Category Archives: Initiation

Initiation requires study and concentration of the mind as necessary preliminaries. Those who wish to undertake practical work must study and obtain familiarity with our philosophy and primary techniques. They should give thought to a fraternal name and associated Qabalistic number for exclusive use in the Hermetic Order of the Star and Snake. An ‘Apprentice’ is a Student that has been accepted into the novitiate and begins practice and learning. The Student is asked to provide a date for starting their Record. This will coincide with the entry of the Sun into a new zodiacal sign. The Record must be kept on a strict daily basis. The Apprentice Oath and Task is signed after meditation on its meaning, and a copy returned to the Order. The Apprentice continues their reading and study. If the Apprenticeship is deemed successful, a ritual for admission and particular practice will be given for the Iº (First Degree) Neophyte.

The Oath of an Apprentice (Hermetic Order of the Star and Snake) is as follows:

I shall direct the whole nature and all the powers of my being towards the accomplishment of the Great Work, which is: To obtain True Knowledge of that which is by Nature hidden from the ordinary senses and reason of Man. To this end, I will obtain control over the nature and powers of my own being.

In fact, that declared aim, to be attained in any full and complete measure, might take many years, even a lifetime, and might even never be attained, as depending on the latent possibilities of the individual.

Our Hermetic Qabalah Foundation course is open to suitable applicants. Advanced practices involve Raja Yoga, which combines devotion to an Egyptian deity involving concentration of mind, meditation and intellective process of discrimination, which alone can lead to the yoga of pure knowledge (jnana).

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Karma Yoga and Three Ways of Initiation

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There are three ways of initiation corresponding to Jnana Yoga (knowledge), Bhakti Yoga (devotion) and Karma Yoga (action). These are also called the sacerdotal way of the priesthood, the royal way of kings, and the way of the warrior.

Karma Yoga and Three Ways: Artus Scheiner RomanceIn our time, the warrior path presents the greatest difficulties. The warrior path generally involves the Ideal expressed through exoteric religious (or other) dogma. Dogma literally means ‘what seems to be good or true’, ‘what one should think’. The shortcoming is obvious. However, religious dogma has now been replaced by universal belief in scientism. Scientism is far worse than religious dogma, for that at least had a basis in true principles, even if the basis was often lost in practice—a condition made worse in the confusion of modern times. The dogma of conventional science has no basis in any truth whatsoever. It could be said, and not without some justification, that all ways of initiation are closed in the present times—for we have reached the greatest darkness of the Kali Yuga that comes immediately before the final dissolution and regeneration of the world. However, even in times such as ours the way of initiation is open right until the last minute for the few that still have the innate possibilities.

This article is abridged from Nu Hermetica—Initiation and Metaphysical Reality [Ordo Astri books].

The practices are not separate, as though having nothing to do with each other. They overlap and in some ways run concurrently. One path can also support another. The way of Bhakti, ‘devotion’, is akin to Raja Yoga, which is the way of the king or noble, yet it is also the way of the warrior or man of Earth. Karma Yoga is ‘action’, which implies immersion in time and place, names, numbers and principalities—yet that impinges on the way of the Lover, who, unless he is wholly devoted to union with God or divinity, must always be tested by the ordeals configured by the very nature of the outer world.

The three paths, as with the practices, are comparable to the three Gunas in the same tradition: Sattwas, Rajas and Tamas. This is why they are never truly separate in nature, for each one flows seamlessly into the other, and they must all partake of each other’s nature in some way. For this reason the Gunas are sometimes used in alchemical analogies. They also correspond to the Wheel of Force, the 10th Atu of the Tarot, for like the wheel they are never fixed but are a mobile force. While each manifests according to its nature they all partake of the one essence or essential Esoteric Principle.

Thus no person or being consists wholly of one or the other of these three qualities, but one or the other will be the dominant force in them. Even that is not necessarily a permanent or fixed state of affairs, for initiation can change this, and as we have said, one path can act as a support for another. It can be readily seen then that the way of Jnana Yoga suits the Sattwic disposition, while the ways of Bhakti and Karma Yoga suit the Raja disposition. The Tamas disposition, ignorant by its very nature, naturally precludes any possibility of initiation and only allows for exoteric affiliation. René Guénon has said that Tamas nonetheless has a closer relation with Rajas than with Sattwas.[1]

Those who follow the ways of Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga are those who must develop individual qualities. These two paths pertain to the Lesser Mysteries and the psychic sphere of the individuality. Jnana Yoga, which is the path of pure knowledge, exists for those who will leave the corporeal order permanently, and is the way of the Greater Mysteries. Yet Karma and Bhakti can provide a support to the further and full realisation that only Jnana Yoga affords. Indeed, there is no way to the pinnacle without first entering the centre of all, the omphalos at the heart of Tiphereth in our tradition.

It should be noted in respect of the three ways that the Karma Yoga path in its fullest and original sense means that each must accomplish that which accords to its proper nature, called a ‘True Will’. Unfortunately, the conditions now prevailing in the world have made that rare, almost impossible. This owes to the confusion that is now considered to be the normal state of affairs, so that every kind of deviancy is also considered to be normal. In that, it does well to bear in mind that this is so because the whole of our civilisation is deviant, not merely some parts of it or particular kinds of behaviour.

In the West, Bhakti once had its counterpart in the Graal tradition, the chivalry typified by Arthur and his knights, or in some of the ancient orders such as the Knights Templar—though we must exclude from that all modern claimants to that tradition. Karma Yoga has its counterpart with crafts, and in that we would include poetry, music and all the arts, provided these express true principles and are not merely about ‘personal expression’. In the true and also the most technical sense, Karma Yoga is ‘ritual action’, which again, owing to the general conditions of our times, is nowhere to be found in our governmental, social or domestic conventions, unless in the most degraded and meaningless forms imaginable.

The principles hold true in all traditional actions. For example, there was a time not so long ago when at the Beltane cross-quarter of the year, on or around the 1st May, a pole was firmly erected in a field and coloured ribbons were tied to its mast. Young girls, dressed in white and decorated with flowers, would then each hold on to the end of a ribbon and all would go dancing merrily about the pole. One of these would be designated ‘Queen of the May’. The Queen of the May is the ‘one chosen’ to play the part of the Daughter or Bride of the Kingdom, called Malkah or Persephone, and known by many other names in equivalent traditions around the world.

The pole is the vertical axis of the universe and of the Great Yantra. This links heaven with earth, and the spiritual order with the corporeal world. In the axis is the possibility of initiatic transmission, like lightning to the ground. The circle is the circumference of the sphere, of which the interpenetrating axis is the extended point or Esoteric Principle. It is the visible appearance of things or Nature. The maidens are the whole range of possible expressions, as the multitudinous variety of flowers, yet each retaining the purity (white colour) of the Principle itself. The coloured ribbons that connect the maidens with the axis form the rainbow of Setian manifestation, the ‘coat of many colours’ of Joseph.[2] They are the seven rays, of which the seventh is that which is beyond the reach of the sky, or otherwise at the head of the axial column.

It remains to be said  that as ‘ritual action’, various kinds of magical practice such as the making and consecration of talismans are related to Karma Yoga, though these may also, if properly done, act as a support for spiritual realisation. When talismans are made for wholly negative purposes, such as worldly ambition, material gain, persuasion of the will of others, and so forth, then the ‘karma’ of wrath and retribution is automatically evoked. This is something that many now find difficult even to believe, since our world encourages such empty ambitions as a matter of course, and even heaps honours upon those with truly abhorrent or base motives. However, this action of retribution is inevitable. It does not arise from any moral consideration, since morals, by definition, are merely completely arbitrary human conventions. The retribution arises from natural action, which is another meaning of the Sanskrit karma. If the person has invoked either deity or devil, it matters not which, in complete ignorance of the principle or true knowledge underlying the symbol, then that principle will nonetheless be present at the ritual and in the operator, but only in wholly negative form.

Karma Yoga and Three Ways Notes

1. René Guénon, Chapter 18, Initiation and Spiritual Realisation [Sophia Perennis].
2. Genesis 37: 3: “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.”

From the book, Nu Hermetica—Initiation and Metaphysical Reality.

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Enterer of the Threshold: Apprentice

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Book for the Student and Apprentice (Probationer): The Enterer of the Threshold. This book has been substantially revised since 2024. This book serves as an introduction to the Hermetic Order of the Star and Snake. It is in every way a concise theoretical and practical guide.

Ordo Astri Books: Apprentice (Probationer): The Enterer of the ThresholdWhile it was not written exclusively for those who seek membership of such an organisation, the foremost aim was to serve the interests of the latter. So far as a wider readership goes, it was always hoped that it might help in some small way to bring clarity to an area that has suffered utmost obfuscation, and not least of all from the many persons who are considered to be experts. Indeed, confusion abounds today on all matters that really belong to the esoteric domain. And for that very reason, this book, and all other books we have written, were never intended for those who are merely curious or that have a passing interest in a subject they are in no way prepared to study with serious intent. Even this modest volume, a sort of handbook or manual, was not written to be a quick digest, so minimising any effort put in by the student; it requires deep thought and contemplation. The subject concerns preparations needful to the person that earnestly pursues the path of initiation, comprising a vast array of topics inclusive of traditional sciences such as magick, astrology, and the science of numbers as well as essential methods for acquiring real knowledge, including ritual and yoga meditation. Of all these, it is concentration of the mind that is foremost, and ‘concentration’ is meant here in the technical sense (dharana), by which real yoga and discriminative knowledge is alone made possible.

The Apprentice degree is the most important one in the Order because it lays the foundation for the development of initiatic possibilities. At the very beginning there is the intellectual matter of books, study and thought, which is the work of the Student. This intellectual work continues through all the grades. The ritual circle is next constructed by taking the Great Work from theory into practice.

In ceremonial, the drawing of a circle is the key to all. It must be a true magical vortex—raising about the sphere of the mind an absolute barrier to all extraneous impressions—thus enabling perfect spontaneity.[1]

The Apprentice must define or mark out the circle of the place. ‘Squaring the circle’ implies bringing to form or manifestation all that we are and can ever be. Towards this aim, the Apprentice must practice and understand an elevenfold formula:

0. Intellectual Thought and Study.
1. The Fraternal Name.
2. The Oath and Task.
3. The Holy Obligation.
4. The Powers of the Sphinx.
5. The Keeping of the Record!
6. The Mudra of Horus the Enterer and Silence.
7. Vibration of Words of Power.
8. The Ritual of the Gates of Babalon.
9. Asana and Pranayama.
10. The Sword and Serpent.

From Apprentice to Neophyte

Since we must get away as far as possible from reductionism and psychologisation of the mysteries, we use the traditional term Sacred Science to describe the subject of our interest. The Sacred Science is obviously not the same thing at all as conventional or profane science, and will never be understood by the methods of the latter. With profane science, theories rest on the belief that they can be ‘proved’ by repeated experiments with control conditions. Material science is quantitative while ours is qualitative.

Alchemy involves repeated operations, as demonstrated in a host of anonymously written treatises, but the ‘proving’ is not the same, and these were never meant to be material operations or effects. All experimentation is irrelevant from the metaphysical point of view. The immortal stone of the wise cannot be weighed, measured or otherwise calculated. According to profane sciences, the human soul does not exist for likewise it cannot be weighed or measured. The soul is the basis of our work.

The proving of what might be termed as ‘spiritual alchemy’ is not that of rational persuasion, but is akin to the proving of bread when the action of yeast causes it to rise. Bread thus became a widely used metaphor for the ‘substance’ of the soul, and wine a metaphor for the spirit. Soul and spirit are unknown to material science, for that which is not material in its basis cannot be proven by material experiments or actions; so it shall always be—never the twain shall meet. The Christian Hermeticist Meister Ekhart expressed this in lucid terms when commenting on the book of Matthew, 6: 24, ‘no man can serve two masters’.[2]

The two eyes of the soul of man cannot both perform their work at once: but if the soul shall see with the right eye into eternity, then the left eye must close itself and refrain from working, and be as though it were dead. For if the left eye be fulfilling its office toward outward things, that is holding converse with time and the creatures; then must the right eye be hindered in its working; that is, in its contemplation. Therefore, whosoever will have the one must let the other go; for ‘no man can serve two masters.’

Notes

1. Paraphrased from Golden Dawn Flying Roll lecture XXVII.
2. From Theologia Germanica, Meister Ekhart.

The Enterer of the Threshold: View book on author’s website at Lulu.

See also: Hermetic Astrology (2024 Revised Edition) on this website. Also:
Hermetic Qabalah Foundation—Complete CourseOliver St. John YouTube Channel

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