If the occult student has endured these trials, he is then permitted to enter "the Temple of the Higher Wisdom." All that can be said further upon this subject can be given out only in the smallest hints and suggestions. The responsibility of the next step has so often been illy expressed by words, that many say the pupil has here to take an "oath," promising to betray nothing that comes from the teacher. However, these expressions, "oath" and "betrayal," are in no way appropriate, and are misleading.
It is no oath, in the ordinary sense of the word, but is rather an experience that comes at this stage. Here the candidate appreciates the true value of the occult teachers, and their place in the service of humanity. At last he begins to understand the world correctly. It is not so much a matter of "withholding" the higher truths already learned, but much more of upholding them in the right way and with the necessary tact. That concerning which one learns to "keep silence" is something quite different. One gains possession of this fine attribute in regard to many things of which one had previously spoken, and especially in regard to the manner in which one has spoken of them. Yet he would be a poor Initiate who did not place all his mystical experiences, as adequately and as far-reachingly as possible, at the service of humanity. The sole obstacle in such matters is the misunderstanding of the person who receives the communication. Above all, the higher or occult secrets are not allowed to be spoken of promiscuously, but no one who has passed the steps of development above described, is it actually forbidden to speak of these matters. No one is asked for a negative oath, but everything is entrusted to the judgment, integrity and sense of responsibility of the candidate for Initiation. What one really learns is to find out, within oneself, what should be done under all circumstances, and the "oath" means nothing more than this, that one is found qualified to be entrusted with matters of such importance.
If the candidate is found fit, he is then given what is called, symbolically, "the draught of forgetfulness." This means that he will be initiated into the secret knowledge enabling him to act without being continually disturbed by the lower memory. This is absolutely necessary for the Initiate, for he must possess full faith in the immediate present. He must be able to destroy that veil of memory which extends itself round humanity more and more thickly with every moment of life.
If one judges things which happen to-day, by the experiences of yesterday, he is subjected to a multitude of errors. Of course, it is not intended that the reader should renounce all the experience acquired in life. He ought always to keep it in mind as firmly as possible. But, as an Initiate, one should acquire the ability to judge every fresh experience irrespective of oneself, unclouded by all bygone experiences. One must be prepared, at every moment, that a new thing or being shall bring to one a new revelation. If one judges the new by the standard of the old, he necessarily falls into error. The memory of past experiences is very useful, however, for it makes one better able to perceive the new. If one had not gone through a certain experience, he probably would not have seen the attributes of this or that being or thing; but having had such experiences he ought to be enabled to discern the new, without judging it by the old. In this way the Initiate obtains certain definite qualities, and by means of these many things are revealed to him, while they remain concealed from the uninitiated.
The second draught which is given to the Initiate is the "draught of remembrance." By receiving this he becomes capable of keeping the higher secrets ever present in the soul. Ordinary memory would not be sufficient to ensure this; he must be absolutely at one with the higher truths. He must not merely know them, but be able, as a matter of course, to manifest and administer them in living actions, even as an ordinary man eats and drinks. They must become one's practice, one's inclinations, one's habits. It must be unnecessary to recall them to mind (in the usual sense of the term); they must become a part of oneself and express themselves through one's very being; they must flow through one, just as the life-currents run through one's bodily organism. So must we make ourselves as perfect in a spiritual sense as nature has made us in a physical.
VII
THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF THE SOUL
If a man carries out the culture of his thoughts and feelings and emotions in the way already described in the chapters on Probation, Enlightenment, and Initiation, he then effects a change in his soul such as Nature has effected in his body. Before this training, soul and spirit are undifferentiated masses. In such a state the clairvoyant will perceive them as interlacing clouds, rotating spirally, and having usually a dull glimmer of reddish or reddish-brown color, or, perhaps, of reddish-yellow; but after this growth they begin to assume a brilliant yellowish-green or yellow-blue hue, and become of a regular structure. A man attains such regularity of structure, and at the same time the higher knowledge, when he brings into the realm of his thoughts, feelings and emotions, an order, such as Nature has brought into his bodily organs, by means of which he can see, hear, digest, breathe, speak and so forth. Gradually the student learns, as it were, to breathe, to see with the soul, and to speak and hear with the spirit.
In the following pages a few of the practical points pertaining to the higher education of the soul and spirit will be more fully treated. They are such as may be practically attained by anyone without additional instruction, and by means of which a further step in occult science may be taken.