Some references from DK’s writings which support the idea that a vegetarian diet is not necessarily essential during the many incarnations between the 1^st and 2^nd initiations

The following reference is often quoted to support the idea that one must be vegetarian while preparing for and until the 1^st initiation but is not required after the 1^st initiation until one is consciously preparing for the 3^rd initiation.

(RI 352) ............which the spiritual man must pass then he undergoes the first initiation……..The physical body no longer rules him, either through its limitations and faults or through the physical disciplines which have been hitherto needed but are no longer required.

This is another reference which suggests a vegetarian diet is needed for the 1^st initiation while the physical and etheric bodies are being merged, and that afterwards it is not essential.

(RI 124) ………….This sixth Rule is the polar opposite of the rule as it was given to applicants. There, if you will refer to my exegesis upon that rule in Initiation, Human and Solar, you will find that theobjective of that rule was physical purification with the emphasis upon the need for a vegetarian diet at a certain stage of the preparatory process.

Vegetarianism required for probationers-It really depends what DK here means by probationer, because elsewhere he says that in the new age, the probationary path will include all stages up to and including the 2^nd initiation.

(RI 125) It is also an interesting illustration of the technique of the Masters, whereby They permit a fallacy to remain uncorrected (because it is originated by the disciple himself [Page 126] and must be dissipated by him also) and the use of language which conveys a wrong impression. By so doing, the user of the language discovers eventually his erroneous approach to truth. Life cannot be taken in the spiritual sense. This error or mistake in the approach of truth enables men and women upon the Probationary Path to demonstrate the earnestness and sincerity of their aspiration by the discipline of substituting the produce "of the second," and to refrain from sustaining life on the produce "of the third." By sacrificing the life of the second kingdom in nature (to use the applicant's own misstatements) and by nourishing the physical body thereby, the probationary disciple does succeed in ending the grip or potency of the physical nature, and that is always helpful. He as yet does not know that he is adhering to lesser "rules in time and space," and that once he has demonstrated to himself that he can hold them and obey them, he is

then freed from them and needs them no more. The disciple and the candidate for initiation knows that life is one, whether it takes form in the second kingdom or in the third or the fourth; he knows that the life in him is one with the life in the first kingdom, the mineral; he learns too that life is impregnable; that it cannot be taken or destroyed but "passes on" from form to form, from experience to experience, until the perfect will of God is expressed through life.

The true disciple does not need vegetarianism

(RI 126)The true disciple does not need vegetarianism or any of the physical disciplines, for the reason that none of the fleshly appetites have any control over him. His problem lies elsewhere, and it is a waste of his time and energy to keep his eye focussed on "doing the right things physically," because he does them automatically

(RI 128) Let me repeat: the physical disciplines are of value in the beginning stage and impart a sense of proportion and an awareness of defects and of limitations. These have their place in time and space, and that is all……….

This reference is really important because DK makes it absolutely clear there is a stage when one is definitely vegetarian, and later incarnations when one may not necessarily be vegetarian. This idea supports some of the other refs where DK has said that one needs to be vegetarian for the 1^st initiation, and it strongly supports the idea that there may be many lives between the 1^st and 2^nd initiations when one is not necessarily vegetarian. Whether one is or is not vegetarian between the 1^st and 2^nd initiations probably depend on many different factors such as the culture one is brought up in. There may or course be many people who remain vegetarian throughout the many incarnations between the 1^st and 2^nd incarnations.

(EH 334) ………There is no group diet. No enforced elimination of meat is required or strict vegetarian diet compulsory. There are phases of life and sometimes entire incarnations wherein an aspirant subjects himself to a discipline of food, just as there may be other phases or an entire life wherein a strict celibacy is temporarily enforced. But there are other life cycles and incarnations wherein the disciple's interest and his service lie in other directions. There are later incarnations where there is no constant thought about the physical body, and a man works free of the diet complex and lives without concentration upon the form life, eating that food which is available and upon which he can best sustain his life efficiency. In preparation for certain initiations, a vegetable diet has in the past been deemed essential. But this may not always be the case, and many disciples prematurely regard themselves as in preparation for initiation.

To accurately read the akashic records and past lives one must have been strictly vegetarian for ten years. (EPI 241) …………Those who seek to read the akashic records, or who endeavour to work upon the astral plane with impunity, and there to study the reflection of events in the astral light correctly, have perforce and without exception to be strict vegetarians. It is this ancient Atlantean lore which lies behind the vegetarian's insistence upon the necessity for a vegetarian diet, and which gives force and truth to this injunction. It is the failure to conform to this wise rule which has brought about the misinterprertions of the astral and akashic records by many of the psychics of the present time, and has given rise to the wild and incorrect reading of past lives. Only those who have been for ten years strict vegetarians can work thus in what might be called the "record aspect of the astral light"…………But unless the goal of a vegetarian diet is this field of service, the arguments for its following and for that form of diet are usually futile and of no real moment………..