IBS Commentary Continued
commentary by Michael D. RobbinsFebruary 1935
We can now, brother of mine, begin to do more definite work. E’en yet, however, you must proceed with care and for another few months I would suggest that you do no work, except that which I may here indicate.
(The progressed lunation has not yet occurred, and the progressed Sun/Moon phase is still balsamic, and thus vulnerable.)
178. We note with what extreme care the Master proceeds.
179. There is always the possibility that IBS may ‘bridle’ or “take the bit between her teeth”, to use the terminology of horsemanship. DK has observed that watching over her is “work”!
The rent in the etheric body, which reduced you to such a serious condition early last year is now sealed, but it would take only a little to re-open it again if you were subjected to undue strain.
(Protective transiting Jupiter is now doing its work opposed to its natal and progressed positions.)
180. DK is the master healer, as we well know. He understands inner causes of serious subjective difficulties.
181. We might sometimes think that work with astral thoughtforms carries no danger, but the example of IBS should prove otherwise. We are not only dealing with problems of glamor, illusion and delusion. We are dealing with dangerous physical effects arising from those astral contacts.
It was through this rent that the glamour entered in such full force and worked such temporary havoc in your life.
(Mars tears, and it is in natal bi-quintile relation to Uranus which disrupts. Both are in quintile relation to Mercury in Gemini which can reasonably be associated with the entire etheric system. The havoc is another interpretation of the transiting Neptune {the glamour} conjuncted to Uranus, the planet which, in part, rules the etheric body, and which is in testing or disruptive relation to the Sun.)
182. We remember that the etheric body is generically governed by the seventh ray, the ray of order. Astral forces are governed by the sixth ray, so often implicated in disorder. The seventh and sixth rays are not easily related.
183. It is advisable to follow the program of one Master or one Teacher. To activate cross-currents is to promote the possibility of rending. This is what happened to IBS, who already had emotional tendencies which contributed to relative chaos within the etheric body.
This testing glamour can serve the entire group of my disciples as an illustration of much that you will later study. Hence good is being wrested from seeming evil. Evil itself is but an illusion, for it is the use that is made of motive and opportunity by personality separativeness and selfishness which constitutes evil. From right motive and the same circumstances [Page 242] good may emerge. If no other result eventuates, this past experience will serve to make you and your co-disciples far more cautious in the future and less prone to leap to conclusions.
(That caution is represented for IBS by the Saturn/Moon conjunction on the IC of the relocated solar return chart for June 2, 1934.)
184. A member of the Hierarchy (under the impulse of Sanat Kumara) always looks for ways of bringing good out of evil; Sanat Kumara is, of all on our planet, most capable of this act of transformation.
185. DK calls the evil which befell IBS and the group, “seeming evil”. He uses the occasion to enlarge on an important point.
186. Circumstances themselves are neither good nor evil. The right use of motive and opportunity will create the appearance of good and the wrong use of evil.
187. DK is looking for the group benefit which may emerge from this bitter and chastening experience. A Master is always progressive; He recognizes that all experiences are to be used for the constant promotion of the good.
Glamour, when it is of such a definite kind, is most convincing and of a seeming reality. This is a definition of the word “glamour,” and the word “seeming” gives the clue.
188. A most important point about glamor is revealed; it is a “seeming reality”. If glamor did not seem real, it would not delude so many.
189. There are vague glamors and more concrete and definite glamors. An astral thoughtform of a Master, which masquerades as the Master, is a very definite glamor.
I have said that it is my intention to deal with each of you with utter frankness. We can, as a group of disciples, begin now our real work and can regard the past cycles as simply preparatory in nature. The objectives before each of you are to submit to such a discipline and to unfold your spiritual natures with such purpose that you can contribute much to the work of my Ashram. Each of you must work towards such a relative perfection so that your contribution may be of value and in no department of your nature can you cause hindrance. We are working towards a matured and synthesised group activity—as are all the Ashrams of all the teachers—and shall some day achieve it, but in this particular affiliated group the conditions for such work are not yet present.
(This group, Group IX.2, has perhaps the most difficult task, since the astral vehicle of humanity is the most formidable, and glamour is a condition largely arising from conditions within the astral vehicle. One can see how very prone to glamour IBS is, due to ray and astrological factors, and also to a strong personality polarization within the astral vehicle. )
190. DK speaks often of the “utter frankness” with which He will address His disciples. Perhaps when dealing with disciples in the ‘Glamour Group’, He has to be even more frank, as such disciples may be the most prone to delusion and untruth.
191. The Groups-of-Nine had the opportunity to contribute to Master DK’s Ashram. Unfortunately, it seems that they never really began their intended work. Certainly, this was true of Group IX.2. All the work DK did with them turned out to be largely preparatory.
192. Here we see Him hoping that the difficult experience befalling IBS and one other in the group would bring about the possibility for a true commencement of group work.
193. We note that these group members (and all of us, really) are to work towards a “relative perfection”—wise words, as true perfection is impossible for us (or really, for any finite being).
194. If we really want to be of use to the Hierarchy as it attempts to serve humanity, we must be ceaselessly about the task of self-perfecting.
Work steadfastly, therefore, at self-improvement and at the elimination of those personality faults which stand in the way of the general usefulness.
195. Self-improvement is closely related to Plutonic elimination. The Path of Probation is certainly eliminative and this process does not stop on the Path of Discipleship and the Path of Initiation.
My brother, for long you have occupied the centre of the stage in your own thought.
(This factor arises from the first ray misappropriated by the centralizing personality elemental, and from the ahamkaric influences of the Leo Moon.)
196. To be overly focussed on the little self is a form of blindness. The right use of the perspective-inducing Sagittarian energy should correct this.
You are not jealous in the ordinary sense of the word because your pride refuses to permit the usual form of jealousy.
(Sixth ray people are inclined towards jealousy. The influence of the first ray negates the usual form.)
197. Thus, in a sense, the first ray is a good corrective to the sixth. The first ray point of view is broader and it will not allow itself the indignities into which sixth ray people (so urgent in their desires) fall.
But you are ever conscious of being in the centre of your circle of human contacts and have a feeling of resentment—oft unrecognised—when this is not the case.
(The Leo Moon inclines the personality to take the center of the stage and to “be on stage” with frequency, thus commanding ego-feeding attention. We must remember that IBS is a singer, a performer, and has a strong stellium of planets in and near the fifth house, which, in its own way, is associated with the ahamkaric principle.)
198. There are some individuals for whom life proves dissatisfying if they are not at the center. The humiliating experience of the previous year was, in one way, decentralizing, though self-depreciation, itself, can be centralizing.
199. In a general sense, the personality is that within us which demands attention. Since it is fundamentally unreal, it demands the attention of others to reinforce the reality which it does not essentially possess.
This was one of the main factors in your humiliation last year.
(It can be considered that “humiliation” is part of the discipleship curriculum for first ray types, inducing as it does a more realistic self-estimation and a much-needed sense of proportion.)
200. Humiliation is only possible for one who is identified as a personality. When a justifiable negative attention comes to such a one, humiliation is the result. If there is an unjustified negative attack, the individual is not humiliated.
Such an attitude is easy of achievement and simple to hold; it is the line of least resistance for your personality. My word to you today is decentralisation.
(This word, “decentralisation”, comes at a time when the progressing Sun in Leo is focussed in the eighth house wherein conditions are staged for the defeat of the personal ego.)
You must struggle to shift your mind away from yourself as teacher, friend, wife, worker, or disciple of the Tibetan;
(This shift would be a movement towards the broadened perspective of the Sagittarian rising sign and away from the blinding ahamkara of the Leo Moon.)
you must cultivate that understanding heart which will make you more aware of others than of yourself.
(This would entail a shift from the self-centralizing solar plexus center to the decentralizing heart center.)
A hard saying and one not easy to express in thought and life!
(One of the spiritual possibilities latent in the coming progressed lunation in early Leo is the shift to the heart, which Leo can represent when ruled by higher Neptune in its role as representative of the “heart of the Sun” within the little system, i.e., the soul.)
201. We come to understand that the heart is an organ of decentralization.
202. We have been given a good testing point. Are we more aware of others than of ourselves? This does not mean to be superficially “other centered”, judging ourselves by what others think. Rather it means that all is relatively harmonious within our personal energy system and so we can attend to the harmonization of others and the environment.
In the last analysis, your problem is the subjection of your sixth ray personality to your first ray soul impulse. A study of the sixth ray characteristics will help you here, particularly if you remember that (being a disciple) it will be your sixth ray vibration [Page 243] which will cause you the most trouble and along which glamour will easily enter. It is, for instance, your personality fanaticism and your personality devotions (both to people and to ideas) which need tempering if your first ray power is to manifest. Your fanatical devotee will must be superseded by the purpose, ordered and steadfast, of your first ray soul.
(Also, since Leo is a sign which powerfully distributes the first Ray of Will and Power, this ray can be reinforced in the task of subduing the obtrusive presence of the more obvious sixth ray. The impending transits of two first ray planets, Uranus {in its monadic aspect} and first ray Pluto, could assist. The transits are a long-term proposition, and so is the task to be accomplished. Uranus and Pluto can both provide antidotes to the more obvious glamour-inducing tendencies of Neptune.)
203. DK states principles which are of use to all disciples. The ray of the personality must be subdued if the soul is to manifest, and it is the ray of the soul which will help to subdue the personality ray.
204. Trouble in the form of glamor and illusion will most easily enter along the line of our personality ray.
205. “Tempering” is a word well suited to that which the sixth ray personality must accomplish. It is related to the process of balance.
206. Many people mistake “fanatical devotee will” for true will (“purpose, ordered and steadfast”). We can see how the former is full of emotion and the latter is serene. The serenity of the first ray invites understanding.
207. Probably, for each of us a similar proposition could be formulated. Each of us has a soul ray and a personality ray. The one must supersede the other.
208. We note the important point that people upon the sixth ray may have personality devotions to both people and to ideas. There is rigidity in such devotions and a lack of that adaptability which is uniquely characteristic of the Adept.
In this last sentence is for you the key to your future unfoldment. The steely, brittle, determined, dynamic will of the devoted aspirant
(which can be aggravated by the lower tendencies of sixth ray Mars in the first ray sign, Aries)
must change into the steadfast, powerful, calm purpose of the soul, working through the disciple.
(For this purpose to emerge, a quieting of the entire nature must ensue, including the subjugation of excessive speech—which excess, the Gemini Sun and Mercury promote, and the Sagittarius Ascendant can subdue, though it, too, if misused will ally the solar plexus center to the throat center and crowd out the heart.)
209. The picture presented is vivid in its contrast: “steely” and “brittle” as opposed to “steadfast, powerful and calm”. One senses the capaciousness possible for someone truly representing the energy of the first ray.
210. The calmness required is also possible for the developed Sagittarian. Taurus (the sign most associated with Shamballa), can also help when it promotes an identification with the “Greatest Light”.
The soul is fluid in adjustment but undeviating in aim.
(Again we see Gemini and Sagittarius combined, but productively so.)
Likewise, the brilliant
(because it is reinforced the by the almost glaring light of the Leo Moon)
fanatical devotion to this, that or the other person or ideal must give place to the gentle unchanging love of the soul—the love of your soul for the soul of others.
(The possibility exists in the second ray rulership of the Gemini Sun sign—a sign in which the exoteric ruler of Gemini is also placed. As for Venus, the esoteric ruler of Gemini, it is conjoined in Taurus with Saturn, a planet which subdues, sobers, balances and restrains. Also, Jupiter, and Neptune, both planets of the heart, are close to Venus. A degree of gentleness can come, especially as she cultivates the second ray, which is to be the personality ray of her next incarnation, according to the Tibetan.)
211. Excellent hints are here given. The soul is “fluid in adjustment but undeviating in aim”. It can be said with reason that the personality is just the opposite.
212. We note DK calling for the expression of the “gentle unchanging love of the soul”—this despite the fact that IBS is a first ray soul.
213. We must remember that whatever the soul’s ray, the soul is the second aspect of the human trinity of periodical vehicles, and thus correlated to the second ray.
214. We find DK working towards the inculcation of second ray qualities. By the time an individual finishes an incarnation, if the ray of the personality of the next life is to be other than the personality ray of the present life, the ray of the future life should be somewhat in evidence.
In this lies for you a hint and your future success.
(She must have a second ray future, from the personality perspective.)
I think you will realise whereof I speak. In conformity to soul impulse mould your life and shift out of the realm of high desire and aspiration into that of settled purpose and an undeviating attachment to reality.
(Sagittarius can be clear-seeing; the settling factor which the Tibetan relates to purpose is the gift of Vulcan, the sacred planet on the first ray.)
215. DK is, in a way, asking IBS to change her planar focus. The higher subplanes of the astral plane should no longer be the focus of her consciousness. The mental plane is far more responsive to the will. “Settled purpose” may impress itself upon the mental plane.
You can resume your active study work and your meditation work as outlined by me below…When you are meditating see to it that you are relaxed and sit not so fiercely erect as is your usual custom.
(This little description is worth a thousand words; we can get the picture of the effect of the two sixth rays in her nature, which, in combination with the first ray and militant Mars in Aries produces that fierceness which is characteristic of the fiery side of the sixth ray.)
Rest back somewhat, achieving comfort and self-forgetfulness.
(It is a fault of the sixth ray people that they “try too hard”.)
216. Earlier DK asked her to “sit back”; now He asks her to “rest back”. The idea is the same. Second ray types will understand this, but first ray/sixth ray types will not—easily.
217. We can see that it has taken some time before it is safe for IBS to resume her normal studies. She obviously did herself considerable damage.
The meditation given will produce a needed reorganisation of your inner bodies and this will give fruitful results in your other contacts as well. The above is all that I have to say to you for the present, my brother. May the peace of your soul, the love of your co-disciples and the benediction of your Master rest upon you. Give to all the best that you have to give and fret not over results.
(Mars is the planet of “fret” and, in combination with the sixth and fourth rays, produces an unsettled and chafing state. Sagittarius is, from a certain perspective, the sign of the “horse”, and sixth ray Mars in Aries is also associated with “horses”—the “man-eating mares” of the first Hercules myth. The Tibetan is giving advice which intended to help hold back the wild horses.)
218. The meditation to be used is not given.
219. DK asks that the “peace” of IBS’ soul rest upon her; that peace may be related to the Shamballic Peace of the first ray.
220. The first ray, when in power, does not “fret”. The sixth and fourth rays (the rays ruling the agonizing Path of Probation) contribute to the state known as the “wretched aspirant”.
Relocated Solar Return for June 2, 1935
Progressions, Directions and Transits for November 15, 1935
(The main chart features for this period show that the progressed lunation in Leo has occurred, with transiting, transformational Uranus cyclically squaring this lunation. In July of 1935 there is a notable solar eclipse occurring on the progressed Sun and on all the factors found near it {natal Moon and Vertex}.
The progressed Moon is now in Leo and this should contribute to emergence and manifestation of the light. Jupiter, by transit, has entered the sign Sagittarius, and is trining the progressed Leo positions. Questing Chiron has been transiting conjunct the natal Sun in Gemini inclining towards spiritual adventure. Saturn, by transit in Pisces, is preparing to oppose natal and progressed Uranus, and to square the natal Sun. Progressed Uranus has completed the exact square to the natal Sun on October 19, 1935. The influence of Saturn is highly desirable in this chart and this life, as it brings a necessary restraint. Saturn, natally, is conjoined to Venus, the planet of soul culture, in the sign of illumination, Taurus. The disciplines of light are needed and a stronger mental focus, to which third ray Saturn conjuncting fifth ray Venus can contribute. When transiting Saturn is active in the chart, it will work in association with the meaning of its natal position. This is true of all planets, so transits can never be read in isolation.
One more important factor, more subtle, relates to the Earth, which is the esoteric ruler of the Sagittarian Ascendant. For the last few years the progressed Earth position has been in Aquarius, the sign which so powerfully influences the newer groups. The moment of the progressed lunation, too, had implications for the Earth, for it created a progressed Sun/Moon/Earth alignment. The new focus in Leo with its opportunities to subdue the personal ego {Leo} and bring in more powerfully the light of the soul {also associated with Leo} is paralleled by the tendency to more practical Aquarian service {Earth in Aquarius} within the field of planetary experience {ruled by the Earth}. There is a kind of ‘death’ experience taking place for Leo in the eighth house, and a kind of counterpoised group-building experience which is possible within the second house where the Earth in Aquarius is found, the second house being, esoterically, Vulcan’s house, and hence associated with the process of spiritual building under the guidance of the spiritual will. It should also be noted that the solar eclipse at 6º Leo17, quite close to the progressed Sun/Moon in Leo, brings to the fore the whole question of decentralization. What Leonian factor will control: the will of the personality or the will of the soul?)
November 1935
MY BROTHER:
The past year of effort should have prepared you for changes and for increased usefulness in service. That your will is directed to service is well known to me and to your fellow disciples
(for the Sun, as personality indicator, is placed within the sixth house of service and discipleship training)
but your field of service should be greater at this time than it is.
(The widening of the scope of service comes under expansive Jupiter which, transiting in Sagittarius, will soon cross the soul-inspired Ascendant and trine the progressed Sun/Moon. Possibility for advancement exists.)
Wherein lies the difficulty? Why are you not more [Page 244] potent in helping others than you are? Shall I tell you why, my brother?
221. Again it is a question of whether the disciple can take advantage of the ambient opportunities.
222. In order to expand IBS’ service potentials, DK undertakes a close analysis of the reasons for her relatively circumscribed service.
The reason is to be found in the difficult combination caused by your two rays in expression—the sixth ray and the first. When your sixth ray personality can work, free from the influence of your soul ray and be one-pointedly directed towards some determined programme, there is no hindrance in your physical plane expression. When your first ray ego can likewise so work, then much will be accomplished by you.
(IBS is an individual with the Sun in Gemini, which immediately indicates duality and oscillation. Eventually a union of soul and personality (and even synthesis of spirit and soul) has to be achieved in Gemini, but the Tibetan is pointing out that, presently, a kind of alternation exists between two energies which do not blend successfully.)
223. The Master is speaking in the ‘Language of Energy’. For IBS, either energy—that of personality or of soul—can be successful if operating by itself. Together, however, they are not easily handled.
224. Although the combination of a first ray soul and sixth ray personality is difficult to handle, there were three disciples in the Tibetan’s groups who had this combination. Four disciples on the first ray had the second ray personality, one the third ray, three the fifth ray, three the sixth ray, and one the seventh ray. We note that none had the very difficult combination of the first and fourth rays (the rays of Napoleon or of an Alexander).
But, at the present time, your first ray expression in conjunction with your sixth ray personality produces more destructive work than a manifestation of the divine purpose of your soul. In your efforts, for instance, to help people, your sixth ray devotion is apt to frighten them away from you and your first ray power oft shatters that particular inner body which is for them their weakest point; you are then left as ever the “one who stands alone.”
(The problem is one of proportion; there is a need for proportionate response and co-measurement in the expression of energy. “In the Center of all Love I stand…”)
225. The problem is clearly described. There is an overly dynamic, one-pointed energy focus.
226. What may be interesting for us is to think of our own energetics. How often are we strictly focussed as a personality, or as a soul without personality focus, or as both the soul and personality in combination. If focussed as a combined soul and personality, do we have a beneficent effect on others, or not?
227. We can see that IBS becomes rather fierce in her energy focalization. People tend to run away from too much intensity.
228. An occult effect is also discussed; the weakest body of the one to be helped is shattered by first ray power.
This is characteristic of the beginner in the conscious life of a first ray soul. Is this not oft the case with you, my brother? It is not that people do not love you, for they do; it is not that you do not love them, for you do. It is that you are too dynamic in your approach and the force that flows through you destroys as quickly as it builds and drives away by its “blast of out-going power” that which you sought to attract and which has been temporarily attracted.
(The great need is the second ray, which can only be acquired by transferring solar plexus energy to the heart {transmuting Mars into Jupiter} and invoking the love aspect of the first ray soul—for all souls, no matter what their ray, are endowed with all three aspects of divinity. A centralization in love would suffice, rather than a centralization within the dramatic, fiery personality.)
229. DK is not dealing with a more advanced first ray soul, like JWK-P, or perhaps, IAP. IBS is, relatively, a beginner in the handling of first ray energy. Her astrology does not make it any easier; there are three powerful positions in fire.
230. DK tells IBS she loves and is loved. The second ray is somehow present. But that over-emphatic personality fed by first ray dynamism is too much for ordinary human situations.
231. The term “blast of out-going power” is so descriptive of the energy dynamics one can imagine in relation to IBS. There is simply a lack of co-measurement in the expression of energy.
232. Attractions prove temporary; those initially attracted are driven away by well-meaning intensity.
You lose so many people out of your range of influence, and this you well know and it bewilders you. The fault lies primarily in you and not in them.
233. DK does not go so far as to say that IBS loses people; rather she loses them out of her range of influence.
234. The problem is simply one of energy dynamics. More heart and less head, throat and solar plexus would solve the problem.
You see, my brother, I am seeking to begin your training as a worker; hence my emphasis upon this first ray characteristic of your soul (as it vitalises your sixth ray nature). You must begin to handle it wisely if you are ever to be of use.
(A Master is many things to His disciple; in this case, D.K. is playing the role of Saturn, restraining, and calling for realistic assessment; transiting Saturn is moving into the position of a T-Square with the natal Sun and natal and progressing Uranus in Virgo.
235. A Master, above all, seeks to make His disciples useful. So much of their usefulness depends upon their right handling of energy and force.
236. Many disciples are naïve about the nature of their energy impacts on others. The first ray type, by driving others away, learns of the need for the use of gentler, more attractive energies.
237. Perhaps the greatest naiveté is to be found in relation to the fire signs—especially in relation to Aries and Leo (both so easily self-obsessed and thus relatively unobservant of others).
In an earlier teaching, I endeavoured to awaken you to the risk of constantly assuming the position of the “one in the centre.”
(Her Leo indicators reinforce this first ray tendency.)
That attitude, as well as the one to which I today refer, is also distinctive of a first ray soul and the presence of these two attitudes (of the one in the centre and the one who stands alone) are indicative of the fact that your first ray soul is beginning to assume some control over your personality. Is this not a real encouragement?
(Soul influence must be recognized even in seemingly negative effects. At first, it is the negative effects which will be more easily recognized.)
238. Two qualities are named as characteristic of the first ray soul: “the one who stands alone” and “the one at the center”. DK seeks to turn a negative and disappointing situation into an opportunity for recognition.
You are on the verge of seeing the results [Page 245] of your work with your own nature. If you can accept that which I have to say in connection with the destructive aspects of your soul contact, you can save yourself much difficulty and trouble and save other people too. You might rightly ask me how and in what manner you can offset these tendencies. I can but reply to you with simple and ordinary truths—so simple and so ordinary that their scientific value is easily overlooked. I say to you: Lose interest in your personality life, in its contacts and affairs by substituting a dynamic interest in world work.
(A more mental attitude is required, which a prominent Mercury in world-aware Gemini, can give. The Sagittarian seeker has his eyes upon the Divine Plan, and world service {the Earth, as esoteric ruler of Sagittarius, is in Aquarius} is the goal. The antidote is simple: “Take your eyes off your personal self.” One can see how well the higher aspects of Sagittarius are designed to lead into a more impersonal future, {“Impersonality” was IBS’s first keynote} and away from a personal, self-centered past, represented by the Leo Moon—the “prison of the soul”, veiling in this case, most probably, Neptune, and indicating the glamour of personality.)
Do not arrive at this detachment through an intensification of your sixth ray personality attitudes; we do not desire to have fanatics in association with us. Arrive at it through a deepening of your love nature as it includes others and excludes your own lower nature.
(The desired transition is clearly from Mars to Jupiter.)
239. The advice is extraordinarily sound. Love is the answer. Let us ponder on the love which “includes others and excludes {ones own} lower nature”.
240. It will not be long before perspective-giving Jupiter transits the natal Ascendant, bringing the vision of the soul to the fore. DK asks for a wider point of view, focussed on world work and not on the lower self.
241. This is so simple a solution that it may be overlooked.
242. Sometimes minor adjustments can result in major gains. The Master is an occultly scientific server, and points out the adjustments which will rescue the disciple from the “cycle of futility”. We can see IBS caught in such a cycle.
243. The sixth ray also can achieve a certain detachment, but it will cause cleavages. The loving detachment of the heart creates unity. The problem is simple, but takes long to work through.
I say to you: Work with detachment and, because you are demanding nothing for the separated self,
(first ray demands)
all things will, therefore, come to you
(second ray magnetism).
244. Some of the fundamentals of the Path are stated. “Ask nothing for the persona self”. Perhaps the first ray type demands things for the personal self.
245. We are told that “to those who give all, all is given”. We are here told that ‘all things come to the one who demands nothing for the separated self’ (the self which is a great illusion).
You will not then stand alone but will function as an attractive magnetic unit in group service. Here, therefore, lies your immediate problem. You have to learn to be decentralised and to step out of the centre of your own picture. You have to learn to be magnetic and to build and not destroy. Ponder on these suggestions and work simply, quietly and happily at your problem.
(D.K. seeks to render the life of IBS less dramatic; the stellium of Taurean planets and a Sagittarian rising sign confers abundant fourth ray, strengthened by dramatic Leo.)
246. Three things are asked, and they relate to the three Rays of Aspect.
a. decentralization
b. magnetism
c. quiet happy work
247. The first ray type can eventually become magnificently decentralized and can also be, under Vulcan, a great builder.
248. If we had any doubts, we must conclude that discipleship means work.
You are facing strange and new contacts
(which can be brought in under the transiting Uranus square to the progressed Sun, and increasingly, through the transit of Uranus over the Taurean stellium during the next number of years.)
and hence you can, if you so choose, expand your field of service. Forget not, however, that every expansion of consciousness, resulting in increased scope for service, is to be taken at a cost and for this you will have to be prepared.
(Expansive Jupiter is active, as it will conjunct the Ascendant in 1936, but transiting Saturn will exact the price. Moreover, transiting Saturn is in the sign of relinquishment—Pisces. The transit of Saturn through the third house of mind will enhance the possibilities of increasing mental focus and polarization.)
(ED notes, concerning the “strange contacts” and the changes which are to take place in life environment and circumstances, the following: The progressed Moon (ruler of the ninth house of travel and the seventh house of contacts ) conjuncts the natal Moon in the eighth house (‘strange occurrences’) in December 1935. The progressed MC trines the natal Moon in November 1935 and the progressed Uranus squares the natal Sun, the ruler of the eighth house. In February 1936 the Nodal Axis directed by solar arc aspects the natal Ascendant.
249. These contacts can be both inner and outer in nature.
250. An important principle is related: every expansion has its price. Thus in a way, every Jupiter has its Saturn. Every entry into a new field requires a detachment from a former field of interest.
251. The “cost” always involves the letting go of the lesser.
252. Presumably, adaptability will be required of IBS, and the ability to cultivate that more gentle magnetism which will not drive away the new contacts coming her way.
But you are a strong and steadfast soul, provided you can keep a poised and steadfast attitude of mind and emotion and preserve yourself free from personal ambition.
(There is much ambition in all the fire signs, even in Sagittarius and certainly, it is a common trait of first ray types.)
Then you can win through to your goal.
(Again, Sagittarius)
253. It is the task of the Master to subtly strengthen His chela. This He does by providing both incentive and warning in the very same breath. The positive and negative are so poised that a positive approach can be taken to the truthfully-indicated negatives.
Leave people free and seek not to influence them or to impose your ideas upon them. Your interpretation of them and of their need (no matter how close they may be to you) is not necessarily correct. Leave people free in all respects—with the freedom that you demand and expect for yourself.
(Uranus is the great planet of freedom and it is becoming more active in the chart during this period. The natal Uranus square Sun aspect induces a demand for freedom.)
254. Lessons surrounding freedom are always pivotal for first ray souls. Perhaps first ray types learn more readily to leave others free than sixth ray types. When these two rays are combined, however, there can be a real problem with exerting imposition.
255. Imposition is useful in various ways, and the Political Workers do work with the imposition of the Divine Will. But great love and understanding are required if the Will of God is to be imposed in such a way as to further the Divine Plan.
May I, in all love and tenderness, suggest that the ideas, methods, formulas and ways of living which seem right to you (and are right for you) may be entirely undesirable for others and that, if you force them on those others, their souls may remove them from [Page 246] your influence in the cause of freedom to expand.
(What is needed is a widening of the Sagittarian vision—a vision undoubtedly sincere, but insufficiently wise to balance the direct and directive energies mobilized under the combination of first and sixth rays.)
In this suggestion lies for you the clue to much that is destructive in your best effort and this should convey to you the method for your and their deliverance.
256. The hint may be in the words “May I, in all love and tenderness, suggest…” This approach is the very opposite of imposition. DK is anything but emphatic in His suggestion. He invites IBS’ understanding recognition.
257. A very interesting idea is advanced. A soul/Solar Angel oversees the progress of its personality. If the soul considers a certain human contact disadvantageous for the development of its personality, the soul may remove the personality from the range of that particular human contact.
258. It is interesting to consider that when people leave us, a higher power may be removing them from our range of influence!
259. All souls crave freedom and scope for expansion. Imposition (via Vulcan and Saturn) limits this possibility. If a personality remains connected to one who willfully imposes in the manner here discussed, there must be a karmic factor necessitating the continued presence of the imposing one.
260. We do get the sense that IBS is very well-meaning—just insufficiently skilled in self-knowledge and in the handling of the dynamic energies and forces which pour through her.
You may now resume your full quota of work and I suggest for your consideration the following breathing exercise.
(It has taken more than a year and a half to repair the damage arising from her bout with glamour. Let us be warned of deviating from the program suggested by the Teacher and required of those within a Master’s group or Ashram.)
Please continue with the same meditation. Do a simple breathing exercise each morning and as you work at it, regard it as your meditation process, and so run a dual line of thought and work. Proceed as follows:
261. Occult training is not a speedy process. That which is built well, is built slowly.
262. We note that DK continues to model the attitude He would have IBS assume. He constantly suggests rather than directs.
1. Inhale on 8 counts, and as you do so, say to yourself, retaining the entire process in the head and on mental levels: “With self-forgetfulness I gather what I need for the helping of my fellowmen.”
2. Then follows an interlude of 12 slow counts, during which you ponder on the strength, the wisdom and the love which must be shown to your fellowmen.
3. Exhale on 10 counts, saying: “With self-forgetfulness, I breathe out love upon my fellowmen.”
4. Then comes an interlude of 12 counts in which you ponder upon love to all beings.
Then repeat the process, only this time carry on the work entirely in the heart instead of in the head.
263. This is one of the exercises incorporated into the curriculum of the Arcane School.
264. The idea suggested is that breathing exercises which are accompanied by correct thought are far more potent than simple, mechanical breathing exercises.
265. The number of counts in this exercise adds to forty-two. The numbers for each of the four stages are not casually assigned and must be deeply related to occult physiology. We notice that the exhalations are always longer than the inhalations.
Progressions, Directions and Transits for Feb 15 1936
(At this writing, transiting Chiron {a planet which directs the life towards search} is conjuncting the natal Sun. Transiting Jupiter is soon to make its first conjunction of the Ascendant, offering expanded soul influence and a much needed breadth of vision. Transiting Saturn{the planet of discipline} is squaring natal Sun and opposed to natal Uranus. Further, a solar eclipse is due on June 16, 1936 at 27º Gemini 44’, conjunct the seventh house cusp and Mercury, the exoteric ruler of the seventh house cusp. There will be changes in partnership and close personal relations, as well as in the entire matter of relating.)
February 1936
I was correct, was I not, my brother, in telling you in an earlier instruction that changes were to take place in your life and environment and circumstances. You have seen much and travelled much since that time.
(Expansive Jupiter in Sagittarius has, indeed, been at work, widening the vision. Uranus, also, is much associated with travel and change and continues its important square.)
266. Mercury is also fluid and mobile, and gives many contacts with others (seventh house).
267. In His prophecies, does the Tibetan work with astrology or intuition or both?
What has been the gain up to this moment? Do you feel your inner life enriched? Are you less introverted and more self-forgetfully outgoing? Always you went forth to the helping of others but never did you forget your position as the helper; therefore, there was always the unconscious drawing of the one to be helped to you yourself, in a personal sense and frequently a subsequent rebound away from you. Do you lead them now to lose sight of you in the vision of their own souls?
(One part of the necessary equation has always been present—she has gone forth to help, but the eyes were still upon the little self. Even though expansive Jupiter is at work, the problem will not simply go away while there is so much emphasis upon Leo through the recent progressed lunation, and the progress of progressing Moon through Leo—the sign of selfhood.)
268. DK recounts the story of IBS’ service relationships. Eager helpfulness for mixed motives results in a rebound from the one who offers the help.
269. If IBS could only step off the center of her own stage, those drawn to her would remain with her.
270. If she loses her desire to be seen by the ones she helps, and encourages them to envision that which their soul would have them see, they will stay with her, because she is promoting their soul development. No one will rightly remain with another who is inimical to their soul expression (unless the reason is pure altruistic service or karma).
271. We have to understand that the desire to be seen is rooted in a deep ontological insecurity. One needs to be assured that he/she is real.
272. IBS needs refinement in her technique of interpersonal relations. The technique will automatically improve when the motive is correct.
[Page 247] These are questions which you alone can answer and they still hold for you indication of a needed task. Liberation for you lies in submergence in your group of fellow disciples
(this is the Aquarian rather than the Leonian response)
and in the elimination—as I have earlier told you—of your sixth ray fanaticism.
(The solar return still active in this period shows Aquarius upon the Ascendant, inclining towards decentralization and group cooperation. In the last analysis, fanaticism is simply a lack of consideration of others and is, essentially, a self-centered attitude. It is the attempt of the part to impose itself upon the whole.)
273. We note how often Master DK has to repeat the main points. As a parent, one may find oneself repeating certain principles many times for one’s children. The analogy, I think, holds.
Along this latter line you have made much progress and are much to be commended. Now the life of the first Ray of Will or Power must sweep increasingly into prominence. For you, it is not so much the imposition of the will aspect which is needed but the understanding of the Plan and your consequent intelligent cooperation with that Plan.
(Note the similarity here with the orientation of JWK-P. The present transiting aspects from partially-first ray Saturn, and partially-first ray Uranus, will help confer a vision of the Plan—a vision which automatically induces humility, restraint, co-measurement, and the prioritization so much needed by those ruled by the often impulsive sixth ray).
274. We note that DK warns IBS away from anything resembling imposition. She is not ready to think in those terms.
275. The first ray is to be approached through a realization of Plan and Purpose. The wide vision and impersonality of the first ray are thus induced.
But it is the plan for humanity and not the plan for you as a partner and cooperator with the greater Plan.
(How clear it is that a widening of the Sagittarian vision, through Jupiter and the heart is a great need, followed simply by steadfast and non-dramatic service.)
276. Broad vision will induce impersonality. We remember that IBS is to contemplate two deep states related to the first ray: “Being” and “Synthesis”. It is her instinctual ‘personalism’ which prevents her from realizing these greater states more fully.
277. If she contemplates the Plan for humanity, she will avoid the danger of fixating upon her role in the Divine Plan. The ‘lion of selfhood’ must be cornered, for it is always adept at escape.
278. Large considerations will dwarf the little personality—a desirable outcome in her case.
In your personal reading and study for the coming months, I suggest that you search out all references to the Plan in my books, noting the aspects which are of immediate import and dealing not with the plan for the coming race and for the distant future. Then list briefly and concisely the salient points in the Plan; be not prolix and train yourself to a brevity which in no way negates lucidity.
(This is clearly a period in which the Divine Vision, under Jupiter in Sagittarius, is being promoted in order to decentralize her and produce a sense of right proportion; humility is said to be “an adjusted sense of right proportion”. Under the concretizing transits of realistic Saturn, D.K. is trying to render this disciple truly useful.)
279. Master DK often uses this technique: He has a student focus on a certain concept, gathering thoughts and perhaps producing a paper, article or book.
280. Gemini, we know, can be very verbal. Mercury in Gemini furthers this tendency. Jupiter is also now prominent. DK is seeking to help IBS get to the point (the Sagittarian point). He wants to her understand the essence of the Plan, with lucidity, not prolixity.
281. To JWK-P, He advised writing in a manner “brief but full”. To IBS He suggest ‘brief but lucid’. The first ray must learn to go to the essence.
Proceed with the breathing exercises I assigned you for they are producing in you much needed changes.
(Reorganization is in process. Order and discipline enter under Uranus and Saturn. Regulation and a re-ordering of the life are required.)
Adhere closely to my instructions and carry forward the work; it should now be automatic. Note how, in doing so, you are carrying forward three lines of activity simultaneously:
1. A physical activity..
282. There is no further elaboration on this point, unless He means the mechanics of breathing during the breathing exercise.
2. An imaginative activity which sees the above moving of energy in an ordered rhythm and which visualises it as being raised.
3. A thought activity which is subjectively and steadily aware of the dual process and of its objectives. The objectives are to organise the energy body and so order the forces of the body that a mental effect is achieved.
283. We have noted the absence of seventh ray energy in IBS’ ray-makeup. The only constellation which confers the seventh ray, and which is active in her horoscope, is Aries, but Mars in that sign does not emphasize the seventh ray nature of Aries.
To all these, a fourth activity might be added—that of the Observer, of the soul on its own plane, perceiving or looking on at the development of this triple functioning.
(Perspective, the gift of a high Sagittarian vibration, is needed to facilitate the process of regulation and re-ordering. Sagittarius, when it loses its impulsiveness, can see clearly as from a distance.)
Forget not, my brother, that all disciples must learn to be conscious simultaneously on all three planes and to carry on consciously several activities. This exercise should train you in this facility. I would remind you that there is often a deeply scientific raison [Page 248] d’être for the exercises and suggestions which I may give. They may not be apparent to you at first but your ignorance in no way negates the efficacy of that suggested
(Forever, D.K., through straight language, which a first ray individual can come to appreciate, is attempting to produce a deglamorizing and realistic self-estimation);
the inner work of organisation can proceed easily e’en when there is no understanding of the reasons for which it is done.
284. We may take this advice to heart. The Teacher offers many suggestions. He has no time to explain the reason for His suggestions, nor would we necessarily understand. Part of occult obedience is to trust what is said and carry it out.
285. DK refers to the raison d’être as deeply “scientific”. It would seem that Master DK could gain the rightful trust of His chelas, and they would simply carry out His suggestions, but the matter is often more complicated.
286. When we approach the Fourteen Rules for Applicants or the Fourteen Rules for Disciples and Initiates, we approach in a state of semi-ignorance, which only increases in relation to the later rules. It is important to realize, however, that our complete understanding of what the Master advises is not necessary. It would help, of course, but it is not necessary. When we eat good food, the nutritional results occur whether or not we know the chemical and physiological reasons which render such food nutritious.
As to your meditation work, I seek at this time to change it. You have followed for a long time that which I gave you earlier. I now suggest meditation work to be most carefully followed and attempted with due watching of the effects. This entire meditation is to be carried forward in the heart—not in the physical heart but in the heart centre between the shoulder blades and in the etheric body. Thought must be kept off this location, however, after the first definite focussing of the consciousness in the etheric body. Here is the meditation:
287. It is interesting that while the meditations for many other disciples are not included in the DINA books, quite a number of meditations for IBS are.
288. It may be that IBS’ problems are similar to those experienced by many disciples and are, therefore, useful to the average reader.
1. Alignment with the soul, to be carried forward as rapidly as possible until it becomes eventually almost instantaneous. Then say with deliberation: I am the soul. The soul am I.
289. The first ray type can and should approach meditation processes with relative rapidity. JWK-P also carried forward brief alignments.
2. Then centre your consciousness in the love aspect of your nature, the energy which flows through the heart centre and endeavour to keep it steadily there. However, forget about the fact of the heart centre and keep the mind predominantly upon the love aspect of the soul. Say then: I pour out love upon the sons of men.
290. DK seeks to keep IBS from ‘physicalizing’ the meditation. The heart center is to be the focus and not the physical heart; even more than the heart center, it is to be the quality of love which is the focus.
3. Then for fifteen minutes ponder upon the nature and significance of love.
291. DK is building the second ray into His chela. That building occurs through correct pondering.
4. After pondering the subject of love for three weeks each month, you can (during the fourth week) study with care the thoughts that have come into your mind in connection with this theme. This you can do from the following three angles:
a. Of right or of wrong action in the expression of love.
b. Of motive, high or low, in the expression of love.
c. Of soul activity in the expression of love.
292. We see that simple pondering on the quality of love can produce considerable effects. Complexity of meditation is no guarantee of efficacy.
The sixth ray expression of love is usually idealistic and fanatically applied; frequently, true love itself is lacking and there is the imposition upon others of what the person himself thinks is love. It was the second ray energy [Page 249] of love which, in the case of Christ, dominated His sixth ray Personality. Slowly and gradually, this domination must begin to take place in you.
(The theme of true love is being contrasted with idealistic love. Jupiter, the second ray planet of love is presently placed in the principally sixth ray, idealistic sign Sagittarius. The time is propitious to contrast the two approaches to love and to further develop within IBS the more second ray approach. Venus, the planet of love and mind united has been progressing through second ray Gemini, and has been and is in the vicinity of the South Node in Gemini. Thus, second ray Jupiter is temporarily upon the North Node and second ray/fifth ray Venus is more enduringly, by progression, upon the South Node. Intensifying contact with the love energy is increasingly possible. Venus, further, is the esoteric ruler of IBS’s Gemini Sun, just as Jupiter is the exoteric ruler of her soul-inclined Sagittarian rising sign. Her life needs much of the right kind of Venus/Jupiter energy.)
293. The sixth ray rules the “Law of Love”, systemically, but the sixth ray type is also told, “love more your fellowmen”.
294. The reference to the Christ is extremely interesting, and a great example is set for many aspirants and disciples. The second ray energy of the Christ (from both His soul and monad) dominated the sixth ray force of His personality. Indeed, as it appears, He had a personality. Domination of the lower by the higher was needed, even though He was a Master of the Wisdom.
295. If we are to practice the “Imitation of Christ”, we must do likewise.
The rest of the meditation you know, and it need not be recorded here.
Relocated Solar Return for June 2, 1936
Progressions, Directions and Transits for August 15, 1936
(Major chart features for this period reveal the transiting Uranus squaring the natal Moon bringing the possibility of destabilization of the lunar vehicles, but also their re-ordering and reorganization. Jupiter continues its transit in Sagittarius in relation to the North Node. The transit of Uranus has conjuncted the natal Venus/Saturn conjunction, and will again do so. This could be powerful for the reorganization of the mind, rendering it more dominant and more occult. There is also a solar eclipse exactly on natal Mercury and very close to the Descendant and, later, another solar eclipse within four degrees of the proposed Ascendant)
August 1936
MY BROTHER OF OLD:
I am anxious that you should realise that at the time of the full moon this year one cycle of training and of integration closed and a new one started.
(The Tibetan seems to work in five year cycles with respect to this training.)
The keynote of the cycle which passed was discovery
(which is one of the major themes of the explorative sign Sagittarius)
—discovery of weakness, not a negative discovery but one which was fraught with responsibility; discovery of your fellow disciples and of your brothers,
(as the eyes were taken off the personal self)
as pilgrims on the Path; discovery of the goal and a consequent pledging of yourself to that goal
(becoming truly a pledged disciple, one-pointedly oriented to the goal, under Sagittarius. Combining the Sagittarian and sixth ray energy, we have the energy of the pilgrim.)
discovery of the work to be done and discovery of the Plan.
(Keying with the theme of discovery, there will be a solar eclipse at 21º Sag49’ on December 13, 1936. The meaning and potential of Sagittarius, and its influence upon the present incarnational identity, should come home strongly at this time and during the subsequent months.)
296. The cycle under discussion is not so much a personal one, as one related to the group.
297. The year 1936 was also extremely important in relation to the New Group of World Servers, and saw a major initiative of goodwill sponsored by Hierarchy.
298. Before a group can work successfully together, it must pass through this period of “discovery”. The group and its personnel must be ‘brought into the light’, and this has certainly occurred, with both inspiring and distressing consequences.
All these discoveries have come to you and have unfolded in your consciousness during the past few years. You have learnt and known much. Now a new cycle begins and the keynote of that must be integration with a view to its essential nature, its dominant need, and the work to be carried forward during the next few years. How shall this integration be achieved?
(Leo is one of the major signs of integration and the strong Leo emphasis continues in the progressing chart. But Leo is also the sign of the separative, egoistic attitude.)
299. Again, however, DK is speaking in group terms—a tendency which He increased as the world condition of the times worsened.
As I study the disciples in this particular group, affiliated with my Ashram, I ask myself if it is possible that they can swing into the needed rhythm and so learn to work together as a unit. You are all so intensely individual and not only so, but you are proud of it.
(Here D.K. discusses the Leo/Aquarius dilemma which faces all modern disciples within groups that are supposed to reflect increasingly Aquarian values. IBS, with her strong Leo tendencies, is certainly one of these disciples.)
300. It is the Group of Trained Observers (Group IX.2) which is presently under review by the ‘Master’s Eye’.
301. Individualism is a liability when it becomes a general condition characterizing the group personnel. It is even more serious when the group members are proud of their individualism.
302. We can see that Master DK, prior to a new cycle of work, is undertaking an evaluation of the group process to date, and sharing some aspects of that evaluation with the members of the groups.
You are deeply and subconsciously satisfied with this separative attitude. The group rhythm, the group unity, the group integrity and the group synthesis are secondary in the consciousness of several of you to your own individual development, to your own attitudes, and to your own personal points of view.
(He is naturally including IBS in this assessment, but taking some of the sting away by including others in Group IX.2 who have the same problem, and thus using this occasion as an opportunity for group teaching.)
303. The problem is ever the same: shall the attitude of the group member be primarily promotive of the group, its welfare and its purpose, or shall the theme of individual progress loom overly large?
I have only three disciples in this particular group who are free from this weakness and who are primarily concerned with group life in contradistinction to the individual unfolding life.
(DHB, DLR, both of whom were mentally polarized, and who else? Possibly DPR, who despite many struggles—mostly with circumstance—was strongly oriented towards service. If this assessment is correct, then two of the disciples had first ray souls, and one of them both a first ray mind and astral nature. On the other side, LTS-K and LUT were two who were most responsible for delaying the progress of the group.)
The remainder are individualistic still, but not group members, integrated into the group. In saying this, I state to you your [Page 250] problem.
(Uranus has an individualistic quality as well as many higher meanings; the present transiting square to the Moon must accent this individualism as expressed within the subconscious nature ruled by the Moon.)
304. There is no question but that IBS is included among those who are “individualistic still” and, therefore, “not group members, integrated into the group”. This must have come as a “hard saying”.
I realise that you love your co-disciples and that you have a real devotion to me, your teacher; you love the path which leads to light
(as an advanced Sagittarian individual would, for Sagittarius rules the “glorification of the Path”)
but you and the others are still the dramatic centres of your own lives and you are too much the forceful actors upon your own stage, on which you each seek to play a leading part;
(The Tibetan is speaking in unusually potent Leo imagery, for Leo is the dramatic, personal actor on the stage of selfhood).
305. IBS does love. This has often been noted. She—and, it appears, several others— fail in their decentralization. He is almost accusing them of competition, and certainly of the desire to shine.
subordination to group life, so necessary a factor in the work to be done, is as yet unappreciated.
(Leo is a sign of insubordination and Saturn, the planet which induces subordination, is in detriment in this sign, though very potent on a higher turn of the spiral.)
The reason for this is that you are dwelling as yet upon the astral plane; there is the focus of your consciousness. It is a high level of the astral plane but until you can shift to mental levels and there learn to hold the mind steady in the light, your sense of proportion must inevitably be wrong and the first and necessary things will not hold the first and necessary place.
(The bi-quintile/quintile relationship, which includes Mars, Mercury and Uranus, is very important here. Mars in relation to Mercury influences the mind from the astral plane, for Mars is, predominantly, a sixth ray planet; but Uranus is an occult and mysterious planet, connected with higher mind and intuition, and it, too, is in quintile to Mercury. Which one of these will come to dominate—that is the question. The capacity to hold the mind steady in the light is, potentially built into this horoscope, with Venus, planet of the light, conjuncted to Saturn, one of the planets of holding, and both are placed in the preeminent sign of light, Taurus. The presently occurring transit of occult Uranus to this conjunction of Venus/Saturn should stimulate a necessary mental vibration. Saturn transiting through the third house of mind, wherein concentration must be achieved, may also aid.)
306. We are prompted to think of the astral plane as a plane of distortion. Those with an astral focus (even a high astral focus) will not see things in true proportion.
(The astral polarization of which D.K. speaks is carried by sixth ray Neptune widely square the ‘emotional’ Moon, and by sixth ray Mars, in its own sign, and placed conjunct to that point, the IC, which is generically related to the ‘emotional’ Moon and to the astral plane.)
307. We are seeing that DK’s instructions here are as much to the group as to IBS; this in itself, is decentralizing.
I seek to do two things with each disciple in this particular group:
1. Point out the particular predisposition to the group life which exists in you and on what it is based.
(It must be noted, in the case of IBS, that the house opposed to the group house, namely the fifth house {and some of the fourth} is a house with much emphasis. Jupiter can be considered within the fifth house, and by the Regiomontanus house system, is so.)
2. Indicate wherein you can integrate more closely into the group and thus feed the group life, not simply drawing sustenance for yourself from the group.
(The question is one of contribution versus acquisition. There is a Leo theme here, again, but it occurs on a higher turn of the spiral, for Leo stands for the integrity of the group as a whole—for the group considered as and individual. We are not here discussing the integrity of the individuals who compose the group.)
308. Each disciple must have some “predisposition to the group life” or he/she would not have been invited into DK’s Groups-of-Nine. That predisposition will be strengthened if its nature is noted.
309. Each group member is to give and not only take. The instinct of the soul is to give.
As I make this statement, I ask myself how frank I can dare to be and how far I can go with my instructions to you. Is it possible that you would all accept my point of view, for I cannot call it criticism? Criticism is always destructive, no matter by whom it is given. The indications of a needed change in attitude, proffered to you in love and from a deep-seated desire to see you all freed for fuller service is surely in a different category. May I, therefore, speak to all of you in freedom? And will you give as much attention to my words as you would to an older, loved and trusted friend? I ask for no more than that. I have no intention to coerce you. I only desire to help, to aid you in a liberating process and to see you walking with joy in the light.
(The sheer benevolence is radiant. This is the energy of Jupiter.)
310. We have here an extraordinary paragraph. The distinction between “criticism” and the benevolent sharing of a point of view by “an older, loved and trusted friend” is radiantly clear.
311. If we could but remember this approach when we offer our critiques to others! We, too, have no right to coerce. Our motive for sharing our point of view must be filled will love and the desire to see freedom reign as an actuality.
312. In a way, Master DK is ‘thinking out loud’. When He has been very frank, some disciples have taken offence and left the groups. Perhaps, He is foreseeing this as a possibility for certain of the group members. His is the task to speak frankly and lovingly, exquisitely measuring what He can say and when. The care given to each utterance is remarkable.
What, therefore, is the note of my specific message to you, my brother? What is the thing which you primarily need to learn which would govern your attitude to the group and which, when learnt, will integrate you more closely into my group? Simply this:
[Page 251]
You can serve my group most and yourself best by achieving impersonality where your personality is concerned.
(The Leo Moon conjunct the Vertex in the eighth house indicates a fated encounter {Vertex} arranged for the Moon {the lower personality} in the house of death {the eighth house}. What is needed is a transformed personality, which could occur if the Moon veiled Uranus rather than the glamorizing Neptune. This would require a definite mental polarization, upon which D.K. is asking IBS to work.)
313. There is nothing new in this statement, as pointed and succinct as it is. The contrast is clear. The attitude of impersonality is to be directed towards the personality, which is to be, in a way, excluded from a prominent position, whilst others, as souls, are to be included.
314. Perhaps each of us can see another’s problems with clarity (so we think), but how well do we see our own—so well seen by others!
315. We see DK imparting a little piece of advice to each member of Group IX.2. If the advice is followed, each member will find his/her group functioning enhanced, and will be more closely integrated with the group.
When you are free from the glamour of personality, then you will integrate into your group in a new and effective way.
(The “glamour of personality” forces the consciousness to keep its eyes focussed upon the personality. The realistic consideration of the relation of the self to itself and to others is timely; the solar eclipse is about to occur upon the Ascendant which, in terms of the natal horoscope, is the point of identity. Transiting Saturn will, by the time of the next instruction, square that Ascendant and Descendant, forcing the issue and requiring decisions of the disciple with respect to personality and impersonality.)
316. There are many glamors. Different rays and combinations of astrological factors incline towards one or other of the various glamors. When Leo, Aries and the first ray are strong, the “glamor of personality” is a strong possibility.
317. So much depends on what IBS actually sees. If she sees only the little self, she will be consistently a victim of this glamor. If she can expand her vision to include humanity, the Plan, and the larger system, the glamor of personality will fade.
You will be of value to my group and will feed its life because you will be a channel through which hierarchical life can flow and not simply be a recipient of that life as you now are.
(D.K. is asking IBS to become the “relinquished point” or, at least, the “revealing point” {EA 332} and not to remain the “hidden point” and thus an obstruction to the free flow of soul life. These three kinds of “points” are to be understood in relation to the sign Leo.)
318. Master DK is telling IBS that she is absorbing from the group but not really contributing.
In the above sentences your whole life problem is summed up. It is I.B.S. who loves and serves; it is I.B.S. who speaks wisely and who works for me. The focus of your attention on your training and your life demonstration is: How far am I, I.B.S., complying with requests? What use am I, I.B.S., making of this information? What results am I, I.B.S., getting from my meditation practice? What phenomena do I, I.B.S., register at the time of the full moon? Always I.
(Note that in an early letter to AAB, IBS caught herself overusing the “I”, but excused this use as necessary. Of course, this is more a tendency for a first ray soul than for those upon the second ray. What is needed is to see the “I” in a different way. The Sagittarius Ascendant must provide a new vision of the identity; this is especially facilitated by the fact that the Rising-sign degree occurs in the Leo decanate of Sagittarius, ruled by the Sun, which is the symbol of spiritual identity.)
319. Occasionally, the Tibetan will tell a disciple that a single sentence summarizes his/her “whole life problem”; this is such an instance.
320. It is fortunate that during the days these instructions are offered, IBS’ progressing Ascendant is passing through the group sign Aquarius with its decentralizing influence. It is this Aquarian influence which helps her counter the tendencies given by the Leo Moon.
321. DK discusses IBS’ orientation. It is “always I”. The eyes are riveted upon the little self. It is seen to be the most interesting and engrossing factor in consciousness. Even when consciousness seems to be focused on other and wider matters, the ‘little I’ crowds into the picture and usurps the focus of attention.
Always I.B.S. Read back, brother of mine, over all the reports you have written about your work during the past two years. Gather them together and run with rapidity through them so as to get their general trend and note if my words are not warranted.
(D.K. is really working hard to ‘unseat the I’. Uranus, the planet of overthrow, is transiting square to the ahamkaric Moon.)
322. DK points to a stubborn problem. Probably, each of us has such a problem (according to our ray and astrological emphases). To solve this one problem would loosen all related obstructions and free the path to the Self.
323. It is the focus upon this little “I” which prevents true contribution and integration with the group. There is a fundamental sense of separativeness based upon faulty esoteric perception. As stated, IBS suffers from a ‘limitation of vision’ which the Sagittarian Ascendant, rightly used, could correct.
Here lies the crisis for you. Here is indicated to you what your next step forward into the light should be. The question now arises as to what you should do, how you should proceed and how work towards liberation from the “I complex.”
(Again, Uranus is the planet of liberation, and its present position challenges the entrenched “I complex”.)
Let me, for the sake of clarity and in order to be concise, list the stages through which you must go:
324. A crisis is a situation which cannot remain as it is; it must be resolved if there is not to be a general break-down of the factors involved in the crisis.
325. DK names the difficulty succinctly: it is the “I complex”. A complex is a recurrent and resistant form of thought-feeling, which is fundamentally uncontrolled; it compels certain behaviors in the individual and is, as yet, unmastered.
1. Refuse to dramatise I.B.S.
(This is a hard saying for a teacher of singing.)
Go on with your work, plan, teach and study, but do it in self-forgetfulness, being urged thereto by group needs, by world need and by my need of help in the work I plan.
(If Sagittarius is the sign of distant vision, it is very useful in averting the eyes from the self, i.e., in seeing that which is other than the self.)
326. The vision of group need and world will encourage self-forgetfulness. Of course, for this attitude to take effect, one must care enough about factors other than the self.
327. We are learning that if true love is sufficiently present, self-forgetfulness is not a problem.
328. An over-emphatic personality is an insecure personality, which has to continue emphasizing itself to be assured that it really exists (which, in a way, it does not).
329. It is all a question of spiritual values. Any true disciple learns to value other things more than his/her little self. This desirable attitude arises when one has successfully ‘seen through’ the illusory nature of the little self. Until consciousness is of sufficient depth and scope, this will not be possible.
2. Learn to do this by pondering upon the soul, by strengthening your soul contact and by bringing about a more stable alignment. Learn to think always in terms of the group and not in terms of I.B.S.
(The two signs, Gemini and Sagittarius are particularly useful in building the antahkarana, which leads into the impersonal spheres, and away from personal considerations. Angular natal Mercury in Gemini is also very useful in this regard. The emphasis here is on the point opposite the Sun—the Monadic Point, which is found in Sagittarius, the same sign which is supposed to direct the steps of the disciple closer to the soul.)
330. If soul alignment is real, the little self will gradually fade out. Gemini is often unstable, until the later stages of evolution. Sagittarius introduces a one-pointed stability.
331. Even if IBS does not immediately feel DK’s suggestions vividly, she may, at least, practice them. Given the sincerity her orientation, she will probably do this.
332. We must ponder upon that which we wish to develop. If we wish to develop love, we ponder on the nature of love. If we wish the soul to become the major guiding factor in our lives, we ponder upon the soul.
This is bound to take time for a rhythm which has been thus established over a period of years is not easily broken and dissipated. Old rhythms take some displacing.
333. It would seem that the establishment of rhythmic regularity is not especially easy for IBS, as she has no seventh ray. But she has abundant Taurus, which, once moving in a certain direction, continues rather undeflectably. Taurus is much related to the resistant habit nature.
3. Pay closer attention to the evening review and change from the one which you are now doing to one on impersonality...
(As the Sagittarian energy is almost always forward-looking, the reason for the neglect of the evening review is not hard to find. Aries, too, is ever on to the new. IBS has little in her that inclines towards retrospection.)
334. The Evening Review is a method to scrupulously examine the content of the preceding day in terms of some major perspective or theme. As DK seeks to see impersonality established in IBS’ approach, it is a natural subject for the review.
If you will with faithfulness carry forward this work, you will free yourself from the grip of personality and there will not then exist in you those barriers to group integration which are now found. Having pointed this out to you, my brother, let me add that you have no real cause for discouragement for you have made real progress. You have much, as a soul, to give. Once you have freed the channel from that which today clogs and hinders, you can greatly enrich the group life and give much to your fellow disciples. Go forward, therefore, with joy into a richer service and a more true self-forgetfulness.
(D.K. is stimulating the first ray motion of “Progress Onward”, of “Driving forward through Space”—a movement which fits so well with the basic tendencies of Sagittarius.)
335. It is the Master’s task to inspire even while pointing out serious liabilities.
The breaking of the influence of sixth ray energy,
(almost as one “breaks a horse”)
as it expresses itself in your personality life, is not an easy task but it is one to which you are equal. Earlier I definitely laid the foundation for what I have here said to you for you will remember that I referred to the sublimination of your personality.
(The Leo influence is esoterically ruled by Neptune, which, on the lower turn of the spiral, has been the cause of so much glamour. With the progressed lunation in early Leo, and with progressed Moon transiting through this sign, the opportunity to call in the higher Neptune {associated with the “Heart of the Sun”, and thus with the cultivation of the love energy} is presented.)
336. DK wants to see the positive aspects of the first ray ‘replace’ the negative aspects of the sixth. “Sublimation” is an interesting Neptunian process. The opportunity has been present with Neptune hovering in conjunction with the progressing Vertex.
337. In the sublimatory process, the concrete and dense are rarefied and etherealized. The greatest ‘density’ experienced by IBS is the resistant concretion called ‘ego’ (the little self). If this little self is ‘lifted’ into a vision of world process, its ‘density’ will loosen and it will begin to disperse.
Progressions, Directions and Transits for February 15, 1937
(The main chart features for this period show the transiting Nodes conjuncting the Ascendant/Descendant axis in November of 1936, calling attention, again, to the entire question of the relationship between self and others, which D.K. has so constantly been emphasizing. Transiting Chiron is conjuncting the South Node, and transiting Uranus remains square to the natal Vertex and Moon, applying the pressure for the reorganization of the habitual life of the lunar vehicles. Transiting Saturn from Pisces continues its square to the natal Ascendant/Descendant, forcing decisions with respect to personality in contrast to impersonality and altruism {a theme emphasized at the seventh house}. This is also a period when the undiscovered planet and karmic planet Sigma is transiting the MC.)
February 1937
MY BROTHER:
Your replies to the questions which I asked were honest.
(Honesty is one of the gifts of Sagittarius.)
It is not wise, however, for you to continue the process of introspection too closely for your analytical mind is functioning adequately these days and the danger of over-functioning is ever present.
(The danger of over-anything is always present, when the personality ray is the sixth ray of “undue emphasis” in combination with the first ray of will. Although the mind is on the fourth ray, which is not, per say, a specifically analytical ray, Mercury is the exoteric ruler, and that Mercury is quintile both Mars and Uranus—both of which can be associated with the concrete mind. The natal Venus/Saturn conjunction also has its concrete mind associations, for Saturn, although it rules in many dimension, also rules the dimension of separative mind. Transiting Saturn, too, is in Square to progressing Venus, accentuating the natal Venus/Saturn conjunction. This is a period of mental searching and mental reckoning—perhaps the Sigma transit of the natal MC is here indicated.)
In a life given to teaching (such as yours is),
(remembering that all three of her major signs—Sagittarius, Gemini and Leo—have a relation to teaching)
whether it is teaching physical plane matters or giving esoteric instruction, the teacher has ever to practise the divine art of decentralisation. Being by force of circumstances placed at the centre, the inner attitude cultivated must be that of a planned, peripheral attention, an identification with those to be instructed and loss of the constant sense of the little self.
(This would come from a real and genuine interest in the other rather than oneself as the teacher.)
338. Here we have a teacher—one whose life is given to teaching—and yet there is no apparent second ray in her energy system. This is, in a way, remarkable.
339. Certain astrological factors incline towards teaching. Ray factors must either be inferred (such as a second ray monad) or hypothesized (such as recent lives upon the second ray, and an impending second ray personality in a future life).
340. DK gives the requirements for all teachers: “a planned, peripheral attention, an identification with those to be instructed and loss of the constant sense of the little self.”
341. The “peripheral attention” must be to the little self, which is seen to be on the “periphery” of consciousness and not at its very center. This little self is monitored as an instrument, but not as an ‘identity’.
342. The interest of the teacher is profoundly focussed on the student; the ‘little ego’ has relaxed its grip upon consciousness, and the teacher is free to care about others more than about himself.
343. The teacher is usually placed at the center, and so must be extremely cautious not to call unnecessary attention to himself. Two things he must love more than himself: his students and his subject.
The practising of detachment from self-concern and self-conceit which the onlooking soul evinces is no easy task, particularly for one of your temperament. How can it be achieved?
344. We learn that the soul (or man-as-soul) is neither self-concerned nor self-conceited. It is a point of view entirely other from that usually evidenced by the high-grade personality.
The terms of release are so simple, my brother; the art of conformity is so hard. What are these terms? I will list them with brevity, for you need not, after all your training, that I should elucidate:
1. The focussing of attention in the head.
345. This focussing will bring about a connection with the Divine Will, the Divine Plan and, perhaps, the Divine Purpose, all of which prove to have a decentralizing influence on whomever contemplates them.
2. Alignment of the bodies through correct and supervised breathing and eventual abstraction. Ponder on these two requirements for you can use them now and study also the ancient words of Patanjali who deals fully with the subject.
346. Correct alignment and correct breathing are next.
3. Identification with others and then the final losing sight of the little self. See, however, that in this case, right motive controls.
347. It is possible to seek to lose sight of the little self for the wrong motives—for instance, escape from the tedium of normal life.
4. Intense dynamic interest in the theme of the moment, free from fanaticism and boundaries, realising that—rightly handled—all themes are of spiritual moment.
(The gift of Gemini, to be interested in all things, and the presence of progressing Venus in Gemini recently conjuncted to the South Node, and soon to be conjuncted by the transiting South Node, opens the door of consciousness to what might be called pure interest—interest in people and things for their own sake rather than the sake of the one who is interested.)
348. If any of us were presented with a simple formula which would release us from a condition of personality control, do we think we would follow them?
For you, interest in the self should only be given during the hour of the evening review which I would ask you still to continue. It is of real profit to you and should be persisted in for another six months. I gave you so much in my last Instruction that it is not my intention to give much at this time. The fruits of that Instruction and the proof that you understood it must be worked out; the benefits of the evening review must be carefully developed. Life for you at this time holds much of service. See to it that you crystallise not.
(The influence of Saturn is currently strong, and by progression, it is only 18’ of arc from natal Jupiter. This would mean that the bounding processes would restrain the expansive, growthful processes. Transiting Uranus continues to offer the opportunity for restructuring, as it is square to both the progressing Sun and the natal Vertex and Moon.)
As one gets older in the physical sense (a thought which you ever evade, my brother) there is always the tendency to become set in one’s life rhythms and objectives; the life theme is steady and the danger of rigidity is very real. See to it that you keep flexible and fluid and learning all the time.
(These qualities are precisely those of Gemini. It is Sagittarius which could contribute to crystallization if the vision becomes too narrow and set. IBS is also under the influence of transiting Saturn, Square to the Asc/Dsc axis. The combination of the first and sixth rays easily leads to crystallization. The words used earlier were “steely” and “brittle”.)
349. Evasion of the thought of aging is part of the ‘ahamkaric complex’—too great a love of the personality and its form.
Teach, my brother, from the living experiences which you undergo and not from an accumulated series of life episodes.
(Not just the stories of the fourth ray mind, but the livingness of the first ray as it relates to a growing sense of being. It can be presumed that a degree of repetitiveness is entering the life. DK is seeking for IBS a dynamic focus in the moment and a real, living contact with the students.)
This thought warrants your careful consideration. Only thus can your words and your life influence carry to others that living fire which can set their lives ablaze with divinity.
(Here D.K. speaks of the best results of combining the first and sixth rays. He has always been trying to improve the energic quality of IBS’ teaching.)
Choose not the subjects of your service but serve all who seek your aid
(and thus fulfill the inclusiveness of Jupiter.)
Seek them not yourself. In that last thought lies for you much of future understanding.
(This would mean functioning more upon the second ray, according to the Law of Attraction, allowing magnetism to work. The second ray is to be the personality ray in the next life, therefore it is already under cultivation. The orthodox rulership by Jupiter of the soul-inclined Sagittarian Ascendant, serves as a bridge by means of which transition can be made from the sixth ray of Idealism to the second ray of Love-Wisdom.)
350. IBS is to act as a magnet. She is to be open to all who seek her aid. This places her in a condition of relative receptivity. We remember when DK told her not only to serve, but to allow herself to be served. Life has its special wisdom; IBS has always tried to exert control over others and over circumstances. This is the attitude which must be relaxed.
One thing I seek to say to you, but I can only convey my thought in words that are necessarily vague. It is not my task to cast too much light into the future. This I will say, however: Mould your life upon the pattern of the sannyasin and hold on to no physical plane attachments.
(The first ray soul must remain unattached. First ray planets such as Uranus and Pluto are also at work within the chart and will force relinquishment. First ray Saturn is, as well, squaring the Ascendant.)
351. Master DK foresees changes which will be better weathered if IBS has developed the “pattern of the sannyasin”. She is married, we know. There is a hint that this condition may not persist, and if it did not persist, that she would be alone—the condition in which the life of the sannyasin could more easily be led.
352. It is clear that DK foresees a time of physical plane relinquishment. The progressed Moon is also moving into the sign Virgo, a sign associated with solitude and purity of life.
If you do, they will fail you and the pain in thus holding will hinder your feet as they stumble upon the Path. Walk free, my brother, and hold to nobody and hold no person to you in the bonds of attachment.
(The progressing Moon will, as well, soon be entering Virgo, in which sign detachment and aloneness can be experienced. The progressing MC will be moving to a position exactly opposite the natal Sun in Gemini, placing natal sun upon the progressing seventh house cusp. Saturn, by transit, will be entering Aries and will come to a conjunction of the fourth house cusp within the two year period. This could incline to a degree of aloneness.)
353. The Master gives no specifics, but offers IBS an opportunity to interpret the impending changes in an impersonal manner. One’s intimates are not to be held. There is a term to all strictly human relationship, especially upon the physical plane.
354. DK’s language has the effect of producing a broadened perspective on what could normally be distressing situations of apparent personal loss.
Can you be a true sannyasin and stand in life alone or with only your brother disciples as comrades and friends?
(This is apparently a desirable objective. DK is becoming increasingly clear, although seeking not to shed “too much light” upon the future.)
In the developments of the next two years see that these words of mine constantly recur to your mind, for thus will you handle the eventualities [Page 254] of life relationships in a spiritual manner. Should you be able to see life’s circumstances rebuilt around you or see them crumble to nothingness with equal equanimity, then your field of service can enlarge. You will have no interest in the affairs of the little self. Seeing this, the many little selves will come to you for help.
355. These words of prophecy are to be applied to the next two years (1937-1939). DK warns His disciple of certain “eventualities” so that she may handle them “in a spiritual manner”. This is a safeguard because, as we have seen, she is of a somewhat emotional temperament.
356. Something is going to fall apart; Uranus and the other ‘heavy’ planets will contribute to this. There may be a regathering of familiar circumstances or there may not. Master DK counsels detachment and equanimity.
357. He relates this equanimity to the possibility of an expanding field of service.
358. The personality is the “little self”. It is to be seen as if from a distance, with impersonality.
359. An interesting idea is put forth: if one has equanimity with regard to the vicissitudes of the little self, other little selves will come to one for help. They come to one who has no attachment to the realm of experience which is causing them so much distress.
Relocated Solar Return for June 2, 1937
Progressions, Directions and Transits for September 15, 1937
(Main Chart Features: Mercury, by progression, turns direct on September 12, 1937. The Moon by progression is found in the last degree of Leo. Uranus by transit through Taurus is trine its natal position in Virgo. Transiting Uranus is also conjuncting natal Jupiter, offering expansive, new creative solutions. The progressing MC is conjuncted to the progressing asteroid, Ceres—bringing cultivation or nurturing the Sagittarian vision. There has been a solar eclipse on the natal and progressed South Node, and, also, on progressing Venus, which is the esoteric ruler of both the sixth and seventh houses {by Placidus}, emphasizing the approach of “I serve my brother”. Jupiter, by transit, is also trining the Taurus stellium.)
September 1937
MY BROTHER:
What I have to say to you can be adequately covered as I consider with you the five rays which govern you in this particular life. Since I last communicated with you, your life has opened out increasingly along the lines of service to your fellowmen and to us.
(The Tibetan had suggested to IBS that her service should we wider than it was, and apparently she responded constructively to the suggestion. Various Uranus/Jupiter aspects and the emphasis by solar eclipse upon progressing Venus can account for some of the effect of opening out. As well, the progressing Sun is nearing one of the angles of the chart, the Vertex, and angles (no matter which) are always significant for bringing things into manifestation.)
One word I would say to you in this connection: Let not that service take the place of your soul in your waking consciousness nor let the satisfactions—which inevitably come—supersede the longing for the bliss which the soul experiences and which produces a magnetic rapport with the world of souls. Live ever in the secret place of the soul and keep always silent.
(D.K. counsels her against the inevitable tendency towards extroversion towards which having the major chart triangle {Ascendant, Sun, Moon} in Sagittarius, Gemini and Leo, inclines.)
360. It is easy to lose contact with the soul in the midst of the ‘busyness’ of service. The true server, however, will remain soul-aligned during all service expressions.
361. DK has always to guard His chela from running to extremes—ever her tendency.
362. As a Gemini individual, IBS must learn to balance the two lives (one of the soul and the other of outer expression). The soul is resonant to the heart, and heart culture is the great need.
You have for many years reflected upon the relationship existing between your first ray soul and your sixth ray personality. You have realised that for you (in this incarnation) only love and service must govern your life expression, if the ambition and pride of the first ray
(Taurus, ruled by Vulcan, is, as well, a sign which contributes greatly to pride. Leo and Aries also reinforce the instinctive pride of the first ray type)
and the fanaticism of the sixth ray with its glamour-producing characteristics are to be offset and balance achieved.
(Her whole life-problem is succinctly summed.)
363. There are ‘legacy rays’ and ‘rays of cultivation’ (destined for imminent personality expression). They both are of great importance when considering the present life-equation of any disciple.
364. IBS is destined for a second ray personality, and DK is doing all he can to see that she cultivates this possibility.
365. Of course, in general, the nature of the soul is love, and all disciples on all rays must cultivate this soul love.
366. DK points to a great fact in the development of those who are cognizant of rayological and astrological energies. There will be necessary much contemplation of the energy formula in order to bring about greater understanding.
367. IBS has for long contemplated her difficult combination of principle energies—her first ray soul and sixth ray personality.
This relationship is your major problem. Let us further complicate that problem by the recognition of the ray qualities of the three bodies!
(One cannot help but feel the humor in this. With this humor, DK seems to be signaling the need for detachment and happy progress upon the Path, with all its growing complications. There will always be more and more to consider as the consciousness widens, and thus the complication.)
Perhaps, however, complication will be simplified and a study of the more detailed personality tendencies may reveal to you sources of strength and produce clarification. It is of value to know the lines of least resistance.
368. As students of occultism, we want to learn to work with the energies and forces available. Added consciousness can also simplify our path, and teach us to avoid obvious blunders.
Your mental body is on the fourth ray and this can definitely be a help to you if the energy involved is rightly used, because—though it means the achievement of harmony through conflict—it also swings into action another second ray attribute, thus aiding in the work of “sweetening” your nature, if I may use such a banal word. As this ray controls your mental body, it places you, symbolically speaking, in the warrior caste and [Page 255] leads you to fight, e’en if it be purely idealistically, or at times under the influence of glamour.
(Here D.K. points out the effect of the fourth and sixth rays. The “warrior” nature of IBS is definitely accentuated by the placement of warring Mars in fiery Aries, conjunct one of the angles, the IC, thus opposed to the MC. The quintile of Mars to fourth ray Mercury {also on an angle, the seventh house}, links the fourth and sixth rays, and the solar plexus and throat, and potentially, the ajna as well. Mercury, can certainly be associated with the throat center and is, in some higher disciples, associated with the ajna also.)
369. DK teaches us that from the ray governing a vehicle certain other relationships can be drawn forth. He considers harmony through conflict a “second ray attribute”, thus, drawing the second ray into fuller expression.
370. It is of interest that a mental ray can sweeten the nature.
371. We must remember that the fourth ray is the ‘Ray of the Warrior’, and can cause considerable conflict in life.
372. It should be recorded in mind that a mental ray can bring about a condition in which the personality fights—in this case, either idealistically or glamorously (largely because the sixth ray is also present). It is not only the personality ray which induces actions undertaken by the entire personality.
373. DK seeks to have IBS look to her mental body for “help” in solving her problem. It is of use to us to know from which particular vehicle (and its energy or force) we can look for assistance—and which may cause trouble.
Your astral body is a real problem because it emphasises the ray of the personality; it too is on the sixth ray. It should be remembered that the rays themselves have their secondary attributes and just as the sixth ray—expressed in your personality—can lead to the fanatical following of the ideal (whatever that may connote to you) so the same ray in the astral body produces the expression of devotion. In your case, this devotion constitutes for you the seed of selflessness.
(There is a significant link between two planets of devotion, Mars and Neptune, through a fairly exact semi-sextile. Both Neptune and Jupiter, to which Neptune is natally conjuncted, have strong themes of selflessness, even though Mars, most generally, does not.)
374. When the astral ray and the personality ray are the same, a real problem of imbalance can occur. Such a configuration existed for SCP, CDP, GSS, EES, WDS (the first ray), PDW, DEI (again the first ray). Thus there were five with a double emphasis of the sixth ray and two with a double first ray emphasis. Even for FCD whose soul and astral body were on the same ray (the second) there was a potential problem of imbalance. There are naturally other double emphases to consider: soul and mind, soul and physical nature, personality and mind, personality and physical nature, mind and astral nature and mind and physical nature. This would be an extensive and interesting study in itself, but cannot be attempted here.
375. An important piece of occult information is given concerning the attributes of the sixth ray. Perhaps all “Rays of Attribute” have their secondary attributes. In the case of the fourth ray, tendencies towards harmony and towards conflict are such attributes. For the sixth ray, the two attributes pointed out are idealism and devotion. When the sixth ray is focussed in the personality it leads to idealism and, when in the astral body, to devotion. This is an interesting and important distinction, perhaps with general utility. The personality ray carries more of the mental vibration, and hence the idealism.
376. DK looks at various qualities and sees what they might become. Selflessness is for IBS a great objective. DK sees her devotion as the “seed of selflessness”. This is certainly understandable, because devotion inclines one to take one’s eyes off the little self and focussed them on some beloved object—whether person, ideal or idea.
This devotion where you are concerned is not devotion to your own selfish interests but it is for you a great extroverting factor. It leads you along the way of service.
(When Jupiter and Neptune, both of which have strong second ray components, are conjoined in the fifth house, there is some facility in exteriorizing the contents of the causal body {ruled in part, esoterically, by the fifth house}.)
377. Earlier, DK warned IBS against too much mental introspection. The balance between extroversion and introversion must be achieved. IBS is impatient for progress and avoids taking the time necessary to achieve balance. She leaps to conclusions and immediately ‘runs’ towards that which seems attractive or desirable. The balancing of inner and outer tendencies, however, takes time.
378. In this case, however, extroversion is seen as desirable because it lessens focus upon the little self. We remember that IBS has had her Ascendant progressing in Aquarius—a sign inclining both towards extroversion and service.
When, however, two instruments or vehicles and the soul are on the same ray, then the problems of the right balancing of forces emerges and this has been very real in your case, has it not?
379. We are simply dealing with ‘occult energy dynamics’. Imbalance caused by double emphasis (and, in the case of SCP and ISG-L, a triple emphasis) needs watching.
380. Perhaps we know people who have such double emphases. Do we note that imbalance occurs as a result?
You have a third ray physical body. This gives you contact and brings you down to earth, a thing that a sixth ray person predominantly needs, particularly when highly developed. It aids you in expression upon the physical plane; it makes a focal point for the manifestation of the soul, for it is peculiarly the ray through which the third aspect of divinity sweeps into expression; it can produce the potency of personality expression but it can also prove a definite hindrance
(presumably through over-activity. In astrology, the physical body is often connected with the Sun and, very naturally, with the point opposite the Sun {which represents, from one perspective, the Earth}. Since the Earth is, from the personality perspective, a third ray planet, it will be a distributor of the third ray with respect to the physical body. Interestingly, from a heliocentric perspective, anyone having the Sun in Gemini will perceive (heliocentrically) the Earth as placed in Sagittarius, the sign which Earth rules esoterically. Mars always represents, among other things, the physical body, since it is exoterically the ruler of the generic first house. Mars also has certain activity components which suggest the energy of the third ray. Its placement in the active sign Aries further reinforces indications for a third ray physical body. We see that, natally, Mars and the Earth are in trine, suggesting an ease of expression of astral and personal/idealistic energy through an activated physical vehicle. A wide trine from Mars to the Moon {which, from an esoteric perspective, is always associated with the dense physical form}, reinforces the activity aspect. In fact, a grand trine between Mars, Moon and the Earth exists, and all are placed in the active fire element.)
381. A high grade sixth ray person is often focussed on quite lofty objectives which have little to do with the practical world. A third ray physical nature helps in these cases.
382. The sixth and third rays are closely related (mathematically). Both the sixth and third rays incline towards ‘activism’. If we examine the rays of IBS’ personality equipment, we find two sixth rays and one third ray, with only the fourth ray to monitor the balance between activity and inactivity. Gemini and Aries add further to the active tendencies. Sagittarius can incline in this direction when highly motivated.
383. The hindrance of which DK speaks in relation to the physical body can be understood as the possibility of a dispersion of energies and excessive ‘busyness’ upon the physical plane. If the physical vehicle were on the seventh ray, it would probably contribute to greater personality restraint—much needed by IBS with her tendency to ‘over-do’.
384. It is hard to understand why a seventh ray personality would not also provide a “focal point for the manifestation of the soul”.
In summing up, therefore, it might be stated that your rays are as follows:
1. The ray of the soul—the first Ray of Will or Power.
2. The ray of the personality—the sixth Ray of Devotion or Idealism.
3. The ray of the mind—the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict.
4. The ray of the astral body—the sixth Ray of Devotion.
5. The ray of the physical body—the third Ray of Active Intelligence.
This will make apparent to you the lines of energy which are coloured by the two major rays of our solar system: In your case they find their expression through rays 4 and 6, and through rays 1 and 3. This is helpful to know, is it not?
(It is interesting to see that IBS receives the complete information about her rays at a time when progressing Moon is in the last degree of Leo and, also, in her solar return chart, the last degree of Leo rises.)
385. There are always two lines of energy to be considered, the “hard-line” and the “soft-line”. These two lines and their balance will be important in the life of every disciple.
386. In this section, DK points to the ways in which the two lines work for IBS. There is an alignment between the first ray soul and third ray physical nature, with three soft line energies intervening. This was also the case for JWK-P and SCP—also souls upon the first ray.
One hint I will give you, brother of mine, at this time. Guard your health during the coming years and thus make increased service possible and also keep fluid in intent, in purpose, and in activity. As time goes on, you will comprehend to what I am referring.
(This is simply sage advice for one who is used to spending energy as IBS spends it, but there is a closing progressed Saturn conjunction on natal Jupiter, bringing some restriction, and transiting Saturn is moving towards Mars and the IC and will, in the next years, be crossing the Taurus stellium. As well, transiting Pluto is moving towards the natal Moon and Vertex and will overtake the progressed Sun.)
387. DK has already pointed out the danger of rigidity, promoted by the first and sixth rays. The many Taurus planets also contribute to the possibility of inflexibility.
388. Disciples are not to imagine that because they are associated with a Master, their health is automatically guarded and that they are ‘protected’ no matter what they may do. Frequently, we find DK counseling His chelas to guard their health and thus prolong their term of service.
389. To remain “fluid in intent, in purpose and in activity” should be possible for an individual with Sun and Mercury in Gemini.
Progressions, Directions and Transits for February 15, 1938.
(Major Chart Features for the period: The Moon by progression has entered Virgo and is approaching natal and progressed Uranus. Transiting Chiron is found on the cusp of the seventh house. Transiting Uranus continues to be in the area of a conjunction to natal Jupiter. The MC by progression continues its approach to the Sun/Earth axis, and is, given the time used for this chart, about a year and a bit more away. Transiting Jupiter has entered Aquarius, has transited the progressing Earth Point, and is now related by various trines to the natal Gemini planets. Transiting Saturn has entered Aries and is rapidly moving to a conjunction of natal Mars and the natal IC. Significantly, there has been a solar eclipse conjunct to the progressed MC and thus opposite the natal Sun in Gemini. Later, in May of 1938, there is a solar eclipse conjuncting the natal Gemini Sun within four degrees. The alignments between progressing MC/IC and the natal Sun are significant and this alignment is reinforced by two close solar eclipses.)
February 1938
MY BROTHER:
The coming year will see you facing two basic decisions.
(During the coming year, transiting Saturn will move onto the IC of the chart; this will affect home life and, esoterically, duty performed in relation to the Ashram.)
What they will be is not for me to indicate. Through recognition of the decisive crises in life
(this is the language of Saturn),
the disciple gains the strength to stand alone and detached,
(this is especially valuable for a soul focussed upon the first ray)
and, through the ability to stand detached, comes the power which the divine Observer can wield if he does not identify himself with circumstance.
(Interestingly, the Sun, by progression is moving towards a conjunction with the natal Vertex—one of the points of fate, a point connected with that which is considered unavoidable. We should also note that transiting Chiron is hovering conjunct the seventh house cusp, bringing changes and possible ‘wounds’ in the area of relationship.)
390. DK earlier hinted that IBS must learn to stand alone, becoming the sannyasin.
391. The Master calls upon her to gather her first ray energies so that she may stand in power as “the divine Observer” not identified with circumstance.
392. With so much emphasis on the progressing MC/IC axis, how one stands becomes a matter of importance. DK would have IBS “stand in spiritual being” regardless of what circumstance may present.
393. DK asks that His disciple recognize the important choices implicit in circumstance. He does not say what they are or how to choose. This has ever been his approach with IBS. He seeks to subdue her willingness to follow the suggestion of the Master (i.e., Himself) to whom she is devoted.
One of the things which will emerge during the coming century will be a better understanding of the Law of Cycles.
(Aquarius is the sign in which there is demonstrated an understanding and mastery of cycles. The intensification of the Aquarian energy and, thus, of the fifth ray energy which it distributes, will contribute to this. Aquarius is also associated strongly with the third ray, which rules rotary motion and, hence, cycles.)
394. If disciples wish to better understand the governing cycles of their lives, astrology is an invaluable tool. There was not so much astrological work done in relation to the early Groups-of-Nine. One advanced disciple, DHB, was an astrologer, and erected the charts of several of the DINA group members, including AAB and JWK-P.
There will then eventuate a comprehension of the life rhythm with its high moments, its dark and depressed hours (I speak not in terms of emotional reaction but of the alternates to the moments of altitude) and its difficult interludes wherein understanding is wrought out through the action of applied reason.
(Aquarius is associated with the “peak and valley experience.”)
395. Such comprehension will promote detachment and wise action.
396. DK uses arresting language in this section. The “dark and depressed hours” are “alternates to the moments of altitude”. He is pointing to the oscillations experienced in all human living and especially by disciples. It is obvious that He speaks from deep experience.
397. It would seem that IBS is facing some “alternates to the moments of altitude” and also a difficult interlude “wherein understanding is wrought out through the action of applied reason”.
It is particularly wise for sixth ray people to master the Law of Cycles and of rhythmic growth, for their predisposition to fanatical and violent activity can be offset by wise handling of the life rhythm.
(An opportunity to realize the importance of this will come as third ray Saturn comes to a conjunction with impulsive natal Mars.)
398. DK seems to be suggesting that there is a certain inevitability to the changes which are about to enter IBS’ life. DK would have her face these changes spiritually and with understanding.
399. He is also counseling her to ‘stand back’ and observe. There is apparently little she can do to change the emerging developments, but there is much she can do as she chooses how to respond to them.
You have passed through a period of expanded service; it has carried you far from the life intent
(presumably, in early years, it was artistic and vocal)
of earlier years and new relations and new forces motivate your days.
(Some of the fruition of this expanded service is seen with transiting Jupiter in expansive, distributive Aquarius—the sign which presently holds the progressing Earth Point {opposite the progressed Sun in Leo}. This Jupiter had been crossing the progressing Ascendant in Aquarius.)
See to it that enough of the old conditions and the old relations are preserved in order to guarantee continuity and stability.
(For, instability is ever a present problem for the Geminian, especially when the impulsive sixth ray is active.)
I seek to word the teaching which I give to you and your co-disciples in this group in such a way that perception may come to those for whom the specific teaching is intended, yet nothing need be said which would foment curiosity in the minds of the other disciples in the group.
400. Again the use of arresting words! DK seeks to say nothing which would “foment curiosity” in the minds of those who are not directly concerned with what He says. Therefore, He speaks obliquely about actual circumstance, focussing more on the level of meaning. The thoughtform-making tendency of fellow disciples is thus restrained, as such a tendency can cause undesirable conditions in group life and interfere with the life process of the one towards whom the thoughtforms are directed.
You have travelled far during the past six years and your life trend (and by this I mean your spiritual life trend) is now definitely established.
(These years, since the beginning of these instructions, have been years in which the progressed Sun has been in Leo; they have been years of self-discovery. The theme of ‘travelling far’ spiritually also correlates with the general Sagittarian trend.)
I use these words in order to express the idea of the soul’s intention. Can you cast your mind back to [Page 257] the year in which that orientation became definite? Such retrospects have real value, my brother.
(It may well have been the year in which the progressed lunation occurred in Leo.)
I seek today to deal with the mental problems of the disciples in this group. I told you earlier that your mental body was conditioned by the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict. This ray has been a factor which has resolved many of the difficulties set in motion by your sixth ray personality, focussed and made more powerful by a sixth ray astral body.
(It is curious that a vehicle within the personality can be responsible for solving problems set in motion by the personality itself.)
The personality is always predominantly allied with or focussed in one of its three aspects. I will endeavour to show you now the vehicles through which the soul ray also outstandingly expresses itself:
401. The soul ray expresses through all the vehicles of the personality, but through one of them “outstandingly”. This is an important point to remember.
402. The personality has strong tendencies and can lead into difficult situations. In the case of IBS, her fourth ray mental vehicle has applied itself to harmonizing and resolving these difficulties. As stated, it is important to know from whence help may come. All of us find ourselves in difficulties, largely of our own making. From what aspect of our energy system can these difficulties be somewhat ameliorated?
1. Soul energy, in your case, seeks expression through the vital or etheric body.
(They are both on the same line of force—the 1-3-5-7 line. Interestingly, it is most probable that Vulcan is to be found in the sign Gemini, for Vulcan is believed by many thoughtful astrologers never to be found more than eight or nine degrees from the Sun. Since the Sun is in 11º Gemini 39’, Vulcan would necessarily be in Gemini. Further, Gemini is one of the signs, with Aquarius, which is particularly associated with the etheric body. With Vulcan necessarily at least widely conjunct the Sun, it must be widely opposite the heliocentrically viewed Earth—a planet connected with the etheric body as well—c.f. EA 78)
2. Personality force is focussed in the astral body.
(The sixth ray personality focuses easily through the sixth ray astral body, which means that the planets of the sixth ray are also the planets most associated with the astral body—Mars and Neptune, both of which are widely in relationship to the Moon, which is also associated with the astral body.)
403. As in the case of JWK-P, the first ray soul energy is to express through the physical body. This is a powerful alignment for manifestation of soul intention—if the alignment is not disturbed (as it so often is through the astral body).
A little reflection upon these two facts will make clear to you wherein your life problem consists. It has been the problem of fusing and blending the personality so that the energy of the soul may control from mental levels, and so employ your fourth ray mental body that the over-activity of the vital and the astral bodies may be overcome.
(Here, therefore, we see the importance of Mercury in Gemini, an important indicator of the mind. Fourth ray Mercury is in quintile with Mars in Aries assisting Mercury to subdue his younger brother Mars. Mercury is also in approximate semi-square to astral Neptune, again, creating a connection between the Mercurial mind and the “god of the waters”, and helping mind become influential in the realm of desire, over which Neptune and Taurus rule. The energy of the first ray soul is related to Aries, Leo and Capricorn, the three first ray signs. Mercury is the esoteric ruler of Aries, in which Mars is placed, and will have a definite line of expression through this planet. The first ray controlling the mind and controlling through the mind reflects the Aries mantram—“I come forth and from the plane of mind, I rule.” Part of the over-activity of the vital body is related to Mars, because Mars in Aries so stimulates the astral vehicle that the vital body is immediately affected. The Mercury quintile to Mars can help mentally regulate this Martian activity and thus regulate the vital body as well, for the five of the quintile is a number of regulation through the mind.)
404. The soul is focussed “outstandingly” through the vital, etheric body. This, we see, is contributing to the overactivity of the physical body. The focus of the sixth ray personality through the sixth ray astral body, contributes to the overactivity of the astral body.
405. Another alignment is suggested as valuable. The soul is to work through the fourth ray mental body, helping to balance the tendency to overactivity found in the two lower personality vehicles.
It is helpful to know this, is it not? There are certain great aligning qualities which are brought into play when the soul can grip and control the vital body,
(grip and control are related to Vulcan and the spiritual will)
406. While the soul expresses “outstandingly” through the vital body, it has not yet gripped the vital body. If it is to do this, apparently, it must utilize the agency of the mental body.
407. If the soul were to “grip and control the vital body” there would be an alignment between the ‘highest’ and the ‘lowest’ aspects of the energy system—excluding the influence of the monad. It would seem that the proposed second ray monad does not enter much into IBS’ energy dynamic yet, though it would subtly incline in the direction of the cultivation of love.
but they demonstrate more as physical vitality than as qualities in consciousness. This I think you know. During the remainder of your life, if you will work with and control (as a soul) your mental body, you will enter into your next incarnation with the control of the personality centred in the mind.
(Having Mercury angular in the mental sign Gemini emphasizes the importance of this task, and should, in some manner facilitate it. There is also a close Saturn-Venus/Mercury septile which may indicate that this control is destined to be achieved, or at least attempted. The natal Saturn/Venus conjunction is also a combination inducing mental control, since Venus is a distributor of the fifth ray and Saturn is another of the major planets of control and regulation.)
408. The implication is that in the present incarnation the control of the personality is centered in the astral body.
409. We see how we prepare the conditions for coming incarnations. Such incarnations do not simply ‘happen’ to us. Even now we are laying the foundation for what will later occur.
410. The task, then, is clear: for the remainder of her incarnation IBS is to “work with and control” her mental body. This will bring balance and regulation into the frequent chaos and extremism of her life.
That means a greatly expanded consciousness and far more power to serve—power adjusted to the need which is faced.
411. The problem has always been that power has not been adjusted to the presented need. There is has been too much power focussed on those to be served, and it has driven them away.
412. The moderating influence of the fourth ray mental body will negate the tendency to shatter and drive away.
413. We see that there is a certain restraint which comes with the ‘judicial aspect of the fourth ray mind’ (as Mary Bailey used to call it). (Incidentally, she said she had a fourth ray mind, just like that of her husband, JWK-P.)
What, my brother, are the characteristics of a fourth ray mental body? Let me list a few of them for you, leaving you to make your own application, in truthfulness and understanding.
Destructive
An inner mental battle
Many antagonisms
Prejudice
Personality unity and synthesis
Discord, interior and exterior
Environal problems
Imposition of the personal will.Constructive
The resolution of the pairs of opposites.
Non-partisanship. The Middle Way.
Tolerant understanding.
Group unity and synthesis.
Harmony within and without.
Environal peace.
Expression of the will-to-love.
