Initiation into the Path of the Arrow instead of Magick?
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One mounteth unto the Crown by the moon and by the Sun, and by the arrow, and by the Foundation, and by the dark home of the stars from the black earth.
Lines like this have been catching my attention a lot lately. I've been coming to a point where the only ceremonial work that I do is to produce drops of understanding so that I can ultimately attain K&C of the HGA. If this is indeed my goal, am I wasting my time by zigzagging up the tree with the path of Magick? Is there some initiating current that can take me straight up the central pillar instead? And perhaps after I've attained K&C of the HGA, I can explore magck again if it still strikes my interest.
In theory this type of initiation makes sense. In practice, do such initiation schools exist?
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If your ship is balanced and centered, then yes you can go straight on up. If.
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"":znytv3gn]
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One mounteth unto the Crown by the moon and by the Sun, and by the arrow, and by the Foundation, and by the dark home of the stars from the black earth.
"Lines like this have been catching my attention a lot lately. I've been coming to a point where the only ceremonial work that I do is to produce drops of understanding so that I can ultimately attain K&C of the HGA. If this is indeed my goal, am I wasting my time by zigzagging up the tree with the path of Magick? Is there some initiating current that can take me straight up the central pillar instead? And perhaps after I've attained K&C of the HGA, I can explore magck again if it still strikes my interest.
In theory this type of initiation makes sense. In practice, do such initiation schools exist?"
Here's the problem as I've experienced it.
You don't just sort of have an experience, you "cross a threshold." Very literally, your brain learns a new way of functioning by learning a new way of organizing its differently functioning parts. This new organization generates a new kind of experience.
And as long as the Self is speaking through that, you're golden. It's awesome, awe-inspiring, life-changing.
But the Self doesn't always speak through it, yet that new way of functioning still exists. It becomes a new medium, a new method of communication, for your unconscious mind. Your Self is not the only thing that you'll ever experience through that new organization of brain functioning and new medium of communication with your unconscious mind.
That's what the training is for: learning control. Because after the glory departs, there's other things stirring around in there.. unconscious psychological complexes, pathologies, repressed desires... and you have learn to control that because once you've crossed that threshold, there's not really any going back. I mean, the experiences will subside, but they can also come back unbidden, like some kind of flashback.
That's what the rest of the education is for. So you can do it beforehand, with patience, and keep your ship on course during and after, or you can leap ahead and then have to learn all of the control of the ship afterward, which is neither easy nor pleasant.
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I think the post-enlightenment sadana's as you described are accurate Hermitas.
The Non Dual path - the closest to the Tao in philosophy and acti... practice - deals with these in the same way that you break through in the first place by staying put as NOT. Nothing can harm thee if thou art not.
In practice Ramana and the great sages stayed put by being well out of sight for many years, dealing with these monstrous forces by being not.
They certainly didn't teach or engage with the world at these phases and in the West, we have to engage with the world all the time. Even in India - in the sacred Temple people kept throwing things at 'the boy sage' in disgust. He then had to be put in the catacombs area of the temple and semi-cared for, (if at all other than some rice ) by monks . e ended up with all sorts of maladies of the body while his mind was elsewhere. He had to be completely looked after for years. He hadn't even physically developed his body or brain when his entrance to the Abyss began.
Bodhidarma stared at a wall for ten years well after his initial enlightenment , I forget his name off the top of my head but one of the greatest Zen monks broke through , left the temple to go and teach, came back after a day and stayed in the temple for another 30 years , stating that he was no-where near ready.
So , I think the path of the AA with it's focus on containing and experiencing these forces before the floodgates really open is a much more sensible and gentle way of doing the work. Ok we may not feel it's gentle when half-way through Probationer , let alone later, but compared to what holy men have had to suffer in the past...