1. The throat center is ruled by Saturn just as the two head centers are ruled respectively by Uranus (ruling the head center) and Mercury (ruling the ajna center). This is only where the disciple is concerned; the rulership changes after the third initiation or before the first. These three planets constitute a most interesting triangle of forces and in the following triplicities and their inevitable interrelations you have - again only in the case of disciples - a most amazing picture story or symbol of the ninefold of initiation:
   1. The head center
      The ajna center
      The throat center
   2. The third eye
      The right eye
      The left eye
   3. The pineal gland
      The pituitary body
      The carotid gland

thus presenting the mechanism through which the Spiritual Triad, the soul and the personality work. [152] The key to a right understanding of process lies in the relation of the three planets: Uranus, Mercury and Saturn, as they pour their energies through these nine "points of spiritual contact" upon the physical plane into the "grounded sphere of light and power which is the man in time and space."

2. This center is related to the first initiation and develops great activity when that point in experience is achieved, as it has been achieved by the vast majority of men who are at this time the aspirants and the probationary disciples of the world. (Forget not that, technically speaking, the first major initiation from the hierarchical angle is the third. The first initiation is regarded by the Masters as signifying admission to the Path. It is called an initiation, by humanity, because in Lemurian days, it was then the first initiation, signifying entrance into complete physical control). It is the organ for the distribution of creative energy, of the energy of the third aspect by souls at the above point of evolution. There are three centers in the human being which are related to and the major expression of the third ray or aspect at certain differing stages of development upon the path:
   1. The sacral center for the undeveloped and the average man.
   2. The throat center for the aspirant and probationary disciple.
   3. The ajna center for disciples and initiates.

Here again you have a great triplicity of energies, containing great potencies today, owing to the fact that the expression of the third aspect of active intelligence [153] has reached such heights through human development and consciousness.

3. It is related to the personality by the creative thread, to the soul by the thread of consciousness, and to the monad by the sutratma or life thread. It is not related to any of the divine aspects by the antahkarana because that thread which links monad and personality directly (and finally independently of the soul) simply anchors the monadic expression of life in the head, at the head center. Then direct consciousness is established between the monad and the personality, and a great duality comes into being. Life, consciousness and form are then all focused creatively and actively in the head, and their activity is directed from the head via the two head centers. The ajna center only comes into creative activity when the antahkarana has been built. In the earlier stages it is the throat center which is the creative agent, and in the earliest period of all the sacral center is active. You have, however, one interesting thing to remember. The building of the antahkarana only becomes genuinely possible when the creative life of the aspirant shifts from the sacral center into the throat and is becoming factual and expressive. Of this connecting "bridge," the neck itself is the symbol, as it relates the head - alone and isolated - to the dual torso, consisting of that which lies above the diaphragm and that which lies below - the symbol of the soul and the personality united, fused and blended into one. The head is the symbol of what Patanjali describes as the state of "isolated unity."
4. It is the center through which the intelligence aspect of humanity focuses creatively. It is therefore the [154] center through which the creative energy of that great planetary center called Humanity flows. The three major planetary centers are Shamballa, Hierarchy and Humanity. When perfection has been achieved, the Shamballa energy of will, power and purpose will pour freely through the head center, the love-wisdom energies of the Hierarchy will flow through the heart center, and the energy of humanity will focus through the throat center, with the ajna center acting as the agent of all three. Then will take place a new activity on the part of mankind. It is the task of relating the three superhuman kingdoms to the three subhuman kingdoms, and thus establishing the new heavens and the new earth. Then humanity will have reached the summit of its evolutionary goal on this Earth.
5. The throat center is the organ specifically of the creative WORD. It registers the intention or creative purpose of the soul, transmitted to it by the inflow of energy from the ajna center; the fusion of the two energies, thus brought about, will lead to some type of creative activity. This is the higher correspondence to the creativity of the sacral center. In that center the negative and the positive creative energies are embodied in the separate male and female organisms and are brought into relation in an act of creation, consciously undertaken, though as yet without much definite purpose.
6. The dense physical externalization of this center is the thyroid gland. This gland is regarded as of supreme importance in the well-being of the average human being of today. Its purpose is to guard health, to balance the bodily equilibrium in certain important aspects of the physical nature, and it symbolizes [155] the third aspect of intelligence and of substance impregnated with mind. It is in reality connected with the Holy Ghost, or the third divine aspect in manifestation, "over-shadowing" (as the Bible expresses it), the Mother, the Virgin Mary. The para-thyroids are symbolic of Mary and Joseph and the relation they hold to the over-shadowing Holy Ghost. It will eventually be determined that there is a close physiological relation existing between the thyroid gland and the pineal gland, and between the para-thyroids and the two lobes of the pituitary body, thus bringing into one related system the entire area of the throat and of the head.
7. Just as the head symbolizes the essentially dualistic nature of the manifested God, so the throat center symbolizes the triple nature of the divine expression. The dualistic nature appears fused and blended in the head in the relation between the two centers and their two dense physical reflections. The three great energies which are brought into play during the divine creative activity are unified in activity by the full expression of the energy flowing through the throat center, through the apparatus of speech and the two lungs. You have in this relation: Life or Breath, the Word or the Soul, and the throat center of Substance in activity.
8. This lotus of the throat is inverted in the early stages of evolution, and its petals reach out towards the shoulders and include the two lungs or parts of them. During the life cycle of the soul, it slowly reverses itself, and its petals then reach out towards the two ears and include the medulla oblongata and the carotid gland. This gland is more closely related [156] to the thyroid gland than it is to the two other glands in the head.

Thus it will be apparent to you how whole areas of the physical organism can be brought into active and correct functioning, can be vitalized and kept in good and true condition by the activity in some form or another of the center nearest to the area of the body under consideration. It will also be apparent to you that deficiency and disease can result from the inactivity of a center.