We studied initiations until the second in our ealier posts. Today let us look at the third especially from the perspective of a disciple (rather than the ray as well as the external ceremonial aspect conferred during the wesak full moon which we will cover later).
The third initiation marks the culmination of complete mastery of the mental (in the same way that the earlier two initiations resulted into the control of physical and astral planes). It is a distinct initiation, which marks a definite transition out of the form consciousness (lower personality of mental, emotional(astral) and physical planes), and the initiate can function at will on the plane of the intuition though soul (ego). Between the second and third initiation work is struggling with and mastering the energies of the mental world. What kind of work ? DK sums that for us (details found in TWM book) as -
"A. Work on the mental plane produces realisation of duality. The disciple seeks to blend and merge the soul with its vehicle and to do this consciously. He seeks to fuse them into a unity. He aims at the realisation that, here and now, they are ONE. The unification of the self and of the not-self is his objective. The first step in this direction is taken when he begins to cease identifying himself with the form, and recognises (during this transitional period) that he is a duality.
B. The mind, rightly used, becomes therefore a recorder of two types of energy or of two aspects of the manifestation of the One Life. It records and interprets the world of phenomena. It records and interprets the world of souls. It is sensitive to the three worlds of human evolution. It becomes equally sensitive to the kingdom of the soul. It is the great mediating principle, in this interim of dual recognition.
C. Later, the soul and its instrument become so unified and at-one that duality disappears, and the soul knows itself to be all that is, all that has been and all that will be."
The following phrase from "Treatise on white magic" comes to my mind when I think of the third initiation -
"He passes from one sense of unity to a sense of duality, and from thence again into a higher unity. First, the self identifies itself With the form aspect to such an extent that all duality disappears in the illusion that the self is the form. We have then the form constituting apparently all that there is. This is followed by the stage wherein the indwelling self begins to be aware of Itself as well as of the form, and we talk then in terms of the higher and the lower self; we speak of the self and its sheaths, and of the self and the not-self. This dualistic stage is that of the aspirant and of the disciple, up to the time of his training for the third initiation. He begins with a knowledge that he is a spiritual entity confined in a form. His consciousness for a long period of time remains predominantly that of the form. Gradually this changes,—so gradually that the aspirant learns the lesson of endurance (even to the point of enduring the not-self!) until there comes a life of balance, wherein neither preponderates. This produces in the man a state of apparent negativity and inertia which may last for one life or two, and he seems to accomplish little in either direction. This is, for workers, a valuable hint in their dealings with people. Then the point of balance changes, and the soul appears to dominate from the standpoint of influence, and the entire consciousness aspect begins to shift into the higher of the two aspects. Duality however, still persists, for the man is sometimes identified with his soul and sometimes with his form nature; this is the stage wherein so many most earnest disciples are at this time to be found. Little by little however he becomes "absorbed" in the soul, and thus comes en rapport with all aspects of the soul in all forms until the day dawns when he realises that there is nothing but soul and then the higher state of unity supervenes."
1. Up to the third initiation therefore, disciples have to endeavour to work entirely with mental energy in an effort to control, master and use it. Their attempt is concentrated then upon transmitting (from egoic levels) the will aspect of the soul. That will has to be imposed upon the personality until it has become the automaton of the soul. Then the intuition takes control, and energies from the intuitional or Buddhic plane begin to make their impact upon the form nature, the personality. Prior to this period of intuitional control, there are many lives wherein the intuition may begin to play its part, and the student learns the meaning of illumination.
2. The work, to be done prior to the taking of the third initiation, is the complete submerging of the personal point of view in the need of the whole. It entails the complete domination of the concrete mind by the Ego.
3. After the second initiation the teaching shifts up a plane. The initiate learns to control his mental vehicle; he develops the capacity to manipulate thought matter, and learns the laws of creative thought building. He functions freely on the four lower sub- planes of the mental plane, and before the third initiation he must,—consciously or unconsciously,— be complete master of the four lower sub-planes in the three planes of the three worlds. His knowledge of the microcosm becomes profound, and he has mastered theoretically and practically, in great measure, the laws of his own nature, hence his ability experimentally to be master on the four lower sub-planes of the physical, astral, and mental planes. The last fact is of interest. The control of the three higher sub-planes is not yet complete, and here is one of the explanations as to the failures and mistakes of initiates. Their mastery of matter in the three higher sub- planes is not yet perfect; these yet remain to be dominated.
4. To resolve then the lower quaternary into the three, the first stage of which is consciously to withdraw into the Ego and so atrophy the lower self. The student begins by eliminating the colours that are not desirable, killing out all low or coarse vibration and eventually so refining his vehicles that the three major colours—of which he is the expression—shine out with perfect clarity. This leads him up to the third initiation.
5. At the third initiation the Ego stands before the initiate as a perfected triplicity. Not only is the Self known to be intelligent, active love, but it is revealed also as a fundamental will or purpose, with which the man immediately identifies himself, and knows that the three worlds hold for him in the future naught, but only serve as a sphere for active service, wrought out in love towards the accomplishment of a purpose which has been hid during the ages in the heart of the Self. That purpose, being now revealed, can be intelligently co-operated with, and thus matured.
6. Students must always remember that all distinctions and categories are mental productions (based on its ray), and are due to the modifications of the thinking principle, and to the control of form by mental energy. As the central Thinker of the Universe works through the power of thought, the problem of surmounting these distinctions and differences is well nigh insuperable until such time as the aspirant comes under complete control of the second aspect of divinity, and passes out of the domination of the third or matter aspect. But up to the third initiation even the second aspect (the aspect of love) implies duality, for it is inherent in love itself. Ever there is the Lover and the loved, the Desirer and the desired, the seeker and the sought. It is only as the first aspect, that of energising unifying Life (which sweeps all forms and all dualities into one great synthesis) is sensed at the third initiation, that the words I have here dictated convey any practical meaning or realisation.
Attached Table : Synthesis of Initiations with Human Sheaths.
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