In Initiation, Human and Solar I gave the rules for those proposing to enter the grades of discipleship. There is much difference between a Law, an Order or Command, and a Rule, and these distinctions should be pondered with care. The Laws of the universe are simply the modes of expression, the life impulses and the way of existence or activity of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being. Orders and commands are the feeble interpretations which men give to what they understand by law. In time and space, and at any given moment and in any given location, these commands are issued by those who are in a position of authority or who seem to dominate or are in a position to enforce their wishes.
Rules are, however, different.
They need no enforcement but are voluntarily accepted, and are put to trial in the belief that the witness of the past and the testimony of the ages warrant the effort required for the expressed requirements. This is true of the fourteen Rules which we are now going to study. Another point which I would call to your attention, prior to interpreting this rule, is that your group endeavor must be to seek group application, group meaning and group light. We are dealing, therefore, with something basically new in the field of occult teaching, and the difficulty of intelligent comprehension is consequently great. The true significances are not the simple ones which appear upon the surface.