Three Alchemical Steps of Initiation

By Frater AOM

 

 

ÒEstablished is the Column in the depths, whence secrets shall not be shown forth until the first becomes the last. Who here holds the royal seat, where stars hang amid the branches? She is not seen, but all things adorn her silent steps. Here is sanctuary, here is shadowy night. As in immortal forests, here are numberless leaves. Here is divine presence: that which is mortal never shall dwell within. But One is within: Adorning the Mother is a Flame.Ó

 

Arbor Crystallina

 

 

The following is a short commentary on the Three Steps of the Foundation of the House of Sacrifice.  The inherent symbolism of these three steps are most certainly layered or nested into a deeper symbolism as one progresses through the three foundational grades of the Ordo Aurum Solis, namely Neophyte, Servitor and Adept.

 

The Three Steps of the Foundation of the House of Sacrifice are distinctly colored from bottom to top as black, red and white.  These are colors we see notably related to the three gunas [triguna] in the Eastern Magical Traditions and also to the alchemical elements of Salt, Sulphur and Mercury in the Western Magical Traditions.

 

 

The Three Gunas and their Western Alchemical complements: 

 

 

These in turn correspond to AUM [Omkara] or Pranava as: 

 

 

 

These are the seed syllables and symbols of the One Living and Unified Spirit.  This seems apropos to the Three Steps of the House of Sacrifice, as these too, in their totality, represent the complete symbol of the unification of divinity as the triangular superstructure of Spirit or the Supernal Triad.  [i.e., Dike, Eleos and Kudos]

 

As regards the alchemical elements of Sulphur, Mercury and Salt, it is stated clearly by Paul Foster Case in the following quote:

 

The Great Work combines the powers of Sulphur, Mercury and Salt into the Stone of the Wise, or PhilosopherÕs Stone.  What is meant is that the Great Work has a mental result and a physical outcome. It is a transformation of the consciousness of the adept. It is a transmutation of his physical body which makes him a being as far beyond the natural man as is the natural man beyond the lower animals.

 

Such a person is able to wield extraordinary powers, among them being mental control of the molecular structure of matter, so that such an adept can make the external agent of transmutation, by means of which, if he knows how to employ it, even a person who is not adept may transmute the metals.

 

This combination of Sulphur, Salt and Mercury is also the nature of the First Matter:

 

The First Matter is also three, because it contains within itself the three principles: Sulfur, Mercury and Salt. These are not three things of which the First Matter is composed. The First Matter is not a composition. It is a perfectly homogenous unity. Rather are the three principles to be understood as being three aspects of the nature of the One Thing, inseparable from it, and from one another. Sulphur, Mercury and Salt are three ways in which the First Matter manifests itself, three phases of its behavior.

 

 

An excellent story in regard to the alchemical transmutation of these symbols can be found in Book 1 of The Magical Philosophy Series -- Robe and the Ring, entitled the Story of the Red and White Roses.  However, for the purpose of this paper, I will leave this exploration to those interested.  I merely offer it here as further reference to this alchemical process of the Body, Soul and Spirit.

 

In looking at the nature of AUM in relation to these Three Steps of the House of Sacrifice, we can see a subtle correlation that shows the deeper threads that run through our ogdoadic tradition.

 

AUM, the three letters represent speech [vak], mind [manas] and spirit [prana].  They represent the absence of desire, fear and anger, while the whole symbol represents the perfected man --a reference that is noted in the 3rd Hall and upon completing the third step or passing through the third veil.   The three letters represent the masculine, feminine and neuter -- while the whole symbol represents the spirit of the Creator. 

 

It is the three primary states of human consciousness, which are at one simple level waking, sleeping and deep sleep; it is also turiya, the state of supreme spiritual wakefulness. It is the three divisions of the universe invoked in the Gayatri -- bhur, which is the most material and visible realm, bhuvah, which is the indwelling, invisible counterpart of the visible, and svah, which is transcendental, ethereal and celestial in comparison with all that is astral and earthy.

 

It is also the trimurti, the three ruling deities Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the mighty agents of creation, preservation and destruction, the three principal attributes of the One Supreme Reality, which is Sat-Chit-Ananda, the fusion of Truth, Ideation and Bliss.

 

In this sense, the AUM embraces the entire cosmos as emanated and controlled by the Supreme Spirit, the Paramatman which is a pristine, primeval radiation from the Divine Ground, Parabrahman.

 

At the highest, most para-cosmic and universal level, the Sacred Word is both the One and the Three-in-One. It is the OM, the single homogeneous sound which, whether uttered or unuttered, is the supreme sound, the One Sound behind all other sounds.

 

Because it is a vesture of the one unmanifested Logoic Light, it is the source of all vibrations. It can also be seen as the triune AUM because, as human beings, all individuals are triune in nature and connected with the triune aspects of the cosmos -- the physical, the astral and the ethereal.

 

But the AUM can also be related to the three aspects or interpenetrating phases of one single continuous activity which involves creation, preservation, destruction and regeneration.

 

Just as one can postulate that Deity is independent of and prior to all worlds, and the universe itself, so too one can cognize the mirroring of Deity in Nature, in the cosmos, in the process of manifestation, as a triune AUM, which is then the source of all the many variegated combinations, permutations, collections and associations of vibrations that are involved on all planes of life.

 

[snipped from the Dateless and Deathless by Rhagavan Iyer]

 

As noted above, the three letters correspond to the three gunas of sattva, rajas and tamas, whose noted colors are white, red and black – alike the Three Steps of the House of Sacrifice.    So, what I would like to suggest in this commentary, is that, Pranava [Omkara], the Stone of Wise, the PhilosopherÕs Stone and the First Matter are inherently tied to these Three Steps of the House of Sacrifice.   In ascending these three steps we come closer to the individuation of the One Life to that whose nature we truly are and therefore become invested within our totality as the One in Three.  Our divinity is like that of the Omkara:

 

These three letters [AUM] represent the triad of divinity, namely Brahma [the creator], Vishnu [the maintainer or preserver] and Shiva [the transmuter or destroyer].   These three letters are the perfection of living light and luminous life.  They are the three universal steps of One Life, represented by Kudos or the Yechidah within our tradition.

 

In both cases of the Pranava and Three Steps of the House of Sacrifice, the goals are union with our totality and perfection of human nature to that of pure divinity, as it is stated:

 

"Let Om be the bow, mind the arrow, and Higher Consciousness the target.

Those who want enlightenment should reflect on the sound and the meaning of Om.

When the arrow is released from the bow it goes straight to the target."

 

Dhyana Bindu Upanishad

 

 

The Three Steps of the House of Sacrifice are first 'ascended' in the 2nd Hall [Rite of the Servitor of the Secret Flame].  During this Rite of Incorporation, the candidate is brought before the steps of the triangular superstructure of the Spirit represented as:

 

Dike	Justice	Black basal Step
Eleos	Mercy	Red Step
Kudos	Glory	White Step

 

 

It is in this rite where the actions of Purification, Ensealment and Dedication are extended onto the candidate.  

 

The steps are aspects of the Mother, Father and Spirit [the blessed triune aspect of divinity and the nature of Pranava] 

 

The First Step of Justice, also termed Dike represents the Neschamah, which is the great maternal force of the spirit.  The Second Step of Mercy, also termed Clementia in the human psyche represents Chiah, is the paternal force of the Spirit and the Third Step of Glory, also termed Candor represent the seat of the One True Self of Spirit, the quintessential divine spark of the individual which in the human psyche is represented as Yechidah.

 

Through the actions of the magus upon the candidate is purification from the negativities of the Nephesh [body], confirmed in wholeness and directed toward higher faculties which will be expressed in the 3rd Hall Rite [Three Veils of the Mysteries] where the perfected Gold of the Sun is rectified within the Adeptus.

 

It is in the Third Hall that the rectification of the Three Steps of the House of Sacrifice are brought to a completion within the aspirant of the Ordo Aurum Solis and where the alignment of all values of the Secret Fire and the powers of Light of the One Lamp are made whole -- here Body, Soul and Spirit are made One in the Flame of Love.

 

In the final analysis, the Three Steps of House of Sacrifice are first seen as steps of progression toward self-awareness and in the end are shed like veils of light to that greater Light inherent to all sentient beings.  It is our task to ascend these steps and embrace of the illumination of this One Flame.

 

AUM HA!

 

And now thy Self is lost in SELF, Thyself unto THYSELF, merged in THAT SELF from which thou first didst radiate.

 

Where is thy individuality, Lanoo, where the Lanoo himself? It is the spark lost in the fire, the drop within the ocean, the ever present ray becomes the All and the eternal radiance.

And now, Lanoo, thou art the doer and the witness, the radiator and the radiation, Light in the Sound, and the Sound in the Light.

 

-- The Voice of the Silence

 

Finis