The Processes of Registration are founded upon what I might call invocative approaches from a wide area of possible contacts. The disciple has to learn to distinguish between these many impacts upon his sensitive aura. In the early stages the majority of them are unconsciously registered, though the registration is acute and accurate; the goal, nevertheless, is conscious registration; this is brought about through the constant and steady holding of the attitude of the Observer. It is developed through the attainment of detachment - the detachment of the Observer from all desires and longings which concern the separated self. It will therefore be obvious to you that the use of the word "observer" involves the concept of duality and, therefore, of separation. In this case, however, the motive prompting observation is not self-interest, but the determination to clarify the aura so that it can register only [102] that which will be illuminating and related to the divine Plan, which will be to the benefit of humanity and, therefore, to the creation of a new server within the Ashrams of the Hierarchy.

The divisions made by certain psychologists of the consciousness of man into subconscious, conscious or self-conscious, and superconscious have a real measure of value here. It must be remembered, however, that the disciple, first of all, becomes a truly conscious unit of humanity and thus develops a true self-consciousness. This he arrives at by discriminating between the lower self and the higher self, and this renders his magnetic aura sensitive to an aspect of himself which has not hitherto been a controlling factor. From that achieved point he begins to register impressions with increasing clarity and accuracy. Usually, in the early stages, the one desire of the disciple is to register impressions from the Hierarchy; he much prefers that idea to the idea of registering impressions from his own soul or from the surrounding human factors, his fellowmen and the environment and the circumstances which they create. He longs for what might be called "vertical impression." This motive, being very largely self-centeredness, turns the disciple introspectively in upon himself, and it is in this stage that many aspirants become prisoners, astrally speaking, because they register in their magnetic aura the many astrally motivated thought-forms of what they believe and hope "vertical impression" supposedly would convey. They contact with facility the astral counterparts of the higher worlds, which are reflected (and thereby distorted) into the astral plane; the world there registered is glamored by wrong and selfish desires and by the wishful thinking of well-meaning devotees. Upon this I need not enlarge. All disciples at some point or another of their training - have to work through this phase of glamor; in so doing they [103] clarify and intensify the magnetic aura and, simultaneously, clarify the surrounding astral world with which they are in contact. They learn also that the longing to register impressions from the Hierarchy must give place to the determination to place their magnetic aura at the disposal of humanity; they then learn to register human need and to understand thereby where help is possible and their fellowmen can be served. By means of this conscious registration of invocative appeals from the world of horizontal contacts, the magnetic aura of the disciple is cleared of the hindering and engrossing thought-forms, and from the aspirational desires and longings which have hitherto prevented right registration. The disciple then ceases to create them, and those which have been created die out or atrophy for lack of attention.