Talk:Initiation

Freemason

W.L. Wilmhurst writes of the masonic conception of initiation that it is "a new beginning...; a break-away from an old method and order of life and the entrance upon a new one of larger self-knowledge, deepened understanding and intensified virtue." He goes on further to distinguish the superior initiate and his pursuit (my words) from the "popular ideals" pursued by the masses in the "outer world" as well as presuming that being an initiate means having awakened "hitherto dormant higher faculties of the soul which endue their possessor with "light" in the form of enhanced consciousness and enlarged perceptive faculty.

Wilmhurst's definition imposes a hierarchy and a presumed superiority upon the initiate. The initiate is clearly "better then" the one who has not been initiated. The Lightning Path definition does not include any intimation of superiority. The Lightning Path definition strips out any notion that the initiate is chosen, superior, enhanced, or enlarged in any way. On the Lightning Path, initiation is simply any experience that has a significant impact on the Fabric of Consciousness and that leads to a) subsequent change in the nature and/or function of consciousness and b) instantiation of a new set of creative possibilities. Whether or not the initiation leads to a better connection with God, a more enlightened existence, reduced disjuncture, the awakening of dormant faculties, or whatever, largely depends on the how the experience is handled and understood. It is very possible to spin even the most profound "initiatory event" in a negative direction, especially when the initiate is isolated and the psychological, emotional, and spiritual environment is monitored and controlled.

“For "Initiation" – for which there are so many candidates little conscious of what is implied in that for which they ask – what does it really mean and intend? It means a new beginning (initium); a break-away from an old method and order of life and the entrance upon a new one of larger self-knowledge, deepened understanding and intensified virtue. It means a transition from the merely natural state and standards of life towards a regenerate and super-natural state and standard. It means a turning away from the pursuit of the popular ideals of the outer world, in the conviction that those ideals are but shadows, images and temporal substitutions for the eternal Reality that underlies them, to the keen and undivertible quest of that Reality itself and the recovery of those genuine secrets of our being which lie buried and hidden at "the centre" or innermost part of our souls. It means the awakening of those hitherto dormant higher faculties of the soul which endue their possessor with "light" in the form of new enhanced consciousness and enlarged perceptive faculty. And lastly, in words with which every Mason is familiar, it means that the postulant will henceforth dedicate and devote his life to the Divine rather than to his own or any other service, so that by the principles of the Order he may be the better enabled to display that beauty of godliness which previously perhaps has not manifested through him.” (Wilmhurst, 1920)