Mysteries, Initiations and More

Mysteries, Initiations and More

I was asked to comment on the appearance of Jesus on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 and more on the higher initiations.

Because we had two entities involved in the life of Christ, (one being the disciple Jesus and the other being the Christ) it makes it awkward in writing to sometimes distinguish between the two. In the case of Luke 24:13-32 the I believe the Master who appeared was Christ and not Jesus. Technically I should have written the Christ.

After the resurrection the Christ did not just go away, but could create a vehicle at will to assist where necessary in initiating the great work. He also worked with Jesus more through overshadowing than divine possession and assisted him. You’ll note in the story in Luke that this entity did not say who he was. But merely testified to the resurrection.

There are degrees of liberation. Jesus attained one degree and the Christ a higher one. As far as incarnations go liberation comes in stages.

First Stage: The pre-initiate Before the first initiation the pilgrim has little choice as to whether or when he can incarnate. This is controlled by karma, group forces, his solar angel and a council of Elder Brethren.

Second Stage: First and Second Degree Initiates. These individuals have worked off a lot of karma and are beginning to understand cyclic and other forces. Between lives they have power to influence their next birth situation. They have some control, but not full control of their incarnations.

Third Stage: Third Initiation Here he becomes a dedicated server and gains ability to choose situations for rebirth where he can make the best use of his talents. He is still subject to the law of cycles.

Fourth Stage: Fourth Initiation He gains freedom from the standard cycles of rebirth and changes of male female energy and works through a higher level of cycles and plans his future lives.

Note: Jesus was a fourth degree initiate, but was brought back to life by the Christ.

Fifth Stage: Fifth Initiation Here he becomes a master and gains power to renew his physical body so he does not have to die or reincarnate until he desires. When he decides he can let his body go and choose to incarnate again for either the sake of service or in preparation for higher initiation.

Sixth Stage: Sixth and seventh Initiation Here he has the freedom to not incarnate again unless he chooses otherwise. He can serve in either of three ways to finish his earth service. (1) He can choose to incarnate. Or (2) He can overshadow disciples and do his work for humanity through them. (3) He can create a temporary body of manifestation by his thought and work among humanity or appear to disciples.

Question: Does the fourth initiation always involve the resurrection of the body? I am specifically thinking of Abraham Lincoln, who obviously never overcame death during his lifetime.

JJ: The fourth initiation is called “The Great Renunciation.” And was passed in the Garden of Gethsemane by Jesus and finished off with the follow through on the cross.

Abraham of the Bible also gives an example of the great sacrifice when he showed a willingness to lose his dream by sacrificing his Son Isaac. We are not told of the sacrifice of Lincoln but I suspect his demanding wife played a role as well as the war.

The disciple has not yet overcome death at this initiation. Instead, he has demonstrated as willingness to let all things held dear go so he can attain the next great revelation.

At the fifth the initiate learns the secret of sustaining life, but it is not until the seventh that he masters matter to the extent that it can be destroyed and rebuilt at will.

The Christ went from his fifth, finished his sixth and began his seventh when he assisted Jesus in returning to life. In addition he was able to manifest in any form he desired, even in the form of Jesus himself if need be.

After demonstrating that death could not hold the initiate the Master Jesus discarded his body and moved on to other work.

Question: One has to also ask one’s self what did Jesus do after he ascended into heaven per the testimony of the apostles?

It was the Christ who demonstrated the ascension. This was a demonstration that the sixth initiation had been passed. Sometimes the sixth initiation is called Ascension.

Question: How could it be that Paul met his dweller on the road to Damascus when, instead, he encountered Christ?

The account des not relate his encounter with the dweller, but with the Christ as you say. In esoteric writings this is called the encounter with “the angel of the presence.”

The encounter with the dweller comes before this.

Here is my take. You can run it by your own souls.

Paul was a sincere student, studying very deeply everything he could get his hands on. He had passed the first and second initiations and was fairly well advanced on the spiritual path, but had some illusions that tricked him into thinking that the destruction of the new Christian religion would preserve his own. As he went about doing this and encountering real people of faith that were imprisoned or destroyed by his support he began to have misgivings. A part of him began to search his soul and another part tried to ignore the problem.

But that something gnawing at his soul began to grow and, as he reflected upon it, he asked God about the Christians – just to make sure he was taking the correct path. When he called out to God he was struck down by his dweller to prevent him getting an answer. As he struggled with his dweller he concluded that this was some kind of devil force actually caused by the Christians and attempted to persecute them all the more. If he destroyed them then maybe the devil would go away.

In this seemingly possessed state he was headed toward Damascus where he met his Lord.

The contrast of his deception by his Dweller with his new realization caused him to go blind until his miraculous healing.

Comment: I don’t think that JJ has ever explicitly said the masters would ever tell a “white lie.”

JJ You are correct. In fact I have taught several times that one of the keys to liberation is honesty and to attain the ability to always abide by our word. I attempt to set that example myself.

The higher lives do have to keep some information from us, however, which could either be dangerous or misleading. Parents are not lying (if done right) when they do not tell a four year old about sex. Even so, we are babes in some ways unprepared for many higher teachings.

Comment: Some are saying you just read the Bailey writings and repeat them in your writings. What do you say?

JJ: I thought I would make some clarifications here as some, when they begin reading the Alice A. Bailey material, think “A-hah. He just studies this stuff and gives it to us as his own.”

First, let me say that it is impossible for any teacher to put forth anything of value without building on a foundation of teachings past to some degree. This even applies to the words of Christ in the New Testament. Quite a few of them are quotes directly from the Old Testament. Then too many of the other teachings were also espoused by numerous teachers in the past not related to Israel.

Does this mean that Jesus was not original?

By no means. When he quoted from the past he shed new light on that which was old. And even though many past teachers taught about love and eternal life, Jesus took the principle to a new dimension of understanding the world had never heard or witnessed.

Even so, I do quote teachers past, but when I am merely presenting their exact teachings or quotes I usually give references. DK is well known for his teachings on the rays and initiations and when I refer to them I assume the student will realize that most of the basic knowledge on these two concepts was revealed by him. Even here I have introduced a number of teachings not covered by him.

We have been talking about the Alice A. Bailey material quite a bit lately, but if you take an overview of my writings you’ll find that many of them cover ideas and principles not elaborated on in the Bailey or any other material.

Consider my books beginning with The Immortal series. Probably less than 10% of the teachings in there are touched upon in the writings of DK.

Then look at my other books such as The Molecular Relationship. DK hinted at the principle, but never explained it to the extent that any reader has discovered it there before reading my book. The Bible gives more hints on this than does DK. Joseph Smith’s teachings also hinted at it, but it took a revelation through the Oneness Principle before I understood it and could write about it.

Next look at my book – The Gathering of Lights. Again DK hints at this principle, but the scriptures talk much more about it than he or any other esoteric writings.

But even here, the understanding of it by the world is so slight that it is barely mentioned by standard Christian writings.

Another book I have written is called The Gods of the Bible. Very little of DK is mentioned here, but the basic esoteric teachings concerning God is taught from the Bible in a way not presented before.

Then we have the Keys writings which is a mixture of many concepts and principles. As I have taught the group here I have tried to give credit where I am merely repeating a teaching from the past. If I do not give credit I assume the reader knows where the idea comes from. For instance, if I say, “the truth shall make you free” I may assume that the reader knows this famous quote came from Jesus. If I write about the rays and initiations I assume you know that DK laid out the foundation teachings on them.

In the process of teaching it often happens that I take an idea from the past and add new light and teachings to it. When this happens it would be untrue to just categorically state that I received it from DK or some other teacher. It would also be a distraction to stop every few paragraphs and relate the sentences that have been covered by teachers past and the new ones covered by me.

Astute students of DK or the Bible can usually discern where I leave off from past teachings and plunge into the new.

Overall, if you look through the archives it will be difficult to find one major post (including this one) that does not present new material not covered the same way by any teacher in the past. (Note the example of Paul and the Dweller for instance in this post).

I say these things not to glorify myself, but to correct the misunderstanding of some and to glorify the One Spirit of God that works through the many creating the Oneness Principle that is available to all who will seek.

As someone pointed out though it is important to run my teachings as well as others through your own souls, for no teacher is without error.

Question: Have you ever heard of “Recurrence”? The idea that at death one returns to the beginning of ones life and relives it over and over?

JJ: This idea comes from a misunderstanding of the devachan. The devachan is a place of bliss, called heaven by some, which is a final resting place (between lives) of good worthy people who are above average spiritually, but have not overcome illusion.

The concept of the Devachan was elaborated on quite a bit by the Theosophical Society and its teachers and mentioned a number of times by DK.

The basic idea is this. When we die we leave this world with many unfulfilled desires and goals. As a reward for those who have lived a good life they are sent to the devachan which is basically a dream state, but one in which the dreams are as real as life on earth.

In the devachan the person can then fulfill his dreams. If he wanted to be a great ball player here on earth and was not able to he will be one there. He will be greater than Babe Ruth and will hear the cheers of adoring fans to his heart’s content as he hits the ball out of the park.

We may live some parts of our life over in devachan, but only if this is our desire.

Devachan may explain why Houdini was never able to contact the earth after his death. If he went to devachan he probably dreamed that he made the contact, thought it was real, but in reality the contact was never made.

Devachan is hinted at in the Bible where it says


The teaching of devachan is that our works do follow us and we can continue our labors of love.

These are not useless labors for they sharpen our skills and prepare us to do better in our next life.

“I xeroxed my watch. Now I have time to spare.” Steven Wright

Sept 19, 2003

Copyright by J J Dewey

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