The true nature of Initiation
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@Wushi said
"Would you know of any books that contain this information? And thanks for the reply by the way."
I'm understanding your question to address more the process than specific methods or approaches. There are thousdands of books possible, but the following, all by Dion Fortune, are some that are readily accessible and discuss this in the framework of the Western Mystery System:
The Training & Work of the Initiate
www.amazon.com/Training-Work-Initiate-Dion-Fortune/dp/1578631831/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223835808&sr=1-2Esoteric Orders & Their Work
www.amazon.com/Esoteric-Orders-Their-Work-Fortune/dp/157863184X/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223835995&sr=1-15Mystical Qabalah
www.amazon.com/Mystical-Qabalah-Dion-Fortune/dp/1578631505/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223835808&sr=1-7 -
Yes, I should have mentioned Lord of Lights. Quite exceptional.
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@Aum418 said
"93,
Words are cheap. The best way to figure this out is through experience.
IAO131"
Yes but having a general outline of what is going on is nice way to supplement experience.
And thank you for that last book, I will certainly look into it!
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@Wushi said
"I've been roaming the boards for a while now and never had very specific questions that couldn't have been answered through different threads yet.
Apart from this one: What is the true nature of Initiation? I know this question alone could probably take your whole bandwith if it is to be answered but I'm talking about the general process one goes through during the path of Initiation. For example does it simply speed up karma, or does it guide you towards something that you wouldn't become if you weren't Initiated... Is there any guide for the Work that is to be done apart from the official Work, that which you must do alone etc etc..For example what needs to happen on the personality/mental/psychic level during Malkuth/Yesod/Tiphareth...
I know the questions are quite broad but I don't know how else I could ask what I will to know.
Thanks"
IMHO initiation refers to changes of state. One's body and mind are organized in a way that "higher" levels subsume "lower" levels of functioning. There is a sort of heirarchy of functioning, such that each successive level is built on the foundation of the previous. A quick way of "getting" the idea would be to refer to the Triune Brain theory - we are humans built on top of pack mammals, built on top of crocodiles. Initiation refers to travelling up this sort of heirarchy, although it's up for debate how to cut the cookie (how and where to actually see the "stages", or how to conceive of them).
Now the thing is, the process of initiation is consciousness inhabiting each of these successive levels in turn. We develop from perceivers of abstract generalities representing constants in nature, to more and more refined perceivers of what is, more and more we become appreciators of, and players in, detail (while yet not losing the abstract understanding either). We develop from frightened, tribal, stressed or dull reptiles, through to curious, friendly mammals, through to acute, exquisitely sensitive poets, engineers, visionaries, idealists, and so on.
This process of the deepening self-revelation of the world to itself through us (the humble we), and the ever-keener appreciation of the gift given us, is initiation.
It reminds me a bit of the concept of evolutionary stable strategies (ESS) in evolutionary biology. "Peaks of adaptation" and all that. Slippery slope to get up there, but once you're up there, it's fairly stable, the machinery settles into good cybernetic behaviour.
Making the analogy to the development of the individual (using a similar evolutionary algorithm), one attains a kind of coherent pattern of behaviour organized around the "trances" at the various Sephiroth. Consciousness, or "what it feels like to be and see", travels up and inhabits, in turn, these Sephiroth. Similar to the concept of Chakras as "dynamos" in Leadbeater (I think it was? Theosophical chap). One makes the transition from the "profane" - the human being who feels at effect and buffeted by forces, through to being centred in and as the Universe, totally at home in one's playground.
Anyway, I think what happens is that, say, at Yesod, you are investigating the automatic parts of yourself, that vast machinery your consciousness rides on and relies on - the unconscious regenerative and self-preservative instincts; then at Hod you are dealing with all the glorious machinery of thought - and the endless reproduction of symbols. Then at Netzach you are investigating sensuous, sensory experience, emotional interplay with things, etc. At each level, you "master" what life is like from that perspective, and you subsume it, and then you "Strive ever to more!" You become aware of this *other *new area of life and start investigating it deeply.
Another way of looking at it is as a giant "Neti Neti". At each level you behold and master/conjoin-with this new unfolding of reality; but you notice that you are not that; you notice there is something more deeply you, behind what you thought you were, something that's there to notice even that.
Another way of looking at it is AC's commentary on one of the major verses in AL, where he starts off talking about the happiness of eating marrons glacés palling after a few kilograms have been consumed, and ends up talking about the Dao.
