You will find it of value, brother of mine, to summarize the mass of information which I have given anent Initiation; [381] I refer not only to that which is contained within these particular instructions but to that which is to be found within all the many books which I have written. Isolated statements and interesting details are really of no major importance. It is the entire general picture and the recognition of the place of initiation in the evolutionary scheme which should engage your attention. Earlier in these instructions I pointed out to you that meditation was a planetary technique; in the same way, initiation may be regarded as indicative of successive planetary consummations marking, for instance, the birth of each of the kingdoms in nature; initiation is, par excellence, a series of graded steps or awakenings which enable the human being to become eventually a member, or a point of light, in the Kingdom of God. When an adequate number of members of the fourth kingdom have undergone the process of initiation (technically understood), then the fifth kingdom will come into exoteric manifestation. The method of making this hitherto subjective kingdom a factual entity is rapidly nearing, and the proof of this is - for the first time in history - group initiation. This can now be undertaken, and it is for this that the Hierarchy is working today, where aspirants and disciples are concerned.

Another question which might well be asked is: Do all the members of the group have to be at the same point upon the Path of Discipleship, or can they be at many differing [383] stages of discipleship or initiation? What you really mean when you ask this question is: Is the group - composed as it is of individuals - taking the same initiation? Are all its members at exactly the same point in evolution? By no means. A group should be (and is) composed of individuals at varying points of development; some may be preparing for the second initiation; others may be in training for the third initiation, and a few may be ready for the fourth or the fifth initiation. The nature of the initiation to be undergone is known only to the disciple and his Master; it is of no interest to the group itself; the diversity of the initiations for which preparation is being made tends to enrich the group content; the more ray types which are found functioning in the group, the more valuable will be its service. It is the bringing together of groups in preparation for initiation which has led to the present basic change in the methods of the Hierarchy. A would-be-initiate does not, at first, work solely under the care of the Master of a particular Ashram. Certain of the Masters (usually Masters like myself who have only lately passed through the fifth initiation) have been chosen to train and instruct aspirants on all the rays until after the third Initiation of Transfiguration.

Then and only then does the disciple-initiate pass into the Ashram of the Master of his ray - one of the senior Masters in connection with the seven major Ashrams. If he is a disciple in the Ashram of a Master who is on one of the Rays of Attribute, the task of that Master is to prepare him for transition on to one of the major Rays of Aspect. This shifting and interchange is taking place all the time, when, for instance, the Master R. assumed the task of Mahachohan or Lord of Civilization, his Ashram was shifted from the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order to the third Ray of Active Intelligence; the majority of those who have taken the second and the third initiations were transferred with him under what might be called a "special dispensation"; the rest of the members of his Ashram remained for tuition and training in service under that Master who took his place as the central point of the seventh ray Ashram.