enters upon his training; it increases.  It is the first test of his strength; he must suffer, must enjoy or endure, more keenly than other men, while yet he has taken on him a duty which does not exist for other men, that of not allowing his suffering to shake him from his fixed purpose.  He has, in fact, at the first step to take himself steadily in hand and put the bit into his own mouth; no one else can do it for him.

The first four aphorisms of “Light on the Path,” refer entirely to astral development.  This development must be accomplished to a certain extent—­that is to say it must be fully entered upon—­before the remainder of the book is really intelligible except to the intellect; in fact, before it can be read as a practical, not a metaphysical treatise.

In one of the great mystic Brotherhoods, there are four ceremonies, that take place early in the year, which practically illustrate and elucidate these aphorisms.  They are ceremonies in which only novices take part, for they are simply services of the threshold.  But it will show how serious a thing it is to become a disciple, when it is understood that these are all ceremonies of sacrifice.  The first one is this of which I have been speaking.  The keenest enjoyment, the bitterest pain, the anguish of loss and despair, are brought to bear on the trembling soul, which has not yet found light in the darkness, which is helpless as a blind man is, and until these shocks can be endured without loss of equilibrium the astral senses must remain sealed.  This is the merciful law.  The “medium,” or “spiritualist,” who rushes into the psychic world without preparation, is a law-breaker, a breaker of the laws of super-nature.  Those who break Nature’s laws lose their physical health; those who break the laws of the inner life, lose their psychic health.  “Mediums” become mad, suicides, miserable creatures devoid of moral sense; and often end as unbelievers, doubters even of that which their own eyes have seen.  The disciple is compelled to become his own master before he adventures on this perilous path, and attempts to face those beings who live and work in the astral world, and whom we call masters, because of their great knowledge and their ability to control not only themselves but the forces around them.

The condition of the soul when it lives for the life of sensation as distinguished from that of knowledge, is vibratory or oscillating, as distinguished from fixed.  That is the nearest literal representation of the fact; but it is only literal to the intellect, not to the intuition.  For this part of man’s consciousness a different vocabulary is needed.  The idea of “fixed” might perhaps be transposed into that of “at home.”  In sensation no permanent home can be found, because change is the law of this vibratory existence.  That fact is the first one which must be learned by the disciple.  It is useless to pause and weep for a scene in a kaleidoscope which has passed.