Initiatory Path: Spiritual, Psychic, and Mental Training

       The foundation of the totality of Occult Philosophy and upon which the practical aspects of its practice rests is in the understanding of Cosmic emanatory unfoldment through involution/evolution and our relational connection to it. In all the Ancient and Arcane Mystery Traditions, Orders, and Philosophical Schools it was enumerated that the Manifested Phenomenal Universe (physical and apparent) is derived from the Invisible Universe (non-physical and unapparent) which is its underlying schematic, and furthermore both a predicated upon the emanations of the uncognizable Absolute Essence which is unmanifested, eternal, boundless, and immutable. From this Unmanifested Absolute is crystallized the Logos with this Logos being the reflection of the Absolute. The Logos is One and three simultaneously being comprised of both the Primordial Cosmic Ideation (Universal Mind) and Cosmic Substance (Primeval Matter) which all together form and stimulate the construction of the Visible and invisible Manifested Cosmos. However, they are in essence One and those are the Dual Aspects of the Logos, negative and positive, Male and Female, force and form. Like all manifested forms in the Universe, we Humans are illusionary and temporal ultimately vanishing along with the Logos back into the Absolute at the end of every Cosmic Cycle. We are the fractal essence or monadic evolutionary vehicle for the Logos to experience and progress during every cycle as well as being intrinsically connected to all states of existence higher and lower than we are. 

        We are the life-form in this enormous cosmic process whereby the dual aspects of manifestation, mind and matter, spirit and substance, are integrated into a conscious vehicle and thus able to initiate the cycle back towards the Logos. Moreover, we inherently exhibit the septentary (seven-fold) natures of the original cosmic blueprint allowing us to activate particular latent potentialities within our layered framework from the spiritual, emotional, rational, psychic, and etheric bodies we are composed of to engage in consciousness unfoldment and spiritual self-mastery. We are the Microcosm of the Macrocosm, as above so below. However, to walk this path of the Initiate one must begin with the fundamentals of its philosophy, the knowledge of one's self, and the discipline and perseverance required to understand the basics behind the occult practice including its cosmological and natural delineations and conclusions. Without which the aspiring magician will be treading a path blindly and without the structural framework needed for true apperception and unfoldment to occur safely and incrementally. There is no substitute for proper understanding or persistent effort in acquiring the requisite fundamental knowledge before attempting the path of the initiate, in essence there are no shortcuts. One must proceed with this in mind. 

          The Human individual is an aggregation of a various cosmic components and is structured in a seven-fold nature with each aspect exhibiting different functions and modes of operation. While most of humanity, if religiously minded, is likely to attribute to man the trinary constitution of having a spirit, soul, and body, if even that, and the scientific materialist positing just a mind and body, the Esoteric and Occult doctrines delineate that in fact man is comprised of several more aspects in his cosmic structure. The Mystery traditions enumerate the different aspects as follows: the spirit or monadic spark, the spiritual soul, the intellectual or mental body, the animal soul or emotional body, the astral (etheric) body, the prana or life principle, and the material body.  As one can see this differs greatly from the religious and materialistic conceptualization of the make-up of man's constitution. 

      In the occult and esoteric traditions, these septenary aspects of man form the basic foundation for understanding the practice of and engagement with the higher self and higher aspects of consciousness. There are various disciplines which coincide with the different aspects of the human esoteric structure with each one concentrating upon an aspect to elevate, unfold, or enhance it within the individual. Certain ones focus on engaging the prana or chi of our life principle allowing greater control over particular aspects of the material body, magnifying its vitality, and enabling it to perform seemingly impossible feats as exhibited by certain sects of yogis and eastern monks. Other disciplines focus on engaging the astro-etheric  bodies in such a way as to perform consciousness-projection out of the material body into the astral planes through separation of them from the purely physical form. Still others focus on augmenting the powers of concentration and of will power in conjunction with control of the Life principle. However, the highest discipline involves the attaining access to the spiritual soul (buddhi) and communication with the ensouling monadic spark(atma) to which the term enlightenment or Christ consciousness is a reference. The initiate that advances far enough in self-mastery and acquires access to the Atma-Buddhi is one which can be rightly titled an Adept and acquires true spiritual intuition from these highest of the sepentary principles. 

        The path of Occult initiation and unfoldment of the consciousness into elevated states requires one to engage in particular meditative practices which have been utilized by the Adepts of nearly every magical school of thought for generations. Even though certain aspects might differ slightly in particular schools or orders the fundamentals and basics generally remain the same among them and enough so that every aspiring student is likely to find a methodology which will best suit his mental disposition. Whether the individual prescribes to the hermetic, occultic, yogic, or kabbalistic path the initial process follows a structure whereby the individual will begin to engage in meditation with the endeavor centered around enhancing focus, concentration, will, and use of the pictorial imagination. However, as one continues down this path the four aforementioned mystery traditions will differ in which techniques they focus on though the end goal will essentially remain the same which is consciousness elevation, contact with the higher self, and self-mastery. Thus, while the occultic and kabbalistic path will involve imaginative concentration and ritualistic enactment of sephirothic spheres, the yogic path will involve grandiose visualization coupled with mantras, and the hermetic will involve intensification of concentration and the will. Nonetheless, as I am personally more familiar with the techniques associated with White Occultism and the Kabbalah, these are the two that i will extrapolate upon and focus on as a path of initiation for individual unfoldment. They are essentially techniques of deep psychology. 

            In the delineations of the path by such authorities as Dion Fortune, Gareth Knight, Israel Regardie, and other white occultist, the way lies first in the persistent practice of meditation. According to these learned scholars and adepts, the meditative practice one engages in will determine the efficacious nature of the results that will be obtained. The initial procedure of meditation is to find a consistent time of day conducive for the individual to engage in their meditation and to persistently hold to this framework whereby the individual will take the time to meditate daily at this chosen time without deviating from it. This daily meditative practice must by necessity become a continual routine as it is not effective to instead engage in sporadic meditation even if it involves lengthy periods of meditation in place, this not being a replacement for habitual practice if even for only 10-15 minutes a day. Thus, it is far more efficacious to meditate daily for only 15 minutes without fail than it is to meditate three times a week for 45 minutes due to the nature of consistency in this practice. The initial goal of the individual's practice is to develop a persistent routine which they can stick to and regularly perform. Now when engaging in meditation in these preliminary stages it will be evident how difficult it is to calm the mind and to focus on any one thing, however the ability to do so will increase over time as long as consistency is maintained. In the beginning the individual should focus on simply seeking to filter out extraneous thoughts which will invariably bubble up to the surface and try to hold their mental state in a concentrated awareness. One may attempt to do this by focusing on a singular idea or phrase which is held firm in the imagination or repeatedly brought back into focus as it slips away. By doing this one will engage their faculties of concentration and their will which must be developed if one is to attain advancement. Over time the engagement of this practice will enhance one's ability to negate extraneous thoughts, focus their mind on a singular concept, and ultimately enhance their mental capacity of concentration over several weeks or months of such a routine. 

        II. Once the aspiring initiate has succeeded in accomplishing their initial meditative practices of quieting the mind, enhancing concentration, improving the will, and adhering to a consistent system daily, the secondary phase of their occult mental training will begin. The second phase involves specificity, imagination, and systematization along particular lines of meditative training which revolve around the utilization of Kabbalistic symbolism and the associative ideas or concepts related to the symbolism. This will involve using the now greater levels of concentration and will to exercise control over pictorial imagery related to Kabbalah and to focus specifically upon these images systematically in meditation so that a subconscious line of correlations and associations can be established within the depths of the subconscious mind forging interrelated links between thought-forms and symbols. Now this phase of occult meditation occurs over a lengthy period of time ranging from 6 months to years since such intensive mental links and associations being forged varies according to the abilities of the aspiring initiate and their devotion to the task. It is also pertinent at this stage to begin studying the Hebraic Alphabet, the various divine names of Deity along with associated Archangels and Angels, the Sephirothic Tree of Life, and even begin performing the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. All of these will be in addition to your meditative practice and will be utilized in it as an essential aspect, excepting the Lesser Banishing Ritual which is used to clear your aura of negative energies and engage your imagination. 

        Now to begin, one methodology for this secondary meditative phase is to engage in a sequential schema whereby for the next 40 days the initiate will meditate upon the various Sephirothic Spheres and associated symbols and concepts. This practice would begin by meditating on Kether the first day and then successively progressing down the Tree until reaching the Sphere of Malkuth on day 10, and then starting again at Kether on day 11. This practice would go through the ten Sephiroth four times thus occurring over the 40 days postulated. Every one of these 40 days will be meditatively concentrated upon the appropriate Sephirothic Sphere with the initiate utilizing the pictorial imagination to envision the Sphere and all associated concepts and symbols with it. During such meditation it is useful to refer to Dion Fortune's Sephirothic Imagery for each Sphere and hold the image as detailed as possible in complete focus followed by holding the associated symbols in focus successively during meditation that day. 

        This process is designed to further build up concentration and will along with constructing subconscious links between the associated symbols and the pertinent Sephiroth. Overtime these correlative links will be systematically built into your subconscious framework so that when the time comes to begin pathworking on the Tree, the links already forged will aid in differentiating between the various astral or psychic influences which arise during meditation and relate to the Sephiroth symbolically by the mental imagery which appear in your mind.  This will allow one to cause symbols to mentally manifest when focusing on specific Sephiroth or to decipher which Sphere is influencing your meditation by the symbolic imagery which flutters by being linked to a particular one already built up subconsciously. Eventually, an initiate should be proficient enough to decipher the Sephirothic influences one receives by way of its associated symbols and imagery thought-forms. However, once one begins to meditate astrally this concept begins to exhibit all of its difficulties and also its potentials if training has been adequate.