Over the years I have given you many definitions of initiation; all of them have been useful and true. Today I seek greatly to widen your conception of these matters and to [324] give you an entirely new slant on this engrossing and assertive work. What I have to say grows out of certain hints I gave you in the preceding pages. These hints are good illustrations of that method of teaching which is profoundly rooted in hierarchical technique. I said:

1. That more rapid processes of initiation are now being instituted.
2. That initiation veiled a secret and that its revelation was imminent.
3. That every initiation permits a closer sharing within the hierarchical life and that this sharing is closely related to vitality and to vital tension.
4. That initiation is concerned at this time with group life and not with the individual.
5. That initiation concerns the future and involves prevision.
6. That time is one of the major underlying themes or secrets of initiation.

1. When I say that more rapid initiation is being instituted, it must not be inferred that a certain slackness is to be permitted or that the requirements are not so drastic or that the disciple will be allowed to take initiation before he is truly ready or that he can pass on before he has proved his capacity to move forward upon the path. Such is not in any single point the situation. Three factors are responsible for this change in the hierarchical requirements:

1. The mental development of disciples everywhere is today of such a caliber that it does not take as long for them to make the needed adjustments or to change their attitudes and conditions of life as it did formerly; it does not take as long for them to assimilate a presented truth or to respond to an intuitive perception. Their grasp of the Law of Cause and Effect and their appreciation of the subsidiary Law of Consequences is [325] far more prompt than in the past. These facts therefore necessitate a recognition upon the part of the Masters of the more advanced condition and a pronounced saving of time as the consequence. This you should note as of very real importance; its true significance is that the period required for a truth, a contact, or a spiritual apprehension to be registered by a physical brain has been greatly - almost phenomenally reduced. Disciples can now in a few months (if sincere and honest in their endeavor) master ideas and develop responses which it took them years to master in earlier cycles of hierarchical effort. This is true, on a lower turn of the spiral, of the masses of men everywhere. The mind factor is today alert, trained and controlling. These are facts which the Hierarchy cannot ignore, nor do the Masters desire to do so, because it is that mental alertness which has for ages engrossed their attention and it is this for which they have worked for aeons.
2. Another factor is that many disciples are taking incarnation at this time who are already prepared and ready for initiation; they have done the needed work in previous lives. No time, therefore, need be lost, and there is today a constant series of initiations taking place. This must perforce produce certain important hierarchical changes; new situations come about in initiate circles and many fit candidates are supplied for hierarchical vacancies; this produces a shifting of the hierarchical personnel on a scale hitherto unknown. Needless to say, this shifting and changing presents its own peculiar difficulties and opportunities. One of the most important of the latter is that candidates for the Initiation of Decision are far more numerous than at any previous time in our planetary history.
3. Again: Initiation can now be taken in group form; this is something entirely new in the work of the Hierarchy. Not one by one do candidates stand before the Initiator, but many so stand simultaneously. Together they can think in complete accord; together they are [326] tested, and together they reach the "point of triumph" which supersedes the "point of tension"; together they see the "Star shine forth," and together the energy emanating from the Rod of Initiation fits them for the reception of specialized energy, to be later used in their future world service. This group approach, this group intention, this "group silent reticence and vocal recognition," and this group dedication and vision are no longer in the experimental stage. This group achievement (I refer not here to your particular group which has not been outstandingly successful) marks the point where there can be the inauguration of a new phase of activity in Shamballa. This will enable the Lord of the World to become the Ruler of a Sacred Planet which, up to date, has not been the case. Our Earth can now become a Sacred Planet, if all right conditions are fulfiled. A new divine quality (as yet unrevealed and which we would not at this time recognize if presented with it) is slowly crystallizing into expression, through the medium of this hastened initiation process. Disciples are today witnessing the emergence of a solar characteristic, through the medium of their planetary Logos, just as the "Lives of similar Intention" - as it is esoterically called - witnessed it many aeons ago. It is to this unknown and mysterious quality that the "shining forth" of the Star refers.

A great opportunity is presented to you, and the success of the system of Raja-Yoga, the Kingly Science of the Mind (started by the great initiate, Patanjali, eleven thousand years ago) is being demonstrated and his techniques are being vindicated. What he issued on behalf of the Great White Lodge has now been satisfactorily launched and much of the original purpose justified. For the next seven thousand years [327] his system will be used to train disciples in mind control. They will, through this system, achieve the stage of "isolated unity," and in that recorded unity - alone and yet with many others - take the initiation which will enable them to release energy into a waiting and demanding world of men.