The nature of esoteric initiation is often misconstrued by students, and even often by those who would pretend to grant it, either through rituals, by oral transmission, or in so-called astral or psychic initiations. It is sufficient to say initiation is the beginning of a new aspect of our interior development. One may have interior experiences without initiation, of course; however, initiation sets them apart by making them progressive in their function, intensity, and purpose. The role of initiation is to assist us in having and understanding our inner development. This, however, can be a bit of a stumbling block. Many schools, orders, and societies offer initiations into their various degrees, complete with beautiful rituals, titles, and whatnot. However, students of alchemy will most likely have realized by the time they begin their alchemical studies that these exterior initiations are but ritualized shadows, imitations and promises of things to come. True and lasting initiation is only had from within.
The words of eighteenth-century French mystic and philosopher Louis Claude de St. Martin are in perfect harmony with the alchemical vision of initiation:
The only initiation which I preach and seek with all the ardour of my soul is that by which we may enter into the heart of God and make God's heart enter into us, there to form an indissoluble marriage, which will make us the friend, brother, and spouse of our divine Redeemer. There is no other mystery to arrive at this holy initiation than to go more and more down into the depths of our being, and not let go till we can bring forth the living vivifying root, because then all the fruit ... will be produced within us and without us naturally.'
But then we ask: Are the two always separate? Are all external rituals essentially poor imitations of an interior state? By no means is that an absolute. Unfortunately, for a ritual initiation to work-that is, to have its intended effect-the initiator must be higher in psychic vibration than the one receiving the psychic impulse. In our modern society, this is rarely the case.
Since alchemy has no set rituals, no lodges, and no methods of advancement other than the work itself, all initiation is said to be interior in this form of esotericism. We initiate ourselves into the work, and the work initiates us into higher (and deeper) levels of consciousness. To those who would object to this statement, ponder just this one question: Are we not always our own initiator? That is, are we not solely responsible for our starting, progressing, and finishing the path? Is it not our own Higher Selves that prompt us onward? It is from this Higher Self that in meditation, dreams, and sudden flashes of lucidity we are initiated-initiated, that is, back into the presence of our True Selves, the center and origin of our Being.
In this light, an initiation may come completely devoid of ritual or ceremony. It may be a sudden event that changes us completely. It may even be a veritable incarnation of a Qabalistic or alchemical pathworking, unfolding in daily life. In the end, however, as the word implies, initiation is only the beginning of the new stage of development, and that phase is only completed when we have been initiated into the next phase at the hand of our Interior Master, our very soul. It does us little good to go around collecting ritual initiations at the hands of would-be or even authentic masters, as these are not things that one can hang on the wall like a diploma. It is best if we focus our energies on a singular path and complete it instead of running around looking for shortcuts and getting nowhere.
As egos seeking spiritual realities, we can only prepare ourselves for initiation, present ourselves at the door of the interior temple, and knock. It is said, "Knock and it shall be opened to you; ask and it shall be given." We may knock, ask, and wait in patience and silence, but never demand. True interior initiation comes but once, for that is all that is needed, creating within us a permanent change in consciousness-a permanent change that is at once expansive, unitarian, comprehensive, and evolutionary in nature. It is an everexpanding upward spiral of what Israel Regardie called Light, Life, Love, Law, and Liberty.
How many initiations we experience is dependent upon our chosen path, be it alchemical, Qabalistic, Wiccan, or Neopagan. But even here, the idea of division is more of a function of our exterior consciousness than our interior awareness. We consume both spiritual food and material food in small doses so that we do not choke or get indigestion, yet at the end of the meal, all of the needed food for our growth and survival is consumed. Initiation is the same, in that it is a small chunking of a larger piece of life consciousness. We receive in interior initiation exactly what we need for our growth-no more, no less. How many of these small spoonfuls of life we swallow depends on our chosen interior path and the degree of progress we make on it. Thus, once again, the obligation and responsibility is ours.
In summary, it might be said that we can be expected to experience an initiation for each plane of awareness, and one for each of its subplanes. How this works out mathematically is up for debate. One school of thought suggests that there are twelve planes: seven major and five minor, with each having its own subdivision of five planes, for a total of sixty levels of Being progressively available to us. However, each time we experience an initiation, there is in reality only One Being that is experienced, and our awareness of that One is expanded. To be overly concerned with levels of initiation before it is revealed is to feed the ego and not the soul.
Some Hermetic schools that use the Tree of Life suggest that just as the sphere of Malkuth (physical life) is composed of the four elements synthesized by Quintessentia, or Spirit, each of the remaining nine spheres also has four subplanes, with a single unifying plane at the end. Thus, each sphere of the Tree of Life can be said to have its own earth, water, air, fire, and Spirit aspects. This is why it is possible to create a specialized plant or mineral product designed to affect the fire, air, water, or earth energy of the planets or psychic centers they are associated with. Through a fire product, such as the Ens, we affect consciousness directly. An air product, such as an Elixir that is "exhaled," affects the mind as well as organizing ability and energy patterns. A water product, such as a spagyric tincture, affects the astral energies, while an earth product affects the etheric and material bodies directly. Mineral products are powerful healers because of their earth nature, as are spagyric products made primarily of plant roots. However, since these elements are also organized in a hierarchy of subtle to dense, as well as organically, impacting fire has a ripple effect across the remaining elements. Impacting water affects earth and, if strong enough, may have an effect on air. While we seek to compartmentalize ideas for the sake of understanding and technical application, Nature is not so neat and discrete. This subtle relationship cannot be memorized, only understood through direct experience-the kind of experience that alchemy can offer.
The nature of spagyric tinctures, and in particular the Ens, is to clear out the blocks in our psychic makeup and anatomy, similar to what is called nadis in yoga or the meridians in acupuncture. This subtle anatomy allows for the exchange of information between the dense physical world of matter, the endpoint of creation, and the subtler psychic world, of which it is an extension. In creation, there are no breaks, gaps, or holes; such exist only in our knowledge or realization of Nature. By effecting change on this subtle in-between level, we can increase the flow and quality of energy from these slightly finer worlds "above" to our physical world "below." With each corresponding increase in intensity, an initiation can be said to have taken place if, of course, the energy becomes permanently available to us and the increase is not just a temporary jump to a higher level. These psychic nerve channels exist in the planet as well as in humanity, in the form of ley lines.
As stated in chapter 1, alchemists call the natural power of creation the Secret Fire.' It is the force that continually changes all of creation, moving it forward to more and more refined levels. When we create and ingest spagyric or alchemical products, we are assisting Nature in the quickening of our personal evolutionary process.
The Secret Fire works on the etheric levels. All substances and all elements have their bases in this prematter we call the etheric, and as such, they can be approached from the level of the invisible if you know how to adjust and direct the Secret Fire. This "fire" gives us power and control over what is often called inanimate nature. In truth, nothing is really inanimate, as life exists in all matter to some degree. In a rock's consciousness, life is in a deep trance; in the vegetable realm, it sleeps; in the animal realm, it stirs; and it becomes self-aware degree by degree in humanity.
Like our basic tincture previously described, an Ens tincture can be made for each of the seven planetary rulers for each day of the week. It is through the herb influenced by a particular planet that we seek initiation into the Qabalistic sphere or world ruled by that planet. However, unlike a Plant Stone, the Ens has a lesser initiatic power, although it is still quite surprising. In the Plant Stone, the four aspects or elements of earth, air, water, and fire are in balance. In the Ens, the fire element is predominant, for reasons we shall see. The advantage lies in the simplicity of its creation, allowing anyone, regardless of experience level, to create an Ens tincture.
From another perspective, the Ens may be seen as comparable to Elixirs in which the tincture has been "exalted" through repeated processing and in which the tincture's calcined salts have been added to the procedure. However, Elixirs almost always contain several species of plants as well.