The Mode of Awakening the Intuition
Glamor - A World Problem - Certain Preliminary Clarifications
Articles By Alice A. Bailey
There are many ways in which the intuition can be drawn into activity, and one of the most useful and potent is the study and interpretation of symbols.
Symbols are the outer and visible forms of the inner spiritual realities, and when the facility in discovering the reality behind any specific form has been gained, that very fact will indicate the awakening of the intuition.
First ray people belong to what is called the "Destroyer Ray" and the power of the first aspect, which is the power to bring to an end, flows through them.
They will have a tendency to destroy, as they build, through a wrong direction of energy, through over-emphasis of energy in some particular direction, or through misuse of energy in work with themselves or others.
Many first ray people have the tendency to pride themselves on this and hide behind a plea that, being upon the first ray, a destructive tendency is unavoidable. Such is not the case. Builders, such as second ray people always are, have to learn to destroy, when prompted by group love and acting under the Will or first ray aspect. Destroyers have to learn to build, acting ever under the impulse of group love and utilizing the power of attachment in a detached manner. Both groups, builders and destroyers, must ever work from the standpoint of reality, from the inner nucleus of truth and must "take their stand at the center."
The study of symbols tends to bring this about and, when carried out with faithfulness and diligence, will produce three effects:
1. It trains in the power to penetrate behind the form and to arrive at the subjective reality.
2. It tends to bring about a close integration between soul-mind-brain, and when that is brought about, the inflow of the intuition and, consequently, of illumination and truth becomes more rapidly possible.
3. It will put a strain upon certain unawakened areas in the brain and arouse into activity the brain cells there found, and this is the first stage in the experience of the aspirant. With the majority of true aspirants, the center between the eyebrows is awakened, whilst the center at the top of the head is vibrating very gently, but is not in full functioning activity. This higher center must be awakened more fully before aspirants can measure up to their full opportunity.
In the study of symbols, I would urge upon you the necessity always to put before yourselves the goal of arriving at the underlying concept of any symbol studied. This concept will ever be synthetic. It will not be detailed and in sections. You may have to arrive at this concept through a study of detail and through arriving at the significance of various sections or parts of the symbol under consideration. When, however, your analysis is completed, you must not rest satisfied until you have summed up the meaning of the symbol in some synthetic idea, concept, meaning or name.
Keywords: The Mode of Awakening the Intuition, A World Problem, meditation, inner world, Alice A. Bailey, intuitive, Articles, UK, South Africa, Cape Town