Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul - Initiation, Human and Solar - XV

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Initiation, Human and Solar - Chapter XV - The Giving of the Word

The Use of the Words

We have already dealt with the significance of the Words of Power in a brief manner. We might now sum up certain of the inferred postulates, and then touch somewhat upon the initiation ceremony, and the Words as committed to the initiate. The postulates here made are nine in number, and if duly pondered upon by the aspirant, will reveal to him much anent the creative process and the power of speech.

1. All the Words of Power are rooted in the Great Word committed to the Solar Logos at the dawn of manifestation. [156]

2. All the Words of Power are permutations or expansions of the three basic sounds, and increase in length as the planes are involved, until the sentences and speech of the finite unit, man, in their myriad differentiations are arrived at.

3. Therefore, on the path of return, speech becomes ever more brief, words are more sparingly used, and the time eventually comes when the adept employs formulas of words only as required to carry out specific purposes along two lines:

Definite creative processes.
Specific direction of energy.

This, of course, on the planes in the three worlds.

4. The aspirant, therefore, has mainly three things to do when preparing for initiation:

To control every activity of his threefold lower nature. This involves the application of intelligent energy to every atom of his three sheaths - physical, astral, and mental. It is literally the shining forth of the Brahma, or third aspect, of the inner God.

To control his speech every minute of every day. This is a statement easily made, but most difficult to make practical. He who achieves it is rapidly nearing emancipation. This applies not to the reticence, the moroseness, the silence, and the voicelessness which often distinguishes natures but little evolved, and which are in reality an inarticulate condition. It refers to the controlled use of words to effect certain ends, and the retention of speech energy when not needed, - a very different matter. It involves a realization of cycles; of times and of seasons; it supposes a knowledge of the power of sound, and of the effects produced [157] through the spoken word; it involves an apprehension of the building forces of nature and their due manipulation, and is based on an ability to wield mental matter, and to set it in motion, in order to produce results in physical matter, consonant with the clearly defined purpose of the inner God. It is the shining forth of the second aspect of the Self, the Vishnu, or form-building aspect, which is the prime characteristic of the Ego on its own plane. It would be well to ponder on this.

To meditate, and thus arrive at the purpose of the Ego. By thus meditating the first aspect comes steadily into greater prominence, and the conscious will of the inner God can make itself felt on the physical plane.

The three activities of the aspirant must parallel each other, and it will be noted that the second is the outcome of the first and will manifest as energy on the physical plane. Only when the aspirant has made real progress in these three lines of endeavor will the first of the Great Words be committed to him.

5. Every Great Word includes within itself its differentiations, its expansions and permutations, and by its utterance the initiate sets in motion the lesser, through the vibration of the greater. Hence the terrific responsibility and the magnitude of the results achieved. Each Word is committed to the initiate orally and visually. It is spoken to him first in the form of seven syllables, each of which he has to memorize as a separate Word. Then he is shown how to blend these seven so as to make a threefold sound and thus produce more united and far reaching results. Finally the three are blended into one Word which is committed to him. The seven words which form the Great Word at any initiation are communicated to the initiate by the initiates of equal rank with his own. This group divides itself into [158] seven groups, according to subray or ray formation, and each group then chants one word in rapid rotation. Simultaneously, the colors and symbols of the various sounds pass in front of him, so that he hears and sees that which is committed to him. The more advanced group around the throne of office (the three Departmental Heads at the first two initiations, and the Pratyeka Buddhas at the final ones) chant then for him the triple Word which blends the seven, and again he sees it before his inner eye. Finally the Initiator sounds it forth, and the initiate becomes aware within himself, in practical experience, of the one great sound, and knows in one particular center what its vibration is. As is well known, every center is connected with some plane, scheme, ray, and other septenary divisions, and thus the significance of its inner reaction will be apparent.

6. The Masters and initiates, in their work of aiding the evolution of the three worlds, concern themselves principally with the seven syllables of the Word of their degree or initiated grade. The three Words which blend the seven are seldom used except under the direct sanction of one of the departmental heads (according to the syllable involved each Word is directly connected with the triple AUM, and therefore with the Brahma, Vishnu, or Shiva aspect, of which the three Heads are the Planetary representatives).

When any initiate desires to use, for evolutionary purposes, the entire Word as a unit, the sanction of the assembled Lodge has to be gained, for such a Word affects the matter of an entire plane within a planetary scheme, and consequently the matter of those planes which are subsidiary to the one involved. For instance, an initiate of the third degree, in sounding the Word of his degree, affects the matter of the lower mental subplanes, and subsequently the matter of the astral and physical planes. An initiate of the second degree similarly affects the astral plane, and subsequently [159] the physical. Far reaching results are thus achieved, and the work of many is thus affected.

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