Index: The instruments of initiation - Smoothing the Stone - The bodies of man, his dimensions and inner universes - Process of illumination - The Three Pillars of the Work: a) «Know Thyself», b) «Energy follows the Thought», c) «Man becomes what he thinks» - Psyche is an instrument of “revelation” - Charismatic Personalities - Creating light and sound
The adept who carries out the smoothing of the Rough Stone (character and personality) according to the principles of the real Art, discovers the “occult instruments” to be used in order to “animate” the most sacred part of himself. These “occult instruments” are gifts and inner virtues coming from the Case of harmonics of the Great Architect of the Universe. Freemasonry too knows about its existence, veiled in the metaphor of the “masonry tools”.
The instruments of initiation
The Path that leads to Initiation operates within a well defined space, which follows the rules of evolution.
The law of evolution rules the progress of the universe, marking the time of its transformations, giving cycles and rhythm to its physical and subtle phenomena. It determines the codes (DNA) that guide the kingdoms of nature, whose peculiarities give essence and substance to every living element.
In man, the mineral kingdom is his skeleton. The vegetable kingdom is made of his fluids and humors. The animal kingdom is his physical body.
The human kingdom is the man’s mind and the spiritual kingdom starts in the soul.
The most qualified means of human evolution is therefore his mental space. Each expectation of progress would be unrealistic if the latent talents were not developed.
These talents are not evident at all; indeed we are so much used to the physical senses that we don’t feel the drive to look for something more and better than technical and mechanical instruments.
Technological support helps life. Makes us more comfortable. But that’s not progress. The civilization of man originates from inner evolution, from the simultaneous and balanced development of mind and conscience, which develops Free Will.
Free Will is not freedom of choice, but immaterial awareness able to discriminate subtle thoughts (see Plato, Hyperuranion), developing subtlemental perceptions. Freedom of choice, be it of a winning or losing kind, is associated to the ordinary sense of reasoning whilst Free Will is associated to the action of spiritual will.
Spiritual will drives the physical conscience to recognize itself as an incomplete entity until it is separated from its original nucleus. The initiatory process, which is a process of inner change, re-joins (religere) the separate borders of physical conscience tied to the material senses and subtle conscience as expression of spiritual sensitivity.
The “recognition” of the separation occurs in the mind; by working towards that direction, it gives its contribution to its own transformation, freeing itself from the “bonds” of animal nature.
Once the psyche* is free from the bonds of the lower nature (in the initiatory metaphor it is the profane world) it enters into steady contact with the nucleus of the subtle conscience called higher Ego (in the initiatory metaphor it is the Initiate), which drives the physical conscience to self-determining its destiny through Free Will.
This method of progress is called «Initiation». It consists of accelerating the psycho-energetic processes which the illumination of the concrete mind and of the physical conscience depends on.
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*Psyche and Psychè - By psyche we mean the thinking mind rather than the organ (brain) through which the thought “resounds” in the body. By Psychè we mean the soul.
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The adept soon realizes that initiation does not consist of the transmission of a sequence of information and theories. It is a method to accelerate the processes of mental development. A transformation through which we end up influencing our destiny by reconstituting ourselves.
In order to leave room for new things, though, we need to demolish any “old obstacle” first, by working on mind and conscience concordantly. This work needs to be done properly. If not, the price to pay is painful physical and psychicdamages; history is full of them, caused by confused and uncertain approaches to “devotion”. The latter doesn’t know the act of inner will neither the evocating power of the Word.
Smoothing the Stone
The rough Stone represents the work that the Mason carries out on himself in order to become more refined; the Cubic Stone symbolizes the three dimensions of its inner space. Similar to the Cubic Stone is the “Quaternary” of elements that make every form, earth-body, water-emotions, air-abstract thought and fire-spiritual energy.
The bodies of man, his dimensions and inner universes
The physical body and its ethereal double (ethereal aura) are the densest bio-physical emanations of man.
The astral body (astral aura) or body of desire is the emanation of the plane of instincts, emotions and passionate desires. Once they are refined by intelligence and altruism, they are transformed into feelings and deep feelings. Therefore they go from the astral plane to the mental and higher mental plane.
The mental body (psychic aura) is divided into concrete and abstract mind.
The physical or concrete mind is the seat of reason. Archive of learning and memory of past experiences, one’s own or others’.
The abstract mind (egoic aura) is the seat of synthetic understanding, able to produce completely original ideas (creativity). It is the pole of intuitive intelligence and it responds to the influence (will) of spiritual conscience, where the initiate draws the deepest teachings. An occult knowledge called self-generating.
After that we find the mind of the soul and spiritual mind, which from the bottom are seen as the only two inner aspects.
Process of illumination
Through the methods of interiorization (see V.I.T.R.I.O.L.), the initiate “travels” (goes back) towards the subtlest planes of his own conscience. Where the mind meets its spiritual counterpart*, which can enlighten its journey.
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* The animic aura and the spiritual aura are the subtlest dimensions of the man universe.
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thus the Two become One’; “…at this point the initiate meets his own inner God that reveals the path to him.
Eastern tradition, even earlier than the scientific advent given by the Kirlian machine*, taught that Man lives at the center of a field irradiating energy of various nature called Aura (ethereal, astral, mental, animic, spiritual, etc.)
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* Kirlian (see Kirlian machine) – name of the Russian scientist who, together with his wife, in the Sixties found out how to photograph the colored irradiations of the magnetic auras of every living form.
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Compound colors are the symptom of a condition that is as disorganized as discordant are the mental levels of man; with inner work, he will be able to recompose them in a unique harmonious and organized thought.
This takes us back to the metaphor of the Rough Stone. It shows the way to inner work, necessary to correct the mind and to turn its thoughts from impulsive and untidy into harmonious and organized ones. Smoothing the Stone, though, also means to understand the causes of one’s own conditionings, before changing its effects, up to reaching the ‘freedom’ symbolized by the “Wings” at the top of the Caduceus of Hermes.
The Three Pillars of the Work
a) |
Know Thyself. |
b) |
Energy follows the Thought. |
c) |
Man becomes what he think. |
a) «Know Thyself»
It hides the principle of inner balance, which intelligently corrects the various drives, even conflictual ones, of the lower mind, restricted by the animal nature of the physical body. But in order to correct we first need to know what’s wrong.
This is the sense of the warning “know thyself”.
Rose & Cross Brothers state that the personal Work as well complies with the laws of the Great Book of Natureand that the aphorism “Up as is down” teaches how the inner geometry of man reflects that of the planet (the Planetary Logos), with its twine of visible and invisible energetic hierarchies.
This leads us to see ourselves as the image of the planet from which we draw the vital substance necessary to “animate” us (see Anima Mundi). Therefore the knowledge of ourselves (see self-conscience) is the beginning of the work of inner re-edification.
By the law of balance, which the sense of Justice depends on, the initiate learns to walk between “black and white”. He learns to avoid the two mistakes of the neophyte: excess of exaltation and excess of depression. They both lead to crisis and failure of the personal Work.
In order to avoid excess, we learn to walk “on the thread as wide as the blade of a razor” which separates black from white.
The moral interpretation of the Mosaic* metaphor of the contrast between Good-love-altruism-generosity and Evil-wickedness-egoism-hatred is well known.
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* The “Mosaic law” comes from the name of Moses; the term “mosaic” given to the black and white chequered floor of the Temples comes from it.
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To be explicit, what the adept must learn is to advance between the drives to overestimate and underestimate himself, managing the emotional oscillations that cause the Plumbline to sway. The latter is the symbol of inner alignment (bridge) between physical and higher conscience. This brings balance and justice within oneself.
The Path of Knowledge starts with “knowing ourselves” and what we identify with.
We are Operators when the physical conscience identifies itself with the physical-animal body that hosts it and reason identifies itself with profane life, its functions and roles.
We are Observers when the conscience detachedly participates in the problems of the physical life, which deals with each stage of its life project by materializing the due solutions with intelligence.
We are Thinkers when the abstract conscience, freed from the material attributes, identifies itself with the project of the soul and the Universal Work; it is called the consecration of the M(ater)atter.
In other words, we can say that the Thinker is Psychè, the platonic soul, and the conscience of the soul is the relative projection of the spiritual conscience.
The animic conscience «animates», that is it moves the physical conscience guiding it with the intelligence of the Ego. The physical conscience manifests itself through an energetic structure called mind. Tradition divides it into instinctual (animal) mind, reason or concrete mind, intelligence, intuitive intelligence and higher mind.
These “tiles” belong to two species of identification.
The self or lower self (profane) is the part of individual conscience (personality) which, completely identified with the roles and bonds of physical life and concentrated in the physical senses, has a completely temporal and mortal perception of itself.
The Ego or higher Self (the Initiate) is the part of conscience that, identified with the will of the soul and its life projects, is based on an atemporal and immortal perception of its own flow of life.
b) «Energy follows the Thought»
This Rule gathers some psychic instruments, such as the ability to meditate on the idea, or the ability to visualize its contents, using concentration, focalization and mental projection. Visualization consolidates the connection between observer and abstract conscience, originating the bridge of conscience that joins them to the soul.
To make it simpler we will divide the mental instruments by specific qualities.
Rationality – allows to geometrize the thought favoring understanding and synthetic response. It will avoid the unbalances that cause unpleasant oscillations from a pole to its opposite, originating confusion, inability and failure, due not so much to external causes but to the lack of self-criticism and sense of responsibility.
The power of concentration allows the thought to be focused on the energetic zenith for as long as it is necessary for the observation.
The power of concentration can become the connection bridge between the concrete mental plane and the abstract mental plane.
Logic – superior to rationality, which conceives only what it can touch and see, is the ability to solve problems whose elements we don’t know, using data analysis and comparing data through the analogy with different but similar topics. In logic the emotional confusion and impulsiveness become refined feelings and altruism.
Meditation – is carried out in the concrete mind. By folding on itself, the mind looks for an element of likeness (analogy) to help it solve the problem.
The mind acts as a sinusoid and it considers a question starting from the bottom. Then, the tension grows and goes up towards the energetic zenith, where it produces the highest tension. Once reached the solution or made the decision, the psychic tension decreases up to disappearing. The physical memory is impressed by what has happened.
Conceptualization – fixes in the mind the desired information and keeps its memory alive by geometrizing the contents, which it puts into relation with other concepts. Thus intelligence expands its influence up to the darkest corners of conscience, adapting to the changes due to the instability of elements outside itself.
The eggregore – psychic energy follows the thought by precipitating into the mental space where the attention is focused, causing saturation proportional to the power expressed by the thought.
If the projection is directed to the outside, the psychic vibration emanated (see occult sound) is consolidated in a mental form called eggregore. In this instance as well its power and duration will be equal to the power and duration of the energetic emanation.
Visualization – allows to observe the development of an idea or a symbol inside oneself. But visualization is also the quickest method to attract the attention of the higher Ego on the physical personality.
This divine ability is represented by an eye inscribed in a triangle.
This symbol in the macrocosm represents the perfect vision of the Observer (God) overlooking the reason of the Thinker (Man). In the microcosm it represents the spiritual conscience of Man (divine monad) overlooking the shadow of his physical conscience for the purpose of illuminating it.
This symbol is also used in Freemasonry; it is placed on the seat of every venerable Master and it means that the Eye of the Great Architect of the Universe illuminates the Lodge Works.
Mental projection – is the ability to send a part of oneself in a psychic area different from itself (see higher psychism) and towards thought forms that don’t belong to it yet.
In its greatest expression this faculty allows the initiate to get in contact with thought forms of a different and higher order than the human one.
Creativity – allows to give a response of higher quality even to lower level needs. It is usually connected to the sense of adaptation.
Creativity often starts from imagination. But creative imagination is a characteristic of intellect. It must not be confused with imagination, imaginativeness and inventiveness, used to conceive legendary stories that fill the holes of many religious philosophies.
c) «Man becomes what he thinks»
This aphorism is the keystone of the Builder.
Man is the result of an act of will of an archetype thought form. But man also contributes to build himself and most of all, his destiny.
The initiate quickly understands that he must and can interact with his higher counterpart, which leads him to discover the “Bridge” that connects him to his divine Generator (inner God) going through three planes or levels of conscience:
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Animal conscience (the sensual path of desire and pos-session) (in italian pos-sesso, where "possesso" means "possession" and "sesso" means "sex"). |
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Human conscience (the illumination of the lower mind); |
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Spiritual conscience (the meeting with themonad or inner nucleus). |
The initiate will recompose the THREE in the ONE and in the Unification he will recognize his own primogenial nucleus, the divine monad.
Psyche is an instrument of “revelation”
Once broken the wall of inner silence, the intensity and duration of the connection between the two consciences is determined by intuition, readiness, experience and mental adaptationthat can respond to the impulses of the Ego which is the intelligence of the soul.
It is worth remembering that like personality is the mind of the physical conscience, the Ego is the mind of the conscience of the soul (animic conscience).
But on the contrary of the physical mind, which communicates through a language made of conventions, the higher Ego communicates through images which, with the completeness of an ideogram, appear as immediately as a flash*.
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* The lighting in the mind of the famous light bulb is its most well known metaphor.
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Charismatic personalities
Charismatic personalities can be negative or positive. They are both magnetic and attractive. We will ignore the negative charisma, whose absolute and destructive egocentrismis well known and fills the history of political and religious power of the humankind.
Positive charismatic personalities are characterized by such a tight bond with their own Ego that they can manifest it through the personal mind.
The person who is close to initiation (real and not symbolical), feels that the influence of the Ego drives him towards an impersonal project or ideal that can take the aspect of an intellectual, political, scientific, artistic or mystic ideal.
The characteristic of a charismatic personality is to learn to communicate with itself before communicating its own altruism to others.
The altruism of a charismatic personality can become a driving example which many would like to follow, imitate and accompany.*
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* Remember how simple souls can also respond to the magnetism of negative, egoistic and parassitary personalities, which drag their acceptance making followers within the popular naivety.
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The story of the Pied Piper, who took to drown all the mice that followed his music (“Flatus vocis”, empty talk) is a perfect representation.
Psychic evolution is an excellent instrument for the service and common wellbeing. The balance of power that moves many indecisions and the compass to find lost orientation. But our journey would not be complete if we didn’t remember two further aspects. Creating inner light and sound.
Creating light and sound
Creating Light on the plane of reason is possible bu using certain methods of visualization.
It is a powerful method, because the mental light attracts the light of the Ego by similarity.
And the interaction between two planes of conscience (conscious-physical and superconscious-hyperphysical) is what esotericists call “Bridge”.
Building the “bridge” (connection of conscience between physical and hyperphysical poles) has the effect of energizing every aspect, both positive and negative, of the lower mind*. In the negative aspect it can unbalance the lower self and increase self-esteem, so much so that a state of delirious omnipotence can be reached.
In positive, on the contrary, mental energization becomes “illumination and fusion” between Ego and personal self, making personality integrated with its own soul.
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* This is the field of the terrible selection among proselytes, expressed by the aphorism: many are called but few are Elected…
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The second occult instrument is the use of Sound both to destroy and create thought forms.
Similarly to the method of creating light, creating sounds inside oneself is also a powerful instrument that mysterial tradition expresses in the metaphor of the «Lost Word» and «Words of Power».
In actual fact, occult words are sounds which like sinusoid waves generate psycho-physical phenomena as powerful as those belonging to light. Both in the mind of the producer and the receiver.
We can conclude that through the psyche the initiate can create thoughts and images. The projection of luminous or sonorous forms is an act of the will of the mind. I would add that creating light or generating sounds are abilities that all adepts can reach without difficulty. But they must be aware that playing with the mind is like playing with mirrors. Those who can handle them can reflect light everywhere, otherwise the mirror gets broken and that’s irreparable.
