The ascension teachings describe the path as a series of thresholds, each of which opens a wider consciousness than the one before. They call these thresholds initiations. An initiation is not a ceremony and it cannot be conferred from outside. It is an expansion of awareness that a soul has prepared for, usually through a long and ordinary-looking struggle, and that is recognized, often only afterward, as a turning point.
What Initiation Means
In older times the word described a rite of entry into a mystery school or a priesthood. The ascension teachings keep the word but turn it inward. The real initiation, they say, is the moment when something that was only known becomes something that is lived. A person may know for years that forgiveness frees the one who forgives. On the day they actually forgive, without reservation, they have passed an initiation.
The Masters are said to watch these thresholds closely and to welcome each soul as it crosses. Maitreya in particular is called the great initiator. But no Master can carry a student over. The step is always the student's own.
The Tests Are Ordinary
People sometimes imagine that the tests of the path will be dramatic: visions, ordeals, great choices made on mountaintops. The teachings say that they are almost always ordinary. An irritable colleague. A disappointment that tempts you to bitterness. A moment when you could take credit that belongs to someone else. A night when you are too tired to be kind and are kind anyway.
Each of these is an opportunity to choose love over fear. A person who makes that choice consistently, in small matters, is making far more progress than one who waits for a great occasion. El Morya is said to watch what a student does with the first instruction before offering a second. That first instruction is very rarely remarkable.
The Seven Great Initiations
The teachings have long described seven great initiations of the path on Earth. They are named after events in the life of the Master Jesus, because that life is understood as a demonstration of the whole path. The names are pictures, not ceremonies, and they belong to people of every tradition.
| Initiation | Name | What opens |
|---|---|---|
| First | The Birth | The heart awakens to the reality of the spirit, and the life begins to turn toward the light. |
| Second | The Baptism | The emotional nature is cleansed and steadied. Feeling becomes a servant of love rather than its master. |
| Third | The Transfiguration | The personality and the soul become one. The light of the Presence begins to shine visibly through the person. |
| Fourth | The Renunciation | Everything that still binds is released, often at great cost. It is sometimes called the great letting go. |
| Fifth | The Revelation | The soul knows itself as one with the Presence and is free from the compulsion of karma. |
| Sixth | The Decision | The soul chooses its path of further service. This is the threshold of the ascension. |
| Seventh | The Resurrection | Mastery of form itself, and entry into the life of the higher worlds. |
The beings described in this library stand at different points beyond these thresholds. The Chohans of the rays, the Buddhas and the Lord of the World are each said to have passed further initiations still. These numbers are not given so that anyone can compare themselves with anyone else. They are given so that a person on the path knows that it continues, and that it never stops opening.
Initiations and the Five Stages
The page What Is Ascension? describes five stages of the path: the call, the clearing, the opening of the heart, the embodiment and the service. The two descriptions are complementary. The five stages describe how the path feels from the inside, over the course of a life. The initiations describe the thresholds as the Masters count them. Most of the readers of this library are somewhere among the first three initiations, and the teachings say that this is a very good place to be.
The Master and the Student
The teachings describe a particular relationship between an Ascended Master and a student who has committed to the path. The old word for such a student is chela. A Master may take an interest in a chela, quietly arranging the books, meetings and circumstances that the student needs, and offering guidance in meditation and in sleep. The relationship is entirely voluntary. The Master never commands and never coerces, and the student is free to step away at any time.
There is an old saying that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. The teachings add that the teacher often appears in an unexpected form: a book, a friend, a difficulty, or the student's own Higher Self speaking more clearly than before.
Much of this training is said to take place at night, when the soul travels in sleep to the retreats of the Masters. See Receiving in Dreams and Etheric Retreats.
Cautions
- Spiritual pride. The most common hazard of the path is the belief that one has passed further than one has. The teachings say that the surest sign of a true initiation is greater humility and kindness, not greater confidence.
- Initiations for sale. No outer ceremony, course or teacher can confer a real initiation, and anyone who offers to do so for payment has misunderstood the teaching. Our circle does not offer initiations of any kind.
- Comparison. Your path is your own. The person beside you may be passing a test you cannot see, and you may be passing one they cannot see in you.
- Haste. The thresholds arrive when the soul is ready. They cannot be forced, and attempts to force them tend to delay them.
Questions People Ask
How do I know which initiation I have passed?
Usually you do not, and the teachings suggest that this is a mercy. The tests of the path are best met without keeping score. What you can notice is whether you are kinder, steadier and more honest than you were a year ago.
Do I need a teacher to be initiated?
No outer teacher is required. The Masters and your own Higher Self are always available, and the initiations come through life itself. Many people do find a human teacher helpful for a time, and that is fine, provided the teacher points beyond themselves.
Can an initiation be lost?
The teachings say that what has truly been learned is never lost, although a person can turn away from the path for a time. The light gained at each threshold is kept in the causal body and is waiting when the soul returns.