a critical and inevitable passage. All of this while the Group constructs a great thought-form, which will birth many other mental forms for the future benefit of humanity. These mental forms will follow the opposite path to the ascending path of the System, as they descend from the world of Ideas (the fourth level) towards an appearance in the material world.

The equilibrium generated by the Four is not static, which would mean the renouncement of progress, an absurdity, but is dynamic and produces movement. This aspect is generally little known to the pupil, who is inclined to see in it a reflecting faculty rather than a propelling energy.”

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The Four is symmetrical to the Three in building perfect Harmony in Form (Seven).

4.3 HARMONIOUS RELATIONSHIPS IN THE GROUP AND BETWEEN GROUPS.

The energy of the Four is the supreme regulator of any relationship, on whatever level it is formed and is active. This is because its nature is centrality, so that it controls all the symmetries and consonances. It is the continual discovery of the Infinite and it denies separation as a cosmic heresy. The Four watches over the boundary (unreal) between the world of form and the formless world, not to block the passage between them but to keep it open and passable.

In the planetary sphere this Function will one day belong to man, who is at present immature and unequal to his spiritual possibilities; therefore any attempt to direct him towards his mission is beneficial.

The Four is the bearer also of another quality, today perhaps less known but not less important: it generates the movement of ascension, settling disputes by composing harmonious parts. It is the creator of Beauty. It is Beauty.

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If one takes into account that the Three is the energy which innovates and plans, the intelligent reply to the will to love, the Vortex 4.3 appears to be appointed to control the entire structure of the Plan, so that every Vortex is in a dynamic balance and in harmony with the others, for the sole aim of the Common Good which the Plan pursues. On it depends the achievement of the aim, or, in more resounding terms, the victory. The 4.3 is thus a very sensitive and delicate mechanism, very precious for the final well-being and success.

Practice confirms every day that, despite possible and theoretical perfection, the energetic relationships of the various Vortices are unbalanced, or discordant, and that they vary between highs and lows. This depends above all on the fact that they are managed by pupils, and not by Masters, and moreover by inexpert pupils who are undergoing their first trials; but also on another, more decisive cause: some Rays (the first, fourth and sixth) are today not in manifestation and interior, and therefore present in the world only through their counterparts which live in the others (the second, third, fifth and seventh). This is translated into the fact that many Vortices are fed by energies which are not in a pure state, but coloured by other, and thus secondary, qualities. The Vortex 4.3, for example, is influenced by the manifest absence of the Four, substituted by a mixture of 2.4, 3.4, 5.4 and 7.4.

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Where dissonances are registered, it is necessary to exercise love, comprehension and tolerance. It is almost always possible to compensate for the energetic imbalance of a fraction of the Plan with a measure of self-denial. The art of compromise exists, which, without giving in to disorder, avoids the worst explosions.

There is an art in steering a ship lashed by the tempest and one learns it by navigating, certainly not in the shelter of a port. It is no less precious and noble than the imperious will of aiming at a goal without deviating, at whatever cost. Knowing how to slacken when necessary, leave the route in order to receive the arriving wave better and return to it as soon as possible, can save the ship and its cargo.

The Vertex which presides over the 4.3 is symbolically the helmsman of the System, as it sails towards its destiny. It is not the task of the helmsman to establish the route, nor the Goal, nor to assign the tasks of the crew, but his is the hand which holds the helm; his is the eye which observes and assesses the wave which is approaching. The symbol is easily read and besides every man is the helmsman of himself. This is the reason why the task of the Vertex 4.3 is shared between the members of the System, which greatly lightens the burden of his responsibility.

All this is the object of the science of Harmony, the only one to foresee and to proportion even the degree of compromise, in certain conditions and circumstances.

The System, as has already been said, is a gymnasium or a laboratory where the growing science of human relationships can be practised. It is an egoic group and certainly harmonious in its real inner relationships and this greatly reduces the seriousness of the problem. However, because of its members’ lack of skill, their personalities, which are not entirely controlled, come into play, and here foreseeable disturbances and upsets arise or can arise, but also wonderful opportunities to learn to “live as souls” and to demonstrate the ability to do so.

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