Each of you has passed through a cycle of real difficulty and strain. This is true of all disciples. The past eighteen months have been months of precipitation, producing a chemicalisation, an interior process of upheaval and probably outer behavior which may have caused concern to the Observer within. This however is but the reaction of the [14] personality to undue pressure and strain, to world conditions and clearer vision. Vision reveals both the light and the dark, a thing which is oft forgotten. Disciples are fortunate if the major results work out in the physical body. The reactions of the physical body are the least important and do the least harm to others. Where they work out in an emotional or mental condition they are then apt to become a problem of fellow disciples, adding to their strain and necessitating an effort upon their part to carry the brother through with the least damage to the group.

The work of this group, and of other groups similarly motivated, is to achieve these undertakings together: Together to face the Dweller and triumph; together to arrive at understanding; together to stand before the Presence because the Angel's light reveals "that which the eye has never seen;" together to walk the Path of Revelation; together to [15] serve and together to aid the faltering steps of humanity, the world aspirant; together to stand with your backs to the light because you comprehend the ancient aphorism which states:

"He who faces the light and stands within its radiance is blinded to the issues of the world of men; he passes on the lighted way to the great Center of Absorption. But he who feels the urge to pass that way, yet loves his brother on the darkened path, revolves upon the pedestal of light and turns the other way.

"He faces towards the dark and then the seven points of light within himself transmit the outward streaming light, and lo! the face of those upon the darkened way receives that light. For them, the way is not so dark. Behind the warriors - twixt the light and dark - blazes the light of Hierarchy."

I have been thinking of you all with tenderness and love. The struggle is so hard and oft you feel alone. There is strength in all of you or I would not have chosen you to serve your fellowmen with me; there is weakness in all of you which can evoke your brothers' strength and thus you will be strong; there is love in all of you but it needs expression, and for that the group exists; there is light in all of you and with that light you serve. As the Hierarchy stands as a center of light and strength to humanity, so do your souls stand to you, and - as your Master - I blend my light with yours and thus increase the efficiency of your service; I blend my love with the love which pours forth from the soul towards each of you, and thus I deepen the relation of love between each and all of you. It is not often that I speak to you in this manner, but in the process of freeing you for increased service I have drawn nearer to you and my love surrounds you. Learn, my brothers, the meaning of words, their transmitting potency and their spiritual significance.

I am going to take the time and spare the needed energy to get in touch with the group during the coming full moons, prior to that of May. I ask you, at no matter what hour the [16] full moon each month may fall, to endeavor to keep half an hour free so that you can attempt to enter into my consciousness. I realize that it may not always be possible for you in your busy Western lives to keep the exact minute free, but you can attempt to find some time, as near to the full moon period as is reasonably possible in your own particular circumstances. This, my brother, is to be a group effort, and not an individual one, and it is as a group that I shall seek to contact you. Therefore it is necessary for you to have this in your mind as you prepare for that moment. You must link up first with all the group members, pouring yourself out in love to each of them, and to all collectively, and associating yourself with them as a part with the whole. Then in united effort attempt the following procedure:

1. Having linked up with all your group brothers, and having raised your consciousness as high as you possibly can, endeavor then to hold steady, holding the mind unwaveringly "in the light" and letting the brain consciousness and its registration drop below the level of consciousness.
2. Then initiate a new effort. Realize that, on my side, I also stand steady, pouring out upon you my love and strength and endeavoring to lift you up into a higher state of consciousness.
3. Visualize ahead of you (if I may use so inadequate a word) a disk or sphere of indigo blue, a deep electric blue. In the center of that disk imagine that I, your Tibetan brother, am standing. My appearance and personality matter not.
4. When you have visualized me thus standing waiting, then endeavor to see - stretching between yourself, the group and me - a band of golden light and know this to be the symbol of the Path which we are all treading. See this path gradually shortening, thus bringing us closer together, slowly and steadily, until you enter into the heart of the blue disk.

Whilst doing this, hold the mind positive and attentive, using simultaneously the faculties of imagination and of [17] visualization. This triple activity will test and tax your powers but will be good training in active esoteric work. Regard this always as a united group effort and remember that in doing it you aid each other, and may facilitate the work to be done at the time of the Wesak moon. I would like to add that the results of this work will not become apparent to you until the full moon of May, and even then you will only (through the synthesis of the two years' work) begin to comprehend the fusing and blending and awakening that your own souls are bringing about.

I think that there is a certain vagueness in your minds as to the processes which I shall follow in dealing with this group of disciples and in the working out of the experiment hinted at earlier - the experiment of group initiation. I would like, therefore, to make the whole plan clearer and indicate anew the lines along which the training given will go. This might be called the exoteric aspect of the esoteric training, for much must and will transpire upon the inner planes in the inner Ashram about which nothing can be said and which will be individual as well as group expansion. I will outline the outer processes in the order of their present importance, and this in its turn is determined by the group condition - for which you are one and all responsible.