According to St. Germain, the symbolic writings of the secret of initiation rites are based on his own experience, which manifested through the accomplishment of the Magnum Opus, the final stage of the alchemical process known as the Philosopher's Stone. The Philosopher's Stone is an ancient symbol of the perfected man whose divine nature shines forth through a chain of purified and unfolded supreme vehicles. As the rough diamond is dull and lifeless when it is first extracted from the black carbon, so the spiritual nature of man in its fallen state reveals little, if any, of its inherent luminosity. Just as in the hands of the lapidary expert the rock will transform into a radiant gem, so upon the lathe of the Divine Lapidary the soul of man is ground and polished until it reflects the glory of its Creator from every atom.
The standard path of the mythological adventure of the hero is the magnification of the formula represented in the Rites of Passage: separation, initiation, and return (transformation). The hero ventures forth from the world of customary existence into a zone of phenomenal world. Legendary invincible forces are encountered and absolute victory is attained. No matter what the drama is like-an unfathomable reformation rite, or a transition of holy passage-the hero brings to fruition the cycle of death and the rebirth.
At death, the material body of man is returned to the elements from which it came, and the invisible divine man ascends to the source from whence he came, namely the Eight Spheres. The evil passes to the dwelling place of the demon, and the senses, feelings, desires, and bodily passions return to their source, namely the Seven Governors, whose natures in the lower man destroy, but in the invisible spiritual man, give life. Then, being naked of all the accumulations of the Seven Rings, the soul comes to the Eight Spheres, namely, the ring of the fixed stars. Here, freed of all illusion, it dwells in the Light and sings praises to the Creator in a voice, which only the pure of spirit may understand.
One must be impervious to all the levels of tests or die, having one preliminary victory before the enormous tasks. St. Germain, as a conqueror, attained in his Divine vision the three levels of consciousness. The first was the knowledge of the existence of the past; the second, the Divine eye of prophetic vision for the future existence, and finally, third was the understanding of the chain of causation. Thus, the final drama of the majestic work was absolute. He experienced the perfect enlightenment. The Path to immortality is hard, and only a few find it. The rest await the Great Day when the wheels of the universe shall be stopped and the immortal sparks shall escape from the sheaths of substance.
The Creator revealed that the light of the mystery saves those who see that light. St. Germain was ordered by the Creator to go forth, to establish among men that they shall return again to the Creator who dwelleth in the White Light, and shall deliver themselves up to the Light and shall be absorbed into the Light, and in the Light they shall become Powers in God. This will help us to understand not only the meaning of those images for synchronous existence but also the human spirit, in its aspirations and wisdom.
St. Paul explains the "inner experience" by which we come to know wisdom. He says, "We speak of wisdom among the perfect, not the wisdom of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, but divine wisdom in a mystery, secret, which none of the Archons of this world know." An initiation is an expansion of consciousness toward recognition of universal realities. The adepts, those who had received the keys, activated the wisdom that had been locked within the parable to construct their inherent, divine potential.