Luminarium Aranea

By Julian Ochoa

Today i conclude the initiate series. We have learnt what initiation means, we have travelled throughout the ages from Orpheus all the way to H.P. Blavatsky. But, what can we conclude of the lives of these initiates, how can we relate our lives to them, can we be like them, can we take the path like they did and how can we as seekers, if that is what we are, find that path, which will lead us to similar ends as these initiates have reached.

Going back through my notes on the meaning of initiation, what i can say is that, initiation is not a destination; initiation is not a moment when you are revealed some truth that will change your life and, make you greater than everyone else. Regardless of whether you go through a ritual that stated that you are initiated or not, the process of Initiation is your whole life. We have such a wrong conception of what initiation is, that, we tend to wait to join a particular group, or have a certain experience, if that doesn’t happen, we immediately shut down from ourselves, the possibility that we, in our daily lives could be going through the whole process of initiation.

From child hood to adulthood we are constantly being initiated into ideas, groups, all our learning, and conditioning, all our negative and positive experiences are initiations. The problem with the idea of initiation, in modern times is, that, it is usually likened to being initiated into a secret society, a religion or with having a mystical experience, and it might rightly be so. The reason for seeking initiation in that way is a problem, because, people are simply seeking for escapism from their daily lives, rather than, truly seeking to enter, into contact with the sacred.

I can stand here and explain to you how Orpheus descended into hades and ascended once again and how his story is related to Persephone’s myth and how both myths have been used for thousands of years, by secret societies, to initiate people into the ancient mysteries. But do we really need to know that? Are we really ready to experience a similar ordeal and understand its true meaning? What one can highlight about Orpheus, is that, he, like the other initiates, was not only a seeker, but also a practical man.

Orpheus travelled extensively from Europe to Egypt and from Egypt to Chaldea and all the way to india. Orpheus was initiated into the mysteries, but what is important, is that he was a serious seeker he was not seeking to be initiated just to feel contempt for himself or to seek aggrandizement. As a matter of fact when Orpheus returned to Greece, with all the knowledge he acquired he restored the ancient mysteries which at the time were in decline. The restoration of the ancient mysteries by Orpheus gave a spark to the Hellenic world that l continued until the time of Apollonius of tyana.

Apollonius like Orpheus travelled the world seeking and spreading truth. Orpheus exact personal details are lost to us in the mist of time, but for our fortune Apollonius life was recorded in 200 A.D, by a poet and writer called philostratus. What was striking of Apollonius life, was not that he travelled so extensively, especially in that age, and not that he was so knowledgeable, but again he was also a practical man. In one occasion, and perhaps the most important episode of his life, was that, when he was studying Pythagorean philosophy, he shocked his teacher because he wanted to practice every single instruction left by Pythagoras in his books. Apollonius teacher thought him to be crazy; but, Apollonius understood that, if he did not followed the way of life suggested by Pythagoras, then it would have been a waste of time to have studied his teachings. Apollonius life was defined by this decision, his way of life became an example to all those true seekers in the Mediterranean and he was well received in all courts and in all countries for his virtues, and discipline.

We jump further more than a millennia to the renaissance in Europe. Apollonius had passed away already more than a thousand years, but again in this period men like him were rising to bring light to those in the darkness of ignorance and repression. Giordano Bruno a Dominican monk was causing havoc throughout Christian Europe; his thirst for learning and for spreading the truth drove him to the torture chambers of the Vatican. I am not sure if he lived a virtuous life, since he was not wondering Europe deliberately, but as a fugitive from the Vatican. Giordano’s teachings were the same ideas that Apollonius had learnt; and for the 1500s they were thought provoking ideas, he went from court to court, from university to university teaching and questioning people’s ideas. Giordano will never be forgotten as he was a man that died for his beliefs which were contrary to the established ideas of the world.

We now come closer to our time. It was the 1700s Giordano bruno was one of the first pioneers of the enlightenment. many a philosopher came after him. in this period the world was changing dramatically, the enlightenment had taken over Europe, secret societies were coming out of the wilderness, the church and all the monarchies of Europe were beginning to loose control of people and countries. The 18 and 19 centuries were the foundations of what the world is today. And to influence such times, a man of great mystery emerged to make sure that Europe, in particular, took the right path. Comte St Germain, taught to be by many a phony, was an initiate in the right sense of the word, yet he never boasted of such thing. Despite popular belief st germain was a man of honour, and great virtues, he was not a simple man like any that existed at the time. St Germain was and is an adept, and to have reached such heights he had to have gone through similar trials like all other men seeking initiation have gone through.

75 years after st germains disappearance from Europe, H.P.Blavatsky emerged to create the Theosophical society. like all the initiates mentioned before, she was a world traveller seeking for truth, but what made her especial, was, that she was a woman. She was indeed a pioneer; she was a strong woman that had dared defy the chauvinism of the time in all parts of the world. Blavatsky was strong and focused; she sacrificed all she had, even her life to make sure, that our great society was founded, with strong foundations, like: Isis unveiled and the secret doctrine. Although many criticize Blavatsky’s habits, short temper and some even question her meddling into psychical activities, she also had the qualities of an initiate, which were, her focus on the great work, service to humanity and self development.

What all these initiates have in common is that they were not just seeking truth for self aggrandizement or for evil ends. In fact, all of them were great teachers, guides and saints. All had a quality that was exemplified and became their strength.

Most people that is seeking for truth these days, wonders, how to become an initiate, and thinks that it must be a simple task to be one. One of the issues these days with joining any initiatic group, is that most peoples, drive to join is mainly out of curiosity. At the moment, we are living in a very materialistic time, we are driven by capital, by what we have, by how much we have, by how many things we have, how many things we have done, how many countries we have travelled to, how many people knows me, how many degrees we have done, and of course the spiritual has become an asset as well. So people also put the abstract, the spiritual, into a basket. And so, you meet people that are into the spiritual path, and they begin to tell you, how many things they have practiced, how many gurus they have met, how many books they have read, how many temples they have been to, and how many spiritual artefacts they have collected, and yet, they still feel empty. They continue seeking and Of course they are seeking, and they will continue to seek for many lives. but in this moment, they have purchased so many spiritual ideas, and placed them into the storage room of their house and forgotten them. And still they call themselves spiritual, or that they are on the path or that they are initiates because they have joined this or that group, but are they?

Buddha, in search of the reason for world suffering, travelled and tried many practices, but at the end he gave up all practices and ideas and decided to sit under the bodhi tree and meditate until he received an answer. that answer did not come from outside, it came from inside, what one has to realize is that Buddha’s result was not just from that one life, Buddha was on that path for thousands of lives before he reached Buddha hood.

So my question is, are we ready to be initiated? Are we all going to be Buddha’s after learning reiki, yoga, tarot, astrology, crystals, herbalism, rosicrucianism, theosophy, freemasonry, religion, philosophy etc all in one life? Is it going to take us somewhere? Learning all this things doesn’t really make you an initiate, it just makes you an intellectual, and maybe just a walking encyclopedia, because, if you really stopped, and focused in one discipline alone, you might find that you, can spend your whole life studying that subject.

So what is it, that really makes us apt to become initiates? Some people will probably say, surely it cannot be that difficult, of course its not, these days every one pays to get initiated, so then you have to ask your self, if you have the money. But is it really that, what really makes you the initiate, is it the fact that you could afford to pay to join some group? If that was the case then the great initiates would not have been a few but many, but its not many initiates that have existed throughout the ages and it’s because it’s not as easy as one thinks.

Ill tell you what it is, that takes to be on the path to initiation. Very simple. Follow the laws of your sacred book which ever that is, follow the meditations of any ancient philosopher, or even the meditations of some of the earlier members of the theosophical society. Wow! That’s easy i will read that book and later on once i have read it, i will ask myself, what next? I guess its just another of those boring books that i have read, that says the same thing. What is it that we are ignoring, if we weren’t ignoring those basic teachings of the sacred law, would things be different?

Lets analyse one day of our lives. when we wake up, what is it that we do, we rush to the shower, thats if, we have any sense of personal hygiene. We dress up and rush out to work or to study or what ever it is that we do. In these days the first thing that we do is grab the ear phones of our Iphone and plug them in, and that is how it all begins. While we are walking, we are focused on the Iphone, we are so focused, that we are almost in another world. We cross the roads without looking, we pass by people completely ignoring them, there could be a blind person waiting to cross the road, someone is getting mugged, or maybe someone we know is passing by and is expecting us to say hi and we just completely ignore them. When we get to our destination, we begin our tasks and without paying any attention to the whole day we go about doing our things. The day finishes, we get home, tired, watch tv and go to sleep. What ever happened during that whole day is gone, and all we were looking for was for the day to have finished so we could go home, to watch TV, or like people do these days watch tv, surf the internet and chat on the phone, all at the same time. By the time we go to sleep we are really tired, and we wonder why.

This is how most of us spend every day, passing by without noticing any of our actions, without noticing our thoughts, without noticing anything. In fact, when we look at our lives its just a blurr and what we remember, is just those moments, that made an impact in us. We remember when we had the most fun, when we were the most sad, when someone hurt us, when someone said this or that, or when someone made me really made me angry, we remember when we got the presents we wanted, we remember only, what is convenient for us. What about everything in between those emotions that i prize so much as my life. Actually, the moments in between those great emotional moments are our lives and in fact what we only remember are the moments that disappeared from our lives faster than anything we experienced.

Lets go back again to that one day. We woke up and our partners were there, if not that the cat, or maybe our relatives were there. And they greet us with happiness to see us up, but we are in such hurry that we ignore that, and of course they know you are busy, so they are forgiving, as usual. You are walking through the streets you as you usually do and someone that has been trying to speak to you for a while passes by and tries to say something but you either say your in a hurry, and go, or you just ignore them because you are rushing and you are listening to your iphone. When we get to work, class or what ever, we usually think we are doing more work than everyone else. And so, we take breaks here and there, and actually it has become such a habit that we take more breaks than the work we do. What do we do in those breaks? Some of us have a black coffee because we didn’t have enough sleep from those endless hours in facebook, some take out a cigarette and smoke away. In the mean time, we engage in gossip, we talk about how little work someone else does, what a life wreck tom is, how unfashionable laura is, if we are in the street, we mock who ever passes by, we make false accusations of people about how lazy they are, or about how they are so rude, without even asking why they are in such mood, we just stand there and judge everyone and once its done we feel better, we had our cigarette, our coffee and now we can go in to our tasks and wait for the next break, and so on and so forth, and this cycle doesn’t end.

A time comes when we have a terrible experience or when we just reach an age when we need answers to the meaning of life. Some of our friends leave us, we wonder why, we broke up with our partner, our parents, well, and we just forgot them, because frankly, they are always there so I don’t need them, i don’t need to speak to them. we come to a point in our life and not necessarily at the age of menopause or midlife crisis, because frankly, that is just an explanation to the realization that all we have done until that point was wrong. We can be in our twenties, fifties or seventies, and we realize, that our lives are or have been quite meaningless and that so far we have not achieved our goals or perhaps we have, but, we have no sense of accomplishment. We didn’t become famous, we didn’t meet our soul mate, we didn’t go to that one country we wanted to go to, or we didn’t feel anything by getting the top job, it really didn’t make a difference. We got a high paid job but didn’t do anything good with the money we earned, or we bought houses, cars, we dinned in the best places, we met important people, we had the most beautiful partners, and if not beautiful the wealthiest ones or the smartest ones, we always had the best, our friends were or had to be the best, good looking, rich, famous, or simply someone i could use later for a favour.

We wonder why such emptiness exists within us, and ask why did my partner leave me, why did my parents shut me out of my life, or maybe i feel terrible because i never wanted to have a special moment with dad or mom before they passed away. we have everything that a person from a so called third world country would like to have, yet, we are empty inside, in fact we feel that no matter how much we have or how much we have accomplished, how far we have gone up in the social ladder we are still inwardly searching for happiness. What is it that those third worlders smile about when they don’t have all the riches we have. I mean, we have stable governments, less corrupt, we have good public transport, medicare, easy access to education, good and decent wages, we have a diverse society, we eat food from all over the world, there is peace, we have a history and although a bit dark . We have everything, our achievements were only made because we had all these facilities and we probably call this good karma and say well, those poor people in other countries must have done something really bad in their past lives to be poor or suffering right now.

We take for granted that our forefathers had to suffer to build what we now have. Our parents worked hard to give us that education which we boast of now, we think that every we are now, is just because i and i alone did it, but is that so?

I mean, someone did make the pants i am wearing, some person in the country took the wool from the poor sheep to make my shirt, my pants were made of cotton which was picked by a poor kid in india. My I phone was assembled by a poor girl in china, who had to work because her parents were too old to find a job. The food, well, whether its organic or not it was picked out by someone somewhere, everything i have was made by some one else, even my body, and yet, we are not thankful to our creators.

We feel lonely, we feel empty because we don’t have all we craved for, because we haven’t been able to find a partner, or our friends are simply going away and we just say, well, he was a bastard anyway. Inside we crave for love, but outside we pretend to be this automaton that has no emotion and go about treating people in similar manner. When we are feeling lonely, thinking that we need a partner, we ignore the pads in the back our friends are giving us, we ignore the deeds of love our family does for us, we ignore someone we might know that maybe is willing to love us, but because they don’t fulfil our standards we reject them. Oh no, she or he is not my type, she or he is too fat, too skinny, too loud, too smart, too dumb, no sense of fashion, poor, not enough money, not white, not brown, not yellow, not tall, not short, not anything. When it comes to friends, well, if they don’t do what i say, or if they don’t agree with me, or if they simply don’t put up with my tantrums or the insults i give them, they are not worthy of being my friends, and yet we feel lonely.

Lets look even closer to our attitudes. Unless you are a hermit, human life is built upon relationships, and these relationships are so important that they define who we are. The first people we encounter in this world are our family, then friends and teachers in school, then girl and boyfriends, university, work, family again until the end. These relationships are so important that our lives are in a way dependent on them. When we are growing up we are dependent or we are at the mercy of the adults around us, for our well being and education. When we reach adulthood we still need others, we need friends, partners, our parents support through university, our bosses at work, our pets and then when we are old, people depends on us for advise, money and support and at the end again, like kids we are at the mercy of those around us until we die.

What is important of all this dependency on others is how we deal with it. Some of us seek friends because we don’t have the best relation ship with our parents, we look for partners to fill that fatherly or motherly figure we lacked in our child hood. We have kids to not feel lonely in old age. But we never think of how we treat all these people. We only think about how they treat us. My mom didn’t give me money, my father was never there, or vise versa, my friend is angry with me, what have i done? Have you thought you could have upseted him by a comment you made without thinking, why is she angry, is she or he talking about me right now, he doesn’t trust me, he is so arrogant, he is so stubborn, he doesn’t know anything, he doesn’t listen to me, he smells, he is this, that and the other. But what about us, have we looked at what we do, have we considered that we talk to much instead of listening to others, have we considered that the other person has their own views, have you realised, that you might have insulted someone, have you realised that that person is doing his best in his capacity, that maybe they are trying their most effort to impress you to win your friendship, your love, you acceptance, and yet you only think about what they don’t do or might do to upset you. When he or she doesn’t agree with you, you reject them, you ostracise them when they don’t do what you do, without regard for their desires, if he doesn’t drink, he is boring, if he drinks he is bad, if he smokes he is bad, if he doesn’t smoke, whats wrong with him, if you cant drink with me there is no point us being friends. If you don’t like the music i like why should we talk, oh you are poor, it would be too embarrassing if i hangout with you. he is good looking but he doesn’t have anything, she is a nice girl but she doesn’t look like a top model, he is unemployed why should i talk to him, i wont talk to my dad he was a bad father, my mom is an alcoholic, im sick of my partner, he doesn’t deserve that girl, she is too much for him, she doesn’t deserve him, i should be with him i am prettier. He is religious don’t talk to him, he is an atheist stay away from him, he is black, oh, she is such a gold digger, stay away from migrants, those westerners are infidels, that bus driver was so rude, my boss is so incompetent, why is he so happy.

The positivists might say, well i don’t want to hear that, i am not like that. You are too negative, but am i negative, i am simply raising the obvious, we cant just simply brush away or hide our negative deeds under the carpet; one day there wont be space under the carpet to hide all this things that we are and that we don’t really want to change. And when the carpet gets full, is when we realize that we are alone and we feel this emptiness inside, because, after all this years of going about recklessly, behaving without thinking, we have no one left in our lives. And the ones that are still around are masochistic or are simply also waiting to see your demise because you also mistreated them. This wondering of why things are not going the way we expect goes on for years, some people just keeps wondering about it and never stops to question why, and, they simply die without even thinking about it.

For some a time comes, an opportunity arrives, in which they find a religious or spiritual calling to, find the answers to their emptiness. And so, a new journey begins. But here in this part of ones life one comes across many paths, many ideas that can help to solve the riddle. But even in this paths one can find a wall. A clear example is the mind body and spirit festival, there you can find, tarot readings, all sort of courses, reiki, Tibetan lamas, crystals, books, Rosicrucianism, our society and other groups that offer a path, we then fall pray to the great variety of things available, and so begin to try everything. For a few years we try reiki healing, we then find that it was a waste of time and so we join a sufi group and we stay there for a while but we don’t find anything there, we have the opportunity to join the Rosicrucians and nothing, and so we keep looking, jumping from one grpup to the other. Even the TS falls pray to our thirst for more and more knowledge and i guess its not bad, there is nothing wrong with seeking the path. But somehow most of us in this search don’t find any of this paths fullfiling and then we retreat and fall back into our old lives and forget that that episode in our lives ever happened. Some even go further and take hallucinogenic drugs, they go to countries like peru to take drugs with shamans so they can have this supernatural experience that will show them the ultimate experience on earth. For those that stay in this new age journey they become like the other consumerist, claiming to meditate just to show off that they are special, they do yoga and tell the whole world about it, they go to india and hang out in ashrams, they dress in purple or in a bohemian style, wear strange perfumes, try to speak in abstract manners just to claim attention or like masons wear rings, jewels, to show they are this or that.

We also complain that this groups we join don’t have what they were looking for because it seems that they were looking for something no profane knows but initiates of this groups. an example we have is people that says that theosophy has nothing and has nothing to teach yet they ignore the theosophical core teachings, the same can be said of the freemasons. Most people joins thinking they will meet the hidden masters in person, and that maybe by joining they will encounter some secrets that no one else knows. When they realize its not as easy as it looks they become critical of the group they are in. They become dissenting of its ideas, and start smear campaign to change things around the group. They think that since they could not find something that made them happy then they would take over the administrative side of the group and try and change it to leave a mark in the group and have a recognition for making that change. But is it really the group or society that needs changing? Do we have to change the name of the society? Do we have to change its core values? do we have to change the seal? All just to make us feel better and make us feel like we are leaving a mark in this world; so, is recognition the way to fill that emptiness we have in side, is that the way to go? Lets put it in a broader sense, do we need to change the world, do we need to change our government, do we need to change the way other people thinks? Do we need to make every one believe what we believe? The world is imperfect, do we have to change it?

I tell you this, WE have to change. Not the world, if we were not born the world would have continued to exist, so what is that fuzz about trying to change everthing around us, but ignoring the core issue which is ourselves. We can now go back to the comments above about the groups we belong to. All of them are beautiful paths which teach us in different ways, the same thing, which is that we have to change our selves, in order to be able to embark on the path to initiation. And the fact is that, we ignore that little fact, because we simply don’t want to change ourselves, we think we do, and are, but in the moment that we think we are, that is when our fallacies are, at their strongest.

How and what core teaching am i talking about? Frankly you all know what im talking about, we know what the Ten Commandments are, we know them also as common law in our society, and also as etiquette and morals and family values. but we think of them as so basic and so unimportant that we ignore them and when questioned if one practices this basic principles we say we do , but do we? Why is it so difficult to face ones own faults, why are we scared to face the reality that we are not perfect, that we are not always right, that we are humans and therefore bound to make mistakes but that if one recognises that one, is all too human one can change, fix or in a better way mutate those faults into great qualities.

Krishna murti the theosophical societies greatest jewel left a little book for us called at the feet of the master. Many that come to the society overlook this book. In fact they toss it aside for it does not contain any secrets, or lost words or anything alike, but it addresses the issues we have been discussing now. I did not research on Kirhsnamurties life because this talk is not about him but about that little book he left, and that little book alone says alot about who he really was, and regardless of the fact that he had left the TS he was and is still one of the most influential theosophists of the twentieth century and perhaps his teaching will be a greater influence in the twenty-first century in the whole world.

To address the emptiness inside us, that thirst to fill in the void we cannot fill with anything external Krishna murti tells us first that we have to have discrimination. Discrimination from the good and the bad, from the right and the wrong, from the desires of the body and those desire of the god within, Krishnamurti tells us to look within, for only inside can we find GOD. We have to learn to not let our body dictate our life but viseversa we have to deictate our body what we want. And although we should not identify with our physical body or any other body we should take care of it for we only have one. You have to learn to not let any emotions drive you, control your anger, your jelousy, your sadness. You must be watchful of your pride, don’t think your self better than others, don’t let your mind make you think you need this or that, simply focus on the path.

You must focus on choosing the right path, you always have to do good, never harm anyone or anything, and don’t justify your deeds as my good acts are someone else bad acts, you have to do good for good not just to justify your ends. Always be kind and gentle unto others. Study is of utmost importance, but be sure to discriminate between useful knowledge and knowledge that will simply create more issues for the understanding of yourself and of the path. Study not to be known as an intellectual, but to be able to put into practice everything you learn and to serve humanity by feeding them words of wisdom, study to be wise and not to aggrandize your reputation, and be wary of thinking yourself too wise because wisdom is an ocean that cannot be fully attained in one life. Control your thoughts for chaos begin from the most negative thoughts, uncontrolled thoughts can become superstitions or assumptions that will put you at discord with the world.

Control of speech is important, for you can do or undo someone’s reputation, through speech you can kill someone or make someone’s life a heaven, so always measure your words and if you don’t have anything good to say don’t say it. Always speak the truth, never gossip and never hurt verbally others.

Control your actions as controlling your steps when walking on a thread. If you act right, no negative actions will come back to you. Always act with love and compassion without expecting anything in return.

And most importantly see goodness in all, even if they show the contrary, be sceptical about them being totally evil and think that they might have some good in them. No one is bad, they are just not aware of their actions. Understand others as you are trying to understand yourself, see in them yourself and you will know why they are in that situation.

Never try to attain phsychic powers or to develope them fully for if you do you might think you are a great guru and might be deceived by ethereal entities. Your faculties will develope if they are necessary for the great work that is being done.

Never interfere in another man’s path, do not tell them what they have to believe or what they shouldn’t believe, do not interfere at all as everyone has to learn in their own way, do not even judge them, for they might judge you back. If you think it is something serious do not embarrass him publicly and say something to him in private and even then it is better to abstain from such an act as everyone has their own conscious to judge them for their acts.

If the person is being cruel or evil toward another living being then take action in a measured way.

Abstain from bigotry and any other form of discrimination, all men are equal, all paths are valid so long as they mean good. All religions, all schools o thought are valid. Castes, races, nationalities are created by men boundaries and you should treat all men equally, for we are all brothers.

Always be happy, radiate positiveness even in times of despair. If one shows strength others will be inspired to be strong in their own paths. Smile in the face of karma, for all suffering is transient.

Focus on the path, regardless of what path it is, if its simply work put all your efforts into it, put all your might into it to make sure it is properly done. If its family, be a good parent, brother, cousin or sister, be a good friend, be a good ritualist, if one focuses full heartedly on this tasks one will not have trouble in undertaking higher work.

Believe in yourself and never give up, no matter what type of trial it is be strong and confident, if you fall, get up, and if it happens many times, get up every time. Never give up, believe in your self.

Love is the most important of all the aspects that will help you to embark on the path. If there is no love all other aspects are dry ground. Love is the water that gives live to all living things. And i don’t mean they Hollywood love, but brotherly love, love among humans, love for plants, for animals for the world as a whole, love for one self, love to serve humanity. Love is the first step in to the path that embarks on that long journey of initiation that will lead us to our masters. Love the world, love yourself, love everything.

Julian Ochoa 13:22