SPIRITUAL INITIATION - BETHELEHEM TO CALVARY

Spiritual Initiation - Bethlehem to Calvary

D.K.; The word initiation comes from two latin words; in - into and ire - to go therefore; the making of a beginning or entrance into something. It posits, in its widest sense, in the case we are studying, an entrance into the spiritual life, or into a fresh stage in that life. It is the first step, and the succeeding steps, upon the Path of Holiness. Literally, therefore, a man who has taken the first initiation is one who has taken the first step into the spiritual kingdom, having passed out of the definitely human kingdom into the superhuman. Just as he passed out of the animal kingdom into the human at individualization, so he has entered into the life of the spirit, and for the first time has the right to be called a “spiritual man” in the technical significance of the word. He is entering upon the final or fifth stage in our present fivefold evolution. Having groped his way through the Hall Of Ignorance during many ages, having gone to the school in the Hall of Learning, he is now entering into the university, or the Hall of Wisdom. When he has passed through that school he will graduate with his degree as a Master of Wisdom.

Initiation, or the process of undergoing an expansion of consciousness, is part of the normal process of evolutionary development, viewed on a larger scale, and not from the standpoint of the individual. When viewed from the individual standpoint it has come to be narrowed down to the moment wherein the evolving unit definitely apprehends that (by dint of his own effort, aided by the advice and suggestions of the watching Teachers of the Race) he has reached a point wherein a certain range of knowledge of a subjective nature, from the physical plane point of view, is his. It is in the nature of that experience wherein a pupil in a school realizes suddenly that he has mastered a lesson, and that the rationale of a subject, and the method of procedure, are his to use intelligently. These moments of intelligent apprehension follow the evolving monad throughout his long pilgrimage. What has been misinterpreted somewhat at this stage of comprehension is the fact that at various periods the emphasis is laid on different grades of expansion, and always the Hierarchy endeavours to bring the race to the point where its units will have some idea of the next step to be taken.

Read “From Bethlehem to Calvary” by Alice Bailey.