5
Address by
BELOVED SERAPIS BEY
March 30, 1954
"Candidate for the Ascension, what bring ye to this Retreat? I bring to you the
blessings of my Light and the victory that is within it!"
So, have I addressed you, beloved ones, age after age, century after century
when your light brought you to the door of the halls of Luxor. Do you remember
those hours? I have endeavored to recreate within the substance of your etheric
bodies that memory, to CHARGE through my energies that Cosmic Fire which at the
very moment when the call for your Ascension comes, shall, render the assistance
in removing the final magnetic pull of Earth, assisting you into the glory of
that full God freedom! That is my reason for being! I have guarded... I have
guided... I have stood within the Ascension Flame in order that there might be a
way and means by which the mankind of Earth, when through with the folly of the
senses, could return to their God Estate. Since the "fall of man" if there were
not a Guardian Brotherhood of the Ascension Flame, there would be no way back
HOME! Have you thought, have you
pondered, have you within the deepest recesses of your being
realized what it would be if there were
no
way
back home?
To this end have we remained, many of us, prisoners of love upon this dark star.
Your names are written in the Book of Life. You are among those whom the Lords
of Karma chose previous to your incarnation as possible candidates to pass into
the Ascended Master Octave at the close of an Earth life. For this reason, have
you been given extraordinary opportunity
in contact with the Ascended Master
Brotherhood, that you might "make things right" in your individual worlds, that
you might in service, cooperative and individual, render the balance
to life required to cut and
sever forever the necessity for reincarnation.
Let us IMMEDIATELY and FOREVER remove from the
consciousness the feeling and the attitude that service is such a magnificent
gift of your life to the Universe.
It
is rather
an OPPORTUNITY given you individually so that you may be set free. You have been
especially chosen. Across the bosom of your etheric body has been written by the
Brotherhood of the Ascension these very words Candidate for the Ascension,
within the course of an Earth life." You have been given a Sponsor who
throughout this Earth life has stimulated within your outer consciousness and
feelings the desire to know Truth. This Sponsor has loosened your consciousness
from the mass mind, from the orthodox channels, has encouraged you to seek the
spiritual law in occult knowledge and to get even a smattering of understanding
of the work of the Spiritual Hierarchy.
WHY!
In order that through the energies of your
being voluntarily consecrated to setting life free, you might earn the privilege
of wiping the dust of Earth from your feet, FACING
your Source and hearing that great clarion
call which comes at a cosmic moment to every man. Then entering into the glory
of your God-free body, standing in the Sphere with those you love, you serve the
Universe in light, harmony and beauty throughout all eternity! Would that I
might convey to the consciousness of mankind the happiness of the Ascended
Master Octave! Would that you might feel within yourselves for an instant the
joy of that freedom from those sense-bound bodies that you wear! Nothing no
service, no discipline would ever be a pall upon you as you faced that glorious
goal.
I Am dedicated to see that you pass through the fires of purification and that
you who have applied for the opportunity of gaining the Ascension might preserve
unto that victory!
Let me again give you the story of your entrance into Luxor. You have all been
there. We are heart-friends of many ages.
Few times I have left the Retreat. at
Luxor.
Few times I have
taken incarnation outside of the sacred Land of Egypt.
Within the heart of the Ascension Temple at Luxor is a
magnetic power of the Sacred Fire which draws
within the
compass of that Retreat, (either in the finer
inner bodies or, on rare occasions when the individual is very developed,
within
the flesh) those who have the possibility within the lifestream to attain the
Ascension within the compass of an Earth life. No other individual even enters
within the outer walls, those who do enter stand before my Presence. There I
speak as I spoke to you this day, each hopeful aspirant standing before my
Presence and hearing those words which open the door to the mental and feeling
world - "Candidate for the Ascension, what bring ye to this Holy Place?" Then
there is externalized from within the lifestream the thoughts and feelings which
are the gifts of the consciousness. It is possible within the matter of a moment
to design the discipline for the neophyte. Uncomfortable indeed is the
externalization of the thoughts and feelings and yet it is the very first
initiation through which the hopeful and the brave must pass.
Then he must successfully pass through the disciplines of the seven great
Temples. The neophyte first must learn the great surrender, must learn within
his heart, soul and spirit to find and desire to cooperate with the Will of God.
The neophyte is placed within a cell and allowed to commune there with his own
Holy I Am Presence, endeavoring to contact that God-Self and to develop within
himself a humility before it. Within this first great Temple, under the
direction of the great Morya and his assistant Chohans, comes the dissolving of
rebellion. Rebellion within the lifestream is the feeling which brought every
man and woman from a state of grace and constant communion with the God-Self.
Rebellion took Lucifer from the Heart of Heaven, and the rebellion against
discipline and self-correction is a
BARRIER
to real spiritual progress. It does not
mean one should assume servility to any human self, or submission even to the
Will
of the Master, but the quality of rebellion
that is within the consciousness must be melted away. We have various ways and
means of drawing out of the dormant consciousness those qualities and a good
number of our candidates remove themselves from the Temple before passing
through this first initiation, I regret to say. That is why at this time I have
set into motion at inner levels those currents which will bring forth particular
melodies to dissolve rebellion in the
feelings, rebellion not only against injustice... rebellion against
conditions... rebellion against limitation. They are all ramifications of the
same quality within the feeling world that must go. Let me point out that it
does not require "submission" to limitation to substitute for rebellion, but a
constant alert awareness setting into action the law which is in your hands to
remedy conditions and yet keeping yourself harmonious, peaceful, constructively
employed during this process. Thus, you are master of your energy.
Those few who pass from the First Temple are taken into the
Second Temple, known as the Temple of Learning. Here under the Brothers guarded
and guided by Kuthumi, or one of his assistants, they are given the instruction
in the Law. Here they develop understanding of the laws of cause and effect and
all those laws which you are presently engaged in learning. It is a pleasant and
a happy time, a time of the sowing of the seeds, a time of the breathing of life
upon those seeds and bringing forth a harvest in works. It is a time when the
artist develops his skill; the musician develops the dexterity of musical
accomplishment; a time when the teacher becomes eloquent in the capacity to
convey knowledge and stir enthusiasms in the students; it is a time when the
statesman gains the vision similar to that which has been incorporated in the
founding of your beloved United States of America; it is a time when all that is
good develops and grows and the enthusiasms of the Brothers and Sisters is
tremendous.
From this initiation, most pass
successfully into the Third Temple under the great protection and guidance of
our Beloved Paul, the Venetian. Here again, we come to the discipline of living
with our brothers,
of
becoming
our brother's keeper.
Here the neophytes are
placed in living quarters with lifestreams who have within themselves those
tendencies which are particularly aggravating to the others. Here again the
numbers dwindle and with great feelings of relief, the neophytes rush for the
door and leave us. It is unfortunate, but to live with one's fellowman is one of
the greatest tests of the unascended state. Yet, although the graciousness, the
beauty, the kindliness of this great and mighty Chohan are so great that they
would melt a heart of stone, the discipline which he gives in learning tolerance
and understanding is such that few survive!
From there we move into the Fourth Temple (my Temple). This
is the first personal contact I have with the neophyte since
the
entering of the lifestream into the Retreat. It
is the time when the neophyte must, for the first
time, draw enough purity to see his
Presence or his Holy Christ Self face to face.
It is an initiation when the Master himself must stand
within the aura of the initiate. It is a time when many nefarious
presentations from within the inner bodies come to the consciousness of the
student, when the "many voices" speak; when only discrimination, prayer,
selflessness and humility can discern the Voice of the Silence. It is a time
when, if possible, the ego
is
inflated, when the voices speak of great things the self shall do. It is the
time when "self" is shorn of all egotism, subtle and apparent and after passing
through this initiation (during which I stand within the aura and pray the
prayer of my heart to God), the lifestream is ready for the consecration.
When
the ever-dwindling numbers enter into the Fifth Temple, under the great
Hilarion, we come to the beautiful Festival of Consecration. In this Temple, we
then dedicate the priests and priestesses of the Flame-the Sacred Fire. Up to
this point, they are not permitted to attend the Flame, or to officiate on the
altar; they are the congregation, they are the supplicants, they are the
neophytes with the shaved heads, the linen garments, the bare feet and the
hopeful hearts. When they enter Temple Five, having passed through the
initiation of joining the Christ Self in humility, selflessness and service.
they are ready then to have the garments of consecration, the vestments, placed
upon them, the golden sandals on their feet, the silken garments upon their
bodies. Then the great Hilarion, or the Beloved Raphael, or one of the Members
of their Court, perform the Service of Consecration. The light is consecrated
before it enters into the body. The emotional body is consecrated and it is made
visible to the entire assembly. The etheric body is consecrated. The mental body
is consecrated and after those inner bodies are so blessed, every one of the
senses is consecrated by the presiding Priest and by myself. It is a magnificent
ceremony and it shall one day be woven into your ceremonies of the future before
the lifestreams go forth in more than ordinary service. There is given the
consecration of the hands through which flow the Flame of Healing… the
consecration of the feet which become the anchorage of the Sacred Fire wherever
that body moves... the consecration of the lips to speak the Sacred words which
invoke and command the manifestation of precipitation and healing powers… the
consecration of the energies through the eye's enable the
lifestream to see perfection and call it
forth.
It is a magnificent activity, the details of which I cannot describe at this
moment because of the human limitation in the outer world of so-called time.
The Priests and Priestesses then, magnificent in their robes, each one
representing the Ray which is the natural activity of the lifestream, are
assigned to the Temple worship. Here they serve for shorter or longer periods,
some go no further than this initiation. Many of you within this room have
remained the Priests and Priestesses of the Sacred Fire during an entire
embodiment because, again, when you come into Temple Six, the initiation in
selflessness and service is such that many do not choose to incorporate their
energies in a mission that might not be successful, and lose the accumulated
good which brought them to the Temple worship.
In Temple Six the Brothers become ministering mendicants, leaving Luxor to test
their light in the world of form. The beautiful vestments are taken from their
shoulders and folded away, also, the silken garments, the magnificent headdress,
the jewels of light, the scepters of power are all removed. Clothed again as a
wandering beggar, the ministering beings, under the Devotional Ray, go into the
world of form with no credentials and with a vow of silence... there is no way
to make even the spiritually alert and worthy know of their qualifications
except in the expansion of their own light which, through the eyes, the gesture,
the radiation and the aura have to render the service of expanding the light and
encouraging the Ascension within those they contact.
Here I lost you many times. Many times, you went forth to set the world on fire!
Many times, I saw your receding backs as you walked clown the steps, out the
door and the sands of the desert claimed you and only too soon thereafter,
the senses!
Yet it is all part of evolution and we are
allowed by Law to feel no pain. Yet we can feel added happiness when you return,
as here you are today.
Those who do return and have through the ages, bringing back the sheaves of
their service in the world of form, are ready to enter into the Seventh Great
Temple and in the action of the Violet Fire, every atom and cell of their being
becomes a ceremony of externalizing God's Will. They become, each one, like a
window through which the God life flows without impure qualification of any kind
except to expand the borders of the
Kingdom. Each one is like a fountain which has neither form nor self and in this
cloister, they remain until the close of the Earth span and the Ascension from
my own arms and heart is assured.
I hope you have enjoyed this cursory sketch of our endeavors, because your life
in the world of form is subjecting you to much the same initiations and you can
measure yourselves, your successes and your failures without the promptings of a
Guru, knowing within the honesty of your own heart wherein you need to develop
more light and wherein you are already master. In this way, each man becomes his
own teacher and you pass through the Ascension Flame into the perfection of the
great Priest or Priestesses of Ceremonial and at the close of your Earth life
shall have your Freedom.
Remember, beloved ones,
I Am Embodied Discipline!
For many centuries people have feared that discipline. Yet what is discipline
but application of a mechanical law, which changes the quality of your energy
and connects you with the source of all good, harmony, supply and with your own
Christ Self! Discipline is nothing more than applying the mechanical law of
consciously changing the quality of your energy. Get away from the sense of
rebellion against discipline. There is, you might say, a discipline in the
mechanical world... your automobile runs on petrol and if you place water within
it you do not have the result you require. Your physical body will give you the
greatest possible service if you abide within the laws of harmony, if you
restrain yourself from taking into the physical vehicle those certain substances
which change its natural vibratory action, disconnect it from the Harmony of the
Spheres and in every way make you an unfit conductor for your God Presence.
In the outer world, there is discipline... even your rugged football heroes abide within the discipline of a good night's sleep, of abstinence from smoke and drink, to make themselves efficacious in this game. Your opera singer, your pianist, everyone who rises above the masses and becomes more than ordinary in development, abides within the discipline to train the body and to make the mind alert. Those who do not wish to accept that discipline are the mediocre masses that have not yet the stimulus to wish to be the best, to be the highest, to be the greatest expression and exponent of their art as God incarnate. Do you see? Blessings from the Heart of Luxor.