How the Solar
Cycle Brings
Us Initiations,
Great and Small
Carlos Cardoso
Aveline
Time is circular.
Everything occurring in time is cyclic. Each ending brings about a new
beginning, and the way we finish one year of our lives helps define the
contents of the next year, as far as we are concerned.
One brief moment results from immeasurably long
processes, and is the seed of other cycles. According to esoteric philosophy,
each year that passes by is also a summary of our whole life. The end of each
cycle is the right time to evaluate our victories and difficulties, to take stock
- and renew our decision to live in wise ways.
The four seasons of the year correspond to the four
great phases of a life-time. Childhood relates to the second part of the winter,
which paves the way to the springtime of youth. In this phase everything seems
to help our personal development: we are protected and educated, and the
energies of nature help us get stronger.
During spring and summer, which correspond to the
period from youth to middle-age, the great challenges and main achievements
occur. Then comes autumn, the first part of old age, when life invites us to
concentrate on that which is most important, and to compensate the failing
strength with the wisdom we accumulated.
The cycle concludes with the first half of winter, the
final part of old age. This is the time of the great renunciation, of that
crossing that leads us back to the universal totality, from which we once came to
the world, and from which we may again emerge in the future to start another
form of existence, with no direct remembrance of the previous cycle.
It is the annual cycle of solar energy’s distribution
on Earth that allows us to distinguish the four different seasons.
The Sun constitutes the great source of material and
spiritual life in our planet. The future of each vital force directly depends
on its relation with It. The Sun is much more than a physical star: it is the
solar Logos, the spiritual source of everything that takes place in each one of
its planets. The cycle of the solar light on our planet gives us a map of every
soul’s journey to wisdom and liberation, signaling its periods of expansion and
retraction, growth and decline, death and resurrection.
The Annual Journey of the Sun
The word solstice,
of Latin origin, means “motionless Sun”.
In the highest point of summer, the solstice is the
moment when the light of the Sun stops increasing and gets ready to start
losing intensity, thus paving the way to autumn.
In the peak of winter, the solstice marks the moment
when the light of the Sun stops decreasing and starts once more gaining
strength, preparing springtime.
In winter solstice we have the longest night of the
year, and from this moment the sunlight will slowly recover its strength. Hence
the idea of birth, and rebirth. In the Northern hemisphere, this astronomical
event corresponds to Christmas, since the Christians adopted as theirs the
ancient Solar celebrations of pagan tradition.
In the Southern hemisphere, the winter solstice
corresponds to the June Festivities. In this celebration, the nocturnal fire is
a symbol of the Sun defeating darkness. The image corresponds to the first
great initiation. A spiritual birth takes place after a long probationary
period during which the truth-seeker was severely tested by life. Spiritual
intuition, the light of Buddhi, the inner Christ, awakens. In the New
Testament, Jesus refers to the first initiation as he teaches:
“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like
little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew, 18:
3-4)
The image is clear: the Initiate of the first degree
is as pure as a child. The center and focus of his soul has been born already to
the realm of immortal consciousness. His perception of life is initially like
that of a defenseless child. His survival is precarious. He is threatened by
Herod, an expression of collective selfishness. In spite of the danger, he is
already born and has been placed in the very center of material life, shedding
light on all things around him.
The second great moment of the soul’s evolutionary
journey is astronomically symbolized by the spring equinox, when day and night
have equal strength and dimensions, during the growing phase of the light. The
word “equinox” is also of Latin origin and means “equal night”.
The third level opens with the summer solstice. It corresponds
in the Southern hemisphere to Christmas and in the Northern hemisphere to the
month of June.
Here the duration of the day reaches its highest point
and inaugurates its cyclic journey towards a new autumn. The last great event in
the round is the autumn equinox, when night reaches the same size as the day
and the light approaches winter, a symbol of death. Each winter leads to
another rebirth.
The knowledge regarding the journey of the spiritual
soul through four great initiations, until it attains relative perfection, is
as old as esoteric philosophy and much older than Christianity.
The Great Initiations
Many centuries before the Christian era, Eastern
Philosophy had already Sanskrit names for the higher phases of spiritual path.
A fifth level, the “resurrection of Christ”, is the
awakening in the divine realm of the great adept, the mahatma, rishi or sage.
Such an Initiate had his human consciousness “crucified” and is now free from
the wheel of obligatory rebirth. He has taken the fifth great initiation.
Let us see what the esoteric tradition teaches about the
topic.
The first great initiation, srotapatti, is signaled by the complete absence of selfishness in the
human heart.
Humbleness, symbolized in Christian parlance by the
poor manger, refers to the absence of pride or egocentrism. The presence of
various animals around the holy child means the essential communion with all
beings. The stars in the sky tell us that such a unity includes the whole
universe.
The powerful energies trying to frustrate the Birth
are symbols of the tests and probations which the soul will have to confront
and win. They mean that a great initiation is a moment of fragility, when human
soul is highly vulnerable from the point of view of the external world.
The second initiation, sakridagamin, corresponds to the emergence of a strong intellect at
the service of the heart. It is the equinox of springtime, which establishes
the growing dominance of light. In the life of Christ, it corresponds to the
moment when the boy Jesus debates with the teachers in the temple (Luke, 2:
46-49). It brings about the awakening of the higher mind, Buddhi-Manas, the
agile and eclectic intelligence that works beyond appearances and sees with
clarity the same essential wisdom in all true religions, sciences and
philosophies.
For an initiate of the second degree, positive thought
and solidary action emerge naturally from the fact that he effortlessly perceives
the total dominance of the Law of Equilibrium over outer reality, whose
numerous traps can only deceive naïve and “crafty” minds.
If the first initiation makes the individual look at
all life from the point of view of goodness, the second one places a powerful
intelligence at the service of impersonal, altruistic love. It is the energy of
springtime enlightening the world.
The third initiation is called anagamin and corresponds,
as we have seen, to the summer solstice. The sunlight has now reached its highest
point, having to prepare itself for the great Renunciation. In the life of
Jesus, this is the Transfiguration (Matthew, 17). On the peak of a high mountain,
Jesus’ face “shines like the sun”. Soon after that, he sees all the suffering that
the future holds for him, his own death and resurrection (Matthew 17:
22-23).
By taking the anagamin
initiation, the soul of the pilgrim makes the firm decision to go to the end in
the painful sacrifice of his human condition. He is aware that the process will
culminate in the crucifixion of his personality, or annihilation of his lower
self, so that he can be born again on the divine realm.
The fourth initiation, that of arhat, corresponds to the autumn equinox and, in the life
of Jesus, to the crucifixion. It means the arrival of death, or winter, which
will pave the way to the rebirth or resurrection beyond the limits of one’s
known universe. Here the soul undergoes its final death for the experiences of
human realm. The fifth initiation, aseka,
corresponds to resurrection. The adept, the mahatma, the rishi, the Immortal - symbolised
by Jesus in the New Testament - reemerges in a realm that is higher than the
human and is free from suffering as we know it, and yet he still guides our
souls along the path to goodness.
There are at least two
practical conclusions to be drawn from the magical journey of the advanced
souls.
The first point is that everyone can pursue divine
goals from this very moment, however distant they may be. This choice will have
immediate positive effects on the life of the truth-seeker. In the present phase
of human evolution, citizens who see the universal wisdom present in different
religions and philosophies can actively prepare themselves for the first great
initiation. However, it will be wise not to be in a hurry. Spiritual ignorance
only dissipates little by little, and the preliminary process takes a few
lifetimes.
Human soul does not interrupt
its spiritual learning at the end of one incarnation. It is born again and
again in order to obtain more experience and make progress towards light, until
it reaches proficiency - the “adepthood” - and complete the evolutionary cycle
of human realm. At each new incarnation, spiritual learning restarts from the
exact point where it stopped in the previous incarnation, although external
circumstances may be completely different. Later on there will be another lifetime,
and other, until the various initiations. At long last the freedom from human ignorance
and suffering is attained.
In the holistic view taught by
esoteric philosophy, life on the planet Earth constitutes one great
evolutionary wave which is part of the wider life of the Cosmos. In our
planetary garden, the lives of plants are on their way to the animal kingdom. The
souls of animals make progress towards human kingdom, just as human souls tread
the path to the divine world. The light of eternal wisdom circulates throughout
the universe, constantly recycling spirit and matter.
Preparation for the first
great initiation, srotapatti, means making
it possible for the Inner Christmas to occur, that is, the birth of Christ in
the learner’s mind and heart. If the pilgrim can’t find the Master within
himself, it is useless to look for guidance elsewhere. This is the way to
purification. It is up to the student to develop the necessary humbleness in
order to serenely observe the motions of selfishness within himself, in the
first place, and then leave aside step by step the jungle of personal thoughts
and interests, placing himself at the service of truth and justice in the
different dimensions of life. Thus he learns to be in unity with the greater Life,
and not with the narrow flow of animal impulses, search of safety and attempted
escapes from pain.
The second practical point is that the story of the New Testament symbolizes
the lives of all human beings who seek for wisdom. It is possible to live today
- up to a certain point - small yet inspiring counterparts of the five great
initiations. The eternal mysteries are always side by side with us. They remain
perfectly available in case we awaken from ignorance. They inspire us any time
as much as this is possible.
Perhaps now might be the right moment.
At the end of each year
or phase in our lives, be it long or short, nothing forbids us from taking
stock and evaluating our ability to be born again every day, getting free from blind
attachment to the past and from mechanisms of rancour, hatred, ambition and
other negative feelings.
It is possible to anticipate
something of the second initiation and periodically observe our degree of
courage to search for truth, to look at the facts beyond our opinions and pet
ideas, to study new things and open higher paths in our intellectual life. It
is wise to choose the wisdom of the heart instead of the fake cleverness of
selfish minds. In those aspects of life that show us already the substance of
autumn and winter, we can make the firm decision of giving up everything that
is not really ours. The discerning pilgrim cooperates with life even when it
does not offer him pleasant things any longer. He chooses the path of
detachment. Thus the student can
anticipate in a small scale something of the third initiation.
We can also evaluate the
several “crucifixions” we have already seen or undergone in the present
lifetime. How many desperations and defeats? How many lessons learned? What is
our attitude whenever we experience a crucifixion, treason and injustice?
Do we stay in the territory of
truth, ethics and altruistic love? And how many times, after the tempest and
the cross, the bonanza of resurrection came to us? How many times a new phase
of life has emerged for us, an unexpected springtime of promises and
potentialities, after we underwent pain with no hatred and no despair? The resurrection
is another Christmas, taking place on a higher level. Every Christmas secretly
includes in itself the promise of complete resurrection, to be attained by our
soul at the end of a learning process of various incarnations.
Christmas celebrations happen
a few days before the New Year. This proximity means that the birth of a wiser consciousness opens the
doors of time to a new practical
beginning in life. Thus, the best Nativity Scene is situated in our own hearts
and minds: these are the places where the miracle of rebirth and initiation can
occur every day.
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Regarding the great
initiations, see “The Voice of the
Silence” and other classical books of Theosophy. Also useful are the
“Dictionary of All Scriptures & Myths”, by G. A. Gaskell, Gramercy Books, New
York, USA, 846 pp.; and the “Dicionário de Símbolos”, Jean Chevalier e Alain
Gheerbrant, José Olympio Editora, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, eighth edition, 996 pages.
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