When ma has passed through mahat, ma will still be ma; but ma will be united with mahat, and be a mahat-ma.

—The Zodiac.

THE

WORD

ADEPTS, MASTERS AND MAHATMAS

(Continued)

THERE are many grades through which the disciple passes before he becomes an adept. He may have one or more teachers. During this period he is instructed in the natural phenomena which are the subjects of the outer sciences, such as the structure and formation of the earth, of plants, of the water and its distribution, and of the biology and chemistry in relation to these. In addition to and in connection with this, he is taught the inner sciences of earth, water, air and fire. He is shown and learns how fire is the origin and mover of all things which come into manifestation; how in its aspects it is the cause of change in all bodies and how by the changes caused by it, it receives all manifested things back into itself. The disciple is shown and sees how air is the medium and neutral state through which unmanifested fire causes the immaterial things to be prepared and made ready to pass into manifestation; how those things about to pass out of manifestation, pass into the air and are suspended in air; how air is the medium between the senses and the mind, between things which apply to the physical and those which appeal to the mind. Water is shown to be the receiver of all things and forms from the air and to be the fashioner and transmitter of these to the earth; to be the giver of physical life, and to be the cleanser and remodeller and equalizer and distributor of life to the world. Earth is shown to be the field in which matter is equilibrated and balanced in its involutions and evolutions, the field in which fire, air and water meet and are related.

The disciple is shown the servants and workers of and in these different elements, with the forces acting through them, though he is not as disciple brought into the presence of the rulers of the elements. He sees how fire, air, water and earth are the fields of action of the four races or hierarchies which are mentioned. How the three races preceding the physical body are of the fire, air and water. He meets the bodies belonging to these races and sees their relation to his own physical body, that of earth which is composed of beings belonging to these races. Besides these four elements, he is shown the fifth, in which he will be born as an adept at the completion of his development. The disciple is instructed concerning these races, their powers and action, but he is not carried into the realms or spheres of these races until he is more than a disciple. Some beings of these races are summoned before his developing senses that he may become familiar with them before birth among them and before he is trusted and allowed to act independently in and among them.

The disciple is instructed concerning the earth and its inner side; he may even be taken in his physical body to some interior parts of the earth, where he will meet some of the races spoken of. The disciple is taught concerning the magnetic qualities of minerals and is shown how the magnetic power acts in and through the earth and his own physical body. He is shown how magnetism as a body and a force acts within himself and how the body may be repaired in its structure and strengthened as a reservoir of life. Among the duties required of him may be that he shall learn the power of healing by magnetism and to make of himself a fit reservoir and transmitter of life. The disciple is instructed in the qualities of plants; he is shown how forms of life are developed through them; he is taught the seasons and cycles of the action of the sap of plants, of their potencies and essences; he is shown how to compound and manipulate these essences as simples, drugs or poisons, and the action of these on the tissues of human and other bodies. He is shown how poisons become antidotes to poison, how antidotes are administered and what is the law of proportion controlling these.

It may be required of him in his duties in the world that he be a prominent or an obscure physician. As such, he may impart the information to self appointed disciples who are fit to receive it, or he may give to the world such information as it can use to advantage.

The disciple is instructed concerning the astral remains of dead men; that is to say, the remains of the cast off desires of those who have died. He is shown how the desires last for a long or a short time and are remodelled and adjusted to the ego coming again into physical life. The disciple is shown desire forms, their different natures and powers and how they act on the physical world. He is shown harmless and inimical creatures who live in the atmosphere of man. It may be required of him to prevent such beings from attacking mankind, when mankind allows of protection. It may also be his duty to disintegrate some of these beings when they pass beyond their boundaries and interfere with man. But the disciple cannot suppress such creatures if the desires and thoughts of men will not permit. He is taught the means of communicating with and summoning the presence of beings of these worlds; that is to say, he is instructed, in their names, the forms of their names, the pronunciation and intonation of these names, and the symbols and seals which stand for and compel them. He must become thoroughly familiar with these matters under the immediate supervision of his teacher, before he is allowed to practice alone. If the disciple attempts to command these presences or influences without having thoroughly mastered them, he may lose his life in a similar manner as one who loses it while experimenting with chemistry or electricity, without due precautions to protect himself.

The disciple who in that life is to be born into the new life as adept, is before his turn of life required to leave the busy life of men and retire to some quiet and secluded place or to a community of the school to which he belongs. The turn of life of man is the beginning of the decline of his physical power. With some men this happens at thirty-five and with others not until their fiftieth year. The rise of life of physical manhood is marked by the increase of power of the seminal principle. This power increases until it reaches its highest point, then it begins to decrease in strength until man may become as impotent as he was in the child state. The turn of life comes after the highest point of seminal power. The disciple cannot always tell when the highest point is reached; but if he leaves the world for the purpose of adeptship in that life and body, it must be while his power is increasing and not when it is in its decline. The sex function must have ceased in thought and act before he can begin the forming of that body the birth of which will make of him an adept. When he leaves the world for this purpose he breaks no relationships, neglects no trusts, is not serenaded and his departure is not announced. He often leaves unnoticed and his mission is unknown to men. His departure is as natural as the passing of an hour.

The disciple now comes under the care and direction of the experienced adept who is to be present with him till birth. The disciple passes through a process analogous to that through which woman passes during the gestation and birth of a child. All seminal wastes are stopped, the forces and essences of the body conserved as taught him in his initial stages of discipleship. He is shown how each individual organ of the body gives up something of itself toward the formation and development of the body which is being formed through, as much as within him; though that which is being formed in the new body is not of the same kind nor for the same purpose as the organ from which it comes. Full adepts as such, in and out of physical bodies, are now met and communicated with by the disciple, as he progresses in his development toward adeptship. This is so, that he may become more and more familiar with the nature and life of an adept and in order that he may intelligently come to birth. He may live among or visit a community of adepts or one in which adepts rule.

In a community such as before described as that of the early race of physical man who are preserved in their natural purity, the disciple sees physical humanity as they were before the class of sensual minds had incarnated among them. This stock was preserved in order that mankind might be carried in its physical line unbroken from the time of the inception of the physical until the time of its passing from fourth race physical humanity into fifth race and sixth race and seventh race humanity, or through physical, psychic, mental and spiritual stages; humans, adepts, masters and mahatmas. The pure physical race among whom the adepts move are seen by the disciple to have a season ordained by nature for self reproduction. He sees that they have no desire for sex apart from such seasons. He sees in them the types of strength and beauty, and grace of motion into which the present humanity is destined to grow again when they shall have learned to grow out of and beyond their present appetites of sex and sense. This community of early humanity regard the adepts and masters who may be among them, as children regard their fathers; in simplicity and candor, but without the fear or apprehensions which some children have of their parents. The disciple learns that if a disciple should fail during the period through which he now passes, he is not lost nor entangled or retarded by after death states before returning into life as other men may be, but that he who fails to attain adeptship after he has reached a certain point along the path of attainment, is guided by the adept under whose direction he acts through the after death states and back into physical life and birth as one of the community among whom the adepts live. In that birth he will surely attain adeptship.

As the disciple advances he sees that adepts, as such, do not have internal organs similar to those in their physical bodies. He sees that the organs of the physical body are required for the generation and preservation of the physical body, but besides that they correspond to powers and faculties of other worlds. The alimentary canal is not needed in the adept because the adept as such requires no physical food. There is not secretion of bile nor circulation of blood in the adept, nor are there any of the products manufactured and elaborated by the physical body to maintain its structure. The adept has his physical body which does all this, but he is a separate being and is not his physical body. True, the physical of the adept has its virgo form body (♍︎ linga sharira), but the astral adept body here spoken of is the perfected adept body, the scorpio desire body (♏︎ kama), which is the complement of the virgo form body.

The disciple senses the changes going on within and through his physical body and is made aware of his approaching birth. This is the event of his lives of effort. His birth is equal to a physical death. It is a separation of body from body. It may be preceded by a conflux and tumult of the forces and fluids of the physical body and attended by apprehension or by calm and mellowness like as of the evening, at the glowing of the setting sun. Whether his travail be like unto the rumbling thunder amid the deepening darkness of gathering clouds or the quiet glory of the dying sun, the seeming death of the physical is followed by birth. As after a storm or luminous sunset the darkness is brightened by the stars and the light flood of the rising moon, so emerges out of the effort of overcoming, so grows out of death, the new born being. The adept emerges from or through his physical body into that world which he seemed to know so well but which he finds he knew but little. His adept teacher, present at his birth, adjusts him to the world in which he now lives. Like the changes in the infant’s body which are effected by its entrance into the physical world, so changes take place in the new born adept as he rises from his physical body. But unlike the infant, he is in possession of his new senses and is not helpless.

Much of that which has been described of the life of the aspirant in the school of the senses applies to the self appointed disciple in the school of the masters, in so far as it pertains to the observance of self-control and care of body. But the requirements of the aspirant for discipleship in the school of the masters differ from those of the other school in that the self appointed disciple shall not attempt the development or use of the psychic senses. He must use his physical senses in the observation of facts and in the recording of experiences, but must accept nothing as proved to him by his senses unless it is sanctioned by his mind. His senses bear evidence, but the test of these is made by reason. There is no age limit for the aspirant to discipleship in the school of the masters. One may appoint himself a disciple when very old. He may not become an accepted and entered disciple in that life, but his step will bring him nearer to the point of discipleship in a succeeding life. The self appointed disciple is usually one concerning himself with obscure things, asking himself or others questions not generally thought about. He may be interested in subjects of mystery to the senses or in mental problems and processes. Psychic faculties may have been possessed by him from birth or they make their appearance during the course of his studies. In either case, the self appointed disciple who wants to enter the school of the masters must suppress and stop the use of these faculties. Suppression without injury is had by turning his interest from the senses themselves to the subjects which these senses present. The self appointed disciple who is in natural possession of psychic faculties can make rapid progress in mental development if he will close the doors to the psychic world. When he so shuts the doors he should try to gain entrance to the mental world by using and developing the mental faculties. When he dams the psychic floods they rise as energy and he receives an accretion of mental power. This path may take a long time to travel as compared with the results gained in the school of the senses, but in the end it is the shortest way to immortality.

(To be continued)