Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of GoldTheosophy / New ThoughtMystical / EsotericEnglishShareLight on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 15Project Gutenberg #14599 - EnglishMoreVersion - 1 availableProject Gutenberg #14599LanguageEnglishEspañol‹Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 6Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 7Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 9Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 10Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 11Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 14Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 15Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 17Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 18Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 19Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 21Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 24Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 25Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 28Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 29Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 32Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 34Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 35Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 36Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 38Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 39Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 41Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 42Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 44Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 45Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 47Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 48Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 49Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 50›Book Is Really Intelligible Except To The Intellect;Light on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 15ListenPlay this chapter in spoken English.Save chapterListen to chapter1in fact, before it can be read as a practical, not a metaphysical treatise. 2In one of the great mystic Brotherhoods, there are four ceremonies, that take place early in the year, which practically illustrate and elucidate these aphorisms. They are ceremonies in which only novices take part, for they are simply services of the threshold. But it will show how serious a thing it is to become a disciple, when it is understood that these are all ceremonies of sacrifice. The first one is this of which I have been speaking. The keenest enjoyment, the bitterest pain, the anguish of loss and despair, are brought to bear on the trembling soul, which has not yet found light in the darkness, which is helpless as a blind man is, and until these shocks can be endured without loss of equilibrium the astral senses must remain sealed. This is the merciful law. The "medium," or "spiritualist," who rushes into the psychic world without preparation, is a law-breaker, a breaker of the laws of super-nature. Those who break Nature's laws lose their physical health; those who break the laws of the inner life, lose their psychic health. "Mediums" become mad, suicides, miserable creatures devoid of moral sense; and often end as unbelievers, doubters even of that which their own eyes have seen. 3The disciple is compelled to become his own master before he adventures on this perilous path, and attempts to face those beings who live and work in the astral world, and whom we call masters, because of their great knowledge and their ability to control not only themselves but the forces around them. 4The condition of the soul when it lives for the life of sensation as distinguished from that of knowledge, is vibratory or oscillating, as distinguished from fixed. That is the nearest literal representation of the fact; but it is only literal to the intellect, not to the intuition. For this part of man's consciousness a different vocabulary is needed. The idea of "fixed" might perhaps be transposed into that of "at home." In sensation no permanent home can be found, because change is the law of this vibratory existence. That fact is the first one which must be learned by the disciple. It is useless to pause and weep for a scene in a kaleidoscope which has passed. 5It is a very well-known fact, one with which Bulwer Lytton dealt with great power, that an intolerable sadness is the very first experience of the neophyte in Occultism. A sense of blankness falls upon him which makes the world a waste, and life a vain exertion. This follows his first serious contemplation of the abstract. In gazing, or even in attempting to gaze, on the ineffable mystery of his own higher nature, he himself causes the initial trial to fall on him. The oscillation between pleasure and pain ceases for--perhaps an instant of time; but that is enough to have cut him loose from his fast moorings in the world of sensation. He has experienced, however briefly, the greater life; and he goes on with ordinary existence weighted by a sense of unreality, of blank, of horrid negation. This was the nightmare which visited Bulwer Lytton's neophyte in "Zanoni"; and even Zanoni himself, who had learned great truths, and been entrusted with great powers, had not actually passed the threshold where fear and hope, despair and joy seem at one moment absolute realities, at the next mere forms of fancy. 6This initial trial is often brought on us by life itself. For life is after all, the great teacher. We return to study it, after we have acquired power over it, just as the master in chemistry learns more in the laboratory than his pupil does. There are persons so near the door of knowledge that life itself prepares them for it, and no individual hand has to invoke the hideous guardian of the entrance. These must naturally be keen and powerful organizations, capable of the most vivid pleasure; then pain comes and fills its great duty. The most intense forms of suffering fall on such a nature, till at last it arouses from its stupor of consciousness, and by the force of its internal vitality steps over the threshold into a place of peace. Then the vibration of life loses its power of tyranny. The sensitive nature must suffer still; but the soul has freed itself and stands aloof, guiding the life towards its greatness. Those who are the subjects of Time, and go slowly through all his spaces, live on through a long drawn series of sensations, and suffer a constant mingling of pleasure and of pain. They do not dare to take the snake of self in a steady grasp and conquer it, so becoming divine; but prefer to go on fretting through divers experiences, suffering blows from the opposing forces. 7When one of these subjects of Time decides to enter on the path of Occultism, it is this which is his first task. If life has not taught it to him, if he is not strong enough to teach himself and if he has power enough to demand the help of a master, then this fearful trial, depicted in Zanoni, is put upon him. The oscillation in which he lives, is for an instant stilled; and he has to survive the shock of facing what seems to him at first sight as the abyss of nothingness. Not till he has learned to dwell in this abyss, and has found its peace, is it possible for his eyes to have become incapable of tears. ‹Previous chapterLight on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 14Next chapterLight on the Path; with Through the Gates of Gold 17›Similar passagesBy tradition and source labelFind similarCompare selectedCompare with similarAsk Deep ThoughtSelect passages to search for parallels.Tap any verse to select it, then compare selected passages or ask Deep Thought. Public domain in the USA