This door of initiation is connected with the great problem of what H.P.B. calls the “mystery of electricity”; the door is itself an electrical phenomenon essentially. Having said this, even if you do not understand my meaning, you can, however, grasp the possibility that (being electrical in nature) it can easily present an obstructing force, a repelling energy to the approach of the aspirant; this is the correct way to look at it. It is only when the electrical energy of which the door is constituted and that of which the man is constructed at any particular time synchronize and vibrate in unison that the aspirant can pass through to greater light. This gives you a somewhat new and rather abstruse definition of initiation. Nevertheless, as science arrives at a better understanding of the human being as an electrical unit of power and light, and of his triple mechanism as created of three aspects of electricity, a truer comprehension of the significance of initiation will eventuate. The three fires of which all things are made are electrical in nature and – speaking symbolically – it is only when “fire by friction” is dominated by “solar fire” that the first four initiations can be taken, culminating in the fifth initiation in which these two fires are subordinated to “electric fire” emanating from the monad and giving a new revelation. This monadic process begins at the third initiation. It might be added that the third initiation (culminating in the Transfiguration) is taken on the three higher levels of the mental plane, and that it is therefore upon the fourth level of the mental plane that the aspirant first of all stands before the door, seeking initiation. That electrical unit or phenomenon of electricity which we call the fourth kingdom in nature, on this fourth subplane of the mental plane esoterically “ejects” the unit of electricity which is ready to be absorbed by the higher form of electricity. Fire by friction dies out and solar fire takes its place, and the relationship between the two higher forms of electricity becomes established.
It is solar fire which forms and likewise guards the door of initiation for the first four initiations. It is the electrical fire which forms the door of initiation for those initiations which guard the Way to the Higher Evolution.
There are four types of fire by friction which create the “obstructing door” in unison with solar fire, of which it is essentially created. These are as follows:
1. Electrical energy, composed of two forces of electricity: the innate, inert and latent force of the physical plane atoms of the dense physical vehicle, and the force which we call prana which is an aspect of the energy composing the etheric body. These two blend, combine and form the “door” through which the spiritual man must pass when he undergoes the first initiation. This provocative energy tests out every part of his physical equipment and – as he passes the test – the door opens, the opposing energies symbolically “die out,” and he can pass on to the Path of Initiation, free from that type of obstruction. The physical body no longer rules him, either through its limitations and faults or through the physical disciplines which have been hitherto needed but are no longer required.
2. The electrical energy of the astral or emotional body next confronts him as he prepares to take the second initiation. You can call this energy, if you so choose, the sum total of all the glamors; a glamor is essentially a bewildering, deceiving and illusory energy-form which seeks to sidetrack and mislead the neophyte and which is attracted to him by ancient habit and old controls. He is therefore responsible for the impact of this energy. This type of energy takes form, and the massed forms of these glamors constitute the opposing door and oppose the passing of the [353] aspirant on to the next phase of the Path. With this electrical energy he must deal before he takes the second initiation. These particular energies are not thought-forms; they are drifting, undefined and exceedingly fluid. Of this type of energy water is the symbol, and this is one reason why this second initiation is called the Baptism initiation, or the initiation of “entering the stream.”
3. The electrical energy of the mind now creates the door for the third initiation, and the obstruction which confronts the initiate is that of the electrical figments of his own thinking, shining with a light which is all their own (for they are of the highest order and type), but veiling the pure light which shines behind them. They constitute the sumtotal of illusion. This “door” is formed by the coming together of the three types of energy: fire by friction, solar fire (playing in full force at this third initiation), and electrical fire from the Spiritual Triad, making its first impact on the other two fires, for all three are in full activity at this initiatory crisis. All are localized and concentrated in that symbol of progress, the “door of initiation.”
It should be becoming increasingly clear to you why the initiate is ever portrayed as one who works with the forces and energies of the planet and the system. To him, there is naught else.
4. The fourth type of “fire by friction” which confronts the initiate as he stands prepared for that initiation which we call the Great Renunciation is the electric energy of the entire integrated personality. That which is the product of every incarnation – the highly developed, powerful and “clear-eyed” personality (as it is called) – is the final event and presents the final great obstruction.
In the Gospel story there are two major episodes in the life of the Master Jesus which throw some light upon this fourth entrance through the door of initiation: the Transfiguration and the Crucifixion. In both of them the three aspects of the personality are symbolized. In the first case, they are symbolized by the three apostles who in bewilderment and profound humility took part in the third initiation, the Transfiguration; in the second case, the three were depicted by the three Crosses – the two thieves and the central Master. The difference in the fourth initiation is definite; it lies in the fact that the four aspects of the personality (counting the dense physical body as one aspect and the etheric vehicle as a second aspect of the physical body) are involved, for this fourth emanation of fire by friction has a potent and destructive effect upon the dense physical body. The Great Renunciation involves the rejection of the physical life at any cost, and that cost frequently involves its physical death.
The Great Renunciation or fourth initiation has, therefore, two aspects: the outer involvement or objective happening in the eyes of the physical plane onlooker, and the subjective aspect, portrayed symbolically by the three Crosses and those who hung upon them.
The implications emerging out of this symbolism are not easy to see, even when the superficial meaning is apparent, because that superficial meaning hides and veils a universal reality. The Master Jesus passed through the door of the fourth initiation and overcame the final hindrances offered by His perfected personality. He died upon the Cross. All the four aspects of His personality participated in the event, and all four aspects electrically obstructed His passing through this door, even to the point of their complete destruction – bringing a final liberation. Something universal was also symbolized which had naught to do with the Initiated Master Jesus.
This symbolism and its meaning are related to the three Crosses which stood side by side and to the relationship between those who hung upon them. In the three figures humanity itself is portrayed and also related to the Hierarchy, and this “pictorial event” is a parallel to the one already considered – the initiation of the Master Jesus. In the Crucifixion, in this fourth passing through the door of initiation and in the staging of this event, two great and different individualities – the Master Jesus and the World Savior, the Christ – are implicated; two major happenings are indicated, and the Christian Church has confused the two and related both of them without discrimination to the Master Jesus. Yet one event was a hierarchical occurrence and the other was a great human crisis; one was the entrance of an initiate into the Mysteries of death, involving in the process all the four aspects of His nature; the other was a dramatic portrayal to mankind of three groups to be found within the human family:
1. Unregenerate man, pictured by the unrepentant thief.
2. The struggling aspirant, moving consciously towards liberation, symbolized for us in the repentant thief.
3. The Hierarchy, composed of all who have passed to liberation through the medium of human experience, and thereby representing to us a guarantee of achievement.
Students would do well to keep this fourfold picture and this threefold symbol clearly distinguished in their minds, for individual attainment and the group possibilities are both involved; each is, however, distinct; in the one case the Master Jesus is the participator, and in the other and the more esoteric occurrence it is the One Who over-shadows Him, the Christ. It was the Master Jesus who “died” and entered into the tomb, thus climaxing His long series of incarnations and ending – by destruction – the hold of matter on the spirit; through the tomb He passed into the Hierarchy, and the destiny of the Christian Church was committed to Him; that destiny still lies in His hands. But in the Gospel story, it is the Christ Who is indicated as appearing after the resurrection and not the Master Jesus, except in the one brief episode wherein He appeared to Mary, weeping outside the door of the sepulchre. The other episodes are universal in their implications, as indicated by:
1. Christ walking with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus – a symbol of the essential dualism of spirit and matter, as embodied in a world Savior.
2. Christ appearing to the disciples in the upper room, symbolizing the zodiac, for Judas Iscariot was there, standing for the sign at the time in power; the other eleven disciples representing the remaining signs through which the sun must pass.
3. Pentecost. This event does not portray the triumph of orthodox Christianity (as the theologians believe and teach), but signifies the universal dissemination of the Christ consciousness throughout all time in the heart of every human being; to this the words and promise, “Lo, I am with you all the days, even until the end of the world,” bear witness.
It is owing to the deeply esoteric meaning of the Resurrection and the Ascension and their major significance, referring to the consciousness of the Christ, that nothing much is told us about these initiations in The New Testament, except the vaguest generalities, in contradistinction to the wealth of detail given anent the other four initiations. Four of these initiations are related to the “door of initiation” as occultly understood and with the interpretation of which we are familiar; these four are related also to the electrical “fire by friction” of which that door is constructed, and which spreads to and creates the burning ground across which the initiate must four times move in order to “enter through that door.”
The other two initiations (vaguely called the Resurrection and the Ascension) are related to the second so-called “door.” This door is not in the same sense an obstruction as is the first door; it opens on to the Way of the Higher Evolution. The first door symbolically admits the initiate into the “heart of the Sun,” whilst the second door – in a most mysterious sense – indicates the route which must be followed by the liberated initiate who seeks to penetrate to the Central Spiritual Sun – to which all the seven Paths eventually lead.
