46. The Third Degree of Initiation

©2001 Athene Bitting All Rights Reserved

XLVI

The Third Degree of Initiation:

From Apprentice to Intern,

or, Sainthood

Lecture based Questions:

1. What is required of a Third Degree Initiate?

A certain amount of personal power must be accumulated. Let’s continue our metaphor of personal power points as being like money in a savings account. A 1DI needs $1,000 in personal power; a 2DI needs $250,000; a 3DI needs $1,500,000.

In addition to the amount of personal power needed for the 3DI, there are three minor initiations to be achieved between the 2DI and the 3DI.

1) Assimilation of the Kundalini— The acolyte learns how to maintain her/his chakras so that they are clean, balanced, and well nourished. The consistent practice of this chakra maintenance results in the rising of the Kundalini. As the acolyte serves and gains skill in healing, charity work, and public service, the Kundalini becomes strong, resilient, healthy, and powerful.

2) Acts of Sacrifice— Working to pay off the remainder of karmic debt, the acolyte chooses incarnations of hardship and poor health while still performing lives of service. This deepens the character, hones the ability to feel Perfect Empathy, and increases awareness.

3) Mission— Like a final exam, the acolyte is given a work (in the public eye or only known to its beneficiaries) that improves the lives of others. During this lifetime, the candidate successfully releases attachment to physical gratification, emotional gratification, and mental gratification.

2. Which episodes of Jesus’ life represent this initiation?

Like a road map, the life of Jesus shows us which steps we need to take for our spiritual maturity. The following three events symbolize the three minor initiations preceding the 3DI.

1) The Transfiguration— Assimilation of the Kundalini

2) The Last Supper— Acts of Sacrifice

3) Foot Washing— Mission

3. How do the sub-rays aid during this series of incarnations?

By this time, you have experienced all of the other Rays as Sub-Rays during many different lifetimes and occasions. You have attained the ability to invoke the appropriate Sub-Ray to aid you with the needed energy or talent to make your mission a success.

4. What are the keys of accomplishment that must be gathered for the Third Degree of Initiation to take place?

•A continual maintenance of spiritual awareness.

•Kundalini is free flowing and harmonious with the body.

•Clairvoyance is fully developed and uninterrupted.

•Detachment from the physical experience.

5. How can we recognize a Third Degree Initiate?

•Being in her/his physical presence lends you a sense of inspiration, expansion, and delight.

•If the 3DI lives through the initiation, she/he is usually perceived as very eccentric or really koo koo by friends and family. This is because the personality undergoes a radical change (more closely resembling the idealistic self) due to the death and reorganization of the Astral Body.

•The halo, or, nimbus of a 3DI is what earns these cool people the title of The Crowned Ones.

•A 3DI has no private life, as the purpose of living is to accomplish the assigned Mission. This is different from being co-dependent, as there is a sense of health in the life and no patience for distractions from the mission.

6. Meditation Exercise: The Crowned Ones

Always at the ready, this host of beloved helpers is present to befriend, comfort, and advise any of us at any time. Each is an intimate friend to us and can give inestimable aid when asked. Even desperate and insincere feelings can access these initiates, who have recent experience with our emotional boxes and physical challenges. Anyone who needs a boost of faith may ask to be connected with an Elder Brother or Sister for guidance.

•As you sit quietly, envision a sealed envelope on your lap.

•Ask Infinite Wisdom that the envelope may hold correspondence from a 3DI to help you through the challenges that you are currently facing.

•Open the envelope, smell its perfume, note its color and any symbols that may be on it.

•Take the letter out of the envelope and read the message.

•Take note of who has signed it.

7. Draw or describe one of your helpers.

Hey, here's an idea. Do you have a favorite saint? Take a moment and dialogue with him or her and write down what comes up.

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In Quest of Maturity

The entire point of view shifts at the Second Degree of Initiation One cares responsibly for the body’s happiness and welfare with gentleness and fastidiousness. The laws of universal energy are understood so that all needs are fulfilled without drama or straining. The acolyte may thus be relatively free from care to explore the meaning of service and its millions of expressions. There comes the moment when one realizes that the concept of Personal Life has become meaningless. This is not to be confused with the neurosis of co-dependent or enabler in a dysfunctional relationship. At this point, those experiences have already been explored and understood. There is no sense of deprivation or sacrifice. Every necessity is already being met at many levels and from many sources. Thus begins the path of usefulness.

There are three segments to the development of the Third Degree of Initiation. With the completion of each division comes a minor initiation that is equal in intensity and transformation to the last major initiation. Within each section are twelve subdivisions or enlightenments. Truly glorious is the epic that leads to the Third Degree of Initiation. We shall explore this path in the order of conquest.

1. The Assimilation of the Kundalini

Through several lifetimes, the acolyte continues a persistent quest for complete consciousness. In the process, he or she learns how to care for chakras. They become balanced and regularly cleansed. This eventually brings up the red and gold stream of life from the Base Chakra, along the spine through all the major chakras, and through the Crown Chakra. The Kundalini gains serene strength as a series of lifetimes leads the acolyte through the following adventures. At their completion comes Transfiguration, the first of the three segments.

•Healing Service This portion of the path is an exploration of self and of others.

The acolyte acquires the skill levels—

*student

*practitioner

*master healer

•Philanthropic Service The opportunities to help others are endless.

The acolyte explores the approaches that bring maximum benefit to both the receiver and the community.

The nuances that she or he learns involve—

*attitude that creates good energy

*motivation beyond self-image into empathy

*effectiveness and prioritizing.

•Public Service

During this series we learn the skills—

*interacting effectively with political people and agencies

*mastering the dynamics of governmental systems

*developing immunity to seductions (influence, notoriety, wealth, luxury, ego-stroking among others).

2. The Acts of Sacrifice

In a bold campaign to pay off large portions of personal karma within a few lifetimes, the acolyte chooses to incarnate in bodies that will resist service and selfless behavior. Through this murkiness, the acolyte takes on service careers that go against the nature of the body and the environment. Through illness, abuse, war, disaster, hardship, and persecution, the acolyte persists in serving the ecology, humanity, and the hidden needs of the world. In the process, the acolyte receives the following distinctions—

Single minded purpose like a laser beam

Perseverance that cannot be discouraged

Patience through any hardship

Active faith

The habit of continual prayer, blessing, affirmation, and meditation.

Discipline of mind and body that is natural and wholesome

Continuous dialogue with the Guardian Angel and Helpers

The habit of action to carry out Divine Suggestion

Releasing unnecessary activity (refinement in doing)

Continual perception of people’s astral bodies

Transformational presence that refreshes others

Maintenance of The Golden Flower (ridge & Crown Chakra)

3. The Mission

These skills accomplished, the acolyte is assigned a particular lifetime of public service that is designed to inspire faith, hope, and good behavior in others. This incarnation may or may not attract notoriety. During this work, the candidate must undergo twelve personality renunciations in order to move ahead. The Renunciations are a training phase peculiar to the Third Degree of Initiation and are not required afterward. They can be epitomized as the relinquishment of identity and physical bonds. They are necessary for the acquittal of the Astral Body and absolution from physical attachment. This done, the acolyte may option to not incarnate after this lifetime.

•Physical Gratification The candidate releases the appetites that often rule instinctual behavior—

*Oral gratification

*Sexual gratification

*Sensory stimulation

*Survival instinct

•Emotional Gratification The candidate releases the needs that set the parameters of personal identity—

*Personal style

*Preferred companions

*Need to feel love/approval

*Need to feel happy

•Mental Gratification The candidate releases the thinking modes that prevent reception of Light—

*Being entertained

*Desire to be inspired/stimulated

*Being occupied/busy

*Self-image based in knowledge and experience

At the close of this process, the candidate has become an empty vessel, filled with Light. The Soul has become ripe for the Third Degree of Initiation. Let us imagine you at this peak of consciousness.

Your soul body assimilates the waiting thought form that will trigger a dramatic transformation. The Soul really has the appearance of adulthood for the first time.

Your mental body loses its lower frequencies and becomes attuned to a consistent frequency of great brightness and high structure. The colors are always transcendently beautiful from now on. The traps of illusion on the lower mental planes no longer can hold you. The Mental Body now bears a crown-like aura signifying Transfiguration. This consists of The Golden Flower, the benediction of the Christ Office, and a widened Crown Chakra.

Your Astral Body as you have known it no longer exists. While you are still in incarnation, you have a new Astral Body that is free from affectation and neurosis. This is a difficult adjustment and takes at least several months for the initiate to reenter worldly routine in this changed form. After the adjustment is made, you have an underlying current of joyousness that people may mistake for insanity. Your new astral body will eventually harmonize with your environment and the tasks at hand.

Your physical body undergoes a drastic change. Frequently, dire illness accompanies the initiation, as the last vestiges of personal karma are transformed. Afterward, your body requires some time of adjustment to the world as it gets used to heightened awareness and sensitivity. The initiate’s physical body may or may not survive the final initiatory experience. If you do, you may appear to the people around you to have slowed reactions, some nerve trauma, and temporary disability. After a period of acclimation, the body returns to strength and good health.

All the Third Degree Initiates and Angelic Hosts celebrate this initiatory event. It is a real cause for rejoicing that another useful person is joining the ranks of Elder Brothers and Sisters. The Christ Presence and everyone who was involved in your training and blessing are with you at the Astral and Mental levels as the Initiatory Angels induce the transformation.

The Crown of Transfiguration follows a saint like the sun at day and the stars at night. No longer needing rest or respite, the Third Degree Initiate finds nourishment in serving one’s vocation in the same manner as the angels. The initiate may choose to leave the path of karma at this time and experience consciousness as a junior angel. Whichever path the initiate chooses, cooperative service in the Network of Light is the way from now on, and it is full of good things and unbroken communion with Light. If the initiate chooses to incarnate again and serve as a grounding point of Light in the physical realm, she or he will receive certain assignments that help to raise the general consciousness of all humanity.

The Golden Flower—

They thought it was a prize

But they found it was a road,

Paved with jewels and hedged with music.