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Os seguintes termos de pesquisa foram destacados:

seven

jewels

seven

stages

initiation

Page 1

Wherever the name of man is spoken the doc-

trine of immortality is announced.

There are two heavens in men; the one is Luna

Cebrum, but in the heart of man is the true micro-

cosmic heaven. Yea, the heart of man is the true

heaven of an immortal being, out of which the soul

has never yet come, which new Olympus and

Heaven Christ Jesus has chosen for His dwelling

place in man.—Paracelsus.

HESE PORTALS,” says the Book of

the Golden Precepts, “lead the aspirant

across the waters on the other shore.

Each Portal hath a golden key that

openeth its gate; these keys are:

1. The key of Charity and Love immortal.

2. The key of Harmony in word and act, the key

that counterbalances cause and effect and leaves

no further room for Karmic action.

3. Patience sweet, that naught can ruffle.

4. Indifference to pleasure and pain, illusion

conquered, Truth alone perceived.

5. Dauntless energy that fights its way to super-

nal Truth out of the mire of lies terrestrial.

6. The Golden Gate which once opened leads

toward the realms of the Eternal and its ceaseless

contemplation.

7. The key which makes of man a god, creating

of him a Bodhisattva.”

Since the founding of initiatory Schools in

ancient Lemuria after the link of mind was

bestowed upon the pioneers of the human race (the

masses did not receive the mental link until the

Atlantean Epoch), there have been two great class-

es or divisions in the Schools, corresponding, after

a fashion, let us say, to preparatory school and col-

lege; or to college and post-graduate degrees.

What we call these Schools matters little; but

following the Greek custom, esotericists generally

designate the lower school the Lesser Mysteries

and the higher, the Greater Mysteries. There are

nine Degrees or grades in the Lesser Mysteries,

called Initiations—or, if the metaphysical terms

are preferred, expansions of consciousness—and

four in the Greater Mysteries. There are seven

schools which teach or confer the nine Lesser

Mysteries, and five which teach or confer the four

Greater Mysteries. These schools are not physical

but etheric structures, such as the New Jerusalem

described by St. John; and they are not to be con-

fused with mere secret societies. Truly, they all

have an outlet on the material plane; if they had

not, they would not reach our material-minded

humanity and so would have no pupils to instruct

in their Mysteries! These Mystery Schools, with

their exoteric representatives, change from age to

age in order to meet the requirements of the people

among whom their work is to be done.

All of these Mystery Orders are “formed on cos-

mic lines”; thus, the thirteen Initiations correspond

to the twelve constellations and their spiritual head

of the zodiac; also their planetary rulers, some of

which remain to be discovered. (It is interesting to

speculate that in the Greek Zodiac the Pleiades

were considered to be a thirteenth constellation

RAYS 04

The Seven Jewels and

the Seven Stages of Initiation

WESTERN WISDOM BIBLE STUDY

Excerpted with permission from Corinne Heline’s Occult

Anatomy and the Bible, published by the New Age Bible

Center, Santa Monica, CA, which was founded by the author.

Page 2

until a late date.) The great Christian type of the

Mystery School is that of the Christ with His

twelve Apostles. The Rosicrucian Order is also

composed of twelve Brothers and an esoteric thir-

teenth, the revered Founder, symbolically desig-

nated Christian Rose Cross, after the

work he came to do for the world.

The seven Schools of the Lesser

Mysteries and the five Schools of the

Greater Mysteries are grouped under

a central Intelligence, called (again in

the Greek fashion) the Liberator—

a title anciently conferred upon

Dionysus, but in Christian times

related to the Risen Christ (or to

the thirteenth Hierophant in a

Mystery School). The mystic thir-

teenth is always the head of an Order,

and the twelve heads are in turn

grouped about that thirteenth whom

Christians call the Christ, although

He is known by other names in other

lands and among other peoples.

In addition to the sacred numbers

twelve and thirteen, we observe the

recurrence of seven and five, corre-

sponding to the five planets, Sun, and

Moon of the Ptolemaic system. In

some Schools the Initiations are

arranged differently, so that the illu-

minative process is covered in seven

Degrees instead of nine ; but the work

done is the same in substance. The

generally accepted Temple aspirant is

a novice of one of the Lesser Mystery

Schools, and of very early Degrees of

that School. Few have advanced in

spiritual work beyond the first seven

of the Temple Rites. The remaining

two Degrees (in the ninefold sys-

tem) rise above the realms of this

mortal plane, giving companionship with celestial

hosts past discerning or describing by mere mor-

tality.

From all of which is readily understood why the

number seven is sacred to occultists. It has been

said that “whoever passes over these seven steps

and degrees comes to such a marvelous place

where he sees much mystery and attains the trans-

mutation of all natural things.” The seven Schools

of the Lesser Mysteries, also the seven Degrees of

the sevenfold system, relate biblically to the mys-

tic ladder which Jacob saw in his

vision. The whole of the initiatory

scheme is symbolized in the wind-

ing stairway of Solomon’s Temple

which led to the inner chamber

where a successful candidate was

given the “wages of a master.”

The five Schools which teach the

four Greater Mysteries are almost

wholly unknown, even to the eso-

teric world. Rarely does any soul

pass their sacred portals. The

Hierophants through whom this sub-

lime work is administered are the

fewest and highest of Earth’s Initiates,

and their pupils are also few.

As a human being possesses an

aura which surrounds and interpene-

trates his physical body, so also is

the Earth planet clothed about with

subtle matter. The physical sphere is

familiar ground to everyone, but not

so the spheres that lie above it.

These include the etheric, the astral,

the mental, the spiritual, and the

higher spiritual. In the nine Lesser

Mysteries of the Rose Cross (or

seven Mysteries of certain other

Schools), the candidate ascends

s u c c e s s f u l l y t h r o u g h t h e s e

envelopes of the Earth planet by

expansion of consciousness. He also

recapitulates, in full conscious-

ness, the entire evolution of the

Earth and its humanity, both spiri-

tually and physically. This recapit-

ulation has the effect of awakening in him all the

dormant faculties and powers which the race pos-

sessed in past Epochs, so making available to him

the sum total of the race experience. What this

means is seen in the marvelous instincts of animals

and plants, instincts which man has lost since he

RAYS 04

The key for advancing more rapid-

ly on the spiral path of initiation is

given by the injunction to adopt

and live out of the Mind of Christ.

Wood engraving, Fritz Eichenberg

Page 3

acquired reason but which in an Initiate become a

consciously usable addition to intellect. Besides

his humanity he possesses a super instinct, an inex-

haustible vitality by which his body renews itself

just as certain plants grow new parts to replace old

ones. Thus his body becomes as indestructible as a

diamond or ruby, for he has full control of the

chemical forces also. All of this goes into the mak-

ing of an Adept, an Initiate who has completed all

of the nine Lesser Mysteries and the first of the

Greater, thereby entering “the heart of the Earth”

and meeting the Liberator face to face.

However, an Adept is so rare upon Earth that a

layman is not at all likely to meet one on the phys-

ical plane. The layman’s interest is therefore cen-

tered almost wholly in the lower five of the nine

lesser Mysteries. Few laymen take more than one

Initiation in any one lifetime. When any candidate

passes several Initiations in one incarnation, we

may be sure these are chiefly recapitulations of

work done in many previous lifetimes.

The fact has been noted in this series that in

embryological recapitulation, the fourth month

brings a decisive change in fetal development; eso-

terically, we say that at this time certain inner-

world contacts are dissolved. The Ego concen-

trates definitely earthward and is intent upon

building the physical vehicle in which it is to be

embodied.

In Initiation, the Fourth Degree is an equally

definite step heavenward; certain physical contacts

are severed, and the inner-world relationship

becomes more intimate. Henceforward for the dis-

ciple God is All and All is God. Though he remains

in the exterior world where flesh and blood abide,

he is no longer of it.

The fourth plane of Earth’s aura is the mental

plane; it is the “intelligence” of the planet or, in

metaphysical terms, it is the intelligence of God

expressing itself relative to the Earth.

The mental world is the link between spirit and

matter. Immediately below the mental plane is the

world of desire; above it is the higher mental, or

abstract mind, the plane of universal ideas. In this

is the world (consciousness) of the germinal idea,

without which manifestation could not take place

because it is the seedground of cosmos. Hence it

marks a crucial point not only in involution down

into matter for the race, but in evolution up into

spirit for the Initiate. We may note in passing that

involution into form has been a mass process

throughout; Initiation, however, is an individual

process. The Initiate stands alone.

At the fourth Initiation the Ego makes its deci-

sion as to whether it will proceed on the White or

the Black Path. The strong, fully conscious Ego

will not make the wrong decision.

The Fifth Degree, if attained, leads to sainthood.

In this majestic Rite the Ego, having chosen unal-

terably to unite with spirit, is brought face to face

with its own true self. In the ecstasy of this high

moment the disciple comes to comprehend the true

meaning of those words inscribed above the

entrance of Grecian Temples—“Man know

Thyself.”

In the Sixth and Seventh Degrees, the personal-

ity is perfected as a channel through which the

divine self may pour its powers in creative work;

every word and deed is inspired by a wisdom

which is ageless. The Initiate bears the aroma of

timelessness, for he knows himself to be a part of

that which is without beginning and without end-

ing.

Thus the personal self is absorbed by the higher,

spiritual self and the disciple stands at the thresh-

old of godhood.

In the two final Degrees he enters upon the work

which makes him a god indeed. The Rosicrucian

says that the victorious candidate of the Seventh

Rite has blended the Red and White Roses which

bloom in his Rose Garden.

The Rosarium of medieval alchemists was sim-

ply the laboratory (state of consciousness) of the

aspirant who was seeking divine consummation.

Upon his head he wears a crown of sparkling

jewels set in living gold. The kingly crown of an

earthly ruler has its origin in the spiritual crown of

ancient Initiate Priest-Kings after the order of

Melchizedek. The Pope’s triple tiara is another

symbolic representation of this spiritually visible

crown of the Initiate who has risen through the

three planes which lie under the higher mental.

Such also are the king and queen described in

the alchemical marriage of C. R. C.

RAYS 04