This stage, which embraces the second type of impression in its earliest forms, can be quite a long one, for it [89] covers a very definite period of transition from the astral plane to the mental plane. The time equation varies according to ray and the age of the soul. Sixth ray people, for instance, are very slow in making this transition, owing to the pronounced factor of glamor; first and second ray people are relatively quick. Third ray people are also slow, for they are lost in the threads of their own glamorous manipulations and their devious thinking, and hardly know where truth begins and delusion ends; illusion, which is the problem of the mental types on all rays, is far more temporary in its effects than is delusion.

When the disciple has mastered to some degree the significant difference between messages from his own subconscious or the subconscious of other people with whom he may be en rapport, and the messages coming from his own soul, his life then becomes more self-directed and organized, more fruitful from the angle of service, and therefore of definite use to the Hierarchy. He learns to distinguish the messages coming from his own soul from those which are hierarchical; his life becomes more clearly directed; he next distinguishes definitely and accurately the communications which come to him from the Ashram and which are sent out to make impression upon the minds of aspirants and disciples of all degrees and of all ray types. When he can distinguish between these various communications, then and only then does the third type of communication become possible - direct messages which are due to contact with the Master of his Ashram in person. He, by that time, possesses what has been called "the freedom of the Ashram" and "the keys to the Kingdom of God"; he can then be trusted with some of the directive potency of the Ashram itself. His thinking will then affect and reach others. This developing effectiveness grows with rapidity when the fourth type of impression is familiar to the [90] disciple: that coming from the Spiritual Triad, and therefore from the Monad and Shamballa. There are consequently (to this final stage of impression) three lesser though definite states, each marking an expansion in the realm of service and each related to the last three initiations of the total possible nine initiations which confront developing humanity. The sixth initiation, in which only Masters can participate, marks a transition from the first three stages of impressibility required by the disciples as preludes to the fifth initiation - or in reality to the third, fourth and fifth - and are related to the three stages of Triadal communication, each of which is related to the seventh, the eighth and the ninth initiations.

Nevertheless, there is on man's part a steadily growing responsiveness to an expanding environment, as for instance man's recognition of the distinction between nationalism and internationalism. This responsiveness is naturally conditioned by human free will, effective peculiarly in the timing process. He may learn rapidly and fast or he may go the slow way, but his state of consciousness remains one of a developing reaction to his environment, as registered by his consciousness, and in which he (stage by stage) becomes an integral factor. This integration into his environment, his absorption of its atmosphere and his potency in progression are all related to the fact that he is created to receive impression and that he possesses a mechanism of response to all [91] the facets of the divine expression in manifestation. It is for that reason that the truly illumined man and all who have taken the three highest initiations are always referred to as "the diamond soled"; they, in their totality constitute the "jewel in the lotus" - that twelve-petalled lotus which is the symbol and expression of the potency of the planetary Logos.