What it takes to be a good initiate

Lately I have been prompted to problematize a subject further. The initial question is: What
constitutes a good initiate? But to be able to address this question one also has to
problematize: What is initiation? And to chrystalize the subject matter further: Can any
religious and honest spiritual seeker be regarded as a initiate? Does going to church each
Sunday and partaking in the Sacraments, and simply being pious, count as initiation? Is the
classical mystic necessarily a initiate? Lets peal the onion!
Christianity originally was a initiatory mystery tradition drawing on different currents, such as
the Greek and Egyptian mysteries, as well as Gnostic and possible Hermetic, and definitly the
Jewish Merkabah tradition. But soon it developed into a universal religion. However, their
sacraments (some of which are shared with the Gnostic Tradition) is a vestige of and reflect
(in a somwhat diluted form) a initiatory system. Lets say that the Christian sacraments
represent a species of exoteric lay-man initiation. In particular the Baptism and Eucharist
are powerful spiritual transmissions with a potential of quickening the human being. But
remember that the common denominator is that both the initiations in a Esoteric Fraternity
(such as the Golden Dawn) and that of the Sacraments of the Church, require a human
conductor somewhone who transmits the spiritual and energetic current. Also remember the
Christian and Gnostic tradition behind Jesus baptism, that he received the Holy Ghost during
it. But it did require Johns active participation and laying of hands upon the Christ. The
anointed has to be anointed by someone.
This is a crucial component to authentic initiation; I do not believe in self-initiation,
especially not of the kind which is popularized in modern books on the Golden Dawn
Tradition; the vary fabric of Golden Dawn Initiation (as well as other Hermetic and
Rosicrucian initiation) is that it is supposed to be conducted within a collective context. Or to
use a vulgar metaphor; to survive in modern combat, it doesnt suffice to know how to fire a
rifle. The best way to learn how to win in combat is to enlist in a regular Army or professional
military force, which have their own drill instructors (often with some form of combat
experience), and to go through basic training, and speciality training, etc. Its quite hard to do
that by watching movies, reading books and going to the shooting range, etc.
But another problematizing question immediately arises: Who was the first initiate? (Initiate
Zero.) Who initiated him (or her)? Or did the Initiatory Tradition arise from a initial selfinitiation? No, Tradition holds that the first human initiate was not self taught. I concur with
Tradition and do believe that originally he or she was intitiated by someone as well, but
obviously not by any human. Who then? Clearly, it required a extraterrestrial being (i.e.
someone not from our terrestrial world) to do that. Some believe in flying saucers, space
ships, Chariots of the Gods, etc. I do not adhere to this vulgar understanding to solve the
problem of the original transmission of the Tradition. How I understand it, we rather have to
talk about Solar Beings. I.e. living entities who exist on the Solar Dimension and feed on
Solar Power for their subsistance. The goal of Hermetic Initiation and the Great Work is to
become Solar Beings ourselves, to return to the original state of being before the fall. That
is one original meaning of The Path of Return.
There are of course exceptional individuals who may arrive at more or less the same result
and complete the Great Work (and become more than human) by divine intervention alone.
However, that is not the normal case. The greater majority (of the extreme minority of
mankind who are even suited for initiation) have to rely on an external initiator, who has

activeted, in his Sphere of Sensation and subtler bodies, the energetic forces which are
necessary for transmutation of body and soul. This initiator becomes the necessary yeast
which serves to be the catalyst of the fermentation of the bodies of the initiate. The initiator
has in turn received this yeast himself, which has quickened his Sphere of Sensation and
started the process of the development of his bodies, etc. This is the true meaning of Lineage.
To use another vulgar metaphor, this may be compared with when humans train chimpanzees
who through human intervention exceed their natural limitations of intelligence and
behaviour. In a similar way, (the unexceptional) man has to rely on an external and more
evolved being to be able to evolve and exceed his normal limitations given to him by birth,
culture and society. However, that said, when this quickening has been started and the
fermentation is underway, each initiate has to manage that which has been provided to him
through his own Great Work (i.e. his own personal theurgy and alchemy), or else the process
must die out; he must become the zealous student whose first duty was to blow the Athanor
of Fire which heated the Crucible of the Alchemist. Thus, true self-initiation is only possible
within the context of the collective initiation; both constitute the different sides of the same
coin, so to speak.
This naturally answers the main question, what constitutes a good initiate. My answer: To
have the humility to realize that one needs the help and aid of others to be able to cross ones
own barriers and limitations; to admit that one is (inter)dependent on others for ones own
existance and subsistence (also from an existential and spiritual point of view). This is the
first lesson of the Neophyte, as taught concerning the Grip of the Grade, which ...alludes to
the seeking for guidance in darkness. The group context is needed to check the profane
defences of the self (or ego) such as arrogance, narcissism, egotism, complacency,
autoeroticism (of the psychological and spiritual kind), pettiness, etc. This especially is
crucial in our post-modern (hyper-individualistic and nihilist) age which is driven by these
negative and destructive traits.
It is true, however, that as a initiate one has to distance oneself from ones profane
contemporaries in society, in ones world view. But that doesnt mean that one has to isolate
oneself completely; the cure is to seek out the company of brothers and sisters in the Work.
Thus, the problem of repression lies not in egregores themselves, but the dilemma is to choose
the right egregore which is beneficial for ones spirutal development and energetic evolution.
The natural outcome of this is that the good initiate becomes a shining example of his
Fraternity, in his devotion to the Great Work, to the Fraternity, and to Mankind. For the good
initiate, his sacred vows becomes his Catechism, a guide and measuring stick on how to
conduct himself, both to his brothers and sisters in the Order, and to his fellow brothers and
sisters in the Outer World.
A good initiate is also the Apprentice who makes optimal use of the yeast transmitted to
him from his initiator (and the initiating team), one who uses the bellows provided to him in
the form of the Tradition of Theurgy, Alchemy and Astrology (the Trivium hermeticum), to
keep up the steady and gradually raised heat of the Athanor (the Sphere of Sensation), as
well as being the Student who assimilates all of the necessary information and traditional
knowledge needed to facilitate this initiatory process and graded transmutation; with energetic
and spiritual attainment should also come a deepened understanding of the system or
Tradition. Thus, a good initiate is one who is perservering, patient, devoted, disciplined,
analytical and intuitive.

When it comes to morals and ethics, there is not much that can be taught by the Fraternity
which hasnt been developed beforehand, prior to Initiation. What the Order can do is to
foment and crystallize that which is already present within the initiate, either manifest or
latent. As is stated in Neophyte Grade, that the obligation contains nothing incompatible with
your civil, moral or religious duties. This implies that these have to exist a priori in the
Candidate. Here, the screening process is crucial. The rationale behind this is that morals and
ethics transcend the mere intellectual and cognitive level; it is emotionally based and develops
in early childhood and through healty attachments and relationships. Theurgy (i.e.
communication with the divine) and Alchemy (transmutation of the bodies) may of course
facilitate this process, but that is the outcome of a quite long initiatory process. The Order
provides quite little in moral and ethical teachings, beyond what is contained in its
ceremonies. Thus these basic qualities and virtues have to be inherent in the prima materia
chosen for the initiatory process.
Now, a series of natural questions arise necessary to problematize this question of morals and
checking of the ego further: Has the Golden Dawn (in its various manifestations) been
particularly successful, as a egregore, to accomplish this? Or, rather than keeping the ego in
check is it possible that a egregore sometimes may actually feed the ego? Also, what if the
Initiator or yeast is or have become egotistical or corrupted himself? Can lineage protect the
initiate from this possibility? Does lineage trump the initiates Higher Soul in such cases?
Necessarily, my answer to these questions has to be rather long to be able to address them
properly, and unfortunately with an air of pessimism. What I can talk about with certainty is
the current manifestation(s) of the Golden Dawn, as I have had first hand experiences of it.
When it comes to the different historical branches, i.e. the Golden Dawn (pre 1900), the Alpha
Omega and Stella Matutina, it becomes more difficult and we can only speculate (there are to
many pet theories published since the early 1970s of what happened between 1898 and 1903,
and I do not want to contribute with another one); with the benefit of the doubt, I do belive
that the Golden Dawn served it purpose in those days good enough.
Talking about the revived Golden Dawn (post 1980), can we say the same? No we cannot.
Why? I would say that the Golden Dawn has become infested by the Counter-Tradition.
People have often ventured into it as self-initiates, and believe that they know it all through
published books. Many founders of the post-modern Golden Dawn Orders and Temples, have
no lineage other than what can be read from Israel Regardies and Aleister Crowleys books,
and even Pat Zalewskis. Even those few that do have some sort of initiatic lineage are
affected by the current times; by New Age, commersialism, competition, hyper-individualism,
nihilism, [enter any postmodern notion into this list], etc. To cut it short, we are living in the
Age of the Ego.
These so-called esoteric Lodges and Temples are not being that overly esoteric anymore, in
the true sense of the word (rather exoteric I would say), as they sell themselves out to a
prospecting spiritual market, reaching out to new spiritual consumers, publishing books and
selling other types of marchandise, trying to gain monopoly over the market, growing into
corporate bodies, etc. When the boundary between the sacred and the profane is blurred in the
best case scenario, and non-existant in the worst, can the Temple protect itself from egotistic
and craving individuals?
Also, I believe that the question should be rephrased: Has the esoterc Lodges / Temples in
their various manifestations been successful in checking the ego? The Golden Dawn is not the

only visable tradition which has been hijacked by the Counter-Tradition. All of them have, to
a greater and lesser extent. In that kind of environment, yes a Temple or Lodge may feed the
ego; that is what a Conter-Traditional initiation does. We see esoteric leaders today which are
not only egoistical and narcissistic, but in some cases also mentally disturbed and predatory;
psychic vampires. The danger with all types of initiation (regardless of colour) is that it brings
our personal deficiencies to the surface (they are supposed to do that). But if the initiatior or
the Temple / Lodge cannot help the initiate to work them out, they will become unbalanced.
(Israel Regardie knew about this and he tried to seek out psychoanalysis as a solution.)
Lineage itself cannot protect a group or the individual of that group from becoming corrupted
and falling from the Tradition into the Counter-Traditional mire in this manner as described.
There are no guarantees, especially not in our post-modern age. Some of the esoteric leaders
are trying to uphold the hallmarks of the Tradition though, despite all of the above. But it isnt
easier to fine a genuinely Traditional Temple or Lodge today than it was 100 years ago; the
difference is that the prospecting initiate has to wade through all of these rogue groups before
they strike true gold. I would guess, it is even harder to find anything genuine today than it
was one Century ago. In the last analysis, we shouldnt point out fingers against any particular
individual or group; it is a larger phenomena that has infested almost the entire esoteric
community. So choose wisely! You have no use for fools gold.