The Individual, Cultural and Social Values of Initiation
by Mircea Gheordunescu
Worshipful Master, SEVER FRENŽIU Lodge, no. 85, Bucharest
In Latin, the terminological complex that we would today translate by "to initiate, initiation" poignantly marked the idea of the change of status, of a social, cultural and ontological mode, the idea of the introduction into a social group (or micro-group) in which certain sets of information were received that were not destined for the public at large, as well as the idea of origin, of departure point (Lat. "initi-o" = "to introduce (in a mystery); "initium" = "beginning, origin"). The concept of "initi-o" implies a set of beliefs and teachings interdependent with specific ritual practices, that form a closed or open socio-cultural system which can either be homogeneous or not. Philosophically speaking, "initi-o" is the equivalent of an ontological and gnoseologic transformation. It is an unfolding process, whose causality and finality are semantically and ideologically subsumed to the fundamental principles of the respective system.
By the process whose "initium" implies a qualitative turn in the relationship with oneself and with the social group one belongs to, the individual identifies a new valuation and significance of his existence. The individual passes to another eve of participation in his existential context, identifies new perspectives in his mental, and implicitly linguistic processes. "The investiture" with a new gnoseologic dimension, irrespective of the spiritual system it belongs to, constitutes a radical revaluation of the entire value system.
What is specific to this ontological transformation is its living and communicating through the intermediary of a ritualic complex, which shows mitematic elements and specific symbols. The social groups that have recourse to these procedures of ensuring the continuity of knowledge attained along the evolution of their own socio-cultural system through cyphered methods for the individuals who do not belong to the respective group fall under the heading of traditional societies.
In the framework of any traditional society any system of modeling, from the primarily-educational to those of professional formation refers to an ideological model of the world in which the medium is in a mutual relation with another system, such as a collectivity, a cultural "fashion", etc., a sum of geo-political factors, and where its reflection functions as a control for the total mode of communication of that system. A model of the word constitutes a program for the behavior of an individual or a community, as it defines both the choice of operations and the subjacent rules and motivations, and the respective model receives applicational specializations for the diverse levels that ensure the existence and functioning of the group - from the strictly religious specializations to the ones that involves the practice of a craft. In traditional societies the sacral approach of existence tends to create a melange between institutions. In the traditional understanding which is specific to"homo religi-osus", ecclesiastical institutions, those of executive and legislative rule and those of arts and crafts hold a sacral value, the mere transmission of the possibility of accession to a certain social status is not functional without the ritualic confirmation of the neophyte (considering, of course, also his social status). Therefore, the arts and sciences were susceptibe of a transposition that could confer on them an esoteric value, and "such a transposition is possible even in virtue of the nature of traditional knowledge, which, of whatever order it is, is always connected essentially to the transcendent principles", and in the traditional understanding the arts and crafts serve invariably as the basis of an initiation. The arts have a more obviously symbolic character the more the cultural system where they manifest is more rigurously traditional, and "their productions are destined first and foremost to serve as «supports» for meditation, as «points of support» for the most comprehensive and profoundest understanding, this being precisely the raison d“etre of any symbolism" communicated through ritualic practice.
The ritual does not constitute a meaningless series of words, metaphors and allegories, rather it represents a relation between its practitioners and the mythical models specific to the spiritual system and, from this perspective, it can be compared to a meta-linguistic. The ritual ensures the modality through which man realizes the communion of his being with a reality that transcends him and through which the idea that absolute values exist is implemented in the life of the social group, paradigms of all human activities that guide man and confer significance to his existence, and through ritualic experimentation of what is sacred the ideas of reality, truth and significance achieve a contour. At once, the ritual also has a translation and transfer role for a set of information methodically trnasmitted (even pedagogically, we might say) in a gradual form. (...)
As ritualic and traditional system, Freemasonry presupposes a teaching, doctrine or theory, technique or procedure, as well as a set of languages and symbolic codes with an initiatic character. As W. L. Wilmshurst asserted: "Masonry is a mysterious and cryptic expression of the difficult science of spiritual life, and its understanding suipposes on the one hand a special and competent guidance and on the other hand a sincere and determined desire to know and an increased capacity for spiritual perception on the part of those that want to be initiated". W. L. Wilmshurst reveals the initiatic character of the Speculative Art, showing that Masonry "offers us, in a dramatic form, and with the help of a dramatic ceremonial, a philosophy of the spiritual life of man, and a sketch of the regeneration process". Masonry presupposes the opening to a superior and transcendent mode of existence, for the Art is founded on the initiatic praxis, which presupposes a new beginning (initium), an entry into a new life, into being on a superior, transcendent level. Through a profounder and moer systematic self-knowledge "that deepens the understanding and intensifies the virtue", man is related to a superior level of awareness of being and tends towards the fundamental truths of spirit.
The reception of the initiatic light does not constitute a closed process, because it represents the opening to another way of being qualitatively, but not also the finality. And it is precisely about this finality that we often ask how it could be defined and what exactly, concretely it is. We are not a religious system, but a spiritual one, centered on polishing, perfecting, even education in a certain instance, which however does not propose a soteriology and is not compatible with one, except at most from an orienting and preparatory point of view.
Through initiation, the individual is detached from appearances, precisely this leaving behind of existential baggage being sought through the purifications specific to the ceremony of initiation in the Order. The tests and journeys of purification through the elements, the burning of the profane testament, the receiving of the light constitute a regeneration and transformation of being. After the spiritual and moral cleansing of the dust of the profane world being must receive the reglection of the light of reason, this being the essence of the teachings of the Degree of Fellowcraft. Communing in the pure light, the Creating Logos, is not yet the final point of the initiatic process. Any solar hero from any spiritual system, after exaltation, after reaching the apex of ascent, to crown (but not yet end) his role as "carrier" of the light, must assume the decent the anxiogenous ritual death.
In an explicit or veiled way, human spirituality knows an inherent common denominator, irrespective of race, religion or technological evolution of the social group - the hermeneutic circle, the system that thinks, interprets and transmits itself and through itself. Many of our fellowmen have understood in a cyclical sense the Uroboros. The route of individualization knows however more dimensions than the spatio-temporal ones. To say that the one who has climbed the mountain to receive and know the Logos has returned to the "same place" to translate it and transmit it to his fellowmen does not presuppose anything else than the loss of the ontological sense that the "revelation" of the Word has and nothing else than the omission of the fact that the one to whom the true light has shown itself cannot anz longer be the same as ontological level with the one who left his fellows in search of the truth and the Law. To say that the one who was swallowed by a creature of the depths of the ocean and re-emerged to the light in the same topos constitutes also a grave omission of the most important sense. To believe that the same quartered body, spread in all the directions of the known universe and then reunified is the same body cannot but be an error derived from the ignorance of the one who does not understand the essence of the drama of rite of ritual death or who assists as a mere spectator. In all these mitematic cases, in which I intentionally did not have recourse to nominal particularizations, precisely because the scenarios and mythical actances mentioned are met in very many spiritual systems, some of which apparently have no connection to others, we would ignore the veritable transformation, the ontological leap and the passing into a new level of being. To consider that we, in our role as self-constructors, of polishers of spirit, must merely better ourselves, and not also entirely transform our being, can only lead us to a futility and nothingness of a masonry emptied and widowed of its masonism, as Oswald Wirth would have said.
Like the solar heroes of the myths of mankind, we must know and accept that in a certain stage of the initiatic journey we must descend to hell, pass through it to be reborn cleansed of the darkness, shadows, fears, ignorance and pride within. This third step of the Symbolic Craft is structurally similar to the one of reception into the Order, but this time we regenerate on another level, we purify ourselves of our selves, our own darkness, not only that of the ife lived in ignorance. (...)
"Existing oneself", to which the mysticism of al spiritual systems appeals, means moveing out of the domain of one`s own individuality and of the individuality of direct, immediate and unessential interests of unconscious existence, in the immediate and in the present, from the domain of bodily needs, precisely to penetrate deeper in our being.
The thinking that follows the search for the essence is truly free, for it leaves behind, as we would say, "without the Gates of the Temple", the elements that distract it and chain it in the suffocating circuit of false an unessential problems. This is the freedom that our Craft talks about - freedom from the profane. For the sense of the word "profanus" was foremost of "ignorant" and a person who is "without".
But after transcendence into the world of poure ideas and after the revelation of the seed of light sown in ourseves, the road is far from finished. As Plato taught in the Myth of the Cave, we must return to the ones still chained in the darkness to transmit to them the true word. For all this however we need to crave the Light, the transformation of our being and spare no effort to become aware of its importance. Not like fellowcrafts desirous of illegitimate affirmation, but as true masters of the Royal Art.(...)
Our work does not aim at social glory. The notions and precepts that we must become aware of in order to reflect them beneficently in society are the ones that, through their validity in social circulation constitute a crowning of beneficence itself, in all its premises and implications, and what we seek in the "justice" and "perfectibility" of the work constitutes a "personal" reasoning transformed in an experience made useful with the amplitude of the movement, and cultural, social and ethical system.
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