Initiation Defined

The question anent initiation is one that is coming more and more before the public. before many centuries pas the old mysteries will be restored., and inner body will exist in the churcg- Church of the period, of which the nucleus is already forming- wherein the first initiation will become exoteric, in this sense only, that the taking of the first initiation will, before so very long, be the most sacred ceremony of the Church, performed exoterically as one of the mysteriesd given at stated periods, attended by those concerned. It will also hold a similar place in the ritual of the Masons. At this ceremony those ready for the first initiation will be publicly admitted to the Lodge by one of its members, authorised to do so by the great Hierophant Himself.

Four words defined
When we speak of Initiation, of wisdom, of knowledge, or of the probationary Path, what do we mean? We use the words glibly, without due consideration of the meaning involved. Take, for instance, the word first mentioned. Many are the definitions and many are explanations to be found as to its scope. The preparatory steps, the work to be done between initiations, and its results and effects. One thing before all else is apparent to the most superficial student, and that is, that the magnitude of the subject is such that in order to deal with it adequately one should be able to write from the viewpoint of an initiate; When this is not the case, anything that is said may be reasonable, logical, interesting, or suggestive, but not conclusive.

The word Initiation comes from two Latin words, in, into; and ire, to go; therefore, the making of a beginning, or the entrance into something. It posits, in its widest sense, in the case we are studying, an entrance into the spiritual life. It is the first step, and the succeeding steps, upon the Path of Holiness. Literally, therefore, a man who has taken the first initiation is one who has taken the first step into the spiritual kingdom, having passed out of the definitely human kingdom into the superhuman.

Just as he passed out of the animal kingdom into the human at individualisation, so he has entered upon the life of spirit, and for the first tme has the right to be called "spiritual man" in the technical significance of the word. He is enterng upon the fifth or final stage in our present fivefold evolution. Having groped his way through the Hall of Ignorance during many ages  and having gone to school in the Hall of Learning, he is now entering into the university, or the Hall of Wisdom. When he has passed through that school he will graduate with his degree as a master of Compassion.

It might be of benefit to us also if we studied first the difference or the connection between knowledge, Understanding, and Wisdom. Though in ordinary parlance they are frequently interchanged, as used technically they are dissimilar.. Knowledge is the product of the Hall of Learning. It might be termed the sumtotal of human discovery and experience, that which can be recognised by the five senses, and be correlated, diagnosed, and defined by the use of human intellect. It is that about which we feel mental certitude, or that which we can ascertain by the use of experiment. It is the compendium of the arts and sciences.

It concerns all that deals with the building  and developing of the form side of things. Therefore it concerns the material side of evolution, matter in the solar systems, in the planes, in the three worlds of human evolution, and the bodies of men.

Wisdom, is the product of the Hall of Wisdom. It has to do with the development of the life within the form, with the progress of the spirit through those ever-changing vehicles, and with the expansions of consciousness that succeed each other from life to life. It deals with the life side of evolution. Since it deals with the essence of things and not with the things themselves.  It is the intuitive apprehension of truth apart from the reasoning faculty, and the innate perception that can distinguish between the false and the true, between the real and the unreal.

It is more than that, for it is the growing capacity of the thinker to enter increasingly into the mind of the Logos, to realise the true inwardness nof the great pageant of the universe, to vision the objective, and to harmonise more and more with the higher measure. For our present purpose  ( which is to study somewhat the path of Holiness and its various stages) it may be described as the realisation of the "kingdom of God within," and the apprehension of the "kingdom of God without," in the solar system.

Perhaps it might be expressed  as the gradual blending of the paths of the mystic  and the occultist- the rearing of the temple of wisdom upon the foundation of knowledge. Wisdom is the science of the spirit, just as knowledge is the science of matter. Knowledge is separative and objective, whilst wisdom is synthetic and subjective. Knowledge divides; Wisdom unites. Knowledge differentiates whilst wisdom blends. What then, is meant by the understanding?

The understanding may be defined as the facuity of the Thinker in Time to appropriate knowledge as the foundation of wisdom, that which enables him to adapt  the things of form to the life of the spirit, and to take the flashes of inspiration that come to him  from the Hall of Wisdom and link them to the facts of the Hall of Learning. Perhaps the whole idea might be expressed in this way:

Wisdom concerns the one Self, knowledge deals with the not-self, whilst the understanding is the point of view of the Ego or thinker, or his relation between them. In the hall of Ignorance the form controls, and the material side of things has the predominance. Man is there polarised in the personality or lower self. In the  Hall of learning the higher self, or ego strives to dominate that form until gradually a point of equilibrium is reached where the man is controlled entirely by neither. Later the ego controls more and more, until in  the Hall of Wisdom it dominates in the three lower worlds, and in increasing degree the inherent divinity assumes the mastery.

Reference: Initiation, Human and Solar: Alice .A. Bailey