Origin of the 28 Rites
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Of these Rules she said "I would call to your attention that in the Fourteen Rules for Applicants and in the Fourteen Rules for Disciples and Initiates you have the two great foundational courses of the coming Schools of the Mysteries."
As she explained it, the word "Rules" meant "tried experience and age-long undertakings that are recognised by those for whom they exist and hence evoke from them a prompt intuitive response. They need no enforcement but are voluntarily accepted, and are put to trial in the belief that the witness of the past and the testimony of the ages warrant the effort required for the expressed requirements."
While this definition of the word "Rules" may have been quite reasonable and accepted by her generation (1880 - 1949), to subsequent generations "Rule" has been understood in the context of authoritative control or direction, or to decide and declare judicially. Nothing about the more modern concept of the word suggests a voluntary acceptance or elicits an intuitive response. It does suggest that if a person doesn't accept the rule, whatever it may be, that there will be unpleasant consequences. It is for this reason that we do not use the word "Rules" but have instead decided to use the word "Rites"
We use the word "Rites" as in Rites of Passage, meaning a significant act, event or ceremony performed to facilitate an evolutionary shift in consciousness, lifestyle and culture. To us, this word more effectively connotes the fact that the Rites are intuitively sought out, recognized, understood and are only effective when voluntarily accepted.
We also describe the two sets of 14 Rites differently than Alice Bailey did. She identified the first 14 Rites as Rules for Applicants and the second set as Rules for Disciples and Initiates. While we agree with this assignment of the Rites, we feel that a further articulation of who they are for and what techniques will be used would be useful in their description.
The first 14 Rites are for those on the Path of Soul fusion. This is the path of spiritual Love and Wisdom, on which these qualities of the Soul are fused into the personality so that all thoughts, words and deeds are qualified and controlled by the Soul. Before this process of Soul fusion has begun to occur there can be no understanding or appreciation for the second set of 14 Rites. The second set is for those on the Path of the Monad. On this Path of spiritual Will and Purpose we become identified with our Soul Group and with the Planetary Logos and Her trans-human Purposes. Thus, we refer to the first set of 14 Rites as the Rites for the Path of Soul Fusion and the second set as the Rites for the Path of Monadic Identification.
We use the word "Rites" as in Rites of Passage, meaning a significant act, event or ceremony performed to facilitate an evolutionary shift in consciousness, lifestyle and culture. To us, this word more effectively connotes the fact that the Rites are intuitively sought out, recognized, understood and are only effective when voluntarily accepted.
We also describe the two sets of 14 Rites differently than Alice Bailey did. She identified the first 14 Rites as Rules for Applicants and the second set as Rules for Disciples and Initiates. While we agree with this assignment of the Rites, we feel that a further articulation of who they are for and what techniques will be used would be useful in their description.
The first 14 Rites are for those on the Path of Soul fusion. This is the path of spiritual Love and Wisdom, on which these qualities of the Soul are fused into the personality so that all thoughts, words and deeds are qualified and controlled by the Soul. Before this process of Soul fusion has begun to occur there can be no understanding or appreciation for the second set of 14 Rites. The second set is for those on the Path of the Monad. On this Path of spiritual Will and Purpose we become identified with our Soul Group and with the Planetary Logos and Her trans-human Purposes. Thus, we refer to the first set of 14 Rites as the Rites for the Path of Soul Fusion and the second set as the Rites for the Path of Monadic Identification.
This well mapped path of evolution leads to certain great spiritual initiations, or expansions of consciousness resulting in the discovery of our true origins, finding our evolutionary niche in the biosphere, evolving our singular potential and achieving the peak evolutionary aim for our species, as well as aiding the Planetary Logos with Her own evolutionary goals.
The 28 Rites are the result of the observations and experiences of spiritual evolutionary initiates who've gone before us on the path. They represent the wisdom left to us by the saints and sages, the wise and loving men and women of all nations and cultures who've shown us the true meaning and methods of evolution, not by theory or dogma but by experiment through cycles of intense difficulty and complexity and the arrival at deeply liberating insights and emancipation from struggle. They gained the freedom to know, to love and to serve as Messengers, Healers and Visionaries with the power to move humanity forward. It was Alice A. Bailey in collaboration with her Tibetan teacher however, who were entirely responsible for organizing these age-old observations into the lucid and articulate "Fourteen Rules for Applicants and 14 Rules for Initiates". She published the first set of 14 Rules in 1922 in the book Initiation, Human and Solar. The second set of 14 Rules were published in 1960 in The Rays and the Initiations.
Djwhal Khul,
Alice A. Bailey's
Tibetan Teacher.
Alice A. Bailey's
Tibetan Teacher.
Alice A. Bailey
6-16-1880 to 12-15-1949
