Today's post is recompilation of a post on the second initiation which I had posted in the molecular group a couple of months back. These are some selected quotes from the blue books. Just as the first initiation was associated with first (or lower most) physical body, the second initiation (aka Baptism of Jordan) is related to the second (emotional/astral) body of a man.
We now know that Initiation is simply "illumination through revelation" and it is another name of Revelation. An initiation is a blaze of illumination thrown upon the river of existence, and it is in the nature of a whole experience. There is no indefiniteness in it, and the initiate is never quite the same again in his consciousness.
There is a sequence of consequences or of the results of spiritual attainment which are as follows:
1. Factual Ceremonials, based on externalization.
Initiation 1 - The Birth.
Initiation 2 - The Baptism.
2. Symbolic Representation, based on spiritual visualization.
Initiation 3 - The Transfiguration.
Initiation 4 - The Renunciation.
Initiation 5 - The Revelation.
3. Illumination through Revelation, based on living Light.
Initiation 6 - Decision.
Initiation 7 - Resurrection.
Initiation 8 - Transition.
Initiation 9 - Refusal.
A. Second Initiation (Baptism) pertaining to an individual disciple -
1. The electrical energy of the astral or emotional body next (after having full control on his physical body described as The Birth) confronts man as he prepares to take the second initiation. This energy is 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 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."
2. The reorientation with which the disciple is now faced has to be brought about primarily upon the astral plane, because that has been for untold aeons the level of his major polarization and the sphere of activity and the state of consciousness which has dominated him. The physical body is not a principle; his etheric body has, since Atlantean days, been the agent of his astral energy, for the mind nature is not yet developed and cannot, therefore, adequately take control. He discovers that he lives in a chaos of emotional reactions and of conditioning glamors. He slowly begins to realize that in order to take the second initiation he must demonstrate emotional control; he realizes also that he must have some knowledge of those spiritual energies which will dissipate glamor, plus an understanding of the technique whereby illumination from the mind - as the transmitting agent of the light of the soul - can dispel these glamors and thus "clarify the atmosphere," in the technical sense.
3. The concept of baptism is ever associated with that of purification. Water has ever been the symbol of that which purifies; it is also the symbol of the astral plane, with its instability, its storms, its tranquillities, its overwhelming emotional reactions and its pliability, which makes it such a good agent for the deceptive thought-forming faculties of the unregenerate man. It reacts to every impulse, every desire and every possible magnetic "pull" coming from the material or substantial form side of nature. In its cycles of tranquility it reflects equally the good as well as the bad; it is the agent, therefore, of deception when manipulated by the Black Lodge, or of aspirational reaction when influenced by the great White Lodge, the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet. It is the battleground between the pairs of opposites; the problem is complicated by the fact that men have to learn to recognize these opposites before right choice, leading to spiritual victory, is theirs.
4. A disciple must sound the note of purification and conform to the ritual requirements and the general trend of thought of His time. The initiate who has taken the first step must lay emphasis upon the purification of the lower nature which is essential and precedes the second initiation. The baptism of John was the symbol of this purification.
5. The first step into the kingdom of God (The Path) is through the new Birth. The second step is through the baptism of Purification. It is a process of growth in the characteristics of the kingdom, and the gradual attainment of that maturity which marks the citizen of that kingdom. To this, Christ testified through the baptism when He attained maturity, setting us an example, and through His triumphant passing of the tests of the three temptations He demonstrated the needed purity. The babe in Christ, the little child, the full-grown man, the perfected man! Through the Bethlehem experience the babe is born. The little child grows to maturity and manifests in his purity and power at the Baptism. He demonstrates at the Transfiguration as the full-grown man, and, on the Cross, he stands forth the perfected Son of God. An initiation is that moment in which a man feels and knows through every part of his being that life is reality and reality is life. For a brief moment his consciousness becomes all-enfolding; he not only sees the vision and hears the word of recognition, but knows that the vision is of himself, and that the word is himself made flesh.
B. Baptism pertaining to the historical Jesus of Nazareth (Overshadowed by Christ/Maitreya/Krishna) -
6. After the Birth (1st Initiation) followed, as we are told in the New Testament, a cycle of thirty years wherein all we know is that the infant Jesus grew to manhood and could then take the second initiation, the Baptism in Jordan, and begin His public service.
7. The first recorded utterance of the Christ was spoken to His mother (the symbol of the substance aspect of divinity) when He said: "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" That business, related by Him to the first divine aspect, the Monad or Father aspect, was the fulfilment of purpose and the carrying out of the intention, the will and the purpose of God. His second utterance came at the time of the Baptism in Jordan when He said to John, the Baptist: "Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." Here, in this second initiation which symbolizes the conquest of desire - He passes on into the realm of fulfilment, of the completion of planned righteous activity. For His Own personal desire (necessarily of the very highest order on account of His high point in evolution) He substitutes the divine Will. Again at the close of His life, in the Gethsemane experience, He cries out: "Father, not my will but Thine be done." Even then and even for Him, the achievement of the full expression of will seemed well-nigh impossible; He was conscious still of the inherent dualism of His position and of the contrast between His will and God's will.
8. In the river Jordan the light from Heaven streamed upon the Christ, and His Father spoke those words which have sounded down the ages, and have evoked response from all aspirants to the kingdom. The spirit of God descended as a dove upon him. The dove is ever a symbol of peace. For two reasons it was the chosen sign at this initiation. Water, as we have seen, is the symbol of the emotional nature, which nature, when purified through initiation, becomes a peaceful limpid pool, capable of reflecting the divine Nature in its purity. Thus, in the form of a dove, the peace of God descended upon Jesus.
9. Christ submitted Himself to the baptism, setting aside the protests of the Evangelist with His: "Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." (St. Matt., III, 15.)
10. The Blue books hint: "A disciple will return into incarnation occasionally so as to fit into the plan of a greater than himself. When a messenger of the Great Lodge needs a vehicle through which to express Himself, and cannot use a physical body Himself, owing to the rarity of its substance, He will utilize the body of a disciple. We have an instance of this in the manner the Christ used the body of the initiate Jesus, taking possession of it at the time of the Baptism. Again when a message has to be given out to the world during some recurring cycle, a disciple of high position in a Master's group will appear in physical incarnation, and be "over- shadowed" or "inspired" (in the technically occult sense) by some teacher greater than he."
C. Baptism pertaining to Humanity as a collective disciple -
11. The first initiation of humanity, as an entity, took place when individualization became possible, and the soul was born in the body of humanity. This was preceded by a period of fearful stress and strain, dimly sensed by the pioneers into the human kingdom from the ranks of the animal-men. Should this crisis be successfully passed, the second initiation of humanity will be the result - the passing through the baptism and the entering of the stream. So the world wars (I and II) and its resulting effects constitute the Kurukshetra of the world Arjuna, and the outcome is still in the balance. Let this not be forgotten. There is however no cause for pessimism. The outcome of good is inevitable. It is however a question of a slow or a rapid realization and liberation from the great world illusion, and to this end every aspirant is begged to work strenuously and to lend his aid. Every man who liberates himself, who sees clearly, and who releases himself from the glamor of illusion aids in the Great Work.
12. As esotericists know, the term "little ones" refers to those disciples who are "babes in Christ" (as The New Testament terms it) and who have taken the first two initiations of the Birth and the Baptism. They are aware of the spiritual aspiration which is indicative of the Christ life in their hearts, and they have subjected themselves to the processes of purification which culminate in the baptismal waters. Christ must prepare these aspirants for the higher initiations and so nourish and aid them that they can stand before the One Initiator and become pillars in the Temple of God (i.e., agents of the spiritual Hierarchy and, therefore, active, working disciples).
13. As Nourisher of the Little Ones, we are dealing with an aspect of Christ's work which Christ as the Forerunner of the Aquarian Age involves the stimulation of the consciousness of His disciples as they prepare to undergo initiation or to enter into deeper phases of spiritual awareness. The result of His work in the Triangle with the masses of men will be the presentation of the first initiation - the Birth of the Christ in the cave of the Heart - as the basic ceremony in the new world religion. By means of this ceremony, the masses of men in all lands will be enabled to register consciously the "birth of the Christ" in the heart, and the "being born again" to which He Himself referred (John III, 3.) when here on Earth before. This new birth is what esotericists mean when they speak of the first initiation. It will not, in the future, be the experience of the occasional disciple but the general experience of countless thousands towards the close of the Aquarian Age. The purifying waters of the Baptism Initiation (the second initiation) will submerge hundreds of aspirants in many lands, and these two initiations (which are preparatory to true service, and the third initiation of the Transfiguration) will set the seal on Christ's mission as the Agent of the great spiritual Triangle which He represents. The major work of Christ, however, as far as the disciples and the definitely spiritually- minded people of the world are concerned, plus the hundreds of thousands of advanced humanity, is so to "nourish" their spiritual consciousness and life that they will be enabled to take the third and fourth initiations - those of the Transfiguration and the Renunciation (or Crucifixion).
14. It should here be remembered that the masses of men can and will take the first initiation, but that a very large group of aspirants (far larger than is realized) will pass through the experience of the second initiation, that of the purifying Baptism. These are the people who express the essential qualities of ideological recognition, devoted adherence to truth as sensed, profound reaction to the physical disciplines (imposed since they participated in the first initiation many lives earlier) and a growing responsiveness to the aspirational aspect of the astral body; this aspiration is occupied with reaching out towards contact with and expression of the mental principle. This particular group in the human family are "kama-manasic" initiates, just as those taking the first initiation are "physico-etheric" initiates.
15. We are apt to look upon the members of the Hierarchy as different radically from humanity, forgetting that the Hierarchy is a community of successful men, Who earlier submitted Themselves to the purificatory fires of daily living, working out their own salvation as men and women of affairs, as business men, as husbands and wives, farmers and rulers and that they know life, therefore, in all its phases and gradation. They have surmounted the experiences of life; Their great Master is the Christ; They have passed through the initiations of the new birth, the baptism, the transfiguration, the final crucifixion and the resurrection. But they still are men and differ from the Christ only in the fact that He, the first of our humanity to attain divinity, the Eldest in a great family of brothers (as St. Paul expresses it), the Master of the Masters and the Teacher of angels.
HPB expounds the overall eastern perspective on baptism - "Eastern wisdom teaches that spirit has to pass through the ordeal of incarnation and life, and be baptised with matter before it can reach experience and knowledge. After which only it receives the baptism of soul, or self-consciousness, and may return to its original condition of a god, plus experience, ending with omniscience. In other words, it can return to the original state of homogeneity of primordial essence only through the addition of the fruitage of Karma, which alone is able to create an absolute conscious deity, removed but one degree from the absolute ALL."
We end the post noting - "The second initiation marks the crisis of the control of the astral body. At the second Initiation of the Baptism, the control of the astral body is broken; it is sacrificed in order that the intuition, the higher counterpart of the "propelling aspiration" (as it is sometimes called) may assume control."
Image is close up of a child in the west who is exoterically baptised and shared freely by Дмитрий Зайцев (Dmitry Zaytsev) and Brown Jesus Artwork by Pixabay on pexel. The lost inner meaning of the outer ritual of baptism is truly the second initiation !
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