August 4, 1920

I think I gave you earlier practically all that I can as [131] yet impart anent the Brothers of Darkness, as they are sometimes termed. I only want at this point to lay emphasis upon the fact that no danger need be feared by the average student from this source. It is only as discipleship is approached and a man stands out ahead of his fellows as an instrument of the White Brotherhood that he attracts the attention of those who seek to withstand. When through application to meditation, and power and activity in service, a man has developed his vehicles to a point of real achievement, then his vibrations set in motion matter of a specific kind, and he learns to work with that matter, to manipulate the fluids, and to control the builders. In so doing he encroaches on the domain of those who work with the forces of involution and thus he may bring attack upon himself. This attack may be directed against any of his three vehicles and may be of different kinds. Let me briefly point out some of the methods employed against a disciple which are the ones which alone concern the student of these letters:

1. Definite attack on the physical body. All kinds of means are employed to hinder the usefulness of the disciple through disease or the crippling of his physical body. Not all accidents are the result of karma, for the disciple has usually surmounted a good deal of that type of karma and is thus comparatively free from that source of hindrance in active work.
2. Glamor is another method used, or the casting over the disciple of a cloud of emotional or mental matter which suffices to hide the real, and to temporarily obscure that which is true. The study of the cases wherein glamor has been employed is exceedingly revealing and demonstrates how hard it is for even an advanced disciple always to discriminate between the real and the false, the true and the untrue. Glamor may be either on the [132] emotional or mental levels but is usually on the former. One form employed is to cast over the disciple the shadows of the thought of weakness or discouragement or criticism to which he may at intervals give way. Thus cast, they loom in undue proportion and the unwary disciple, not realizing that he is but seeing the gigantic outlines of his own momentary and passing thoughts, gives way to discouragement, aye even to despair, and becomes of little use to the Great Ones. Another form is to throw into his mental aura suggestions and ideas purporting to come from his own Master but which are but subtle suggestions that hinder and help not. It takes a wise disciple always to discriminate between the voice of his real Teacher and the false whispers of the masquerading one, and even high initiates have been temporarily misled.
   Many and subtle are the means used to deceive and thereby curtail the effective output of the worker in the field of the world. Wisely therefore have all aspirants been enjoined to study and work at the development of viveka or that discrimination which safeguards from deception. If this quality is laboriously built in and cultivated in all events, big and little, in the daily life, the risks of being led astray will be nullified.
3. A third method frequently employed is to envelop the disciple in a thick cloud of darkness, to surround him with an impenetrable night and fog through which he stumbles and often falls. It may take the form of a black cloud of emotional matter, of some dark emotion that seems to imperil all stable vibration and plunges the bewildered student into a blackness of despair; be feels that all is departing from him; he is a prey to varied and dismal emotions; he deems himself forsaken of all; he considers that all past effort has been futile and that naught remains but to die. At such times he needs much the gift [133] of viveka, and to earnestly weigh up and calmly reason out the matter. He should at these times remind himself that the darkness hides naught from the God within, and that the stable center of consciousness remains there, untouched by aught that may betide. He should persevere until the end, - the end of what? The end of the enveloping cloud, the point where it merges itself into sunlight; he should pass through its length and out into the daylight, realizing that nothing can at any time reach to and hurt the inner consciousness. God is within, no matter what transpires without. We are so apt to look out at environing circumstances, whether physical, astral or mental, and to forget that the inmost center of the heart hides our points of contact with the Universal Logos.
4. Finally (for I cannot touch on all the methods used), the means employed may be to cast a mental darkness over the disciple. The darkness may be intellectual, and is consequently still more difficult to penetrate, for in this case the power of the Ego must be called in, whereas in the former frequently the calm reasoning of the lower mind may suffice to dispel the trouble. Here, in this specific case, the disciple will be wise if he not only attempts to call his Ego or Higher Self for the dispelling of the cloud, but calls likewise upon his Teacher, or even upon his Master, for the assistance that they can give.