In an earlier book America, Awake!, ¹ I described the current condition of the social-political-economic world. The book's purpose was to help people awaken to the reality of what is happening in that world, beyond what they are conditioned to believe is occurring. The chapters of that book presented the reality behind and beyond the illusory myths of political-economic propaganda and brainwashing. My thesis was that unless America awakens it will likely suffer the fate of 1930s Germany: dictatorship, repression, and imperialistic militarism.

     In a similar vein, this present book assists readers to awaken to the Higher Spiritual World. This concluding chapter will explicate the process that serious students use to actually realize--bring to manifestation--their Higher Consciousness through which they are able to contact Reality in a region of pure Truth. As Kingsland says, the beginning of this process is the realization "that things are not what they seem."

     In a manner analogous to the forewarning found in my book America, Awake!, we can say that unless we become aware of the Higher Spiritual World we face the prospect of a basically useless physical existence and a future life--following physical death--of unpleasant, perhaps anguished reformation of our essence.

     In three previous chapters we have examined the nature of this regeneration process, reviewing "initial contact with spiritual forces" in chapter five, the experience of "illumination" in chapter ten, and the achievement of a "unitive consciousness" in chapter twenty. Consolidating the ideas and processes previously described, this current chapter clarifies the procedures that earnest, devoted seekers within the Perennial Tradition take in their quest for achieving unity with a Higher Consciousness.

     Commensurate with the Egyptian and Greek temple rituals and Plato's dialogues, this chapter outlines the actual Initiation into what are called the Mysteries. Genuine Initiation involves participants not merely learning and accepting abstract ideas but undergoing a definite development.

     We know of the Initiation Mysteries of the Perennial Tradition primarily through non-Christian sources, extra-canonical sources, and Perennialist interpretations of Christian material. Contrary to the assumptions of some scholastics, the Mysteries were not brainwashing cults for the gullible. Highly educated men such as Plutarch, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Julian, and Proclus were initiated into the Mysteries and expressed the religious ideas of those Mysteries in their philosophic teaching without disclosing the details of initiation.

      In the early part of the first century C.E., "Christian" doctrine was concocted to serve as the basis for a "state religion" under Constantine. The leadership of the Church fell into the hands of autocrats ambitious for worldly power, quarrelling among themselves for prominence. The embodiment of the Perennial Tradition that Jesus had presented was branded as a heresy, as we saw in chapter twelve. What few records we have remaining of the Christian Gnosis--the Knowledge--of humankind's rebirth into a Higher Consciousness are mainly composed of the misrepresentations of its bitter opponents among the Church "Fathers."

"It is only when we come to the first five or six centuries B.C., and to the palmy days of Greece and Alexandria, that we obtain a definite knowledge of the existence of the Mystery Schools, and of some of their more detailed teachings. This period is associated with such names as Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and later on, before the dominance of ecclesiastical Christianity had suppressed the Gnosis, and had plunged the Western world into the darkness and horrors of the Middle Ages, we have such names as Philo Judaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Valentinus, Origen, Proclus, Basilides, Iamblichus, and Plotinus, all speaking openly of the existence of the Mysteries and Mystery Schools, claiming initiation therein, and openly teaching as much of it as it was permitted for them to make public." William Kingsland. The Gnosis or Ancient Wisdom in the Christian Scriptures

     "Plutarch speaks of the terror of those about to be initiated, and compares their state of mind to preparation for death." ² The decision to seek unity with one's Higher Consciousness is a grave one, not to be entered into lightly. As we shall discover, there are solemn perils that the initiate faces in this challenging journey. But there is even more jeopardy in allowing oneself to become entranced by the worldly mind-frame.

"The deeper secrets and laws of our being are self-protected; to learn them requires an adaptation of character and purpose, and a humility of mind and spirit, inconsistent with those displayed by the perverse or merely curious enquirer. To understand, let alone practically to explore, the Hermetic Mystery is not for every one--at least, at his present state of evolutional unfolding. . . . Only to those whose spiritual destiny has already equipped them with a certain high measure of moral and intellectual fitness will even a rough notional apprehension of it be practicable." Walter Leslie Wilmhurst, Introduction to M. A. Atwood, Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy

     The chart below describes the two divergent paths that humans take in their earthly lives. We are all programmed to desire the ease of ignorance. "Don't bother me with facts." "I don't want to know what's going on in the world." "Life's too complicated the way it is."

     We aren't even aware that we're ignorant; we're ignorant of our own ignorance. And we are trained to defend against anyone who might reveal our ignorance. "No, thank you very much, I know what I know, and that's that."

     We become somewhat aware of ignorance, because we interact with other people who have different points of view. But we're certain that they're the ones who are ignorant, not us.

     At some point in our existence we hear about a different way of looking at life, an unusual manner of moving through life in which humans actually care for one another.

     Then we actually hear the ideas about this other way of life, the ideas about a higher, more harmonious, way of living actually register, and it's at this point that we make a choice as to how to live our lives.

      If we're uncomfortable even hearing about the other way of looking at life, we misinterpret it and convince ourselves that getting the most for ourselves is the only smart way to live. "It's a dog-eat-dog existence," we say to ourselves, "that other point of view is airy-fairy metaphysical nonsense." And with that, we're off on the path toward delusion.

     On the other hand, if we're dissatisfied with mere physical existence, sensing that there is something more ultimately real than the sense world, then we begin the quest for higher values.

The Ascent
True Believer Persecution of heretics Sacrifice of self "Union" with mass movement Dogmatic espousal of ideology Assumptions "I know everything" "I understand everything" "I can do anything" "I know how to learn" Addictions-Obsessions Excitement Routine Personality Qualities: "sincerity," "authority," "loyalty," etc. "Knowledge": theory, fantasy, fraud Misinterpretation and Greed		Union With Higher Consciousness Real Knowledge: Wisdom, Truth Understanding Development with a Teacher Knowledge Self-discipline and surrender Learning the distinction between information, knowledge, and understanding Learning how to learn Self-knowledge Interest in and desire for knowledge Dissatisfaction with oneself

     By following the chart above you'll be able to trace the steps that humans take on the path toward delusion or the path toward truth. These are two very definite ways of life, not merely metaphors. Humans specifically choose one of these ways to follow during their earthly existence.

Obsession with the Physical World "In the first instance, the world surrounding us is the real one. We feel, hear, and see what goes on in it, and because we thus perceive things with our senses, we call them real. And we reflect about events in order to get an insight into their connections. On the other hand, what wells up in our soul is at first not real to us in the same sense. It is merely thoughts and ideas. At the most we see in them only images of sense-reality. They themselves have no reality, for we cannot touch, see, or hear them." 3

Seeking Entrance Into the Spiritual World "There is another relation to the world. . . It comes to certain people at a certain moment in their lives. Their whole relation to the world is completely reversed. They then call the images that well up in the spiritual life of their souls truly real, and they assign only a lower kind of reality to what the senses hear, touch, and see. They know that they cannot prove what they say, that they can only relate their new experiences, and that when relating them to others they are in the position of a man who can see and who imparts his visual impressions to one born blind." 4

     The decision to quest for union with Higher Consciousness is a momentous one and only comes when individuals have begun to see through the sense world, take seriously that there is a higher realm of Harmony and Truth, and begin to purge themselves of obsession with consensus "reality."

"When may the individual be said to be ready? When at last, through the strife and stress and sorrows and failures . . . he has learnt that there is no rest, no satisfaction in 'the things of this world' after which he has hitherto been striving, and after which the great majority of the Race still strive. When he has not merely purified himself of all worldly lusts and desires, but also from any pride of intellect which may claim to be a knower of the truth in this, that, or the other form. When with an open mind he is prepared to go deeper than mind (intellect) and the man-made doctrines of men, into a region where truth is formless and immediate." William Kingsland. The Gnosis or Ancient Wisdom in the Christian Scriptures

     The seeker is first instructed as to humankind's condition on this earthly plane. It is explained that the human soul has sustained a declension from its original state of union with the All, the Divine, into a separate physical existence in this world of Nature. The soul has fallen into an alien state and plane of existence.

      But this separation of the soul from its original state of being is not total. Regeneration to and re-attainment of our original state are desirable and possible. Despite the soul's fall there persists in it, although in a condition of atrophy and enchantment, a residual seed of that divine principle which once wholly actuated it. This seed, the latent "divine spark," the "Christ in you" of Paul, used effectively, can bring about regeneration--the reunion of personal consciousness with the Universal Mind. This process of regeneration (palingenenesia in Greek) is an actual transmutation of the psychical and physical elements within our present frail and imperfect nature into a divinized condition.

"Thou shalt separate the gross from the subtle, gently, with great sagacity." Hermetic Teaching

     Once the aspirant has entered the path of Initiation, she experiences a process that is called 'spagyric' (separative) because it involves separation of several kinds:

• development of the ability to discriminate between
  • good and evil
  • important and unimportant
  • truth and falsehood
  
  
• separation of the mind from the body
  
  
• separation of the soul (pure intellect, Nous) from mind itself
  
  
• separation of the soul from terrestrial encumbrances (obsessions, sins, ignorance, etc.)

     The Perennialist teacher directing the Initiation into the Mysteries is also separating those aspirants who are fit from those unsuited to the rigors of the mystic life.

      The successful candidates evince a strong faith in the possibility of regeneration and eager desire and consistency of purpose in its accomplishment. The teacher also selects those seekers with humility and self-abnegation uncommon to the self-reliant egotism that ordinarily characterizes unregenerate persons.

Those chosen were able to "transvalue all the world's values, to step entirely out of the world-stream by the current of which the majority are content to be borne along, to negate the affirmations of the senses and natural reason which for the multitude provide the criterion of the desirable and the true, and generally to adopt towards phenomenal existence an attitude incomprehensible to the average man to whom that existence is of paramount moment. They were animated by no motives of merely personal salvation or of spiritual superiority over their fellows; on the contrary they will be found to have been the humblest, as they were the wisest, of men. They had advanced far beyond that complacent stage where religion consists in fidelity to certain credal propositions and in 'being good' or as good as one can, and where sufficiency and robustness of faith are represented by the facile optimism of 'God's in His heaven.'" ⁵

     In particular, the Perennialist teacher separates the true aspirant from the person who is still living only in the impacts and feelings of the senses and who looks upon impressions of higher things as mere concepts. This latter type of person, even if claiming to be interested in spiritual pursuits, is focused exclusively on the things of sense and grasps only emptiness when he tries to understand spiritual realities. Even if he can discuss spiritual ideas knowingly, they are thoughts only. He thinks them but does not live in them. They are images, as unreal to him as dreams. Spiritual realities disappear for him when brought into the massive, solidly built "reality" which his senses reveal.

     The Perennialist teacher must choose wisely those whom she will admit into the Initiation process, because it is here that the first major danger appears. Some persons can attempt to move into the mystical life but end up with no home in the physical or the spiritual world.

"At this point a possibility comes in which may prove terrible. A man may lose his sensations and feelings of outer reality without finding a new reality opening up before him. He then feels himself as if suspended in the void. He feels bereft of all life. The old values are gone and no new ones have arisen in their place. The world and man no longer exist for him. Now, this is by no means a mere possibility. It happens at one time or another to everyone who seeks higher knowledge. He comes to a point at which the spirit represents all life to him as death. He is then no longer in the world, but under it, in the nether world. He is passing through Hades. Well for him if he sink not! Happy, if a new world open up before him! Either he dies away or he appears to himself transformed." ⁶

     At this juncture--and many others we shall discover--there is an absolute necessity that the teacher have undeniable abilities--in this case the capability of selecting only those candidates for Initiation who will not retrogress into the negative states of meaninglessness or mental disorder.

      This is a crucial cut-off point, where only those aspirants are admitted who possess definite capabilities for success. Success in any case is never assured a spiritual seeker, but the teacher's selection process, guided by her clarified intuition, admits to the quest only those who have a potential to realize the ultimate purpose of union with the Higher Consciousness.

     The list of aspirants has been pruned and now begins the perilous process of actual regeneration. The Perennialist teacher reduces the aspirant's sense-nature and objective mind to quiescence so that his Higher Consciousness can begin to awaken. She induces in the aspirant the state of consciousness of a person at the moment of death or in anaesthesia.

"Now, since we are manifestly present in this world, the world is what we wear (like a garment). From him (the savior) we radiate like rays; and being held fast by him until our sunset--that is, until our death in the present life--we are drawn upward by him as rays are drawn by the sun, restrained by nothing. This is resurrection of the spirit, which overcomes animate resurrection along with resurrection of the flesh. . . . "Everyone should practice in many ways to gain release from this element (the body), so that one might not wander aimlessly but rather might recover one's former state of being." Epistle to Rheginus, a letter from a Perennialist teacher to a student in the third or fourth century, C.E.

"This exit into greater life is the crowning glory of our existence here. It means transfiguration into an electrified and eternal being. I've got to tell you of it by degrees, because the exit is through the doors of self. "Now stepping outside oneself actually means the practice of making one's own in imagination the conditions of the hour of death. . . . "Suppose the day came for the Great Adventure of departing hence. Even a picnic or a vacation or a business trip demands some preparation. One is apt to take this tremendous step quite suddenly. What is it going to be like? Why turn our imaginations away from it so piously - or is it cowardly? Why not entertain ourselves with the buoyancy of anticipation? It is quite as speculative an amusement as contemplating a trip to Thibet, or reading what astronomers say about Mars, or any other pet flight of fancy. This has the advantage that we are actually dated up for it. "Children play beautiful games of expanding consciousness, supposing giants and mighty superlatives. I'm getting just such a cheerful imaginative picture of when we depart hence. It is as though everything had been taken from me but the residue of me, such as would remain if I were to die now. It's all I've got to orient me in this new world in which I am just an embryonic being. Every circumstance of life is gone. I am as unconscious of my body as ever I could possibly be. The merest shadow of its existence is on me. Betty White, Across the Unknown

     The aspirant's consciousness, withdrawn from externals, the Perennialist teacher now has him focus upon his mind's internal content. The state of consciousness into which the Perennialist teacher induces the aspirant lays open the most secret recesses of the human psyche. We are ordinarily shielded from these powerful inner forces by the grossness of our sense-bound mind. The murk and fantasies of the initiate's psychical regions intervene between his mind and the Higher Consciousness to which he aspires.

     Some of the world's greatest poets and writers have depicted this submersion of the initiate into the netherworld. Aeneas plucks a branch of the "golden bough" and by its magic overcomes the phantasms of the "underworld" (his own subconscious), emerging at length in Elysium (consciousness of the divine plane). With the help of her "golden thread" Ariadne is able to find her way through the labyrinth (of her own subjective nature).

"It is only by exceeding zeal and piety of intention, such as is ascribed to Aeneas in search of his father, and a prevailing reason, that the seeking mind becomes fitted for establishment in her essence and percipient of her final duty to separate the good and reject the evil therein by birth allied; that she may know to what she ought to aspire, dismissing every other consideration, where Desires are Images and Will their Act. Thus Plato says,--It is necessary that a man should have his right opinion as firm as adamant in him when he descends into Hades, that there likewise he may be unmoved by riches or any such like evils, and may not, falling into tyrannies and such other practices, do incurable mischiefs and himself suffer still greater; but that he may know how to choose the middle life as to those things, and to shun extremes on either hand, both in this life as far as possible and in the whole hereafter." M. A. Atwood, Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy

     The theurgic prescription for this submersion into the underworld is that the whole body should be buried, except the head, indicating that one's entire being, with the exception of the Higher Intellect, should be interred in profound oblivion. It is the Higher Mind (Nous) that reaches out to reunion with the One. The seed of Higher Consciousness which remains in the aspirant is now buried and must die as a seed to be reborn into a higher form.

     The Perennialist teacher provides detailed instruction as to how the aspirant is to pass through the perilous morass of inner temptations, fascinations, and obsessions. The savant instructs the initiate in how to achieve death of the lower self and resurrection into union with the Divine Self. The Tibetan Book of the Dead teaches how to pass through death, overcome whatever troublesome psychic tendencies may still be present, and achieve rebirth into a Higher Realm. The aspirant practices this death, overcoming of negative elements, and resurrection process through many years of training.

"Know that when you learn to lose yourself, you will reach the Beloved. There is no other secret to be learnt, and more than this is not known to me."

NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1947, p. 13

³ Ibid., p. 14

⁴ Ibid., p. 15

⁵ William Kingsland. The Gnosis or Ancient Wisdom in the      Christian Scriptures, p. 31

⁶ Rudolf Steiner. Christianity As Mystical Fact, p. 17