C.i. The Fundamental Laws of Healing

We have now completed two sections of our consideration of the art of healing. We have dealt somewhat cursorily with the causes of disease and have noted that they emanate as a whole from three main sources: the psychological state of the patient, his karmic liabilities, and those which are incurred through his group relationship, environal, national or planetary. I then dealt with certain basic requirements of conditions and attitudes which must be established between the healer and the patient, and finally I took up the subject of death. I considered it as it affected the three transitory vehicles, emphasizing its divine nature and its constructive purpose. We now reach the section in which the Laws of Healing and the Rules which should condition the healing process must be briefly considered.

We have found that there are ten laws and six rules. The tenth law will be found too abstruse for much elucidation; it concerns the life principle, of which we as yet know nothing, and is involved with monadic purpose. All occult teaching, which emanates directly from the Hierarchy, contains within it the living seed of that which will follow later. In The Secret Doctrine, for instance, H.P.B. (under my instruction) made occasional reference, very briefly and obscurely, to the antahkarana; she thus left the seed which, [522] when full grown, will indicate the requirements for those who - having achieved the higher initiations - can enter upon the Way of the Higher Evolution. In this tenth law, therefore, I embody also the seed for a much later approach to the problems of Life and Death.

I would here remind you that a law is in reality the effect of the life of a greater entity as it encloses a lesser within its living processes. It embodies that formulated purpose or organized will of an enfolding life, against which the expressed purpose or determined will of that which is enfolded is entirely helpless. You might argue, brother of mine, that this statement negates the free will of the individual unit thus enclosed or enfolded. It assuredly does militate against the form aspect of manifestation - that aspect, for instance, of which a human being is pre-eminently conscious. Therefore, this relationship of the higher or greater and the lower or lesser, will equally and assuredly dominate and eventually render futile the lesser laws of the form nature, those which today are called the laws of nature.

Equally essentially, however, the soul within all forms is at war with those forms, and in its own integral life is conditioned by the higher laws which are the laws of its own being; these it freely obeys and follows, having no slightest wish to do otherwise. There is, therefore, no essential infringement of the free will of the subject; there is only resistance from that which we call the "not-self" or the material aspect. This might be called the basic cause of all disease.

What we call the Laws of Nature were the highest phase of the divine life possible in the first solar system. They are primarily the laws inherent in the life aspect of the form, and have in them, therefore, the seeds of death. The Laws of the Soul, as they subordinate and render negative the Laws of Nature, are the highest laws to which humanity [523] (the highest kingdom in nature at present) can respond, and these - when fulfiled - will conclude the purpose of the second solar system. The Laws of Life itself will finally supersede the Laws of the Soul and will completely offset and negate the Laws of Nature; these laws will be distinctive of the third solar system - the last personality expression of the solar Logos through the medium of the seven planetary Logoi with their varying forms and soul expressions.

C.ii. Three Groups of Laws

We have, therefore, three groups of laws which govern the expression of the living purpose in this second solar system - one developed and another developing, with the third latent and relatively quiescent.

1. The Laws of Nature - the separate laws of the form nature.
2. The Laws of the Soul - the blending laws of group integrity.
3. The Laws of Life - the dynamic laws of Being itself.

It is with certain aspects of the Laws of the Soul that we shall now deal, for they concern the integrity and activity of the soul in form. This must be most carefully borne in mind. Disease is something which attacks the integrity or the harmony of the form nature which the inner spiritual man must use in order to make his contacts in the three worlds which constitute his environment when in incarnation. The ten laws which we shall consider might, therefore, be regarded as ten subsidiary laws of the fundamental Law of Essential Integrity. They constitute nine elaborations or aspects of that one law, and this you must have most carefully in mind. It is with these laws that the true healer must ever work. [524]

The six rules deal only with the application of this realized integrity to the conditions and situation with which the healer is confronted. Integrity involves focus, tension and expression (simultaneously realized, consciously generated and dynamically used).

C.iii. Qualities Required of the Healer

In the laws and rules which I have given, certain necessary characteristics of the healer are mentioned and certain needed requirements are indicated. These we should register first of all as they not only present qualities and attitudes which are essential to the successful practice of the healing art, but they indicate also why - up till the present time - there has been practically no successful or systematized healing of any patient under any of the current healing schools. There has been what I might call "accidental healing," due to the fact that the patient would have been healed anyway, for his hour to pass over had not yet arrived. Deliberate conscious healing, with full understanding, has only occurred when the healer was an initiate of high degree, patterning himself upon the life and the nature of the Christ.

Let us now look at the indicated qualities and attitudes. I will briefly enumerate and comment.

1. The power to contact and work as a soul. "The art of the healer consists in releasing the soul." Think for a moment what this power involves. The healer is not only in immediate and conscious touch with his own soul, but through that soul contact he can easily contact the soul of his patient.
2. The power to command the spiritual will. The particular law involved in the healing act must be "brought into activity by the spiritual will." This necessitates the capacity to make contact with the Spiritual Triad. [525] Therefore, the antahkarana must be somewhat in process of construction.
3. The power to establish telepathic rapport. The healer must "know the inner stage of thought and of desire" of his patient.
4. He must have exact knowledge. We read that he must "know the point exact through which relief must come." This is a most important point and one entirely overlooked by the so-called healers in such movements as Christian Science, Unity and others. Healing does not come through an intense affirmation of divinity, or by simply pouring out love and the expression of a vague mysticism. It comes through mastering an exact science of contact, of impression, of invocation, plus an understanding of the subtle apparatus of the etheric vehicle.
5. The power to reverse, reorient and "exalt" the consciousness of the patient. The healer has to "lift the downward focused eyes unto the soul." This refers to the eyes of the patient. This statement implies limitation, because if the patient is not at the stage in evolution where this is possible, and at the point in evolution where he can contact his own soul, the work of the healer is rendered inevitably futile. The sphere of action, therefore, of the spiritual healer is strictly limited to those who have faith. Faith, however, is the "evidence of things not seen"; that evidence is largely lacking in the majority. Faith is not wishful thinking or an engineered hope. It is evidence of a well-grounded conviction.
6. Power to direct soul energy to the necessary area. "The spiritual or the third eye then directs the healing force." This presupposes a scientific technique on the healer's part and the right functioning of the mechanism of received and directed force within the head. [526]
7. Power to express magnetic purity and the needed radiance. "The healer must achieve magnetic purity...and attain dispelling radiance." This involves great personal discipline in the daily life, and the habit of pure living. Purity inevitably and automatically results in radiance.
8. Power to control the activity of the mechanism of the head. The healer must have "linked the centers in the head." The true healer has established a magnetic area within his head which presents itself or expresses itself through a definitely recognizable radiation.
9. Power over his own centers. The healer has to "concentrate the needed energy within the needed center." The center in the patient's form which is nearest to the seat of the physical trouble has to be made receptive to the energy discharged into it by the corresponding center in the healer's body. It will be obvious to you, therefore, how much knowledge and energy-control is required by the true healer.
10. Power to utilize both exoteric and esoteric methods of healing. The healer will employ "methods of occult healing though the ordinary medical and surgical methods will not be withheld." I have constantly emphasized the God-given nature of experimental medicine - which is a phrase qualifying medicine today, and qualifying still more metaphysical healing. There is no need to call in a spiritual healer for broken bones or for those difficulties which orthodox medicine has already mastered. However, the patient's general morale and condition can be justifiably helped whilst wise surgery and ameliorating medical knowledge are applied. This the usual so-called metaphysical healer is apt to ignore. Healers will be divided eventually into two groups: [527]
    1. Those comprising definitely trained spiritual healers.
    2. Healers with less developed power but with enough radiation and magnetism to aid in the ordinary healing process. These will usually work under the guidance of the spiritual healer.
11. Power to work magnetically. "Thus he can pour the vital healing force upon the patient." This the healer does through a scientific coordination of his equipment, using the hands as a directing agent. In this way the disease can be healed, ameliorated or worsened, even to the point of death. The responsibility of the healer is therefore great.
12. Power to work with radiation. "Thus can his presence feed the soul life of the patient." This again is brought about through a system of coordination, but the agent of radiation is then the aura and not the hands.
13. Power to practice at all times complete harmlessness. "The method used by the Perfect One...is harmlessness." This, we are told, involves a positive expression of poise, an inclusive point of view, and divine understanding. How many healers combine these three qualities and also work through love?
14. Power to control the will and work through love. "The healer...must keep the will in leash." This is one of the most difficult qualities to be developed, for the will of the healer is frequently so potent in its determination to bring about a healing that it renders the effort to apply that healing process entirely futile. From the reverse angle, frequently the sentimental and mystical desire to love the patient negates all efforts to hold the will in leash. Remember, brother of mine, the spiritual will must be present as a quiet [528] deep pool of power behind all expression of the energy of love.
15. Power eventually to wield the Law of Life. Of this little can be said, for it can only be wielded by those who have developed or who are rapidly developing the consciousness of the Spiritual Triad - a very rare thing as yet.

In the study of these requirements there is no need for discouragement. Such a study will serve to set a needed goal for all healers in the New Age. It will also explain why the various healing systems which are practiced today throughout the world (particularly in the Anglo-American countries) have hitherto notably failed, in spite of their claims. None of them - if they kept properly certified records which would be scientifically accurate (and practically none of them do) - would register more than the tiniest percentage of cures based upon pure spiritual healing. The percentage cured is less than one in a million "cures." These cures would have recovered in any case in due time, if left to nature or to ordinary medical and surgical science.

But today, so great is the spiritual stimulation in the world, and so vast are the numbers responding to it, that the moving forward of a large group out of the ranks of average humanity on to the Path of Discipleship is inevitable. This moving forward will provide - during the next five hundred years - many healers who will fulfil to some degree the requirements which I have listed above.

The philosophies endorsed by the various systems such as Unity and Christian Science are basically sound and state the fundamental platitudes (the essential truths, nevertheless) which underlie all that I have said above. People, however, are not healed by the enunciation of platitudes, by [529] the affirmation of divinity or by the statement of abstract theories. They will be healed when the right time comes because of the ability of the healer in the New Age to express in himself and in his daily life the quality of divinity, to be spiritually capable of invoking the soul of his patient, and also to be magnetically pure, and through the power of a particular type of radiated energy to stimulate the patient to heal himself - through the medium of his own inner mechanism. The healer in the New Age will possess the ability to make the following contacts with both ease and understanding:

1. With his own soul.
2. With the soul of the patient.
3. With the particular type of energy which is to be found either in the soul or the personality ray of the patient.
4. With any one of his own centers which is needed by him in order to act as a transmitting agency for energy to be sent into an area governed by some center in the body of the patient.
5. With the center in the patient's etheric body which controls the area where the disease is located.

This, as you can appreciate, connotes much technical knowledge. Added to this, the healer must also possess that spiritual perception which will enable him to intuit the "karma of the moment," as it is esoterically called, and therefore to know if a cure is permissible, practicable, or impossible. This is a form of knowledge which no healer in the world at this time possesses, no matter what his claim may be. Again I say, this is no cause for discouragement.

What is truly needed, and what will be brought about as the decades elapse, will be that disciples and men and women of spiritual orientation will enter the medical [530]   profession and perfect themselves in the techniques of orthodox medicine and in an exoteric knowledge of physical anatomy and of pathological symptoms, plus the orthodox remedies and modes of handling disease. To this technical knowledge and understanding they will add a measure of esoteric learning, and they will then begin to combine, whilst practising their profession, both the exoteric and the esoteric wisdom which is theirs. This will at first be purely experimental, but out of the experience gained in utilizing both fields of knowledge a new medical science will emerge, based upon two paramount recognized factors:

1. A cumulative mass of knowledge and information anent the dense physical vehicle. This has been accumulated by men of science down the ages and is largely proven and true.
2. A constantly growing understanding of the nature of the etheric body, of the centers, and of the transmission and circulation of certain controlled energies.

This combination of two aspects of truth will be greatly facilitated by the increasing sensitivity and almost clairvoyant perception of developing humanity. One of the outstanding results of the recent world war will be found to be a tremendously increased capacity for nervous reaction. This nervous receptivity is at present abnormal and the results are sad. The reason for this is that the nervous apparatus of the average human being (and by that I mean his nervous system, plus the nadis which underlie it) is not yet adequate to the demands upon it. Time, however, will adjust all this.

Both metaphysical healers and orthodox medical men at this time are apt to repudiate each other with much violence. Taking it as a whole, the orthodox physician is less rabid and exclusive than the modern metaphysician. They [531] know too well the limitations of their present medical attainments. But the so-called spiritual healer recognizes at present no limitations, and this definitely constitutes a weakness. Both groups, in time, must become collaborators with each other and not opponents. Both have much to learn from each other, and both must recognize that the particular fields of knowledge for which they stand are equally a divine expression and indicate the ability of the human mind to search, to record, to discover and to formulate truth, so that others may benefit thereby.

I would recall to your attention the fact that both groups have much to do - the one in penetrating into the realm of the subtle and the intangible (and this is rapidly being done), and the other in descending from its vague abstractions and impractical generalizations in order to learn to recognize the facts anent the objective and the tangible; this is not as yet being done; metaphysical healing, so-called, is lost amidst a mist of words and high-sounding affirmations.

The sincerity of the majority of those who belong to these schools of thought is unquestioned; their motives are almost uniformly sincere and good. In both groups charlatans are to be found and also a small - a very small - minority of self-seeking and ignorant exploiters of men. Among them are numbered both physicians and metaphysicians who are commercially oriented; they are, however, a minority. In the sincere investigator and lover of humanity in both groups will be found the future hope of medical science as it seeks to meet the need of humanity - a humanity which is becoming increasingly sensitive and subjectively oriented. [532]

C.VIII. The Laws and Rules Enumerated and Applied

Note: Certain of the Rules are related to certain of the Laws and will be considered by me in their rightful relationship. I have asked A.A.B. to give here a list of the ten laws and - where a rule is related to a particular law - to give it with that law. The rules are renumbered and do not follow in the order earlier given.

Law I
All disease is the result of inhibited soul life. This is true of all forms in all kingdoms. The art of the healer consists in releasing the soul so that its life can flow through the aggregate of organisms which constitute any particular form.

Law II
Disease is the product of and subject to three influences: first, a man's past, wherein he pays the price of ancient error; second, his inheritance, wherein he shares with all mankind those tainted streams of energy which are of group origin; third, he shares with all the natural forms that which the Lord of Life imposes on His body. These three influences are called the "Ancient Law of Evil Sharing." This must give place some day to that new "Law of Ancient Dominating Good" which lies behind all that God has made. This law must be brought into activity by the spiritual will of man. [533]

Rule One
Let the healer train himself to know the inner stage of thought or of desire of the one who seeks his help. He can thereby know the source from whence the trouble comes. Let him relate the cause and the effect and know the point exact through which relief must come.

Law III
Disease is an effect of the basic centralization of a man's life energy. From the plane whereon those energies are focused proceed those determining conditions which produce ill health. These therefore work out as disease or as freedom from disease.

Law IV
Disease, both physical and psychological, has its roots in the good, the beautiful and the true. It is but a distorted reflection of divine possibilities. The thwarted soul, seeking full expression of some divine characteristic or inner spiritual reality, produces, within the substance of its sheaths, a point of friction. Upon this point the eyes of the personality are focused and this leads to disease. The art of the healer is concerned with the lifting of the downward focused eyes unto the soul, the true Healer within the form. The spiritual or third eye then directs the healing force and all is well.

Rule Two
The healer must achieve magnetic purity, through purity of life. He must attain that dispelling radiance which shows itself in every man when he has linked the centers in the head. When this magnetic field is established, the radiation then goes forth.

Law V
There is naught but energy, for God is Life. Two energies meet in man, but other five are present. For each is to be found a central point of contact. The conflict of these energies with forces and of forces twixt themselves [534] produce the bodily ills of man. The conflict of the first and second persists for ages until the mountain top is reached - the first great mountain top. The fight between the forces produces all disease, all ills and bodily pain which seek release in death. The two, the five and thus the seven, plus that which they produce, possess the secret. This is the fifth Law of Healing within the world of form.

Rule Three
Let the healer concentrate the needed energy within the needed center. Let that center correspond to the center which has need. Let the two synchronize and together augment force. Thus shall the waiting form be balanced in its work. Thus shall the two and the one, under right direction, heal.

Law VI
When the building energies of the soul are active in the body, then there is health, clean interplay and right activity. When the builders are the lunar lords and those who work under the control of the moon and at the behest of the lower personal self, then you have disease, ill health and death.

Law VII
When life or energy flows unimpeded and through right direction to its precipitation (the related gland), then the form responds and ill health disappears.

Rule Four
A careful diagnosis of disease, based on the ascertained outer symptoms, will be simplified to this extent - that once the organ involved is known and thus isolated, the center in the etheric body which is in closest relation to it will be subjected to methods of occult healing, though the ordinary, ameliorative, medical or surgical methods will not be withheld.

Law VIII
Disease and death are the results of two active forces. One is the will of the soul, which says to its instrument: [535] I draw the essence back. The other is the magnetic power of the planetary life, which says to the life within the atomic structure: The hour of reabsorption has arrived. Return to me. Thus, under cyclic law, do all forms act.

Rule Five
The healer must seek to link his soul, his heart, his brain and his hands. Thus can he pour the vital healing force upon the patient. This is magnetic work. It cures disease or increases the evil state, according to the knowledge of the healer.
The healer must seek to link his soul, his brain, his heart and auric emanation. Thus can his presence feed the soul life of the patient. This is the work of radiation. The hands are needed not. The soul displays its power. The patient's soul responds through the response of his aura to the radiation of the healer's aura, flooded with soul energy.

Law IX
Perfection calls imperfection to the surface. Good drives evil from the form of man in time and space. The method used by the Perfect One and that employed by Good is harmlessness. This is not negativity but perfect poise, a completed point of view and divine understanding.

Rule Six
The healer or the healing group must keep the will in leash. It is not will that must be used, but love.

Law X
Hearken, O Disciple, to the call which comes from the Son to the Mother, and then obey. The Word goes forth that form has served its purpose. The principle of mind then organizes itself and then repeats that Word. The waiting form responds and drops away. The soul stands free.
Respond, O Rising One, to the call which comes within the sphere of obligation; recognize the call emerging from the Ashram or from the Council Chamber where waits the Lord [536] of Life Himself. The Sound goes forth. Both soul and form together must renounce the principle of life and thus permit the Monad to stand free. The soul responds. The form then shatters the connection. Life is now liberated, owning the quality of conscious knowledge and the fruit of all experience. These are the gifts of soul and form combined.

Note: This last law is the enunciation of a new law which is substituted for the Law of Death, and which has reference only to those upon the later stages of the Path of Discipleship and the stages upon the Path of Initiation.

C.VIII.1. Application of the Laws and Rules

In the last few pages I greatly clarified the issue by indicating - even at the risk of somewhat discouraging you - certain of the essential requirements of the healer in the New Age, and also certain of the contacts which he will have to make with facility and promptness when attempting to heal. I likewise defined for you the nature of Law. This was preliminary to a consideration of the Laws to which the healer must conform and the Rules which he will automatically and intuitively obey. We might consider these Laws and Rules in relation to the healer and also in relation to each other, for several of the Rules are closely related to a Law which controls the healer.

From the definition of law, as given above, it will be apparent to you that in the last analysis disease, death, untruth, falsity and despair are inherent in the planet itself, because our planetary Logos (as I earlier stated when aiding H.P.B. in writing The Secret Doctrine) is an "imperfect God." After the present great world crisis, incident to our planetary Logos having moved forward upon the cosmic Path, and therefore having taken a cosmic initiation, His imperfections are demonstrably lessened; there will be less distress and disease on earth once the necessary planetary [537] adjustments have been made. This you yourselves will not see take place, for adjustments on such a large scale take centuries to effect. What I have, therefore, to say upon the future healing of disease will not be of practical value for a long time to come, but the theory and the indications of possibility must be considered and discussed. Also, for a long time, medical practice and surgical knowledge will play their useful parts in preventive medicine, alleviative practices and curative processes. To these increasingly will be added many psychological methods of healing, and these will go hand in hand with the two above; to these again the services of the spiritual healers will be added. In this way, a rounded-out approach to the whole man will be steadily developed, and the need for this is today recognized by forward thinking physicians everywhere. Thus, and also through the method of trial and error, much will be learnt.

The healing processes I outline and indicate through these Laws and Rules are basically new. They are not based on affirmations, as in Christian Science and other mental healing cults; they are not posited on affirmed origins and on claiming results which will only be possible when the race has reached a far higher standard of perfection than is at present seen or that is immediately capable of development. As I have several times said in this treatise, there is nothing fundamentally wrong in the claims made by these groups and organizations anent the man who has arrived at soul expression and at realization of the Christ consciousness. What is wrong is the claim that the ordinary man (obviously not at this advanced point in evolution) can perform these miracles of healing either in himself or for others. Very few people have as yet reached this point, and the healer in these cults and organizations who has done so is a rarity indeed. The healer in the New Age will recognize limitation and conditioning circumstances, plus destiny. This predisposes the [538] development within him of knowledge-giving powers. He is also spiritually aware that the healing of the physical body is not always the highest spiritual good; the over-estimation and serious, anxious care of the form life, of the physical vehicle, is not of major importance.

The healer in the New Age does not and will not work directly with the physical body at all; being an occultist, he will regard that body as not a principle. He works practically entirely with the etheric body and with the vital energies, leaving those energies to make their impact on the automaton of the physical body according to directed intent; they will then produce their effect according to the response of that body, conditioned as it will be by many factors. These energies, directed via the etheric body of the patient, or emanating from that body, may bring about a cure if the destiny of the patient permits, or they may so stimulate the area of the disease that the disease will be brought to a crisis and the patient will die. This often happens under the ministrations of cultist healers who are ignorant of the laws of healing and who base their activities on a realization of a present (though usually unexpressed) divinity.

A much higher measure of spiritual perception and of mental understanding is required before the system I propose becomes effective. All that I give in my writings is largely of a pioneer nature, and this should be remembered.

Let us now study Law One; it has no Rule attached or related to it, as it is a basic statement, indicating the major underlying theory upon which the healer will work.

Law I
All disease is the result of inhibited soul life. This is true of all forms in all kingdoms. The art of the healer consists in releasing the soul so that its life can flow through the aggregate of organisms which constitute any particular form. [539]

This law indicates that, owing to the fact that the threefold lower man is not under control of his soul, disease can destroy him. Because the free flow of the energy pouring from the soul is inhibited and limited, disease can find place in the physical body. The physical organism is correctly supplied with the creative regenerating energy of the true man, the soul on its own plane. Where there is complete unobstructed inflow from the soul to the seven vitalizing centers, you have the perfect health which the initiate of the fourth degree demonstrates, unless some disciplinary, experimental or initiating karma is being tried out in his case. However, as a general rule apart from these or planetary conditions, an initiate of high degree needs no healer; there is nothing in him requiring healing.

What must the healer do when, faced with a patient, he realizes the inhibited condition which the disease evidences? Does he, under the law, work with the soul of the patient? Does he seek to get that soul (on its own plane) to affect definitely the man, superintending the transfer of energy from the soul to the mind, and from the mind to the astral body, and from thence to the etheric vehicle? By no means. In cases of real and serious illness, the condition of the patient is usually such that it is not possible for him to make the needed response to such attempted ministrations of the healer, either consciously or unconsciously. Any mental exertion is quite beyond his power, and he could not, therefore, cooperate with the effort of his soul to transfer energy; the activity of his astral body is usually concentrated in the formulation of a great desire to live and to get rid of the disease, unless the illness is so acute that the patient has reached the stage where he simply does not care and the will-to-live is rapidly leaving him. To these difficulties must be added the fact that very few people are so completely integrated that they can function as whole personalities, in [540] response to soul stimulation. They are usually polarized in one or another of their three bodies, and this fact again presents a potent limiting condition to the healer. Again, and very frequently, the man is so intensely preoccupied with discomfort and pain present in the dense physical body, that the higher impressions which might come through from mind or soul bodies are quite unable to do so. What then must the trained and instructed healer do?

He must realize, first of all, that the etheric body is the factor of major importance and the main vehicle with which he must deal. He therefore concentrates upon that body of energy. This involves the necessity of ascertaining certain facts, and then making certain points of contact effectively useful.

The first fact to be ascertained is the potency with which the soul has gripped and is still gripping its personality. The healer is aware that because the patient is still alive, the soul is definitely present through the medium of the head and heart centers of the etheric body, thus anchoring both the consciousness and the life principles. If the patient is unconscious, the difficulties of the healer are greatly increased in some cases, though lightened in others. If the principle of consciousness is withdrawn from the head center in the vital body, then the healer knows that death may supervene and his way is this much clearer, particularly if there is a dimming of the light of life in the heart. If consciousness is still powerfully present, he realizes that there is still the possibility of cure, and can then, with greater confidence, proceed with the work to be done. In this statement, I am dealing with the average person. In the case of initiates, it is somewhat different, because they frequently remain fully conscious through the death process.

You will, therefore, realize the basic necessity for the healer in the New Age to be either clairvoyant or - far [541] better still - to have true spiritual perception with its quality of infallibility. His first task is to investigate or "occultly see" the etheric body of the patient, and thus arrive at the following knowledge:

1. The potency with which the soul influences its etheric body. This is indicated by the point of light in the head center and the area which it irradiates.
2. The condition of the etheric center which controls or governs the area within which the physical trouble is to be found.
3. The relation of the centers above the diaphragm to those below, because this will give him a general indication of the point in evolution of the man to be healed.

Having ascertained these points to the best of his ability, he will then, under the law of "inhibited soul life," seek by the power of his own soul (working on the higher levels of the mental plane and through his head center) to stimulate the point of soul life in the etheric body of the patient. He will do this with a view of attracting, if possible, a fuller inflow of the soul energy of the patient into the head center, in order that the life thread may carry a fuller supply of life to the heart. In this manner, the patient's own "livingness" will bring about the desired cure; he will be healed apparently by nature itself, or by the natural and normal way of adequate vitality, and so enabled to throw off the disease.

When the healer, therefore, recognizes and works with this law, the following points of contact are recognized and used:

1. The soul of the patient, anchored within his etheric body. [542]
2. The soul of the healer, occupied with the stimulation of that point of soul contact, via the following triangle of energy:

 

This relates the vital body of the healer to that of the patient, via both their head centers and the heart of the patient, because there the life principle is focused and is closely involved and affected by whatever occurs.

3. When this triangle of energy is functioning smoothly and a measure of response is coming from the head center of the patient, evoking greater soul contact and producing a resultant inflow of soul energy into the head center and from thence to the heart center, then - by an act of the will and the use of an invocative mantram - the healer will seek to implement this increased flow of life, via the heart, to the diseased area, using the center which controls that area of the physical body, whichever this may be. This has to be done with the greatest possible care, so that the flow is not too sudden, and therefore destructive in its effects; particular care has also to be evidenced in the cases of disease of the heart; embolisms, for instance, which prove fatal are frequently due to a violent expression on the part of the patient of the will-to-live, bringing on a flooding inflow of the life principle. This makes its impact too suddenly upon the heart, causing equally sudden movement in the blood stream, and thus of the embolism, producing death. I am putting this into entirely untechnical terms [543] and laying myself open to expert criticism, but I am doing so in order to convey to the lay reader a general idea of the risks involved, and thus produce caution in the enthusiast.

This law covers certain fundamental premises, and there is little more than I can profitably say anent its implications. Much will be learnt by accepting the premises and working upon their implications. What I have said is very far from being what I could have said, but I have here given the student a simple and working understanding of certain essential and basic concepts.

We will now pass on to a consideration of the second Law and of Rule One.

Law II
Disease is the product of and subject to three influences: first, a man's past, wherein he pays the price of ancient error; second, his inheritance, wherein he shares with all mankind those tainted streams of energy which are of group origin; third, he shares with all natural forms that which the Lord of Life imposes on His body. These three influences are called the "Ancient Law of Evil Sharing." This must give place some day to the new "Law of Ancient Dominating Good" which lies behind all that God has made. This law must be brought into activity by the spiritual will of man.

This Law is most comprehensive in its statements and really constitutes a summation of two laws, one of which is controlling at this time and one which will eventually control. Let us, for the sake of clarity, and because people usually read so carelessly, divide this law up into its various statements, and thus gain a better idea of its implications:

1. Disease is a product of and subject to three influences: [544]
   1. A man's past, wherein he pays the price of ancient error.
   2. His inheritance, wherein he shares with all mankind those tainted streams of energy which are of group origin.
   3. His sharing with all natural forms that which the Lord of Life imposes on His body.
2. These three types of energy are called the "Ancient Law of Evil Sharing."
3. The "Law of Ancient Dominating Good" lies be hind all that God has made.
4. This law will some day supersede the "Ancient Law of Evil Sharing."
5. It will be brought into activity by the spiritual will of man.

This law throws a man in his thinking back to the basic law of karma which, as you know, there is no avoiding, and which the modern healer in the present healing cults and organizations consistently overlooks. With these influences and predisposing causes we have already dealt, and there is no need further to elaborate them here, beyond remarking that one of the most helpful things for a patient to remember and for the healer to bear in mind is that disease has its roots in the past (a group past or an individual past) and may, in the last analysis, be a beneficent way of paying off ancient debts. This induces in the patient a constructive attitude of acquiescence - not an acquiescence which leads to non-action, but one which produces a sense of responsibility for right action. This right action will lead either to full payment of the penalty through the well-known process of death or to the success of the steps taken to induce health. In the case of the healer, it will lead to a recognition of potent forces working through the patient and a willingness [545] for the destined fate to take place; in both cases the feverish anxiety so often present will not intervene between the healer's intention and the patient, preventing sound happenings.

The second important thing is for the patient to remember, if his condition permits, that what he is enduring is the fate and the lot of the majority, and that he is not alone. A right handling of ill health is a major factor in breaking down separateness and a sense of aloneness and isolation; that is why the effects of bad health, when rightly handled, lead to a sweetening of the disposition and a broadening of the sympathies. Sharing and a sense of general participation has usually to be learnt the hard way - such again is the law.

In this law we have the clue to that which will ultimately sweep disease from the earth. Let me put it quite simply. When the majority of the inhabitants of the earth are being rapidly oriented towards good, towards righteousness, as the Bible expresses it, and when the bulk of human beings are inclined towards goodwill (the second major expression of soul contact and influence in the individual's life and in the life of mankind - the first being the sense of responsibility), then ill health will persistently, even if only gradually, disappear and die out and finally be non-existent. Slowly, very slowly, this is already happening - not yet in the disappearance of disease, but in the bringing about of a more correct orientation. What this really means is that the channel of contact between the individual and his soul and the soul of humanity is becoming more direct and unimpeded. Alignment is being brought about. You can see again, therefore, why the emphasis in the life of the healer must be laid upon contact and alignment, and why so few succeed. There is little if any contact to be found among healers today, and little direct consciousness of the necessity, [546] and no real understanding of the techniques to be followed.

It is wise to grasp this important point, for it will negate disappointment. Disease is not going to disappear miraculously and suddenly from a world in the immediate period, heralding the New Age. If it did, the implications would be that the Law of Karma no longer controlled, and this is not the case.

The final sentence of this second law gives a basic indication of the time period: the Law of Dominating Good will be brought into activity by the spiritual will of man. What does this mean? It means that only when truly large numbers of men are controlled by the Spiritual Triad, have built the antahkarana and can therefore use the spiritual will, can disease be stamped out and only good control. It will of course be a gradual process, and in the early stages almost imperceptible. Again, why is this? Because evil, crime and disease are the result of the great heresy of separateness, and because hate and not love controls. Forget not that he who loveth not his brother is a murderer - ever the symbol of hate. As yet, the sense of universality and of identity with all is not to be found, except in advanced disciples and initiates; the mass consciousness and the demonstration of the herd instinct must not be confounded with the sense of Oneness which marks the rightly oriented person. In the New Age, teaching anent the antahkarana and the constitution of man, principally from the angle of the "three periodical bodies," and not so much from that of the lower threefold man, will be emphasized, particularly in the higher schools of learning, thereby laying a sound foundation for the esoteric schools which will be slowly emerging. A new perspective upon humanity will be thereby attained. The nature of the spiritual will will be taught in contradistinction to that of the selfish personal will; [547] by its means tremendous new potencies will be released, and safely released, into daily life.

Up to the present time, even disciples have little idea of the exceeding power of the triadal will. It might be here affirmed that those healers who have triadal consciousness and can exercise the potency of the monadic life and will, via the Spiritual Triad, will always be successful healers; they will make no mistakes, for they will have accurate spiritual perception; this will give them knowledge as to the possibility of cure, and by the use of the will they can then work safely and with power on the head center of the patient. They will necessarily confine their healing powers to those who live focused in the head. They will stimulate the soul, there anchored, into effective activity, thus promoting a true self-healing.

You will note from all the above how relatively simple these Laws are when carefully considered, and how beautifully they are related to each other. The mastering and grasping of one facilitates the understanding of the next.

Forget not that the head center is the one through which the will works, and with this in your mind, relate the information given you anent Law One in the early part of this instruction to that which I have here given you. If these laws are studied deeply by those who seek to learn to heal spiritually, and if the healer endeavors to make his life conform to the rules, a definite pattern of healing and an emerging technique will take shape in his mind and greatly increase his effective service. You will note also that I am not giving rules and laws which deal with specific diseases. This, I fear, will greatly disappoint many earnest workers. They would like me to indicate what should be done, for instance, to cure cancer of the liver, or pneumonia or gastric ulcer or forms of heart disease. This I do not intend to do. My work is far more basic than that. I am concerned [548] with causes, and primarily with the etheric body as the distributor of energies or as the withholder of these energies when transformed into forces; I deal with the state of consciousness of the healer and with the theories which he should embrace, with his understanding of the relationship of the soul to its vehicles of expression (particularly, in the case of healing, to the vital body), and with the controlling fact of the centers found in every area of the body, either freely distributing energy and preserving the body in good health or - through undevelopment and inhibited activity - bringing about those conditions in which disease becomes possible and probable.

You can see, therefore, how the healing process is simplified when we recognize causes and realize that they are responsible for the functioning of the body on the outer plane. The healer has always to remember the following sequence of facts:

1. The fact of the soul, working through
2. The mind and the astral body, whose energies condition
3. The etheric vehicle, a vortex of energies focused through numerous centers, both major and minor.
4. The seven major centers, controlling definite areas of the body via
   1. The nadis.
   2. The nerves.
   3. The endocrine system.
   4. The blood stream.

These four groups of conditioned aspects of the man concern life and consciousness, or the two major aspects of the soul when in manifestation upon the physical plane. [549]

Orthodox medicine has been to date necessarily confined to the objective symptoms and their immediate apparent cause, and therefore to effects and not to real causes. The healing with which I am concerned is directed towards the reorganizing and the revitalizing of the etheric body, with the intent of getting behind the outer formal indications of wrong conditions to that vehicle of energies which - if correctly functioning and in right alignment - will preserve the physical body in good condition and keep it free from disease. The knowledge required by the healer in the New Age is therefore more basic and less detailed. He deals with areas and not with organs; he is concerned with energies and their distributing points, and not with the details of the physical body, with the construction of the organs and their malfunctioning. He will deal with the seven etheric centers, with the nadis through which they affect and stimulate (apart from radiation) the nervous system; he will watch with care the nervous system and the blood stream which the centers affect through radiation on to and through the hormones there to be found. But the keynote of all his work will be directed distribution, and the center of his attention will be the channels of this distribution - the entire system of etheric centers.

I would beg you to reflect upon all this information with studious care. The keynote to good health, esoterically speaking, is sharing or distribution, just as it is the keynote to the general well-being of humanity. The economic ills of mankind closely correspond to disease in the individual. There is lack of a free flow of the necessities of life to the points of distribution; these points of distribution are idle; the direction of the distribution is faulty, and only through a sane and worldwide grasp of the New Age principle of sharing will human ills be cured; only by the right distribution of energy will the ills of the physical body of individual [550] man also be cured. This is a fundamental (I would say the fundamental principle) of all spiritual healing. In the last analysis also this presupposes an eventual and scientific recognition of the etheric body of the planet, and consequently of man.

We come now to a consideration of Rule One.

Rule One
Let the healer train himself to know the inner stage of thought or of desire of the one who seeks his help. He can thereby know the source from whence the trouble comes. Let him relate the cause and the effect and know the point exact through which relief must come.

It will be apparent to you that the first rule which the healer has to master must necessarily be important. It is basic and essential in its implications if a cure is to be effected or if the healer is not to waste time in attempting the impossible. There are four injunctions in this rule:

1. The healer must train himself to know whether the patient is mentally or astrally (emotionally) focused.
2. He can and must, therefore, ascertain the psychological basis of the existent trouble.
3. He will be able then to ascertain the location of the effect (the disease) through perception of the underlying cause.
4. This will enable him to know
   1. The area affected.
   2. The center in the etheric body controlling that area.

You will also realize why I started my analysis of disease and healing by a presentation of the psychological causes. [551] This first rule is related to that entire section of the teaching and is, as you can see, intensely practical.

When the personality polarization is known, two major facts emerge: the point of approach will be either through the head center or the heart center if the patient is highly developed - which presumably the healer can be supposed to know from character indications and the effectiveness of his life. Or the approach can be through the throat center or the solar plexus center if the patient is an ordinary and average advanced person; if he is quite undeveloped and relatively a low grade human being, the exact point through which relief will come will be the solar plexus center or the sacral center. It is interesting to note that when a man is so low in the evolutionary scale that he must be ethically reached via the sacral center, he is often quite easily cured and will respond more rapidly to what is oft called "etheric manipulation" than will other types. One reason for this is that his mind and his emotions present no real obstacles, and all available energies can be directed unimpeded to the diseased area.

If the healer is clairvoyant, he can with facility ascertain the point of entry of the healing forces, because the "entering light" will then be the brightest, the light of the center itself will convey the needed information. If he is a very advanced healer, he will not use any form of psychic perception but will react immediately upon contact to an impression so powerful, coming from the patient, that it cannot be denied and is probably entirely correct and to be depended upon. It must be remembered, however, that owing to the integrity of the human soul, and to the fact that every soul is in its own nature a Master, there will be always a margin of error where the healer is concerned, even if he is an initiate-healer; there will be evidence to him of a point where the spiritual man (of which the patient is only [552] a reflection) controls, and beyond which - except as a soul on an equal basis with the patient's soul - he cannot and dare not go. There are conditions, for instance, in which an advanced disciple or a high initiate (for definite purpose of vacating his physical vehicle) may be permitting the forces of disintegration, of limitation and of destruction to be breaking down and destroying his physical outer form. When this is the case, the healer may not be aware of the intention; he will, however, be aware of opposition and will be forced to desist from his efforts to heal.

When the patient is a strictly mental type, and the approach to the healing process must be through a higher center, the head center, the healer will be wise to gain the conscious cooperation of the patient so that their two wills will function in unison; this will entail a positive relationship between the two. When the patient is not so highly developed, the healer will have to strive for a spirit of hopeful acquiescence in the man; the emotional nature will be stronger in this case than in the more advanced type and the task of the healer consequently harder. He will have, very frequently, to combat anxiety, emotional reactions of diverse kinds, fear and forebodings. The psychological condition will therefore be fluid, and the healer will have much to do to aid the patient to preserve a constancy of emotional reaction and to become calm and quiescent. This quiet reaction has to be attained if the healing energies are to pass effectively to the right center and its controlled area. This can be brought about by the establishing of a harmonious rapport between the healer and the patient, prior to any healing process. Healers in the New Age will also establish their own clientele, just as physicians do today, and so learn to know the constitution and the temperament of those they may be called upon to help; they will also educate them in certain healing processes and techniques [553] in preparation for their use later, if needed; this time, however, still lies far ahead.

When the patient is an undeveloped human being and low down in the evolutionary scale, he will be controlled psychologically by the consecrated personality of the healer and by the imposition of the healer's will upon the etheric body of the patient. This does not mean the imposition of the energy of the will upon a negative person, thereby impelling the patient to action and imperilling even the very small measure of free will which he possesses; it means the imposition of the authority of knowledge and of spiritual stabilization upon the patient, thereby instilling confidence and a willingness to be obedient.

You have here the first steps which the healer must take in dealing with the patient and with the psyche, the lower psyche of the patient. They are three in number:

1. Gaining the cooperation of the personality of the advanced man; it is only the personality which requires healing.
2. Bringing about a condition of hopeful acquiescence on the part of the personality of the average man; he is not as yet capable of intelligent cooperation, but he can so handle himself that he reduces personality hindrances to a minimum.
3. Inducing confident obedience to the suggestions of the healer. This is all that the undeveloped man can do.

It will be obvious to you that broad generalizations such as the above do not cover every type of man and the many intermediate types and stages. The healer will need to be a true lover of his fellowmen and a trained psychologist as well; this means that he will have to practice as a soul and also as a perceptive mind. [554]

Another point should here be noted. One problem which the healer will have to face with mental types will be the tendency to preserve all energies coming from the soul either in the head, or at least above the diaphragm; this does not mean that all the areas of the body below the diaphragm are not habitually supplied with the needed energies, but that there the functioning is largely automatic and the man is not in the habit of consciously directing energy to the center and the area it controls, when below the diaphragm. It may be necessary to instruct him so to do, if he is attempting to collaborate with the healer and seeks to bring about a cure. His mental focus and the activity of the head center will be a great help, provided he accepts instruction in the art of energy direction. This he can usually do if not too ill or too preoccupied with the preservation of a conscious contact with his body. When he is unable to focus his attention, either through pain or through lack of physical consciousness or profound weakness, the healer will have to work primarily as soul with soul, and trust that the rapport between the patient's soul and the etheric body will be adequate to promote a cure, if that is the destiny of the man.

Where the source of the trouble lies in the emotional or astral body, the task of the healer is not so easy; he has then to work, focused as a soul in his head center, but directing the needed energy and controlling the patient's emotional nature via his correctly oriented solar plexus center. I refer here to the healer's solar plexus center, which is one which he does not as a general rule employ as a point of focus or attention in his own life. The healer has a gained facility in the use of all his centers at will, regarding them as distributing points of directed energy. This directed energy, I would have you note, is not directed towards healing, but is the soul energy of the healer directed towards [555] bringing some center in the patient's body under control, owing to the emotionalism which the patient displays, and towards reorganizing it as a center for reception of the healing energies emanating from the patient's soul - a very different matter and one which must be most carefully borne in mind.

The healer, therefore, uses two centers, normally speaking: his own head center and that center in his own body which corresponds to the area which is diseased and its controlling center. There has to be in every successful healing the establishing of a sympathetic relationship. As an ancient book in the Masters' Archives puts it: "Soul to soul, the two are one; point to point, together must they suffer; place to place, they find themselves allied, and thus the dual stream of energy results in cure."

One of the major difficulties with which the healer is faced, particularly if relatively inexperienced, is the result of this established sympathetic relation. There is apt to occur what we might call "transference." The healer takes on or takes over the condition of disease or discomfort, not in fact but symptomatically. This can incapacitate him or at least intercept the free activity of the healing process. It is a glamor and an illusion and is based on the healer's achieved capacity to identify himself with his patient; it also is founded on his anxiety and great desire to bring relief. The healer has become so preoccupied with the patient's need, and so decentralized from his own identified and positive consciousness, that inadvertently he has become negative and temporarily unprotected. The cure for this, if the healer discovers in himself this tendency, is to work through the heart center as well as the head center, and thus keep a steady flow of the positive energy of love pouring out towards the patient. This will insulate him from the disease, but not from the patient. He can do this by working [556] through the heart center within the brahmarandra (the head center) and greatly increase the potency of his healing work; however, it presupposes a high degree of development on the healer's part. The average spiritual healer will have to link up head and heart centers by a definite act of the will. He will then realize that the love pouring from him to the patient will prevent any return of the undesirable emanations from the patient which have been flowing towards him; this because if such a flow existed, it would militate against the patient being healed.

The healer who responds to the inner urge to heal will face, as you can see, a very severe course of training before his own equipment - personality, etheric body and its centers - are brought into such submission to the soul that they offer no obstruction to the healing art. He has therefore to learn in connection with himself:

1. Rapid alignment between soul, mind, head center and physical brain.
2. The use of the mind, illumined by the soul, in the psychological diagnosis of the causes of the disease which he proposes to handle.
3. Methods for establishing a sympathetic rapport with the patient.
4. Modes of protecting himself from any transference brought about through this rapport.
5. The establishing of a right relation with the patient of either cooperation, acquiescence or spiritual control.
6. Physical diagnosis and the locating of the area to which relief must come, via the controlling center.
7. The art of cooperation with the patient's soul so that his etheric body focuses all its inflowing energies in order to bring relief to the diseased area. This involves the direct activity of the healer's etheric body in [557] connection with a renewed activity on the part of the patient's etheric body.
8. The technique of withdrawing his healing power when that of the patient is adequate to the undertaking.

I feel that I have here given you all that you need for immediate study and reflection. I have shown you that the healing art is not a vague mystical process, or wishful thinking and simple good intentions. I have indicated that it presupposes the mastering of the science of soul contact, first of all; the constant practice of alignment, and the comprehension of the Science of the Centers, or - literally - a modern form of Laya-Yoga. Healers in the future will undergo years of drastic training, and this need cause no surprise, for the ordinary medical profession calls for years of hard study and work. Many healers in the New Age will combine orthodox study and knowledge with the art of spiritual healing.

When trained healers, with perception, with a full working knowledge of the etheric body, with an understanding of the energies which compose it or which it does or can transmit, of the subtle constitution of man and of the methods of directing energies from one point and location to another, can work with full medical knowledge or in full collaboration with the orthodox physician or surgeon, then tremendous changes will be brought about. Great enlightenment will reach the race of man.

It is for this that we must prepare - not primarily for the healing of the physical body, but because of the expansion of the consciousness of the race that this new and esoteric study will bring about.

We have dealt with a number of fundamental realities which it is essential that all healers - endeavoring to work with the new type of esoteric healing - must master; what [558] I said, therefore, is of major importance. Each point made by me could form the basis of prolonged discussion, but (in this treatise) that is not possible, for 1 seek only to give indication of future possibilities. I seek also to foment distrust in the present approach of the metaphysical world to this subject of disease and its cure, and to undermine - if I may use so drastic an expression - the confidence of the public in the so-called New Age modes of healing, in the methods of the Christian Scientist, of Mental Science, and of all those schools of thought which deal with healing from the angle of affirmation - affirmation of man's divinity and the claim that that inherent and innate divinity guarantees his healing. This claim is a glamor and a delusion, as I have oft sought to show.

Today we deal with a law which (if properly understood) proves how inadequate is the approach of the modern metaphysician to this subject and - though it puts our instructions on healing on a sound basis - it postpones the era of truly occult healing quite definitely to a more distant time. This third law runs as follows:

Law III
Disease is an effect of the basic centralization of a man's life energy. From the plane whereon those energies are focused proceed those determining conditions which produce ill health. These, therefore, work out as disease or as freedom from disease.

This law indicates that one of the primary determinations at which the healer must arrive is that of the level of consciousness from which the predominating energy in the etheric body emanates. I would remind you here that in The Secret Doctrine, H.P.B. states that a plane and a state of consciousness are synonymous terms, and entirely interchangeable; in all my writing I seek to emphasize not [559] the level of matter or substance (a plane, as it is called), but the consciousness which expresses itself in that environing area of conscious substance.

We are assured in this ancient law that disease is an effect of the basic centralization of a man's life energy. This life energy is not the same as the energy or force of consciousness, but consciousness is ever the directing factor in every expression of the indwelling life, for there is basically only one major energy - life energy. Where the consciousness of the man is focused, there the life energy will gather its forces. If the consciousness is focused on the mental plane or upon the astral plane, the life energy will not be so strongly focused and anchored in the heart center (the center where the life principle is found), but only a part of its vital energy will find its way into the physical body, via the etheric vehicle. The greater part will be retained (to use an inadequate word) upon the plane where the consciousness is predominantly functioning or - to word it otherwise - it will be conditioned in expression by the state of consciousness, corresponding to that level of awareness or place of contact with the divine Whole or the divine Consciousness which the point in evolution of the man makes possible.

The task of the healer is therefore to find out where this focus of consciousness is to be found; this brings us back to a point I made anent the patient being essentially either a mental or an emotional type, and very, very rarely indeed purely physical in his consciousness. Where the consciousness is stabilized in that of the soul, there will be little disease present and the physical difficulties of the highly developed patient will then be associated with the impact of the soul energy upon an unready physical vehicle; at that stage only certain of the major diseases will affect him. He will not be susceptible to the little complaints and the [560] constant small infections which render the life of the average man or of the undeveloped man so trying and difficult. He may suffer from heart trouble, from nervous diseases, and from complaints affecting the upper part of the body and those areas which are controlled by the centers above the diaphragm; however, the difficulties brought about through the minor etheric centers (of which there are many), or by the centers below the diaphragm, will not usually be present - unless (as can be the case in a very advanced disciple) he is deliberately taking on conditions engendered by his world service for men.

As the majority of human beings are at this time centralized on the astral plane (or in the astral body), a clue to one of the greatest sources of disease immediately becomes apparent. When the consciousness of the race shifts on to the mental plane - and this is slowly taking place - then the more widely known and prevalent diseases will die out and only the diseases of mental types or the diseases of disciples will remain to disturb the peace of individual man. With these I have dealt in an earlier volume of this treatise. (A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol. II, Page 520-625.)

Mental Science is right in its recognition that it is the emotions of men (as expressed in that feeble imitation of reality which they call thought) which are responsible for much disease. They are right in their effort to make the patient change his emotional attitudes and to react to life and circumstances and people along a different line. But they are hopelessly wrong in believing that that is sufficient; in their ignoring of all scientific procedures connected with the etheric body, they have nothing which relates the emotional nature to the physical vehicle, and therefore there is a gap in their reasoning and a consequent fault in their [561] technique. This renders their activities futile, except from the character angle. When they do bring about a healing, it is because in any case the patient was predestined to recover, but they have served a useful purpose in correcting a character condition in which he was in constant danger of disease. They have not wrought a cure, and in claiming it both the healer and the patient are deceived. All deception is dangerous and hindering.

It might be of service here if I indicate along broad and general lines some of the types of disease which a centralization of the life force upon the astral plane, for instance, could produce. I shall but list them; I will not deal with them in any detail for until the modern healer recognizes the fact of the etheric body, and works scientifically and intelligently with it and its controlling centers of force, anything I could say of procedure would be futile. I am endeavoring at this time to promote certain basic acceptances - such as the fact of the existence of the etheric body.

1. Constant introspection, all forms of morbid suppression and a too drastically enforced silence where fundamental emotions are concerned can lead to serious liver trouble, to constant gastric difficulties and to cancer.
2. Where hatreds and deep dislike are present in the consciousness, or where the man lives in a constant state of irritation against a person or a group, or again where the sense of being abused is present, there is a real possibility that the blood stream will be affected; the man then will be susceptible to constant infections, to boils, to running sores and to the various blood conditions which are definitely septic in nature.
3. An irritable nature and one which is always in a state of fussiness, of bad temper, one which reacts furiously when things do not go as desired, may lead to [562] disastrous explosions which can be diagnosed as brain difficulties and temporary insanities; they may lead to constant headaches which undermine the constitution and bring about an inevitably debilitated condition.
4. A frustrated sex life or a state wherein an unmarried person has had no normal expression of a natural and universal process, and to whom therefore sex remains a mystery (and at the same time a constant inner unrecorded subject of thought) will lead:
   1. To a condition of great devitalization with a consequent and unavoidable ill health which attends that type of person - the so-called obvious old maid or bachelor. Needless to remark, there are many such unmarried people who face life wholesomely and do not come under this category.
   2. To a constant effort to attract the attention of the opposite sex until it reaches a point where it becomes a nervous and most unwholesome tendency.
   3. To the development of homosexual habits or to those perversions which warp the life of many intelligent people.
   4. To the tumors - malignant or otherwise - which attack the organs of generation and which frequently make the subject an operative case.

There are other possible developments but upon them I do not propose to dwell. I have here indicated enough to show the danger of a sense of frustration and a morbid (even if at the time an unrecognized) interest in sex. This can evidence itself also in a dream life which links the brain, the mind and the organs of generation closely together and proves the fact of astral desire evoking the physical appetite; this demonstrates my contention that the physical body automatically [563] responds - even when unconscious in the hours of sleep - to astral control. The cure, as you of course know, is a full creative outer life, particularly one which is of benefit to one's fellowmen and is not simply a transmutation of the sex urge into some form of creative thinking which simply remains thinking, but takes no shape or form on the outer plane of human life.

5. Self-pity, so prevalent a trouble, leads to acute indigestion, to intestinal trouble, to catarrh and head colds in the average person, whilst in the more advanced man it leads to chronic bronchial difficulties, gastric ulcers and unhealthy conditions connected with the teeth and the ears.

I could go on enumerating other emotional conditions which produce disease in the person where these conditions are present, but this will suffice to give the experimenting healer a clue to certain possibilities which are responsible for the physical difficulties with which he is called upon to deal. He will have also (as I have pointed out elsewhere) to bear in mind conditions which have been inherited from previous incarnations or developed as a result of environing group, national or planetary karma.

There is no rule connected with this law because we are still dealing with the definition of causes producing the objective disease; these have to be grasped and accepted as working theories before the healer can efficiently deal with the situation.

We come now to the consideration of a law which is so inclusive in its significance and in its defining power that it might be regarded as stating the reason for all disease of any nature and at any time in the life history of the race or of individual man. It is stated here and is only regarded as Law IV because of the necessity for the main contentions [564] of the three preceding laws being admitted, considered and studied; also because it is the major law conditioning the appearance of disease in the fourth kingdom in nature, the human kingdom. It is essentially a law related to the fourth Creative Hierarchy, and it was definitely imposed and recognized as a law, governing humanity predominantly, by initiates working in the fourth root-race, the Atlantean. Curiously enough also, when humanity can function with its consciousness centered upon the fourth or buddhic plane, disease will die out and the fourth Creative Hierarchy will finally be freed from that great limitation.

Law IV
Disease, both physical and psychological, has its roots in the good, the beautiful and the true. It is but a distorted reflection of divine possibilities. The thwarted soul, seeking full expression of some divine characteristic or inner spiritual reality, produces - within the substance of its sheaths - a point of friction. Upon this point the eyes of the personality are focused, and this leads to disease. The art of the healer is concerned with the lifting of the downward focused eyes unto the soul, the true Healer within the form. The spiritual or third eye then directs the healing force, and all is well.

This law starts off with the statement of one of the paradoxes of the occult teaching: that good and evil are one and the same thing, though in reverse, or constituting the opposite sides of the one Reality.

Because man is a soul, and is spiritually determined to function as a soul, a state of friction is established between soul and personality; this friction is a major cause (if it is not the major cause) of all disease. Here is a clue to the understanding of the phrase, "fire by friction," the third aspect of the divine "fiery nature" of God, for "our God is a consuming fire." His nature, we are told also, is [565] expressed through electric fire, through solar fire and through fire by friction. These three fires I dealt with at length in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire and hinted at earlier in The Secret Doctrine.

This law states that because man is divine, the urge to divinity produces resistance in the vehicles of expression; this resistance will localize itself in some area of the physical body and produce a point of friction; this friction, in its turn, produces a condition or an area of inflammation. This eventually leads to disease of some kind or another. It is possible, is it not, that you have here another clue - a clue to a problem which has caused so much concern in the metaphysical world: Why do advanced people, spiritual leaders and those oriented to the spiritual life, suffer so frequently from physical difficulties? It is probably because they are at the stage where the energy of the soul, pouring through the physical body, meets resistance from that body of a correspondingly intense kind. This friction set up is so acute that disease is promptly the result. This is not true of disciples who have taken the second initiation; their problem of ill health is otherwise developed.

Let us take this fourth law sentence by sentence and attempt somewhat to analyze the meaning:

1. Disease, both physical and psychological, has its roots in the good, the beautiful and the true. This is but a distorted reflection of divine possibilities.

I have shown that disease is fundamentally psychological in nature; there are, however, diseases which are inherent in the resistance of the dense physical body (and not only the subtler bodies) to the impact of the higher energies, or which are inherent in the planetary substance or matter of the Earth itself. Forget not that the physical body is constructed of such matter. This first clause of the fourth [566] law tells us that three aspects of divinity produce disease. This sounds impossible upon first reading the statement, but a careful study will reveal its essential truthfulness. How can the good, the beautiful and the true, cause disease of any kind? Let us see.

1. The Good. What is the good? Is it not the expression of the will-to-good? Does not and should not this will-to-good work out on the physical plane in what we call goodwill among men? Is it not possible that the soul, seeking constantly (on its own plane) to conform to the Plan which implements the divine will-to-good, endeavors to impel its threefold expression, the personality, to express goodwill - doing this at the right stage of evolutionary unfoldment and when it is active and functioning? Yet, because of the resistance of the form nature, as yet inadequate to the desired divine expression, friction is immediately set up and disease eventuates. I think that even a brief consideration of the above questions will demonstrate to you how probable it is that the soul's inclination to "the good" can bring about resistance upon the physical plane so that the turmoil thus engendered in the consciousness of man can and does produce disease. This type of disease is responsible for many of the difficulties of advanced people, aspirants and disciples. This "friction" produces then a secondary reaction and leads to those psychological conditions to which we give the name "depression, an inferiority complex, and the sense of failure." This particular source of disease, "the Good," is one that primarily affects the mental types.
2. The Beautiful. Here you have a word qualifying the desire of all men for what they consider a desirable objective for their life pattern and that for which they [567] choose to struggle. The beautiful, from the angle of a divine aspect, concerns the quality of life. I would refer you here to our initial definition in the first volume of this treatise of the words spirit-soul-body; we defined them as life-quality-appearance. Life is the energy in expression of the divine will-to-good; quality is the energy in expression of the soul, and this energy works at this time predominantly through the desire life and the determination of all men at every stage in evolution to possess, own and enjoy that which they regard as the beautiful. A definition of "the beautiful" and the range of man's desires are widely different and dependent upon the point in evolution; it is all dependent however, upon the outlook on life of the one who is desiring and the place where he stands upon the ladder of evolution. The inability of man to achieve at any time what he considers "the beautiful" determines his predisposition to disease, based upon the internal friction thus produced. At the present point in racial development, the majority of people are swept into diseased conditions as a result of the friction brought about by their striving after "the beautiful" - a striving enforced as an evolutionary urge because they are souls and under the influence of the quality of the second divine aspect.
3. The True. It has been said that the true or the truth is that much of the divine expression as any man can demonstrate at his particular point in evolution and at any given stage in his incarnated history. This expression of the truth presupposes that behind what he does manage to express there is much that he is unable to manifest; of this his soul remains persistently aware. This inability to live up to the highest ideal of which the man - at his particular level - is aware and can conceive, in his clearest and best moments, produces [568] inevitably a point of friction, even if the man remains unaware of it. One of the major manifestations of this particular friction and the diseased condition which it brings about is rheumatism; this is widespread today and has been for centuries; from the medical standpoint, there is no ascertained or attributable cause for it, though there are many speculations and conclusions among the orthodox. It affects primarily the bony structure and is in reality the result of the inability of the soul to produce an expression of "the true" within the man, the instrument of the soul in the three worlds. The man, in his turn, no matter how low his position on the ladder of evolution, is conscious ever of the unattainable; he is constantly aware of an urge to betterment. These urges are not related to the expression of the will-to-good or to "the beautiful" (though he may be conscious of them also to a greater or less degree), but they are definitely related to the expression of something closer to the man's ideal as he sees it, and upon the physical plane. Friction, therefore, takes place and disease of some kind follows.

It is interesting to note that this inability to express "the true" or to "be the Truth" is the real cause of death among men who are below the stage of discipleship and who have not yet taken the first initiation. The soul tires of the frictional response of its instrument and determines to end the experiment of that particular incarnation. Death, therefore, supervenes as a result of the friction engendered.

In studying these ideas, it should be remembered that:

1. The good controls the man, via the head Center, and the friction engendered is due to the inactivity of the Center at the base of the spine. This Center controls the [569] expression of the first divine aspect in a man by its interplay with the head center. This interplay only takes place when the man has reached the stage of disciple or initiate.
2. The beautiful controls, via the heart center, and friction is brought about by the failure of the solar plexus Center to respond. A condition of friction is therefore set up. The ending of this condition and the evocation of the right response from the solar plexus come when the forces of the solar plexus Center are raised and blended with the energy of the heart Center.
3. The true, as an expression of the divine, finds its point of centralization in the throat Center; the failure of the personality to respond, and its inability to express the true, is to be seen in the relation of the sacral Center to the throat Center. This relation, when lacking, produces friction. There will be no real expression of "the true" until the forces of the creative Center below the diaphragm are raised to the creative Center of the throat. Then "the Word," which is man essentially, "will be made flesh" and a true expression of the soul upon the physical plane will be seen.

2. The thwarted soul, seeking full expression of some divine characteristic or inner spiritual reality, produces within the substance of its sheaths a point of friction.

Much of this statement I have covered above. I would, however, call your attention to the fact that in this sentence the emphasis is laid upon the fact that it is the soul which is responsible for producing the friction. In the analysis of the previous sentence, the emphasis was laid upon the personality, because its failure to respond produced the friction and consequent disease. Is it not possible that in this [570] sentence we have the clue to the entire purpose of pain, of distress, and even of war? I would commend this to your careful and, if possible, illumined thinking.

3. Upon this point, the eyes of the personality are focused, and this leads to disease.

We have here a most interesting hint as to the medium of force direction. The occult significance of the eye and the nature of its symbolism are little understood. The reference here has nothing to do in reality with eyes in the physical body. Here the words, "the eyes of the personality," refer to the focused attention of the personality, emanating from the mental and astral bodies which are essentially the two eyes of the soul in incarnation. The use of these two windows or eyes of the soul leads to a concentration of energy (in this case strictly personality energy) in the etheric vehicle. This energy is then directed to the area of discomfort, and therefore to the point of friction. This friction is sustained and increased by the forces which are focused upon it. People have little idea how much - objectively speaking - they increase the potency of the disease by the constantly directed thought which they expend upon it and by the attention they pay to that area wherein the trouble is located. Energies, mental and emotional, are brought to bear upon the diseased area, and the "eyes of the personality" are a potent factor in sustaining the disease.

In this sentence you have, moreover, a clear and unequivocal expression of the fact that mental and emotional conditions lead to disease. The activity of the soul and the impact of soul energy have to penetrate into the physical body, via the subtler bodies, and the point of friction (the outcome of resistance) is found first of all in the mental body, then is repeated even more potently in the astral body, and is reflected into the physical body; these (and this is [571] the a-b-c of occultism but is sometimes forgotten) constitute the personality, and the friction is necessarily to be found throughout.

It might be of interest to you to correlate what I have said in my other writing anent the eyes with the point made above. As you well know, and as stated in The Secret Doctrine, the right eye is the "eye of buddhi" and the left eye is the "eye of manas" - this (when in relation to buddhi) referring to the higher mind and to man as he finally will appear. In the average human being, and before reaching perfection, the right eye transmits the energy of the astral body when directed consciously towards an object of attention, and the left eye directs the energy of the lower mind.

In between these two directing eyes is to be found the ajna center, which is like a third eye or directing agent for the blended and fused energies of the personality; related to this third eye as it awakens and comes into functioning activity is what we call "the eye of the soul"; this is a point within the highest head center. This eye of the soul can and does transmit energy to the ajna center and is itself the agent (before the fourth initiation) of the energy of the Spiritual Triad. This esoteric relationship is only set up when the soul is dominating its instrument, the personality, and is bringing all the lower activities upon the physical plane under soul direction.

In the perfected man, there is to be found, therefore, the following distributors or distributing agents of energy:

1. The eye of the soul - agent of the Spiritual Triad - Will.
2. The third eye - agent of the soul - Love.
3. The right eye - distributor of buddhic energy.
4. The left eye - conveyor of pure manasic energy.
5. The ajna center - focusing and directing point for all these energies. [572]

In the disciple and the man who is beginning to function as a soul, you will have:

1. The third eye - distributor of soul energy.
2. The right eye - agent for astral energy.
3. The left eye - agent for lower mental energy.
4. The ajna center - focusing point of these three energies.

In the average man, the situation will be as follows:

1. The right eye - agent for astral energy.
2. The left eye - agent for mental energy.
3. The ajna center - distributing station.

As occult knowledge increases a whole science of energy distribution will be built up around the eyes and their symbolic function, and their esoteric use will be understood. The time has not yet arrived for this, though already the power of the human eye when focused on a person, for instance, is known to attract attention. One hint I can give you: the optic nerve is a symbol of the antahkarana, and the entire structure of the eye ball is one of the most beautiful symbols of the threefold deity and the threefold man.

4. The art of the healer is concerned with the lifting of the downward focused eyes unto the soul, the true healer within the form.

In its most obvious and lowest connotation this phrase simply says that the healer must help the patient to look away from himself, that he must aid him to raise and reorient the directed energy so that the "point of friction" is no longer the object of attention and a new preoccupation is presented. This has long been the attempted practice of all healers but it has a far more esoteric meaning than [573] they have realized and one which I find it somewhat difficult to explain.

We have seen that the point of friction (responsible for the disease) has been caused by the good, the beautiful and the true in conflict with the forces of the lower man. This, we have also seen, is a fundamental law and one which he knows he must accept and with which he must intelligently work. How, therefore, can he apply this law and produce the results for which he is striving?

These downpouring energies of the soul enter the physical body, via the etheric vehicle, and are responsible for the frictional trouble and its consequence, disease; they have "descended into contact" via the sutratma and are anchored in three main centers, major centers, as you well know. From these, according to a man's nature, ray, development and weaknesses and limitations, they are distributed to the various areas of the physical body and either cause points of friction or manifest themselves as divine qualities. Where friction and resultant disease are present, and the patient is fortunate to have a trained occult healer available (either an initiate or an advanced disciple), these energies will be sent back - either with or without the cooperation of the patient - to their distributing points, the three higher centers, and this according to the type of energy which is producing the trouble. They cannot be sent out of the body altogether, via the head center, for in that case the man would die; but they can be esoterically "driven to their point of emanation, from the point of friction, but not to their Source," as an ancient book on healing states.

The energy is sent from the infected area (to use an unsuitable word but we lack the correct words for these new sciences) into the point of friction and from thence to the center which controls that area and by means of which soul energy entered the dense physical body. The [574] healer is therefore working with the two aspects of the physical body simultaneously - the dense and the etheric. From that center, the energy involved is gathered up and returned to one or other of the three major centers, or (if one of these higher centers is itself involved) the energy is gathered up and driven into the head center and there retained. It must therefore be borne in mind that this phase of the healer's work falls into two parts:

1. The stage of esoteric "lifting up" or "driving forth."
   This itself falls into two phases:
   1. The phase of gathering the energy.
   2. The phase of refocusing it in its distributing center.
2. The stage after the healer's work has been accomplished and the patient is either better or the work has not been successful. In this stage, the energy which has been "driven forth" is returned to the center and the locality where the point of friction had been.

It will be obvious to you that this form of healing work is possible only to the highly trained person, and it is therefore needless for me to elaborate further on this technique. It is useful nevertheless to see at times the distant goals.

All that is at present possible in reference to this statement is to turn the patient's attention (if he is capable of responding to suggestions) towards the soul, and help him, with simplicity, to hold his consciousness as close to the soul as he can. This will aid in clearing the channels down which energy can flow, and also along which energy can be automatically withdrawn, because energy follows thought.

In the last analysis, true esoteric healing is a simple matter in comparison with the intricate and complex detail [575] anent the human mechanism and its diseases with which the modern physician has to cope. The spiritual healer concerns himself with the area in which the disease is to be found, with its controlling etheric center and its higher correspondence, and with the three energies coming from the soul which are responsible for producing the point or points of friction. The remainder of his work involves the use of the creative imagination, the power to visualize and a knowledge of scientific thinking, based upon the fundamental and universal law that "energy follows thought." This visualization and this scientific thinking do not (where healing is concerned) involve the construction of thought-forms. It involves the ability to move and direct energy currents.

5. The third eye then directs the healing force, and all is well.

The third eye referred to here is that of the healer and not that of the average patient; this the healer uses in conjunction with the eye of the soul. In the case of the healing of a very advanced person who is consciously able to cooperate, the third eye of the patient can also be active, and by this means two very potent streams of directed energy can penetrate into the area where the point of friction is located. In ordinary cases, however, and where no occult knowledge is present on the part of the patient, the healer does all the work, and this is desirable. The cooperation of the unskilled and those emotionally involved in their trouble is of no true assistance.

The few hints given in the analysis of the sentences composing Law IV will provide much food for thought, and we will now proceed to consider the rule connected with this law.

It should be remembered, as we study these laws and rules, that the laws are imposed upon the healer and [576] provide the unalterable conditions under which he must work; he may not and cannot evade them. The rules, however, he imposes upon himself, and they constitute the conditions which he is advised to follow if he seeks success. Much depends upon his understanding of the rules and on his ability to interpret them correctly. They are a translation or an adaptation of the ancient rules which have, since time began, conditioned all occult healers, working under hierarchical impression. In the early days of their use they were submitted to and accepted by members of the Hierarchy at that time - the time or age of ancient Lemuria - and had then to be interpreted differently to the modern interpretation; the modern meaning is only now in process of emerging. It might be said that:

1. In Lemurian times these rules were accepted by members of the Hierarchy. Unless you were a member you could not ascertain them or work with them.
2. In Atlantean times they were externalized to the extent that disciples who were not yet initiates or who had taken only the first initiation were given them and permitted to use them. It is their Atlantean interpretation which largely colors the modern approach to their comprehension, but it is not adequate to the opportunity and the more mental type of human being.
3. Today, in our Aryan race, a new significance is emerging, and it is that significance and the new interpretation which I shall endeavor to impart.

Rule I was not subjected to the new interpretation because it was so obviously modern in its implications. In fact, the first rule was not part of the original ancient text from which these important rules have been taken, but is relatively very modern, being formulated early in the Christian [577] era. It is a clear and concise rule and implies what should be the nature of the healer's thinking.

1. He must know the type of thought which conditions the patient.
2. He must be able to penetrate to the source of the difficulty, or to its psychological background; therefore, he must use thought power.
3. He must be able to relate cause and effect; the relating agent is ever the mind.

In old Lemuria and Atlantis the mind was practically entirely quiescent and not really functioning at all; it is only in this present race that the mental nature of man is becoming dominant, and therefore the new and modern interpretation of these rules (based on the mind principle) is now in order, and with this we shall proceed to deal.

Rule Two
The healer must achieve magnetic purity, through purity of life. He must attain that dispelling radiance which shows itself in every man when he has linked the centers in the head. When this magnetic field is established the radiation then goes forth.

The East has ever emphasized magnetic purity but has totally ignored physical purity as the Occident understands it; the West has emphasized external physical purity but knows nothing about magnetic purity; this latter is largely based (somewhat erroneously though not entirely so) on the effect of the auric emanation and its purity or non-purity. The healer, in this rule, is advised to:

1. Achieve magnetic purity through purity of life.
2. Attain a dispelling radiance through linking the centers in the head. [578]
3. Establish a radiatory field through the utilization of this magnetic field.
   Result: Radiation.

The interesting part of this rule is its linking the two possible forms of spiritual healing - radiatory and magnetic - into one activity. The true healer automatically blends both modes of healing and uses both methods simultaneously and automatically because he works through the magnetic area, contained within the radius of influence of the three head centers, or within the triangle which is formed by so linking them.

In Lemurian days, the healer achieved his ends by the use of drastic physical disciplines, thus gaining the needed purity. The goal, as you know, of hierarchical effort in those days was to teach primitive man the uses and purpose of the physical body and its intelligent control; the man who mastered the body and was in control of it as a machinist is in control of a machine, was then regarded as an initiate. Today, it is the mastering of the personality which makes a man an initiate. Celibacy, careful modes of eating and a measure of bodily cleanliness, plus the rudiments of Hatha Yoga (embryonic physical, athletic control - muscular control primarily) were strictly emphasized. This achieved, so-called purity permitted the free flow of the pranic currents from the healer to the patient, via the sacral center and the throat center - the spiritual healer working through the throat center, and the point of reception in the patient being the sacral center; neither the heart nor the head centers were used. Prana, to define it for your purposes, is the vitality of the planet, its vital emanation; it is this prana which is distributed or transferred by a natural healer (one without any training, without much essential knowledge or with little, if any, spiritual [579] orientation). He heals but does not know how or why; prana simply flows through him in the form of a strong current of animal vitality, usually from the splenic center and not from any of the seven centers.

These drastic physical disciplines are often attempted today by well-intentioned aspirants; they practice celibacy, strict vegetarianism, relaxation exercises and many kinds of physical exercises, in the hope of bringing the body under control. These forms of discipline would be very good for the undeveloped and the lowest type of human being, but they are not the methods which should be employed by the average man or the practicing aspirant. Concentration upon the physical body only serves to enhance its potency and to feed its appetites and bring to the surface of consciousness that which should be securely secluded below the threshold of consciousness. The true aspirant should be occupied with emotional, not physical, control and with the effort to focus himself upon the mental plane, prior to achieving a stabilized contact with the soul.

In Atlantean times, the shift of the attention from the dense physical body to the emotional vehicle began slowly to be made. The initiate of that time began to teach his disciples that the physical body was in reality only an automaton, and that it was the desire body, and the nature and quality of their habitual desires which should be considered if purity was to be attained. It was in this race, therefore, that personal magnetism first began slowly to show itself. The early and the primitive Lemurian was not in the least magnetic as we understand the word, but in Atlantean days a certain measure of magnetic radiation showed itself, though not to the extent which is now frequent and possible. The first dim outline of the halo could be seen around the heads of advanced Atlanteans. Magnetic purity became a possibility and a goal, but was dependent upon emotional [580] control and the purification of the desire nature; this produced automatically a much greater measure of purity in the dense physical vehicle than the Lemurian initiate ever achieved. Diseases of the body became more subtle and complex, and the first psychological diseases appeared and the various ills which are definitely based upon the emotions. With this type of difficulty we have dealt in an earlier part of this treatise. The healer in those days worked through the solar plexus center and (if an initiate) through the heart. There was still no magnetic area or field of energy in the head.

Today, in our Aryan race, magnetic purity is not dependent upon the physical disciplines; it is still - for the mass of the people - dependent upon emotional disciplines, but in the case of the true healer in the New Age it is dependent upon the "lighted magnetic area in the head." This provides a field of activity for the soul, working through the head centers and focusing itself in the magnetic field which they enclose. When all the powers of the body and the directed attention of the healer are centered in the head, and when the astral body is quiescent and the mind is active as a transmitter of soul energy to the three head centers, you then have an established radiance, or energy emanation which is a potent force in healing. The radiation is intense, not so much from the familiar aspect of light, but from the extent of its emanating rays of active energy which can reach the patient and energize the needed center. All the centers in the body of the patient can be receptive to this energy, and not just one, as in the previous two types of healing.

When the karma or life-pattern of the patient permits, these energy rays (emanating from the magnetic field in the healer's head) become what is called a "dispelling radiance"; they can drive away the forces which create or [581] aggravate the disease. When this dispelling radiance is unable (because of the destiny of the patient) to bring about a physical cure, it can nevertheless be turned to the dispelling of subtler difficulties, such as fear in some form or other, emotional imbalance and certain psychological difficulties which greatly enhance the problem with which the patient is faced.

Healers would do well to remember that when the three centers in the head are linked up and the magnetic field is therefore set up and the radiance is present, the healer can then use the ajna center as the directing agent for this "dispelling radiance." It is interesting to note that the two major centers in the head (corresponding to atma-buddhi, or the soul) are the head center and the alta major center, and that these correspond esoterically to the distributing agents of the right and the left eyes, as do the two glands in the head: the pineal gland and the pituitary body. You have, therefore, in the head three triangles, of which two are distributors of energy and the third is a distributor of force.

[582] It is with these triangles that the trained healer eventually works and which he consciously employs. The time when this will be possible still lies very far ahead. At present the healer must work through visualization and the power of the creative imagination. As he imagines, through visualization, the relationship of these interlaced triangles, superimposing them the one upon the others, beginning with the first, he is doing a definite work of creative placing, then of creative vitalizing and finally of creative directing. In these three words: placing, vitalizing, directing, you have the results indicated as to what obedience to this rule will enable the healer to accomplish. The attention is placed, the magnetic field is spiritually vitalized; the generated vital radiance is then distributed and directed correctly through the medium of the third triangle. This sounds a somewhat complicated procedure but after a little practice this healing exercise of placing, vitalizing and directing becomes an almost instantaneous and automatic accomplishment.

We come now to the consideration of a long and somewhat complicated law and one which attempts to cover so much ground that at first reading it is apt to be confusing.

Law V
There is naught but energy, for God is Life. Two energies meet in man, but other five are present. For each is to be found a central point of contact. The conflict of these energies with forces and of forces twixt themselves produce the bodily ills of man. The conflict of the first and second persists for ages until the mountain top is reached - the first great mountain top. The fight between the forces produces all disease, all ills and bodily pain which seek release in death. The two, the five and thus the seven, plus that which they produce, possess the secret. This is the fifth law of healing within the world of form. [583]

It has been impossible hitherto to give the subject-matter of this law because it is only today that teaching anent Life (and life as energy) has been possible. Also the teaching anent the five and the two energies which meet in man have only lately been given out by me, for the first time in any detail, although they were hinted at in The Secret Doctrine. I wonder sometimes if any of you realize the epoch-making importance of the teaching which I have given out anent the seven rays as manifesting energies. Speculations as to the nature of the divine Trinity have ever been present in the discussions and thinking of advanced men - and that since time began and the Hierarchy started its agelong task of influencing and stimulating the human consciousness - but information anent the seven Spirits before the Throne of the Trinity has not been so usual and only a few writers, ancient or modern, have touched upon the nature of these Beings. Now, with all that I have given you concerning the seven rays and the seven Ray Lords, much more can be discovered; these seven great Lives can be seen and known as the informing essences and the active energies in all that is manifested and tangible upon the physical plane as well as on all the planes of divine expression; in saying this, I include not only the cosmic physical plane (composed of our seven systemic planes) but the cosmic astral and the cosmic mental planes also.

In this rule the healer is expected to accept certain basic ideas which will serve to develop his understanding; certain broad and general axioms are laid down which will form a sound foundation for all future work. The main point to bear in mind is that this rule relates entirely to the physical plane (dense and etheric) and to the effects which the conflict between the energies and the forces produces within the physical body. The forces are those energies which are limited and imprisoned within a form of any kind - a body, [584] a plane, an organ, a center; the energies are those streams of directed energy which make impact upon these imprisoned forces (if I may so call them) from within a greater or more inclusive form, from a subtler plane, thus making contact with a grosser vibratory force. An energy is subtler and more potent than the force upon which it makes impact or establishes contact; the force is less potent but is anchored. In these last two words you have the key to the problem of the relationship of energies. Free energy, from the angle of the anchored point of contact, is in some ways less effective (within a limited sphere) than the energy already anchored there. It is essentially more potent but not effective. Ponder on this and let me illustrate my point. In the life of the aspirant, the energy of the solar plexus center (from long use, centralization and habit) is more potent in its effect upon the life of the aspirant than is the energy of the heart center, which is only slowly, very slowly, coming into effective action. To illustrate further: the energies of the personality are far more potent in conditioning the life of the average man than is the energy of the soul, which for aeons has tried to grasp effectively its point of manifestation, the personality, but has failed until very late in the cycle of incarnations. Yet, in the last analysis, heart energy and soul energy are infinitely more potent than those of the solar plexus center or the personality. For aeons, however, the energy of the heart center and the energy of the soul have lacked responsive vehicles in the three worlds.

In a way, this simplifies the problem of the healer, because the first thing he has to decide is whether soul energy or personality energy is in control; that is a matter very simply discovered. The life trend of the patient, his mode of living or of service, the character he displays, are all indicative of the potencies which control his manifested expression. If the man is a true aspirant and is aiming [585] consciously to tread the Path of Discipleship, he will aid the discovery by frank admission; however, if there is no response from the personality forces to the soul impact of the healer, the personality will remain unaware of the opportunity and quite unconscious of the impact. These conditions the healer can therefore easily ascertain.

This law is a long one and contains statements of major importance. It would be profitable for us, in the interests of our subject, to study them with the utmost care and so become aware of their significance and true meaning; this understanding must be from the standpoint of the initiate-consciousness, and not from the angle of vision of the average or unillumined man. We will, therefore, take each sentence by itself and seek its meaning. There are seven statements contained in this law, and much of their import is exoterically familiar to you, but can be restated in relation to the healing art.

1. There is naught but energy, for God is Life

This is a broad generalization which may convey much to the initiate but assuredly conveys very little to the average thinker, to whom life means essentially and simply that which calls into manifestation a form, which sustains it in being and constantly demonstrates its presence by activity of some kind or another - an activity which demonstrates its livingness. We, however, erroneously apply the term living to the ability of a form to manifest and express its quality and nature. Yet livingness and quality exist apart from form and often come into major expression and usefulness through the application of the Law of Death.

The fact of divinity and of divine origin is proved by the fact of life. This is oft overlooked, and the emphasis is put upon the concept that life evokes and supports a form [586] which anchors the life-essence and proves the reality of its existence.

It is the life of the One Source of all manifesting forms which creates relationships and essential qualities, and though this has been affirmed ceaselessly it still remains a meaningless platitude. As men, however, begin to recognize God as energy and themselves as aspects of that energy, as they begin consciously to work with energies and recognize the distinction in time and space between energies and forces, and then as the soul comes into greater functioning activity, the fact of life will be recognized in a new and almost formidable manner. It should be remembered that the soul is a secondary energy, which proves the existence of the primary energy and is responsible for the appearance of the third form of energy - the tangible and the objective. Life will eventually be known as capable of being invoked by the soul in the interests of the form. Here lies a clue to our general theme.

Up till now the mechanism of approach to the life aspect - the antahkarana and the agent, the spiritual will - has not been understood in any useful sense. Today, the first faint hints as to the use of the antahkarana, and its purpose in relation to the personality and the Spiritual Triad, are being studied by a few students in the world, and their numbers will steadily increase as both personality and soul establish contact and fusion and more people take initiation. The purpose, consequently, for the very existence of the fourth kingdom in nature (as a transmitting agent for the higher spiritual energies to the three lower kingdoms) will begin to appear, and men, in group formation, will consciously begin this work of "saving" - in the esoteric sense, needless to say - these other grouped lives. The Macrocosm with its purpose and incentives will for the first time begin to reflect itself into the human kingdom in a new [587] and more potent manner, and this in its turn will become the macrocosm of the three lesser states of conscious lives - the animal, the vegetable and the mineral kingdoms.

All this is a deep mystery, but has remained so only on account of the lack of development of the fourth kingdom. There had been a deviation from the original intent. Its function and field of service could, however, be realized and expressed only when this highest aspect, the will aspect, had been brought into conscious expression in mankind through the building and the utilization of the antahkarana. Along the rainbow bridge the life aspect can flow, and it is to this that the Christ referred when He states that He had come so that there might be present upon the Earth, "life more abundantly." Always there has been life, but when the Christ consciousness is radiantly present (as is the case today, though on a small scale) and the numbers of those expressing it are vast indeed, the inference is that the antahkarana is firmly established; the rainbow bridge can then be traversed and crossed, and life in abundance and in a new and impelling sense, and a fresh impulsing sense can also flow through humanity into the subhuman kingdoms in nature. This is evidence of divinity, and outstanding testimony of man's divine origin, and the hope, the saving hope, of the world.

The energy and the forces constitute the sumtotal of all that is. This is another basic truism or platitude upon which the science of occultism is built and which the healing art must recognize. There is, in manifestation, nothing else of any kind whatsoever. Disease itself is a form of active energy, demonstrating in forces which destroy or produce death. Therefore, if our basic premise is correct, disease is also a form of divine expression, for what we know to be evil is also the reverse side of that which we call good. Shall we belittle the subject or cause a false impression [588] if we regard evil (at least as far as disease is concerned) as misplaced or maladjusted good? Will you misunderstand if I say that disease is energy which is not functioning as desired or according to plan? Inpouring energies are brought into relation with forces, and good health, strong and adequate forms and vital activity result; the same inpouring energies can, however, be brought into relation with the same forces and a point of friction be set up, producing a diseased area, pain, suffering and perhaps death. The energies and the forces remain of the same essentially divine nature, but the relationship established has produced the problem. If this sentence is studied it will be obvious that a definition such as that can be used to cover all forms of difficulty, and that the ultimate producer of the situation (either good or evil) is the relationship aspect. This statement is of major importance in all your thinking.

2. Two energies meet in man but other five are present. For each is to be found a central point of contact.

The two energies which meet in man are the two aspects of the monad, of the One in manifestation; the monad manifests essentially as a duality; it expresses itself as will and love, as atma-buddhi and these two energies when brought into relation with the point of mind, with the third aspect of divinity, produce the soul and then the tangible manifested world; then there is demonstrated in the planet will, love, and mind or intelligence; or atma-buddhi-manas.

As the soul anchors itself as consciousness and life within the human being, that human being contributes the third something which is latent or karmically present in all substance, manas or mind; this is inherited or held in solution in substance from a previous solar system. In that system intelligence was unfolded and was retained within [589] substance in order to form the basis of the evolutionary development of this, the second solar system. Forget not that the seven planes of our solar system constitute the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane and that, therefore, spirit is matter at its highest point of expression, and matter is spirit at its lowest. Life differentiates itself into will and love, into great impulsing energies which underlie the entire evolutionary process and motivate its inevitable consummation.

Atma-buddhi, as energies, anchor themselves in the soul vehicle, in the egoic lotus, and their fused activity evokes a response from the substance of the mental plane which then makes its own contribution. Its reaction produces what we call the higher mind, which is of so subtle a nature and so tenuous an emanation that it must perforce relate itself to the two higher aspects and become part of the Spiritual Triad. The vortex of forces established under the impact of the divine will, expressing divine purpose and unified with Being (as identity and not as a quality), produces the egoic lotus, the vehicle of that "identified soul" which has been swept into expression by the third result of the atmic-buddhic impact on the three worlds; the concrete mind and the human intellect come into expression. There is, therefore, a curious resemblance between the three divine aspects in manifestation and the spiritual man upon the mental plane. The correspondence is as follows:

• The monad - Abstract mind.
• The soul - Egoic lotus.
• The personality - Lower or concrete mind.

That vague abstraction, the monad, for aeons of time seems unrelated in any way to the soul and the personality; these two have been and are occupied with the task of establishing, in due time and under the evolutionary urge, a close fusion [590] or at-one-ment. The abstract mind remains also for aeons of time something inconceivable and outside the modes of expression and of thinking of the man who is kama-manasic (or emotion and lower mind) and then finally soul and concrete mind (or the illuminator and the transmitter of illumination). These correspondences can be found most enlightening if due consideration is given to them.

In the human being you have, therefore, two major energies anchored; one unrealized, to which we give the name of the Presence, the other realized, to which we give the name of the Angel of the Presence. These are the soul (the solar angel) and the monad. One embodies the monadic ray and the other the soul ray, and both of these energies actively or subtly condition the personality.

The other five energies which are present are the ray of the mind or the conditioning force of the mental body; the ray of the emotional nature, and the ray of the physical body, plus a fourth ray which is that of the personality. The ray of the physical body esoterically "ascends upward towards juncture, whereas the others all move down," to quote an ancient writing. The ray of the personality is a consequence or result of the vast cycle of incarnations. You have therefore:

1. The monadic ray.
2. The soul ray.
    3. Ray of the mind.
    4. Ray of the emotions.
    5. Ray of the physical body.
6. Ray of the personality.
    7. The planetary ray.

The planetary ray is always the third Ray of Active Intelligence because it conditions our Earth and is of great potency, enabling the human being to "transact his business in the [591] world of planetary physical life."

I have made only casual reference to these rays elsewhere and have said little anent the planetary ray; I have laid the emphasis upon another analysis of the conditioning rays, and in this analysis recognized only five rays for practical usefulness to the man. These are:

1. The soul ray.
2. The personality ray.
3. The mental ray.
4. The astral ray.
5. The ray of the physical body.

However, with the creation and development of the antahkarana, the ray of the monad must also be brought into line, and then that which is its polar opposite, the planetary "livingness," the third ray, will have to be recognized. I have here imparted a point of much importance to you. All these energies play an active part in the life cycle of every man and cannot be totally ignored by the healer, even though the information may be relatively useless at this time.

 

 

3. The conflict of these energies with forces and of forces twixt themselves produce the bodily ills of man.

You will note here that diseases are produced, according to this law, in two ways:

1. By the conflict of energies with forces.
2. By the conflict of the forces twixt themselves.

It will be apparent on the surface that this dual warfare is to be expected. Under the first category there is the warfare which takes place in the personality life when the soul definitely turns its attention to its vehicles and attempts to take [592] control. The more determined the person is to submit his personality to soul control, the more intense will be the conflict, with consequent physical conditions of a serious kind as a result. Under this category would come the majority of the diseases of disciples and mystics, largely of a nervous nature and often affecting the heart or the blood stream. They will, in the majority of cases, be confined to the area above the diaphragm, and therefore to those areas conditioned by the head, the throat and the heart centers. A number of what we might call "borderline" cases come under this heading also, but these are confined to the transfer of energies (under soul impact) from the solar plexus center to the heart, and the "line" involved is simply the diaphragm.

Under this first category also would come those difficulties which are brought about, for instance, when the energy of the astral body makes its impact upon the forces of the etheric vehicle, setting up an emotional turmoil, and thus producing serious solar plexus difficulty with resultant gastric, intestinal and liver disturbances. These are all the result of the conflict between energy and forces. All I can do at this point is to give indication of the type of problem which is related to one or other of these two categories; the subject is unsuitable for the brief handling which I purpose here to give.

Under the second category, which concerns the conflict between forces and forces, you have the etheric body involved, and the forces concerned are those to be found in the major and the minor centers, involving their relation to each other and their internal reaction to the impact of energies coming from without the etheric body. These forces and their interplay produce the common ills of man and control the disturbances in the physical organs and the areas of the physical body which are found around these centers. [593]

These in reality constitute the major conditioning factors for the mass of human beings for long aeons or until such time as the soul "pays attention" to the appropriation in full control of its mechanism in the three worlds. These secondary difficulties, due to the interplay between the centers, fall into three categories, and these should be carefully noted:

1. The interplay between:
   1. The centers above the diaphragm, i.e., the head, the throat and the heart, and very occasionally the ajna center.
   2. The centers below the diaphragm and their relation to each other.
2. The relation of certain centers to each other, such as takes place under the Law of Transmutation, or the process of lifting up of the forces from one center to another:
   1. From the sacral center to the throat center.
   2. From the solar plexus center to the heart center.
   3. From the center at the base of the spine to the head center.
3. The impact of the "energy" (note the technical accuracy of my phrasing) of the centers above the diaphragm on those below the diaphragm.

This is a reverse process to that which takes place when the forces below the diaphragm are raised to the centers above the diaphragm. In this third type of relation you have the exercise of the potency of magnetism, and in the other you have the expression of radiation. These two are closely allied at a certain stage of unfoldment. [594]

Under all these relationships there are possibilities of difficulties, resulting in an undesirable effect upon the physical organs found within the area involved. In the early stages of the relation of the centers above the diaphragm to those below, the man is usually quite unaware of what is going on and is then simply the victim of the stimulation applied by the center emanating energy to the center which receives its impact; or he is the victim of devitalization (producing consequently many forms of physical ills) as the centers respond to the stimulation. It is all a question of balance or of equilibrium, and it is for this that the intelligent man and the aspirant must strive.

We come now to a very ambiguous statement and one that is purposely meant to be so:

4. The conflict of the first and second persists for ages until the mountain top is reached - the first great mountain top.

This refers vaguely (and again purposely so) to the conflict between the energies above the diaphragm - which normally come from the soul on its own plane - and the forces below the diaphragm. This is a major and persistent conflict; it begins when the solar plexus center becomes dominant and powerful, producing crises as in Atlantean days. As the mass of men are still Atlantean in consciousness, being swayed mainly by their emotional natures, these crises arise today. Eventually, and metaphysically speaking, the solar plexus center begins to have a radiatory effect in response to the magnetic "call" of the heart center. When the first initiation is taken the first great interplay is set up between the two and the first coordinated activity is established. "That which is above is now related to that which is below, but that which is below loses its identity in that which is above," as the Old Commentary expresses it. The [595] mother is lost to sight because the Christ-Child assumed the place of interest. The soul is taking control and leading the aspirant from mountain top to mountain top.

At the first initiation, and increasingly at all initiations, energy is brought into a major conflict with the forces; soul energy sweeps into the etheric body and all the centers become "fighting areas," with one center being emphasized more than the others. The nature of the battle is no longer that "twixt the forces and each other," but is now between the energies and the forces, and it is this which creates the acuteness of the tests for initiation; it is this which produces so many physical ills among those who have taken or are preparing to take the first and second initiations. And it accounts for the diseases of the saints!

A great science of the centers will some day emerge, and this will clarify the entire complex problem; the time, however, is not yet. At present, if this science were taught openly, the result would be that the thoughts of men would be turned to the fact of the centers and to the areas which they control, and not to the energies which pour through them. There would be an unwholesome and undesirable stimulation or devitalization of the substance of the centers, with consequent acute disease. The law forever holds good that "energy follows thought," and that energy can be either radiatory or magnetic, but must not be statically contained within a center. The true science of the centers will only be permitted free circulation when - and only when - men know the rudiments at least of thought direction and the control of energy impacts.

5. The fight between the forces produces all disease, all ills and bodily pains which seek release through death. [596]

There is here an interesting distinction which should be noted. Death, when it comes, is the result of two things:

1. The fight between the forces, and not between energy and the forces. The area of conflict is the etheric body and the physical body, and no energies are coming in from without because the man is too ill.
2. The loss of the will-to-live. The patient has given in; the internal fight is too much for him; he can bring in no outside energy to combat the warring forces, and he has reached the point where he does not want to do so.

These two phases of the process of dying are indicative of the destiny of the patient, and should be immediately noted by the healer who (when he finds them present) will then apply his skill in aiding the man to die and will not attempt to effect a cure. The door of entry for the life-giving energies is sealed; nothing can enter to aid the healer in his work, and the conflict between the forces - of a general nature or confined to a bitter fight in a particular area - produces so much friction that there is no hope anywhere, except in death. In this sentence, it might be pointed out that disease refers to the point of friction or of acute trouble; all ills has reference to the general reaction of the man to the area of difficulty and to the general disability produced by the disease, whilst bodily pain refers to the discomfort of the area where the disease is located and which is indicative of its nature. All words in these laws and rules are most carefully chosen, and even if inadequate from the translator's point of view, are not redundant but express different meanings.

6. The two, the five and then the seven, plus that which they produce, possess the secret. [597]

The enumeration is in the nature of a summation of what has been previously given, and its most superficial meaning and the one of the most use to the healer could be simply expressed as follows:

The healer must bear in mind the fact of the two major energies which are present in every personality: the soul and the personality rays. He must then bear in mind that to these two he must add three conditioning rays, making the five above mentioned: the mind ray, the ray of the astral body and the ray of the physical body.

This enumeration will usually prove adequate for all ordinary or average people. If, however, the patient is a very advanced person, another form of enumeration will be in order; it will be necessary to add two more energies which will then be present in real potency: the ray of the monad and the ray of the planet, which is the third ray. This planetary ray when very active (as is the case with very advanced persons and those who have attained a high point of general integration) has a potent effect; planetary prana comes in powerfully on the planetary ray, and this can be used to bring about a cure. One reason why the general health of all very advanced people is usually good is that pranic energy from the planet has a free flow through the mechanism. It is this energy which the Master, working through a relatively perfect body, depends upon to keep it in good health. This is a somewhat new piece of information and one which - when recognized - will appear both simple and reasonable. "That which they produce" in this case, and to the healer, means the outer tangible form; there are other significances, but with these we need not here deal.

The "secret" referred to is the revelation of the manner in which good health may be preserved. It is not the secret [598] of how to cure the physical vehicle when "bodily ills" are present. But there is a secret of good health which is known to all initiates above the third initiation; and this they can simply employ, if they so choose. However, they may not so choose always unless they are working with other parts of the Plan which have nothing to do with humanity. If they are among those who are occupied with the unfolding consciousness in man and who are workers for and in the human kingdom, they may know the secret but may, at the same time, choose not to profit by it because of the need they feel to be completely identified with mankind; they therefore choose to share consciously all human experience and to die along lines which are common to the rest of men. The entire question of identification lies behind all manifestation; it is identification with or of spirit and matter which is the secret of divine appearance; one of the main causes of disease, as well you know, is the facility with which men identify themselves with the form aspect (with the many localized forces - localized within the personality ring-pass-not). Man neglects to identify himself with the producer of the form, the true spiritual man, and with the energies which he seeks to direct, and which - later in the evolutionary cycle - he is insistent upon directing.

There is also a secret meaning here which relates to the seven rays as they express themselves in the human kingdom; the knowledge of this secret enables a Master to control epidemics and widespread diseases; with this you are not at this time concerned. Incidentally, the relative freedom from the plagues and epidemics which usually follow in the wake of war has been partly due to the use of this sevenfold knowledge by the Hierarchy, plus the scientific knowledge of humanity itself.

In this connection also (and I mention it simply from the angle of its interest) there are two hierarchical [599] officials - the Mahachohan and His Representative upon the seventh ray - Who are today in possession of this secret in its entirety, and They are aided by five other Masters in applying the gained knowledge. These five Masters are working primarily with the deva evolution, and this is, as you know, connected with form, and in this particular case with the healing devas. These seven Members of the Hierarchy are aided in Their turn by one of the Buddhas of Activity, and also by the representative of the Spirit of the Earth. This again makes the two, the five, and then the seven - a different enumeration, and one which when brought together equals nine, which is the number of initiation. This numerical relationship brings man to the point where he is "initiated into the realm of perfection and knows no further aches or pains, and his mind is thus deflected from that which is below to that which is above."

I have mentioned this phase of mankind's relation to the subject of health so as to show you how subtle and esoteric are the matters with which we are dealing, and so give to the individual patient a sense of proportion, where his bodily ills or even his death are concerned.

7. This is the fifth Law of Healing within the world of form.

This fifth law is primarily concerned with the fifth principle of mind or manas; it is this principle which makes a human being what he is; it is this principle which makes him a prisoner within the form and upon the planet, and thus makes him vulnerable and open to attacks upon the form aspect; these constitute part of the agelong action of evil versus good. It is this fifth principle, when controlled and used by the Son of Mind, Who is a Son of God, which will enable the spiritual man to free himself from form of every kind, and therefore from disease and death. [600]

It will be obvious that the healer, as he trains himself in the healing art, has to grasp clearly and candidly certain exceedingly simple yet esoteric facts:

1. That healing is simply and essentially the manipulation of energies.
2. That he must carefully differentiate between energies and forces.
3. That if he seeks real success, he must learn to place the patient as accurately as possible upon the correct rung of the ladder of evolution.
4. That knowledge of the centers is imperative.
5. That he himself must work as a soul through his personality.
6. That his relation to the patient (unless the latter is highly evolved) is a personality one.
7. That he must locate the center controlling the area which involves the point of friction.
8. That, as with all else in the occult sciences, disease and healing are both of them aspects of the great "relationship" system which governs all manifestation.

If the healer will take these eight points and reflect and brood upon them, he will lay a sound foundation for all work to be done; their relative simplicity is such that it will be obvious that anyone can be a healer if he so chooses and is willing to conform to the requirements. The current idea that a person is a "born" healer, and therefore unique, in reality indicates only that it is one of his main directed interests. Therefore, because of this interest, his attention has been turned towards the healing art and consequently towards contact with patients; owing to the inevitable working of the law which governs thought, he discovers that energy follows his thought and flows through him to the [601] patient. When he does this with deliberation, a healing will often follow. Any man or woman - given real interest and prompted by the incentive to serve - who thinks and loves, can be a healer, and it is time that people grasped that fact. The entire process of healing is thought-directed; it concerns the direction of energy currents or their abstraction, and this is another way of speaking about radiation and magnetism. Every initiate is a healer, and the more advanced the initiate the less is he occupied with the intricacies of centers and forces, energies and their direction. He heals automatically, as was the case with the initiate, Peter; of him we read that "the shadow of Peter passing by healed everyone of them."

The major difference to be seen in the interim (an interim of many, many thousands of years) between the type of healing mentioned above and the work of a less advanced healer, will be that those healers who are trained physicians and accredited medical men as well as spiritual healers will have a great advantage over the untrained healer, because their diagnosis of the disease will be more apt to be correct and their powers of visualization will be greater, owing to their trained familiarity with the structure of the body and their knowledge of morbid pathology. It will be wise, for a very long time to come, for the spiritual healer to work always in collaboration with a trained physician. The healer will provide the required occult knowledge. The time when any nice, kindly and spiritually minded person sets up as a healer should be well-nigh over; any healing practice should be preceded by years of careful study anent the nature of energy, of the ray types, of the centers; a minimum of at least three years should be given to this; when to this is added the science of the trained medical man, graduating from our best medical colleges, you will then have a new and much better treatment of the human vehicle than is now [602] the case. Then the healer's orthodox and occult knowledge, his visualizing capacity and his power of thought direction will be real and practically effective.

The rule connected with Law V makes clear the need for this occult knowledge, for it states very definitely certain fundamental injunctions.

Rule Three
Let the healer concentrate the needed energy within the needed center. Let the center correspond to the center which has need. Let the two synchronize and together augment force. Thus shall the waiting form be balanced in its work. Thus shall the two and the one, under right direction, heal.

This rule presupposes a knowledge of the centers, and this knowledge is, as you well know, still embryonic; all that is known in most cases is the location of a center. This, however, especially with untrained healers, is sufficient. Too detailed a knowledge of the formation, condition and responsiveness of a center would handicap the healer, for his thought would be deflected to the detail of the form and away from the energy and its movements.

The rule here requires that the healer, having aligned himself with the soul and "tapped" soul energy (thereby making himself a channel for spiritual force), directs this energy into that one of his own centers which corresponds to the center conditioning the area of the point of friction. If the disease or physical trouble is stomachic, for instance, or related to the liver, the healer will direct his soul energy into the solar plexus center, situated in the etheric spinal column. If the patient should be suffering from difficulty in the heart or the lungs the healer will use the heart center, employing the throat center for diseases of the bronchial tract, the throat, the mouth or the ears. [603]

Two things, therefore, become of importance in connection with the healer himself :

1. He must know as accurately as possible his own point of development, for that will indicate to him capacity or non-capacity to work with any or with all the centers. In order to use any of his centers in the healing work, the healer must have awakened them in some measure and be able, consciously and by the power of thought, under the agency of the will, to focus energy in whichever center he chooses. This does not mean that all the centers are awakened and truly functioning. It should, however, mean (if he is to heal at all) that he is not confined to the sole use of the centers below the diaphragm but that, by an effort of the spiritual will, thought can be channeled into the higher centers. Many aspirants can do this with greater facility than they believe.
2. The healer, as he channels energy into some center, prior to directing it to a center in the patient's body, must run no risk of his personal over-stimulation. This is a very important point. So much disease and physical difficulty among ordinary people is abdominal, necessitating the constant use of the solar plexus center by the healer; this could bring about a grave condition of over-emotionalism and even acute astralism on the part of the healer. He would then be the victim of his good intentions and of his spiritual service, for the consequences would all the same be bad; energy is an impersonal force and a purely impersonal agency. Purity of intention, selfless service and goodwill are no true protection, in spite of the platitudes of the sentimental occultist. In fact, the presence of these desirable conditions only increases the difficulty, for soul energy will pour in with [604] great force. An understanding of the risks involved, a sane appraisal of possibility and a scientific and technical understanding of protective measures will be given to the healer towards the latter end of his training. For the present, and because the danger is not at this time so great (owing to lack of potency in people's thinking and their inability to direct thought) the major protective measure consists in the ability of the healer to hold his consciousness steady in the head center with the "eye of direction" turned to the needed center. This involves a dual focus, and for the ability to do this the healer must strive.

It is here that the healer distinguishes between the processes of radiation and magnetization. Having concentrated soul energy in the appropriate center, through the power of direction from the head (the seat of soul energy) and by the potency of thought, the process of radiation ends. This radiation has passed through two stages:

1. The stage wherein the soul radiated energy into the head center.
2. The stage wherein the healer directs a ray of that energy from the head center into the "needed center"; it is there focused and held steady.

From that appropriate center the stage of synchronization with the corresponding center in the patient's body is established; this is done, not by the healer sending a ray into that center, but because the potency of the healer's center evokes response from that of the patient; it acts like a magnet, drawing forth a definite radiation from the patient. This radiation, esoterically, "lights up" the point of friction in the surrounding area and - were the healer clairvoyant - would thus enable him to see more clearly the seat of the [605] trouble and, therefore, to arrive at a more accurate diagnosis. Ordinarily, the spiritual healer is depending upon the diagnosis of the medical man in attendance, if he is not one himself.

An interplay is now established between the healer and the patient and upon etheric levels. The energy of their two synchronized centers is now en rapport, and the healer has at this point to determine whether the treatment requires an expulsive technique or a stimulating one. He has therefore to ascertain whether the patient's center is over-stimulated and if some of the surplus energy should consequently be driven out or abstracted, or whether there is a condition of devitalization and the energy of the center involved requires a deliberate augmenting.

There is, however, a third possibility mentioned here which is slower, but in practically every case is more desirable; it is the attainment of that balance of energies (between the healer and the patient) which will hold the energy in the area of the point of friction and permit nature itself to bring about an unassisted cure. This is possible only when the rapport between the patient and the healer is complete. Then the sole task of the healer is to hold the situation steady, give the patient confidence in the powers inherent within him, and encourage a period of patient waiting. The cure then is more lasting, and there is no sense or period of psychic shock, which can be the case if sudden stimulation or drastic expulsion is employed.

We have noted here, as you see, three modes whereby the healer employs the force focused, by direction, in his centers:

1. For the expulsion of surplus energy in an over-stimulated center. [606]
2. For definite processes of stimulation of the patient's centers.
3. To preserve a state of equilibrium wherein natural healing can take place.

In the first case, the healer deliberately increases the potency of the energy stored in his center, so that it becomes exceedingly magnetic and abstracts the over-supply of energy in the patient's center; in the second case, the healer sends a powerful ray of his own energy into the corresponding center in the patient's body. This is an act of radiation and is very effective; in the third case, an interplay is set up which preserves balance, and furthers steady and normal activity in the center controlling the area of trouble.

You will note also how all these processes (and they are relatively simple when grasped) are dependent upon the decision of the healer. It is here that mistakes can be made, and the man who is seeking to work along the lines I indicate would be well-advised to move slowly and with due caution even at the expense of being ineffectual and unsuccessful. It is better to have no effect upon the patient and his condition than by the potency of one's unwise decision, the power of one's thought and the focus of one's direction, to hasten the patient's death by the sudden abstraction of needed energy or by the stimulation of a center already over-stimulated and over-active.

In the last analysis the aim in the three modes of aiding the patient by direct work with the centers involved, is to bring about a balanced and wholesome activity. This is more easily achieved in the case of an advanced person than in the case of the individual in whom the center is normally inactive and unawakened and where the difficulty is more apt to be due to the action of some of the twenty-one minor centers situated in the body than to that of the seven major [607] centers. In these cases, the patient can far more easily be helped by orthodox medicine and surgery than by any processes of spiritual healing. It is for this reason that the spiritual healer is only now becoming important and his work in any way possible. This is owing to the rapid spiritual development of humanity, which enables men, for the first time and on any substantial scale, to take advantage of these laws and rules.

In the last sentence in Rule Three, the meaning of the two and the one is that the combined energy within the healer - soul energy focused in the head center and the energy of the "needed center," plus the energy of the center which controls the point of friction in the patient's body - is responsible for the healing, providing it is the destiny of the patient to be healed.

Law VI
When the building energies of the soul are active in the body, then there is health, clean interplay and right activity. When the builders are the lunar lords and those who work under the control of the moon and at the behest of the lower personal self, then you have disease and ill health and death.

This is a most interesting law, because it deals basically with causes, primarily with causes over which the average person has no conscious control, and because it occultly gives a picture in miniature or microcosmically of the universal or macrocosmic situation. It deals with the entire problem of evil, or pain and suffering (the great mysteries of our little planet) in a few sentences, but they are sentences conveying vast implications. The very simplicity of this great natural law veils the far-reaching significances of its normal working. It says the following things quite simply, and I enumerate them because the breaking down of a [608] paragraph into its clear and simple statements is a sound way to arrive at understanding:

1. When the soul controls the form involved, there is health.
2. The soul is the builder of the form, the constructive force in manifestation.
3. This is true of both the microcosm and the macrocosm.
4. The results are wholeness, right relation and correct activity.
5. When the soul is not in control, and the forces of the form nature are therefore the controlling factors, there will be ill health.
6. The builders of the form are the "lunar lords," the physical, astral and mental elementals.
7. These, in their triple totality, compose the personality.
8. They are occultly under the direction of the moon, the symbol of form, called often the "mother of the form."
9. The emanation coming from the moon has in it the seeds of death and disease, because the moon is a "dead planet."

It all comes back again, as you will note, to the source of the major energy controlling the body. Though the soul is the source of all life and consciousness, for aeons all the soul does is to preserve the form in life and in consciousness, until such time that it has reached the stage in evolution where it is a useful and suitable instrument (and will become increasingly so) for the soul to employ as a medium of expression and service. Karma determines then the quality and nature of the physical body. It can be healthy because it has not been misused in the particular life or lives conditioning a particular incarnation, or unhealthy because it is paying the price of error. Good health is not necessarily dependent upon conscious soul contact. [609] That can and does produce good health, but it is also dependent, in the majority of average cases, upon the life and intentions of the personality - in this life and in previous lives; it is not until the will of the personality is towards spiritual betterment and a cleaner, purer life that the soul can be of real assistance.

This law carries also the implications of that basic relation which makes the threefold form of the man an integral part of the macrocosmic whole. All forms in all kingdoms are built by the lunar lords under an impulse emanating from the planetary Logos, working in cooperation with the Spirit of the Earth - the sumtotal of all the lunar lords and of the three types of energized substance which go to the creation of the physical, astral and mental bodies. The relation of the planetary Logos to this Spirit of the Earth (the relation of an evolutionary Being to an involutionary entity) is a reflection (distorted and under the influence of glamor) in the three worlds of the relation of the soul to the personality elemental. It is most useful for the healer to realize that in handling disease he is in reality handling involutionary lives and attempting to work with elementals. The natural trend of these elemental lives, all of them upon the involutionary arc, is to block and to frustrate his efforts and the efforts of the soul, and this - for them - is their way of evolution; it is that which will eventually bring them on to the evolutionary arc.

When the time comes that the soul can assume conscious control within and over the form, and can eventually create a form which is adequate to its spiritual needs, it will be because the elementals which are the sumtotal of the personality elemental have reached a point in their development where they are ready to move on to the path of return. The work of the soul is never the purely selfish one of having a medium of expression in the three worlds, as might [610] sometimes appear to the casual and superficial thinker. That is entirely incidental from the angle of the soul; it is a needed activity, but it involves also the sacrificial work of salvaging substance and forwarding the evolution of matter. As the Old Commentary expresses it: "the Mother (substance-matter) is saved by the birth of her Son (the Christ within, the spiritual consciousness)." This is true of the macrocosm as well as of the microcosm.

Here lies the secret of planetary suffering and of death. Our planetary Logos (viewing the truth from the angle of the macrocosm) is, as you know, one of the "imperfect Gods" of The Secret Doctrine, although perfect past our human comprehension - the comprehension of a unit in one of the kingdoms which constitute His body of manifestation. There is still no true balance between spirit and matter, though the point of balance has almost been achieved; the involutionary forces are still potent and the spiritual energies are still frustrated, though far less so than earlier in human history; the next great human race, following on our present one, will see a point of balance reached which will usher in the so-called golden age. Points of friction will then be far fewer upon the planet and therefore in individual man; areas of frustration and of futile activity will die out. This can be seen working out in the body of an advanced person or an initiate to a great extent and for long periods in their incarnations; paralleling correspondences are as a general rule accurate.

This law gives an amazing picture, and one too which is full of hope, particularly if one considers certain facts which are present in the world today and compares them with conditions hundreds of years ago. The consciousness of humanity is awakened everywhere; the most undeveloped races are in process of achieving education, involving necessarily the discovery of the mind; goodwill is being recognized [611] as necessary to world unfoldment, and men are finding that "no man liveth unto himself" - or any nation either; they are registering the fact that it is simply common sense and the part of wisdom to better conditions for all men everywhere. This is a new attitude and a fresh and most hopeful approach. Men are learning to know and understand each other; nations are arriving at a closer contact with one another; statesmen of all nations are wrestling together and in joint conclave with the problem of bettering human living conditions; everywhere there is thought, there is appraisal, and there is the struggle for freedom and for the truer values. What is all this but the effort of the soul of humanity to kill out disease, restore unhealthy areas to health and eliminate points of friction? Is not this what the spiritual man who is ill is seeking to bring about in his own body, and what the healer is attempting to aid him to do?

In so doing, the "lunar lords" and the forces of substance must eventually yield to the energy of the soul, and are benefited, whether they are microcosmic forces or macrocosmic.

One of the things which frequently puzzle students is the statement that the dense physical body is not a principle. H.P.B. states this fact with emphasis; people are apt to think (unless they are theosophical fanatics) that he was incorrect or was intentionally misleading students. One of the points, little understood, is the nature of a principle. Yet only by understanding what a principle is can the beauty and accuracy of his statement be grasped. What, in the last analysis, is a principle? A principle is that which, macrocosmically speaking, is being developed upon each plane of our seven planes - the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane. It is the germ or the seed on each subplane which embodies some aspect of the divine unfolding consciousness; [612] it is that which is fundamentally related to some form of sensitivity; it is that to which the bodies, as they evolve, find that they can respond. A principle is a germ of awareness, carrying all the potentiality of full consciousness on some particular level of divine activity. It is that which makes knowledge and conscious response to environment possible; it is that which connotes a sequential and "unrolling" sensitive activity, resulting in divine understanding, possible and inevitable.

The physical body, and to a far less extent the astral and mental bodies, are automatic in their activity as aspects of a divine response apparatus, of a mechanism which enables the Heavenly Man, the planetary Logos and the spiritual man to register conscious response to that which is to be contacted under the divine plan and through the medium of a mechanism. At present, the physical body is the only one which is as yet so fully developed that it has in this planetary scheme of ours no further evolutionary development, except in so far as the spiritual man can affect it - and most of the effect is produced in the etheric body and not in the dense physical. This is a point little grasped but of major importance.

The dense physical body reached its high point of development and of interest (from the angle of mental attention and of hierarchical action) in the previous solar system. It was then the divine goal of the entire evolutionary process. This is not an easy point for humanity today to grasp. It is not possible or advisable for me to indicate the evolutionary stages through which this divine mechanism passed in preparation for the task to be undertaken in the present solar system. In this divine incarnation of our planetary Logos through the medium of this little planet, the Earth, the physical body is not a goal, but simply something which exists and must be accepted, and which must be adapted and [613] incorporated into the general evolutionary plan. That plan has to do entirely with consciousness. The physical body is simply (no more and no less) the vehicle of consciousness upon the physical plane, but the emphasis of attention is the etheric body as an expression of the subtler vehicles and their state of embodied consciousness. The physical body is important because it has to house and respond to every type of conscious response, from that of the lowest type of human being up to and inclusive of the consciousness of an initiate of the third degree. The bodies and forms of the indwelling conscious life in the three subhuman kingdoms have an analogous but less difficult problem; I am here, however, considering only the physical body of a human being, which is not a principle because it is not in any way a goal; it is not the seed or germ of anything. Any changes wrought in the physical body are secondary to the goal of conscious response to the revelation of an emerging divinity. I have felt it necessary to emphasize this because of the confusion in men's minds anent the subject.

To sum up: the physical body is not a principle; it is not a main object of attention of the aspirant; it automatically responds to the slowly unfolding consciousness in all the kingdoms of nature; it constantly remains that which is worked upon and not that which has an innate influence of its own; it is not important in the active process, for it is a recipient and not that which initiates activity. That which is important is the unfolding consciousness, the response of the indwelling spiritual man to life, circumstances, events and environment. The physical body responds. When the physical body becomes, in error, the object of attention, retrogression is indicated; and this is why all profound attention to the physical disciplines, to vegetarianism, to diet and to fasting, and to the present modes of (so-called) mental and divine healing, are [614] undesirable and not in line with the projected plan. Therefore undue consideration and excessive emphasis upon the physical body is reactionary and is like the worship of the golden calf by the children of Israel; it is reversion to that which at one time was of importance but today should be relegated to a minor position and below the threshold of consciousness.

I have dealt with this here because in Law VII the fact of the endocrine glands is brought to our attention, and it is necessary that we approach this subject from the right point of view. The endocrine glands are a tangible part of the physical body; they are therefore a part of that created manifestation which is not regarded as a principle. They are, however, effective and potent and may not be ignored. It is essential that students regard these glands as effects and not causes of events and happenings and conditions in the body. The physical body - no matter what its victims may believe and declare - is always conditioned by inner causes; it is never, intrinsically, itself a cause. It is, in this solar system and on our planet, automatic and affected by causes generated on the inner planes or by the action of the soul. Please note the importance of this statement. The physical body has no true life of its own, but is simply - in this cycle - responsive to impulses emanating from elsewhere. Its achievement and its triumph is that it is an automaton. If you can grasp this adequately, we can safely proceed to the consideration of Law VII and Rule Four.

Law VII
When life or energy flows unimpeded and through right direction to its precipitation (the related gland), then the form responds and ill health disappears.

One of the interesting factors which students should note is the doctrine of intermediaries which is to be found [615] in such rich abundance and is regarded as of such vital importance in all occult teaching. It has been emphasized (though erroneously interpreted) in the Christian teaching anent the Christ; Christianity has presented Him as acting as the intermediary between an angry God and a pitiful and ignorant humanity. Such was by no means the intent of His coming or of His work, but into the real meaning I need not enter here. I have dealt with this theme elsewhere in connection with the New World Religion. (The Problems of Humanity, Chapter VI; The Reappearance of the Christ, Chapter V.) It has been taught also in the esoteric presentation (and this is closely allied with the Christian doctrines) that the soul is the intermediary between the monad and the personality; the same idea is also found in many other religious presentations, i.e., the Buddha is shown as the intermediary between Shamballa and the Hierarchy, acting in this capacity once a year; the Hierarchy itself is the intermediary between Shamballa and Humanity; the etheric plane (and by this I mean the cosmic, planetary and individual etheric vehicles) is the intermediary between the higher planes and the dense physical body. The whole system of occult or esoteric revelation is based on this wonderful doctrine of interdependence, of a planned and arranged conscious linking, and of the transmission of energy from one aspect of divine manifestation to another; everywhere and through everything is circulation, transmission, and modes of passing energy from one form to another form, and always through an appropriate mechanism. This is true in the involutionary sense, in the evolutionary sense, and in a spiritual sense also; this latter is slightly different to the other two, as all initiates of the higher degrees know well. An entire thesis upon transmitting agencies could be written, and it would include, finally, the doctrine of Avatars. An Avatar is one [616] who has a peculiar facility or capacity (besides a self-initiated task and a preordained destiny) to work with energies, transmitted via the etheric body of a planet or of the solar system; this, however, is a deep mystery. It was demonstrated in a peculiar manner, and in relation to cosmic energy, by the Christ Who, for the first time in planetary history, transmitted the cosmic energy of love directly to the physical plane of our planet, and also in a peculiar manner to the fourth kingdom in nature, the human. This should indicate to you that though the love energy is the second aspect of divinity, the Christ embodied and transmitted four qualities of this aspect to humanity, and consequently to the other kingdoms in nature - the only four which humanity could absorb. Only one of these four is as yet beginning to express itself - the quality of goodwill. The other three will later be revealed, and one is related in a peculiar sense to the healing quality of love. According to The New Testament, this quality was called by the Christ "virtue" (a somewhat inaccurate translation of the word originally used); Christ employed it when healing force had been taken from Him and He said "virtue has gone out of me."

I have called this to your attention because this truth is directly related to this seventh law. We have seen, in connection with all the healing processes, that the dense physical body is regarded esoterically as simply an automaton; it is only a recipient of transmitted energies. We have seen that the etheric body in or "substanding" every form is itself a structure for the transmission of energies coming from some source or another - the source being primarily the point where the life within the form lays its basic emphasis. For the average human being, this is usually the astral body, from which astral or emotional energy emanates and finds anchorage, prior to transmission into the [617] etheric body. There will be, however, in the majority of cases, a greater or less admixture of mental energy. Later, soul energy, reinforced (if I may use such a word) by the purified mind and transmitted through the personality, will condition the etheric body and control, consequently, the activities of the physical vehicle.

This law brings to our attention the fact that the dense physical body, under the impact of subjective energies, in its turn produces a "structure for transmission" and automatically repeats the activity of the etheric body. It creates (in response to the inflow of energies from the etheric body, via the seven major centers) a dense physical interlocking structure, to which we have given the name "the endocrine glandular system." These glands - in their turn and in response to the inflowing energy from the etheric body - produce a secretion which is called a secretion of hormones, and this the glands transmit directly into the blood stream.

It is not my intention to be over-technical in my consideration of this subject; I write for the lay reader, and not for the medical profession, who are frank to admit how little they know, as yet, anent this subject. The medical research worker knows little anent the relation of the endocrine glands to the blood and to the total physiology of the human being; he knows little anent the relation of the various glands to each other; these constitute an interlocking directorate of vital importance, linked and united, animated and directed by the seven etheric centers. This is a factor naturally overlooked by the orthodox scientist in this field, and until he recognizes that which produces the endocrine glands he will remain totally at sea as to cause and true results. The glands are direct precipitations of the seven types of energy flowing through the seven etheric centers. They control all the areas of the body. In their creation [618] you have a definite expression of the radiatory and the magnetic activity of all energies, for they are produced by radiation from the seven centers, but their effect - individual and combined - is magnetic. The radiation abstracts dense physical atoms and focuses them in the correct area in the physical body, so that they can act as distributors into the blood stream, and therefore into the dense physical body, of one aspect of the inflowing energy. I would have you note that only one aspect of the energy is thus distributed - that which corresponds to the third aspect of active intelligent substance; the other two latent aspects are distributed as pure energy, affecting areas but not affecting any localized focal point. A gland is such a localized focal point.

I am anxious for this subject of the glands and their relation to the centers to be correctly understood. The entire subject is closely related to the art of healing; one of the effects of the application of the healing energy (through the medium of any center conditioning the area wherein the point of friction is located) is the stimulation of the related gland and its increased activity. The glands are intermediaries, in the last analysis, between the healer and the patient, between the center and the dense physical body, and between the etheric body and its automaton, the receiving dense physical vehicle.

In continuing our consideration of the immediate transmitting agency of the centers into the blood stream (the endocrine glands) I would like to point out that the centers work through this endocrine system through direct impact, through a ray or stream of energy, emanating from the central point within the center. Through this medium they condition and control entire areas of the body and they do this through those aspects of the centers which we symbolically call the "petals of the lotus." In a point at the very center of the lotus the life force is focused, and as [619] it passes outward into the related gland, it takes on the quality of the energy for which the center is responsible, because life force is essentially unqualified. The ray of life, if one may call it so, which is found at the heart of each center, is identified monadically with its source, and possesses (when brought in contact with its petals) one major innate quality of attractive energy; all energy emanating from the one source in this solar system, is related to the energy which we call Love, and this energy is magnetic attraction. The petals of the lotus, and the area of surrounding energy which constitutes the form of the lotus, are qualified by one of the seven subsidiary types of energy; these emanate from the seven Rays which emerge out of the one Source, as Representatives of the manifold Creator.

Within the solar system, as you know, are to be found the seven sacred planets, which are the custodians or the expression of these seven rays, of these seven qualities of divinity; within our planet, the Earth (which is not a sacred planet), there are likewise seven centers which become, as evolution proceeds, the recipients of the seven ray qualities from the seven sacred planets, thus providing (within the solar ring-pass-not) a vast interlocking system of energies. Three of these centers, representing the three major rays, are well known to you:

1. Shamballa

• The ray of power or purpose
• The first aspect
• The energy of will.

2. The Hierarchy

• The ray of love-wisdom
• The second aspect
• The energy of love.

3. Humanity

• The ray of active intelligence
• The third aspect
• The energy of mind or thought. [620]

There are four other centers, and these, with the above three, constitute the seven centers, or the seven planetary focal points of energy, which condition the bodily manifestation of our planetary Logos. Through them the Lord of the World, working from His Own level on a cosmic plane and through His divine Personality, Sanat Kumara, carries out His purposes upon our planet.

Similarly, within the microcosm, man, the correspondences to these seven centers are to be found. Therein likewise are seven major centers, and they are the recipients of the energy emanating from the seven planetary centers, the custodians of the seven aspects of ray force; these seven energies - at various stages of potency - condition the man's expression in the three worlds, make him what he is at any given moment whilst in incarnation, and indicate (by their effect or lack of effect upon the centers) his point in evolution.

Two of these centers in the human being are to be found in the head, and the other five are to be found up the spinal column. This spinal column is the physical symbol of that essential alignment which is the immediate goal of directed relationships, carried forward in consciousness by the spiritual man and brought about as a result of right meditation.

Meditation is a technique of the mind which eventually produces correct, unimpeded relationship; this is another name for alignment. It is therefore the establishment of a direct channel, not only between the one source, the monad, and its expression, the purified and controlled personality, but also between the seven centers in the human etheric vehicle. This is - perhaps astonishingly to you - putting the results of meditation on the basis of physical, or rather of etheric, effects, and may be regarded by you as indicating the very lowest phase of such results. This is due to the [621] fact that you lay the emphasis upon your mental reaction to the produced alignment, on the satisfaction you acquire from such an alignment, in which you register a new world or worlds of phenomena, and on the new concepts and ideas which consequently impinge upon your mind. But the true results (as divine and as esoterically desirable) are correct alignment, right relationship, and clear channels for the seven energies in the microcosmic system, thereby bringing about eventually a full expression of divinity. All the seven centers in the etheric vehicle of the Christ were rightly adjusted, correctly aligned, truly awakened and functioning, and properly receptive of all the seven streams of energy coming from the seven planetary centers; these put Him en rapport, therefore, and in full realized contact, with the One in Whom He lived and moved and had His being. The physiological result of this complete "esoteric surrender of the seven" (as it is sometimes called) to the incoming spiritual energies, in their right order and rhythm, was the appearance in the Christ of a perfect endocrine system. All His glands (both major and minor) were functioning correctly; this produced a "perfect man" - physically perfect, emotionally stable and mentally controlled. In modern terms, the "pattern of the behavior" of the Christ - due to the perfection of His glandular system, as an effect of correctly awakened and energized centers - made Him an expression of divine perfection to the entire world; He was the first of our humanity to arrive at this point in evolution, and "the Eldest in a great family of brothers," as St. Paul expresses it. The current pictures of the Christ testify to their own complete inaccuracy, for they bear no witness to any glandular perfection; they are full of weakness and sweetness, but show little strength, alert power and aliveness. And the promise has gone forth that as He is, so may we be in this world. [622]

This is a promise which lies behind the right understanding of the science of the centers; the factual reality of the centers will be proven to all men when the centers are gradually brought under control of the soul, are correctly and scientifically energized and brought to a condition of true "livingness," and begin to condition the entire area of the body in which a center is found, and - between them - bringing every part of the human body under their radiatory and magnetic influence.

It is the centers which hold the body together and make it a coherent, energized and active whole. As you know, when death takes place, the consciousness thread withdraws from the head center and the life thread withdraws from the heart center. What has not been emphasized is that this dual withdrawal has an effect upon every center in the body. The consciousness thread, anchored in the head center, qualifies the petals of the lotus called in the oriental literature the "thousand-petalled lotus," and the petals of that lotus have a relationship and a definitely qualifying effect (both radiatory and magnetic) upon the petals in every one of the other major centers within the etheric body; the head center preserves them in qualifying activity, and when this quality of conscious response is withdrawn from the head center an immediate effect is felt in all the petals of all the centers; the qualifying energy is withdrawn, leaving the body via the head center. The same general technique is true of the life thread which is anchored in the heart, after passing (in alliance with the consciousness thread) into and through the head center. As long as the life thread is anchored in the heart it energizes and preserves in livingness all the centers in the body, sending out its threads of life into a point which is found at the exact center of the lotus, or at the heart of the center. This is sometimes called "the jewel in the lotus," though the phrase [623] is more frequently applied to the monadic point at the heart of the egoic lotus on its own plane. When death takes place and the life thread is gathered up by the soul and withdrawn from the heart into the head and from thence back into the soul body, it carries with it the life of each center in the body; therefore, the body dies and disintegrates, and no longer forms a coherent, conscious, living whole.

Related to these centers, and reacting in strict unison with them, is the endocrine or glandular system, through which system - during incarnation - life or energy flows unimpeded and under right direction in the case of the highly developed man, or impeded and imperfectly directed in the case of the average or undeveloped human being; through this system of glandular control, the human form responds or does not respond to the surrounding world energies. In connection with our present theme of healing, a man can be sick and ill or well and strong, according to the state of the centers and their precipitation, the glands. It must ever be remembered that the centers are the major agency upon the physical plane through which the soul works, expresses life and quality, according to the point reached under the evolutionary process, and that the glandular system is simply an effect - inevitable and unavoidable - of the centers through which the soul is working. The glands therefore express fully the point in evolution of the man, and according to that point are responsible for defects and limitations or for assets and achieved perfections. The man's conduct and behavior upon the physical plane is conditioned, controlled and determined by the nature of his glands, and these are conditioned, controlled and determined by the nature, the quality and the livingness of the centers; these, in their turn are conditioned, controlled and determined by the soul, in increasing effectiveness as evolution proceeds. Prior to soul control, they are conditioned, [624] qualified and controlled by the astral body, and later by the mind. The goal of the evolutionary cycle is to bring about this control, this conditioning, and this determining process by the soul; human beings are today at every imaginable stage of development within this process.

I realize that much of the above is well known and in the nature of repetition. But I have felt it essential to repeat the story so that there may be a fresh clarity in your thinking.

It will be apparent to you also that the karmic process in any individual life must therefore work out through the medium of the glands, which condition the reaction of the person to circumstance and events. The results of all previous lives and of all activities carried on during those lives have been registered by the Lords of Karma; karmic law works in close cooperation with the lunar Lords, who build and construct the bodies which constitute the personality; later, the law works in an even closer cooperation with the soul purpose. The whole problem is necessarily most intricate and difficult. All I can do is to give certain indications.

It is with this system of centers and their externalized effects, the glands, that the healer has to work and which he has to take into most careful consideration; all stimulation which he may be able, for instance, to convey to a center in the patient's body, or all abstraction of energy from a center, will have a most definite effect upon the allied or related gland, and therefore upon the secretion which that gland is in the habit of pouring into the blood stream.

As again you know, the seven major centers and their allied glands are as follows:

1. The head center - The pineal gland.
2. The ajna center - The pituitary gland.
3. The throat center - The thyroid gland.
4. The heart center - The thymus gland. [625]
5. The solar plexus center - The pancreas.
6. The sacral center - The gonads.
7. The center at base of spine - The adrenal glands.

There are also other centers and many other glands in the body, but these are the seven with which the healer works; the minor or subsidiary glands are conditioned by the center controlling the area in which they are located. The healer, however, refuses to complicate his thinking with the multiplicity and detail of the other lesser glandular system and with the intricacies of lesser interior relationships. The above list gives also the centers and glands which basically determine the state of health - good, indifferent or bad - and the psychological equipment of a man. Students should bear in mind that the primary effect of the activity of the glands and of their secretions is psychological. A man is, upon the physical plane, emotionally and mentally what his glandular system makes him, and incidentally what they make him physically, because that is frequently determined by his psychological state of mind and emotions. The emphasis of the self-centered ordinary man is largely upon the physical vehicle, and he pays little or no attention to the balance or the imbalance of his endocrine system or set-up (if I may use that word) from the angle of its determining his psychological effect upon his fellow men. It is not my intention to analyze the various glands, noting how they respond to the awakened or the unawakened condition of the centers, or how they limit or implement the responsiveness of the man to his environment or determine his interpretation of life and the passivity or the activity of his daily reactions to events and circumstance. A man, it may emphatically be stated, is what his glands make him, but they, in their turn, are only the effects of certain inner potent [626] sources of energy. Again, as you see, I repeat this vital truth.

It is for this reason that medical science will eventually find the truth (and already they are sensing it) that it is impossible to fundamentally change the personality and the physical equipment of a man through treating the glands themselves; little real progress has been made along this line during the thirty or forty years during which the endocrinologists have considered and investigated this subject. Certain things have been found out; certain results of the activity or the inactivity of the glands have been noted; certain types of people have been recognized as illustrative of glandular activity or passivity; ameliorative measures have been applied and the action of a gland has been stimulated or retarded (with good or bad effects) through various methods and types of medication. Beyond this little is known, and the best minds in this particular field are conscious of the fact that they are face to face with a terra incognita. This situation will remain as it is until modern medical science recognizes that the world of causes (as far as the endocrine glands are concerned) is the etheric body with its seven centers; they will then register the fact that all work in relation to the glands must be shifted away from the seven effects or precipitations of the centers on to the centers themselves.

The healer, therefore, ignores the gland involved and deals directly with the center which conditions the "point of friction" and controls the area under its influence; this necessarily includes the gland which the center has created, formed or precipitated and energized.

The concept in the mind of the healer should be, as this law indicates, that an unimpeded channel or a clear passage must be formed along which health-giving life may flow from the "needed center" in the healer's etheric body [627] to the allied center in the body of the patient and from thence into the blood stream, via the related gland. Forget not, the truth remains eternally right that the "blood is the life" - even if as yet inexplicable in its implications from the angle of the esotericist as well as from the angle of medical science.

Healers have to learn to work with the life principle, and not with some vague energy which is set in motion by the power of thought or by the potency of love, as is the case presented today by the various healing systems of the world which mankind has evolved. This life principle is contacted and set in motion by the mode of clearing certain etheric channels within the etheric structure which underlies every part of the patient's body. This clearance is not brought about by thinking health or by affirming divinity or by eliminating "error" in the mental approach, but by the much more prosaic method of directing streams of energy, via certain centers, and thus affecting certain glands in the area of the physical body which is diseased and the seat of trouble, pain and distress.

That thought or correct thinking is involved is necessarily true; the healer has to think clearly before he can bring about the desired results, but the energy poured into the patient's vehicle is not mental energy, but one of the seven forms of pranic or life energy. This travels along the line of force or the channel which relates and links all the centers and connects those centers with the glands. Forget not that this constitutes an interlinking and interlocking directorate of the following systems, and that - from the point of view of the esotericist - these systems are symbols of great cosmic processes:

1. The etheric body, as a whole, with its channels and communicating lines of energy which underlie every part [628] of the human body.
2. The seven related centers, each specifically qualified and each in touch, via the etheric fibers or threads of force, with each and every center.
3. The nadis, that system of slightly denser etheric channels or tiny threads of force which underlie the entire nervous system; they underlie every type of nerve and every type of nerve plexus.
4. The nervous system itself, which is found extending its radius of influence throughout the entire body of a man.
5. The endocrine or glandular system.
6. The blood stream, the recipient of streams of living energy from the endocrine system, via what are called the hormones.
7. The interrelated sumtotal, which is the divine manifestation of the spiritual man in any incarnation and at any point in evolution.

Therefore, two great streams of energy permeate and animate this entire aggregation of systems: the life stream and the consciousness stream. One works through the nervous system (the consciousness stream) and the other through the blood stream. Both are in fact so closely related and allied that, in action, it is not easy for the ordinary man to differentiate between them.

The healer, however, does not work with the consciousness aspect; he works entirely with the life aspect; the perfect healer (something at present non-existent) works through the closed and sealed point within the center (the very heart of the center). There the point of life is to be found. From this point within the center, life rays out into the petals of the lotus, and the combination of the life at the center and the consciousness, inherent in the petals, is the source of the living, breathing, sensitive human [629] being - from the physical angle - and this the healer must recognize.

Behind this livingness and this consciousness is the Being, the spiritual man, the actor, the one who feels (in varying degrees), and the thinker. The simplicity of the above statement is somewhat misleading, as there are other factors and relationships and other energies which must be considered, but it is nevertheless basically true, and upon this truth the healer can act.

It is interesting to point out that the Great Invocation now being distributed in the world is based upon this same fundamental concept of great systems, conditioning humanity as a whole, which can be energized by the inflow of streams of energy, bringing new life and health to the entire body of humanity via the planetary centers of divine livingness and consciousness.

Rule Four which accompanies Law VII is of major importance. This is because of its extreme simplicity, and because, if comprehended and followed, it forms a bridging rule between the subjective and the objective methods of handling disease. The law which we have just considered was also exceedingly simple and direct, and in its implications related to the subjective nature and the objective form. Students should not be deceived by simplicity and by plain, direct statements. There is a tendency to regard esoteric teaching as necessarily abstruse and indirect, requiring always the use of the "esoteric sense" (whatever is meant by that) in order to arrive at understanding. Yet the more advanced the teaching, very frequently the more simply is it expressed. Abstruseness is related to the ignorance of the student - not to the mode of presentation of the teacher. This rule runs as follows: [630]

Rule Four
A careful diagnosis of disease, based on the ascertained outer symptoms, will be simplified to this extent - that once the organ involved is known and thus isolated, the center in the etheric body which is in closest relation to it will be subjected to methods of occult healing, though the ordinary ameliorative, medical or surgical methods will not be withheld.

This rule requires little elucidation, for it is composed of clear, concise instructions. Let us list these instructions:

1. There must be careful diagnosis, based on the ascertained outer symptoms.
2. The organ which is the seat of the trouble must be located. Both these activities concern the dense physical body.
3. The center in the etheric body closest to the area of the trouble will next receive attention.
4. Methods of occult healing are then employed, directed to the stimulation, or the reverse, of the center involved.
5. Simultaneously, all outer orthodox methods are employed.

It is on this question of careful diagnosis that most modern so-called healers go astray. They do not know enough about the physical body, about the pathology of disease, about the primary or secondary symptoms, to determine the nature of the difficulty; this is because the usual healer has not had medical training, and at the same time he is not psychically equipped to arrive at a true diagnosis in an occult manner. He therefore falls back on the general assumption that the patient is sick, that the seat of the trouble appears to be in such or such an area of the physical body, that the patient complains of certain pains and aches, and that if the patient can be rendered acquiescent enough, [631] if he can grasp (along with the healer) the fact of his divinity - and who can, my brother? - then if he has faith in the healer, he can assuredly be healed.

The outstanding thing usually to note is the ignorance of both the patient and the healer; the thing to be deplored is the assumption of the healer that, if a healing does follow, it is due entirely to the healing methods followed, whereas the patient would, in all probability, have recovered in any case. The healing may have been hastened by the factor of faith, and faith is simply the focusing of the patient's energy in line with the injunction of the healer, and a consequent "display" of that energy in the diseased area in obedience to the law that "energy follows thought." The "explosion" (if I may use so forcible a word) of the energy of faith on the part of the two people involved - the healer and the patient - occultly and occasionally produces sufficient energy stimulation to bring about a cure where a cure in any case was inevitable. It has simply been a hastening process. This is not, however, a true occult healing and no true occult healing methods were employed or involved. Psychologically, the same thing can be seen taking place in the case of a "conversion," as the Fundamentalist School of Christianity calls it. The faith of the person and the faith of the evangelist, plus the faith of the audience (where there is one) bring about a psychological healing along the line of resolving cleavages, or produce an at-one-ment, even if only of a temporary nature.

It must be increasingly borne in mind that there is nothing in the created world but energy in motion, and that every thought directs some aspects of that energy, though always within the sphere of influence of some greater thinking, directing energy. The healer's faith and the patient's faith are both examples of energy in motion, and at present usually the only energies employed in every case [632] of healing. Orthodox medicine also works with the same energies, supplementing its orthodox methods with the patient's faith in the physician and in his scientific knowledge.

I am not here going to enlarge further on the injunction to use medical and surgical methods whenever possible. I have touched upon this subject several times in the course of this teaching upon healing. It is essential that people should realize that the ascertained knowledges of medicine and surgery are just as much an expression of divine experience and understanding as the hopeful, assertive, yet fumbling methods of so-called divine healing - if not more so at present. Though much of the orthodox methods remain experimental, they are less so than the methods of the modern healers, and much of their scientific knowledge is proven and real. It should be used, and confidence can be expressed in it. The perfect healing combination is that of the medical man and the spiritual healer, each working in his own field, and both having faith in each other; this is not now the case. There is no need to call in divine aid to set bones which the surgeon is well equipped to do, or to clear up infection which the physician knows well how to handle. The healer can help and can hasten the healing process, but the orthodox physician can also hasten the work of the healer. Both groups need each other.

I realize that what I have said here will please neither the spiritual healer nor the orthodox medical man. It is time, however, that they learn to appreciate each other and to work in cooperation. In the last analysis, the spiritual healer and the new modes of mental healing have relatively little to contribute in comparison with the work and the knowledge of the member of the orthodox profession. The debt of the world to its doctors and surgeons is very great. The debt to healers is decidedly not so great; they oft also poison the channel by bitterness and constant [633] criticism of the physician and of orthodox medicine. Surety of knowledge and experience prevents a similar attitude in the orthodox group, plus the realization that even the spiritual healer will call in the doctor in times of emergency.

The law and the rule now to be considered will carry us into realms of real abstraction; it will not be easy for you to understand much of what I may say. This Law VIII takes us back to the very source of all phenomena as far as the human being is concerned - the will of the immortal soul to incarnate on earth or to withdraw from incarnation. It involves also the consideration of the factor of the Will in producing disease as the direct means of bringing about that withdrawal. So little is as yet understood anent the Will that it is particularly hard to explain.

Law VIII
Disease and death are the result of two active forces. One is the will of the soul, which says to its instrument: "I draw the essence back." The other is the magnetic power of the planetary life, which says to the life within the atomic structure: "The hour of reabsorption has arrived. Return to me." Thus, under cyclic law, do all forms act.

Two aspects in the nature of the divine Will are called into play where disease and death are concerned: one is the will of the soul to bring an incarnation to an end; another is the will of the spirit of the earth (the basic elemental force) to draw back into itself the released and temporarily isolated substance of which the soul had availed itself during the cycle of incarnation.

The factor of time, the factor of the interplay between the point of will which is that of the soul, and the diffused ever present will of the elemental spirit of substance are involved, plus their cyclic relation. These we shall attempt to consider. [634]

What I have here to say is of major importance and will throw a new and strange light upon the entire subject of disease. I will deal, first of all, with the second half of the law, which refers to the "magnetic power of the planetary life," which says to the life within the atomic structure: "The hour of reabsorption has arrived. Return to me."

To understand the reference, I would remind you that a human being is a spiritual entity, occupying or informing (which is the occult word I prefer) a dense physical vehicle. This dense physical body is part of the general structure of the entire planet, composed of living atoms which are under the control of, and are part of the life of the planetary entity. This dense physical vehicle is released into a temporary and directed freedom by the will of the informing soul, but remains at the same time an intrinsic part of the sumtotal of all atomic substance. This physical vehicle - having its own life and having a measure of intelligence which we call its instinctual nature - is called by esotericists the physical elemental. During incarnated life, it is the coherent force or agency by means of which the physical body preserves its particular form, under the impact of etheric livingness; this affects all the living atoms and brings them into relation with each other. The physical body is the great symbol (within the one Life) of the many of which it is constituted; it is the demonstrated fact of innate coherency, of unity, of synthesis and of relationship. Physical or planetary prana (the lowest form of pranic energy) is the life of the sumtotal of the atoms (of which all outer forms are composed) as they are brought into relation to the separated atomic structure of the dense physical body of an individual informing soul in any kingdom of nature - particularly, from our point of study, the human kingdom.

What is true in this connection of the individual or of [635] man, the microcosm, is true also of the planet, which - like man - is a coherent whole. This wholeness is due to the relation of two aspects of life: the life of the planetary Logos and the life of the spirit of the earth, which is the life of the sumtotal of all the atoms which compose all forms. To this sumtotal of living substance, of elemental life, man's dense physical body conforms and is therefore the symbol. These two lives, functioning microcosmically and also macrocosmically, create that living pranic energy which circulates throughout the etheric bodies of all forms, which produces coherency or a synthetic holding-together and which can be discerned when the densest aspect of the etheric body is seen, creating thus the health aura in plants, trees, sea life, animals and man. Other energies and potencies circulate through and condition the etheric vehicle, but I refer here only to the lowest physical aspect. This is indicative of the life of the elemental of our planet, the spirit of the earth - a divine life, making its own progress upon the involutionary arc of manifestation.

This spirit of the earth preserves its hold upon the atomic structures of which all forms are made, including the physical body of man; it gathers them together again eventually and reabsorbs those elements of its life which were temporarily isolated from it during any incarnated experience of any soul in any of the kingdoms in nature. These atoms, it must be noted, are imbued or conditioned by two factors for which the spirit of the earth is solely responsible:

1. The factor of the Karma of the life of the elemental of the planet. This is an involutionary, precipitating karma, entirely different to that of the planetary Logos, Who is a spiritual Life upon the evolutionary arc. This involutionary karma, therefore, conditions the life [636] experience from the purely physical angle of all forms composed of atomic substance.
2. The factor of limitation. Apart from the karma, resulting in physical events, affecting all physical forms composed of this elemental essence, the physical vehicles of all lives in all the kingdoms of nature are also conditioned by the point in time of the cyclic influence of the planetary spirit and by its point in evolution. This involutionary spirit has not yet attained a point of perfection, but is progressing towards a specific goal which will be attained when the evolutionary arc of experience is reached. This lies very far ahead. Our planetary Logos, that great divine Life in Whom we live and move and have our being, is one of the "imperfect Gods" as yet, from the point of view of the goal set before all planetary Logoi. His body of expression, our planet, the Earth, is not yet a sacred planet. The spirit of the earth is yet very far from even the relative perfection of which a conscious human being is aware.

The point in evolution of the spirit of the earth affects every atom in his body - the body of an involutionary entity. The result of this imperfection, which is not that of the planetary Logos but that of the spirit of the earth, shows itself in the presence of disease in all forms in all the kingdoms of nature. Minerals are subject to disease and decay; even the "fatigue" of metals is a registered scientific fact; plants and animals all react to disease within the structure of their forms, and disease and death are inherent in the atom of which all organisms are composed. Man is not exempt. Disease, therefore, is not brought about by wrong thinking, as oft I have told you, or by any failure to affirm divinity. It is inherent in the form nature itself, being indicative of the imperfections from which the spirit of the earth [637] suffers; it is the mode par excellence whereby this elemental life retains integrity and the capacity to reabsorb that which is his but which has been brought under other direction by the attractive potency of the life of that which informs every other kingdom in nature during a cycle of incarnation.

This will give you surely a new idea anent disease. Man creates, under soul impulsion and the will to incarnate, a form which is composed of substance already subjected to conditioning; it is already impregnated with the life impulses of the spirit of the earth. Man, in so doing, assumes responsibility for that elemental form but - at the same time - limits himself definitely by the nature of the atoms of which that form is composed. The atomic substance through which the spirit of the earth expresses itself has in it ever the "seeds of return," permitting a reabsorption. This substance is also composed of all grades and qualities of matter, from the very coarsest up to the very finest, as for instance the quality of the substance which makes the appearance of the Buddha or of the Christ possible. The Lord of the Earth, the planetary Logos, cannot find substance animated by the spirit of the earth of a quality and nature pure enough; He cannot, therefore, materialize or make an appearance, as can the Buddha or the Christ. Few of Those Who form the Council Chamber at Shamballa can find the needed or adequate substance by means of which to appear; They cannot take a dense physical body, and have to be content with an etheric vehicle.

There are therefore three types of life, affecting the dense appearance of a human being during his restricted manifestation or incarnation:

1. The life of the spiritual man himself, transmitted from the Monad, via the soul for the greater part of manifested existence. [638]
2. The life of that sumtotal which is the elemental life of the fourth kingdom in nature, the human; this life is still an aspect (under the Law of Isolation or Limitation) of the life of the spirit of the earth.
3. The sumtotal of the life which is innate in atomic substance itself - the substance out of which all forms are made. This is the life of the spirit of the earth.

We are not here referring to the soul in an atom or the soul of any form, great or small; we are referring exclusively to the life or first aspect. This expresses itself as the will-to-be; it is only active, though ever present, during form life or the phase of created manifestation. It is here that the Will factor makes its appearance and the relation between will, form and incarnation is to be found.

One of the factors governing incarnation is the presence of what is called the will-to-live; when that is to be found, and when it is powerful in man, he is strongly anchored upon the physical plane; when that is not strongly present or is withdrawn, the man dies. Life in the physical body is preserved, technically and occultly, under the impulse of the powerful will-to-be of the incarnated spiritual man upon the magnetic power of the planetary life, inherent in every atom of the form nature; by means of these atoms - isolated and held by the Law of Attraction in form - he has come into being upon the physical plane. This magnetic power is the expression of the will (if such a word can be applied to the sense of coherency which distinguishes the spirit of the earth) of the planetary entity. It is a projection of his peculiar state of consciousness into an isolated form, created, occupied and indwelt by a soul, by a living man. [639]

I have several times used the expression "isolated form," for it is this peculiar aspect of isolation which conditions the physical body of a man (or of any living form, for that matter), rendering it detached, coherent and temporarily living its own life in response to the imposition of the livingness of the incarnating soul. Temporarily, the united power of the segregated and isolated atoms - particularly the planetary structure of the spirit of the earth - is in abeyance as regards individual reaction to the planetary life. Only the coherent, magnetic qualities persist in any form of activity and in conjunction with the will-to-live of the spiritual man or of any ensouling entity. This creates a coherent form, held together by two aspects of livingness: that of the spirit of the earth and that of the spiritual man. Therefore - to use words in an effort to arrive at understanding - two aspects of life and two forms of will or purpose are brought together. The higher is evolutionary; the lower is involutionary in nature. It is this which creates the conflict. One type of energy is evolutionary and the other is involutionary. It is these conflicting forces which present the problem of dualism - a dualism of the higher and the lower at many differing and varying stages. The final phase of the conflict is fought out, or rather wrought out, when the Dweller on the Threshold and the Angel of the Presence face each other. It is in that consummating event that the pull or conflict between the involutionary life and the evolutionary life, between the inchoate, magnetic will of the elemental forces (inherent in the atoms of which all three bodies of the personality are made) and the will of the spiritual man, on the verge of liberation from the magnetic control of substance, is brought to the issue.

The spirit of the earth has its correspondence in the created expression of the spiritual man; it is to be found in the existence of the personality elemental; this personality [640] elemental can be and frequently is an inchoate force, swayed entirely by desire, and no true personality integration is present; it can, however, be a highly organized and potent factor, producing what is called a high grade personality and an effective instrument for the spiritual man in the three worlds of his evolution. This is followed later by the conflicts upon the Path of Discipleship and the Path of Initiation. Then the livingness of the spiritual man, and his will to manifest divinely, dominate to such an extent that the death of the personality is brought about; this culminates at the time of the third initiation. At that experience the monadic will comes in with such dynamic potency that the will of the elemental lives of the threefold personality is completely negated.

But (to return to our theme) the atomic substance, impregnated with the life of the spirit of the earth and with the driving force of its inchoate will, demonstrates as magnetic power and is constantly in conflict, within the body of manifestation of the informing soul, with the life of the soul. This conflict or friction is the main cause of what you call disease.

Disease is inharmony; it is the fault of fire by friction; diseased areas are areas of friction wherein the atomic substance is temporarily asserting its own type of livingness and responding (sometimes to the point of death) to the magnetic pull of the will of the spirit of the earth. If that pull proves adequately strong, the friction within the atomic structure, localized in the area of some etheric center, will be of such a nature that the quality of the disease increases, the life of the spiritual man is slowly or rapidly withdrawn; the desire for existence, the spiritual will-to-be is not then as strong as the will to be reabsorbed - the will of the atoms constituting the physical body; the man, therefore, dies, in the usual sense of the term. [641]

The planetary life says, "The hour of reabsorption has arrived. Return to me." The urge to return is at present the dominant note in the substance of the bodies of humanity; it is responsible for the universal ill health which distinguishes the mass of human beings; this tendency has been dominant for centuries; the attitude is, however, slowly changing, and the time will eventually come when the atoms of the bodies, or the elemental forces, will be sent back along the path of reabsorption only at the will of the spiritual man and in response to his express command, and not in response to the magnetic power of the spirit of the earth.

We have seen - as we considered the Laws and Rules to date - that fundamentally, disease and death are due to the withdrawal of solar life (the energy of the soul, sometimes called solar fire) either from some particular area of the physical body or from the entire body. This fact should remind students of the need to distinguish between the force or life of the "lunar lords," inherent in every atom of which all organs and forms are made, and the energy of the soul which permeates the entire body as an integrating factor. Speaking symbolically, therefore, there are times in which the life of these lunar lords are so dominant that the life of the soul is overpowered in some particular area, and the consequent withdrawal of the solar life produces disease; or - putting it another way - the friction which ensues when the lunar lords are not compliant produces disease. Yet death is not indicative of a full victory of the lunar lords, but rather that under the plan of the soul, and because the life cycle is complete, the energy of the soul is entirely withdrawn, leaving the lunar lords alone. At times (because it is also in the planning of the soul) the lunar lords temporarily are the victors, though death does not follow; convalescence is significant of the gradual re-entry of soul energy and its subsequent control [642] of the lunar lords. This aspect of soul energy is not that of those energies which represent and lead to the expression of soul quality. It is life energy, coming from the Monad which passes through the soul as a channel and medium of contact; its direct channel is, needless to say, the sutratma. It is not the antahkarana, or the creative thread or the thread of consciousness. These are frequently rendered inactive when acute disease is present, and the life aspect is weakening or rapidly or slowly withdrawing itself.

You can see, therefore, why it is that those who have succeeded in building the antahkarana, the rainbow bridge between the Monad and the personality, have established a contact (non-existent in the average man) between the Monad, the Source of Life, and the personality - the expression of that Life in objectivity. The Monad then, and not the soul, controls the cycles of outward expression, and the initiate then dies at will and according to plan or the necessities of the work. This, of course, refers only to initiates of high degree. I felt these points to be interesting and also useful for you to know. Another point, growing out of all the above, indicates the all-inclusiveness of the divine Life, for the lunar lords are aspects of that Life as much as is the energy of the soul.

It is therefore of prime importance that cremation should be encouraged, and not the present method of burial. Cremation returns the life of the lunar lords more rapidly to the central reservoir of life than any other method, for "our God is a consuming Fire" and all fires have affinity with the central Fire.

Let us now study the rule which goes with Law VIII.

Rule Five
The healer must seek to link his soul, his heart, his brain and his hands. Thus can he pour the vital healing force upon the patient. This is magnetic work. It cures [643] disease or increases the evil state, according to the knowledge of the healer.
The healer must seek to link his soul, his brain, his heart and auric emanation. Thus can his presence feed the soul life of the patient. This is the work of radiation. The hands are needed not. The soul displays its power. The patient's soul responds through the response of his aura to the radiation of the healer's aura, flooded with soul energy.

From just casually reading this Rule it will be obvious that its significance is vital to all successful healing work. It sums up the two modes of healing, based on two capacities of the healer, founded on two groups of related aspects in the healer's personality, and indicating two different points in evolution on the part of the healer. An analysis of this Rule will convey a still greater idea of its importance, for it indicates not only the lines along which the healer must train himself, but also certain interior relationships must be present, and these are dependent upon the point in evolution of the healer. Again, in one case the patient's physical body is the objective of the healing art, whilst in the other it is the patient's soul which feels the effect of the healing energy. In the first case the healer works with the prana or vital planetary fluid, and in the other with soul energy.

We can therefore, on the basis of this Rule, divide healers into two groups: one group wielding the vital etheric fluid which we call prana, and the second group working on a much higher level and employing an ability to draw down soul energy into the body (or rather, the personality) of the healer and - from the required center - to send it forth again into the appropriate center in the patient's body, but this time through the stimulation of the patient's aura controlled by the patient's soul. The two types of energy are of a widely different quality, for one is purely of the personality and is sometimes called animal [644] magnetism, and the other is of the soul, involving a type of work called radiation.

It should be noted here that in reality we have three types of healers:

1. The healer who works purely through magnetism and brings to bear the healing vital life of the planetary etheric body as it uses his individual etheric body as a channel whereby prana can pour into the vital body of the patient.
2. The healer who works on a higher level, and necessarily therefore with a higher type of patient; he uses the energy of his own over-shadowing soul in conjunction with the energy of his individualized soul, and thereby radiates it forth into the soul of the patient, via both of the auras.
3. The healer who can employ both techniques and whose range of contacts and possibilities of usefulness are far greater than the other two. He can employ with equal facility the energy of the soul or the vital pranic force, and has therefore mastered the two techniques which govern the two sets of related faculties. This class of healer is much rarer than the other two.

At present, in the modern world, there is no true system of spiritual healing taught to would-be healers. There is instead an effort to base the whole procedure, plus the techniques employed, on purely mental levels, on systems of affirmation, modes of prayer, stimulation of the patient's will-to-live, and occasionally the use of magnetic or hypnotic passes in relation to the etheric body; various forms of applied subjective thinking are taught, but no true formula for an intelligent and expected cure, only the vague faith of the healer and of the patient and a blind autosuggestion [645] as to what the recognition and affirmation of divinity ought to produce.

True healing, however, is based on certain broad principles which require definite mental acceptance; the methods, nevertheless, which are employed are as definitely physical, using the etheric currents and the centers in the etheric body, as the laying on of hands and the establishing of relations which affect the physical body, and which are not at all of a mental nature and do not require to be appropriated and held by the mind of the patient. The etheric body is physical in nature, and this must not be forgotten and needs frequent reiteration. As we have earlier seen, there are three basic principles, affirmed and believed by the healer who is greatly aided if the patient accepts them also:

1. There is no reality in separation. The planetary etheric body is a whole, unbroken and continuous; of this etheric body, those of the healer and the patient are integral, intrinsic parts.
2. There is an unbreakable (though probably unrealized) relationship between the healer's etheric body and that of the patient, which can be used when once contact has been induced, for a definite circulation of energies.
3. The channels of relationship can be conductors of many different types of energy, transmitted by the healer to the patient. In this fact lies both hope and danger.

There are other principles, but in connection with this Rule these three are essential and explanatory. Much consequently depends upon the knowledge, the understanding and the perceptiveness of the healer. The danger in both radiatory healing and magnetic healing consists in the fact that [646] where there is no trained healer, the amount of prana brought in or of soul energy distributed may produce death, as well as life. A healer may charge his etheric body with so much prana and project it so violently into the etheric body of the patient that he may do far more harm than good. Only long practice can teach the healer the right amount of energy to emit, and to learn this he would do well to use as little energy as possible, gradually increasing the quantity as he attains skill in action. Speaking in a broad and general way, and with the reminder that there are many exceptions to all rules, the magnetic healer will work with less developed people than will the spiritual healer using soul radiation, and he will deal primarily with those diseases which are found below the diaphragm. Spiritual healers work primarily with the upper part of the body, through the centers above the diaphragm and with the head center, thereby controlling all centers in the entire body. Their work is most delicate and subtle and involves far greater risks. The true healer who is an initiate employs both methods with equal facility.

It is interesting, though not particularly useful to you, to point out that there are two other classes of healers who are sometimes found. They work quite differently to either of the methods mentioned above. They are:

1. Certain healers - few and far between - who have set up a relation with the spirit of the earth, the Ruler of all the lunar lords. Under certain formulas and given a certain amount of practice, these healers can invoke his aid and - in fact - command it. I do not advise any interested student to ponder overmuch along this line or to endeavor to set up a contact or to invoke his aid. Only initiates of high degree can deal safely with this powerful involutionary Elemental; they do so [647] only in connection with epidemics and international catastrophes such as the world war, in which thousands and thousands of bodies were involved. An individual not highly developed who endeavored to establish rapport would probably only succeed in stimulating the lunar lords of his own little system to such an extent that his lower nature would be unduly energized - sometimes even to the point of death.
2. Other healers, not as few as in the above group but relatively few, work in cooperation with a healing deva. Such devas exist and have the power of bestowing life. They are to the involutionary lunar lords what the great Lives at Shamballa are to us. They are not a menace to humanity but are not readily reached, except at a certain stage upon the Path where, symbolically speaking, a door or point of contact exists between the two evolutions, for the devas are not upon the involutionary arc. Relations are established through affinity, but this can be brought about only by the deva, and not by the healer. If the healer is very advanced, his Master may instruct one of the serving devas to aid him. Only healers of great purity and of completely selfless motive can attract these angels, and when they do, the potency of their healing is much greater; they make fewer mistakes. They do not, for instance, attempt to heal patients for whom there is no healing possibility. The Angel of Death (and this time I am not speaking symbolically but am referring to an existing deva) will not permit a healing deva to collaborate; they are only permitted to approach where healing is indicated.

We might now take the sentences in this Rule and study their meaning, as there are more significances in them than appear upon the surface. The first sentence in each [648] paragraph of this Rule starts with an important injunction to the healer:

The healer must seek to link his soul, his heart, his brain and his hands. Thus can he pour the vital healing force upon the patient.

This is the technique of the lowest type of true spiritual healer, and for this reason two of the aspects of the dense physical body are included: the brain and the hands. The healer works, therefore, through a triangle and two lines of energy. The situation can be depicted in the following diagram:

The triangle is completed when the healing work is done and the energy is withdrawn from the hands to the brain again and from thence returned by an act of the will to the soul. When the healer (through practiced alignment) has linked up with his soul, he then draws the soul energy down into his heart center, from whence he transfers it to the brain, where it is definitely focused. Using the ajna center as a distributing center, he then uses his hands as the agency through which the directed energy can reach that area in the patient's body where the seat of the trouble is to be found. He passes the energy into the patient's approximate center which governs the distressed area, from which it [649] permeates the surrounding part of the body, penetrating both to the center of the trouble and to the limits of the distressed area.

There are two ways in which he uses his hands, and two methods which he employs:

1. The laying on of hands. This method is employed when the diseased area is strictly localized. The hands are laid on the center in spine or head which may govern that area - the right hand being laid upon the spinal center and the left hand on the part of the body immediately in front of the special area and over the part of the abdomen, chest or head in which the patient complains of distress. They are held in this position as long as the healer can hold the triangle of soul, heart and brain clearly in consciousness.
2. The use of the hands in action. Here the healer, having ascertained the difficulty and then located the needed center up the spine or in the head, creates a circulation of energy (through the action of his hands) through the center in the patient's body controlling the distressed area, and thence outwards through that area towards himself. He uses the right hand first, holding it momentarily over the diseased organ or area and slowly withdraws it towards himself; he follows this rapidly with the left hand which works in the same manner. Both hands, you will note, are now being used positively. No part or aspect of the healer's body or bodies is ever permitted to be negative, and the fiction that the right hand is positive and the left hand is negative will have to be discarded. If one hand was negative, the healer would be liable to absorb into himself those diseased atoms which, when successful, he draws out of the area of distress. These do not respond to the action of his [650] hands through the medium of the center in the patient's body nearest to the seat of trouble, but are drawn out through the area which has responded to the disease.

In the first case, through the laying on of hands, of silent hands, of quiet hands, the energy flow is between the two hands, back and forth within the diseased area; the spinal center is used all the time, and the activity set up, when successful, burns up and absorbs the forces causing the trouble without penetrating the body of the healer. In the second case, the forces are withdrawn by the action of the energy passing through the hands, applied one after the other in a regular time rhythm. They pass through the hands, but are unable to focus themselves there, owing to the concentration of the healing energies within the hands.

Healers on the second, third and fifth rays use more generally the mode of laying on of hands or magnetic healing. This term applies to the direct act of laying on of hands upon the patient's physical body, and not to the action of the hands in the second method, when the hands are immersed in the etheric body of the patient and are definitely working in etheric matter. Healers on the first, fourth and seventh rays use the mode of "hand immersion," as it is sometimes called. The sixth ray healer is rare and is successful only when highly developed; he will then use both methods interchangeably.

All spiritually advanced healers use both hands. Healers are, however, advised first of all to ascertain their ray, and then to perfect themselves in the type or mode of healing best suited to that ray; then, when adequately efficient and able to use facility and skill, they can add the mode of healing which is not so adaptable to their ray type. People on the sixth ray are advised to abstain from the healing art until they have arrived (consciously) at the [651] initiate stage. When both modes of magnetic healing have been mastered, the healer may employ both alternately in the act of healing, or he may use the mode of magnetic passes first so as to set up a changed activity in the diseased area, and then finally use a definite laying on of hands.

At the close of the healing period the "sealing of the triangle" takes place. The energy, hitherto passing into the hands through the ajna center from the brain, is withdrawn into the ajna center, and from thence directed - by an act of the will - to the soul. The healing force is literally "turned off" and redirected; it is no longer available.

During the entire period of healing the healer says nothing. He is making no affirmation and uses no healing mantram. The process outlined here is that of the effect of energy or soul potency playing upon force. This is a point to be emphasized. The task of the healer is to preserve an attitude of intense concentration upon the triangle "existing in living lines of energy" (as it has been called) within his own fourfold aura - health aura, etheric body, astral body and mental body. This he must preserve intact and stable for the entire period of healing. Soul-heart-brain must be linked in such a "lighted" manner that a true clairvoyant would see a brilliant triangle in the healer's aura; the highest point of the triangle (that of the soul) he might fail to see unless he were himself highly developed, but he could not fail to see the signs of it in the inflowing energy to the heart and from the heart to the brain. The work done is silent work. There is therefore no loss of power at any time, as there always is through the spoken word or affirmation. It is not possible to hold the triangle geometrically correct and magnetically polarized if there is any sound made by the healer. This presupposes an advanced stage of alignment and of concentration and will [652] indicate to you some of the lines along which the healer's training should go.

This mode of healing "cures disease or increases the evil state, according to the knowledge of the healer." In some respects (though this is a stage of healing which is not the highest) it is nevertheless the one most responsible because, in the case of radiatory healing, the soul of the patient is working in cooperation with the healer and it is the soul then which has the major responsibility. In magnetic healing, the healer needs to cooperate closely with the patient's physician or surgeon dealing with the case; he will supply the technical knowledge, and thus prevent the healer from making mistakes.

Where death is definitely indicated and the "signs of death" are noted by both the doctor and the healer, the healer has not need to stop his work. By continuing it, he may increase the evil condition, but will nevertheless be aiding the patient by hastening normally the act of dying. The old proverb is basically not true in all cases, that "where there is life there is hope." Life can and often is prolonged after the will of the soul is towards the withdrawal of the soul life; the life of the atoms of the lunar lords can be fostered for a long time, and this greatly distresses the spiritual man who is aware of the process and the intent of his soul. What is kept alive is the physical body, but the interest of the true man is no longer focused there.

There inevitably comes a point, for instance in the case of malignant disease, where the physician knows that it simply is a question of time, and the spiritual healer can learn to recognize the same signs. Then, instead of the present silence on the part of both healer and doctor, where the patient is concerned, this remaining time will be employed (if the patient's faculties permit) with due preparation for the "beneficent and happy withdrawal" of the soul; the [653] patient's family and friends will share in the preparation. In the early stages of the new world religion, this attitude towards death will be inculcated. An entirely new concept of death, with the emphasis upon conscious withdrawal, will be taught, and funeral services, or rather the crematory services, will be joyous events because their emphasis will be upon release and return.

The magnetic work, however, will cure if the patient's destiny indicates it, if the soul intends to prolong the life cycle unexpectedly in order to fulfil some duty, or if the patient is very far advanced spiritually and the Hierarchy requires his services for a longer term.

Let us now consider radiatory healing.

We shall now be dealing with a very different situation than that of the one we have just been considering. In radiatory healing, the patient (either consciously or unconsciously) is working with the healer and is cooperating with him. The basic premise in radiatory healing is that the patient is a person who has, at least to some degree, established rapport with his soul. This having been brought about, the healer knows that a channel of contact can be counted upon and that the soul interest can be evoked in its representative, the man upon the physical plane. He knows also that success in radiatory healing is dependent, to a great extent, upon the ability of his own soul to establish a firm relation with the soul of the patient. When the patient is conscious and able to cooperate, the work is greatly helped; according to the healer's capacity to avail himself of alignment and recognized contact will be the quality of the aid he will be able to give to the one who needs his assistance. When the patient is unconscious, even that provides no real hindrance, provided the healer can bring his soul and the patient's soul into relationship; in [654] fact in some cases the unconsciousness of the patient can be a help, for too earnest, emphatic and impatient help can offset the work - quiet, silent and controlled - by the healer.

Once, however, the rapport is established, the work of the healer simply consists in holding the relationship steady; no interference must be permitted in the work being done by the patient's soul, set in motion by the aid of the healer. The Master Jesus on the Cross could not respond to any saving process (even had He desired to do so) because the soul body - as is always the case at the fourth initiation - was destroyed; there was nothing to respond to the evocative power of an outside person, interested or loving. As an adept and as one in whom monadic consciousness was firmly established, the powers then available to Jesus could not be used in the saving of His physical body. At the same time, it must be remembered that He would have no desire to save it, because He now possessed the power (demonstrated later in the Gospel story) to create a body at will in order to meet His needs. The subtle and subjective sin of the apostles was that they were not interested in evoking the living activity of the Master on His Own behalf (even though He would never do so; this they did not know), but were entirely preoccupied with their own grief. The evocation, had they attempted it, would have been useless, but the good that might have come to them and the revelation they might have received as to the deathlessness of the soul would have greatly illuminated them and might have produced a Christianity built around a living Christ and not around a dead Christ.

In radiatory healing, we are told that

"the healer must seek to link his soul, his brain, his heart and auric emanation."

You will note two points connected with this particular instruction which differ from that given in the case of magnetic healing: [655]

1. The order of the triangle of energies created is different.
2. The means of contact are subtle and not tangible.

The energy released follows a direct line of contact with the brain, and the healer starts with a closed triangle and not with an open one, as in the case of magnetic healing. The triangle created is a simple one, and there is no physical contact and outlet as in magnetic healing:

The brain of the healer is involved, but there is no physical contact of any kind with the patient. The result is a constant circulation of force from the soul back again to the soul. This causes necessarily an augmenting and an energizing of the threefold personality of the healer, and therefore of his auric emanation. His aura would be seen by a clairvoyant as greatly extended, in rapid motion, and energized by light from his own soul, but with all its radiation turned in the direction of the patient. By this means the healing force of the healer stimulates all the three personality vehicles of the patient; the patient's soul is aided in the work it has to do. The healer will consequently find it necessary to stand at that side of the patient in which the trouble is located, so that the radiation of his aura can more easily penetrate. This is the easiest way, but not the most effective. Where the patient's vitality is strong, he [656] should lie on the side, and the healer should stand behind the patient so that the energy pouring through, which the healer may be using and which is potently energizing his aura with soul energy, may affect the patient's aura and thus facilitate the entry of the healing radiation, which the healer is contributing, to the center or centers needed. Where the patient is very highly developed, the healer should stand at the patient's head. His personal effect is not then so great, but that does not matter because it is not needed; the soul of the patient will be adequate to the task. All that is needed is that the aura of the healer, blending with that of the patient, creates a zone of quiet rhythmic activity around the head center. No physical contact by the hands is now required, and the healer must on no account touch the patient.

The situation is summed up for us in the words:

"Thus can his presence feed the soul life of the patient. This is the work of radiation. The hands are needed not."

Speaking symbolically, it is almost as if a great vortex of power were set up by the contact between the two auras and by their high vibration; by its means the soul of the patient can work more easily. An initiate, if present, would see a golden stream of energy pouring straight down through the energized bodies of the patient's personality into the center nearest to the area of trouble. Approach is made via the head center directly to the point of difficulty, and towards this point the aura of the healer is also directed. The mental attitude of the patient is strengthened and clarified by the mental emanation of the healer's aura; his emotional reaction, often very powerful, is equally aided to attain dispassion and quiet, and the etheric and health auras have a definite effect upon the corresponding aspects of the patient's aura. [657]

Radiatory healing is brought about by the mingling of the two auras, both of them responsive to soul contact; the soul aspect of both persons (under control of the soul) is then directed towards some area of the patient's physical body. This produces a tremendous effect upon the diseased area, and the center in that same locality becomes exceedingly energized. The work of the healer during this process is one of intense quiescence. Having made his contact, he simply waits and has nothing more to do but to hold his soul alignment steady and permit nothing to disturb his personality vehicles. His task was accomplished when he made his own soul contact and then reached out and contacted the patient's soul. This he could do because he knows all souls are one; eventually the art of healing will be one of the demonstrating factors in proving the unity of all souls.

This rule, therefore, concludes with the words:

"The patient's soul responds through the response of his aura to the radiation of the healer's aura, flooded with soul energy."

It is consequently a question of the soul energy of both parties meeting on all three levels of human awareness. The expression "the soul" is here in the singular because unity (if only for a moment) has been reached. The soul of the patient recognizes this unity by the "occult quickening" of his own aura and by its responsiveness to the entering radiations from the healer's aura. This flooding with soul energy through the medium of related auras is, all of it, directed as one unified effort towards the area of disease in the patient's body. You can see, therefore, that - consciously or unconsciously - the work can go forward and produce either healing or that "quickening of atoms which leads by soul direction unto release," as the Old Commentary calls the act of dying.

When it becomes evident that it is the patient's destiny to die, the technique of the healer alters somewhat. He [658] then takes his place at the patient's head, and from that point deflects all his own radiations to the seat of the disease, causing necessarily a great acceleration of vibratory activity. The patient, in the meantime, consciously through brain recognition or unconsciously under soul direction, begins the process of withdrawing all consciousness from the body. This is why so many people are in a coma prior to death. When this act of the withdrawal of consciousness has been started, the work of the healer ends. He "shuts off" his soul contact and reassumes control of his aura as a medium of his own spiritual expression; it becomes no longer an instrument for healing by radiatory activity, and leaves the patient alone automatically to complete the withdrawal of the consciousness thread and the life thread, from the head and heart centers.

This is a broad and general outline of the processes followed in magnetic and radiatory healing. I have here given you the skeleton structure of the idea, but not the details; more can be inferred and given when we study the seven methods of healing with their ray implications.

This teaching has been given in such a manner that the student will have to hunt through its pages and gather together the facts needed, and thus formulate the first stage of the procedure of spiritual healing; unless he is himself a spiritual healer and ready to read between the lines and to distinguish between symbolism and fact, he will be misled and his work rendered useless. This is intended; for the healing art - when perfectly applied under correct formulas - can be dangerous. It must be remembered that although energy is thought, it is also, from a higher point of view, fire. The entire technique, procedure, and formulas will have to be discovered, subjected to experiment and the results noted before the true spiritual healing can take place; [659] by the time this investigation has been completed, it will be safer matter than it is today.

In the meantime, much good can be accomplished and a great deal learnt if those interested read, study, meditate, carefully experiment, and thus gradually build up this much needed science as a copartner in the medical science of modern times.

Let us now consider Law IX.

In Law IX and Rule Six we shall be dealing with such basic fundamentals that our problem will be to formulate the teaching in such a concise manner that vast themes may be briefly handled, and at the same time appear clear and simple. This law is in reality a definition of the Law of Evolution, but given from the spiritual angle. The Law of Evolution - as commonly understood - concerns the evolution of the form aspect as it is gradually fitted to be an exponent or an expression of soul energy, and later of monadic energy.

This law, which might be termed the Law of Perfection, deals with the interior energies which are responsible for the working of the Law of Evolution. It is the higher aspect or the determining cause of the lower; the laws subsidiary to the Law of Perfection are loosely called (by the neophyte) the spiritual laws, but of these he knows little and unifies them all in his mind under the general idea that they are an expression of the love aspect of Deity. That is essentially true, from the quality angle, if it is recognized at the same time that the love aspect is essentially pure reason and not an emotional sentiment expressing itself through kind actions.

The rule which accompanies this law deals with the relation of love and will, and is consequently of high importance to the initiate. I would remind you here that the [660] only true healer is the initiate, and therefore the last two laws (Law IX and Law X) can only be truly understood by the initiated disciple. They are, however, profoundly interesting intellectually to the beginner, the enquirer and the aspirant, because (theoretically at least) he can grasp some of their meaning though he is as yet quite incapable of "keeping the law" - spiritually understood.

Law IX
Perfection calls imperfection to the surface. Good drives evil from the form of man in time and space. The method used by the Perfect One and that employed by Good, is harmlessness. This is not negativity, but perfect poise, a completed point of view, and divine understanding.

This law is profoundly simple and means exactly what it says. It can be interpreted in two ways:

1. It concerns the spiritual development of man through the medium of form, and the mode or law whereby the latent hold of matter - impregnated by selfishness and by all that is recognized as evil - is removed, and man stands free.
2. It can also be interpreted in terms of healer and patient. Oft the effect of the activity and knowledge of the true healer is to bring to the surface (in an acute form) the evil (disease) within the form. The result of this can either be the elimination of the disease and the securing of health, or the form will succumb to the increase of the difficulty and the probability is that the patient will die. It is therefore fortunate that the average healer is so futile that such a dire possibility is not present!

The method employed under the Law of Perfection is called "perfect harmlessness," and that was ever the method used [661] by the Christ, the Perfect One. It is not the harmlessness enjoined so often by me as I speak to aspirants, but a harmlessness imposed by the spiritual man and by his natural destiny. It is an ignoring of the effect or the result upon the form nature. Frequently I have told you that the Hierarchy works only with the spiritual nature or with the soul of humanity, and that - to the Master - the form is regarded as relatively of no importance. Release from the threefold form is ever regarded by the spiritual man as the greatest possible good, provided it comes to him under law, as the result of his spiritual destiny and of karmic decision; it must not come as an arbitrary act, or as an escape from life and its consequences upon the physical plane, or as self-imposed. Of this strange working of the Law of Perfection (strange to man's limited point of view), the war (1914-1945) was a striking instance. Millions died; more millions suffered cruelly in their form nature, and many more millions underwent (and are still undergoing) the mental agony of insecurity, suspense and poverty. Nevertheless, two major results of a spiritual nature, working under the Law of Perfection, resulted:

1. Souls were released from a backward and decaying civilization - for such is your vaunted civilization from the angle of the Hierarchy - and will return in better bodies to a civilization and a culture more in conformity with the needs of the spiritual man. The main reason why there has been such a complete destruction of the old forms (physical, emotional and mental) is that they constituted a complete imprisonment of the soul and negated all true growth for the masses of men.
2. From the rich to the poor, from the intelligent to the ignorant, one thing is now clearly grasped and will increasingly color human thinking: happiness and [662] success are not dependent upon the possession of things or upon material good. That idea is the mistake of organized labor as it fights and strikes for more money in order to live more richly; it is also the mistake of the general public as it reacts to the action of labor, for it rebels against the curtailment of the steady inflow of material goods. Humanity has made this mistake for untold ages, and has erred grievously in its emphasis upon that which benefits the form. This is the good in the Russian position as it wars on capitalism and lays an emphasis upon education. However, its ruthlessness and cruelty and (above all else) its suppression of the rights of the individual citizen to certain of the essential freedoms may eventually negate the beauty and the hope of the initial idealism. Russia is right in her idealism, but terribly and basically wrong in her techniques. The United States and Great Britain are at a midway point. They have a vision but know not how to materialize it and make it true, for they favor not (and rightly) a totalitarian regime. The capitalistic spirit and the latent fascism of the United States are at this time a definite menace to world peace, and the capitalists are blocking the efforts of the men of goodwill. Great Britain is at present impotent, financially ruined, her old imperialistic policies entirely in the discard, and her people discouraged; she is therefore so preoccupied with the struggle to live (and she will live) that there is little time, interest or energy left to make the vision true.

There is, as you know, always a correspondence between the individual man and the world of men as a whole. Just as today practically every human being has something wrong with him physically - eyes, ears, teeth or bodily ills of some [663] nature - so humanity is sick and awaiting healing. The healing will be brought about through the medium of the New Group of World Servers and by the men of goodwill, aided by the Hierarchy, from which planetary center the healing energies will be drawn. Imperfection has been drawn to the surface; the evils to be eliminated are known to everybody, and this has all taken place under the influence of the Law of Perfection. I am dealing here with the general situation rather than with the individual relation between the healer and a patient. I do so for the simple reason that only an initiate of experience and of understanding can keep this law or obey this rule, and of such there are only a very few on earth today. The sickness of humanity as a race, and as a result of aeons of wrong living, of selfish purpose and of greed, has produced a mass of physical ills; today millions of children are born either openly diseased or with the seed of disease in them. When the evil which has made its presence felt, and when the imperfections which have been drawn to the surface have been cured or driven back to their own place, then - and only then - will physical disease come to an end or yield easily to treatment.

In considering the general subject of imperfection and of evil, we are dealing here with causes (and this the initiate must ever do); when these causes are themselves removed, then the effects will also disappear. Christian Science and Unity are therefore right in their general theory and premises, but totally wrong in their emphases and methods. In the long run, all the work they do today is relatively futile, except in so far that they preserve and enunciate the Law of Perfection, even though they do so in a muddled manner and their teaching is tainted with the universal selfishness. [664]

You have oft been told that there are two modes of achievement; the long hard way of evolution, in which aeons are taken to arrive at relatively small results, or the short, still harder but much more rapid way of initiation. For ages it remained a question (a moot point, do you not call it?) whether the world of men would choose (and had better choose) the slow but safe method. It is a method in which imperfection is only very gradually eliminated, without much strain and with small effort on the part of man. It is a mode whereby good is only slowly realized and evil only slowly, very slowly, driven out. The will-to-good of Shamballa is, under the usual evolutionary system, only faintly present, and many, many aeons would still lie ahead of humanity before even the present point of human development could have been attained.

But something happened which had not been foreseen even by the Hierarchy. During the past two hundred years the entire picture has been altered. Individual men, in adequate numbers, achieved initiation and entered the Ashrams of the Masters, and through the decision of these successful aspirants, and subject to their continued activity, it was decided by them but for humanity that the rapid hard way was to be tried. Since that time three factors have been present:

1. The factor of tremendous progress in raising the consciousness of mankind, en masse, to much higher intellectual levels. To this the growth of education, the discoveries of science and the control of the material plane and of the air bear testimony.
2. The factor of worldwide distress, of economic disaster, of world wars, of natural cataclysms and of the myriad occurrences and difficulties which make individual life, national life and planetary life so hard these days. No one is exempt and there is no distinction shown. [665]
3. The factor of the growth of knowledge anent the Hierarchy and, above all else, of the spiritual Plan. This has necessitated the presentation of a goal to man by the working aspirants and disciples, plus the outlining of the techniques of the Path whereby that goal can be reached. This has not been accomplished by the religious church groups throughout the world, but by members of the Ashrams. All that the churches have done is to preserve in the public mind the fact of God Transcendent, whilst ignoring the fact of God Immanent, to testify to the existence of the Christ whilst travestying His teaching, and to teach the fact of immortality, whilst ignoring the Law of Rebirth.

Humanity is, therefore, progressing rapidly upon the Upward Way, and two things can be looked for as a consequence: first, that the imperfections and evil (one latent and the other active though retreating) will become increasingly apparent to intelligent man, and secondly, that the mode of their elimination will also become known.

I deal not here with the nature of imperfection or the purpose of evil. Do I need to point out to any of my readers how inescapably both are present? I might point out that imperfection is inherent in the nature of matter itself and constitutes an inheritance from a previous solar system. I might indicate that evil emanates from that hierarchy of evil Forces which are the material correspondence to the spiritual Hierarchy; this is related to the fact that all our planes are composed of substance of the cosmic physical plane. It might also be stated that when the imperfection of matter is realized and corrected, and when the interest and emphasis of humanity is turned away from material conditions, then the Forces of Evil will have nothing in the three worlds (the three lower levels of the cosmic physical plane) [666] upon which to work; there will be nothing they can influence, and no mode of influencing man will then exist as far as evil is concerned. I cannot expect you at this time to comprehend the meaning of my words. They are, however, related to the words in the Great Invocation which say, "and seal the door where evil dwells." There is a door into an evil realm and into blackness, just as there is a door into a world of goodness and light; the devil is to man who is dedicated and consecrated to evil what the Dweller on the Threshold is to the spiritual aspirant.

The main task of the spiritual Hierarchy has ever been to stand between the Forces of Evil and humanity, to bring imperfection into the light so that evil can "find no place" for action, and to keep the door open into the spiritual realm. This the Hierarchy has done, with small help from humanity; this situation is now changed and the world war was the symbol and the guarantee of that change; in it the Forces of Light, the massed United Nations, fought the Forces of Evil upon the physical plane and routed them. There has been a far greater spiritual significance to the war than has yet been realized. It marked a world turning point; it reoriented humanity towards the good; it drove back the Forces of Evil and made definitely clear (and this was new and needed) the true distinction between good and evil, and this not in a theological sense - as stated by the church commentators - but practically and obviously. It is evidenced by the disastrous economic situation and by the greed of prominent men in every country. The world of men (through the obviousness of the distinction between good and evil) has awakened to the fact of materialistic exploitation, to the lack of real freedom and to the rights, as yet unclaimed, of the individual. Man's ability to resist slavery has become apparent everywhere. That the strugglers towards freedom are employing wrong methods and are [667] endeavoring oft to fight evil with evil is entirely true, but this indicates only transitional techniques and a temporary phase; it is temporary from the point of view of the Hierarchy (though possibly long from the angle of men in the three worlds), but it need not necessarily be long today.

So great has been the progress of man during the past two hundred years that the Council Chamber at Shamballa was forced to take notice. As a result of this attention by the Great Lives around Sanat Kumara and Their interest in the affairs of men, two things happened:

1. The will aspect of divinity made its first definite and direct contact with the human mind. The impact was direct and not deflected - as had hitherto been the case - to the Hierarchy and from thence to humanity. According to the type of man or group who responded or reacted to this contact, so were the results; they were very good or exceedingly bad. Great and good men appeared and enunciated the truths needed for the New Age, and of these Lincoln, Roosevelt, Browning, Briand and a host of lesser men could be cited. Evil and pernicious men also emerged, such as Hitler and the group he gathered around him, bringing much evil upon the Earth.
2. At the same time, the will-to-good from Shamballa evoked the latent goodwill in man, so that today and increasingly over the past one hundred years, goodness of heart, kindness in action, consideration for others and mass action to promote human welfare have spread over the Earth.

The emergence of imperfection and the planned effort of evil have been paralleled by the appearance of the New Group of World Servers and by the preparation which the Hierarchy is making towards its externalization upon the [668] physical plane. The Hierarchy is at this time exceedingly powerful; its Ashrams are full of initiates and disciples, and its periphery or magnetic field is drawing countless thousands of aspirants towards it. The war struck a mortal blow to material evil, and its hold on humanity is greatly weakened.

Confound not evil with the activities of the gangster or the criminal. Criminals and gangsters are the result of the emerging massed imperfections; they are the victims of ignorance, mishandling when children and misunderstanding down the ages of right human relations; the Law of Rebirth will eventually lead them on the way to good. Those men are truly evil who seek to enforce a return to the bad old ways, who endeavor to keep their fellowmen in slavery of some kind or another, who block the expression of one or all of the Four Freedoms, who gain material riches at the expense of the exploited, or who seek to hold for themselves and for gain the produce of the earth, and thus make the cost of life's necessities prohibitive to those not richly endowed. Those who thus work, think and plan are to be found in every nation, and are usually of prominence because of their riches and influence; however, they sin against light and not through ignorance; their goals are material and not spiritual. They are relatively few compared to the countless millions of men, but are exceedingly powerful; they are highly intelligent but unscrupulous, and it is through them that the Forces of Evil work, holding back progress, promoting poverty, breeding hatred and class distinctions, fostering racial differences for their own ends, and keeping ignorance in power. Their sin is great and it is hard for them to change, because power and the will-to-power (as it militates against the will-to-good) is a dominant all-controlling factor in their lives; these men are today working against the unity of the United Nations, [669] through their greed, their determination to own the resources of the earth (such as oil, mineral wealth and food) and thus keep the people weak and with inadequate food. These men, who are found in every nation, thoroughly understand each other and are working together in great combines to exploit the riches of the earth at the expense of humanity.

Russia is today singularly free of such men, so I refer not here to that vast country, as many of her enemies might surmise. Russia is making great mistakes, but they are the mistakes of a fanatical ideologist or of a gangster who sins because of ignorance, through immaturity or in fury at the evil things with which he is surrounded. This is something totally different to the evil with which I have been dealing, and it will not last, because Russia will learn; these others do not learn.

I have used the above illustration so as to make my theme somewhat clearer. The whole problem of evil is, however, too vast to contemplate here, nor is it advisable or wise to discuss the source of evil (not of imperfection), the Black Lodge. Energy follows thought, and the spoken word can be potently evocative; therefore, until one is a member of the Great White Lodge, it is the part of wisdom to avoid consideration of forces potent enough intelligently to use the latent imperfection in humanity and to impose the vast evil of war, with all its results and far-reaching effects, upon humanity. The Black Lodge is the problem of the White Lodge, and not the problem of humanity; for aeons the Hierarchy has handled this problem, and is now in process of solving it. It is essentially, however, the main consideration and problem of Shamballa, for it is connected with the will aspect, and only the will-to-good will suffice to blot out and annihilate the will-to-evil. Goodwill will not suffice, though the united and invocative appeal of the [670] men of goodwill throughout the world - increasingly voiced through the Great Invocation - will serve "to seal the door where evil dwells."

It is behind that door and in dealing with the forces there concealed (and mobilized) that the Hierarchy is effective; the methods and modes whereby They protect humanity from mobilized evil, and are gradually driving the evil back, would not be understood by you who have not yet passed through the door which leads to the Way of the Higher Evolution.

What shall I say concerning harmlessness? It is not easy for me to show or prove to you the effectiveness of the higher aspect, spiral or phase of harmlessness as employed by the Hierarchy, under the direction of the Perfect One, the Christ. The harmlessness with which I have earlier dealt has relation to the imperfections with which humanity is wrestling, and is difficult for you to apply in and under all circumstances, as well you know. The harmlessness to which I refer in connection with you is not negative, or sweet or kindly activity, as so many believe; it is a state of mind and one which in no way negates firm or even drastic action; it concerns motive and involves the determination that the motive behind all activity is goodwill. That motive might lead to positive and sometimes disagreeable action or speech, but as harmlessness and goodwill condition the mental approach, nothing can eventuate but good.

On a higher turn of the spiral, the Hierarchy also employs harmlessness, but it is related to the will-to-good and involves the use of dynamic, electric energy under intuitive direction; this type of energy is never brought into activity by man; it is energy which he cannot yet handle. This type of harmlessness is based on complete self-sacrifice, wherein the will-to-sacrifice, the will-to-good and the will-to-power (three phases of the will aspect, as expressed through the [671] Spiritual Triad) are all fused into one dynamic energy of a deeply spiritual nature. This energy is the epitome of complete or perfect harmlessness, where humanity and the subsidiary kingdoms in nature are concerned, but it is expulsive in its effect and dynamic in its annihilating impact, where the Forces of Evil are concerned.

A close but esoteric study of the three temptations of the Christ will reveal three major occasions when the Perfect One, expressing this higher harmlessness, forced the exponent of evil to retreat. This triple episode is symbolically related, but is factual in nature. Little thought has ever been given to what would have been the worldwide effect down the centuries if the Christ had not reacted as He did; speculation is of little use, but it might be stated that the entire course of history and of the evolutionary progress of humanity would have been altered, and in a dire and awful manner. But the dynamic harmlessness, the expression of the will-to-good and the demonstration of the will-to-power (forcing evil to leave Him) marked a most important crisis in the life of the Christ.

The Gospel story (with its resume of the five initiations) concerns the progress and triumph of the Master Jesus; the story of the three temptations indicated the taking of a still higher initiation, the sixth, by the Christ; this conferred on Him complete mastery over evil, and not mastery over imperfection; it was because He was the "Perfect One" that He could take this initiation.

I have given you much for mature consideration and thrown some light upon an initiation of which little, naturally, can be known. I would call your attention also to the three fundamental requirements for a successful approach to this initiation: perfect poise, a completed point of view, and divine understanding. You would find it of interest to see how these three qualities work out in relation to the [672] three temptations; in so doing much light would be thrown on the life, nature and character of the Christ.

Under the Law of Perfection we are given the key to the civilization and cycle of evolution which He inaugurated - the ideal of which is not lost, though the application of the teaching He gave has been neglected by the churches and by mankind. You will note also that one temptation takes place on the summit of a high mountain; from that elevation both time and space are totally negated, for the vision of Christ ranged from the past, through the present and on into the future. This state of awareness (I cannot call it consciousness, and awareness is almost as inaccurate a word) is only possible after the fifth initiation, reaching a high point of expression at the sixth initiation.

I would like to consider with you the nature of the three requirements presented as essential for a certain initiation, because they provide the link between Law IX and Rule Six. The rule is so clear and concise that it needs but little explanation, emphasizing, as it does, energy which must be used and that which must not. It says:

Rule Six
The healer or the healing group must keep the will in leash. It is not will which must be used, but love.

These three basic requirements concern attainment on various planes of the universe; though I dealt with them in connection with the approach to the sixth initiation, they have - on a lower turn of the spiral - their correspondences, and are therefore of practical application by the initiated disciple, particularly one who has taken the third initiation. Let us take them, one by one, into our thinking:

• Perfect Poise indicates complete control of the astral body, so that emotional upheavals are overcome, or at [673] least are greatly minimized in the life of the disciple. It indicates also, on the higher turn of the spiral, an ability to function freely on buddhic levels, owing to complete liberation (and consequent poise) from all the influences and impulses which are motived from the three worlds. This type or quality of poise connotes - if you will think deeply - an abstract state of mind; nothing which is regarded as non-perfection can create disturbance. You can realize surely that, if you were entirely free from all emotional reactions, your clarity of mind and your ability to think clearly would be enormously increased, with all that that involves.
  Naturally, the perfect poise of an initiated disciple and that of the initiated Master are different, for one concerns the effect of the three worlds or their non-effect, and the other concerns adaptability to the rhythm of the Spiritual Triad; nevertheless, the earlier type of poise must precede the later achievement, hence my consideration of the subject. This perfect poise (which is a possible achievement for you who read) is arrived at by ruling out the pulls, the urges, impulses and attractions of the astral or emotional nature, and also by the practice of what I have earlier mentioned: Divine Indifference.
• A Completed Point of View. This necessarily and primarily refers to the universal outlook of the Monad, and therefore to an initiate of the higher degrees. It can, however, be interpreted on a lower rung of the ladder of evolution and refers to the function of the soul as an Observer in the three worlds and the completed all-round picture such an observer gradually attains. This is brought about by the development of the two qualities of detachment and discrimination. These two [674] qualities, when expressed on the Way to the Higher Evolution, become Abstraction and the Will-to-good.
  A completed point of view - as experienced on soul levels - indicates the removal of all barriers and the freedom of the disciple from the great heresy of separateness; he has therefore created an unclogged channel for the inflow of pure love. Perfect poise, viewed from the same level, has removed all impediments and those emotional factors which have hitherto blocked the channel, thus preparing the way for the Observer to see truly; the disciple then functions as a clear channel for love.
• Divine Understanding must also be studied from two points of view. As a soul quality, it indicates a mind which can be held steady in the light, and can therefore reflect the pure reason (pure love) which qualifies the reflections of the Son of Mind, the soul on its own plane. On the higher Way of the Master, it relates to that identification which supersedes the individualistic consciousness; all barriers have gone, and the initiate sees things as they are; he knows the causes of which all phenomena are the ephemeral effects. This, consequently, enables Him to understand the Purpose, as it emanates from Shamballa, just as the lesser initiate understands the Plan as it is formulated by the Hierarchy.

All three of these divine attributes are, in some measure, essential in the development of the initiate-healer; he must work at their unfoldment as part of his necessary equipment; he must know that all reactions of an emotional nature create a wall or barrier between the free flow of healing force and the patient, and that the barrier is created by him and not by the patient. The emotions of the [675] patient should have no effect upon the healer and should fail to deviate him from the intense concentration needed for his work; these emotions of the patient cannot in themselves create a barrier strong enough to deflect the healing force.

A completed point of view involves at least the attempt by the disciple to penetrate into the world of causes, and thus learn (if possible) what it is that is responsible for the disease of the patient. This need not involve penetration into previous incarnations, nor is that essential, in spite of what some modern and generally fraudulent healers may claim. There is usually enough psychological evidence, or indications of inherited tendencies, to give the healer his clue and to enable him to get a somewhat complete picture of the situation. It is obvious that this "penetration" into the causes of the trouble will only be possible if the healer loves enough; because he loves, he has achieved a poise which brings negation to the world of illusion and of glamor. Divine understanding is simply the application of the principle of pure love (pure reason) to all men and to all circumstances, plus right interpretation of the existing difficulties of the patient, or of those which may exist between patient and healer.

To these requirements I would like to add another factor: that of the doctor, physician or surgeon who is physically responsible for the patient. In the coming new era, the healer will work always with the scientific aid of the trained medical man; this is a factor which causes bewilderment, at present, to the average modern healer belonging to some cult or expressing some unorthodox phase of healing.

It will therefore be apparent how these three divine requirements (when stepped down for the use of the disciple in the modern world) indicate a line of training or of self [676] discipline to which all should apply themselves. When they have mastered even some of the earliest phases of this triple achievement, they will find that they can apply Rule Six with ease.

What is meant by the words "to keep the will in leash"?

The will aspect here considered is not that of the will-to-good and its lower expression goodwill. The will-to-good signifies the stable, immovable orientation of the initiated disciple, whilst goodwill can be regarded as its expression in daily service. The will-to-good, as expressed by a higher initiate, is a dynamic energy having predominantly a group effect; for this reason, the higher initiates seldom concern themselves with the healing of an individual. Their work is too potent and too important to permit them to do so, and the will energy, embodying as it does divine Purpose, might prove destructive in its effects upon an individual. The patient would not be able to receive or absorb it. It is, however, assumed that goodwill colors the entire attitude and thinking of the healing disciple.

The will which must be kept in leash is the will of the personality which, in the case of the initiated disciple, is of a very high order. It also relates to the will of the soul, emanating from the petals of sacrifice in the egoic lotus. All true healers have to create a healing thought-form, and through this they consciously or unconsciously work. It is this thought-form which must be kept free from a too powerful use of the will, for it can (unless held in leash, stepped down, modified or, if needed, eliminated altogether) destroy not only the thought-form created by the healer, but it can also build a barrier between healer and patient; the initial rapport is thus broken. Only a Christ can heal by the use of the will, and He seldom in reality healed at all; in the cases where He is reported to have done so, His reason was to prove the possibility of healing; but - as you will [677] note if you are familiar with the Gospel story - He gave no instructions to His disciples upon the art of healing. This is significant.

The self-will (no matter of how high a quality) of the healer, and his determined effort to heal the patient, create a tension in the healer which can seriously deflect the healing current of energy. When this type of will is present, as it frequently is in the inexperienced healer or the non-initiated healer, the healer is apt to absorb the patient's difficulty and will experience symptoms of the trouble and the pain. His wilful determination to be of help acts like a boomerang and he suffers, whilst the patient is not really helped.

So the instruction is to use love, and here a major difficulty emerges. How can the healer use love, freed from its emotional or lower quality, and bring it through in its pure state for the healing of the patient? Only as the healer has cultivated the three requirements, and has therefore developed himself as a pure channel. He is apt to be so preoccupied with himself, with the definition of love, and with the determination to heal the patient that the three requirements are neglected. Then both he and the patient are wasting each other's time. He need not brood or worry about the nature of pure love, or endeavor too ardently to understand how pure reason and pure love are synonymous terms, or whether he can show sufficient love to effect a healing. Let him ponder on the three requirements, particularly the first, and let him fulfil within himself these three requirements as far as in him lies and his point in evolution permits. He will then become a pure channel and the hindrances to the inflow of pure love will be automatically removed for "as a man thinketh in his heart so is he"; then, without obstruction or difficulty, pure love will pour through him and the patient will be healed - if such is the law for him. [678]

We come now to the final and the most mysterious law of all that I have given you. I called your attention to it earlier, and there pointed out that this

"last law is an enunciation of a new law which is substituted for the Law of Death, and which has reference only to those found upon the later stages of the Path of Discipleship and the stages upon the Path of Initiation."

By these later stages I refer to the period after the second initiation and prior to taking the third. This law does not apply in any way as long as the emotional nature can disturb the clear rhythm of the personality as it responds to the impact of soul energy, and later to monadic. There is not, therefore, a great deal that I can make clear to you as regards the full working of this law, but I can indicate certain most interesting ideas and correspondences; these will foster in you constructive speculative thinking, yet at the same time they embody proven facts for those of us who are initiated disciples of the Christ or of Sanat Kumara.

Law X
Hearken, O Disciple, to the call which comes from the Son to the Mother, and then obey. The Word goes forth that form has served its purpose. The principle of mind then organizes itself and then repeats the Word. The waiting form responds and drops away. The soul stands free.
Respond, O Rising One, to the call which comes within the sphere of obligation; recognize the call, emerging from the Ashram or from the Council Chamber where waits the Lord of Life Himself. The Sound goes forth. Both soul and form together must renounce the principle of life, and thus permit the Monad to stand free. The soul responds. The form then shatters the connection. Life is now liberated, owning the quality of conscious knowledge and the fruit of all experience. These are the gifts of soul and form combined. [679]

This Law X is the forerunner of many new laws concerning the relation of soul to form or of spirit to matter; this one is given first for two reasons:

1. It can be applied by disciples and thus proven to be true to the mass of men, and above all, to the scientific world.
2. In the mass of testimony and in the type of death (called at this stage "transference") the fact of the Hierarchy and of Shamballa can be established.

There are three sources of the abstraction which we call "death" if we exclude accident (which may be incident to other people's karma), war (which involves planetary karma) and natural catastrophes (which are connected entirely with the body of manifestation of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being).

I might pause here at this thought and make somewhat clearer to you the distinction between this "unknown God," who expresses himself through the planet as a whole, and Sanat Kumara in His high place at Shamballa. Sanat Kumara is in Himself the essential Identity, responsible for the manifested worlds, but so great is His command of energies and forces - owing to His cosmic unfoldment - that He requires the entire planet through which to express all that He is. Having the full consciousness of the cosmic astral plane and of the cosmic mental plane, He can apply energies and forces - under cosmic law - which create, sustain and utilize, for the ends of His divine Purpose, the entire planet. He animates the planet with His life; He sustains the planet and all that is in or on it through His soul quality, which He imparts in varying measure to every form; He creates continuously the new forms needed to express the "life more abundantly" and the "increasing purpose of His will" which the progress of the ages makes [680] cyclically possible. We live at this time in a cycle wherein His intense activity is utilizing the technique of divine destruction for the release of the spiritual life, and He is simultaneously creating the new structure of civilization which will express more fully the evolutionary attainment of the planet and the kingdoms in nature, leading eventually to the perfect expression of His divine life and purpose.

It would perhaps be wise if we took this tenth Law somewhat in detail, where possible, so as to arrive at the synthesis which it is intended to convey: we will thus gain some realization that death itself is a part of the creative process of synthesizing. It is essential that new ideas and a new approach to the entire problem of dying are inaugurated.

Hearken, O Disciple, to the call which comes from the Son to the Mother, and then obey.

Even whilst we realize from the context that this refers to the discarding of the physical body, it is useful to remember that this form of wording can signify much more than that. It can be interpreted to mean the entire relation of soul and personality, and to involve the prompt obedience of the Mother (the personality) to the Son (the soul). Without his prompt obedience, involving as it does the recognition of the informing Voice, the personality will remain deaf to the call of the soul to relinquish the body. No habitual response has been developed. I would ask you to ponder on the implications.

I am, I know, recapitulating when I point out that the Mother aspect is the material aspect and the soul - on its own plane - is the Son. This injunction, therefore, concerns the relation of matter and soul, and thus lays the foundation for all the relationships which the disciple has to learn to recognize. Obedience is not here enforced; [681] it is contingent upon hearing; then obedience follows as the next development. This is an easier process, little as you may think it. This distinction, relative to the process of obedience, is interesting because the process of learning by hearing is always slow and is one of the qualities or aspects of the stage of orientation. Learning by sight is definitely connected with the Path of Discipleship, and any who wish to become wise and true workers must learn to distinguish between the hearers and those who see. A realization of the difference would lead to basic changes in technique. In the one case, you are working with those who are definitely under the influence and control of the Mother, and who need to be trained to see. In the other, you are dealing with those who have heard and who are developing the spiritual correspondence of sight. They are therefore susceptible to the vision.

The Word goes forth that form has served its purpose.

This word, or this "spiritual proclamation" of the soul, may have a twofold purpose: it may produce death, or it may simply result in a withdrawal of the soul from its instrument, the threefold personality. This might consequently result in leaving the form uninformed and without any dweller in the body. When this happens the personality (and by this I mean the physical, astral and mental man) will continue to function. If it is of a high grade quality, very few people will realize that the soul is absent. This frequently happens in old age or serious illness, and it may persist for years. It sometimes happens where infants are concerned, and you then have either death or imbecility, as there has been no time to train the lower personality vehicles. A little thinking along the lines of this "forthgoing Word" will throw much light on circumstances which are [682] regarded as baffling, and on states of consciousness which have hitherto constituted almost insoluble problems.

The principle of mind then organizes itself and then repeats the Word. The waiting form responds and drops away.

In the aspect of death here dealt with it is the mind which acts as the agent of authority, transmitting to the brain (where the thread of consciousness is located) the instructions to vacate. This is then passed on by the man in the body to the heart (where the life thread is anchored), and then - as you well know - the process of withdrawal begins. What transpires in those timeless moments prior to death no one as yet knows, for no one has returned to tell us. If they had done so, the question is: Would they have been believed? The probability is that they would not.

The first paragraph of this Law X deals with the passing out from the body (meaning the form aspect of the threefold lower man) of the average intelligent aspirant, looking at this law from one of its lowest correspondences; however, under the same Law of Correspondences, the death of all men, from the lowest type of man up to and inclusive of the aspirant, is basically distinguished by the same identical process; the difference exists in the degree of consciousness evidenced - consciousness of process and intention. The result is the same in all cases:

The soul stands free.

This moment of true freedom can be brief and fleeting as in the case of the undeveloped man, or it can be of long duration, according to the usefulness of the aspirant upon the inner planes; with this I have earlier dealt and have no need to repeat myself here. Progressively, as the urges and influences of the three lower levels of consciousness [683] weaken their hold, the period of dissociation becomes longer and longer, and is characterized by a developing clarity of thought and by a recognition of essential being, and this in progressive stages. This clarity and progress may not be brought through into full realization or expression when rebirth again takes place, for the limitations imposed by the dense physical body are excessive; nevertheless, each life sees a steady growth in sensitivity, and also the storing-up of esoteric information, using the word "esoteric" to signify all that does not concern normal form life or the average consciousness of man in the three worlds.

Esoteric living (as it develops) falls into three stages, broadly speaking; these are carried forward within the consciousness of the man and parallel the recognition and ordinary aspects of form life on the three levels of experience:

1. The stage of reception of concepts, of ideas and of principles, thus gradually asserting the existence of the abstract mind.
2. The stage of "light reception," or that period when spiritual insight is developed, when the vision is seen and accepted as true, and when the intuition or "buddhic perception" is unfolded. This carries with it the assertion as to the existence of the Hierarchy.
3. The stage of abstraction, or the period wherein complete orientation is brought about, the way into the Ashram is made clear, and the disciple begins to build the antahkarana between the personality and the Spiritual Triad. It is in this stage that the nature of the will is dimly seen, carrying with its recognition the implication that there is a "center where the will of God is known." [684]

Students are apt to think that death ends things, whereas from the angle of termination we are dealing with values which are persistent, with which there is no interference, nor can there be any, and which hold within themselves the seeds of immortality. I would have you ponder on this and know that everything that is of true spiritual value is persistent, ageless, immortal and eternal. Only that dies which is valueless, and - from the standpoint of humanity - that means those factors which emphasize and assume importance where the form is concerned. But those values which are based on principle and not upon the detail of appearance have in them that undying principle which leads a man from the "gates of nativity, through the gates of perception, to the gates of purpose" - as the Old Commentary expresses it.

I have endeavored to show you how the first part of this Law X has a simple application to mankind, as well as an abstract and abstruse meaning for esotericists.

The last paragraph in this Law X cannot be interpreted in this same manner nor applied in this way; it concerns only the "passing over" or the "discarding of hindrances" by very advanced disciples and initiates. This is made clear by the use of the words, "O Rising One" - a term applied only to those who have taken the fourth initiation and who are therefore held by no aspect whatsoever of the form nature, even so high or transcendental a form as the soul in its own vehicle, the causal body or the egoic lotus. Yet again, facility in response to this law must be and is developed in the earlier stages of discipleship, where listening, responsiveness and occult obedience are developed and have their extensions in the higher levels of spiritual experience.

Here we must again consider words and phrases if we are to understand their true meaning. [685]

Respond, O Rising One, to the call which comes within the sphere of obligation.

What is this sphere of obligation to which the initiate of high standing must pay attention? The whole of life experience, from the sphere of nativity up to the highest limits of spiritual possibility, are covered by four words, applicable at various stages of evolution. They are: Instinct, Duty, Dharma, Obligation; an understanding of the differences serves to bring illumination, and consequently, right action.

1. The sphere of instinct. This refers to the fulfilment, under the influence of simple animal instinct, of the obligations which any assumed responsibility brings, even when assumed with no true understanding. An illustration of this is the instinctual care of a mother for her offspring or the relation of male and female. With this we need not deal in any detail, as it is well recognized and understood, at least by those who have passed out of the sphere of elementary instinctual obligations. To them no particular calls come, but this instinctual world of give and take is superseded by a higher sphere of responsibility eventually.
2. The sphere of duty. The call that comes from this sphere comes from a realm of consciousness which is more strictly human and not so predominantly animal as is the instinctual realm. It sweeps into its field of activity all classes of human beings and demands from them - life after life - the strict fulfilment of duty. The "doing of one's duty," for which one gets small praise and little appreciation, is the first step towards the unfoldment of that divine principle which we call the sense of responsibility, and which - when unfolded - indicates a steadily growing soul control. The [686] fulfilment of duty, the sense of responsibility, and the desire to serve are three aspects of one and the same thing: discipleship in its embryonic stage. This is a hard saying for those who are caught in the seemingly hopeless toils of duty fulfilment; it is hard for them to realize that this duty which seems to keep them chained to the humdrum, apparently meaningless and thankless duties of daily life, is a scientific process leading them to higher phases of experience, and eventually into the Master's Ashram.
3. The sphere of dharma. This is the outcome of the two previous stages; it is that in which the disciple recognizes, for the first time with clarity, his part in the whole process of world events and his inescapable share in world development. Dharma is that aspect of karma which dignifies any particular world cycle and the lives of those implicated in its working out. The disciple begins to see that if he shoulders his phase or part in this cyclic dharma and works understandingly at its right fulfilment, he is beginning to comprehend group work (as the Masters comprehend it) and to do his just share in lifting the world karma, working out in cyclic dharma. Instinctual service, the fulfilment of all duty, and a sharing in group dharma are all blended in his consciousness and become one great act of living faithful service; he is then at the point of moving forward upon the Path of Discipleship, in which the Path of Probation is completely lost to sight.
   These three aspects of living activity are the embryonic expression in the life of the disciple of the three divine aspects:
   1. Instinctual living - intelligent application.
   2. Duty - responsible love. [687]
   3. Dharma - will, expressed through the Plan.
4. The sphere of obligation. The initiate, having learnt the nature of the three other spheres of right action, and - through the activity of those spheres - having unfolded the divine aspects, passes now into the sphere of obligation. This sphere, which can be entered only after a large measure of liberation has been achieved, directs the reactions of the initiate in two phases of his life:
   1. In the Ashram, where he is governed by the Plan; this Plan is recognized by him as expressing his major obligation to life. I use the word "life" in its deepest esoteric sense.
   2. In Shamballa, where the emerging Purpose of Sanat Kumara (of which the Plan is an interpretation in time and space) begins to have meaning and significance according to his point in evolution and his approach to the Way of the Higher Evolution.

In the Ashram, the life of the Spiritual Triad gradually supersedes the life of the soul-controlled personality. In the Council Chamber at Shamballa, the life of the Monad supersedes all other expressions of the essential Reality. More I may not say.

Recognize the call, emerging from the Ashram or from the Council Chamber where waits the Lord of Life Himself.

Here again we come up against the whole underlying, evolutionary theme of Invocation and Evocation. Here, it is the two higher centers of the divine Existence which are invoking ceaselessly the lower center; one of the factors governing the whole creative process is dependent upon the [688] skill of the Great Lives in evoking response from the human and subhuman kingdoms or grouped lives within the three worlds of form life. Men are so preoccupied with their own problems that they are apt to think that - in the long run - what happens is entirely due to their behavior, conduct, and invocative powers. There is, however, another side to the picture; this involves the skill in action, the understanding hearts and the clear unimpeded will of both the Hierarchy and Shamballa.

It will be apparent to you, therefore, how essential it is that all disciples and initiates should know exactly where they stand on the Path, the final aspect of the ladder of evolution; otherwise, they will misinterpret the call and fail to recognize the source of the outgoing sound. How easily this can happen becomes apparent to every advanced teacher of occultism and esotericism when he perceives how easily unimportant people and beginners interpret calls and messages they hear or receive as coming to them from some high and elevated source, whereas they are in all probability hearing that which emanates from their own subconscious, from their own souls, or from some teacher (not a Master) who is attempting to help them.

The call referred to here, however, comes from the highest possible sources and must not be confused with the little voices of little men.

The Sound goes forth.

It is not my intention here to deal with the creative sound, beyond calling to your attention the fact that it is creative. The Sound which was the first indication of the activity of the planetary Logos is not a word, but a full reverberating sound, holding within itself all other sounds, all chords and certain musical tones (which have been given the name of the "music of the spheres") and [689] dissonances, unknown as yet to the modern ear. It is this Sound which the "Rising One" must learn to recognize, and to which he must respond not only by means of the sense of hearing and its higher correspondences, but through a response from every part and aspect of the form nature in the three worlds. I would remind you also that from the angle of the fourth initiation even the egoic vehicle, the soul body, is regarded and treated as a part of the form nature.

Though the "shattering of the Temple of Solomon" takes place at the time of the fourth initiation, those qualities of which it was composed have been absorbed into the vehicles which the initiate is using for all His contacts in the three worlds. He is now essentially the essence of all His bodies, and - from His point of view and technical understanding - it must be borne in mind that the entire mental plane is one of the three planes which constitute the cosmic dense physical plane; this is a point oft forgotten by students, who almost invariably place the soul body and the mental permanent atom outside the form limits and what they call the three worlds. Technically and from higher angles, this is not so, and this fact definitely changes and conditions the thinking and work of the initiate of the fourth and higher degrees. It accounts also for the need for the egoic body to disappear.

The Sound reverberates throughout the four higher subplanes of the cosmic physical plane; these are the higher correspondence of the four etheric levels of the physical plane in the three worlds - the three dense physical and the four etheric planes. It must be remembered, therefore, that our planes, with which we are so familiar, are the cosmic physical, and that the one we know the best is the densest of the seven - hence so much of our struggle and difficulty. [690]

From "the silence which is sound, the reverberating note of Shamballa," the sound focuses itself either in the Spiritual Triad or in the Ashram, according to the status of the initiate and whether he is high in the ashramic circles, or still higher, in the circles through which radiates the light from the Council Chamber. In the first case, it will be the heart center which responds to the sound, and from thence the whole body; in the second case, consciousness has been superseded by a still higher type of spiritual recognition, to which we have given the inadequate name of identification. Where the sound has been registered in the heart of the initiate, he has unfolded all possible types of knowledge which the form nature - soul and body - can make possible; when the registration is in the head, identification has produced such complete unity with all spiritual expressions of life, the word "more" (meaning increased) must perforce give way to the word "deep," in the sense of penetration. Having said this, brother of mine, how much have you comprehended?

It is at this point that the initiate is confronted for the first time with the Seven Paths, because each Path constitutes a mode of penetrating into realms of realization beyond our planet altogether.

In order to do this, the initiate has to demonstrate his mastery of the Law of Differentiation and arrive at a knowledge of the Seven Paths through differentiating the seven sounds which make up the one Sound, but which are not related to the seven sounds which compose the threefold AUM.

Both soul and form together must renounce the principle of life, and thus permit the Monad to stand free. The soul responds. The form then shatters the connection. [691]

You can see here why I emphasized the fact that the initiate is the recipient of the essential quality or qualities which form has revealed and developed, and which the soul has absorbed. At this particular crisis, the initiate within the Ashram or "on His way of glory to the Place where dwells the Lord" (Shamballa) summarizes or contains within himself all the essential good which was stored in the soul prior to its destruction at the fourth initiation. He epitomizes in himself the knowledge and the wisdom of aeons of struggle and of patient endurance. Nothing further is to be gained by adhering either to the soul or to the form. He has taken all they had to give which throws light on the spiritual Law of Sacrifice. It is interesting to note how the soul becomes at this point simply the intermediary between the personality and the initiate of high degree. But now there is nothing more to relate, to report or to transmit, and - as the Sound reverberates - the soul disappears, as testimony of response. It is now but an empty shell, but its substance is of so high an order that it becomes an integral part of the buddhic level, and its function there is etheric. The principle of life is renounced and returns to the reservoir of universal life.

I would have you take notice of the importance of form activity. It is the Form which shatters the connection (the usually despised, belittled, frustrated form is that which performs the final act), bringing complete liberation. The "Lunar Lord" of the personality has achieved his goal, and those elements which have composed his three vehicles (physical, astral, mental), together with the life principle, will constitute the atomic substance of the first body of manifestation of some soul seeking incarnation for the first time. This is closely related to the abstruse subject of the permanent atoms. It marks a moment of high initiation for this Lunar Lord when he shatters the connection [692] and severs all relation with the hitherto informing soul. He is no longer just a shadow, but has now those qualities which make him "substantial" (in the esoteric sense) and a new factor in time and space.

The remaining words of this law need no explanation and mark a fitting finish for this section of our studies:

Life is now liberated, owning the qualities of conscious knowledge and the fruit of all experience. These are the gifts of soul and form combined. [693]

C.IX. The Seven Modes ofHealing

It will be obvious to you that even if the techniques or the seven modes of healing - relating as they do to the energies of the seven rays - were exactly imparted to you, it would be rare indeed to find a healer who was competent to use them in this interim period in world affairs. We are passing out of one age into another, and this necessarily creates difficulties which have hitherto not been recognized. This is the first time in human history wherein humanity is intelligent enough to register understanding of the implications of this happening, and farsighted enough to be able to vision, imagine and plan for the new future. For another thing, the soul ray of the average aspirant is seldom in control to such an extent that it can bring adequate illumination and ray potency; until it is in control, these ray methods and techniques, determining the use and direction of the ray energies, are useless. This should not bring to you disappointment, but simply an attitude of expectancy, particularly where the younger students and readers are concerned. All things considered, this hiatus between expectancy and possibility is exceedingly good.

There has been so much given out during the past century along the lines of magical work, that more at this time would not be wise; so many mantrams and Words of Power have been communicated, and so wide a use of the [694] Om has prevailed, that a great deal of damage might be looked for as a result. Such damage has not, however, occurred. The relatively low point in evolution of the average student and experimenter has served as a protection, and little has been set in motion - either good or bad - by what they have attempted to do. Healings have frequently taken place (at least temporary healings), owing largely to the susceptibility of the patient to suggestion and his confidence in the healer. None of these healings can be traced esoterically to the scientific methods of occultism. In spite of this protection, or rather because of it, I am communicating no Ray Words at this time, such as the trained initiate employs when engaged in the healing work. These Words have to be accompanied by a trained use of the spiritual will, and (where the ordinary man and healer is concerned) even the lowest aspect of the will remains as yet undeveloped, and only self-will (which is determined, selfish desire) is expressed. It would therefore be a waste of my time to give instruction along these lines.

I have felt it necessary to explain this, so that there will be no undue expectancy that I shall impart the mysterious and the hitherto unknown. I seek only to lay the foundation for a future structure of knowledge, when it will be safe, wise and right to convey those "focusing Points," those "organizing Words," and those "expressed Intentions" of the correctly trained occult healer. I seek to generate in you also a wise and searching expectancy which will use the little that I am able to impart, and the symbolic words I may dictate, and so prepare for a greater understanding later.

In the meantime there are certain things I can teach you which will be profitable. They may perchance enhance the visional and realized difficulties, but may nevertheless prove useful in indicating the ground which must still be [695] covered before the healer arrives at correct and sustained healing.

This section will be very short indeed, compared with the rest of this volume; it will consist simply of a series of summarized and condensed statements which will provide a textbook for the healer, a reference book for guidance to which he can refer. These statements will be under three classifications:

1. The Seven Ray Energies.
2. The Rays of the Healer and the Patient.
3. The Seven Healing Techniques.

These statements will complete Volume IV of A Treatise on the Seven Rays and will carry much information to the initiated disciple, and even in part to the intelligent aspirant; they should make their healing work more effectual, even though only the preliminary work and elementary rules are given. Needless to add, the healer has to perfect himself in this initial activity and - as he works - he may himself (alone and unaided) penetrate into the deeper meanings of this phase of the Ageless Wisdom.

C.IX.1. The Seven Ray Energies

Fifteen Statements.

1. The seven rays embody and express the totality of energies which circulate throughout our planetary form.
2. These seven ray energies are the seven forces which unitedly compose the primary Ray of Love-Wisdom. This is the second ray of our solar system and the dominating ray in every planetary expression within the solar system. The seven rays are, all of them, subsidiary rays of this great cosmic ray. [696]
3. No matter upon which ray the healer may be found, he must always work through the second subray of that ray - the ray of love-wisdom in each ray. By means of this, he becomes connected with or related to the governing soul and personality rays. The second ray has the capacity of all-inclusiveness.
4. The second ray and the second subray on all rays are themselves dual in expression. The healer must learn to work through the love aspect and not through the wisdom aspect. This takes much training in the practice of spiritual differentiation.
5. Those vehicles in the form nature which are on the line of 2-4-6 must be used by the healer when practicing the healing art. If he has no vehicles or bodies on this line of basic energy, he will not be able to heal. This is seldom realized. It is rare, however, to find an equipment lacking all second ray energy outlets.
6. Those healers who are on the second ray, or who are equipped with a powerful second ray vehicle, are usually great healers. The Christ, being the truest exponent of the second ray ever known on earth, was greatest of all the healing sons of God.
7. The ray of the soul conditions and determines the technique to be employed. The ray in the personality vehicles most closely related to the second ray (for which all the subrays act as channels) is the one through which the healing energy must flow.
8. The second subray of the soul ray determines the approach to the healing problem immediately confronting the healer; this energy is transmuted into healing force when passing through the appropriate personality vehicle. To be appropriate it must be on the line of 2-4-6. [697]
9. The appropriate vehicle can be either the mental body or the emotional body. With the mass of men being centered in the astral nature, the healing will usually be most successful if the healer's channel of transmission is that body also.
10. A triangle of energies is therefore formed; it is composed of:
    1. The energy of the soul.
    2. The appropriate vehicle.
    3. The etheric body, through either the heart or the solar plexus center.
11. Within the etheric body, a secondary triangle is formed for the circulation of energy between:
    1. The head center, the center of reception.
    2. The ajna center, the center for directed distribution.
    3. The center which registers - as the line of least resistance - the energy of the soul ray, whichever of the seven rays that may be.
12. This secondary triangle is related to the primary triangle by an "act of deliberation." This is a part of the technique which I am withholding.
13. The healer who is sincere and experienced can (in default of the esoteric formula producing connection between the two triangles) do much to bring about some definite relation by a deliberate act of faith and by the firm statement of his fixed intention.
14. The greater triangle is that which affects the healer and makes him a transmitting agent; the lesser triangle is the one which produces the effect upon the patient and through which the healer - on the physical plane - works.
15. The procedure of the healer will therefore fall into three parts, prior to the conscious act of healing: [698]

Process One.

1. The healer will definitely and consciously link up with his own soul.
2. He will then determine which of his personality vehicles is to be used; this will be based upon its reaction to energies, channeling along the line 2-4-6.
3. By an act of the will he will then relate the soul energy, via the desired vehicle, with the appropriate center in the etheric body; the heart or the solar plexus, always preferably the former.

Process two.

1. He will next create the secondary triangle by focusing his attention in the center of reception, the head center.
2. He will then connect this head center, through the power of the creative imagination, with the center between the eyebrows, and will hold the energy there because it is the directing agency.
3. He will endeavor to gather into this ajna center the energy of that center within his etheric body which is related to his soul ray.

Process three.

He then, with deliberation, performs the act of linking the two triangles; once this is done, he is ready for the healing action.

C.IX.2. The Rays of Healer and of Patient

It will be apparent to the most superficial reader that the variation or the identity between the rays of the healer [699] and his patient constitutes a factor of importance: many conditioning factors will be presented; there will also be present a contrast between the soul rays and the personality rays of both parties concerned. You may have, therefore, conditions in which:

1. The soul rays are identical and the personality rays are different.
2. The personality rays are the same but the soul rays are not.
3. The rays are similar in both cases.
4. The rays of neither soul nor personality are the same.
5. The soul ray is not known but the personality ray is apparent. The ray of the personality is easily ascertained, but there is often no indication as to the soul ray. This can apply to both healer and patient.
6. Nothing is known anent the rays of either party.

I am not bringing into this discussion any reference to the rays of the mental, astral or physical vehicles, though they have a definite and sometimes a decisive effect and the knowledge is most useful when known. The trained healer, when in possession of this knowledge, can use a secondary technique as an aid to the basic method, and use the appropriate lower vehicle (either his own or that of the patient) through which to pour a secondary stream of healing energy, thus enhancing the work of the primary stream. The addition of this secondary stream implies quite advanced knowledge on the part of the healer, or accurate information given by the patient. This is, as you may surmise, somewhat rare to find. People can, by careful study and the assembling of known analogous instances, ascertain with a fair degree of success the nature of the two major [700] rays; it takes, however, an initiate of some standing to recognize and work through the rays of one of the lower bodies, and therefore be in a position to distribute the healing force through two centers simultaneously. We will not consequently consider more than the relation of the rays controlling the healer and the patient from the angle of soul and personality.

It is not possible for me to take each of the rays of both healer and patient and trace for you the appropriate technique; this will become clearer if you consider the great number of difficulties which are presented when both the rays of the two parties concerned are brought into relationship. In Discipleship in the New Age the rays are given of a large number of disciples. You might, as an experimental exercise, take these various rays, as assigned, and place each of these disciples in the part of either healer or patient, and see what centers would be employed in the case of some disease (each based in a different location in the human body), and then attempt to decide what method, mode or procedure the healer would be wise to follow. At the same time you should remember two things: first, that all these people are members of a second ray Ashram; also that they are disciples, and consequently their rays are apparent and obvious to the healer, which greatly helps. You could determine also what ray energy should be employed in the healing process, through what center in yourself, as the healer, and the disciple as a patient, you should work and whether you are in a position to use a secondary technique. Then, having through the use of the imagination worked at an imaginary healing, look around among your friends and acquaintances for those whom you believe possess similar ray conditions and - if they are ailing or ill - seek to help them in the same way as you attempted to aid an imaginary patient; note then what happens. Avoid the use [701] of a secondary technique, for you are more liable to be entirely wrong where the three lower vehicles are involved than with the two major expressions of life.

The rest of this subject can perhaps be clarified by certain statements which will become clearer as esoteric psychology emerges as a definite educational subject in the decades which lie ahead.

1. The healer should ascertain his rays, and then proceed with his work on the basis of that information. When that knowledge is not available, he should refrain from the attempt to heal.
2. When unable - from lack of this knowledge - to carry forward the healing work, let him confine himself to the task of acting as a channel for the energy of love to the patient.
3. The healer will find it easier in most cases to ascertain his rays, or one of them at least, than to know the rays of the patient.
   There are two reasons for this:
   1. The fact that he seeks to heal and help indicates a fair measure of advancement upon the spiritual way. Such advancement is required for correct finding of the ray quality. A little study of himself and of the possible rays present should in time show him the nature of the energies controlling him.
   2. The patient, if advanced, is liable not to seek his help, but will handle his own problem, through the soul and through the Ashram, if affiliated with one. If he is not advanced, the personality ray will be more easily ascertained than the soul ray, and will therefore provide the point of contact. [702]
4. The healer, having to his satisfaction determined upon the rays or ray conditioning him, should then prepare himself for the healing task by a minimum of five hours of most careful preparation, related to his mind, the thinking apparatus. I mean not five hours of consecutive mental control and reflection, but a period of quiet thought, carried on - when possible - wherein the healer studies the patient and familiarizes himself with:
   1. The problem of the disease and its particular nature.
   2. Its location in the physical body.
   3. The center involved and (when he is an enlightened disciple) with its condition.
   4. The acuteness of the difficulty and the chance of a cure.
   5. The danger of death or not.
   6. The psychological condition of the patient.
   7. The rays of the patient, if feasible; these, if known, will condition his approach.
5. Thus prepared, the healer focuses his attention in his own ray. When he only possesses general and not specific knowledge of his own ray or rays and those of the patient, the healer may proceed upon the surmise that one or both are along the line of 1-3-5-7 or 2-4-6 and act upon that general assumption. To possess specific and particularized knowledge is useful, but where it exists not, and particular rays cannot be assigned, it is often possible to determine whether the general trend of the character is along the line of love or of the will, and then to act accordingly. The problem then is whether the relation between healer and [703] patient will be from personality to personality, from soul to soul, or from personality to soul and vice versa.
6. When the relation is that of personality to personality (and this will be the most usual), the energy with which the healer will work is simply that of planetary prana; the effect of this will be to stimulate the natural processes of the physical body and (in cooperation with nature and so in line with the patient's karma) so fortify his physical vehicle that he can cast off the disease or can be aided to face with confidence the processes of death, and with calm and intelligent understanding pass out to the subtler realms of being.
7. Where the relation is that of the soul of the healer to the personality of the patient, the healer will work with ray energy, pouring his own ray energy through the center which is controlling the diseased area. When both the soul of the healer and that of the patient are working in cooperation there can be the blending of two energies or (where similar rays are present) the strengthening of one energy and a greatly hastened work of healing or of dissolution.
8. The healer must ever bear in mind that his task is either to heal - under the karmic law - or to aid in the processes of dissolution, bringing about, therefore, a higher form of healing.
9. Unless the healer is a higher initiate and can work in full awareness of circumstances and governing conditions, sudden healings and dramatically arrested disease will not occur. If they do occur, it will be due to three things:
   1. The destiny of the patient whose time has not yet come.
   2. The interposition of the patient's own soul, who is, in the last analysis, the agent of karma. [704]
   3. The aid of the healer which proved adequate enough to give the patient the necessary confidence and added strength to bring about his own healing.
10. Nobody is ever brought back from the "gates of death" whose karma indicates that his time has come; the life cycle on the physical plane then ends unless he is a worker in an Ashram, a disciple of some standing whose work and presence is still needed on earth to complete his assigned task. Then the Master of the Ashram may add His knowledge and energy to that of the healer or to that of the patient, and bring about a temporary postponement of departure. Upon this the healer may not count, or the patient either, for they know not the full and warranting circumstances.
11. There are certain elementary requirements or conditions in which the healer should work and which are necessary. These are:
    1. Complete quiet in the sickroom, as far as possible.
    2. As few people in the patient's room as wisdom may dictate. The thinking and thought-forms of the people present can either be distracting or distracted, and thereby deflect the currents; on the other hand, they can sometimes strongly aid the healer's work.
    3. The patient - again when possible - should lie on his back, or on his side so that centers up the spine are turned towards the healer. In some cases (and these the healer must himself determine) he should lie in such a position that the healer can hold his hands above the area of disease, though in no case must the healer touch the patient's body.
12. When quiet, peace and silence have been reached, the healer will proceed with the appropriate technique. The [705] quiet, peace and silence mentioned above refer not only to physical conditions, but to the emotional and mental states of the healer and the patient as well as of those present; this is not always easy to attain.

Where the healer has not the appropriate technique or does not understand the formulas given later in this instruction, he can assemble his own technique and rules after a close study of these healing instructions, which contain enough material and suggestions for such an action.

C.IX.3. The Seven Healing Techniques

The techniques I shall have to give in the form of seven ancient symbolic statements or formulas, gathered out of the Book of Rules for Initiated Disciples. I dare not yet give the simple physical application of these ray techniques, as it would be too dangerous. When rightly used and understood they carry terrific force and - in the wrong hands - could work real damage. May I remind you here that the Black Lodge initiates likewise heal or produce death and disease, and employ very similar techniques; the difference lies in the fact that they can work only with the personality rays of both healer and patient, and because they are more potent on the physical plane than are the Members of the Great White Lodge, their work is frequently most effective. The spiritual healer, working with the energies of light whenever possible, is seldom as effective physically.

The members of the Black Lodge, or healers working under its influence, are, however, totally unable to work on a patient who is spiritually oriented to the slightest degree, and is therefore coming under the control of his soul; neither can they work through a healer who is spiritually oriented. When they attempt to do so they find themselves combated by energy coming from the Ashram towards [706] which either the healer or the patient is moving or with which he is affiliated, even if he has his place only upon the periphery. Where the average unthinking man is concerned, the danger of "black" interference is nil; the dark forces do not interest themselves in any unimportant person, save with those of potency and influence who can serve their ends. Also their evil work is only possible at the moment (or cycle) wherein the man is making decision as to whether he will move in spiritual living, remain static where he is, or turn with deliberation (which is exceedingly rare) to the path of pure selfishness. This path leads to the Black Lodge.

Some disciple in the early part of next century will take these techniques or magical statements, relating to the healing work, and interpret them and elucidate them. They are susceptible of three significances, the lowest of which the modern student may succeed in interpreting for himself if he reflects adequately and lives spiritually. Here are the seven statements.

The Seven Statements

1. The first ray technique.

Let the dynamic force which rules the hearts of all within Shamballa come to my aid, for I am worthy of that aid. Let it descend unto the third, pass to the fifth and focus on the seventh. These words mean not what doth at sight appear. The third, the fifth, the seventh lie within the first and come from out the Central Sun of spiritual livingness. The highest then awakens within the one who knows and within the one who must be healed and thus the two are one. This is mystery deep. The blending of the healing force effects the work desired; it may bring death, [707] that great release, and re-establish thus the fifth, the third, the first, but not the seventh.

This dynamic first ray energy is usually employed by the trained spiritual healer when it is apparent to him that the patient's hour has come and release approaches. In cases where the first ray is the soul ray of either healer or patient, this application of first ray energy must move from head center to head center, and from thence to the area of distress and to the center allied with the location. This may cause (when healing is possible and karmically correct) a temporary increase of the trouble; this is owing to the fact that the incoming energy "expels dynamically" the very seed or roots of the disease. There may be a rise in temperature, or a collapse of some kind or another, and for this the healer, the patient and the attendant physician must be prepared and should take the needed physical steps for amelioration - steps as ordained by the orthodox medical profession, which will offset the purely physical reaction. Where the soul ray of the patient is not on the first ray, but the first ray is the ray of the personality, the healer must use great caution in applying first ray energy, and should proceed very slowly and gradually through the center on the line of 1-3-5-7 which is nearest to the seat of trouble, passing the energy through that center and thence to the center (whichever that may be) found in the locality of the disease. If that particular center happens to be on the line of 3-5-7, the healer will have to exercise special care, or else the dynamic first ray energy will destroy and not heal.

2. The second ray technique.

Let the healing energy descend, carrying its dual lines of life and its magnetic force. Let that magnetic living force withdraw and supplement that [708] which is present in the seventh, opposing four and six to three and seven, but dealing not with five. The circular, inclusive vortex - descending to the point - disturbs, removes and then supplies and thus the work is done.
The heart revolves; two hearts revolve as one; the twelve within the vehicle, the twelve within the head and the twelve upon the plane of soul endeavor, cooperate as one and thus the work is done. Two energies achieve this consummation and the three whose number is a twelve respond to the greater twelve. The life is known and the years prolonged.

If this ancient statement is read in the light of any knowledge you may have (and you probably have more than you realize), particularly knowledge anent the centers, the primary or easiest interpretation will appear.

3. The third ray technique.

The healer stands and weaves. He gathers from the three, the five, the seven that which is needed for the heart of life. He brings the energies together and makes them serve the third; he thus creates a vortex into which the one distressed must descend and with him goes the healer. And yet they both remain in peace and calm Thus must the angel of the Lord descend into the pool and bring the healing life.

The "pool of waters" figures here and may cause much questioning as to its significance. Its elementary interpretation relates in reality to the central and major cause of much disease (as we have earlier seen), the emotional nature, which it is the task of the third aspect of divinity [709] to control. Ponder on this, for much enlightenment may come.

The next healing technique is longer and far more abstruse. There is little of it that you will understand; it is entirely related, as far as our theme is concerned, to man himself and to the aphorism: "Man, know thyself."

4. The fourth ray technique.

The healer knows the place where dissonance is found. He also knows the power of sound and the sound which must be heard. Knowing the note to which the fourth great group reacts and linking it to the great Creative Nine, he sounds the note which brings release, the note which will bring absorption into one. He educates the listening ear of him who must be healed; he likewise trains the listening ear of him who must go forth. He knows the manner of the sound which brings the healing touch; and also that which says: Depart. And thus the work is done.

This fourth technique is one that - in default of true ray knowledge - can be of general usefulness, because this fourth ray governs the fourth kingdom in nature, the human. The healer along this line of work (and such healers are practically non-existent at this time because the fourth ray is not in incarnation) heals primarily through the use of the appropriate sound or sounds. In the early stages when this technique comes into demonstration, music will be largely used by the healer to bring about a cure or to facilitate the process of death or departure. It will, however, be music with one constantly recurring chord, which will embody the note of the fourth ray and of the human kingdom. Healing by the means of sound will be one of the first healing unfoldments [710] to be noted at the close of the next century. More teaching along this line would be useless until the fourth ray again cycles into manifestation.

5. The fifth ray technique.

That which has been given must be used; that which emerges from within the given mode will find its place within the healer's plan. That which is hidden must be seen and from the three, great knowledge will emerge. For these the healer seeks. To these the healer adds the two which are as one, and so the fifth must play its part and the five must play its part and the five must function as if one. The energies descend, pass through and disappear, leaving the one who could respond with karma yet to dissipate and taking with them him who may not thus respond and so must likewise disappear.

The obvious and simplest meaning of the fifth ray mode of healing is that the healer, working scientifically and largely on concrete levels, employs all aids to bring about a cure, starting with appropriate physical care and passing on to subtler modes of healing. Again I would point out that physical aid can be as divinely used as the more mysterious methods which the metaphysical healer of the present time believes to be so profoundly more effective. Just as all modern knowledge, developed on the physical plane, through the personalities of men and women of insight and genius everywhere, is useful to the disciple and initiate, in time and space, so it is with the medical sciences. Just as right application of these varying sciences has to be made by the disciple or the initiate in order to bring about spiritual results, so must it be when the healer is at work.

All work becomes spiritual when rightly motivated, when wise discrimination is employed and soul power is [711] added to the knowledge gained in the three worlds. The dynamic use of energy in one of its seven streams, added to the sane understanding and work of the modern physician, aided by the healer (who works as does a catalyst), can produce miracles when destiny so ordains. The metaphysical healer who works solely on the subtler levels is like the spiritual worker who fails so constantly to precipitate the needed financial assets on the physical plane. This is caused frequently by a subtle - though usually unrecognized - sense of superiority with which the average healer and the esotericist views his problem of materialization of either physical health or money. Ponder on this and realize that fifth ray methods carry through to the physical plane; there they engender conflict and eventually produce a physical precipitation of the desired nature. In what I have said anent the fifth ray techniques, I have given more hints and information than in any of the others.

6. The sixth ray technique.

Cleaving the waters, let the power descend, the healer cries. He minds not how the waters may respond; they oft bring stormy waves and dire and dreadful happenings. The end is good. The trouble will be ended when the storm subsides and energy has fulfiled its charted destiny. Straight to the heart the power is forced to penetrate, and into every channel, nadi, nerve and spleen the power must seek a passage and a way and thus confront the enemy who has effected entrance and settled down to live. Ejection - ruthless, sudden and complete - is undertaken by the one who sees naught else but perfect functioning and brooks no interference. This perfect functioning opens thus the door to life eternal or to life on earth for yet a little while. [712]

This technique is curiously potent and sudden when the healer is on the sixth ray; the results are drastic and full of pain, but the results are sure - healing or death, and oft the latter. The sixth ray healer is seldom disciplined or wise at this time, owing to this being the end of the sixth ray cycle. When again the sixth ray comes into manifestation, humanity will have progressed far along the Path and the present aggressive, too sure, fanatical sixth ray healer will not reappear. Today they are the majority, and their work is not good; it is well-intentioned, but the technique is ignorantly applied and the end justifies not the assurance of the healer, leading to frequent deception of the patient.

7. The seventh ray technique.

Energy and force must meet each other and thus the work is done. Color and sound in ordered sequence must meet and blend and thus the work of magic can proceed. Substance and spirit must evoke each other and, passing through the center of the one who seeks to aid, produce the new and good. The healer energizes thus with life the failing life, driving it forth or anchoring it yet more deeply in the place of destiny. All seven must be used and through the seven there must pass the energies the need requires, creating the new man who has for ever been and will for ever be, and either here or there.

In this technique you have the clue to them all, for the work of the seventh ray healer is to bring together the life and the substance which will take the place of the substance which is diseased and bring new life to aid the recovery. The glory of life lies in consummation and in emergence. This is the prime task and the prime reward of all true [713] healers. It is this technique of attraction and substitution which will be brought to a fine point of scientific expression in the coming new age wherein the seventh ray will dominate our planet, producing that which is new and needed and determining the coming culture, civilization and science.

In conclusion I would like to tell you the reasons I am refraining from more detailed information and from a clear analysis of the wording of these ancient formulas of healing. Apart from the reason, earlier stated, that men are not yet ready to be given explicit instructions, for the time being anything I might say would appear to you puerile. That is the curious word which seems to be descriptive of possible immediate reaction. We are on the verge of entering a new era in scientific unfoldment, owing to the discovery of how to release the energy of the atom. Not even the scientists responsible for the discovery have the faintest idea of the far-reaching effects of this momentous happening. From the angle of our subject and the theme of this volume, an entirely new language related to energy and force is already in the making; the use of the discovery in the handling of disease will, in almost the immediate future (from the occult angle) be regarded as little short of miraculous.

This discovery of atomic liberation has been brought about by the activity of the first ray in relation to the incoming seventh ray and has its analogous situation in the liberation of the Master at the fifth initiation (when the door of the tomb bursts wide open) and in the act of dying, when the imprisoned soul finds release. In the light of future scientific happenings, these ancient techniques will become much clearer, and in the meantime any explanation of their true "energetic import" would be meaningless. The [714] new and coming terminology will throw light on the ancient formulas, and in time you will see how much can be conveyed to the intelligent healer of that new generation by what seems to you both disappointing, without use or significance, and needlessly abstruse.

In this interim period between the past and that which is on its way, it is not easy for even a Master of the Wisdom to speak or teach, particularly in connection with the theme of healing. The physical body is not yet generally recognized as an electrical unit; its nature as pure atomic energy is not yet realized; the fact of the energy body, the etheric vehicle, is not at this time recognized in the teachings of the modern medical schools, though the fact has been discussed; the explosive nature of energy, when in contact with force, or of the soul in relation to substance, is completely unknown or veiled in mystical language. Until such time as the new scientific formulas and the new approach (which the discovery of the release of atomic energy has made possible) have become more generally understood, are a familiar subject of discussion and couched in familiar language, the coming science of healing must remain behind a veil of unsuitable language and hidden by inappropriate words.

This fact, as I have oft told you, handicaps all new presentations of truth; the language of the electrical engineer or of the automobile draftsman, for instance, would have been entirely meaningless to the average man a hundred years ago. So it is with the new themes and the great discoveries which are on their way and which will eventually affect every department of human life, including the Art of Healing.

I sign myself, because it has been given out who I am, as the Master Djwhal Khul.

The Tibetan [715]

 

Reflection of the Spiritual Triad in the Personality

The reflection of the Spiritual Triad in the personality is complete when the Ajna Center is entirely under the control of the soul. There is no attempt in this diagram to picture the correct number of petals in each lotus.