Synthetic Commentary on Rules I-VI
for Aspirants, Disciples and Initiates

Dear Students in the 28 Rules Group,

Let us see if we can identify some key factors in each of the following Rules. We can attempt some degree of simplification by viewing the Rules in terms of requirements. If we view the requirements together, we may gather some over-arching purpose relating to the first six Rules is both categories.

With respect to the first six Rules for Applicants, I will offer some astrological suggestions which may be found illuminative.

The First Six Rules for Applicants

Rule I for Applicants:

For Applicants:  Let the disciple search within the heart's deep cave.  If there the fire burns bright, warming his brother yet heating not himself, the hour has come for making application to stand before the door.

1.                  The requirement is love characterized by solar fire rather than the heat of desire characterized by fire by friction.

2.                  With respect to Aries (the zodiacal first sign, reasonably correlated with the first Rule for Applicants)), the requirement is response to the exalted Sun rather than to the heat of Mars.

3.                  The ray principally required in relation to all the Rules for Applicants is the second, the ray of the Fixed Cross, cultivated especially, during the first three initiations (though various particular rays rule each initiation).

4.                  The first ray (like the first sign) indicates the process of commencement. The first principle is set forth; it is love, and without love, the “Will-to-Initiate” (the aspect of will connected with the first ray) cannot be successfully applied to the initiation process.

Rule II for Applicants:

For Applicants:  When application has been made in triple form, then let the disciple withdraw that application and forget it has been made.

5.                  The requirement is detachment from the threefold, fulfilled “application”.

6.                  With respect to Taurus (the second zodiacal sign, reasonably correlated with the second Rule for Applicants), the requirement is response to the detaching will of Vulcan rather than the magnetic attractiveness of exoteric Venus.

7.                  The sacrificial detachment of the second ray is suggested.

Rule III for Applicants:

For Applicants:  Triple the call must be and long it takes to sound it forth.  Let the disciple sound the call across the desert, over all the seas and through the fires which separate him from the veiled and hidden door.

8.                  The requirement is communicate “from there to there”, prior to moving from there to there.

9.                  With respect to Gemini (the third zodiacal sign, reasonably correlated with the third Rule for Applicants), the requirement relates to communicative Mercury (the exoteric ruler) and also to relational Venus, related to sound through its exoteric rulership of Taurus (which zodiacally rules the voice and, hence, an aspect of the “call”). The triple sounding places the applicant en rapport with that which lies behind the “veiled and hidden door”—namely, the Venusian Solar Angel. Venus, in this respect, should be considered the esoteric ruler of Gemini, magnetically linking “here” to “there”.

10.              The communicative potential of the third ray is suggested.

Rule IV for Applicants:

For Applicants:  Let the disciple tend the evocation of the fire, nourish the lesser lives and thus keep the wheel revolving.

11.              The requirement is a careful, attentive tending of the reception of the higher fire (soul fire) which nourishes the lower fires. The association with Cancer is evident.

12.              With respect to Cancer (the fourth zodiacal sign, reasonably correlated with the fourth Rule for Applicants), the requirement relates to ‘maternal attentiveness’, ensuring that solar fire is, first, received into the lunar vehicles (the three personality vehicles generically ruled by the Moon, the exoteric ruler of Cancer) and secondly nourished within those vehicles (once received). Cancer, we know, is related to the Law of Rebirth and the process of reincarnation; the revolving wheel can be understood as the Wheel of Rebirth. The lower wheels must also continue (for a time) to rightly revolve, and the, thus, the “rotary motion” connected with Cancer and the third ray is suggested.

13.              The fourth ray relates to the form considered as the foundation. The personality, which must be nourished, is fourfold in its entirety (relating thus to Cancer, the fourth sign, and to the fourth ray). Solar fire, the second fire (the fire of ‘nourishment’, in this respect) is related to the second principle, buddhi (numbering from above) and buddhi is the principle associated with the fourth plane (the buddhic). The relationship of the two and the four to the soul (considered as the “middle principle”) is evident, as the second ray is the central ray of the Rays of Aspect and the fourth ray is the central ray of all seven rays considered together.

Rule V for Applicants:

For Applicants:  Let the applicant see to it that the Solar Angel dims the light of the lunar angels, remaining the sole luminary in the microcosmic sky.

14.              The requirement is to shine as shines the soul.

15.              With respect to Leo (the fifth zodiacal sign, reasonably correlated with this fifth Rule for Applicants), the emphasis is clearly on the triply ruling Sun (ruling Leo exoterically, esoterically, and hierarchically) over the Moon. We remember that the Solar Angels made their initial, individualizing ‘appearance’ into the life of animal man under the influence of the sign Leo (with Sagittarius and Gemini also involved).

16.              The brilliant luminosity of the fifth ray is suggested. We remember that the soul on its own plane (the higher mental) is the “sole luminary” here referenced, and is principally a blend of the fifth and second rays.

Rule VI for Applicants:

For Applicants:  The purificatory fires burn dim and low when the third is sacrificed to the fourth.  Therefore let the disciple refrain from taking life and let him nourish that which is lowest with the produce of the second.

17.              The requirement is simply purification achieved by refusing first solar system and Moon-chain tendencies to use the third kingdom as food, and instead aligning with second solar system tendencies, correlating to the second ray, and the use of the second kingdom of nature, the vegetable kingdom, for food.

18.              With respect to Virgo (the sixth zodiacal sign, reasonably correlated with this sixth Rule for Applicants), the emphasis is upon the intelligent discrimination of Mercury (the exoteric ruler and exalted planet in Virgo), as aids in the choice of nourishment (in this sign correlated to the assimilation of nutrients). There are many similarities between Cancer and Virgo and they are both ruled by the Moon in different ways—the first exoterically and the second esoterically.

19.              The obvious thing to note is that Virgo, the sixth zodiacal signs, is generically the sign of purification and, therefore, has a direct correlation to this sixth Rule for Applicants.

20.              The upward-rising of the sixth ray (achieved through successful purification) is suggested. The principle involved is that ascent necessitates purity.

General Points Regarding a Synthetic Consideration of the First Six Rules for Applicants

21.              The order of the Rules for Applicants (as well as for the more advanced Rules) cannot be accidental, and therefore may be reasonably correlated to the order of the zodiacal signs and the order of the ray energies (since ray and astrological energies—or their higher correlates—underlie the entire building process in cosmos).

22.              These first six Rules can be correlated with the different aspects of the personality and its general condition:

    1. Rule I with the mental body, for the “heart” is the “soul” and the “soul” (as we very often consider the meaning of that term) is found upon the mental plane.
    2. Rule II with the astral body and its attachment (in many relatively advanced people) to the goal of initiation. It is, of course, detachment that is necessary.
    3. Rule III with the etheric body. The etheric body is correlated with the third sign, Gemini, and the etheric body is a direct reflection of its higher ‘brother’ the soul on its own plane. In this case the etheric body is the Moon (the color of which is associated with violet) correlating with the violet devas of the etheric planes (whose symbol is the crescent Moon). The higher brother, of course, is symbolically the Sun which is meant to vitalize the etheric body. The condition of the etheric body will determine whether soul energy can actually reach and transform the physical plane—the indication that the ‘calls’/communications have been successfully sent forth and evoked response.
    4. Rule IV with the physical body. In a way the entire personality is the “body” or “physical body”, for man is spirit, soul and body, meaning monad, soul and personality. The energy of soul must be received into the fourth sphere (the personality) and this will be reflected in a transformation of the matter of the fourth and lowest vehicle (the dense physical body) containing the ‘least’ of the “lesser lives”.
    5. Rule V with the integrated personality (a ‘sun’ in its own right) and its responsiveness to the higher ‘Sun’ of the soul.
    6. Rule VI with the purified integrated personality. The form aspect is related to the number six and to the sixth sign, Virgo.

23.              The first six Rules are something like the first hemi-cycle of the horoscopic wheel—they take the applicant to the ‘Libran point’, where he/she can ‘marry’ the soul—after sufficient purification (Rule VI).

24.              No one can hope to fulfill the more advanced Rules unless the lesser Rules have been fulfilled. We cannot ignore them or slight them. They represent the “personal work” which each of us must do. Before Roberto Assagioli died, he is reputed to have said to a close colleague: “Make sure they do their personal work.”

25.              Some one who fulfills all fourteen Rules for Applicants is surely an initiate of the third degree. Careful thought about the latter of these first fourteen Rules will reveal this to be the case. The ability to maintain the Solar Angel as the “sole luminary in the microcosmic sky” indicates the completion of the third degree.

26.              The very first Rule is both the beginning and the end—true progress towards initiation begins with love and ends with the fulfilled expression of love.

27.              We might say that the first six Rules related to the preparation of the form (under the number six). After due preparation, the applicant is prepared for wider group functioning and serviceable creativity of a broader nature.

28.              When functioning under the Factor of Synthesis, we are able to execute all Rules simultaneously in a mutually enhancing manner. Sequentiality when subjected to synthesis leads to simultaneity.

The First Six Rules for Disciples and Initiates

29.              The requirements for these more advanced Rules are, of course, far more subtle and, perhaps, not so easily characterized by simple astrologic and rayological correlations. Even the earlier Rules cannot be confined to association with any one sign or ray.

Rule I for Disciples and Initiates

For Disciples and Initiates:  Within the fire of mind, focussed within the head's clear light, let the group stand.  The burning ground has done its work.  The clear cold light shines forth and cold it is and yet the heat—evoked by the group love—permits the warmth of energetic moving out.  Behind the group there stands the Door.  Before them opens out the Way.  Together let the band of brothers onward move—out of the fire, into the cold, and toward a newer tension.

30.              Requirement—identification as a group.

31.              Requirement—mental polarization and the ability to use the head centers in meditation.

32.              Requirement—strength of individual and group will.

33.              Requirement—emergence from the burning grounds found within the personality.

34.              Requirement—recognition of and impressionability to the “clear cold light”.

35.              Requirement—participation in group love and the service motivated by this love.

36.              Requirement—passing, together, a group initiation—probably, in this case, the second initiation, which the Door represents. (As the these more advanced Rules are for both disciples and initiates, we cannot presume that they are effective only after the third initiation—a developmental point beyond which the term “disciple” is replaced with the term “initiate”, even though generically the term “disciple” can be applied even to great entities such as Sanat Kumara).

37.              Requirement—initial orientation towards the Way of Higher Evolution.

38.              Requirement—brotherhood and a willingness to move forward together.

39.              Requirement—willingness to endure (as a group) increasingly great points of tension in the process of detaching from lesser states.

Rule II for Disciples and Initiates

For Disciples and Initiates:  The Word has now gone forth from the great point of tension:  Accepted as a group.  Withdraw not now your application.  You could not, if you [Page 20] would; but add to it three great demands and forward move.  Let there be no recollection and yet let memory rule.  Work from the point of all that is within the content of the group's united life.

40.              Requirement—again, group identification. (This must be increasingly the case with respect to the remaining Rules.)

41.              Requirement—attentiveness to the Will of Shamballa embodied in a “Word” received by the group.

42.              Requirement—becoming as an individual and a group the very embodiment of the application made.

43.              Requirement—ability to focus in consciousness under the impression of the three aspects of the spiritual triad.

44.              Requirement—ability to use the group will to demand that triadal energies condition and eventually replace the energies of the threefold personality. The willful, demanding nature of Taurus (the second sign, ruled esoterically and hierarchically by Vulcan) is here evident, just as associations with Aries can be seen in relation to the first of the more advanced Rules.

45.              Requirement—ability to continue pressing forward.

46.              Requirement—the ability to focus upon and utilize the remembered essence of experience rather than be preoccupied with the actual form of such experience.

47.              Requirement—ability to access and utilize the ‘group treasury’ (again implicating Taurus).

Rule III for Disciples and Initiates

For Disciples and Initiates:  Dual the moving forward.  The Door is left behind.  That is a happening of the past.  Let the cry of invocation issue forth from the deep centre of the group's clear cold light.  Let it evoke response from the bright centre, lying far ahead.  When the demand and the response are lost in one great SOUND, move outward from the desert, leave the seas behind and know that God is Fire.

48.              Requirement—individual and group ability to focus as a unified personality/soul.

49.              Requirement—individual and group ability to move forward in both capacities—soul and personality. (The note of dualism is sounded, thus involving Gemini).

50.              Requirement—the ability to move onward, away from the Door of Initiation through which the group has passed, leaving it behind.

51.              Requirement—thus, leaving behind earlier individual and group preoccupations for a new set of requirements.

52.              Requirement—persistent focus, as a group, within the “clear cold light”. This would require at least a temporary group-polarization within that light.

53.              Requirement—ability as a group to invoke while focussed within the “clear cold light”.

54.              Requirement—orientation towards Shamballa (“the bright centre, lying far ahead”) as invocation is sent forth.

55.              Requirement—ability to intensify group invocation until it becomes ‘group demand’.

56.              Requirement—ability to sustain the invocation and hear the “Word” of response, and, then, both to endure and utilize the SOUND with results from the combination of the two (i.e., invocation and response).

57.              Requirement—ability on the part of the group to be so inspired by the SOUND that it can leave behind the fields of personality and soul and enter into fiery realm of the spiritual triad.

58.              Requirement—ability of the group, eventually, to touch and to “know” the fiery realm of atma.

Rule IV for Disciples and Initiates

For Disciples and Initiates:  Let the group see that all the eighteen fires die down and that the lesser lives return unto the reservoir of life.  This they must bring about through the evocation of the Will.  The lesser wheels must not for aye revolve in time and space.  Only the greater Wheel must onward move and turn.

59.              Requirement—individual and group recognition of the eighteen fires of personality.

60.              Requirement—individual and group detachment from those eighteen fires and a refusal to ‘feed’ them. The detachment and disengagement from the fires of personality is thorough. There must be a keen discrimination between that which is greater and that which is lesser.

61.              Requirement—group infusion by the higher Will. (The term “higher Will” embraces many strata of the Will of the Planetary Logos.)

62.              Requirement—utilization of individual and group will (under the impression of the higher Will) to force the eighteen fires to subside.

63.              Requirement—movement towards synthesis and the effective resolution of many lesser cyclic processes into one greater process, symbolized by the “greater Wheel”.

Rule V for Disciples and Initiates

For Disciples and Initiates:  In unison let the group perceive the Triad shining forth, dimming the light of the soul and blotting out the light of form.  The macrocosmic Whole is all there is.  Let the group perceive that Whole and then no longer use the thought "My soul and thine."

64.              Requirement—group unity and fusion.

65.              Requirement—united group vision.

66.              Requirement—capacity to perceive all three dimensions of the spiritual triad.

67.              Requirement—capacity to see all things in the triple, blended light of the spiritual triad.

68.              Requirement—individual and group ability to negate the influence of form (especially its hold over consciousness).

69.              Requirement—individual and group ability to reduce the influence upon consciousness of that dimension usually called “soul”. This means the ability to perceive all things within the greater light of the triad, thus reducing (and even negating) perceptions achieved through lesser lights.

70.              Requirement—the ability to synthesize the perception of all things into a synthetic perception of the “macrocosmic Whole”.

71.              Requirement—ability to ‘isolate the Whole’ through the realization of “Isolated Unity” (at least in its initial stages, for it is the Master Who fully achieves the realization of “Isolated Unity”).

72.              Requirement—ability to ‘see’ and ‘be’ the One Soul so thoroughly that it becomes impossible to fall under the illusion of ‘separate souls’.

Rule VI for Disciples and Initiates

For Disciples and Initiates:  Let the group know that life is one and naught can ever take or touch that life.  Let the group know the vivid, flaming, drenching Life that floods the fourth when the fifth is known.  The fifth feeds on the fourth.  Let then the group—merged in the fifth—be nourished by the sixth and seventh and realise that all the lesser rules are rules in time and space and cannot hold the group.  It onward moves in life.

73.              Requirement—a vivid realization of the reality of the One Life.

74.              Requirement—a vivid realization of the immortality, invincibility and invulnerability of the One Life.

75.              Requirement—ability to experience the livingness of the fifth kingdom of nature (as fed by the solar fire of the Fifth Creative Hierarchy).

76.              Requirement—willingness to sacrificially offer one’s substance to the will of the fifth kingdom of nature (as the “fifth feeds on the fourth”).

77.              Requirement—individual and group ability to merge into the fifth kingdom of nature.

78.              Requirement—individual and group ability (while merged in the fifth kingdom) to be responsive to the sixth and seventh kingdoms.

79.              Requirement—ability to see through the illusion of “time and space”.

80.              Requirement—ability to see the relativity of the lesser rules—their insufficiency once the illusion of time and space is transcended.

81.              Requirement—ability to relinquish the lesser for the greater.

82.              Requirement—realization of the freedom from form which comes through identification as the group.

83.              Requirement—ability to perceive and identify with “life” and move forward, as a group, “in life”. This is done through the persistent intensification of identification.

The Tibetan’s Summary of the First Six Rules for Disciples and Initiates

1. The stage of the burning ground and the establishment of illumined group relation.  This is revealed by the mind, functioning as an aspect of the group mind.

84.              The illumination of the mind is a definite requirement. This is achieved at and following the second initiation.

2. The stage of ashramic recognition and the establishing of a forward-moving group rhythm; these reciprocal activities produce a needed group tension.

85.              The “great point of tension” can be considered Shamballa but also, more proximately, the Ashram that is specifically related to a specific group, or, later, the Great Ashram (the Hierarchy) related to all such groups.

3. The stage of emitting the group sound and the establishing of the power to invoke divinity, followed by a united group realisation that "God is Fire."

86.              Gemini is the sign of invocation, and also a sign correlated to the etheric body, which becomes a medium for the transmission of spiritual fire. The first vivid realization that “God is Fire” occurs in relation to the etheric body.

4. The stage of extinguishing the lesser fires through the means of the above realisation, and the establishing of a defined group reaction to the divine purpose or will; this results eventually in the negation of the Laws of Karma and Rebirth as they condition life in the three worlds.

87.              Cancer is a water sign and contributes to the extinguishing of the eighteen lesser, lunar fires of personality. The rule of the lower Cancerian influence is negated. Neptune (the higher ruler of Cancer) contributes to the escape from the lunar realm of rebirth and repetitive karma.

5. The stage of triadal perception and the establishing of spiritual contact, thus negating both the life of form and the soul.  Duality is no longer recognised.

88.              Mercury and the Sun become One and the antahkarana is resolved into an abiding perception of oneness. This perception is facilitated by Leo.

6. The stage of identification with the life aspect and the establishing of complete divine integration into the greater Whole.  The initiate then moves onward in life and not in consciousness—a concept and a truth which it is not possible for you to understand at this time. (R&I 225-226)

89.              Virgo, the sixth sign, is often considered a sign of division and discrimination, but it is also directly related to the monad on the sixth plane (from below), and, thus, to monadic awareness of the One Life. In a period of ‘higher gestation’—a third period differentiated from the birth of the body and the birth of soul consciousness, the realization of and participation in life emerges from the expanding consciousness.

90.              The Tibetan’s brief summary should be carefully pondered. It encapsulates the essences of the six Rules under consideration. Encapsulations of the remaining eight Rules are also to be found on these pages.

91.              The astrological and rayological correlations are to be seen and can be more extensively formulated by those who are interested.

General Points Regarding a Synthetic Consideration of the First Six Rules for Disciples and Initiates

92.              It must not be supposed that all these requirements are to be mastered sequentially. The mastery of any of them assists with the mastery of all others. The mastery of the entirety, therefore, grows organically and holistically.

93.              The general movement in these six more advanced Rules is from mental illumination, into deepening ashramic affiliation, into triadal awareness, away from personality involvement, into triadal identification and finally into identification with the One Life.

94.              Once the requirements for these six Rules are achieved, the individual and, more importantly, the group, is ready to become a planetary worker.

95.              As we study the later Rules, we can see the opportunity for planetary service unfold.

96.              Six is the number of form and also of the monad. We can see that through successful application of the first six Rules, all aspects of the human being (and of the group) are brought effectively ‘into shape’.

    1. The group is mentally polarized. The group mind is illumined by soul and increasingly by the triad, and the group is not only ready to more forward, but does so.
    2. There is group ability to invoke the Ashram and unitedly respond to that Ashram. The group is accepted by the Ashram.
    3. Utilizing the “clear, cold light”, the group can begin to invoke Shamballa successfully.
    4. The lower fires have been negated by the group will and the higher Will.
    5. There is a growing recognition of the light of the spiritual triad and increasing polarization within the spiritual triad.
    6. There is a merging into the fifth kingdom, with some responsiveness to the sixth and seventh.
    7. Life and the “Whole” are realized as realities.
    8. There is a fundamental identification with life—the “One Life” and a release from lower preoccupations. Integration from highest to lowest is reasonably complete.

97.              It is clear that the more advanced Rules lead the group into exalted realizations not possible to the disciple limited by strictly individual consciousness. Only the consciousness identified with and as the group can enter the higher dimensions discussed.

Where We are as a Group

98.              We are faced with demanding requirements.

99.              We are not quite at the half-way point of our meditative penetration and studies.

100.          By February 26th of this year (2005) we will be emerging from the period in which our progressed Moon has been in Pisces, and will be animated by a new sense of initiative (facilitated by the progression of the Moon into Aries).

101.          Because of transiting Saturn at the base of IC of the group chart, the 28 Rules Initiative is becoming more solidly and practically ‘anchored’.

102.          We are in the stage of ‘rehearsal’. Future life cycles involving intensified group interplay will see the more successful group fulfillment of these Rules.

103.          There has been some attrition. Some will naturally drop away due to all kinds of pressing demands, inertia, lack of continuing interest, or through the realization that their work lies elsewhere.

104.          Some remain on the periphery and can re-ignite their interest and participation. We look for this to happen as we press ahead.

105.          The difficulty of this group effort should not be underestimated. At the same time, it should be realize that persistence will “win the day”. We cannot hope to understand everything we study or to make all that we learn practical. We can, however, continue to integrate as a group and to deepen our approach and our responsiveness to the higher Sources.

106.          The real fruits of this group effort will be realized by those who persist.

107.          We, therefore, ask for a careful evaluation of where we have been (individually and as a group) and for a renewed commitment to a process of meditation, study and service which focuses on the essential curriculum for the new esoteric schools—both preparatory and advanced. These 28 Rules are the essence of esoteric group work in the Aquarian Age. If we ponder on this, we shall see the importance of attempting to do them justice.

108.          Excelsior!

Love and Many Blessings to All,

Michael and Stefan