Initiations

One of the few topics I have been avoiding from the start of these blogposts is that of initiations, that is, the spiritual "ladder" that one works along as part of the human experience. I have been avoiding this topic because the Ego has its way of treating things competitively, of wanting to extoll its own virtues and achievements. The Ego wants to "look good." It wants others to think it is special so that it can think well of itself.
     The topic of initiation always seems to provoke Ego. Ego wants to tout how far it is along the spiritual path (in order to deceive others into believing Ego is in submission to Spirit). The key here is to try to remember that there is absolutely nothing that the Ego can do to improve the spiritual progress that one achieves. As a matter of fact, it can more accurately be stated that the Ego has an agenda which is usually quite different from and often misleading to The Soul Plan that was installed by the Monad and its team of spiritual beings.
     I apologize if I am confusing you here. You see, I will remind you, the Ego is, after all, merely a fabrication that we spiritual beings have created to further challenge our selves in our adventuring into the deeper and deepest realms of Cosmic Creation, veils of Ignorance, into the murky tar pits of the human experience. And, ingenious it is, this concoction that we call "the Ego" is a side of ourselves, a point of view, that interprets the world within and around us in a way that is very different from the spiritual perspective.
     The Ego is very much a product of the physical- and emotion-based perspective of Earth World. It is fully immersed in and governed by the tremendous amount of information bombarding us from our senses and our psychological identification with our human bodies. But, again, it is a devise, a tool, that we spiritual beings installed into the fabric of human beingness in order to test our selves, in order to confuse, distract and retard our ability to focus on the True tasks at hand, which would be to learn, embrace, and use spiritual principles, to practice spiritual law while in these Earth incarnations. The emotion-based sentient human experience has been devised as one of the deepest forays into the Grand Illusions of Cosmic Creation, certainly one of the most overwelhming and confusing "rides" away from "home" (which is nondualistic Unity Consciousness).
     The basics of spiritual law include individual realization, use and expression of Love, Beauty, Truth, Choice, Universal Divinity, Forgiveness, Detachment, Harmony, Unity Consciousness, etc. The achievement of this ability to realize, use, and express spiritual principles while in human form comes in stages. These stages can be called "initiations." Many spiritual traditions have elucidated set or flexible numbers of stages or initiations. The scale of initiations can be defined differently but they usually correspond to the individual's ability to cast aside or see through the various layers or veils of ignorance, the Illusions. Were one to emerge into human form with full awareness and command of all of the Illusions, in full command of spiritual law, that person would probably be recognized as an "enlightened being;" the lightness one might feel (and exhibit) from being unencumbered by the tremendous weight of Ego, from being free of the Illusions and the veils of Ignorance, is truly liberating and would certainly be found to be inspiring to those who might be fortunate to find (and recognize) themselves in the presence of such an individual.
     When I began my formal studies of spiritual information I encountered goals of achievement in Buddhist traditions--the Five Precepts of The Golden Rule, the Buddhist system of basic morality. Before that, of course, there were concepts like The Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule--the mastery of which claimed to ensure one a saintly or righteous life. I also encountered lists of goals from other writers who had spiritual focus, such as Deepak Chopra's Laws of Spirituality or Spiritual Laws of Success. And when I found myself a student of Esoteric Healing--which draws much from the writings of Alice Bailey and other authors of Eastern and Theosophic traditions--I was exposed to the concept of Initiations. I had come across this term before. First in a book by British author Cyril Scott entitled The Initiate: Impressions of a Great Soul, second in the pop novel of Richard Bach's entitled Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, and finally in an autobigraphical book by Swiss spiritual teacher Elisabeth Haich entitled Initiation. All three of these source books have been referenced or presented in previous Life Is Beautiful blogposts.
     The number of initiations requisite to mastery of spiritual law while in human form has been source to some interpretation and variation. I had heard of five, seven, nine and 12 stages of spiritual awakening--for that is, in effect, what each stage represents: a new level of awareness or awakeness; increased or expanded awareness of the deceits of The Grand Illusions, The Ego, the lightening of the load of Fear and Ignorance. As consciousness is expanded, raised, it is able to use its awareness to build upon and seek further information, to come to grips with that new information, and then, hopefully, put it to use.
     People will ask questions like, "How long will I have to work on this stage, this initiation level, before I can move on to the next one?" And the answer, of course, is: As long as it takes! There is no right or wrong time, no right or wrong initiation level to achieve (or not). There is no failure. Everybody will figure it out. At some point. For some it may take several lifetimes as the lures and attachments to concepts and beliefs in the four-dimensional sensory world may prove more attractive for that individual for a while. Addictions and addictive behaviors are another obstacle thrown into the human equation to make the journey more challenging, more But then, the achievement of success on the climb to spiritual awareness becomes that much more appreciated, that much more rewarding.
     Each stage or initiation can take years or lifetimes. Once focused on a spiritual path, achieving success at recognizing spiritual concepts and laws, the speed in which one travels the path may increase or accelerate. But then there is the separate topic of mastery. Just because a soul has been able to begin to recognize it's True self and the True nature of All Things does not mean that they will have achieved mastery of the use of this knowledge. Mastery may take many other incarnations--and not necessarily human or in the four-dimensional contextual field. Once one has achieved full awareness of spiritual law and the role that the Earth School experience plays in our development (toward Self-realization--which is, ultimately, of course, a return to Unity Consciousness with Our Divine Source) we feel free to use our choices to try other means and methods of working with spiritual law. There is actually a whole other "ladder" of spiritual awareness and achievement over and above that which we work with while in the human form. So, rather than set forth a specific number of initiations that we can and should seek to recognize and achieve and then outline and describe the nature and qualities of each initiation, let me instead describe some of the general tasks or themes we will encounter on the path.
     Remember, the entire journey is about gradually increasing our awareness of Self and spiritual potential. The journey usual begins with social groups--using others, using established traditions and beliefs for. Like choosing clothing, we may find ourselves mentally trying on several different religious mantles--all the while driven by that feeling of what feels right, what feels wrong, what feels like the uncovering of a part of you, a part of your beliefs, that is an internal truth--something that was always there within you but has now been allowed out of the dark, has been given light and life, has been restored to its proper place. The entire path is like this: gradual, incremental revelations of ideas, concepts, truths that were always within you, that have resided within you since before you were born, but need the "work" of seeking, the kick in the but from that ever broadcasting voice from within, the incessant beacon of the Divinity within us, the spiritual Monad.
     "Divine discontent" is an appropriate term used to describe that unsettling feeling in the gut, coming from the unconscious (from the Soul--the beacon of the Monad), that says something isn't quite right, that there is something more, something "deeper" to learn or discover. This is a feeling commonly used by many spiritual travelers to describe their impetus for seeking, for taking risks, for trying new things.
     Though our travels are always our own, the path is never exactly like any one else's, we are able to benefit from the myriad paths that others before us have taken to achieve increasing Self-awareness, an increasing sense of the presence of the energy of our Divine Origins. That is how religions and philosophies, social groups, education, art and literature, dreams and metaphor serve us: as means to revealing little bits of our selves to our selves--so that we can decide if we like and want to stay attached to this part of me or whether we are feeling that we are past that version of our selves, of our "truth," whether we have become "bigger" than that particular formerly-useful piece of information, that that piece of information is no longer useful for our current self-definition.
     It is important to remember that every piece of information you receive is useful: every piece of information that comes into your awareness can help you on your journey to continually define and re-define your self concept, your Self. A piece of information will either be found useful as a welcomed part of you or as an unwelcomed part and therefore something you'd like to change, or it will be determined as something that has no bearing, relevance, or place in our current self-concept--which then leads us to discard it but, at the same time, has helped us to re-define and reassert our current self-definition. This is why we can say that everything in your world--every single piece of information, physically, sensually, psychologically--all of it is offered to you--has been attracted to you by you--specifically for your use. What you choose to do with it is up to you. If you choose to ignore it, that's fine. You will continue to create a contextual field with variations on that same piece of information until it does lead to stimulation--until you are finally ready to receive, pay attention to, and perhaps process it. There is no hurry. There is no right or wrong. You may not even be perceiving information on a conscious level or you may not be ready to process it at the level of significance (remember: every thing is metaphor) you need it. That may take years and many many encounters with the same piece of information. (Which is one reason that Carl Jung would revisit dreams and symbols and synchronous events over and over throughout his lifetime: there could always be more layers and tie-ins with other pieces of information which can in turn reveal different forms of meaning and significance to our ever-expanding concept of Self and world.)
     Another question on people's minds is "Can I fall backwards or regress on my spiritual path?" The answer is a little complicated because it depends on your perspective:  From a spiritual perspective there is no right or wrong; we're all going to get there. And the act of taking on a human bodymind involves committing to a kind of "blank slate" wherein we start at the bottom of the ladder with each incarnation BUT it is usually a much faster climb if spiritual work has been done/accomplished in previous incarnations.
     The other answer to this question "Can I fall backwards or regress on my spiritual path?" is yes, of course! As in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, we all use all of the information, all of the perspectives from the initiatory ladder. For example, once I've reached the ninth rung of the ladder of initiations I will still find myself from time to time looking at a situation from the perspective of the first or the fifth Initiation. It's all available to me; it's all a part of me. I just don't have access to the perspectives of the initiations ahead of me. Yet.
     Most of the work on the ladder of initiations has to do with getting used to the reception and effects of the presence of the energy of a particular ray from among the rainbow of Cosmic Rays. This is the true secret, the true reason for the existence of the hierarchy of initiations: there are 12 primary and secondary Cosmic Rays. To take on the effects of the presence of the full energies of all of the 12 Rays at once would be quite overwhelming for the feeble human nervous system. Thus, we devised a system by which we could slowly, gradually prepare ourselves for the flood of the presence and then use of the energies of each of the Cosmic Rays, only one at a time. And, there is an ordered sequence to which we expose ourselves. But the Rays will only begin to be fully received within our human vessel if and when we are ready--if and when our Ego allows for the hearing and opening to the Cosmic Beacon, the Voice of Our Soul Plan, once we have actively begun our conscious journey on our own spiritual path.
    Also, there are several initiations that usually prove more difficult for humans in this day and age to work through in this day and age. The first exposure to the energy of Ray 1 can be very unsettling for many and may take a long time to process in order to learn how to work with it. And the exposure to Ray 8 is also unsettling for this is when Spirit is reminding the human that you have the power, that you alone are responsible for your self and your choices and actions, that you no longer need teachers, just as you have never needed teachers because everything, every single piece of information that comes into your awareness and, eventually, into your consciousness was all co-created and attracted to you by you. Once a human recognizes and embraces this fact, one is finally free and able to handle the more refined and specific spiritual energies of the higher initiations. Before this point, the human is still fully and unconsciously connected to a perspective of duality, to the habit of wanting to treat things as "inside" you and "outside" of you, of "here" and "there," "this" and "that," "yours" and "mine," etc. "External" teachers are very important to the human before the eighth initiation. After that the road is much more solitary and yet joyfully holistic and inclusionary.
     Again, the ladders of initiation are merely informations from a variety of systems that allow us to look at our progress--as well as our obstacles--on our spiritual paths. As is the case with any information, use it as you see fit--as it serves you--and disregard that which makes no sense, or that which feels contrary to your beliefs and values. As I have said before many times:  We are all going to get there and There is no right or wrong way, no better or worse path, to the achievement of our goals. Every choice offers us a lesson, the potential for learning, and if we don't get the message the first or ninetieth time it is given to us, it's okay. The messages will keep coming and one day--when we are ready--not when somebody else wants us to be ready--we will get it. And then we will move on to the next message, the next adventure, the next perspective, the next choice.