Compilation “The Word Made Flesh”
"The Spirit within is the long-lost Word,
Besought by the world of the soul in pain
Through a world of words which are void and vain.
O never while shadow and light are blended
Shall the world's Word-Quest or its woe be ended,
And never the world of its wounds made whole
Till the Word made flesh be the
Word made soul!"
ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE
We have fought over the historical Christ, and thus
fighting, have lost sight of His message of love to all beings. Fanatics
quarrel over His words, and fail to remember that He was "the Word made
flesh." BTC p7
The Word must again sound forth from the centre—the Centre in the Heavens, and the centre in every human heart. Each individual soul must hear it for itself alone. Each of us has to pass through that experience wherein we know ourselves to be a "Word made Flesh," BTC p 38
Out of the flesh God will be seen and known, yet with the eye of the inner vision can God be seen even when a man is occupying a body of flesh. Not with the physical eye can Deity be seen, though the hallmark of divinity is everywhere. There is an eye which can be developed and used, and which will enable its possessor to see God working on the inner side of Life, within Himself and within all forms, for "when thine eye is single, thy whole body is full of light." In that light shall we see light, and so see God. The three words: electricity, light and life, express divinity, and their synthesis is God. When we know the three as one in our own experience, then we know God. The lowest aspect we are now using, and of it we are increasingly aware. The second aspect of light is on the point of revelation, through the right understanding of electrical phenomena. There lies the clue to the new age, the age of light, of illumination and of revelation. The esotericists of the world will understand a little of that to which I refer, and in their hands lies the training of humanity so that men may use that true vision and learn to utilise the "single eye." I would have you note, however, that the majority of true esotericists are found outside, and not within, the bulk of the schools which call themselves esoteric. EP 182
These three major initiations, the first, the third and the
fifth, constitute the three syllables of the Word made flesh; they embody the
musical chord of Christ's life, as they will be embodied in the life of all who
follow in His steps. Through re-orientation to new modes of living and of being
we pass through the necessary stages of adaptation of the vehicles of life, up
to that mountain-top where the divine in us is revealed in all its beauty. Then
we pass to a "joyful Resurrection," and to that eternal
identification with God which is the everlasting experience of all who are perfected.
We might depict the process as follows:
1st Initiation 3rd
Initiation 5th Initiation
New Birth Transfiguration Resurrection
Initiation Revelation Completion
Beginning Transition Consummation
Appearance Quality Life
BTC 137
The real Master, claiming our attention and subsequent
obedience, is the Master in the Heart, the soul, the indwelling Christ. This Master first makes His presence felt
through the "still small voice" of conscience, prompting us to higher
and more unselfish living, and sounding a quick note of warning when there is
deviation from the strict path of rectitude.
Later this comes to be known as the Voice of the Silence, that word that
comes from the "Word incarnate," which is ourselves. Each of us is a Word made flesh. Later still, we call it the awakened
intuition. The student of meditation
learns to distinguish accurately between these three. This
requirement, therefore, calls for that implicit obedience which the aspirant
renders promptly to the highest impulse which he can register at all times and
at any cost. When this obedience is
forthcoming it calls forth from the soul a downpouring
of light and knowledge, and Christ points this out in the words:
"If any man shall do his will, he shall know..." (John 7, 17).
Intellect to Intuition p 97
The A.U.M. itself or
the Word made flesh; this creates finally a point of tension in the fourth
kingdom in nature, at which point the evolutionary cycle becomes possible and
the first dim note of the O.M. can be faintly heard. In the individual man this point is reached
when the personality is an integrated and functioning whole and the soul is
beginning to control it.
R&I p55
By concentrated meditation upon the distinction between
these aspects there will eventually come a hearing of the Voice of the Silence
and contact with a man's own second aspect.
He will know himself as the "Word made flesh" and will
recognize himself as the AUM.
When this is the case he will then hear the word in other units of the human family, and will awaken to a recognition of the sound, as it is emanated by all forms in all the kingdoms of nature. The realm of the soul will stand open to him and this, when it includes recognition of the sound in all the four kingdoms, will lead him to know himself as Master. Soul knowledge and the power to work with the soul of all things in the three worlds is the distinctive mark of the Adept. LOS 274
1. AUM. (
AUM. is
the Word of Glory; it signifies the Word made flesh and the manifestation upon
the plane of matter of the second aspect of divinity. This blazing forth of the sons of
righteousness before the world is achieved by following the rules herein
contained. When all the sons of men have
demonstrated that they are also Sons of God, the cosmic Son of God will
likewise shine forth with increased intensity of glory. The great initiate, Paul, had a vision of
this when he said that "the whole creation groaneth
and travaileth in pain . . . waiting for the manifestation
of the sons of God." (
The appended list of synonyms is of value to the student, for it gives him a broader vision and an inclusive understanding, revealing to him the fact that the Sons of God, revealed or unrevealed, are everywhere to be found.
The spiritual Intelligence. The inner Ruler The Word made Flesh.
The Soul. The second aspect. The AUM.
The self-conscious Entity The second Person. The Thinker.
The Christ. God in incarnation. The Observer, Perceiver.
The Self The Son of Mind. The Form builder.
The higher Self. The divine Manasaputra. Force.
The Son of God. The Agnishvattva The Dweller in the body.
LOS 416
In esoteric phraseology mantram is the word made flesh, or rendered objective through divine magic. A form of words or syllables rhythmically arranged, so that when sounded certain vibrations are generated. HIS 221
The Christ Who came two thousand
years ago embodied in Himself not only the principle of love in the planetary
sense (a thing which Shri Krishna had achieved), but
a cosmic principle of love also, and this for the first time in human
history. His achievement was made
possible by the fact that the human family had reached a point at which it
could produce the perfect Man, Christ, the "eldest in a great family of
brothers," a Son of God, the Word made flesh. The future progress of humanity is also aided
and hastened because of the attainment and activity of the Christ, and because
He remains with us as God the Preserver.
R&I p 91
In every case, as we have seen, the objective form has been the result of meditation on the part of the creating agency, of response from the material acted upon by the force generated in meditation, thus producing the building of the form, and its utilization through sound. This is succeeded by the stage wherein the form is seen objectively and becomes a vibrant living entity. Thus is "the Word made Flesh," and thus do all forms—universes, men, and ensouled thoughts—come into being. TOWM 157
In this triple relation of three major constellations, one clear understanding characteristic can be noted, and that is their essential duality—the effect of which is obvious and so dramatically present in Virgo. Aries sees the beginning or initiation of the relationship between spirit and matter. Gemini is definitely a sign of duality and signifies the relation of these two major energies in the human or fourth Creative Hierarchy; this dualism is emphasised in a still more intimate and comprehensible manner in Scorpio, in which the note of the evolutionary cycle which it dominates is "the Word made Flesh." It is the sign wherein the Christ demonstrates His control over matter in the guise of the triumphant disciple. Spirit and matter (Aries ), soul and body (Gemini), the mother and the child (Virgo), the Word and the Flesh (Scorpio)—here are the four signs of creative dualism and inter-related evolution presented and descriptive of the potency and objectives of the fourth Creative Hierarchy. When Mercury, the divine Messenger, the principle of illusion and the expression of the active higher mind, has performed his mission and "led humanity into the [Page 273] light" and the Christ-child out of the womb of time and of the flesh into the light of day and of manifestation, then the task of that great centre we call humanity will be accomplished. Ponder on this for the significance of esoteric astrology will emerge more clearly in your minds if you can understand this fourfold activity of Mercury and the inter-relation of these four signs of the zodiac—connected as they are with the logoic Quaternary. EA 272
3. He "keeps the wheel revolving." This has a specific relation to His work as the Word of God, which manifests as the Word made flesh. This refers specifically to the great Wheel of Rebirth whereby, upon that turning wheel, souls are carried down into incarnation and then up and out of the soul's prison; through the turning of the wheel, human beings learn their needed lessons, create cyclically their vehicles of expression (the response apparatus of the soul in the three worlds) and in this way, under soul guidance, and aided by the Hierarchy and its schools of instruction, they arrive at perfection. This entire process is under the control of the Christ, assisted by the Manu and the Lord of Civilisation. These three Great Lords thus represent the three divine Aspects in the Hierarchy; They, with the four Lords of Karma, form the seven Who control the whole [Page 93] process of incarnation. R & I 93
The vivid light of the second ray soul (the most vivid in
this second ray solar system) dominates the light of form and radiates out to
the triadal light. Then comes a moment
of intense concentration and the peculiar Word of Power of the second ray is
enunciated. Of this Word, the dual symbol
SXPRULXS takes form in the mind of the disciple and signifies the
assertion: "I SEE THE GREATEST
LIGHT." This statement has relation
to the Central Spiritual Sun and not to the Heart of the Sun; it involves, if I
might so express it, the most intense effort to see in the light the relation
of the whole, and this is one of the most potent experiences to which the
disciple can be subjected. It is not
vision or even aspiration to see the vision.
It is complete sight and of this the Masonic symbol of the "Eye of
God," the "All-Seeing Eye," is the expression. It involves realisation
of the light of the divine countenance; of this the light of the soul is the
dim reflection. The disciple has learnt
the significance of solar and lunar light (soul and form light), but this is
something other. It is the great
obliterating light of reality itself, revealing the fact of the higher
I am faced with difficulty in making these Words of Power clear to you, because essentially it is the Word made flesh or the soul in incarnation which at this point registers power; it is the symbol (the form aspect) and the power (the Spirit aspect) which acts as a great creative agency and bridges across all barriers and separative states of consciousness, thus establishing complete unity. R & I 516
Fohat, then, is the personified electric vital power, the transcendental binding Unity of all Cosmic Energies, on the unseen as on the manifested planes, the action of which resembles -- on an immense scale -- that of a living Force created by WILL, in those phenomena where the seemingly subjective acts on the seemingly objective and propels it to action. Fohat is not only the living Symbol and Container of that Force, but is looked upon by the Occultists as an Entity -- the forces he acts upon being cosmic, human and terrestrial, and exercising their influence on all those planes respectively. On the earthly plane his influence is felt in the magnetic and active force generated by the strong desire of the magnetizer. On the Cosmic, it is present in the constructive power that carries out, in the formation of things -- from the planetary system down to the glow-worm and simple daisy -- the plan in the mind of nature, or in the Divine Thought, with regard to the development and growth of that special thing. He is, metaphysically, the objectivised thought of the gods; the "Word made flesh," on a lower scale, and the messenger of Cosmic and human ideations: the active force in Universal Life SD 1 p111
1. The specific division of the gunas.
This specific or particularised division of the gunas is divided into sixteen parts which deal primarily with man's reaction to the tangible objective world.
a. The five elements: ether, air, fire, water and earth. These are the directly involved effects of the unspecific or subjective sound or word.
b. The five sense organs: the ear, the skin, the eye, the tongue and the nostrils, those physical organs or channels through which identification with the tangible world becomes possible.
c. The five organs of action: voice, hands, feet, the excretory organs and the organs of generation.
d. The mind. This is the sixth sense, the organ which synthesises all the other sense organs and eventually will make their use a thing of the past.
These sixteen means of perception and activity in the phenomenal world are channels for the real thinking man; they demonstrate his active reality and are the sum total of the physical facts relating to every incarnated son of God. Similarly in their cosmic connotation, they are the sum total of the facts demonstrating the reality of a cosmic incarnation. "The Word is made flesh" both individually and in a cosmic sense. LOS 157
The A.U.M. and the Amen are both of them an expression in sound of the principle of active intelligent substance in the divine manifestation, the third aspect, and have served human need in that phase of material and form development. I refer here also to the development of mind or of the mental form. The personality as a whole, when perfected and brought under control of the soul, is the "Word made flesh."
The mass of aspirants and of disciples are today learning the meaning of the O.M., which is not the Word made flesh, but the Word released from form, and expressing itself as soul-spirit and not as body-soul-spirit. It might, therefore, be said that:
1. The A.U.M. (note that I separate each aspect of this triple sound) brings the soul-spirit aspect down on to the physical plane and anchors it there by the force of its outgoing vibration. Using a symbol to make my meaning clear, it is like "a strong wind that pins a man against a wall and makes free effort difficult." It vivifies form; it intensifies the hold of matter upon the soul; it builds around the soul a confining prison—a prison of the senses. It is the "sound of enchantment," the sound that is the source of glamour and of maya; it is the great beguiling and deceptive energy, the note of the involutionary arc. In it are hid the secret of evil or matter, the uses of form, first as a prison, then as a training ground and as a field of experience, and finally as the expression for the manifestation of a Son of God.
2. The O.M. rightly sounded, releases the soul from the
realm of glamour and of enchantment. It
is the sound of [Page 53] liberation, the great note of resurrection and of the
raising of humanity to the
3. The SOUND is the sole expression of the Ineffable Name, the secret appellation of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being, and Who is known to the Great White Lodge through this name. Remember always that name and form are synonymous terms in the occult teaching, and these two words hold the secret of manifestation. The goal of the initiate is identification with all forms of the divine life, so that he can know himself to be an integral part of that Whole and can tune in on all states of divine awareness, knowing for himself (and not just theoretically) that they are also his own states of awareness. He can then penetrate into the divine arcana of knowledge, share in the divine omnipresence and—at will—express the divine omniscience and prepare himself to manifest in full consciousness the divine omnipotence.
I am using words which are futile to convey the underlying meaning of the Word. Understanding can only be arrived at when a man lives the Word, hearing its soundless Sound and breathing it forth in a vital life-giving breath to others.
The masses are hearing the sound of the A.U.M. and, in their higher brackets, are finding that A.U.M. the expression of something from which they seek release. The aspirants and disciples of the World are hearing the O.M. and in their personal lives the A.U.M. and the O.M. are in conflict. This may represent a new idea to you, but it conveys an idea of an eternal fact. It may help you to gain an understanding [Page 54] of this phase if I point out for you that for this first group the O.M. can be portrayed in the following symbol as expressing the material M nature whereas the second group can be portrayed by the symbol m expressive of the soul enveloped in matter. You will see, therefore, how the teaching leads man progressively onward and how the occult science brings man in touch with great mental reversals and divine paradoxes. For aeons the Word of the soul and the Sound of spiritual reality are lost. Today, the Word of the soul is being found again, and with that finding the little self is lost in the glory and the radiance of the divine Self.
This discovery is consummated at the time of the third initiation. The initiate and the Master, along with those of higher rank who are approaching identification with Shamballa, are steadily and ever more clearly hearing the Sound emanating from the Central Spiritual Sun and penetrating all forms of divine life upon our planet—via our Planetary Logos Who hears it with clarity and with understanding—the Sound of the lowest syllable of the Ineffable Name of the One in Whom all the Planetary Logoi live and move and have Their Being, for They are centres in the LIFE which is expressing itself through the medium of a solar system.
You can see how little use there is in my enlarging further upon this. Its sole usefulness is to give an expanding impulse to the consciousness of the disciple and to stir his imagination (the seed of the intuition), so that even whilst occupied in expressing the M and then the m, he will be reaching out after the Sound.
Earlier I pointed out that the sound of the A.U.M., the sound of the O.M. and the SOUND itself are all related to vibration and to its differing and varied effects. The secret of the Law of Vibration is progressively revealed as people learn to sound forth the Word in its three aspects. Students would also do well to ponder on the distinction between the breath and the Sound, between the process of breathing and of creating directed vibratory activity. The one is related to Time and the other to Space and they are distinct from each other; and (as the Old Commentary puts it) "the Sound, the [Page 55] final and yet initiating Sound, concerns that which is neither Time nor Space; it lies outside the manifested ALL, the Source of all that is and yet is naught." (No thing. A.A.B.)
There are, therefore, great points of tension from which the Sacred Word, in its major aspects, goes forth. Let me list them for you:
1. The creative point of tension—a tension achieved by a planetary Logos when He responds to the Sound of the Ineffable Name and breathes it forth in His turn in three great Sounds which made one Sound on His Own plane of expression, thus creating the manifested world, the impulse towards the unfoldment of consciousness, and the influence of life itself. This is the Sound.
2. Seven points of tension on the downward or involutionary arc; these produce the seven planets, the seven states of consciousness, and the expression of the seven ray impulses. This constitutes the sevenfold A.U.M. of which the Ageless Wisdom takes note. It is related to the effect of spirit or life upon substance, thus originating form and creating the prison of the divine life.
3. The A.U.M. itself or the Word made flesh; this creates finally a point of tension in the fourth kingdom in nature, at which point the evolutionary cycle becomes possible and the first dim note of the O.M. can be faintly heard. In the individual man this point is reached when the personality is an integrated and functioning whole and the soul is beginning to control it. It is an accumulative tension arrived at through many lives. This process is expressed in the Masters' Archives as follows:
You must remember that these symbols are an attempt on my part to translate ancient signatures in modern occidental type. The only one which is the same in all languages is, esoterically, the A.U.M.
4. Then comes a point of tension from which the man eventually achieves liberation from the three worlds and stands as a free soul; he is then a point within the circle—the point indicating the point of tension from which he now works, and the circle the sphere of his self-initiated activity.
I need not carry the story further; from tension to tension the initiate passes just as do all human beings, aspirants, disciples and the lower grades of initiates; from one expansion of consciousness to another they go until the third initiation is undergone and points of tension (qualified by intension and purpose) supersede all previous efforts and the will aspect begins to control.
Here, briefly, is a fresh slant upon the familiar theme of the Word—a theme preserved in some form by all the world religions but a theme which, like all else, has been so materialised that it is the task of the Hierarchy to restore the knowledge of its meaning, of its threefold application and its involutionary and evolutionary significances. Students would do well to remember that its sounding forth vocally upon the physical plane means little. The important factors are to sound it silently, inaudibly and within the head; then, having done so, to hear it reverberate there and to recognise that this self-initiated Sound—breathed forth from a point of tension—is a part of the original SOUND as it takes form as a Word. When a man perfectly empresses the A.U.M., he can then sound the O.M. with effectiveness from progressive points of tension, until the third initiation. Then the effect of the O.M. is such that the personality as a separate identity disappears, the soul emerges in all its glory, and the first faint sound of the originating SOUND breaks upon the ear of the transfigured initiate. This is the Voice referred to in the Biblical account of the Transfiguration. This Voice says, "This is my beloved Son." The initiate registers the fact that he has been accepted by Shamballa and has made his first contact with the Planetary Logos, the Hierophant, the Initiator at the third initiation, just as the Christ, the Master of all the Masters, is the Initiator and the Hierophant at the first two initiations.
The Word, however, with which we are now dealing is not the Sacred Word itself, but a signal or sound of acceptance. It is translated in this Rule by the phrase: Accepted as a group. This refers to aggregates and blended combinations through which the Soul in relation to personalities, the Monad in relation to the Spiritual Triad, the Master in relation to His Ashram, and Shamballa in relation to the Hierarchy, can work, expressing plan in the initial stages of contact, and purpose in the final stages. Bear in mind that the analogy holds true all the way through. A personality is an aggregate of forms and of substantial lives which, when fused and blended, present a unified sumtotal, animated by desire or aspiration, by plan or purpose, and functioning in its place under the inspiration of a self-initiated inner programme. Progress, from the larger angle and from the standpoint of Those Who see life in terms of ever enlarging Wholes, is from group to group.
This pronouncement, issuing from a point of tension, is the Word of the soul as it integrates with the threefold personality when that personality is consciously ready for such a fusion. The hold of the soul upon its instruments of expression, the network of the seven centres and the subsidiary centres, becomes intensified and energy pours in, forcing the acquiescent personality fully to express the ray type of the soul, and therefore subordinating the ray of the personality (and its three subsidiary rays) to the dominating soul energy. This first great integration is a fusion of force with energy. Here is a statement of deep import, embodying one of the first lessons an initiate has to master. It is one which can only be properly comprehended through life experience, subject to interpretation in the world of meaning. Some understanding of what this implies will come as the disciple masters the distinction between soul activity and the action of matter, between emotion and love, between the intelligent will and the mind, between plan and purpose. In so doing he acquires the capacity to find his point of tension at any given moment, and this growing capacity eventually brings him consciously to recognise group after group as units with which identification must be sought.
He finds his soul through the fusion of soul and personality; he finds his group through the absorption of this fusing soul-form with a Master's group, and finally he is absorbed into the Master's Ashram; there he, in concert with his group brothers in that Ashram, is fused and blended with the Hierarchy and hears the extension of the Word, spoken originally by his soul: Accepted as a group. Later, much later, he participates at that august recognition which comes when the Voice issues forth—as annually it does—from the centre at Shamballa and the seal is set on the acceptance of the Hierarchy, with all its new associates, by the Lord of the World. This acceptance involves those initiates of the third degree who have been integrated more closely into the hierarchical life than ever before. This is the signal to them (and to their Seniors Who have heard it year after year) that they are part of the instrument whose purpose is to fulfill the plan. Thus the great syntheses are slowly taking place. It has taken many aeons, for evolution (especially in the earlier stages) moves slowly. R&I p57
PATH V. The Ray Path.
The Adjuster holds the balances, and the scales are duly set. The energies converge, and shake them out of equilibrium. They descend sometimes upon the right hand side and sometimes upon the left.
The Energies are five in number and their major hue is gold.
Three great Words are spoken by the Adjuster, and each Word is heard by those whose ears have been deaf for seven cycles and whose lips have been sealed for nigh upon fourteen rounded terms.
The first Word contains the value numerical of the synthetic indigo. It reverberates forth. The scales descend. He who hath ears to hear it, mounteth the scales and addeth to that Word another sound. None have heard it save he who hath stood before the Prince of Doom, and hath seen darkness descend upon the fivefold sons of flesh.
This dual Word buildeth a wall which surroundeth the Son of Man whose lips are dumb. It holdeth Him secure until the Word is spoken which will unseal the fount of speech.
This silence lasteth for seven times forty-nine years and each year for a day.
When the Silent One within the wall seeth the Ray approach, when He changeth the key of the earlier spoken Word, the disruption of the wall is seen and a door openeth before Him.
The second Word holds hid the number of the sacred blue. As it reverberates, the scales ascend, and the man who seeketh to mount within them seeth the moment pass and knoweth not what to do.
He struggleth for speech and raiseth His right hand in supplication to the great
Adjuster. From the sacred halls of the
City of the
"As the power enters by that which is uppermost, and as it issues from the lotus within the head of Him who hath held His peace, utter this WORD...and look within."
He who hath held His speech breaks then the silence. He utters the four deep sounds which cause the scale again to drop within His reach. Another door is seen; it opens wide and thus the WAY is trodden.
The third Word holds securely sealed the key to the outer blue. It contains the order for inversion, and only those can hear that Word whose ears have been closed for eleven aeons. It is never heard within the realms of pain. Few therefore hear it, and those few elude the scales, escape the fiery eye of the great Adjuster and in Their very blindness find the Path which lieth upon the further side of the scales.
These Words of high direction issue from that which lieth upon the...of the directing Life which holdeth our Lord of Life upon His Path.
TCF 1277