2nd Initiation

This [the second] initiation marked a tremendous change in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Up to that time, for thirty years, He had simply been the carpenter of the little town, and the son [101] of His parents. He was a personality doing much good in a small sphere. But after the purification in Jordan, having "fulfiled all righteousness," (St. Matt., III, 15.) He became the Christ, and went about His country, serving the race and speaking those words which have molded for centuries our Western civilization.
For each of us there must come the same great expansion, and it occurs when we are fitted to take the second initiation. Our desire-life is then confronted with essential choices which only the mind can enable us properly to handle.

We are told in Crude's Concordance that the name John means "which God gave," and in the three names which appear together in this episode - John, Jesus and Christ - the whole story of the consecrated aspirant is summed up: John, symbolizing the divine aspect deeply hidden in man, which prompts a man towards the needed purity; Jesus, in this case symbolizing the consecrated, pledged disciple or initiate, ready for that process which will be the seal of his purification; Christ, the divine indwelling Son of God, able now to manifest in Jesus, because Jesus has submitted to the baptism of John. That submission and completed purification brought its reward.

It was at this initiation that God Himself proclaimed His Son to be the One in Whom He was "well pleased." Every initiation is simply a recognition. It is a false idea, current in many schools of the mysteries and of esotericism, that initiation connotes a mysterious ceremony wherein, through the medium of the initiator and the rod of initiation, conditions are definitely changed in the aspirant, so that for ever after he is altered and different.

An initiation takes place whenever a man becomes, through his own self-effort, an initiate. Then having taken "the kingdom of Heaven by violence," (St. Matt., XI, 12.) and having "worked out" his "own salvation through fear and trembling," (Phil., II, 12.) his spiritual status is immediately recognized by his peers, and he is admitted to initiation. [102]

From Bethlehem to Calvary, A.A.B/ D.K.