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The Zodiacal Meditations:
Process, Technique and Formula

by The Tibetan
(From unpublished works, uncovered in the archives of the School for Esoteric Studies)

Before we outline these meditations, I would like to throw some light upon three words that are frequently used in connection with meditation and that have a peculiar significance in these particular meditations. 

I desire clarity, if possible, in order that the work can be effective in conditioning the consciousness of the race later in this century.  [i.e., the 20th Century, just past.)

Familiarity with these ideas is possible today and some practice given to these formulas even if the seed thought is withheld for the present.  These three words are: Process, Technique and Formula.  Let us take them in turn.

Process:  These meditations will be of no service to the disciple unless they eventually emerge in your minds as one complete whole, and unless they present a synthetic series of events in which you are a participant.  They differ from ordinary working rituals. The effectiveness of ordinary rituals is dependent upon the planned intelligent thinking that lies behind them while they are being used.  They are intended to be the result of understanding, organized purpose, potent intent and a stable, poised consciousness.  The thinking that underlies them must precede their use. 

While employing “formulas of evocation,” there is no such mental disturbance as progressive thought.  There is simply the attitude of invocation, a memorized capacity to follow the meditation almost automatically, plus an unswerving focused intention based upon the Will.  The synthesis of attitudes can and will precipitate the energy invoked and guide it to the receptive center, earlier determined by ray, need and capacity.

The process referred to is that of subjective, conscious preparation that precedes the meditation work.  By this I do not mean any period of set work done prior to the invocative-evocative activity.  I refer to a constantly cultivated attitude of mind, of continuous thinking and a steady comprehension of the work to be done.  This can take place at any time as the disciple proceeds about his current duties.

When he begins the more formal ritualistic process, much of the initial preparation will have been done.  This disciple will have familiarized himself with the qualities, nature and objectives of his Sun Sign and appreciates, therefore, the nature of the apparatus and equipment with which he has been provided by the Soul and has grasped both the good and bad aspects with which he must deal.  He knows the nature of his present ray in relation to the Sun Sign and has considered whether this ray dominates his daily life or is conditioned by the Soul ray.  He is aware, therefore, of his life problem, of his immediate objectives, of his assets as a disciple and of his limitations.

He has studied also the nature and attributes of his Rising Sign; he has pondered upon his Soul objectives and goals and has linked the quality of his Soul ray to his life work, to his esoteric group and, therefore to some one of the Masters under Whose instruction he serves.  (Forget not that I told you that only pledged disciples can use these formulas in their full complete form).  He realizes that he must himself function as a receiving point for the blended energies of the Sun Sign and the Rising Sign and that – as a receiving point – he possesses within himself two points of reception: the head center and one other center, according to ray, need or desired activity.

He is aware likewise of the nature of the qualifying energies of the Opposing Sign, but knows that until he has taken the third initiation and has received the second half of this meditation formula, that his perception, powers of appropriation and response must remain largely theoretical and intellectually perceived and that as yet the ability to fuse the third energy must remain in the realm of “wishful thinking” and not in the realm of practical experience.

He knows that the dynamic will lying behind this meditation is that of applied will and of consistent, consecutive thought.  At present his will nature is largely embryonic because will is not determination, persistent intelligent effort or emphasized desire; it is the scientific application of a peculiar energy whose qualities are synthesis, power to “detach from limitation,” the destruction of boundaries or (as it is sometimes called in the language of esotericism) the ability “to perforate the ring-pass-not of the blended Soul and form and release the spirit into larger life.” 

It is, therefore, a dynamic scientific application of energy in order to effect liberation from limitation.  It is the will-to-be and is not the will-to-do or the will-to-see, both of these being aspects of Soul and form.

I would have you think this out carefully, for it is essential that some glimmer of understanding as to the nature of the will is present in our consciousness when I employ the word in these meditations.  It is necessary for you to grasp the fact that the spiritual will is not what you have ordinarily supposed, but is a definite type of energy – the highest present in our planetary life.  To profit by these exercises you must appreciate this fact and strive for intuitive perception of truth.  All the processes undertaken must precede the use of the meditation formula.  Once that is undertaken, thought must cease and a much higher activity must supervene. 

A purely automatic formula will take the place of ordinary meditation, and the disciple becomes simply a point of evocation; he proceeds with the desired work; the mental processes end because they have been previously so effectively carried forward.  The disciple has achieved in his consciousness:

1.       A point or focus of illumination –m he stands in the light.

2.       A position of intense polarization, as a Soul focused in the head and mind.

3.       An orientation that is undisturbed.

4.       A realization of the nature of the work to be done that is, for him, his highest point of clarification.

Thought is therefore arrested, and another type of work takes its place.  It might be said (in my effort to clarify this process in your consciousness) that these meditations are only carried forward effectively when the stage of contemplation has been reached and that it is the Soul, in the last analysis, who employs these meditations.  It is the soul, as anchored in the body, using the mind and affecting the brain that uses these meditations, and the personality “standing in the Sun” sees the reality “rising over the horizon.”  Then, facing the imminent possibilities, the soul invokes the polar opposite (Spirit or Monad, symbolized by the “Sign of Completion”) and, in the tension of the point of crisis precipitated, evokes the will that unifies the three.  This unification is the result of the correct use of the formula, preceded by many hours of quiet process.

Technique: This grows out of a clear understanding of the goal, out of the subjective activity of the preceding mental process and a theoretical grasp of the formula.  Technique applies to the scientific handling of the equipment, in this case the disciple’s form nature or inherited apparatus – physical, emotional and mental – with which His Soul has endowed him in any incarnation. 

This equipment, governed by the Sun Sign, must be made responsive to the energies emanating from the Rising Sign and the relatively brief cyclic interplay that has characterized the relation between the Sun Sign and the Rising Sign.  His equipment, through which the energies emanating from the Rising Sign must be expressed, is fourfold in manifestation:  the mental body, the psychic nature, the etheric or vital body and the dense physical vehicle.  For the handling of these, the disciple has arrived at his own technique, differing for each vehicle. 

There is an interesting analogy made clear by the following statements:

1.       The vital body is usually the reservoir of the lower form energies, particularly those of the emotional nature.  These direct and condition the dense physical body.  They correspond to the function of the Sun Sign as it conditions the disciple on the physical plane in connection with his apparatus of expression.

2.       The vital body must be brought under mental control, and when it is so controlled it marks a most important step forward in the life of the aspirant.  This is a correspondence to the control of the Rising Sign over the Sun Sign.

3.       Later, the vital body becomes the repository of Soul energy, and the Soul then directs the physical plane life of the disciple.  This is a correspondence to the control of the Monad and therefore to the fusion of the Opposite Sign with the Sun Sign, via the Rising Sign.

The techniques of control that the disciple uses as he first brings the personality under the control of the Soul (the Sun Sign under the influence of the Rising Sign) and later brings these two – after the third initiation – under the control of the Monad (the polar opposite) and determined by ray, point in evolution, yoga practices and temperament.  Ponder on this.  These techniques must be self-initiated and self-developed and are in the nature of subjective determinations, objectively applied.

Formulas:  These formulas are ancient rituals, rhythms, ceremonials, forms of approach or repositories of Words of Power that are given to the disciple when he is ready, in order to bring about certain fusions, needed crisis, or esoteric events.  I know not how else to convey them to you.  They are not in any way developed by the disciple, nor are they the result of his own thinking and planning. 

They are the property of the Great White Lodge, are of most ancient origin, and must not be changed or modified by the disciple in any respect or they will lose their potency and spiritual effectiveness. 

One of the difficulties with which we are faced in conveying them from East to West is that – in the process of translation – quite a little of their power and significance may appear to be lost.  But it is in the intent and in the one-pointed concentration of their use that the disciple will prove their potency, and in the hands of Western disciples they may prove of still greater effectiveness than the hands of the Eastern worker, owing to the great mental power of the average Western disciple.  They are both potent and effective.  These words do not mean the same thing. 

Such formulas as I am now [1940-50?] attempting to give to the world in these twelve meditations are ritualistic in intent and dynamic in result.  They are, however, dependent upon the inner preceding thought processes of the disciple and the wisdom of his self-applied techniques.  When they fail to produce the needed evocation of the will-to-be or ability to stand in spiritual Being, and required fusion of energies does not take place, it will be because the disciple’s subjective processes and his techniques are at fault.  This is his personal problem and also a protection from premature success.

More I may not say or impart.  It is for you to begin the task of instituting the right processes of thought and the establishing of the right techniques of discipline.  I have for years worked with this group of aspirants along the lines of technique. 

I have sought ever to emphasize in your consciousness the Technique of Meditation, the Technique of the Presence and the Technique of Service.  According to your success in your understanding of the above will lie your ability to profit – as far as may be possible without the seed thought – by these evocative formulas.  You can see for yourselves that had I given them earlier and prior to the teaching imparted by me through my books the past years, they would have been meaningless.

These formulas are exceedingly brief; they are not long, thoughtful and reflective meditations.  They are dependent upon Process and Alignment, upon Experience and Focus, and also upon the ability of the disciple to function as a Soul.  They fall into two main stages:

Stage I:  Invocation and Evocation. Preparatory.

1.       In this stage the twelve seed thoughts are employed as the invoking agent.

2.       It is the stage of evocation, of approach and of the sublimation of the aspiration.

3.       The climax of this stage falls into two parts:

a.       The will-to-be is evoked, and when this takes place the Opposite Sign and the Rising Sign vibrate within the same magnetic field

b.      The quality of the Rising Sign (supplemented eventually but gradually by the potency of the Opposite Sign) is focused by the evoked will and oriented toward the Sun Sign.

Interlude of conscious Soul attention.

 

Stage II.  Precipitation and Appropriation.

1.       In this stage the symbol is the precipitating agent.

2.       It is the stage of the descent of energy as a result of invocation, producing evocation, of reception and of transmission to the particular center below the head center.

3.       The climax of this stage falls into three parts:

a.       The magnetic power of love comes into activity and draws down the energies evoked and oriented in stage I.

b.      The esoteric planet (whichever it may be), the highest head center and the center to be stimulated for a “triangle of reception.”

c.       A definite act of reception and conscious appropriation.

Interlude of personality assimilation.

In my conditioning remarks (pp.5-7) I divided the work into four stages.  I am here simplifying these.  The stage of preparation, there called Stage One, is simply the stage or process with which I have dealt in this instruction.  It also includes the stage of technique. 

The stages of invocation and evocation are here placed by me together under Stage I, because they are purely subjective, begin at the highest point of alignment and orientation, and are followed by an intensive interlude of Soul perception or of sensitive response to the blended energies of the Opposite Sign (an expression of some phase of the monadic will) and the Rising Sign (an expression of Soul purpose).

Then follows the stage of precipitation in which the disciple upon the physical plane – functioning through his dedicated personality – appropriates, consciously and with deliberation, the descending energy and thus blends within himself the energies of the Opposing sign, the Rising Sign and the Sun Sign.  This produces a focus of energies of enormous potency in the active expression of the disciple’s Hierarchical service.  You can see by the above, therefore, the need for caution on my part in giving out these meditations formulas.  They are exceedingly potent; they lead to a great increase of energy where the Rising Sign is accurately determined and can only be safely employed by the consecrated and pledged disciple who is dedicated to the service of humanity and the Hierarchy.

I would also call you attention to the fact that in any one incarnation the Monad works through the Opposing Sign, the Soul through the Rising Sign and the personality through the Sun Sign, and these necessarily vary from life to life.

After due process of thought upon the qualities and effects of the three signs and the nature of the esoteric planet, and having achieved the needed alignment, orientation and focused attention, the disciple then ceases to reflect and think and become a dynamic point of activity.  He then proceeds to work.