16. Illumination and Masterhood

©1999 Athene Bitting

XVI

Illumination and Masterhood

Lecture based Questions:

1. Describe the twelve levels of Mastery.

Each level corresponds to an event in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, our Lord Christ. His life intentionally was designed as a road map so that we could follow the steps after Him.

There are five major Initiations, and the lesser initiations are considered to be important events required for the next Initiation. They are usually called minor initiations.

✺ Annunciation corresponds to the time of awakenment. Here the young spirit realizes that there is something of value beyond the clan and the gratifications of the world. It takes perhaps a hundred lifetimes to get to this point of awakenment and maturity.

✺ Birth/Emergence from darkness — the womb of the tribal consciousness no longer fits comfortably with us and we begin seeking for meaning in life. This is similar in content to Plato’s allegory of the cave, where a single person wanders outside into the sunlight and tries to tell his friends (happily living through shadow puppet dramas) that there are wonderful things outside. This can be distressing to the Initiate as one feels cut adrift and left out of many group relationships.

✺ Baptism — the young Initiate sets off to find a new spiritual family that will harmonize with his/her new awareness. She/he dedicates himself to a higher power.

✺ Temptation corresponds to the education required for the second degree of initiation. The path of hedonism is explored. The disciple realizes that pleasure is not the meaning of life. Desire and fear no longer rule one’s choices.

✺ Transfiguration/Kundalini corresponds to the virtues and passions required for the third degree of initiation. Although it usually takes many lifetimes, one eventually integrates the subconscious and conscious mind. The care and maintenance of the chakras becomes a daily skill. The red and gold stream of life gradually rises from the Base Chakra, up the spine through all the major chakras, and passes through the Crown Chakra. The Kundalini becomes serene and strong after lifetimes of living normal and extraordinary lives. Transfiguration is the first of three minor initiations.

✺ The Last Supper — because it is necessary to pay off all personal karma before the 3DI, one chooses to incarnate in circumstances of hardship. Bodies will be weak or possibly deformed. One’s careers are difficult and inferior-function oriented. Through danger, illness, pain, disaster, and other difficulties, the candidate for 3DI gains many virtues and pays off the balance of negative energy.

✺ The Foot Washing — One becomes relatively free (from karmic obligations) to explore the meaning of service and its millions of expressions. Life is service and service gives life. The honor and power that come from being dedicated to a mission become driving forces.

✺ Gethsemane represents the beginning of the 4DI (Fourth Degree of Initiation) initiatory process. Friends, loved ones, and worldly systems no longer are allies; they threaten the initiate’s life. This is because the candidate is truly out of the common mold. Ethical disciplines are a big challenge to keep at this juncture.

✺ Stigmata — usually doesn’t last an entire lifetime, but the incarnation ends while the body still displays the marks. True stigmata give off the scent of roses. The initiate is reclusive and needs almost no food. One has the virtue that physically heals anyone in near proximity. The Stigmata is an ancient manifestation that occurred far long before the incarnation of Jesus.

✺ Crucifixion — symbolizes the final step necessary to achieve 4DI. One sacrifices his/her own life to save the lives of others and to inspire a change of social consciousness.

✺ Resurrection — is the 5DI skill needed to pass this threshold of spiritual power. Literally and figuratively, the candidate learns to master the powers of life and death in the physical dimension. There is no more temptation to be stupid or selfish. There have been so many incarnations and lessons learned already that the truth is clear and the correct way is always apparent.

✺ Ascension — embodies the last requirement for the 6DI. This is the knowledge and skill to transform the dimensional vibration of any atom. Actual ascension translates the atoms of the physical body and changes them to rising frequencies of higher dimensions until what was the body now resides in the sixth dimension. This act connects the new Lord to the soul body of every member of humanity.

2. Why do we need to experience initiations or illuminations?

Although the general process of spiritual development is gradual, there appear once in a while certain landmarks of attainment and maturity.

Initiations mark the death of an old path (1DI & 2DI—First & Second Degrees of Initiation) or the end of a higher body life cycle (3DI, 4DI, 5DI, 6DI). These can only be earned by accumulating personal power points. These are gained through suffering, empathy, wisdom, and experience.

What are the elements of illumination?

Illuminations come when your focus moves outward and crusty attachments are removed. Sometimes, they are no more than gifts without the merit of intentional discipline. They change life, view, and thought.

3. Is a Third Degree Initiate better than a First Degree Initiate?

No. Every life is equal in value to the universe. However, the 3DI knows more than the 1DI, and is a more useful tool to the Network of Light.

Who will achieve Mastery (5DI—Fifth Degree of Initiation) sooner?

It’s a crapshoot! Some of us leap ahead of others; some of us drag along for eons. It all depends on the accumulation of Personal Power Points.

4. What are the services and global functions of the Initiations?

1st] Awakenment—The person becomes an individual thinker and spiritual seeker.

2nd] Transcendence—The territorial mind and the instincts take a back seat to the logical and universal view.

3rd] Chalice—The physical incarnations become opportunities to serve the Network of Light, with the purpose of raising the quality of life for others.

4th] Alchemy—All the disciplines, arts, and sciences are learned. A few students are accepted.

5th] Mastery—All temptations lose their power, because the nature of all causes and effects are obvious. The power of physical life and death is mastered. Classes are assigned for teaching, and projects are given for social development of humanity.

6th] Lordhood—Supervises over Masters and other members of the Hierarchy. Understands how matter and energy are transmuted without physical manipulation.

7th] Logos—Learns to create and evolve a heavenly body and all the life forms that inhabit it. Beginning with meteors, the Logos creates and attends one heavenly body through its entire life cycle and moves upward to a more complicated heavenly body.

5. Scrying Exercise: Basic Palm Reading

The lines, raised areas, whorls, and shapes within a hand have meaning based on their geographic placement. Anyone can do palm reading from a technical approach if they study the system. A clairvoyant or psychic can also gather information through holding the hand of the client; this would not necessarily have anything to do with conventional techniques.

6. Why and how does this work? What would be the most appropriate use of this technique?

I like to use this technique at parties and conventions, where there is a lot of distraction going on. Holding the hand of the client puts me in instant phase with the Astral Body and I can see many important parts of the aura, the issues that the client faces, and the choices that will have to be made.

Chiros, a Russian aristocrat who took the Egyptian name to make himself more mysterious to the British socialites, popularized the “scientific” method of chiromancy. It is still a good idea to read a hand-reading book for original reference.

Begin with the “Bracelets” and, move up to the palms and then the fingers. Health, money, relationships, and career are always popular topics.

7. Draw or describe one of your helpers

To honor all the hundreds of helpers who are always there for you, pick one now that seems most appropriate. Meditate on this one and record any impressions that you may receive.

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To Conquer Others Is to Know Power

To Conquer Self Is to Know The Way*

*Lao Ma in “The Debt”, Xena: Warrior Princess

Story by Robert Tapert and R. J. Stewart

[Thank you, Tapert, Stewart, & Raimi Brothers! I love your stories!]

Identity, desire, will, knowledge, somatic awareness, goals, missions, and disciplines—these are not The Way, but are placements along The Way. Thought is commenced from the earthly alignment of brain to Mind. Attitudes and desires stem from the origins of the material world, although they are maintained and ruled in the astral. Thus are they still perpetuated within the confines of the physical.

Life on this plane of illusion is fraught with temptations of power, territory, authority, praise, and wealth. None can see the Way who focus their minds on the picayune elements of these physical orders.

One of the most prevalent of distractions is to overly analyze the processes of spiritual progress. The issue at hand is not comparison with others or the gaining of knowledge. All knowledge is accessible to those who know the Great Collective. All “Magicks” are available through Divine Intervention. All needs are met through the practice of pure focus on the Divine Moment. All help is ready for the innocent heart.

Our love is not pure or perfect as long as we continue to fall prey to the distractions of illusion. Patience is our greatest strength at this point of development, and patience is made possible with faith and understanding. When we understand who we are in a collective sense, it is easier to dissolve the barriers erected by hormones/emotions/projections/illusions.

These barriers are symbolized by the temptation in Eden, when the archetypal male and female desired with the force of will to gain power without responsibility. The appearance of power attracts a child because (to its limited understanding) it appears to be what bridges the gap between adulthood and childhood. An adult could tell the child that power is the horse that pulls the harness of obligation.

Good choices and bad choices mark our progress along The Way. When an acolyte has been transformed by Truth, a wrong choice is no longer an option for a specific issue. The acolyte will continue to experience the same lesson until the correct perspective and choices have become integrated into consciousness.

Each strength that one of us achieves serves to strengthen the whole of humanity, the planet, and the universe. Echoes of strength reverberate throughout eternity and bless all of us. All of our younger siblings and all of our older brothers and sisters receive redemption and benefit through each step to Mastery that each of us gains.

Those who are wise and strong beyond our understanding also serve in the same capacity. Their successes echo down to us and accelerate our potential.

When we begin to seek a meaning to existence, the consciousness begins its journey of return to the Realm of the Holy of Holies. The path can seem long and arduous from earthly point of view, but from the lofty observance of the Monad, all is taken in like the donning of clothes in preparation for a day’s labor. All that we are now experiencing, all that we are now learning is merely the preparation for our true experiential function, the work of the Monad in the Creative Collective. What the vast scope, energy, and responsibility of this ultimate work may hold, we cannot reveal at this point. However, suffice it to say that the stuff of the universe is manifold and immense. The task of the Monad begins gradually, as we gain wisdom, so does the Monad begin its wonderful work.

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Who could have told us that life begins and ends

On the same step of the stair?

There is no joy that exceeds this one: the coming home.

We pass through our days seeking some answer—we know not what.

We know not even the questions we should be asking.

But to know that some day the eventual meaning

Will sparkle in the hand like the star we were born from

And support us beneath our feet

Like the earth we were dreamed from

And lift us up like Isaiah’s eagles’ wings—

And keep our eyes open and searching.

World is now/not now. Life is flowing in/out. Light is.

There can be no answer

Until we stop trying to make the question.