Some questions and answers

Question : The initiatory Teaching is different from the many “esoterical opinions” matured by the speculative imagination of the non-introduced to the Mysteries, especially because of its unchanged presence in the field of knowledge of humankind since archaic times. Wait a minute and let us understand better: What do you mean by: matured by the speculative imagination of the non-introduced to the Mysteries?

What I mean is that, like all the things that we don't know, these are imagined at first. Therefore any subjective thesis deducted by an objective reality and its nature, are to be considered hypothetical until otherwise demonstrated and therefore debatable. This is as farthest from truth as there can be. The mind lies; in the field of popular esotericism and exoterical cults a major part of the thesis exposed are a result of imagination that is they are fantastic concepts (see the concepts of oneiric culture). The practical demonstration of how much conflicts of opinion characterize the relationships between different ideologies and interpretations is in the wars, and not only dialectic ones, that they've provoked. Pluralism of opinion is often the exterior symptom of a deep ignorance about the essence of the principles we would like to – penetrate -. When we can't penetrate a principle our reason goes round and round it formulating a hypothesis after another. It creates then a theoretical complex that, by being stated again and again, becomes truth or better still, tradition transmitted by imitation and therefore truth as ideological conformism. The man who debates about metaphysical philosophies without direct knowledge but only because so – it is said-, or so – it is written – (who wrote it and why? What if he is a visionary or a mad man?) discussing and building reasoning on levels so called – spiritual – on the essence or the thought of God (D-IO means di-io that is of-me, mine see note 1), and this is the first sign of the human delirium of omnipotence) without full cognition or having ever been in contact with the facts, he demonstrates of operating in a fantastic way. On the other hand, even when imagination is supported by reasoning and therefore it is stated in form of thesis, dogma, act of faith or belief, for the researcher it is still a fantasy and his reason can't certainly turn it into a truth. An undemonstrated and indemonstrable hypothesis that we try and resolve through daring maneuvers of the reason can be believed to be true, but it is still undemonstrated and indemonstrable. The man who doesn't want to risk of investing his life chasing hypothesis that could lack in foundation will learn to look for –from himself- and –in himself- the contact with reality and the testimony of truth. Does exist in the universe a Cause prima and a supreme Being? Where can we find them? Is it possible that if man is made in the likeness of God (D-io, see note 1) then God (D-io, see note 1) is made in the likeness of man (anthropomorphic deity)? Does life exist after death? And before life? What is life outside physical form and matter? Many positivists choose no and many metaphysicians choose yes, who is right? What arguments support their position apart from their personal opinions which are neither demonstrated nor demonstrable? We could go on forever with examples but the problem is already clear: what line to give to one's own life? In what should we believe if we want that this is a fruitful investment (in terms of individual progress) for the soul? Does soul really exist? It is necessary to know what is better investing ourselves on and the best way of doing it, so that we don't find ourselves having gone through life chasing moths. The Teaching we are referring to shows a solution; to become ourselves the testimony of the facts we are looking for or we need. We would become their demonstration, then. To produce to ourselves the proofs of the truth we can believe in and we can rely on to build our way, the project of life and the personal Work of the Initiate. In order to do so it is necessary to mediate between what we are when we start our work and what we will become. It is necessary to find the ideal Model among a thousand possibilities, even the worst ones. Man is first of all what he believes in, what he believes he is and what others said he was (family, school, church, army, employer, friends, etc.). Then man becomes what he knows and eventually, when he leaves the world of illusions, he becomes what he is. Only at this point, having become what he really is (identification with the superior Self) he can become what he must become. By judging through the true Free Will (enlightened by Self) the Initiate can decide exactly how to finish his own individual progress. He is conscious of what to do and how to do it because he has eventually understood the motion of becoming (Law of Progress). The education he receives is also a speculative construction because it is based on the experience of others. In the meantime, though, it should – introduce – the conscience of the Aspirant to the – Mysteries – (mysteries for the material personality and the physical mind) of other levels of conscience. Education tends to introduce the Aspirant to –his own- metaphysical levels. The levels of super-conscience, where he will – discover- the presence of the superior Ego and the soul. Through this inner contact (called revelation or knowledge by contact) he can touch the conscience of the planet whose soul is a portion of energy (the so called Anima Mundi).

Proceeding on the way, a step after another, the Initiate meets the influence of his own Monad, the deity contained in every man called inner God. The inner God is the reflection, the speculative image of God. If God is Light the Monad is his reflection (Son) and personality is his shadow. The shadow can be seen as the dark counterpart of Light, his younger daughter, but neither Light is made in the likeness of its shadow nor is shadow the image of Light. If it's true that Light produces its own shadow it is also true that the shadow of Light can't be considered a sin or an evil; it is possibly fair to consider its presence as a proof of the manifestation of Light. By perceiving our inner God (Ourselves in the status of Son of God, this time really made in his likeness), the Monad (the first Father in heaven), man will be able to perceive also the –presence- of the supreme Being and understand the –Project-. That is the Project we started by activating the Cause prima (aspect of cosmic motion, or 3 rd part of the Trinity or Trimurti). By this I am implying that both on the physical and the metaphysical level the meeting of the divine level will occur through the aspect of its activity. The intelligent activity is the third aspect of the cosmic Triad. It is the motion that builds every form of the manifestation, from the subtlest (far beyond the nuclear structures) to the grossest (matter). For its ability as a –Builder- this aspect is called the cosmic Mind or universal Intelligence.

Through education we must correct the imaginary forms that the Aspirant has learnt and absorbed by popular cultures, exoterical religions, morals and social uses (habits, roles and models of the profane world). The straightening of the exoterical opinions absorbed in the first stages of the research will help answering the first four questions of the –Threshold-: Who am I? Where am I coming from? Where am I going? Why does all this happen? This research leads us to answer what we call the Sense of Life; if this sense is not understood, though, what possibility does the Aspirant have to give the right sense to –his own- life? Therefore to –introduce- an Aspirant to the –Mystery- of the Sense of Life means to bring him from the status of profane to that of Disciple. Only then, when he has the way clear in his mind, he will start his process on the Path. Lacking this first important element the Aspirant will –think- of being on the Path (of knowledge) but he is not. Without having understood the Sense of Life everything is illusion (Maya); the biggest illusion of man is not to feel powerful, or king, or rich and dominator. His biggest illusion, truly diabolical, is to believe he knows without knowing. Whilst the biggest accomplishment of the Grand Black Lodge is to make a common man believe he is a Master or an Initiate; the biggest mistake of a common man is to believe himself a realized man, a messenger of God or a messenger of the spiritual Hierarchy. Neither the spiritual Hierarchy nor God have ever needed – spokespersons – middlemen or intermediaries because the Spirit (we'll call it this way for the moment) speaks to the heart of the man who wants to listen to them.

The Spirit – speaks – to the spirit of man and not to the ears of the animal form. God, if we can keep calling that way the Cause prima of the manifestation, communicates with his reflection and the inner reflection reverberates the Truth in the soul of man. Man as well talks to God through his soul and not through his tongue or through the (animal) reason of other men. God, if he is listened to, talks to men through their souls and doesn't delegate another man to talk about HIMSELF. It is commendable that an unselfish man pushed only by love goes around talking to other men about God; the fact that a man can talk to other men in the name of God and His Spirit, though, is the subtlest illusion on which is founded the power of the Great Black Lodge (bad masters). It is not difficult for a Disciple to distinguish the acolytes behind which his members hide. Blacks are smart but never clever. The old proverb saying that what goes round comes round is quite right. – To consider oneself – an esotericist, a philosopher or a Disciple doesn't mean to be one. A teaching says: if you look at a star but you are not the star you will never understand that star. Become that star (technique of identification) and you will understand it. This means that if you look at the Teaching from the outside you will never understand it. In order to understand the Teaching of the Masters you must become that Teaching yourself. Learn to be like your Master, to think and act like he does, imagining that he is observing you and judging you all the time, and you will become his Disciple. Talking with a Master or an Instructor, provoking their sympathy or receiving their comprehension doesn't mean to be accepted as Disciples. The Disciple is accepted by the most intimate part of the conscience of the Master; this is completely different from simply –chatting with him- or even worse –chatting- with others about him. When the Master or Instructor accepts an Aspirant he commits to sharing an important part of his Karma, therefore it is said that he works with sacrifice of Himself. He sacrifices a part of his integrity to share it with the non-integrity of the Disciple.

Question: Can you mention a bigger example of love and pain? That is why the acceptance of a Disciple is an uncommon event. We mean the true acceptance here, not letting an Aspirant be physically close, without any communication other than that occurring through the physical vehicle. If getting in communication –heart to heart- with an Instructor is not a common thing, being accepted in the Aura of a Master, ready to interact with his conscience, is a truly special event, that happens because it is acknowledged that that person has become truly special. This acknowledgement is commonly called –Initiation- What does “speculative” teaching mean? What does it consist of?

By speculative teaching we mean the –theoretic- stage that produces the conviction and determines the orientation. It doesn't transform the inferior reason of the Aspirant, although it amplifies his abilities (power of analysis and ability of dynamic penetration of the physical mind). Through intuition the (solar) “Light” of our metaphysical (spiritual) “essence” can illuminate our phenomenic (material) “existence”, personality (always humid and passive).

Question: Can you tell us how does this happen?

It happens through the building of the –Bridge – of conscience called in Sanskrit Antahkarana. This bridge joins the consciousness of the inferior self to the thought of the superior Self, the soul, that shadows and enlightens it.

Question: In order not to mix up intuition (fundament of intelligence) with pure erudition, why don't you tell us in detail where one ends and the other starts?

Erudition originates from the complex body of learning by imitation. This indicates all the vast complex of information that are transmitted by a man to another, learnt by imitation, and that end by making up the knowledge that in an individual represents his memory. There are conscious complexes of information (not to be confused with unconsciousness and collective imagination) common to a social group or a people; although they can become a moral rule or a cultural and social code, they don't find the same acknowledgment in other groups or peoples. Apart from the scientific culture that is self-deducted by modifying oneself through the empiric method, any other social culture is partial and relative to those who accept it. Therefore any interpretation like any culture is by definition a debatable element and this originate differences. Where everything is unsteady and subject to continuous changes, like scientific and relative principles, erudition, that is having a vast scholastic education, doesn't mean to have the truth or to be right. Erudition and verbosity are not at all a warranty for wisdom. Even less an erudite is necessarily a wise man; it rather happens the opposite: an erudite is a fearful man who puts his abilities at the service of violent, repressive or illiberal powers, providing ideologies and interpretations that entice the people and subject them to the interests of the oligarchies of powerful men.

Intuition is not the memory of knowledge or a virtual image in the archive of memory. True intuition is the mental condition that lets us understand a content although we only perceive its exterior form. Intuition is also the sense that allows us to understand what we don't know yet and lets us intend before we have learnt. In other words it is not a memory that suddenly appears giving the solution to a problem or giving us an escape to an unpleasant situation. These are unconscious automatisms. There's nothing more conscious than creative intuition. Creative intuition is, in a few words, a first form of connection or inner telepathy between inferior and superior Self. In the Disciple this kind of telepathy provides what hermeticists call –occult teaching- where by secret Master or Superior unknown we mean the thought of the soul. …the Teaching was called with the term of (not to be confused with the popular “traditionalisms”) that Disciples and minor initiate exoterically called “initiatory science”.

Question: Here as well the “threshold” beyond which one and the other (popular traditionalist and the other) live would be very helpful.

In simple terms the –Threshold- is the boundary of consciousness that allows the Disciple, and even more the Initiate, to distinguish real from fictitious, truth from deception or ideological fraud, useful from useless. He will be able, then, to direct his life (the work of his life) in a situation of certain effect and economical for the investment that the soul did of itself by materializing (incarnating).

Question: Show us the path to follow, tell us where to start from.

You have already started when you plunged for the first time in the matter. Each of us is an angel plunged into the matter, not because of sin, as exoterical and pessimistic cults state, but to consecrate it – through sacrifice of Self. Now you must, step by step – slowly rushing- remember your true identity; the Teaching of the Masters guides us towards the re-discover of ourselves as (metaphysical) essence and not only as (material) existence. Even if, like you'll discover one day, the goal of the Work is certainly not to rescue us from this trouble. What sense could it make to dive into matter and then work hard to get out; it would mean having done it for nothing… then we will find out that the reason is deeper and more intelligent of those invented by men. <<… Mysteries are revealed not by receiving information about them and their processes, but by action of some processes occurred in the ethereal body of the Disciple>>

Question: Therefore, if I got this right, we will NOT receive written teachings or texts…,

Until man will have to read and think he will be an Aspirant. When he will start suffering inside through the help of a guide, the Aspirant will face the difficulties of the Disciple in probation. An accepted Disciple doesn't read to learn anymore. Eventually, one day, the Disciple understands how the Service is the most powerful vehicle for education. Then you will learn to practice the Way of Action. Only the – creative – and intelligent Service, not the devotional one, attracts the Master's attention and –pushes- (so to speak) to give more, to risk more on the little fellow that one day will become a Master.

Question: Right! Tell us only where to start and we will be ready to follow you.

You must learn first of all not to follow anybody, even less me; second, and I might be useful here, you must learn to find your own inner voice. Become –deaf- to the voice of other men that are not looking for what you are looking for and you will slowly hear the inner voice. Follow it and you will enter the Wave of Life; follow the Wave and you will find the Master. Once found the Master you will be –in the- Hierarchy. And this is a fact.

Athos A. Altomonte

Note 1:
‘Dio' in Italian means ‘God'; ‘d'io' or ‘di io' means ‘of me'.