5° Initiation
Aug. 25th, 2022 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ecosophia
This week's installment is the self-initiation ritual into the grade of Teacher, which brings with it the right to establish a temple of the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose, initiate qualified candidates, and perform the rituals of the solstices and equinoxes. There's a lot of material to post before we finish with this grade and get to the final degree of initiation. Stay tuned! * * * * *
5° Initiation
Preliminaries and Preparations
This ritual is the fifth step in your initiation into the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose. It builds on the initiations you have already taken and the work you have already done. Be sure to read the text of the ritual carefully before deciding whether or not to perform it. If you decide to proceed, certain preliminaries are necessary, and certain preparations need to be made.
The preliminaries are straightforward. Before you perform the ceremony, you should have completed all the work assigned to the 4° grade of Student: that is, you should have made and consecrated your Wand of Fire, you should have practiced the exercise of entering into the elemental world of Fire at least three times; you should have read the papers assigned to the Student grade, and in addition, at least four other books on occultism; you should have continued your weekly practice of the temple opening and closing ritual, and your daily practice of ritual, meditation, and divination.
The preparations are equally straightforward. You will need the chair, altar, pillars, Rider-Waite tarot deck, and the basic emblems of the elements (incense burner and incense, folding fan, cup of water, and bowl of salt) you have used already. You will need only one of the candles, the red candle of Fire, and you will need your Wand of Fire and a printout of the Tree of Life diagram. You will also need a room or other space large enough that you can set up the altar in the middle and walk around it in a circle, and an hour to an hour and a half of uninterrupted time.
It was standard practice in Juliet Ashley’s Holy Order of the Golden Dawn to perform initiation rituals only on a solstice or equinox. Under John Gilbert’s leadership that was changed, and members were encouraged to perform the initiation rituals on the day immediately following the new moon. You may do either of these, or choose a day that numerologically adds to 1, when combined with your personal time number. Choose the day for your initiation using any of these methods.
You may wear a robe or other ceremonial clothing or not, as you prefer. White robes were standard wear in Juliet Ashley’s time, according to what I learned from John, but his rule was that each initiate got to make his or her own choice of ritual garments, or wear ordinary clothing, or nothing at all. Choose which of these options is right for you.
Finally, you will need to decide how you will call on the Divine. You may use any divine name you choose, or simply say “Source of all that is” or some other abstract term. Settle on what you are going to say before the ceremony. You need not use the same name you used in earlier initiations.
Before you Begin
Set up the altar in the center of the space. Put the emblems of the four elements on the four sides of the altar—the fan to the east, the incense burner to the south, the cup to the west, and the bowl of salt to the north. Put the red candle of Fire on the eastern side of the altar, near the fan. Place your consecrated Wand of Fire in the center, as shown in the diagram. Place your chair in the south, the direction of fire.
Do not put the pillars on the altar yet; instead, put them in a convenient place until the opening ceremony begins. Near the pillars, place Trump IV, the Emperor, Trump V, the Hierophant, Trump VI, the Lovers, and Trump XVIII, The Moon; you will be putting these on the altar at certain points in the ritual as indicated.
Put water in the cup, light the incense, and then perform the complete Opening Ceremony, placing the pillars on the altar and lighting the candles where the ritual instructs you to do so. In the appropriate places, instead of “...on the Candidate Grade, say “...on the Grade of Teacher.”
When you have completed the opening ritual, take a few minutes to build the astral forms you will need for the initiation. There are five of these. In each of the four quarters there stands an initiate; the one in the east wears a yellow robe, the one in the south a red robe, the one in the west a blue robe, and the one in the north a green robe. You may fill in all the other details as you wish.
Before you in the south, beyond the initiate in the red robe, stands Michael, the archangel of Fire. Imagine him as a tall winged being in a red robe edged with emerald. His hair is black and his face is strong and angular, the face of a warrior. He holds a wand in front of him, of the same kind as your Wand of Fire.
Remember that imagination is not the same as visualization. If you can visualize these forms, that’s good. If not, simply imagine that they are there.
Once you have done this, leave the space. Close the door behind you if there is one. Sit or stand, wait for a little while, and then go to the door and knock three times. (If there is no door, knock on a wall or some other surface.) Imagine a voice responding, saying, “Who are you, that dares to approach this temple?”
You reply aloud: “I am a Student of the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose who has completed all the requirements for advancement to the grade of Teacher, and I ask permission to enter and be received into the fifth grade of the Fellowship.”
The voice replies: “Student, you may enter.” Go into the temple space.
First Point
Go to the west of the altar, facing east. Say aloud: “I, (say your full name), an initiate of the Student grade, present myself for advancement into the grade of Teacher. I have performed the required practices and studied the required texts assigned to the Student Grade, and I know of no reason why I should not advance to the Teacher Grade. I therefore purify myself with the four elements to prepare for my initiation.”
Circle around clockwise to the east of the altar, pick up the fan, and wave it to send a stream of air against your face. Say: “I purify myself with the element of Air, and I invoke the spirits and powers of Air. May they bless me and further my work.”
Put down the fan, go to the south of the altar, pick up the incense burner, and use one hand to waft incense smoke over your face and head. Say: “I purify myself with the element of Fire, and I invoke the spirits and powers of Fire. May they bless me and further my work.”
Put down the incense burner, go to the west of the altar, dip your fingers into the water, and flick droplets of water onto your head and face. Say: “I purify myself with the element of Water, and I invoke the spirits and powers of Water. May they bless me and further my work.”
Go to the north of the altar, take a pinch of the salt between thumb and forefinger, open your mouth, and place the salt on your tongue. Say: “I purify myself with the element of Earth, and I invoke the spirits and powers of Earth. May they bless me and further my work.”
Go around clockwise to the west, facing east across the altar. If you are able to do so, kneel on both your knees. Take your Wand of Fire in your right hand and raise it high above the altar, point up; place the fingers of your left hand on the edge of the altar. Bow your head. Say: “Having placed myself in due form, I now take on myself the obligation of the Grade of Teacher.
“I, (say your full name), in the presence of the Divine and of my guardian angel (or guardian genius) and in this temple of Teachers do solemnly promise that I will take up the studies and practices of the Grade of Teacher so long as I may do so with a clean conscience, and will persevere in them while I remain a Teacher and a member of this Fellowship.
"I further promise that I will continue to practice the rituals, meditations and studies of a Seeker, a Sojourner, a Server, and a Student to gain further knowledge and assist myself on my own spiritual path.
"I further promise that I will always hereafter treat the element of Fire with due respect, both in my ordinary life and in my occult studies and practices; that I will offer proper reverence to the archangel and angels of Fire; and that I will always treat the nature spirits and elementals of Fire with courtesy and compassion.
“I further promise that if it becomes my privilege and duty to become the chief officer of a Temple of the Fellowship I will govern with justice tempered by mercy, and I will confer each grade of the Fellowship only upon those who have demonstrated proficiency in the work of the previous grade.
"To all this I solemnly and sincerely promise in the name of (speak the name of the Divine you have chosen).”
Imagine that you hear the sound of a bell somewhere in the south, ringing three chimes. Then imagine a voice speaking out of the east, saying: “Arise and be received into the Grade of Teacher. Long have you dwelt in darkness. Quit the darkness and seek the light.”
You put the Wand back on the altar, rise to your feet and behold the altar, with the candle, the Wand, the four elemental emblems, and two pillars. Say: “Having passed from darkness to light, I present myself to receive instruction in the sign, grip and word of the Grade of Teacher.”
Read the following passages aloud, and make each of the motions as it is described.
“The sign of this grade is made by standing with your feet together, raising your left hand in front of your left shoulder as though holding a staff; raising your right hand and arm at an angle above and in front of you, as though holding a lamp; and bowing your head. This is the position of the hermit in Trump IX of the tarot deck used by the Fellowship.
“The grip of this grade is similar to the grip of the Student grade, with your left foot next to the left foot of the person you are greeting. In this grade, however, your left hand is held in front of your left shoulder as just described, and your right hand is placed on their left shoulder. This grip should only be given to another member of the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose.
“The word of this grade is ‘Once Again.’ It is divided in half when used for working purposes. The member giving the grip shall speak the first half, ‘Once,’ and the one receiving the grip shall respond with the second half, ‘Again.’”
Now imagine the voice in the east saying: “The Temple of Students which you have just quitted is in the sphere of Hod the Splendor but the Temple of Teachers is in the sphere of Netzach. To ascend to it you must travel three paths, and to begin the first you must start once again in the Place of Ignorance. Let this remind you that no matter how much you learn you must always be ready to begin once more at the Place of Ignorance.”
Second Point
Now take the Wand of Fire off the altar, putting it someplace nearby, and in its place put Trump IV, the Emperor. Then stand at the west of the altar facing east. Imagine before you, on the far side of the altar, the figure of the Emperor from the trump you have placed on the altar. Imagine him saying:
“Before you may proceed you must approach and give me the grip and password of a Teacher.”
You circle around the altar and give him the grip and the first half of the password. He responds with the second half, and then says:
“What is the name of the place from whence you came?”
You answer, “The Place of Ignorance.”
“What is the esoteric lesson you learned in the Place of Ignorance?”
You answer, “To become Aware.”
Read the passages below, imagining that the Emperor is saying them.
“I applaud your decision to become aware, but to proceed you must learn to reason things out for yourself for you are now walking the Path of Reason.
“Having become aware that you lived in the World of Ignorance was the first step of your spiritual journey in the Magical Golden Dawn. Your second step was the act of paying attention to the things coming into your awareness. Your third step was awakening to your true spiritual identity. Your fourth step was to remember the past. Your fifth step was to imagine the future. Your sixth step was to expand your awareness. Now you will learn that your seventh step is to reason it out for yourself.
“The Path of the Teacher is the Path of Reason. This path leads from the Place of Ignorance toward you know not where. What you do know is that your awareness is expanding. You are more aware, you pay better attention to your awareness, your have awakened to the fact you are a spiritual being living in the flesh, you remember more, you imagine better and more beautiful things and you have an improved ability to reason things out for yourself.
Becoming aware, paying attention, awakening to new knowledge, remembering, imagining and expanding your consciousness gives you the opportunity to make better decisions in your life. This opportunity requires that you think. It requires that you think things through, reason them out and bring all of your resources to bear on the issue at hand. Garner the facts through your awareness, by paying attention, remembering and imagining. Use your awakened and expanding mind to think things through, to reason them out and make solid decisions.
The first problem with logic is when emotion becomes involved. Our feelings are not always logical. Our feelings sometimes override or disrupt our logical thinking. The solution is to rely on the facts and only the facts when we reason things out. Later we may want to temper our decision based on the emotions involved, or we may want to persuade others based on our logical conclusions. We need to know what the logical course of action may be and then balance that conclusion with the emotions involved.
The wise person understands the limitations of reason and makes every effort to avoid arriving at false conclusions and poor decisions. But the wise person also knows that reasoning things out is necessary in our everyday life and in following our spiritual path.
Return now to the west of the altar and await the next lesson.”
You return to the west of the altar and face east. Remove Trump IV, the Emperor, from the center of the altar, and put Trump V, the Hierophant, in its place. Once you have done so, imagine before you, on the far side of the altar, the figure of the Hierophant from the trump you have placed on the altar. Imagine him saying:
“Before you may proceed you must approach and give me the grip and password of a Teacher.”
You circle around the altar and give him the grip and the first half of the password. He responds with the second half. Read the passages below, imagining that the Hierophant is saying them.
“You have now risen from the Place of Ignorance to the Place of Awakening, for it is from Yesod, the ninth sphere of the Tree of Life, that you must begin to travel the second path that leads upward to the seventh sphere Netzach. That second path is the Path of Intuition.
“You now find yourself on the Path of Intuition. Here you are to learn to honor and trust your intuitive insights. In our ignorance, the normal human reaction to intuitive insights is to deny them, to consider them silly imaginings and pay them no attention. This is exactly what we must learn not to do. For our intuitive insights are messages from our own Higher Self.
“Intuitive insights come to us in a variety of ways. One way is a feeling in the pit of our stomach that something is not right. It isn’t right whether we believe the pit of our stomach or not. Sometimes we get a chill as the hair on the back of our neck stands up. This too is a warning that something is not right whether we believe it or not. Sometimes we experience fear for apparently no reason at all. This is a different kind of fear than what we might imagine on a dark night in an unfamiliar place. This fear is real whether we believe it or not.
“Intuitive insights can come to us during sleep in our dreams or in that dreamy state as we awaken or just before we go to sleep. They can arrive during moments or peacefulness and relaxation, during meditation, contemplation or prayer. Intuitive insights come to us most of the time but we’re not aware of them. Therefore your assignment as a Teacher is to become aware of your intuitive insights, pay attention to them, awaken to the reality your intuitive insights are real communications from your own higher self, remember your intuitive insights, imagine what they might mean, expand your consciousness and think about your intuitive insights.
“Your intuition is like any other aspect of your being. Use it and trust it or it decreases in function and capacity. Use it or lose it is true about every part of our being. Use your mind, memory, imagination, reasoning capability and your intuition or lose them. What you use increases in power and what you do not use decreases in power and eventually shuts down.
“Become aware of your intuitive insights, pay attention to them, awaken to the reality your intuitive insights are real communications from your own higher self, remember your intuitive insights, imagine what they might mean, expand your consciousness and think about your intuitive insights. Then act on them. This is the way to empower your own intuition.
“Return now to the west of the altar and await the next lesson.”
You return to the west of the altar and face east. Remove Trump V, the Hierophant, from the center of the altar, and put Trump VI, the Lovers, in its place. Once you have done so, imagine before you, on the far side of the altar, the figure of the angel from the trump you have placed on the altar. Imagine the angel saying:
“Before you may proceed you must approach and give me the grip and password of a Teacher.”
You circle around the altar and give the angel the grip and the first half of the password. He responds with the second half. Read the passages below, imagining that the angel is saying them.
“You have now risen from the Place of Awakening to the Place of Greater Awareness, for it is from Hod, the eighth sphere of the Tree of Life, that you must begin to travel the third path that leads upward to the seventh sphere Netzach. That third path is the Path of Discernment.
“The part of your mind that discerns the difference between two opposites is your conscience. For that reason, some refer to this as the Path of Conscience. Our conscience is a subconscious function of our mind based on knowledge stored inn our memory. Based on this we know what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil, what benefits all concerned and what is detrimental. This path is where our logical mind, which is considered masculine, looks to our memory stored in our subconscious mind, which is considered feminine, for guidance under the watchful eye of our own Higher Self. Our subconscious mind makes the decision but our conscious mind can change all of that.
“The Path of Reason looks to the Path of Memory to tell our Conscience what to do. But if our logical mind does not agree, we do the opposite of what our conscience decided. Because we have free will we have the ability to override our conscience and do what is harmful to ourselves or others. This is a conscious decision some people make in ignorance, or to benefit themselves at the expense of others. They reason it out and they decide to intentionally do the wrong thing. They know what they are doing is evil and not in the best interests of others. They know this is a mistake, a crime against the Divine, their own spirituality and everyone involved.
“We have a responsibility to know what is right or wrong, good or bad, beneficial or detrimental, spiritual or not. On the Path of Discernment we have a duty to honor our conscience in all things and do only what is right, good, beneficial and spiritually correct. We have this duty to ourselves, our family, our friends and everybody and everything in the Divine creation.
“To proceed further on your journey, you must now go clockwise around this temple three times, from east to east. This symbolizes your ascent of the Paths of Reason, Intuition, and Discernment, the Paths of the Emperor, Hierophant, and Lovers. Proceed now on the Paths.”
You circle slowly clockwise around the altar three times from east to east. As you do this, imagine that you are climbing a spiral stair which takes you up out of the temple you have opened into another temple of the same nature above it. When you finish your journey in the east you find the Emperor, Hierophant, and angel waiting there for you.
Now imagine the Emperor saying: “Approach the southern quarter, where the Master of Fire will instruct you on how you may continue your journey from darkness to light.”
Third Point
You go to the south and face south. Imagine an initiate standing there, dressed in a red robe. Make the step and sign, then place your hands on his imagined shoulder in the grip, and communicate the word. Release the step, sign and grip, and then read the passages below, imagining that the figure in yellow is speaking to you.
"Welcome. I congratulate you on attaining the rank of Teacher and journeying up the Paths of Reason, Intuition, and Discernment to this Temple of Teachers. My station and duty you already know. You will now take up your Wand of Fire and return to this station, so that I may instruct you in the use of the wand and invest you with the rank of Master of Fire.”
You go to the place where you put the wand, and return with it to the station of the Master of Fire.
“Your Fire wand is one of the four great elemental working tools you will make as you advance through the grades of our Fellowship. The Wand is a magical expression of the Element of Fire designed to draw the powers of all the Elements into this physical reality in order to direct magical energies from all the realms of being to wherever they may be needed. May it serve as a constant reminder of your commitment to help yourself and serve others by quitting the darkness and seeking the light. Your wand of Fire will serve you well if you take it in your hand during any working involving the element of Fire and it is recommended that you try that for yourself.
“This representation of the Tree of Life you have seen before.”
The Master of Fire shows you an image of the Tree of Life.
“I now draw your attention to the path going upwards from the Place of Ignorance at the bottom of the Tree to the green sphere. This is the Path of Reason. When we awaken to our true spiritual nature, the Path of Reason and the Path of Memory on the other side of the tree going up to the Place of the Mind, both become more active. We easily remember more and our ability to think for ourselves improves. This brings us to an important transformation.
“You have become aware of the Veil of Ignorance, which crosses the Path of Attention, the Path of Remembering and the Path of Reason. You crossed the Veil of Ignorance for the second time on the Path of Memory. Now on this your third crossing of the Veil of Ignorance, it is my duty to inform you that you are not required to remain in ignorance. You may rend the Veil of Ignorance at any time. You may pass through it as you have done on at least three occasions. Each time you pass through the Veil of Ignorance you remember more and more of who you really are, more and more of what you came here to do. Once you awaken to the true reality you are no longer bound to remain in ignorance. You know you are a spiritual being living in a physical universe and you know your purpose in this life.
“The temptation is to cross the Veil of Ignorance and never return to the pain and suffering of this physical reality. You can do this but you defeat your very purpose for incarnating into your physical body. What that purpose may be I do not know. I also doubt that you know. But this much I do know: You came into this physical reality to accomplish something. You now have the tools to learn what that may have been. Then you can accomplish exactly what you came here to do. Whatever it is, you have the opportunity to accomplish a thousand times more spiritual growth in this physical reality than you do on the other side of the Veil of Ignorance. I charge you to discover your own life purpose and accomplish what you came here to do.”
The Master of Fire points to the Tree of Life diagram again.
“I now draw your attention to the path going upwards from the Place of Awakening, the purple sphere, to the green sphere. This is the Path of Intuition. When we awaken to our true spiritual nature, the Path of Intuition, and the Path of Imagination on the other side of the tree going up to the Place of the Mind, both become more active. We become more imaginative and we become more intuitive.
“Therein lies a problem for some who travel the Tree of Life. They’re unable to tell the difference between their imagination and their intuition. They don’t know when they’re imagining something or intuiting it. Here’s the difference: Imagination is active. You have to work at it. It takes energy and it feels energetic. Intuition is passive. You need to relax and let it happen. It takes no energy and it does not feel energetic. Imagination is exciting. Intuition is calm and peaceful. Intuition is knowing. Imagination is guessing.
“We need both skills to travel a spiritual path on every level of our being. We also need them to be balanced. The person who spends too much energy on the Path of Imagination lives in the future and loses touch with the reality of now. They no longer know how to live in the present moment. The person who spends too much time on the Path of Intuition lives on the other side and loses touch with the reality of the physical part of their being. They do not accomplish and learn what they came here to do.
“Balance means we take the time to become aware, pay attention, awaken to our true reality, remember the past, imagine the future, expand our mind, reason things out and trust our intuition. Balance means we use all our faculties. We maintain a healthy body, mind and spirit. We take care of ourselves and we attend to our duties to our family, friends, other people and ourselves. We keep all of these things in balance and we travel a spiritual path.”
The Master of Fire points to the Tree of Life diagram a third time.
“I now draw your attention to the path from here leading toward the green sphere. This is the Path of Conscience, the Path of Right and Wrong, the Path of Discernment. This path connects the Place of Greater Awareness to the green sphere. It is not connected to the path between the Place of Awakening and the yellow sphere. It is connected only to the green and orange spheres.
“There are three horizontal paths on the Tree of Life, and they are associated with the three elements of Air, Water, and Fire. The highest horizontal path is air, the middle path is water, and the lowest path is fire. Each is the base of a triangle of spheres that is assigned to the same element.
“Thus the spheres of Netzach, Hod, and Yesod, together with the three Paths of Imagination, Intuition and Discernment, define the World of Fire. The World of Fire is the world of our needs, wants, desires, passions, cravings, addictions, sexual energy and our sex drive. It is the world of our energy and drive, the enthusiasm we put into things to make them happen. It is this world that gives us the energy, drive and enthusiasm to do the things we came here to do.
“The three spheres in the World of Fire each represent one of the three mother Elements. Yesod is Water, the emotional aspect of our needs, wants, and desires. It’s the feelings we have about these attributes of Fire. Yesod is the parent of the emotional aspect of the World of Earth.
“Hod is Air, the mental aspect of our needs, wants, and desires. It’s what we think about these aspects of Fire, the ideas we have about them and the attitudes we have toward them. Hod is the parent of the mental aspect of the World of Earth.
“Netzach is Fire, the energetic aspect of our needs, wants, and desires. It’s how we bpursue these aspects of these attributes of Fire. Netzach is the parent of the energetic aspect of the World of Earth. The World of Fire is composed of these three Elements all focused on our passions and the Paths of Imagination, Intuition and Conscience.
“Since you have received a part of the knowledge you seek, you are qualified to fill the role of Master of Fire in a temple of the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose. Stand before this chair, which represents the station of the Master of Fire.” You do so. “Imagine the emblem of Fire in front of you, and enlarge it, just as you did when passing into the elemental realm of Fire.” You do so. “Now, holding your Wand of Fire as regalia of your office, step through it and seat yourself in your station as Master of Fire.”
You do this. Stay in the chair for a little while, feeling the energies of the element of Fire around you.
You then hear a voice from the east saying, “Arise, Master of Fire, and return to the altar.”
Step out through the emblem of Fire and imagine it dwindling to a small point in your aura, as you have done before. Place your Wand somewhere near the chair. Then circle back to the west of the altar and face east. Say: “Having presented myself to the Master of Fire and received his/her instructions and blessings, and having been installed as Master of Fire, I ask for further instruction in the secrets of this Grade.”
The voice from the east says, “Proceed now to your seat in the South to hear the Teacher Lecture.”
Remove Trump VI from the center of the altar and replace it with Trump XVIII, the Moon. Go to the chair in the south of the temple and be seated. Read the following lecture carefully.
The Teacher Lecture
Before you is the red burning taper representing the Element of Fire which lighted your way to the place where you now stand. Your Wand of Mercy has been replaced by a placard representing Illusion.
Moonlight is brighter than starlight. This indicates you have your lessons well and have more light. You have a spiritual path before you leading toward the Moon and between the castles. The Moon is peacefully and calmly looking down on you. This is the state of mind of a Teacher who is balancing his or her passions. This is the state of being one achieves when she or he embraces those passions that serve humanity and subdues those that don’t. This is the state of being one achieves when he or she embraces those passions approved by our conscience and subdues those that don’t. This is the state of being one achieves when she or he embraces those passions for the greater good and subdues those that are not.
The work before you is that of relying on your reasoning power, your intuition and your ability to discriminate between opposites to enhance those passions that serve all of the creation and to subdue the rest. This is the place where we define our needs, wants, desires, passions, drives, energy and strivings in terms of what the Divine really wants us to do for the benefit of the creation. To do this to the best of our ability requires that we develop our ability to think, trust our intuition and allow our higher power to help us discriminate between one thing and another.
I now direct your attention to the pillar on the right side of the Tree of Life, the pillar of the green, blue and grey spheres. Ancient tradition teaches us that this is the Pillar of Fire that led the Jews out of Egypt and across the desert at night to the promised land. The Pillar of Cloud on your left led them by day and the Pillar of Fire by night.
Like the Pillar of Cloud, the Pillar of Fire has many names including the Pillar of Passion and Pillar of Desire alluding to the green sphere, the Pillar of Compassion, and Pillar of Mercy alluding to the blue sphere, and Pillar of Intention, Pillar of Wisdom and Pillar of Light alluding to the grey sphere.
The Pillar of Fire is the Left Hand of God, the feminine side of the Tree. It is our own left side. It is represented by the white pillar in a temple of our Fellowship. It is the opposite of the Pillar of Cloud, the Right Hand of God, the masculine side of the Tree and our own right side which is represented by the Black Pillar.
I draw your attention now to the green sphere at the bottom of the Tree on your right. In Hebrew the name of this sphere is Netzatch, which means Glory and alludes to the glory of our free will. Netzatch also alludes to energy and thus to drive, enthusiasm, passion and striving. It is the Element of Fire within the World of Fire. This means that the emphasis of Yesod, Hod, Netzatch, and the Paths of Imagination, Intuition and Discernment is our needs, wants, desires, passions, cravings, addictions, energy, drive, striving and enthusiasm. This is so even though Yesod is Water and Hod is Air. This is so even though imagination, intuition and discernment are all activities of our mind. They are the activities of our mind under the control of all the attributes of the Element of Fire. Thus they are controlled by our needs, wants, desires, passions, cravings, addictions, energy, drive, striving and enthusiasm.
Notice that the World of Fire is in our belly. It is defined as a triangle with its apex in our Lunar Plexus, the point below the navel that the teachings of the East call hara or tan t’ien, and the base is a line through our Solar Plexus. This is the pit of our stomach where we often feel the results of our intuitive insights. This Place of Fire within the World of Fire is our passion and it is this passion that governs our World of Fire and has a great influence on our World of Earth. It takes great will power indeed to overcome the influence the Place of Fire has on the World of Earth.
The work of a Teacher is to subdue or enhance the Place of Fire and thus gain control over the World of Fire and improve the spiritual influence this world has on our World of Earth. Rather than using willpower to overcome the power of passion, the Teacher uses reason, intuition and conscience to manage passion.
You will recall the World of Earth is the Place of Ignorance, the Physical World of Manifestation, the Place of Personas. In this World of Earth we are convinced that we are our body, our mind, our jobs and all the other things we do and are in this World of Ignorance. We do not remember who and what we really are. We do not remember why we are here.
We are our personas in the World of Earth. We don’t remember that we are Children of the Divine or what that means. We don’t pay attention to our spiritual path because we don’t know we have one. We don’t think about our spiritual path because traveling a spiritual path is not logical. We think we are our body and everything about our body. We hide behind our false masks, our personas, and we don’t pay attention, remember or think about our true reality.
Everything on this side of the Veil of Ignorance is the World of Earth. The World of Earth contains the World of Manifestation, which is the Place of Ignorance, and it also contains the Path of Attention, the Path of Memory and the Path of Reason. The spheres of Yesod, Hod, and Netzach are the parents of the World of Earth but they are not a part of the World of Earth. Yesod is the parent of our physical emotions and relationships within this physical reality. Hod is the parent of our thoughts and ideas about the things of this physical reality. Netzach is the parent of our wants, needs and desires for the physical things of this physical reality.
This World of Earth is also called the World of Suffering. It is the physical things in this reality that cause us physical pain. It is our emotions concerning this physical reality that causes us pain. It is our thoughts and ideas about the things in this physical reality that causes us mental anguish. It is our wants, needs, cravings and addictions for the things in this physical reality that causes us psychological pain and suffering. It is our separation from the Divine by the Veil of Ignorance that causes us spiritual pain and suffering.
The World of Earth is designed to be that way. We manifest in the World of Earth to overcome our limitations and to learn how to accept, forgive and love ourselves and one another. We also have a personal agenda to accomplish. We do not remember what that personal agenda is while we’re living in the World of Earth. What we do know is that you and I are here today in this place doing what we’re doing because we both had a personal agenda for following a spiritual path and growing spiritually while we lived in the World of Earth.
We are where we are and we’re doing what we’re doing because we came into manifestation to do just that. You have the opportunity to continue to quit the darkness and seek the light. The rest is up to you.
This completes the Teacher Lecture. It will serve you well to study these things until you understand them with every fiber of your being. Then proceed with the teaching materials of a Initiate. These teachings will be made more clear to you by a further understanding of the Temple in which you were initiated.
Closing the Ceremony
After you have finished reading the Teacher Lecture, spend at least a few minutes meditating on the ceremony you have performed and the symbols and teachings embodied in it. Then rise, thank the archangel of Fire, thank all the other spiritual beings that have assisted in the ritual, and dissolve the astral forms you created for the archangel and the four initiates. (You do this simply by imagining the forms disappearing.) Once you have done so, perform the complete closing ceremony to close the temple in the Grade of Teacher. This completes your initiation into the Teacher Grade.
It is highly recommended that you devote time in the days and weeks ahead to meditating on the ceremony you have just passed through. Every detail of that ceremony has something to teach you. The more attention you give to the ceremony, the more meaningful it will be for you and the more you will gain from it.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-08-26 07:42 am (UTC)From that perspective, the lore and symbolic elements seem to be there to make the teachings more memorable but are kind of secondary. And the tree of life looks like a distilled model of how to balance spiritual development.
If I had been presented spirituality in those terms earlier, I would have enthusiastically embraced it. But I can guess a few reasons why many traditions and mainstream views might have actively tried to mis-characterize the entire process and organizations that offered it...
(no subject)
Date: 2022-08-26 06:35 pm (UTC)And yes, that's exactly why the traditions and institutions you're thinking of have done their level best either to denounce the process of initiation, or to deck it out with obvious absurdities of the Harry Potter sort, so that people don't notice what you've noticed...
Typos
Date: 2022-10-01 09:45 pm (UTC)Typos:
(No need to actually post this comment, just fix them! :-)