The first center which the aspirant seeks consciously to energize and on which he concentrates during the early stages of his novitiate, is the heart center. He has to learn to be group conscious, to be sensitive to group ideals, and to be inclusive in his plans and concepts; he has to learn to love collectively and purely, and not be actuated by personality attraction, and the motive of reward. Until there is this awakening in the heart, he cannot be trusted to wield the creative powers of the throat center, for they would be subordinated to self-aggrandizement and ambitions of various kinds.

Here it should be noted that none of these unfoldment can ever be approached from the standpoint of complete static passivity, or from the angle of an entirely new undertaking. We are in process of evolution. Certain aspects of our force centers are already awakened, and functioning in relation to the form aspect, but are not yet expressing soul qualities. We have behind us a long and fruitful past. We are none of us purely selfish or separative. Human society is now cohesive and interdependent. Humanity, as a whole, has already done much in bringing the heart center into partial activity, and in awakening some of the more important aspects of the throat center.

The problem with many aspirants today is that of the solar plexus, for it is wide open, actively functioning and almost fully awakened. The work of transmutation is however going on simultaneously, leading - as one might [198] naturally suppose - to a good deal of difficulty and to chaotic conditions. The heart center is also beginning to vibrate, but is not yet awakened; the throat center is frequently prematurely awakened, through the transfer of energy from the sacral center. This is due to several causes - sometimes to spiritual purpose and intent, but more frequently to a negation of the normal sex life, owing to economic conditions, or to a lack of physical vitality, which predisposes to celibacy. This lack of vital force is in its turn due to many factors, but primarily to a long heredity, producing a degeneracy of the physical body, or to enforced celibacy in past lives; this enforced celibacy was very often the result of monasticism and the living of the mystical life. When this creative awakening finds expression through any of the arts - literature, painting, music, - or in group organization and executive work there is no harm wrought, for the energy finds a normal creative outlet. These points should be remembered by the aspirant. He is facing a most complex problem. He enters blindly into a situation which is the result of a long evolutionary process and to which he has not the key. Especially in the early stages and prior to the first initiation is this the case, for he has no knowledge of the history of the past, nor any prevision as to the future. He has simply to take his equipment and his opportunity and do the best he can, guided by the age-old rules of Raja Yoga, and the light of his own soul.

As the heart center is awakened and the throat center swings into creative work, a definite relation is set up and there is an interplay of energy between the two. This activity in its turn brings about a response from that aspect of the thousand petalled lotus (a synthetic lotus) through which the energy always animating the heart and throat centers normally passes. This responsive [199] activity and interaction brings about two results, and these should be most carefully noted.

First, the light in the head makes its appearance. A sparking (if I might so express it) is set up between the higher positive over-shadowing energy as it is centralized within the form of the thousand-petalled lotus, and the steadily heightening vibration of the heart and throat centers or lotuses. These two lower centers in their turn are responding to the energies being lifted and raised from the centers below the diaphragm.

Secondly, the center between the eyebrows also begins to make its presence felt, and this significant two-petalled lotus begins to vibrate. It symbolizes the work of at-one-ing the soul and the body, the subjective and the objective. In some occult books it is called the lotus with the ninety-six petals, but this is only a differentiation dealing with the energies focused in the two petals. It will be noted that the sum total of the force petals in the centers (excluding the two head centers) amount in all to forty-eight petals. These energies in their two aspects of physical vital energy and soul qualities make up the ninety-six aspects or vibrations of the two petals of the Ajna or eyebrow center. It must be remembered also that the word 'petal' only symbolizes an expression of force and its apparent effect in matter.