"The Agnisuryans respond to the sound.
The waters ebb and flow."

The situation might be stated in the following terse statements. The rules already studied convey the truth anent the magician.

1. The soul has communicated with his instrument in the three worlds.
2. The man on the physical plane recognizes the contact, and the light in the head shines forth, sometimes recognized and sometimes unrecognized by the aspirant.
3. The soul sounds forth its note. A thought-form is created in consonance with the united meditation of the soul and the man, his instrument.
4. This thought-form, embodying the will of the ego or soul, cooperating with the personality, takes to itself a triple form, constituted of the matter of all three planes, and vitalized through the activity and by the emanations from the heart, throat and [237] ajna centers of the white magician - the soul in conjunction with its instrument.
5. The personality sheaths, each with its own individual life, feel they are losing their power and the battle between the forces of matter and the force of the soul is violently renewed.
6. This battle must be fought out on the astral plane and will decide three things:
1. Whether the soul will, in any one life (for some life holds the critical stage), be the dominant factor and the personality from henceforth be the servant of the soul.
2. Whether the astral plane is no longer the plane of illusion, but can become the field of service.
3. Whether the man can become an active cooperator with the Hierarchy, able to create and to wield mental matter, and so work out the purposes of the Universal Mind, which are prompted by boundless and infinite love, and are the expression of the One Life.

This is the crux of the entire situation, and when the man has mastered the forces opposed to him, he is ready for the second initiation which marks the release of the soul from the prison of the astral body. Henceforth the soul will use the astral body, and mould desire into line with divine purpose.

It is of value for the student to know where he stands and what his particular problem is. The average man is learning the control of the physical body and the organizing of his physical plane life. The student on the probationary path is learning a similar lesson in relation to his astral body, its focus, its desires and its work. The student on the path of accepted discipleship has to demonstrate this control and begin to discipline the mind nature and so function consciously in the mental body. [238]

The work of the initiate and the adept grows out of these achievements and they need not be dealt with here.