The Law of Repulse

 Source: https://blog-en.theplanetarysystem.org/2024/11/07/the-law-of-repulse/

On a day qualified, at the level of the Causal Impulses, by the heliocentric conjunction between Pluto (First Ray of Will and Power) and Mercury (Fourth Ray of Harmony through conflict) in Aquarius, let us celebrate the Law of Repulse, associated with the 1st Ray, the 4th among the seven laws of soul or group life that reveal to us how to powerfully and purposefully serve, as Group Consciousness, the demands of the Plan of Evolution.

(Excerpts from A. A. Bailey, Esoteric Psychology II, pp. 147-174):

“We have here a most interesting law to consider. It is one of the major divine laws with which the Pilgrim has much to do on his weary, age-long way, back to the centre. It is the fourth law governing or controlling the life of the soul.

First of all, it is well to realise that this law has certain characteristics and basic effects which might be briefly enumerated as follows:—

1. The energy displayed is dissipating in its effect. This law works as a dispersing agent.
2. When in active expression, it causes an active scattering or rejection of the aspects of form life.
3. It produces a discriminating contact which leads eventually to what is esoterically called “the Way of divine refusal”.
4. It is, nevertheless, an aspect of the Law of Love, of the Vishnu or Christ aspect, and concerns an attitude of the soul, whose essential nature is love.
5. This law expresses itself through the mind nature, and therefore can only make its presence and influence felt upon the Path of Discipleship.
6. It is the prime pre-requisite to true self-knowledge. It reveals at the same time that it divides or scatters.
7. It works through love and for the interest of the [single] unit,—the form and the existence which finally repulses the form.
8. It is an aspect of one of the greatest cosmic laws, the Law of the Soul, which is the cosmic Law of Attraction, for that which is attracted in time is automatically and eventually repulsed by that which attracted it in the first instance.

This law is one which primarily begins to impress the divine purpose upon the consciousness of the aspirant, and dictates to him those higher impulses and those spiritual decisions which mark his progress upon the Path. It is the demonstration of the first ray quality (a subray influence of the second ray), for it should be remembered that to repulse a form, a situation or a condition may be the evidence of spiritual love in the agent of repulsion. This is well pictured for us in the ancient symbol of the Angel with the flaming sword, who stands before the gate of Paradise to turn away those who seek the fancied security of that shelter and condition. This angel acts in love, and has so acted down the ages, for that state of realisation which we call Paradise is a place of essential danger for all, save those who have earned the right to sojourn there. The angel protects the unready aspirant (not the place which he seeks to enter) and safeguards him from the risks and perils of that initiation which must be undergone before he can pass through the five divisions of Paradise to the place where light dwells and the Masters of the Wisdom live and work. This is the thought which lies behind the Masonic procedure whereby the Tyler stands outside the door of the Lodge with a drawn sword to protect the secrets of the Craft from the unready.

I would remind you also that as this law is an aspect of the fundamental Law of Love, it concerns the psyche or soul, and therefore its function is to further the spiritual interests of the true man, and to demonstrate the power of the second aspect, the Christ consciousness, and the power of divinity.

It “rejects the undesirable in order to find that which the heart craves, and thus leads the weary pilgrim from one rejection to another, until with unerring choice he makes the Great Decision”.  This is quoted from the Old Commentary.

We will divide what we have to say about the functioning and effect of the Law of Repulse into three parts:—

1. The Law of Repulse, and the function and quality of desire.
2. The Law of Repulse, as it expresses itself upon the Paths of Discipleship and Initiation.
3. The Law of Repulse, as it “drives in seven directions, and forces all that it contacts back unto the bosom of the seven spiritual Fathers”.

This law works through the soul in all forms. It does not literally affect matter, except in so far as form is affected when the soul “withdraws”, or occultly “repudiates”. It will be apparent, therefore, that our understanding of its activity will depend largely upon the measure of soul force of which we may individually be aware, and the extent of our soul contact… Unless the mind is active, and unless we are beginning intelligently to use the mind, there is no medium or channel through which this influence can flow or work. Never let it be forgotten that this influence or law of our spiritual being is that which reveals the will, plan or purpose of the divine life, as it expresses itself in the individual or in humanity as a whole.

… These laws are the laws which govern predominantly the Spiritual Triad, that divine Triplicity which expresses itself through the medium of the soul, just as the three aspects of the soul, in their turn, reflect themselves through the personality… This fourth Law of Repulse works through the first Law of Sacrifice and carries to the aspirant the quality, influence and tendency of the Spiritual Triad, the threefold expression of the Monad. Its full force is felt only after the third initiation, in which the power of the Spirit is, for the first time, consciously felt. Up to that time it has been the growing control of the soul which was primarily registered. …

1. THE LAW OF REPULSE AND DESIRE

The section with which we have now to deal will concern itself specifically with the major problem of humanity… Underlying the entire psychological problem of humanity as a whole lies that major attitude towards existence which we characterise as Desire. All lesser complexities are based upon, subservient to, or are emergent from, this basic urge. Freud calls this urge “sex”, which is, nevertheless, only another name for the impetus of attraction for the not-self…

Everything is governed by some form of urgency towards satisfaction, and this is distinctive of man’s search at every stage of his development—whether it is the instinctual urge to self-preservation, which can be seen in the savage’s search for food or in the economic problems of the modern civilised man; whether it is the urge to self-reproduction and the satisfaction of that appetite which works out today in the complexity of the sex life of the race; whether it is the urge to be popular, loved and esteemed; whether it is the urge for intellectual enjoyment and the mental appropriation of truth, or the deep-seated desire for heaven and rest which characterises the Christian, or the aspiration for illumination which is the demand of the mystic, or the longing for identification with reality which is the “wish” of the occultist. All this is desire in some form or another, and by these urges humanity is governed and controlled; I would say most definitely controlled, for this is only a simple statement of the case.

It is this realisation of man’s fundamental bias or controlling factor that lies behind the teaching given by the Buddha, and which is embodied in the Four Noble Truths of the Buddhist philosophy, which can be summarised as follows:—

The Four Noble Truths

1. Existence in the phenomenal universe is inseparable from suffering and sorrow.
2. The cause of suffering is desire for existence in the phenomenal universe.
3. The cessation of suffering is attained by eradicating desire for phenomenal existence.
4. The Path to the cessation of suffering is the noble eightfold path.

It was the realisation of the urgency of man’s need to be delivered from his own desire-nature which led Christ to emphasise the necessity to seek the good of one’s neighbor in contra-distinction to one’s own good, and to advise the life of service and self-sacrifice, of self-forgetfulness and love of all beings. Only in this way can man’s mind and “the eye of the heart” be turned away from one’s own needs and satisfaction to the deeper demands of the race itself.

Until a man stands upon the Path of Perfection, he cannot really grasp the imperative demand of his own soul for release from the search for outer, material, tangible satisfaction, and from desire. It has been this demand which indicated the soul’s need to incarnate and to function, for a needed period, under the Law of Rebirth. As the work of purification proceeds upon the Path of Purification, this demand for release becomes stronger and clearer, and when the man steps out upon the Path of Discipleship, then the Law of Repulse can, for the first time, begin to control his reactions. This takes place unconsciously at first, but it becomes more potent and more consciously appreciated as the disciple takes one initiation after another, with increasingly pointed understanding.

It is not our intention in this Treatise to deal with the development of the unevolved and undeveloped man in connection with these Laws of the Soul. I seek only to clear the way of the highly intelligent man, the aspirants of the world and the world disciples. The progress of the undeveloped and the average man can be covered by the following statements, taken sequentially and describing the stages of his progress under the promptings of desire:

1. The urge to experience, to exist, and to satisfy the instinctual nature.
2. Experience, grasping, existing, followed by renewed demand for more satisfying compliances of fate or destiny.
3. Cycle after cycle of demand for satisfaction, a period of satisfaction of a temporary nature, and then further demands. This is the story of the race.
4. Experience, steadily sought and pursued upon the three planes of human evolution.
5. Then the same experience, but this time as an integrated personality.
6. Demand met until satiety is reached, for in time all men do eventually achieve that which they demand.
7. Then comes the demand for inner spiritual compliances, happiness and bliss. The “heaven wish” becomes powerful.
8. A vague realisation that two things are needed; purification and the power to choose aright, which is right discrimination.
9. A vision of the pairs of opposites.
10. The realisation of the narrow path which leads between these pairs of opposites.
11. Discipleship and the repulsing or repudiation (over a long period of time), of the not-self.

Such, briefly and inadequately stated, is the story of man as he searches for happiness, for joy and for bliss, or (expressing it in terms of realisation) as he progresses from the life of the instincts to that of the intellect, and then from that intellectual apprehension to the stage of illumination and final identification with reality, when he is henceforth freed from the Great Illusion.

Two things determine the rapidity with which he can—upon the Path of Discipleship—bring the Law of Repulse into play. One is the quality of his motive. Only the desire to serve is adequate to bring about the necessary reorientation and subjection to the new technique of living. The other is his willingness, at all costs, to be obedient to the light which is in him and around him.  Service and obedience are the great methods of release, and constitute the underlying causes which will bring the Law of Repulse into play, thus aiding the aspirant to attain the longed-for liberation. Service releases him from his own thought life and self-determination.

Obedience to his own soul integrates him into the larger whole, wherein his own desires and urges are negated in the interest of the wider life of humanity and of God Himself. God is the Great Server and expresses His divine life through the Love of His heart for humanity.

Yet, when these simple truths are enunciated and we are urged to serve our brother and to obey our soul, it seems to us so familiar and so uninteresting that it can evoke but little response. If we were told that the following of a prescribed form of meditation, the practicing of a definite formula of breathing, and regular concentration upon a specific centre would release us from the wheel of life and identify us with the spiritual self and its world of being, gladly and willingly and joyously would we follow out instructions. But when, in the terms of the occult science, we are told to serve and obey, we are not interested. Yet service is the mode, par excellence, for awakening the heart centre, and obedience is equally potent in evoking the response of the two head centres to the impact of soul force, and unifying them into one field of soul recognition. So little do men understand the potency of their urges! If the urge to satisfy desire is the basic urge of the form life of man, the urge to serve is an equally basic urge of the soul in man. This is one of the most important statements in this section. It is as yet seldom satisfied. Indications of its presence are ever to be found, nevertheless, even in the most undesirable types of human beings; it is evolved in moments of high destiny or immediate urgency, and of supreme difficulty. The heart of man is sound, but oft asleep.

Serve and obey! These are the watchwords of the disciple’s life.  They have been distorted into terms of fanatical propaganda and have thus produced the formulas of philosophy and of religious theology; but these formulas do, at the same time, veil a truth.

They have been presented to the consideration of man in terms of personality devotions and of obedience to Masters and leaders, instead of service of, and obedience to, the soul in all.  The truth is, however, steadily emerging, and must inevitably triumph. Once the aspirant upon the Probationary Path has a vision of this (no matter how slight it may be), then the law of desire which has governed him for ages will slowly and surely give place to the Law of Repulse, which will, in time, free him from the thralldom of not-self. It will lead him to those discriminations and that dispassionate attitude which is the hallmark of the man who is on his way to liberation. Let us remember, however, that a discrimination which is based upon a determination to be free, and a dispassion which is the indication of a hard heart, will land the aspirant in the prison of a crystallized shell, which is far harder to break than the normal prison of the life of the average selfish man. This selfish spiritual desire is oft the major sin of so-called esotericists and must be carefully avoided. Therefore, he who is wise will apply himself to serve and obey.

1. THE LAW OF REPULSE UPON THE PATHS OF DISCIPLESHIP AND INITIATION

When the discriminating sense (the spiritual correspondence of the sense of smell, the last of the five senses to emerge in humanity) has been adequately developed in the aspirant, and he knows the pairs of opposites and has gained a vision of that which is neither of them, then he can pass on to the Path of Discipleship and enter upon the arduous task of cooperating with the spiritual laws, particularly with the Law of Repulse. At first, he hardly recognises the influence of this Law… He has to learn to recognise its influence; then he must himself learn to do three things:—

1. Through service, steadily to decentralise himself and thus begin occultly to “repulse” the personality. He must see to it that his motive is love for all beings, and not desire for his own release.
2. Through an understanding of the pairs of opposites, he begins, esoterically, to “isolate” the “noble middle path” of which the Buddha spoke.
3. Through comprehension of the words of Christ, enjoining men to “let their light shine”, he begins to construct the “path of light” which leads to the centre of life and guides him out of darkness into light, from the unreal to the real, and from death to immortality. This is the true path of the antaskarana, which the disciple weaves from out of himself (speaking symbolically), just as the spider weaves his thread.

Service, an understanding of the Way, and the building of the true line of escape—that is the task to be carried forward upon the Path of Discipleship.

Such is the object set before all the students of the esoteric sciences at this time,—provided they desire it enough, and can train themselves to work selflessly for their fellow men. As they succeed in doing this and approximate ever more closely to that which is not the pairs of opposites (and thus achieve “the Central Way”), steadily the Law of Repulse begins to swing into operation. When the third initiation is taken, this law will begin to hold the dominant place in the ruling of the life.

… Yet, spiritually considered and scientifically viewed, the word “repulse” indicates simply “an attitude towards that which is not desirable”. This, in its turn (as we seek to determine that which is desirable) calls into activity the virtues of discrimination, dispassion and discipline in the disciple’s life, as well as the power to decentralise. These words indicate the urge to devaluate the unreal and the undesirable, to discipline the lower nature till those choices are readily and easily made which lead to the discarding of that which imprisons or impedes the soul. The major concepts are the definitely and carefully chosen way or procedure which will free the soul from the world of forms and identify it, first of all, with itself (thus freeing it from the world illusion), and then with the world of souls, which is the consciousness of the Oversoul.

There is no need to enlarge here upon the technique whereby this choice is to be made. The way of discrimination, the method of dispassion and the discipline of the life have been made plain and clear by the teachings of the past two thousand years, and through the many books written to emphasise the teaching of the Christ and of the Buddha.

Through a right understanding of these, right choice can be made, and that which should not be cherished or desired can be “repulsed”…

1. Discrimination,
2. Dispassion,
3. Discipline,
4. Decentralisation.

… Students will realise that as they practice these four virtues, the prime characteristics of a disciple, they are thereby automatically calling into play the Law of Repulse, which, upon the Path of Initiation, brings revelation and realisation. The expression of this law upon the Path of Initiation is too advanced for those who are not yet versed in the basic discriminations, and who are still far from being dispassionate… The disciple seeks to achieve, without passion, pain or suffering, the distinction which lies between:

1. Right and wrong,
2. Good and evil,
3. Light and dark, spiritually understood,
4. Prison and liberty,
5. Love and hate,
6. Introversion and extraversion. We do well to ponder on this duality.
7. Truth and falsehood,
8. Mystical and occult knowledge.
9. The self and the non-self.
10. Soul and body.

Many, many other dualities can thus be listed. Having then discovered the fact of these pairs of opposites, the task of the disciple is to discover that which is neither of them. It is this central, intermediate way that is revealed to the initiate, through the working of the Law of Repulse which occultly enables him to “push with either hand, to a distance afar from his way, that which intrudes and veils the central way of light. For neither on the right nor on the left lies safety for the man who seeks that lighted way”. …

1. THE LAW OF REPULSE AND THE PILGRIM ON THE WAY OF LIFE

We shall base our thoughts upon the words earlier quoted:

“The Law of Repulse drives in seven directions, and forces all it thus contacts back to the bosom of the seven spiritual Fathers”.

We have come definitely to a consideration of the Way of Repulsion, governed by this law, which is the way or technique for each ray type. Though the same law can be seen working in all seven cases and in all seven directions, yet the results will differ, because the quality and the phenomenal appearance upon which the law of the divine will makes its impact and consequent impression, differ so widely. The complexity of the problem is therefore great.

These seven soul laws lie behind all the various presentations of truth as they have been given out by the world Teachers down the ages. It requires much spiritual insight, however, to enable the average disciple to see the correspondence or the trend of ideas which link, for instance:

1. The beatitudes (enunciated by the Christ) and these seven laws.
2. The stages of the Noble Eightfold Path and these soul potencies.
3. The eight Means to Yoga or union of the soul, and this septenate of influences.
4. The Ten Commandments of the Semitic religion, and these seven spiritual laws.

… A close study of these relationships will be found suggestive to the disciple and illuminating to the initiate. Let us not, however, confuse illumination with a new or bright idea! It is something far different to that. The difference is that between the light of a star, and the light of a steadily waxing sun. One reveals the fact of night. The other reveals the world of daylight and of conscious Being.

1. THE SEVEN DIRECTIONS OF THE LAW OF REPULSE

It must be remembered that the Law of Repulse, which is the Law of the destroying Angels, works in seven directions; that it produces effects upon seven different types of beings and of men, and that by reason of its activity, it draws the prodigal son back to the Father’s home. It causes him to “arise and go”. But we must remember that, when Christ was relating this story, He made it abundantly clear that there was no impulse to return until the pilgrim in the far country had come to himself or to his senses, as a result of satisfied desire, through riotous living.

This was followed by consequent satiety and loss of contentment, and then by a period of intense suffering, which broke his will to wander or to desire. A study of this story will be found revealing. In no Scripture is the sequence of events (as they deal with the pilgrim’s existence and life in a far country and his return) so concisely or so beautifully treated. Seek out your Bibles, and study this tale, and read for yourselves the pilgrim’s way.

The effect of this Law of Repulse, as it works out in the world of discipleship and destroys that which hinders, sends the pilgrim hurrying back consciously along one of the seven rays that lead to the centre… Our present task is that of treading the Path of Probation or of Discipleship and of learning discipline, dispassion, and the other two necessities on the Way,—discrimination and decentralisation. It is possible, nevertheless, to indicate the goal and point out the potency of the forces to which we shall be increasingly subjected as we pass—as some of us can so pass—on to the Path of Accepted Discipleship. This we will do in the form of seven stanzas [see in the text at pages 166-172] which will give a hint (if one is an aspirant) of the technique to which one will be exposed; if one has passed further on the Way, they will give one a command which, as a disciple with spiritual insight one will obey, because one is awakened; if one is an initiate, they will evoke the comment: “This I know”.

… It is when the fourth Law of Repulse is beginning to produce its effects that the disciple becomes aware of the Angel with the Flaming Sword, Who stands before the portal of initiation. By this portent, he knows that he can now enter; but, this time, not as a poor blind candidate, but as an initiate in the mysteries of the world. The truth of this has been summed up for us in an ancient chant which used to be sung in the ante-chamber of the Temples. Some of the words may be roughly expressed as follows:

“He enters free, he who has known the prison walls. He passes into light with open eyes, he who for aeons long has groped the darkened corridor. He passes on his way, he who has stood for ages before a fast closed door.

He speaks with power the Word which opens wide the Gate of Life. He stands before the Angel and takes away his sword, releasing thus the Angel unto a higher task. He himself guards the doorway into the Holy Place.

He died. He entered the strife. He learnt the way of service. He stands before the door”.

 

The Science of Impression

 Source: https://blog-en.theplanetarysystem.org/2024/10/02/the-science-of-impression/

In this new moon of Libra, which looks to Aries, the sign of beginnings, the New Group of World Servers, the mediator between Humanity and the Hierarchy, preparing for the next hierarchical impact of 2025, directs the mind to contact the greater Lights, the great Sources of impression that the Tibetan Master’s Teaching so contextualises:

“Three great sciences […] form the three modes of expression of what we might term the Supreme Science of Contact. These three sciences are all equally interdependent and all related to the art of responsiveness. They are:

1. The Science of Impression . . . The will-to-be.
   Relation to the Spiritual Triad.
   Source of emanation . . . Shamballa.
   Connected with the abstract mind.
2. The Science of Invocation and Evocation . . . Love or attraction.
   Relation to the soul in all forms.
   Source of emanation (at this time) . . . The Hierarchy.
   Connected with the lower mind, as the agent of the soul.
3. The Science of Telepathy . . . Mind. Human intelligence.
   Relation to the personality.
   Source of emanation . . . Humanity itself.
   Connected with the head centre.

You will see how all these pairs of opposites play their part, exemplifying the dualistic nature of our planetary Life:

1. The abstract mind and the lower mind.
2. The soul and the lower mind.
3. The lower mind and the head centre.

Each of them acts as an invocative agent and produces evocation. All act as recipients and as transmitters, and all of them together establish the group inter-relation and the circulation of the energies which are the distinctive characteristic of the entire world of force.

One point you all need to grasp is that the progressing disciple does not move into new fields or areas of awareness, like a steady marching forward from one plane to another (as the visual symbols of the theosophical literature would indicate). What must be grasped is that all that IS is ever present. What we are concerned with is the constant awakening to that which eternally IS, and to what is ever present in the environment but of which the subject is unaware, owing to short-sightedness. The aim must be to overcome the undue concentration upon the foreground of daily life which characterises most people, the intense preoccupation with the interior states or moods of the lower self which characterises the spiritually minded people and the aspirants, and the imperviousness or lack of sensitivity which characterises the mass of men. The Kingdom of God is present on Earth today and forever has been, but only a few, relatively speaking, are aware of its signs and manifestations. The world of subtle phenomena (called formless, because unlike the physical phenomena with which we are so familiar) is ever with us and can be seen and contacted and proved as a field for experiment and experience and activity if the mechanism of perception is developed as it surely can be.” (A. A. Bailey, Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle, pp. 52-53)

“The entire subject of telepathic communication can be approached under a more subjective designation or name, but one which is interpretive of the more universal and prior stage than that of direct telepathic reception. The occultist ever approaches the subject connected with the evolutionary process from the angle of the whole and then the part, from the periphery to the centre, from the universal to the particular. Among Themselves, the Masters do not deal with telepathy as a science warranting consideration, endeavour and impartation; They are concerned primarily with the Science of Impression. The term most often employed by Them is the esoteric equivalent of what the average person means when he says, “I have an impression”. Impression is the subtlest reaction (more or less accurate) to the vibratory mental activity of some other mind or group of minds, of some whole, as its radiatory influence affects the unit or aggregate of units.

The first stage of correct telepathic reception is ever the registering of an impression; it is generally vague at the beginning, but as a thought, idea, purpose or intention of the sending agent concretises, it slips into the second stage which appears as a definite thoughtform; finally, that thoughtform makes its impact upon the consciousness of the brain in the location lying just behind the ajna centre and consequently in the area of the pituitary body. It can appear also in the region of the solar plexus centre. But for those Lives Who have surmounted life in the three worlds and Who are not conditioned by the triple mechanism of the personality, the impression is the factor of importance; Their consciousness is impressed, and so sensitive is Their response to the higher impression, that They absorb or appropriate the impression so that it becomes a part of Their own “impulsive energy”.

This is by no means an easy subject for me to elucidate, and the reasons are two:

1. The members of the Hierarchy (among Whom I have the status of Master) are Themselves in process of learning this Science of Impression. This They do on the levels of the abstract mind, of the intuition, or of manas and buddhi.
2. The science is as yet without a vocabulary. It is not limited at any stage by thoughtforms but it is limited by word forms; and it is therefore a difficult problem for me to pass on any information anent this subtle mode of communication of which telepathy is in fact but an exoteric externalisation.

Impression, as an art to be mastered both from the angle of the impressing agent and of the impressed recipient, is definitely related to the world of ideas. As far as our planetary Life is concerned, there are certain great sources of impression and one or two of them might here be noted; you will thus gain some idea of the subtlety of the whole subject, of its close relation to energy impacts and of its group reception as differentiated from individual reception, as is the case in any telepathic rapport.

1. The impression of Shamballa by:
a. Members of the Great White Lodge on Sirius. The recipients of this impression are the highest Members of the Great Council, presided over by the Lord of the World. So subtle is this impression that these Great Lives can only receive it with accuracy when in full joint conference of the entire Council, and also after due preparation.
b. From one or other of the constellations which are at any particular time astrologically en rapport with our planet. This impression can only be received by the Great Council when sitting in conclave with a majority of its Members present. This, I would have you note, does not entail the attendance of the entire Council.
c. From a triangle of circulating energy, emanating from the two planets which—with our planet, the Earth—form a triangle in any particular cycle. This impression is received by the three Buddhas of Activity for distribution to the Hierarchy.
d. From the planet Venus, the Earth’s alter ego. This makes its entrance via the Lord of the World and three of His Council Who are chosen by Him at any specific time to act as recipients.

These are the major entering impressions, recorded by what is glibly called “the Universal Mind”, the mind of God, our planetary Logos. There are other entering impressions, but to them I do not refer, as any reference would be meaningless to you.

2. The impression of the Hierarchy by:
a. Shamballa itself through the medium of groups within the Great Council; these step down the impression which they register so that the Hierarchy—as a whole—may cooperate with the purposes intended by those who are forming the needed Plan.
b. Certain great Lives Who, at specific times and according to cyclic rhythm, or in times of emergency, are swung into this type of activity. For instance, one such time would be the Full Moon period, which is a time of reception by the Hierarchy as well as by Humanity; an instance of the second type of activity would be the Wesak Festival, or those acute crises when intervention is required from sources far higher than those with which the recipient is usually en rapport. Such a crisis is fast approaching. The first type of impression is rhythmic, recurrent and therefore cumulative in its intended effects. The second type of impression is the result of invocation and evocation and is dependent upon both the recipient and the agent.
c. That great group of divine Contemplatives who are trained to act as an intermediate receptive group between Shamballa and the Hierarchy. They receive impression from Shamballa and transmit it to the Hierarchy, thus enabling the Members of the Hierarchy to receive it as “a sharpened impression” and to register it accurately because the emanating impression has passed through an area within the divine Mind where it is enhanced by the trained perception and the determined receptivity of this group. They are called, in the East, the divine Nirmanakayas. I only mention Their occult name so that you may learn to recognise Them when you meet reference to Them.
d. The Buddha at the time when the Wesak Festival is celebrated. He then acts as a focal point or as the “distributor of the impression”; He then has behind Him (little as you may realise it) the entire impressing force of the Buddhas of Activity Who are to Shamballa what the Nirmanakayas are to the Hierarchy.

Let me here interpolate a remark which may prove helpful and illuminating. We are dealing (as you will undoubtedly have noted) with the reception of impression by groups or by aggregations of groups composed of living Beings Who have Their own agents of distribution or impression. The entire evolutionary history of our planet is one of reception and of distribution, of a taking in and of a giving out. The key to humanity’s trouble (focussing, as it has, in the economic troubles of the past two hundred years, and in the theological impasse of the orthodox churches) has been to take and not to give, to accept and not to share, to grasp and not to distribute. This is the breaking of the Law which has placed humanity in the position of guilt. The war is the dire penalty which humanity has had to pay for this great sin of separateness. Impressions from the Hierarchy have been received, distorted, misapplied and misinterpreted, and the task of the New Group of World Servers is to offset this evil. These Servers are to humanity what the Buddhas of Activity are to Shamballa, and the group of divine Contemplatives (the Nirmanakayas) are to the Hierarchy. It might be stated therefore that:

1. The Buddhas of Activity are Themselves impressed by the WILL of God as it energises the entire planetary life.
2. The Nirmanakayas are impressed by the LOVE of God as it demonstrates itself as the attractive force which impulses the Plan inspired by the Purpose. In other words, it is the Hierarchy, impelled to action by Shamballa, or the Will-to-Good, externalising itself as goodwill.
3. The New Group of World Servers are impressed by the active INTELLIGENCE of God; they translate this divine impression and step it down in two great stages, therefore, bringing it into concrete manifestation.

We now carry this conception of divine impression down to the level of the human consciousness.

3. The impression of Humanity by:
a. The Hierarchy, through the stimulating of ideas. These demonstrate through a steadily growing and enlightened public opinion.
b. The influence of the Ashrams of the Masters as they affect the aspirants of the world, the humanitarians and the idealists. These impressing agencies, being seven in number, constitute seven different streams of impressing energy which affect the seven ray types. The united Ashrams, forming the great Ashram of the Christ, affect humanity as a whole; this great united Ashram works solely through the New Group of World Servers whose members are on all rays, of all grades of development, and who work in all the various departments of human living and enterprise.
c. The activity of the New Group of World Servers about which I have already written in my various pamphlets; therefore repetition is not necessary.

It will be obvious to you that I have only touched upon a few, a very few, of the impressing forces of the planet, and have enumerated only a few of the major groups which are—in their intrinsic nature—both recipients of impression and agents later of the impressing agent. When we arrive at the human family, this reciprocal activity is blocked by human selfishness; it is this “interruption of impression” and this “interference with the divine circulatory flow” which (as I have said above) is responsible for sin, for disease, and for all the various factors which make humanity today what it is. When the free flow of divine energy, of divine interplay and of spiritual purpose is re-established, then evil will disappear and the will-to-good will become factual goodwill upon the outer physical plane.

In the statements given above in connection with the three great planetary centres you have the basis for the new and coming Approach to Divinity which will be known under the expression: Invocative and Evocative religion. It is this new Science of Impression which forms the subjective basis and the uniting element which binds together the entire realm of knowledge, of science and of religion. The fundamental ideas which underlie these great areas of human thought all emanate from intuitional levels; they finally condition the human consciousness, evoking man’s aspiration to penetrate deeper into the arcana of all wisdom, for which knowledge is the preparatory stage. This Science of Impression is the mode of life of the subjective world which lies between the world of external happenings (the world of appearances and of exoteric manifestation) and the inner world of reality. This is a point which should be most carefully taken into the calculations of the occult investigators. Impressions are received and registered; they form the basis of reflection for those aspirants who are sensitive enough to their impact and wise enough to record carefully in consciousness their emanating source. After due practice, this period of brooding upon the registered impression is followed by another period wherein the impression begins to take form as an idea; from that point it follows the familiar course of translation from an idea into a presented ideal; it then comes under the invocative appeal of the more concrete-minded until it finally precipitates itself into outer manifestation and takes form. You will see, therefore, that what I am doing is to take the student a step further into the world of reception and perception and point him to the more subtle contacts which lie behind those concepts which are regarded as definitely nebulous and to which we give the name of intuitions.

The Science of Impression—if studied by the disciples in the world and by the New Group of World Servers—will greatly facilitate the presentation of those ideals which must and will condition the thinking of the New Age and will eventually produce the new culture and the new civilised expression which lies ahead of humanity, superseding the present civilisation and providing the next field of expression for mankind. This science is, in fact, the basis of the theory of relationships and will lead to the expansion of the idea of right human relations which has hitherto—as a phrase—been confined to an ideal desire for correct interplay between man and man, group and group, and nation and nation; it has also hitherto been restricted to the human society and interplay, and remains as yet a hope and a wish. When, however, the Science of Impression has been correctly apprehended and has been brought down to the level of an educational objective, it will be found to be closely linked to the emerging teaching anent invocation and evocation and will be expanded to include not only right human relations to the superhuman kingdoms, but right human relations with the subhuman kingdoms also. It will, therefore, be concerned with the sensitive response of the entire natural and supernatural world to the “One in Whom we live and move and have our being”; it will put mankind into a right relationship with all aspects and expressions of the divine nature, deepening subjective contact and bringing about a diviner objective manifestation and one more in line with divine purpose. It will lead to a great shift of the human consciousness off the levels of emotional and physical life (where the bulk of humanity is focussed) on to the levels of mental perception.

You will understand, consequently, the reason why the Knowers of the world have ever referred to the dual action of the mind as it is sensitive to the higher impressions and active in the mental creation of the needed thoughtforms. The mind, rightly trained, will seize upon the fugitive impression, subject it to the concretising effect of mental activity, produce the required form, and this, when correctly created and oriented, will finally lead to the externalising of the registered impression, as it took form in an intuition and eventually found its place upon the mental plane. You will see also why disciples and world workers have to function as MINDS, as receptive and perceptive intelligences and as creators in mental matter. It is all related to this Science of Impression with which we have been dealing. You will note also that this whole process is capable of expansion in the processes of meditation, so that the aspirant can be sensitive to impression and (because he is oriented to the world of ideas and is aware of the subtlety and delicacy of the apparatus required to register the “overshadowing cloud of knowable things”) is safeguarded from the sensitivity required to register impacts from other minds, good or bad in their orientation, and from the thought currents of that which is in process of taking form as well as from the powerful pull or urge of the emotional and desire reactions of the astral plane and of the emotionally polarised world in which he lives physically.

More understanding will come also if you grasp the fact that this Science of Impression is concerned with the activity of the head centre as an anchoring centre for the antahkarana, and that the ajna centre is concerned with the process of translating the recorded intuition into a form (through recognition of and reaction to a mental thoughtform) and its subsequent direction, as an ideal objective, into the world of men. In the early stages and until the third initiation, the Science of Impression is concerned with the establishing of a sensitivity (an invocative sensitivity) between the Spiritual Triad (temporarily expressing itself through the abstract mind and the soul or the Son of Mind) and the concrete mind. This mental triangle is a reflection, in time and space, of the Monad and of the two higher aspects of the Triad, and is reflected (after the process of invocation and a succeeding process of evocation) in another triad—that of the lower mind, the soul and the vital body. When the relation between the lower and the higher mind is correctly and stably established, you have the swinging into activity of the lowest triad connected with the Science of Impression—the head centre, the ajna centre and the throat centre.

In the above I have given you an interesting and brief elucidation of the technique to be applied to the energising of the centres in the human body. I would remind you that what is true of the individual disciple must be and is true of that great disciple—Humanity, the entire human family. It is also true, as an outgrowth of this idea, of all the three planetary centres: Shamballa, the Hierarchy and Humanity. The name Science of Impression is that given to the process whereby the establishment of the required relationship in all these units of life takes place. The Technique of Invocation and Evocation is the name given to the mode or method whereby the desired relationship is brought about. The Creative Work is the name given to the manifestation of the results of the two above processes. The three aspects of the Technique of Invocation and Evocation with which the average disciple should concern himself are those of the building of the antahkarana, the correct use of the lower mind in its two higher functions (the holding of the mind steady in the light and the creation of the desired thoughtforms), and the process of precipitation whereby the impression is enabled eventually to take tangible form.” (Ibid., pp. 41/51)

Fiery World III § 61
“Great is the labor of the subtle energies of the centers, and it can never stop. One may only replace one process by another. When the high Agni Yogi devotes his energies to the task of great cosmic construction, in this giving is contained a great fiery transmutation. In such instances manifestations on a physical plane cannot be clearly expressed, and the high Agni Yogi can listen to his own thoughts because his consciousness will carry impressions of the Subtle World and his work in it. These thoughts are, as it were, remembrances of the creative work of the centers and of the spirit. It is said, “a thought suddenly flashed”—but We say, “the spirit has recalled.” Thus one may affirm the work of a high Agni Yogi. On the path to the Fiery World it must be remembered that synthesis is like a river’s mouth and each specialization is like one channel.”