| Dangers from the Deva Evolution This second
point is more complex. You will remember how it has been said earlier in these letters
that contact with the devas can be brought about through specific forms and mantrams and
that in this contact lies peril for the unwary. This danger is curiously real now, owing
to the following reasons:
- The coming in of the violet ray, the seventh or Ceremonial Ray, has rendered this
contact more easy of attainment than heretofore. It is therefore the ray on which
approximation is possible, and in the use of ceremonial and of set forms, coupled to
regulated rhythmic movement, will be found a meeting place for the two allied evolutions.
In the use of ritual this will be apparent, and psychics are already bearing witness to
the fact that both in the ritual of the Church and in that of Masonry this has been
evidenced. More and more will this be the case, and it carries with it certain risks that
will inevitably work themselves into common knowledge and thus affect in various ways the
unwary sons of men. [129] As you know, a definite effort is being made at this time by the
Planetary Hierarchy to communicate to the devas their part in the scheme of things, and
the part the human family must likewise play. The work is slow, and certain results are
inevitable. It is not my purpose to take up with you in these letters the part that ritual
and set mantric forms play in the evolution of devas and of men. I only desire to point
out that danger for human beings lies in the unwise use of forms for the calling of the
devas, in experimenting with the Sacred Word with the object in view of contacting the
Builders who are so largely affected by it, and in endeavoring to pry into the secrets of
ritual with its adjuncts of color and of sound. Later on, when the pupil has passed the
portal of initiation, such knowledge will be his, coupled with the necessary information
that teaches him to work with the law. In the following of the law, no danger lurks.
- The race is possessed of a strong determination to penetrate within the veil, and to
find out what lies on the other side of the unknown. Men and women everywhere are
conscious within themselves of budding powers which meditation enhances. They find that by
the careful following of certain rules they become more sensitive to the sights and sounds
of the inner planes. They catch fleeting glimpses of the unknown; occasionally and at rare
intervals, the organ of inner vision temporarily opens and they hear and see on the astral
or the mental plane. They see devas at a meeting in which ritual has been employed; they
catch a sound or a voice that tells them truths that they recognize as true. The
temptation to force the issue, to prolong meditation, to try out certain methods that
promise intensification of psychic faculty is too strong. They unwarily force matters and
dire disaster results. One hint here I give: In meditation [130] it is literally
possible to play with fire. The devas of the mental levels manipulate the
latent fires of the system and thus incidentally the latent fires of the inner man. It is
woefully possible to be the plaything of their endeavor and to perish at their hands. A
truth I speak here; I give not voice to the interesting chimeras of a fanciful brain.
Beware of playing with fire.
- This transition period is largely responsible for much of the danger. The right type of
body for the holding and the handling of the occult force has not yet been built, and in
the interim the bodies now in use but spell disaster to the ambitious student. When a man
starts out to follow the path of occult meditation, it takes well-nigh fourteen years to
rebuild the subtle bodies, and incidentally the physical. All through that period it is
not safe to tamper with the unknown for only the very strong refined physical body, the
controlled stable and equalized emotional body and the properly striated mental body can
enter into the subtler planes and literally work with Fohat, for that is what the occult
does. Therefore is the emphasis laid by all wise Teachers everywhere on the Path of
Purification, which must precede the Path of Illumination. They lay the emphasis on the
building in of spiritual faculty before psychic faculty can be safely permitted; they
demand service to the race every day throughout the scope of life before a man may be
permitted to manipulate the forces of nature, to dominate the elementals, to cooperate
with the devas, and to learn the forms and ceremonies, the mantrams and the keywords, that
will bring those forces within the circle of manifestation.
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