An Essay on

© 2008 by Academic Services International, Los Lunas, NM, USA

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Initiation - Continued

Transmission is the transfer of consciousness, knowledge and/or powers. The three types of transmission are: Oral, symbolic and direct.

Oral transmission occurs through speaking and listening, or through writing and reading. Through the "Power of the Word," the brain translates these utterances into concepts and practical applications. Such ideas are transmitted through conversations, speeches, and books. Certain words of power pronounced during ceremonies have a similar, if not more potent, effect.

Symbolic transmission takes place through emblems, symbols, icons, and works of art like statues, paintings, and talismans. Initiation ceremonies are composed of symbolic rites that usually include oral transmission, and (if genuine) contain a central act of direct transmission.

Direct transmission may be enacted without words or symbols, although these may be synchronized with the transfer of consciousness. Sometimes, the delivery is from the eyes of the transmitter, for there are accounts of certain holy men whose glance (if they simply look at you) causes your consciousness to radically change. And sometimes the reception is through the eyes of the beholder (Darshan = "the act of viewing a holy man - or woman").

Initiation rituals (are supposed to) contain a central act of direct transmission. Although symbols may play a part, Empowerments are usually short and direct.

 

The Curriculum for the training of a white magician is lengthy, complex, and can take the better part of a lifetime to complete. Of course, every school has its own agenda and thus the subjects may vary. But the genuine lineages all seem to agree on the major points. Beware of any school that teaches how its principles and curriculum are different from, and superior to, other schools of thought.

< Link to The Path of Initiation as defined by the Tarot

 

The Outer Order is the world of the "outer" personality (including the physical body, the emotions, and the concrete mind). The Outer Order is composed of those men and women who have commenced walking the Path. They are usually associated with a group, an Order, a tribe, a circle, a dojo, a church, a temple, a lodge, or some other designation of the place where initiates get together to practice escaping from the Matrix.

Unfortunately, Outer Orders are mostly places where people are just pretending to escape from the Matrix, while they are secretly running around doing Matrix-type stuff to their fellow initiates. It's all very confusing because hardly anybody's personality is properly aligned.

Some schools have astutely perceived this tendency for a clash of egos and have moved to counter its effects by allowing aspirants to know only that person who first introduced them, plus any candidates that they themselves introduce after becoming initiate. In theory, this works nicely, but in practice there are almost always leaks of identities.

Usually, there's no way around it. Most aspirants have to endure the trumpeting of the elephants, the booming of the bass drum, and the performance of the clowns as they make their way through the maze of the Outer Order.

 

The Inner Order is the realm of the "concealed" person (the Soul). The Inner Order is composed of those men and women who have aligned their personas, and have passed through the veil of illusion to link with their own Solar essence.

Although these adepts may be affiliated with the "inner circle" of a group, Order, tribe, dojo, church, temple, monastery or lodge, such membership is essentially meaningless, for the true definition of "Adept" is that an individual is linked to his or her own Soul or Solar Angel and by virtue of that link, he or she is united through the Heart with all other adepts of the Inner Order.

The part that most people don't understand is that, in terms of consciousness, there is only One Inner Order. It is not a membership or a building. It is a network of worldwide consciousness that includes everyone who has passed beyond the Veil of Illusion. Anyone openly claiming in the marketplace to be a member of this Inner Order is to be examined carefully.

 

The Supernal Order is the "higher" person (the Spirit or Monad). The Supernal Order is composed of those individuals who have erased their personal history. They have "crossed the Abyss" to link with their Monad or Higher Self. They are known to us as Masters. Among the Shamans of the Americas, the term Nagual is often used.

It is generally thought that people who reach this rarified consciousness have destroyed their ego. This is both true and untrue, because Masters still have an ego and they still have personalities. Sometimes we don't like their personalities. It is usually better to judge them by their Work and to knock off the personality assessments.

Their essential attainment is the annihilation of that persona that limits and opposes the true self. Only certain imperfections, the Adept's accidents or personal karma, have been burned off. The Master still has an ego, but it is an ego that offers no resistance to his or her higher nature.

 

Beyond The Supernal Order, and more expanded than the levels of consciousness normally expounded by the revealers of Orders, grades and the Path, there are further realms of existence. These are sometimes vaguely referenced as the states that precede and encompass the Tree of Life. Or perhaps the level of the Nirmankaya, the Adi - the domain of the Lord of the World, or the Cosmic mental plane.

There is a seemingly endless staircase or ladder that always posits another level of being that exists just above and beyond any state that can be attained or envisioned. Although these exalted dimensions are interesting, and are fun to describe and discuss (because they tend to "put you in your place"), we need not go into them here in further detail. They are beyond the boundaries of human evolution, which, after all, ended way back at the attainment of Mastery.

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