The Third Initiation

The Third Initiation

The Transfiguration,

The Initiation of the integrated Personality

Revelations and Mysteries: At the third initiation,
one begins to understand the life of the spirit, the supreme aspect;

Ray: Fifth Ray

Zodiac Signs involved: Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces

Plane: it takes place on the mental plane

Centre: Ajna

Arjuna said:

“The word Thou hast spoken for my sake, the supreme mystery called the Super-Soul, has dispelled my illusion.

I have long heard from Thee whose eyes are like lotus petals of the birth and disappearance of living beings, I have also heard of the Great Spirit who will never cease to be.

I would like to see that Self described by Thee, Mighty Lord, Thy divine form, O best among men!

If thou thinkst it possible for me to see it, then reveal to me, O Lord and Master of union, the imperishable Self!”. [1]

***

After the second initiation [the Baptism] the teaching shifts up a plane. Having gained awareness and dominion over the astral body the initiate must now learn to control his mental vehicle, that is to say to develops the capacity to manipulate thought matter, and to learn the laws of creative thought building. At the third initiation, termed sometimes the Transfiguration, the entire personality is flooded with light from above. It is only after this initiation that the Monad is definitely guiding the Ego, pouring His divine life ever more into the prepared and cleansed channel. The disciple is called to learn the great lesson of ‘Keeping the mind in the Light’.

The initiation (that of the Transfiguration)… is one of the most important of them all. From one particular angle, it is peculiarly related to the fifth Initiation of Revelation and to the seventh Initiation of Resurrection. [1] It is in reality the first of the major initiations and is so regarded by the emanating Source of our planetary Logos, Sanat Kumara, and in the two great planetary centres, Shamballa and the Hierarchy. [2]

[…] The aim of all development is the awakening of the spiritual intuition; when this has been done, when the physical body is pure, the astral stable and steady, and the mental body controlled, then the initiate can safely wield and wisely use the psychic faculties for the helping of the race. Not only can he use these faculties, but he is able now to create and vivify thoughtforms that are clear and well-defined, pulsating with the spirit of service and not controlled by lower mind or desire. These thoughtforms will not be (as is the case with those created by the mass of men) disjointed, unconnected, and uncorrelated, but will attain a fair measure of synthesis. Hard and ceaseless must the work be before this can be done, but when the desire nature has been stabilised and purified, then the control of the mind-body comes more easily. Hence the path of the devotee is easier in some ways than that of the intellectual man, for he has learnt the measures of purified desire, and progresses by the requisite stages.

The personality has now reached a point where its vibrations are of a very high order, the matter in all three bodies relatively pure, and its apprehension of the work to be done in the microcosm, and the share to be taken in the work of the macrocosm is very advanced. It is apparent, therefore, why it is only at the third initiation that the great Hierophant, the Lord of the World, Himself officiates. It is the first at which He contacts the initiate. Earlier it would not be possible. For the first two initiations the Hierophant is the Christ, the World-Teacher, the Firstborn among many brethren, one of the earliest of our humanity to take initiation.

But when the initiate has made still further progress, and has taken two initiations, a change comes. The Lord of the World, the Ancient of Days, the ineffable Ruler Himself administers the third initiation. Why has this become possible? Because now the fully consecrated physical body can safely bear the vibrations of the two other bodies when they return to its shelter from the Presence of the KING; because now the purified astral and controlled mental can safely stand before that KING. When purified and controlled they stand and for the first time consciously vibrate to the Ray of the Monad, then with prepared bodies can the ability to see and hear on all the planes be granted and achieved, and the faculty of reading and comprehending the records be safely employed, for with fuller knowledge comes added power. The heart is now sufficiently pure and loving, and the intellect sufficiently stable to stand the strain of knowing. [3]

[…] At the third initiation the Ego stands before the initiate as a perfected triplicity. Not only is the Self known to be intelligent, active love, but it is revealed also as a fundamental will or purpose, with which the man immediately identifies himself, and knows that the three worlds hold for him in the future naught, but only serve as a sphere for active service, wrought out in love towards the accomplishment of a purpose which has been hid during the ages in the heart of the Self…

Aspirants and disciples should remember that after the third initiation, the effects of the initiation which they may be undergoing are not confined simply to the individual initiate, but that henceforth at all the later initiations he becomes the transmitter of the energy which will pour through him with increasing potency […]. He acts primarily as an agent for the transmission, for the stepping down and for the consequent safe distribution of energy to the masses. [4]

Revelations and Mysteries at the Third Initiation 

There are three secrets revealed later to the initiate, although they include minor mysteries revealed earlier.

The three mysteries of the solar system are:—

1. The mystery of Electricity. The mystery of Brahma. The secret of the third aspect. It is latent in the physical sun.
2. The mystery of Polarity, or of the universal sex impulse. The secret of the second aspect. It is latent in the Heart of the Sun, or the subjective Sun.
3. The mystery of Fire itself, or the dynamic central systemic force. The secret of the first aspect. It is latent in the Central Spiritual Sun. 

At the third initiation the first of the three fundamental secrets of the solar system is imparted to the initiate, immediately after he has taken the oath. This we might, for lack of a better term, call “the secret of electricity”. It concerns the phenomena of the dense objective manifestation of the Logos.

At the third initiation “the secret of fohat” is given to him, and then the mystery of the threefold body of the triple Logos is his, and the why of the phenomena of the dense liquid and gaseous bodies of the Supreme Being is enfolded before his amazed vision… the initiate is now in a position to profit by this greater revelation, and to understand somewhat the following facts:

1. The creative process of thought form building.
2. The transmission of energy from the Ego to the physical body via the force centres on the various planes.
3. The uprising of kundalini, its geometrical progression, and its vivification of all the centres. [5]

The Rays at the Third Initiation: 5^th Ray

At the third initiation, the fifth Ray, that of Science, is at work. This affluent energy produces its main effects on the mind or manas, the fifth principle. This enables the initiate to use the mind as the main tool in the work he has to do before attaining the fourth and fifth initiations. The third initiation – the first from the point of view of the Hierarchy – is the initiation in which the spiritual man demonstrates the ability to dominate completely its own personality. The physical body has been mastered through the physical disciplines; the emotional nature has been reorganised and made receptive to the spiritual impression coming from the plane of pure reason (the Buddhic plane) through the transformative processes of the mind or fifth principle.

The disciple is now focussed in his everyday consciousness upon the mental plane, and the triangular relation of the three aspects of the mind upon this plane is now dominant. The personality is now possessed of knowledge, for fifth ray energy has done its needed work; the disciple is also aware that he is in possession of the wisdom which enables him to use knowledge in the furtherance of the Plan, and therefore to work as an illuminating factor in the world of men. He knows clearly what has been accomplished and senses something of what lies ahead. The great principle of cleavage (which the fifth ray governs) is the dominating factor in his time sense; he now differentiates sharply between past and present and that which has to be ascertained in the future. Cleavage, in the sense of separateness, is finished for him.

The energy of Fifth Ray produces thoughtforms and all impressions from the physical, etheric and astral planes force it into activity on the level of concrete knowledge, with a resultant kaleidoscopic presentation of thoughtforms. This energy transforms the divine ideas into human ideals, relating the knowledges and sciences of humanity to these ideals, thus making them workable factors in human evolution, its cultures and civilisations. [6]

The zodiac signs at the Third Initiation

The initiates, in their turn, are being subjected to the impact of energies from Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces—an inflow of force from each of the three Crosses. These three forces enable the initiates to take the third initiation. The man lives in and experiences in all the signs, but only when the soul is becoming more alive within the form and the man is aware of his duality that the energies of the Fixed Cross supersede in effectiveness those of the Mutable Cross, just as after the third initiation the energies of the Cardinal Cross begin to control the man and are of more insistent incentive than those of the other two crosses. In Capricorn, on the Cardinal Cross, man becomes an initiate and appears before the world as a saviour, a liberated Son of God capable of working in the Underworld, on Earth and in Heaven. He brings Cerberus out of Hades and, through the symbolism of the three-headed dog, describes the elevation of the personality, the threefold aspect of matter, into the Heavens. He thus demonstrates that he has undergone the necessary development and experienced the most gruelling test that will enable him to successfully pass the experience of the third initiation, that of Transfiguration.

The 7 Planes of the Cosmic Physical Plane: the Plane of the Third Initiation

The third initiation takes place on the mental plane, in the two higher sub-planes. The third initiation is reached after the mental body has been dominated and the channel of connection has been formed between the personality and the Soul, bridging the gap between the concrete mind and the abstract mind…

The Soul increasingly pervades the personality until it governs it and merges with it, eliminating all that is separative…

The Soul, already blended with the personality, completes with substance of light the bridge connecting it to the Spiritual Triad (Atma – Buddhi – Manas). (G. Filipponio)

The initiate learns to control his mental vehicle; he develops the capacity to manipulate thought matter, and learns the laws of creative thought building. He functions freely on the four lower sub-planes of the mental plane, and before the third initiation he must,—consciously or unconsciously,— be complete master of the four lower sub-planes in the three planes of the three worlds.

Again, a vision is accorded of what lies ahead; the initiate is in a position at all times to recognise the other members of the Great White Lodge, and his psychic faculties are stimulated by the vivification of the head centres. [7]

The centres at the Third Initiation

In the first stages after individualisation, the egoic body looks like a bud. The electric fire in the centre [of the lotus] does not appear and all nine petals are closed upon the inner three; the orange colour has a dull appearance and the three points of light at the base are nothing more than three dots; the triangle that will be seen later connecting the dots is not manifest. The surrounding sphere is colourless and can only be noticed as wave-like vibrations (like waves in the air or in the ether) and barely reaches beyond the outline of the petals.

By the time the third Initiation is reached, a wondrous transformation has transpired. The outer sphere is palpitating with every colour in the rainbow, and is of wide radius; the streams of electrical energy circulating in it are so powerful that they are escaping beyond the periphery of the circle, resembling the rays of the sun. The nine petals are fully unfolded, forming a gracious setting for the central jewel, and their orange hue is now of a gorgeous translucence, shot with many colours, that of the egoic ray predominating. The triangle at the base is now quickened and scintillating, and the three points are small blazing fires, showing to the eye of the clairvoyant as sevenfold whorls of light, circulating their light from point to point of a rapidly moving triangle. [8]

[…] At the third initiation the ajna centre, the centre between the eyebrows, is stimulated. This fact is very interesting, because it is at this initiation that the disciple begins to consciously and creatively direct the energies made available to him, and he does this through the ajna centre and directing them towards the whole of humanity. […] The ajna centre is the ‘centre of direction’. It is symbolically placed between the two eyes to signify the dual direction of the initiate’s life energy: outwards, towards the world of mankind, and upwards, towards divine Life, the Source of all Existence. When the energy is consciously directed (and there are energies of which the initiate is constantly aware) the ajna centre is governed and dominated by the spirit dwelling within the man; this spiritual man bases all actions relating to these incoming energies on the ancient postulate according to which “energy follows thought”.

In the heart of man burns the foreboding of being more than a man.

It is a truth that remains hidden and unexpressed for a long time,
often cast out as an expression of haughtiness,
yet by its very nature it slowly expands and affirms itself,
and the mind settles into the Light.

Being a man is not definitive.

It is tragic, it is joyous, but it is not the last resort:
it is only a stage on the Path.

Ever greater freedoms and ever more serious responsibilities
await that spark that shines in the heart.

The Father’s House has many abodes. [9]

 

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[1] Alice A. Bailey, Rays and the Initiations, p. 684

[2] Ibid., p. 687

[3] Alice A. Bailey, Initiation, Human and Solar, p. 87-89

[4] Alice A. Bailey, Initiation, Human and Solar, p. 115 | Rays and the Initiations, p. 689

[5] Alice A. Bailey, Initiation, Human and Solar, pp. 168-171

[6] Alice A. Bailey, Rays and the Initiations, pp. 590-600

[7] Alice A. Bailey, Initiation, Human and Solar, pp. 86-87

[8] Alice A. Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 763

[9] Excerpt from “Keeping the Mind firm into the Light” (available only in Italian)