"One of the marks of readiness for initiation is the ability to see this expanding and inclusive Entity, and to note the law which is transcended when the part becomes the Whole."

I prefaced this statement by the words that "the unit, the individual and the part are always viewed in relation to an expanding and inclusive whole." Let us consider this statement in detail:

1. The marks of readiness for initiation: What, my brother, are these marks? For what signs does the Master look before he presents his disciple to the Initiator? Are these marks to be seen present in the three bodies in the three worlds? Or are these marks only to be seen in the body which will be primarily affected by the initiation to be undergone? Initiation affects both the consciousness and the form - each in a different manner; the difference is brought about by the effect of the inflowing spiritual life and the divine will upon the two differing types of substance. Forget not, that in this solar system all that we [421] know - even of the very highest aspects - are substantial, because our seven planes (if I may reiterate this basic fact) are the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane - a fact which is often forgotten in the loose use of the word "spiritual." Again, can the initiate himself recognize and register the marks of fitness? These are all questions which you must answer before you can pass on to a deeper meaning and significance.
2. Ability to see the expanding Whole. This leads naturally to the inference that, from a point of limitation, the initiate becomes aware of more than he ever before realized was in existence, and this he grasps up to another point of limitation. You have, therefore:
   1. Recognition of past attainment, leading to a point of temporary static expectancy.
   2. Recognition of a capacity, hitherto unrealized, to see that which has hitherto escaped conscious registration.
   3. Recognition of a movement of an expanding nature which increases the range of the initiate's vision and which indicates a new area, both of future conquest (from the conscious control angle) and of service. This recognition will end the moment of acquiescent waiting, and inaugurate a new cycle of deepened hierarchical activity.
   4. Recognition of the limit of the permitted expansion of consciousness, with a simultaneous recognition that the widened periphery of consciousness and of activity of which the initiate has suddenly become aware indicates the borderline of a still further expansion. This, when later undergone, will enable the initiate to grasp the true significance of the words "the Whole." Area after area of the Body of him "in whom we live and move and have our being" is steadily revealed to the progressing initiate until some day he will know, even as he is known. He will then be granted a vision - dim and distant though it well may be - of that which expansion means to the planetary Logos - those fields of divine activity which lie outside our planetary ring-pass-not. For their [422] understanding, and for freedom of movement within those areas, all the past has prepared the initiate, and in the unfoldment of the three divine aspects of intelligence, love and will, the disciple or initiate has been creating the instrument and developing the faculties which will enable him to move out into solar or cosmic spheres of action, via one or other of the seven Paths; with these I have dealt as far as now is possible in the last volume of A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol. V.
   5. Ability to see the... inclusive Whole. This is the practical angle of the above mentioned reality. The initiate consciously includes in his thinking this new area of the divine Life to which any particular initiation can introduce him. Seeing, recognizing and registering the vision and recording the expansion in his consciousness is not enough. The initiate grasps the fact that he is presented with a widened and widening field of service for which he has the equipment, or at least the latent capacity; he begins to establish those conditions which will enable him to make his magnetic aura adequately inclusive and competent within the new field of revelation.
3. He notes the law which is transcended. The simple illustration of this can be given here in terms of the teaching to be found in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. As a human being, the disciple was ruled and conditioned by the cosmic Law of Economy, along with its various subsidiary laws which were active and conditioning in the three worlds of human evolution. This law is the basic law of nature and of the natural evolving man. After the first initiation, he comes under the Law of Attraction which carries and wields the energy of love and - though the Law of Economy is then abrogated - it preserves an habitual control over the habitual process of the form vehicles which are now used under the Law of Attraction; this law works within the consciousness of man and also within the forms in the service of the Hierarchy. This Law of Attraction is a major soul law.
   Later, after the fourth initiation, the disciple comes [423] increasingly under the Law of Synthesis, which is the major Law of the Spirit in the universe. His capacity then to include rapidly develops and his sense of awareness can (after the sixth Initiation of Decision) begin to range in an extra-planetary fashion. The meaning of all this may be only theoretical, as far as your understanding may be concerned; its significance must be carefully sought and this will not, by any means, prove an easy matter. Revelation will, however, come if you study what is said about these three major laws in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire.
4. The part becomes the Whole. This phrase marks a consummation, and all initiate-consummations are unexpected and even staggering in their import. Upon these words I do not care to enlarge. Their familiarity is such that they are necessarily meaningless to the average esoteric student. We say the words glibly and they voice a vague objective. Nevertheless, they veil and signify the most tremendous experience of which the human consciousness is capable, and one which looms with increasing magnificence during each successive initiation. They infer - to sum it all up - participation, consciousness and cooperation in the thinking and the planning of the planetary Logos. Ponder upon the importance of these words and upon what they signify in relation to the human being.