Nauvoo Gathering, 2003, Part 8
The First Initiation
Before a person becomes an initiate, when he first begins his evolution as a human being, he becomes a self conscious entity. All he really understands is that “I am.” “I am me” is the feeling he gets when he first becomes self conscious. As he evolves he unites the various pieces of the lower kingdoms and becomes what he is now in connection with the higher parts of himself, but he basically begins in a very savage state. He’s very physical and hasn’t yet developed his emotional body. He doesn’t understand romantic love or tenderness or things like that. We all started our evolution chasing wild animals and fighting other tribes. This period of physical polarization of our mindset lasted for many lifetimes. For some of us it started on other spheres than this earth.
We spent hundreds of different lifetimes slowly learning by trial and error. Then by gradually learning what works and what doesn’t work, we began to develop emotions. Slowly, as the emotions begin to sink into us, we realized that the feeling nature is important. We began to develop permanent relationships with mates. In the beginning we didn’t even have permanent relationships with our mate. It was a relationship appropriate for soul purposes more like the animals have today to a large degree.
As we develop, we fine tune our emotional self so that we learn to fall in love, we learn to be attached to possessions, we learn how to want to have things and basically we learn how to be selfish; consciously selfish in many ways. The love we develop says: if I love someone I want to possess them. Then we get to a point where we think, “This selfishness no longer satisfies. There must be something higher.”
When the pilgrim reaches that point when he thinks there has to be something greater than this, at that point he becomes an aspirant. He is not an initiate yet. He begins to aspire to spiritual things, to something higher. Many of the new age people of the world are aspirants. They’ve been stimulated and they know something is out there but there not sure what it is, but they’re aspiring. The person aspires for a number of lifetimes until he has an experience that brings him to the doorway of the first initiation. Does anyone remember what the name of the first initiation is? The birth of Christ in the heart is the first initiation.
This is represented a little in the born again experience. The person who has the true born again experience becomes the first degree initiate. But not everyone who says they’re born again is truly born again. Billy Graham and these people have these crusades where they say, “If you accept Jesus in your heart, walk forward and be saved.” They’ll have tears in their eyes and be crying and think they’re born again. Some people may be born again through this but usually it’s not through an experience like that. It can be but it’s an experience where they contact the Christ, the soul, for the first time. The soul principle is the same thing as the Christ principle. The contact is the birth, the linking your consciousness with soul contact for the first time. You have a birth of that energy. You touch bases with the Christ within for the first time and you really know you’ve touched something. You know you want to get closer to this. After this happens for the first time you don’t know where it’s going to lead but you’ve experienced a new birth and you follow it. Then you become a first degree initiate.
So what sets apart the first degree initiate above the aspirant? The aspirant is aspiring to something higher and he does this through common sense. He uses the mind to eliminate things. “This can’t be right or this church couldn’t be the highest thing in the universe and maybe there’s something else besides the Bible. I’ve read the Bible and it doesn’t answer all my questions. There must be more.” This is the aspirant. The first degree initiate gets a revelation from the soul, a contact from the soul. Then he knows within, he knows beyond any doubt that there is a God contacted within. He knows something is there and he wants to follow it wherever it goes. He commits himself. If he gets that contact, but ignores it then he loses his initiation for that lifetime. He’ll get another chance in a future lifetime. This happens to many people.
Many people, after getting their first contact, think it must be their imagination. They’re feeling a little strange about having an experience with God and decide that direction isn’t where they want to go. He fears his friends and family may think he’s crazy so he disregards it. Sooner or later though, we’re touched by that soul contact and we make a definite decision that we like it. “I like this a lot and I’m not going to let it go. I’m going to follow it wherever it leads.”
When he commits himself he truly fulfills the scripture that talks about as being born again. When you’re born again: you cut off the old man and put on the new man. You develop a whole new attitude where now your life is centered on the spirit instead of personality and the things of the world. You become a first degree initiate. That’s the purpose of ‘you must be born again’ or’ the person entering into the kingdom of heaven.’ You must begin your initiations in order to enter the kingdom of God. The average person who you meet on the street is not an initiate.
Audience: So the average person is not an initiate at all?
JJ: The average person who says he is a Christian is not an initiate. However there are a handful of people who believe they are born again who are truly born again. The initiates are found everywhere. They’re scattered within every organization. Even many of the churches that seem like kindergarten to us have a handful of initiates in them. They’re there to prod everyone else along. They’re usually not in leadership positions. Sometimes they will be, but oftentimes they’ll be just one of the group. They’ll be on the sidelines stimulating people.
Audience: So the primal man has gone beyond that and into this?
JJ: The initiate has gone beyond tribal living, beyond just being interested in making a living. He’s beyond that. The first degree initiate has made a soul contact, a spiritual contact so he knows there are things beyond this world. He’s not sure what God is. He was sure before initiation what God was because God was what his preacher told him.
Audience: So the aspirant is higher than this guy?
JJ: No, the initiate is higher than the aspirant. The aspirant aspires to be an initiate.
Audience: So he’s a little above the primal guy?
JJ: Yep, he’s the average man on the street.
Audience: So the aspirant is sort of the forerunner to being a first initiate?
JJ: Yes, he’s aspiring to go higher. What he’s really aspiring for is to be an initiate.
Audience: So I don’t read that much. You guys are way ahead of me.
JJ: No problem. There are a number of people just like you who haven’t read much of Alice A Bailey. So the first initiation is the birth of the Christ in the heart. If you realize the Christ is more than just an individual out there, even more than the one who lived in Nazareth and occupied the position of the Christ and exemplified the Christ energy and the Christ principle. But the Christ is more than that.
The Christ is the mediator between God and man. When we find that mediator within us this means that we have a true spiritual contact that is real and we understand for probably the first time in all of our lifetimes that there is something higher. We thought there was something higher when we were an aspirant and we were looking for it. Now we have found something. But we haven’t found it all. We’ve just found the very beginning.
Audience: Knowing that there is a higher contact, knowing that there is a Christ within, believing that does not necessarily mean we have soul contact?
JJ: It’s the beginning of your soul contact. When you first make your soul contact it’s called the birth of Christ in the heart. It’s real. The contact is real and you know for sure there is something higher.
Audience: How do you know if you had it?
JJ: You will have felt it. If I feel this chair, I know the chair is there. If you fall in love with someone and really feel that love you know you have a feeling. You know that feeling is real. When the soul touches you, you know that feeling is real. You know that it is there. You know there is a lot more waiting for you. You don’t know what it is. You’re like the babe in the woods.
Christ’s life had the symbols of all the initiations. The symbol of the first initiation was the birth of Christ in the manger, in the cave so to speak. Legend says it actually took place in a cave. So in the cave of the heart is the birth of Christ or the first initiation. When it happens at first you may disregard it or talk yourself out of it. But when you’re going through it you have to acknowledge it’s a real energy you’re feeling. Then afterwards you might wonder if you really felt something or if you made it up. You can talk yourself out of it and miss out on the first initiation for the rest of your life. But, if you acknowledge to yourself that it’s real then you’re going to follow the most real thing you’ve ever found and see where it leads you.
When you begin to follow it you become unsure of a lot of things you were sure of previously. You were sure you knew exactly what God was and who Jesus was and what the Bible said, but when you become an initiate a lot of things you believed in are undone. You’re not talking about getting your source from some preacher anymore. You’re getting it from within and how it registers within between you and your soul. It’s not necessarily the same data as you’ve been fed throughout your life. You’ll get new insights on things and how things work.
Audience: Is there a typical age you might achieve this?
JJ: You mean like forty or fifty or something? No, but most of your initiations are usually achieved by the age of fifty four or so. But generally you’ll achieve most of them by the age of thirty. Sometimes in your second Saturn cycle you’ll achieve an additional initiation. We’ll talk more about the age thing later. On the first initiation you begin control of the physical body. In the first initiation you seek to master your physical world. In the second initiation you seek to master the emotional world. At the third initiation you seek to master the mind. So when you become a first degree initiate you have soul contact and you realize that you need to get the physical appetites under your control. One of the purposes of the churches is to prepare you for the first initiation through their various “commandments.”
The basic ten commandments teach physical mastery. Do not lust after your neighbor’s wife, for instance, is teachings physical mastery. Thou shalt not kill is teaching physical mastery because you don’t kill your neighbor. Thou shalt not steal. You master everything in the physical reality. Obey the Sabbath day and keep it holy. This is strict physical control giving yourself the rest you need.
It goes beyond this. Physical mastery is getting your body in basic shape so it stays relatively healthy, getting your sexual appetites under control so your sexual energy is used in a positive way rather than a negative way. Thou shall not commit adultery is the commandment that helps with this type of mastery. So, all the religions of the world are all preparing you for the first initiation. That’s why many of the aspirants of the world are in the world’s religions. Another thing they teach is to give some of your money to the church. Even though the church may misuse that money, you’re obtaining some mastery over physical reality by dedicating a certain amount of money to the church. You’re obtaining mastery over something that’s important to you.
This physical mastery doesn’t have to be perfect by the first initiation. For instance, Kennedy was an initiate but he didn’t look like he was much of a master over his sexual appetites from what we’ve learned about the guy. Sometimes there is a residual effect and it’s also based on how he was taught. JFK was taught by his father that this is the way you use women. His dad sat down and taught his kids that this was the way to go. That had a big influence over him. This type of authority that you’re taught, what’s right and wrong is not overcome completely until the third initiation. So some types of authoritative teachings that are imbedded in us remain with us up to the third initiation. It can make some people who are initiates look like they aren’t initiates because they haven’t broken out of that illusionary mode or really understood how to master themselves.
Let’s look at how Kennedy was a master in many ways. He was very ill when he was young. He had tremendous back and health problems. When World War II started he wanted to join the Allies. He volunteered for the service but they rejected him. So he did back exercises for months and was finally accepted. He disciplined himself. He had tremendous discipline in order to be accepted and serve his country. That’s a mark of an initiate to do something like that.
Then when he was in the service he had terrible pain in his back yet he ignored the pain. He negated it in order to perform his duty. When his boat was sunk, even with all the pain he was undergoing, he saved several lives by pulling people ashore. Then when they were trapped on this island in the middle of nowhere, everyone else sat around waiting to die, but he went out looking for help. He swam out as far as he could looking for help then swam back and rested. Then he swam out looking for help again. He kept trying. He was always trying to save everyone. The rest sat around twiddling their thumbs while he was initiating, trying to do something. If you study his life you’ll see his mindset about using women was probably his major flaw. It was a residual effect because of the teachings of his father that he had not yet overcome. If he had been taught correctly he probably would’ve been in mastery over his sexual energy also.
When first degree initiate understands what’s right and what’s wrong he will have power to master all the passions and appetites of the physical world to his satisfaction, to the point that he feels content with himself. He’ll feel at peace with himself and the spirit and when he achieves this, he will be a first degree initiate.
“The soul plays upon matter, forcing it to assume certain shapes, to respond to certain vibrations and to build those specified phenomenal forms which we recognise in the world of the physical plane as mineral, vegetable, animal and human,-and for the initiate certain other forms as well.” DK, A Treatise on White Magic, Page 36
Dec 9, 2003
Copyright by J J Dewey
Easy Access to All the Writings
For Free Book go HERE and other books HERE
JJ’s Amazon page HERE
Gather with JJ on Facebook HERE