The step way of spiritual enlightenment
Everywhere in the universe a hidden evolution takes place in the various planes of creation.
Modern man is only a day-fly in comparison with the existence of the universe, but he overseees
how unimportant he actually is.
The majority of mankind goes through a process of the development of the mind which is one of
the main differences to the animal-kingdom which has no mental EGO. But only a very small part
of mankind is enough developed to see the soul and the spirit consciously.
There are two main lines of evolution: The one line has to do with the matter and the form.
Here the soul identifies for a long time with the aspect of the form
and stives to follow the dark path of death.
The second line has to do with the soul, the aspect of consciousness and the thinker in the form.
Enlightenment and mastership have already been reached by many people in the past who often
left back parts of their experiences and knowledge.
Sometimes these techniques have been written down in a special symbolic language.
Often they were only transferred verbally or in a
Twilight Language like in the alchemy and the
Tantras, very often as characters and persons in the scriptures of the world-religions.
For example we find in "Dhammapada 294" sentences like "a brahmin lives first perfect after he has
slain father and mother" - with the inner meaning that he has slain in himself selfishness and thirst
for life - ie. the drives for preservation of the race and self-preservation.
These inner teachings were completely unknown to the outer religions. But there are so many
known techniqes of meditation and circulation and vibration
of energy (and other methods) which will be more understandable through the Universal Path.
All spiritual doctrines have unconsciously this Universal Doctrine as their basis, which was and is the
secret key to the Arcans. It describes the process of individual and cosmic evolution within the
higher worlds. Momentarily only a few spiritual schools
teach these 22 steps of initiation.
To go on the path(A. A. Bailey : Yoga-Sutras of Pantanjali) means conscious developement of the soul and faster development with many turning points. But who knows where to the things should and will go, and who knows the dangers on the path to the goal and whether we will have success or fail in the end because of individal karma or because of divine dharma ?
The cycles of the human development
The Universal Doctrine describes the step way of the human development, which first goes through
three large involutionary stages of the nature evolution:
1. The very primitive nature-man
This lowest step is the unconscious adaption of that kind of man who is mainly an animal without
real intelligence.
Primitive wild people belong into this categorie and many simple farmers who do primitive work
on the fields und have not received a modern education.
The man of this stadium is completely directed by his instincts and not much better at than an animal.
2. The human being begins to develop his feelings and the natural mind.
A big part of mankind stands first at the treshold to the next step.
This next step of unconscious adaption is that kind of man who begins to show a small glimmer of
understanding by his own thoughts. This still happens partly instinctiv und is based on growing
selfishness. A simple and primitive selfcentered consciousness rather than an instinctiv
group-consciousness can be found here.
We find this growing self-feeling (for example) in primitive people in the slums of towns(with
their lack of education and culture) and also in the small criminal man who has enough instincts
to keep himself alive by his small criminal deeds und his manual skilfulness.
This is the stadium of animal-slyness.
3. The mass-man of our modern world with his mind and mental "Ego".
On these steps follows the conscious and completely egoistic adaption of the individual person
to the individual ambience. In these cases man is conscious of his motivations.
He plays it through and tries to get the best out of it, and he tries to live in harmonie with the world.
This is certainly a good motivation but in principle this man is so much governed by his wishes
for pleasure and comfort that he plays the good fellow to be able to exist and to live together
with everybody, ...more....
The man of this stage stands completely under the
control of the dark samsara of the Maya(-ethers).
On the three involutionary steps follow 22 steps to the gate of the "cosmic
initiation".
These 22 steps have four main sections:
Beginner (1-9), trialpath (10-14), path (15-19), steps of divine mastership (20-22).
The representation of the 22 steps was very different in the various spiritual scools.
Various personalities represent parts of the human higher bodies
(Jiva, the individual self; the white horse as a symbol for spiritual love, the
white swan represents the universal atmic light, the red rose is symbol of divine love etc.).
Sometimes such books were encrypted or written backwords or hidden under a vulgar language.
These 22 steps are characterized by periodic cycles of the 7 rays or 4 higher "elements"
or "universal principles" (the four animals at the throne of God), whereby
the higher human bodies develop. Many atheistic seekers speak of a highest power,
but this power is also highest COonsciousness and therefore an universal
over-cosmic DIVINITY with a consciousness that is harly understandable for the masters!
The best known multistep system of spiritual development is the system of
RAJA YOGA (or Ashtanga Yoga)
which divides the process into eight 
double - steps and therefore it knows only 16 steps of the 22 steps
But this system knows several further samadhis (Samadhi-pada : 1. Laya Samadhi; 2. Savikalpa Samadhi;
3. Nirvikalpa Samadhi
; 4. Sahaja Samadhi). Nirvikalpa-Samadhi is already the true final enlightenment
with the Cosmic Consciousness (U.P. 18/19).
EGYPT
The 22 Steps of initiation were well known to the ancient
Egypt priests and later to the initiated priests in Israel.
The Cheops-Pyramid was built as a temple for initiation and is a symbol of the two pathes.
It has been guessed that the 22 Tarotcards come from Egypt
but is has been genetically proved in the meantime that the origin of the gipsy is in India.
KABBALAH
Features of the modern Kabbalah are the kabbalistic tree
with the 10 Sephiroth, the EN-SOPH-AUR, the there overcoming boundless light, and the
En-Soph,
with which an adept cannot unite, and books as the "Sepher
Jezirah", which speaks about "Jah Jahve Sebaoth", the ONE almighty, merciful
and gracious God and creator.
These 22 steps have therefore not been selected arbitrarily, but rather they have their
counterparts in the 22 letters of the old hebrew alphabet as also in the
"Sepher Jezirah" described, which also teaches a part of the mantramistic Quabbalah.
The 22 Tarotcards, the small Arcans, which have references
to these letters, are however already a mapping of the process of the 22 universal steps on
a spiritual system.
Comparable 10 successive steps are the 10 Sephiroth. "The appearance of the 10 Sephiroth is like a flash without end", says
says the Sepher Jezirah. On step of 16 the universal doctrine (see the accompanying
Tarotcard 16), this divine power receives the leadership of the process: God Extasy, like the Ishvara Samadhi
of the Raja - Yoga. In the end the Kabbalist realizes all Sephiroth in himself and becomes
a personification of "Adam Kadmon".
BIBLE
The old testament is a collection of scrolls, which were protected by the priests.
After the Genesis, the Exodus is the best known book of the Bible, and even
Rudolf Steiner wrote in "Christianity as a mystical fact" that here the exodus
of the soul out of the matter is described,
further...
ZEN
In the "ZEN in the art of archery" (only as an example) the bowman
takes aim in kontemplativ mood with the crooked hazelnut arrow and encounters nevertheless.
IT shoots and becomes one with the aim, i.e. in the case of the advanced student.
But the famous Satori
of the japanese ZEN- Buddhism
is not a higher Samadhi, and also the well known 'middle' of the Zen is not is the higher
spiritual self!
TAOISM
Taoism teaches about Wu-wei
("without action").
But Taoism has more
to offer.
MAYA CULTURE
The ruins of the
Maya-Cities in south-america and their pyramids leave an exotic impression.
Even here exist pictures in the pyramids in Palenque as parts of the 22 steps : "The original father creates
two sons who become very strong(on step 12). After this the "original father" must go down to the
underworld (which is the kingdom of the JAGUAR - who remembers to the taoistic TIGER) to pass several
examinations(of step 13). But because of the strength of his two sons he passes all examinations.
After all that he is reborn(step 14 : Rebirth)".
A similar story with actions in the underworld, which are redolent of the Osiris-Mythos, stands in the
Popul Vuh
( Hunahpu ).
But it should not be forgotten that the Shamanism in south-america ( with the four animals and the all -
force etc. ) is a teaching of the magic path. Some of such initiated priests cooperate with astral ghosts.
Shamanism has many practices which rembember to practices of
taoism working with CHI and the forces of nature.
GREECE TRADITION
The deeds of Herakles
and the travel to Troya
(step 13 and 14) are themes of the ancient greece "religion" and philosophy.
Plato teaches in his
allegory of a cave"
(which is in reality the dark Maya-Cave)
that people live like in a big cavern and think that
the shadows are the reality and that they should be pushed to the sun outside the cavern.
Greece is often seen as the cradle of philosophy.
But modern philosophy
with its mentally outsets and speculations is often more a big
maze with unproductive mental discussions, which cannot solve from the limited truths
of the lower planes. The true spiritual truth is a truth of being and of consciousness.
The mysteries were kept secret and handed down to Italy.
Emperor Augustus exiled the roman poet Ovid because he had spoken to open
in his poems about these mysteries : "Amor" has in several poems the role of the
"Amor" of the sixth tarotcard, ie. the lead-arrow (phase of Saturnus)
and after that the transformation into a laurel-crown at the strean in the Hades
in the underworld"(End of step 13, 3 phases; step 14).
Sri Aurobindo has written in his book "Heraklit" about the problems of european mental
thinking.
CHRISTIANITY
Besides the apostle letters, Christianity is based on the four gospels and the Apocalypse
of John, whose 22 visionary chapters correspond exactly to the 22 steps of the Universal
Doctrine. The four gospels begin however first on higher steps,
further...
BUDDHISM
Buddhism was foundedby Buddha Gautama, who was the fourth Buddha of a tradition of 1000 Buddhas
and taught his disciples to use their mind,
further...
ISLAM
Modern Islam appears to be a system of rules based on the Qu´ran and its interpretations.
But even Islam had secret systems of
Initiation.
HINDUISM (Sanatan Dharma)
There are 5 main traditional parts of the path to enlightenment
1. Beginner (worker, Schudra) Tarot 1-9
2. Trialpath (dealer) Tarot 10-14
3. The PATH (Warrior, Kschatriya) Tarot 15,16
4. Priest (Brahmin, true self-realized IMAM of Islam ) Tarot 17
5. Bodhisattwa, Enlightenment, then mastership etc.
In india this very old spiritual system of Shankara has become a solidified social
system of privileges and without inner substance.
(...more...)
ROSICRUCIANS
The rosicrucian
movement of the middle ages was known to be haunted
by the church and the governments just like the french Katharer-movement.
The "Ich bin" - Meditation of the german Rosicrucians of the middle-ages is widely known.
Their book "Fama Fraternitatis", which is a secret symbolic description of the steps 1
to 18: On step 6 C.R. meets his teacher "P.A.L.". On step 10 C.R.C awakens and begins
to "spin the wheel" until he reaches the first initiation. The Fama ends with the vision
of the FATHER C.R.C., the Paramatma, - the enlightenment.
Other books of Valentin Andrea are the seven days or initiations of "The Chymical Wedding"
and the "Confessio Fraternitatis".
R. Steiner classified these books as the western path of initiation.
WHITE Brothership
The 7 Initiations of White Brothership of A. A. Bailey (A.A. Bailey : INITIATION HUMAN AND SOLAR)
first begin on step 14 of the 22 steps. These seven initiations were well known to the ancient
rosicrucian movement.
NORTH EUROPEAN MYSTERIES
In old north-european mystics the 18
RUNEs of the new "futhark"(
Spießberger) symbolized the first 18 steps of the 22 steps - even though mostly completely
misunderstood and sometimes abused !
The old germanic Nibelung - Saga
describes 18 steps(Krimhild).
In the norse mythology
the hero Sigurd killes the dragon (
Fafnir/Regin) with his sword
Gram and rides his horse
Grani , a descendant of Odins
Sleipnir.
One important ancient european mystic place were the
Extern-Stones , where a small (Initiation-)coffin is found.
Alchemie (Opus Magnum)
Finally an old theme : The transmutation of man , the spiritual alchemy (not
the transmutation of lead into gold), which goes exactly through 18 steps of the Universal Path :
9. Materia Prima
10. Calcination
11. Sublimation
12. Solution
13. Putrefaction
14. Destillation
15. Coagulation
16. Tinctura
17. Multiplication
18. Projection
The 3 fundamental principles "SAL, Sulphur and Mercurius" can be compared with the
three hinduist "Gunas" (Tamas, Rajas, Sattwa) and with the three "Doshas" of Ayurveda
( Vata, Pitta and Kapha ), which describe the qualities of Maya and therefore finally
of our material world. The origin of this knowledge was in the asian countries.
The knowledge of the initiates about true Alchemy and Spagyrics was much deeper
than modern Ayurveda : "Opus Magnum" - the big work that makes You perfect.
But the various old books of these traditions have been written so deeply and so symbolic
that they are misunderstandable and deliberate misleading.
( "Joh. Helmond, Alchemy unveiled" can give an impression; O. Wirth : Lehrbrief
zur hermetischen Alchemie - is an old competent introduction)
So it becomes clear that behind all evolution a process of Transmutation and later of
Transfiguration stands, and not just another enlightened
or a highest philospophical view of things.
COSMIC INITIATIONS
The divine master who has finished step 22 (or the seventh initiation) passes the gate
and completes the two final cycles and reaches the first cosmic initiation in the highest
Divine, the SAT. On our planet such cosmic initiations are not possible because we live on
a negative planet without such divine initiators.
Miss Bailey says that the KUMARA startet his second cosmic initiation at the beginning of
this century in the PLEYADS. The logos of our sun is on the third cosmic initiation, and the
ONE from Sirius is on the fourth cosmic initiation. The final goal of human initiations will
be the third cosmic initiation for a very small part of mankind.
Of course there are millions of divine masters on cosmic initiations in this UNIVERSE and in
the other universes.
It is not known who the final "Universal GOD" in the SAT is, because he must be higher than
all cosmic initiations and include all universes.
(See on this website under : Spirtual texts, Kashmir - Shivaism ;
A. A. Bailey: Telepathy and the etheric vehicle, S. 148)
Can we have success on the path?
"The Karma and that Ishvara (god) does not want it are the hindrances on the path"
Karma: Karma itself has its root in the five Kleshas(hindrances) and must come to
fruition in this life or in some later life.
"Ishvara"s will determines the run of the world, and therefore Karma
is an indirect consequence of Ishvaras will(Divine Dharma).
True understanding comes from study of the Universal Path, the books and from practice
of this spiritual path of selfrealization.
For the beginner with little intuition it maybe advisable to study the Raja-Yoga at first.
The Tarotbook of E. Haich (Wisdom of the Tarot) is a reference for true tarot-initiation.
The result will be a synthesis of the teachings of the past.
This website coordinates the teachings of the past. It does not deliver a Synthesis (the 22 steps of the
Universal Path are a kind of Synthesis of all methods) which stands includes the old methods.
This synthesis is not really necessary because the techniques of Transformation and the
techniques of spiritual Transfiguration already exist.
Sri Aurobindo has touched the problem of Synthesis in his book "The Synthesis of Yoga", but
the true spiritual process first begins on step 15.
The majority of mankind stands on involutionary steps and must therefore first go through a
cleaning process to become a "turner of the wheel"(U.P. 10).
In our time a pure spiritual path is only possible in a quiet and clean surrounding.
The student in practical life needs techniques which transform the
disharmonic energies of modern life and which protect him.
The Universal Path has not been published systematically before like this. Spirituality is not
a kind of philosophy (which is for the human mind and is mostly a waist of time), and it has
always been written down in symbols to hide it from those people who fight against all spiritual
things.
Spirituality has been smiled at as something out of past time or as side branch of philosophy.
But Spirituality is not a branch of philosophy but a transformation process.
Some people may further argue that all this is not for our time, but modern MULTIMEDIA and
modern mentality is not really modern but mostly only very technical and "logical" and bound to
that what is scientiffically capable and attractive for the dark forces in the people.
The slogan not only of the medieval Rosicrucians (and also Math. 7.6) was "Do not
throw pearls before the pigs or Roses before the donkeys, otherweise they freem You" or
„Knowledge-Daring-Willpower-Reticence" because the average fellow man is unreceptive for
Spirituality and depends on maintenance drive and the
self-preservation drive .
You will have to develop intuition, a firm will, the flame of aspiration and surrender to the inner
divine self. The mysteries should be a possession of mankind - but the real step into "Mankind" is
the first step of the 22 steps.( For further study : A.A.Bailey : From intellect to intuition )
"Do not let it become a religion", said the MOTHER(Aurobindo). "The religions failed because they
were separated. People were told to be religious under exclusion of other religions, and each branch
of the knowledge failed because it was exclusive. The new consciousness wants (and it insists on that) :
No further separations : One must be able to understand the spiritual extrem, the material extrem, and
to find the meeting-point, the point where all this becomes a truthful force."
The Arcans should be property of humanity, whose higher and true development begins first with the
step of 1 the 22 steps.
"What i understand under spiritual Transformation is something dynamic. It is an absorption
of the spiritual consciousness in every single part of human nature down into the unconscious.
This cannot happen through the influence of the self, because it lets the consciousness mostly as it is
, even if purged and with an enlightened mind and heart and a becamed vitality.
It means to bring down the divine consciousness, static and dynamic into all these
parts and the complete replacement of the momentary consciousness through this."(Sri Aurobindo)
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