The much discussed and little understood subject of 'initiation' is built almost entirely around the cumulative effect of discipline and its binding & releasing of energies within the individual. Initiation emphatically does not comprise those powers mysteriously conferred upon magicians during vague quasi-religious ceremonies ... it does not work in this manner. Initiation may be described as a matter of very basic physics or perhaps the term 'psycho-physics' would describe this lesser harmonic of metaphysics. Magic deals exclusively with knowledge of psycho-physical laws towards spiritual realisation.By restricting the habitual flow of the magician and direction of attention & energy (no matter what form or lack of form it takes), and directing the flow into a harmonic matrix of consciousness/energy, which is magical tradition or a coherent set of symbols for inner transformation to build up pressure. This pressure is not superficial tension, but a rising level of life energy shaped by the matrices of the magical discipline and symbols; the same energy might normally be directed towards habitual ends or merely be dissipated. In training, the normal energies are redirected; this often gives rise to an illusion of higher levels of energy, but these truly arise in advanced magical work.
During initiation, a door is opened, or a gate created, both within the individual psyche and in the imaginal worlds (imaginal worlds are not those of the imaginary or false), through which the pressurised or shaped energies of the initiate are channelled.
The essential difference between magic and other schools of inner growth & transformation is the use of worlds & dimensions in which the magician is transformed through a series of encounters ... initiation (meaning 'beginning') is the traditional process by which the individual commences the inner journey through such worlds.
Literary Occultism, locked into the male-stereotyped fantasy of 'merit' and 'authority' advises us of grades and levels of initiation. There is in truth only one initiation, where in practice the magician unfolds and encounters the various harmonics of initiation through what appears to be a series of encounters and inner changes.
Discipline, and the universal power of catalysis or breakdown which underpins the human discipline, firstly restricts the personalised energies within a new matrix. The discipline also enables the initiate to remain true to the intention during the moment of initiation. The first perception of the gate of initiation is gained through the dissolution of the habitual conditioned personality; there is no easy way of handling this experience. Popular systems of magical arts are misleading by describing this as 'gentle'. The experience is grim and painful. Like the long dark night of the soul. Many self professed experts can exist for years without ever experiencing a true magical initiation.
The newly liberated energies acquire a pattern of simplicity, of health, or of harmony. It has nothing to do with 'powers' or selfish ends. It is the discipline, the replacing of the illusory limitation with a willed set of control, which brings initiation and subsequent liberation. In legendary terms, it is symbolised by the grail ... which is a vessel of perpetual regeneration, guarded by terrors and wonders which can destroy the seeker. But the destruction is only that of the false personality ... as the grail then regenerates the initiate bringing them back from the dead.
Initiates are traditionally known as 'the living dead' or the twice born, those who have seen the sun at midnight. Such poetic terms describe an actual event, a moment of resonance in the lifetime which unfolds as a state of consciousness only after its temporal occurrence.
No magical initiation has any value if merely a stage show devoid of background and effort. What actually occurs during the ceremony is very simple, the experienced members of the group or the Mystery act as mediators between the worlds. The Initiate must pass through the Gate alone, but all the necessary conditions are unified in the ritual pattern employed. In other words, it is not the ritual which confers initiation, but initiation which generates the ritual.