The Initiates Way
The desire to understand the mysteries
The way of the ‘Initiate’ over the eons has been the desire to understand the mysteries of the natural world, as much as the desire to understand the spirit and the SOUL.
The Cosmos, the Creative Principle and the Unifying Factor. The Mystery.
If you’ve ever read any of Edgar Cayce’s work (and I grant you – it isn’t easy!) – it is to be drawn into the mysteries in a very matter of fact way, and yet, his work also contains a certain poetry! Of interest here is that Cayce always maintained that the man Jesus (who embodied the Christ), studied in the Mystery Schools of Egypt (in addition to many other places), long before he returned to his homeland and his role as teacher. Cayce often referred to Him as the The Great Initiate – as he states that he was the first to complete the process of ‘transmuting the flesh’ – which was during an initiation within the great pyramid of Egypt. In that way, he also refers to him as The Way Shower, The Master, and even… our big brother, come to show us the ‘Way’.
It’s an inspiring tale, and often told through the past-life readings he gave to others. Sadly though, Cayce also states that many of this man’s most important teachings have been lost or obscured over time – including the importance of equality between the female and male principle.
Interestingly, around the same time as Cayce was going into trance on a daily basis, to bring back knowledge and wisdom from the Akasha, a book on Hermetic Philosophy was being written. This book espouses many of the same principles, and as a consequence of it’s popularity it is helping to usher in a new passion for mysteries, for the ‘initiates way’.
So, Who or what is an Initiate?
The meaning of the word ‘initiate’ – is to begin; to commence or to usher in – to take action.
To initiate can also mean ‘to initiate someone into a group or society’, typically with ritual.
Ritual and the process of initiation are ideas and processes that have been enacted out over the millennia. In the past a ‘Ritual Drama’ was a way of acting out what you wanted another to learn. It facilitated instruction via story telling, combined with the elicitation of emotion.
“Ritual Drama has now permeated every aspect of our culture”
Initiate also comes from the Latin ‘initiare’, which means to inspire, so to initiate someone into a ‘Way’ or a path, is to inspire them to commit to a particular journey. When we look at it in this way, a marital contract can be also seen as a commitment to a particular journey, and the ceremony is meant to inspire an emotional connection to that commitment. In that moment, in front of others drawn to the cause, we marry emotion with will, and we set out upon our journey. Many other various cultural and religious ceremonies can be seen in the same way, and in fact, our obsession with movie and theater, can also be seen as a continuation of the ‘Ritual Drama’. A way that we learn, from watching others, how to engage or respond to the situations of life that present, and we continue to place reverence upon those that act out these dramas for us, whether deserved or not!
A true Initiation however requires certain elements:
1: Idealism, and the creation of a desire to aspire toward the attainment of certain values/ideals.
2: Reflection. It should inspire inner work, contemplation and learning. Deepening whatever is instructed with self knowledge (gnosis)
3: Elicit an obligation to fulfill the ideal or task that the heart has set its sights on.
An initiation then, can be seen as a marriage of the motivating forces and the emotional body to facilitate commitment…WILL – (I Will).
Personally, I feel its time we broaden our understanding around the importance of Initiation and Ritual Drama, as these things continue to be a part of our lives – but often, in an unconscious way. As a result, they have lost their potency, and at the same time the ideas being delivered are not ones that inspire learning or the soul-development of the ‘group’. What we have instead is default ‘ritual drama’ from social media, tiktok and reality TV, and we don’t have to be in the town square to watch the drama unfold – it is being beamed to the masses in all places.
So, what’s the antidote? Or where can we start? Well, let’s take it to where it’s already happening, our own homes. This is something we need to foster in our society, our culture, at this time, to help all of the new souls coming to the earth at this time – particularly the Indigo Souls.
Magick as active prayer; drama as intentional and conscious learning of ideals to assist with spiritual growth; ritual as commitment to something extraordinary – I’m all for it! 🙂
How about you? Are you ready to commit to something extraordinary, to the journey that goes above and beyond, and develop a little ritual in your life to mark the beginning of something new (a New Age). To fire up the emotional heart? It’s similar to the idea of spell-casting, which is really a supplication to the natural forces – divine in origin, in that you are acting out your intention with reverence and honor. Someone recently described it as prayer in action! What a beautiful idea….
It’s simple enough to do, and you can incorporate some of these elements to engage the psyche, as well as the spirit and SOUL forces.
1: Create a space, it can be a corner of the room, a dedicated area, somewhere out in nature, or by the sea. Throw a glorious cover over the space or onto the ground – to denote your area of
‘special-ness’.
2: Work with the energy of the space. If you are in nature or by the ocean then your immediate surroundings should be full of the right kind of energy. Trees draw in carbon dioxide and release Oxygen (that’s a good thing right?), however, they also engage in ionic exchange by taking in positive ions and releasing negative ions. Crashing water (waves, waterfalls, water features) also releases negative ions from the positively charged water in the activity or movement of the ‘crash’ – and negative ions give us that healthy energy buzz. If you’re at home, you can use crystals, incense, candles, essential oils and more to create a presence. A water feature in the corner of the room, or a lovely indoor plant are also great additions.
3: If you dowse, you can also dowse the energy of the room and neutralise any negativity, while cleansing and lifting the vibration of the area. Another way is to smudge or use incense, going all around the room with an intention to cleanse and energise the space.
4: There are a number of different ritualistic processes you can follow, however if the energy is good and your intention is high, you really can’t go wrong. Remember, this is a kind of Active Prayer, so why don’t you open up around the process and see what intuitively feels right for you. You may just discover that you have done this before 🙂
A simple process you can follow would be to:
- light 2 candles that have been placed on either side of that you whish to connect with, or commit to; for me it is a photo of my teacher/s that represent my highest learning and values.
- light some incense
- engage in Breath work for a minute or two (I use Divine Breath, which really increases your vibratory response through the combination of breath, intention, path and word)
- state your invocation, that which you wish to devote yourself to.
Keep you intention and your values high. Commit.
What is most important is creating space, having intention, and committing to that which you are beginning. It could be a spiritual practice, study of something meaningful, an act of creativity, journaling etc.
I hope you find joy in the commitment, the initiation or beginning of something wonderful and meaningful to you and your life…with the hope that you can eventually take that ‘something’ out into the world, and help it flourish. Sharing our gifts, our learnings, our hard-won insights is an important metaphysical principle. Even (and especially) if it’s simply a conversation at a bus-stop with someone who is really struggling in that moment.