We are, therefore, at a most interesting and crucial period in racial and planetary history - a period unlike any which has preceded it and for the reason that the evolutionary process has been definitely successful in spite of all failures, mistakes, and delays; of these latter there have been many owing to the refusal (curious and difficult to understand in your eyes) of the Energies, concentrated at Shamballa, to impose the force of will on matter and on form until such time as this can be done with the cooperation of the human family. This has never been possible hitherto, owing to the unpreparedness of man for the task [120] and his ignorance as to the Plan. The Lord of Shamballa and His Helpers have had to wait until at least the dim outlines of the Plan had penetrated through into the consciousness of the race; this is beginning to happen with increasing frequency, and from day to day more and more intelligent men and women are coming (or are being brought) into touch with the emerging ideas of the Hierarchy. We can look, therefore, for the steady appearance, gradually and cautiously applied, of the will energy of the highest center (Shamballa) which is to befound upon our planet. This center corresponds to the monadic center which makes its power felt in the consciousness of the disciple who is ready for the third initiation. Once the second initiation has been taken, the watching Hierarchy can begin to note the constant reorientation of the soul towards the monad, and the attractive power of that highest aspect over the initiate. Today, so many members of the human family - in incarnation or out of incarnation - have taken the first two initiations that the attention of Shamballa is being increasingly turned to humanity, via the Hierarchy, whilst simultaneously the thoughts of men are being turned to the Plan, to the use of the will in direction and guidance, and to the nature of dynamic force. The quality, for instance, of the explosive and dynamic nature of war in this century is indicative of this, for the will energy in one of its aspects is an expression of death and destruction; the first ray is the ray of the destroyer. What can, therefore, be seen occurring is the effect of the Shamballa force upon the forms in nature, due to the misuse of the incoming energy by man. War in the past, speaking generally and esoterically, has been based consistently upon the attractive power of possessions and this has led to the aggressive and grasping character of the motives which have led to war. Gradually [121] there has been a change coming about and war has lately been founded upon somewhat higher motives and the acquisition of more land and territorial possessions has not been the true and the main motive. War has been prompted by economic necessity, or it has been in the nature of the imposition of the will of some nation or group of nations and their desire to impose some ideology or other upon some nation or to rid itself of a worn out system of thought, of government, of religious dogma which is holding back racial development. This is being now consciously done and is an expression of the Shamballa or will force and is not so definitely the desire force of the past.