Sacrifice

1st Law of Group Work (esoteric name: The Law of those who choose to die)
ALICE A. BAILEY: Cosmic Fire, page
1216: “Law 1.  The Law of Sacrifice.  This involves the immolation and sacrifice of that which has been realised.  This is crucifixion, the basic law of all group work, the governing principle which results in each human unit eventually becoming a Saviour.”

1220: “For each of these Laws, there is a definite formula and symbol.  At this stage of teaching or through this Treatise, it is not possible to reveal or impart the formulas.  The symbol may be described …

Law 1.  A rosy cross, with a bird hovering above it.”

ALICE A. BAILEY: Esoteric Psychology II, page 87 – 109
87 – 88: “This law of sacrifice, which is the first of the laws to be grasped by the human intelligence, and is therefore the easiest for man to understand (because he is already governed by it and, therefore, aware of it) came to its first major expression during this slowly disappearing age, the present age, the Piscean age.  This law has always been functioning and active in the world, for it is one of the first of the inner subjective laws to express itself consciously, and as an active ideal, in human life.  The theme of all the world religions has been divine sacrifice, the immolation of the cosmic Deity through, the process of universal creation, and of the world Saviours, by Their death and sacrifice as a means of salvation and eventual release and liberation.  Such is the blindness and such is the contaminating influence of the lower separative man, that this divine law of sacrifice is wielded with the selfish intent of personal and individual salvation.  But the travestied truth remains the unsullied truth on its own plane, and this dominant world law governs the appearing and the disappearing of universes, of solar systems, of races and of nations, of world leaders and world rulers, of incarnating human beings and of revealing Sons of God. …”

ALICE A. BAILEY: Rays and The Initiations, page
266: “But more must still be learnt if the Way of the Higher Evolution is to be trodden and a choice between the seven cosmic Paths made – a choice which curiously enough is not dependent upon ray, for all rays are to be found on all these paths.

This can only be done through synthesis.  This Law of Synthesis

“works through the Seven which yet are One; which points to the seven ways and yet those upon the seven ways are one; which initiates the universal into the many but preserves its integrity; which originates the plan but preserves intact the purpose; which sees the multiplicity needed under the Law of Sacrifice but subordinates that law unto the Law of Synthesis; which breathes forth the many Breaths and yet is Life Itself.”

ALICE A. BAILEY: White Magic, page
530 – 31: “The “prisoners of the planet” fall into two categories:

1. Those lives which act under the influence of a conscious purpose, and who “limit the life that is in them” for a time.  They consciously take form, knowing the end from the beginning.  These Beings in their turn fall into three main groups.
2. The Being Who is the life of our planet, the One in Whom we live and move and have our being.  This being, or sum total of organised lives is sometimes called the planetary Logos, sometimes the Ancient of Days, sometimes God, and sometimes the One Life.
3. Those lives who constitute the Principle of Limitation in a kingdom of nature.  The Life that is, for instance, expressing itself through the medium of the animal kingdom is a self-conscious intelligent entity, working in full awareness of intent and objective, and limiting his sphere of activity in order to provide due opportunity and expression for the myriad lives that find their life and being and sustenance in him.  See you how the law of sacrifice runs throughout creation.
4. The sons of mind, human souls, solar Angels, the divine sons of God who in full self-consciousness work out certain well seen ends through the medium of the human family.

ALICE A. BAILEY: Discipleship in the New Age I, page
260: “I would suggest to you that that which has to be relinquished may not be that upon which you are at this time laying the emphasis. I would remind you also that the Law of Sacrifice is ever followed by the Law of Re-Appropriation in the spiritual sense.”

ALICE A. BAILEY: Discipleship in the New Age II, page
269 – 70: “The will is not, as so many believe, a forceful expression of intention; it is not a fixed determination to do thus and so or to make certain things to be. It is fundamentally an expression of the Law of Sacrifice; under this law, the unit recognises responsibility, identifies itself with the whole, and learns the esoteric significance of the words: “Having nothing (sacrifice) and yet possessing all things (universality).”

271: “Forget not, the Christ and His great Brothers, and all of an even higher initiate-rank than They possess, have a definite goal, but it is one which will only define itself clearly in the third solar system, the system in which the Will of God is the dominant idea, as the Love of God conditions this system in which we now function. But this is not consciousness or awareness; it is a stage of Being which is connected with the Law of Sacrifice—the law which governs those states of being which grow out of the establishment of right human relations.”

286 – 89: “Why, I would ask you, is the will an aspect or an expression of the Law of Sacrifice? Because the will, as considered and understood by the initiate, is essentially that monadic essence, qualified by “fixed determination,” which is identified with the Will or Purpose of the planetary Logos. It is the highest divine aspect which the initiate finally manifests, prior to entering upon the Way of the Higher Evolution. In this connection it is useful to remember that one of the appellations of Sanat Kumara is that of “the Great Sacrifice” …”

376: “The Second Point of Revelation: The Will is an expression of the Law of Sacrifice.”

397 – 98: “It should be remembered that the Law of Sacrifice (in its destroying aspect) is dominant during the second, the third and the fourth initiations.

1. At the second initiation of the Baptism, the control of the astral body is broken …
2. At the third Initiation of Transfiguration, the control of the personality in the three worlds is broken …
3. At the fourth Initiation of Renunciation, the destroying aspect of the Law of Sacrifice brings about the destruction of the causal body, the soul body …”

398 – 99: “… three words should be considered in relation to the Points of Revelation: Procedure. Location. Objective. All three of them are of use here in considering the nature of the impending revelation.

The recognition of these Points of Revelation falls automatically into two main procedures or planned processes:

1. The procedure carried forward under the impulse of the Law of Sacrifice which “destroys all hindrances, breaks down all impediments and removes all individual obstacles, thus releasing the initiate into that vortex of force in which he learns the method of handling the planetary correspondence of that which he has individually overcome.” …
2. The procedure carried forward at the remaining five initiations; …”

402: “That which is rejected and which is occultly thrown out as no longer serving the purpose of the planetary Logos is replaced by that which “will measure up to the purpose of the Father.” It is this concept which has been travestied and distorted by the Christian teaching anent the “vicarious atonement.” This grew out of a basic confusion between the Law of Sacrifice and the Law of Assembly, and took place when any understanding of the nature of the Father remained a supreme mystery; the whole process was then interpreted in terms of the first and highest Aspect of the essential Trinity, of which man knew nothing, instead of in terms of the second Aspect, the building, magnetic aspect of Love.”

403: “The process in which the initiate is now permitted to share during and after the fourth Initiation of Renunciation (which is presented to him in a successive series of points of revelation) is made possible by his submission to the Law of Sacrifice. This, in its turn, brings his consciousness under the influence—in developing stages—of the Law of Assembly.”

612: “The Law of Sacrifice and the Law of Compensation are closely allied, but the first to become active in the life and to become a recognised factor in daily living is sacrifice. Compensation comes later into recognition.”

ALICE A. BAILEY: Esoteric Psychology I, page
219 – 220: “The vegetable kingdom, for instance, draws its vital strength from three sources,—the sun, the water and the earth. …

The animal kingdom, in turn, draws its sustenance primarily from the sun, the water and the vegetable kingdom. … Each kingdom offers sacrifice to the next succeeding kingdom in the evolutionary sequence.  The Law of Sacrifice determines the nature of each kingdom. …

The human kingdom follows the same procedure, and draws its life (from the form angle) out of the animal kingdom as well as from the sun, water and the vegetable world.”

LUCILLE CEDERCRANS: Applied Wisdom, Intuition, page
557 – 558: “The law of Sacrifice. There is a price to pay; a sacrifice must ever be applied when one is seeking gain, whether that gain be for the separated self or for the entire human family.

The Law of Sacrifice is the Cosmic Law of Order.  It is that which establishes and maintains order within the manifest Cosmos, regulating energy movement in ordered cycles, establishing lines of least resistance as the directional flow of that energy, and becoming the link between Cause and Effect, so as to make appearance possible.

Sacrifice is, in essence, the Ceremonial aspect of the 7th Ray which results in Law and Order.  It is manipulated by the 1st Ray and is, in its form aspect, a reflection in time and space of a directing will. …”

ANNIE BESANT: Esoteric Christianity

• “The Law of Sacrifice underlies our system and all systems, and on it all universes are builded. It lies at the root of evolution, and alone makes it intelligible.”
• “The Law of Sacrifice might perhaps more truly be called The Law of Manifestation, or the Law of Love and of Life, for throughout the universe, from the highest to the lowest, it is the cause of manifestation and life”.[W. Williamson. The Great Law, p. 406. ]

ANNIE BESANT: Laws of the Higher Life
“Thus the Law of Sacrifice, which is the Law of Life, is also the Law of Joy, and we know that nothing has a keener pleasure than the pleasure of pouring out and not taking in, and that no limited joy can be equal to the joy of self-surrender.”

C.W. LEADBEATER: Christian Creed, page
90 – 91: “In tracing the symbolism of this Latin cross, or rather of the crucifix, back into the night of time, the investigators had expected to find the figure disappear, leaving behind what they sup­posed to be the earlier cross-emblem. As a matter of fact, exactly the reverse took place, and they were startled to find that eventually the cross drops away, leaving only the figure with uplifted arms. No longer is there any thought of pain or sorrow connected with that figure, though still it tells of sacrifice; rather is it now the symbol of the purest joy the world can hold – the joy of freely giving – for it typifies the Divine Man standing in space with arms upraised in blessing, casting abroad his gifts to all humanity, pouring forth freely of himself in all directions, descending into that “dense sea” of  matter, to be cribbed, cabined and confined therein, in order that through that descent we may come into being.

A sacrifice, truly (at least from our point of view), yet with no thought of suffering, but only of transcendent joy. For that is the essence of the law of sacrifice – the law which moves the worlds even down here. So long as any thought of pain is connected with it, the sacrifice is not perfect; so long as a man is forcing himself to do that which he would rather not do, he is but on the way towards the fulfilling of the great law.

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