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 T he evolutionary
journey on which we are engaged is marked off by five major points of
crisis, major expansions of consciousness, which are the five steps to
Liberation and Mastery. These are the five planetary initiations which
free us from further incarnational experience on this earth. All the
Masters have taken these five initiations (some have taken further,
higher initiations) and Their presence in this world is the result of a
conscious decision to serve the Plan of Evolution and not from any need
(through personal karma) to incarnate.
The
esoteric process we call initiation is an artificial forcing process,
introduced into our planet in mid-Atlantean times to speed up the
evolutionary process. Without it we would inevitably arrive at the same
point of development as we evidence today, but it would take millions
of years longer to do so.
In
those far-off days, a crisis occurred in a part of this solar system
which required the presence of some of the most advanced members of the
Hierarchy of this planet who at that time came from Venus. The process
of initiation was therefore introduced to enable the most advanced
members of our earth evolution to undergo this forcing process, and so
equip them to take over the lower posts in the Hierarchy, thus
releasing the Senior Masters for other work.
The
highest initiation possible for an earth man at that time was the third
initiation, and among the first group to reach that achievement were
the Christ and the Buddha, who have remained at the forefront of our
evolution to this day.
Seen
from the esoteric standpoint, the gospel story is really the story of
initiation, a story presented to humanity again and again, in different
ways, long before Christianity. The account of the life of Jesus is the
symbolic presentation, dramatically re-enacted for us, of the initiate’s
journey
to perfection.
The
first initiation is called the Birth of Christ and is symbolized by the
birth of the disciple Jesus at Bethlehem. When the
evolutionary energy which we call the Christ Principle or Consciousness
is awakened in the human heart (the spiritual heart centre at the right
side of the chest: “The wise man’s heart is at the right side, the
foolish man’s at the left.”), the man or woman becomes ready for
preparation to take the first initiation.
It
is important to realize that the man or woman is already initiate
before he or she stands before the Initiator. The human soul, the first
Master, brings its vehicle to the point of initiation through its life
experience and meditation. Then the Master (of the Hierarchy) steps in,
and by a combination of stimulus, testing and presented service
opportunity, prepares the candidate to come before the Hierophant to
receive the impact of the energy from the rod of initiation which He
wields. The Christ, Maitreya, is the Hierophant at the first and second
initiations, the third and higher initiations being taken before the
Lord of the World, Sanat Kumara, on Shamballa. “I am the Way, the Truth
and the Life.” “No man can know the Father except through me.”
These
sayings of the Christ are esoterically true, but they have been
interpreted by the Churches, quite wrongly, to mean that Christianity
(or more correctly Churchianity) is the only religious path, that only
if a man accepts the (man-made) dogmas and doctrines of the Church can
he know God. The Christ embodies the Christ Principle on this planet.
It is through the manifestation of this Principle that we reorient
ourselves and enter the initiatory path. In this sense, He is, indeed,
‘the Way’. Likewise, only when one has stood before the Christ at the
first two initiations can one take the third, which opens up for one
contact with the Monad, the Spirit, the ‘Father in Heaven’.
The
‘born-again’ Christian groups have an inkling of the truth in that the
first initiation is the ‘second birth’ of the Bible; but, of course,
this is an experience shared by millions today throughout the world,
and not exclusive to the ‘born-again’ Christians.
The
first initiation demonstrates control over the physical body, in
particular over the tiny devic (or elemental) lives which make up the
bodies of man. The second initiation demonstrates control over the
astral-emotional body or elemental lives which make up that vehicle.
This is called the Baptism initiation and is symbolized for us by the
baptism of Jesus at Jordan.
The
third — the first true soul initiation — is called the Transfiguration
and is symbolized by the transfiguration of Jesus on the mount. It
demonstrates control over the mental elemental and mental body and
brings about Monadic contact and energy for the first time: “The Jewel
in the Heart of the Lotus.”
Jesus
entered the world as a third-degree initiate and so simply symbolized
these three stages of growth for us. He had to undergo the fourth
initiation and did so in full physical fact for our sake to dramatize,
symbolically, the experience of renunciation. In the West this
initiation is known as the Crucifixion; in the East it is called the
Great Renunciation, when all is renounced — position, family, even life
itself if necessary — for the higher, spiritual life.
Resurrection
Then
follows, and this is the core of the Christian gospel story, the fifth
initiation, the Resurrection, symbolized by the resurrection of the
body of Jesus after the crucifixion. Each initiation attracts to the
bodies of the initiate matter of sub-atomic particles — literally
light. By the fourth initation the bodies of the initiate are
three-quarters sub-atomic or light. This process is completed at the
fifth or resurrection initiation, when the initiate stands free from
the pull of matter for ever, a perfected Master. The evolutionary goal
has been achieved and the Master has finished his life experience on
this planet. His choice to remain on this earth and so serve the Plan
of our Planetary Logos is His alone.
There
are higher initiations which call the Master to further effort. The
Ascension, symbolized by the ascension of the Christ after His
appearance before the disciples in the resurrected body of Jesus, marks
the sixth initiatory experience and confers cosmic consciousness and
total immortality of the body to the ascended Master.
Seen
in this way, the gospel story holds before humanity the promise of
divinity, a divinity realized not alone by one extraordinary man — the
Son of God — but a divinity attainable by all who make the necessary
effort to expand their consciousness to include the spiritual levels; a
divinity achieved, too, by a scientific process, of which the Christ
and His Masters are the custodians — the process of initiation.
—
Benjamin Creme
Some
statistics
There are approximately
5.7 billion people in incarnation at the moment, and around 850,000
people in incarnation who have taken the First Initiation. There
are about 240,000 people in incarnation who have taken the Second
Initiation, and about 2,300 - 2,400 who have taken the Third
Initiation. About 450 only, of those in incarnation, have taken
the Forth Initiation.
Some
millions are now standing on the very verge of taking the First
Initiation. This is the enormous step forward in evolutionary
development which humanity as a whole has taken, and is the opportunity
for the Christ to reappear now with the Hierarchy of Masters.
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