DURING TIMES OF RAPID CHANGE and radical uncertainty, such as we are currently experiencing, an inner process activates to link us back to the wisdom of our ancestors and open the way to the gods. Our intuition knows well this timeless path of direct knowledge, also known as the paths of return, though our intellects may not have a clue! When recognized, honored, and followed, the process of exploring the subjective and higher worlds imbues our lives with magic, enhanced creativity, and awe.

This article is an introduction to you of the timeless Western Esoteric Tradition, the science of the soul that has flowed through history as our metaphysical lineages. These brave souls, our ancestors, are the guardians of the Ancient Wisdom who often had to remain hidden as a matter of life and death. The word “esoteric” means hidden and this timeless Wisdom of the Ages is the ground floor of all the true religions and philosophies that have impacted our world, open to all who seek knowledge of The Great Work, regardless of creed or religion. They hold steady a unitive consciousness that honors them all and supports the inviolable laws of the universe.

Throughout history, the esoteric Mystery Schools are the preservers of this inner wisdom, transmitted afresh for every Age. These ancient Mystery Traditions are the reliable “technicians of human consciousness” that restore the balance between our outer and inner realities anytime we start to run off-track. But this Ageless Wisdom cannot be taught; it can only be caught —gleaned from the crucible of each one's own direct experience.

If you reflect for a moment, you will see how logical it is that when our world is in trouble, it's the inner life only that can guide us forward. And why? Because that which exists in our outer life is already created and therefore can never offer a new creative pathway forward; anything created can only lead us back to what was. So today, our egos have run to the edge of their own demise, and we seek a deeper wisdom that already resides in the human psyche.

You wonder why you yearn for an astrological or Tarot reading when your life seems to no longer make sense, or when great tragedies occur. This is the yearning of your soul, to seek and learn whatever soul lesson one is currently undergoing so you can move forward in the truth of your being. All this knowledge and wisdom already resides within you, only to be accessed by processes and arts that can reach deeply enough into your unconscious mind to access your essence. These sacred arts include astrology, numerology, Tarot, sacred geometry, high magic, shamanism, Native wisdom, alchemy, esoteric psychology and healing, Gnosticism, Celtic rites of passage, the Mystery of the Grail, mystical Christianity, and Pathwork along the Jewish Qabalah's eternal Tree of Life. And there are more, I'm sure, but these are the ones I am familiar with.

The lineage of the Western Mystery Tradition can be traced back to Atlantis, Eden, ancient Sumeria, and the paradisal arctic Hyperboreans. These teachings are carried forward by many Western world spiritual groups, some of whom you may recognize by name: the Rosicrucian Order, Freemasons, Theosophists, the Alice Bailey teachings, Gnostics, Alchemists, Christian Mystics, Rudolph Steiner's Anthroposophists, and the Hermetic Orders of the Golden Dawn and Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.), the goddess traditions and many of the Native traditions such as shamanism rooted in the Inca, Maya, and Aztec cultures. A re-emergence of this great metaphysical Tradition is occurring now for today's troubled world. So you may be feeling the Call to re-unite with your own inner terrestrial/celestial lineage, pre-coded in your DNA. Some of the following may serve as a reminder of your own former training and ancestry:

• the Greek Eleusinain and Orphic schools who utilized pageantry and ecstatic non-ordinary states to access the mystery of death/rebirth, art, and beauty;
  
• the Egyptian Hermeticists or Initiates of Isis and Osiris with their specific techniques for translating wisdom from the higher worlds into ordinary life, often through the arts;
  
• the Persian Zoroastrians known for battling the tension of the opposites of good and evil, or the higher and lower worlds;
  
• Xthe Celtic Orders who sought the Mystery of Middle Earth and the Mystery of the Grail;
  
• the Knights of the Templar who were sacrificed by the Romans for their belief in spiritual knowledge transmitted directly;
  
• the Gnostic Christians and Essenes who underwent the Christian initiations and knew the real Jesus and Mary Magdalene and the true mission of The Christ;
  
• the Jewish mystics, begetters of the sacred Qabalah and its eternal Tree of Life;

....to name but a few.

My metaphysical training has come mostly from three of the Hermetic Mystery Schools that remain in existence today: The Order of the Golden Dawn; the Builders of the Adytum; and the Rosicrucian Order. And I am a teacher of Tarot, numerology, and esoteric psychology from the Theosophical Alice Bailey works.

You will find yourself in one or several of these metaphysical schools by a sense of “recognition.” The ego learns through cognition; the soul remembers through "re-cognition" — an “aha!”

Now, let me give you some definitions that might be helpful to you who are new to the Path:

1) The word Arcane refers to the authentic symbols that are magic, mental, psychic and moral operations. They cannot be memorized; they require an activity more profound for they awaken the soul. We meet them by going “into the night worlds” of the subjective life in the “secret of our hearts.” They reveal to us that which we must know in order to be fruitful in a given domain of the spiritual life. These symbols — such as a Major Arcana Tarot card or Trump or an astrological sign — function like “enzymes” which stimulate your psychic (or soul) life. We become “fertile” which means we are more able to make discoveries and engender our true soul's expression through creative ideas and artistic pursuits.

2) The word Mystery is superior to an Arcanum. A mystery is not just a stimulant to the psyche; it is a spiritual event — such as a death or rebirth of some part of yourself — which creates an actual shift in your inner motivation and moves you to a new place in consciousness.

3) The Mysteries were acted out in Mystery Schools, which are made up of soul families who come together lifetime after lifetime to manifest a certain aspect of the evolutionary process for the sake of the world. They are already prepared for this work before they are born. These are the inner side of “tribes” and work with set pieces arranged from material provided from the psyche, called “inner work.” Dramas, pageantry, and Rites of Passage, on the other hand, are the outer side of the mysteries and work with set pieces arranged from material provided by our outer lives. Both offer a way for our consciousness to live in different dimensions beyond our physical reality so we can gather higher and greater meanings from our ordinary events. Remember, in the metaphysical Gospel of Thomas, Jesus said: “When the inner and the outer become one, then you enter the Kingdom.” The Mystery Schools are here to help manifest the Kingdom of God on earth.

4) Sacred or High Magic is the technology of the Imagination. It always works for the good of the whole and never for anyone's aggrandizement. High magic brings the ordinary world into relationship with the Otherworlds. A “magical existence” is one where we can see the extraordinary within the ordinary. All sacred magic puts God first, and teaches us to detach and absorb at will.

5) Symbols are the mediators between dimensions. They are the carriers of meaning and universal energy. Symbol codes are the “key to the Trade” in metaphysics and create energy exchanges between realities. In the non-physical worlds the soul is held together by a symbolic form.

To enter the Mysteries and work with them we must become our own master. Only those who can keep full control of themselves while traversing the inner worlds are acceptable candidates. Mastery of the sacred arts is not only to be gained but maintained by people of virtue. The sacred arts bring out the hidden side of a person, including the shadow, rather quickly. Once a channel is established between the inner and outer Self, surges of energy are exchanged and the tension can be explosive — a short circuit —when subjective meets objective. So we want the circuits properly prepared and maintained before the switch is turned on.

To make oneself failsafe from pitfalls in working with the sacred arts, here are some ways of protection:

1) Establish a benevolent Deity-figure to relate to inwardly.
2) Clear your psyche of any psychological “unfinished business” that could cause your ego to be needy for power or feeling special.
3) Tie your practices to disciplines that bring out the best in you and hold you steady in transformational work.
4) Be loving, industrious and hard-working, willing to study and to do your own inner work.
5) Stay in good physical health.

Though metaphysical factors do operate behind all the functions of the physical world, they should never stop us from being fully in this world and never causing us to see the human world as “beneath us” or “improper” in any manner whatsoever. This violates our sacred reason for being here. We've come to blossom the Human Kingdom in all its glory. Therefore, our willingness to be fully human is our most precious gift to our Creator.

In closing, I'm reminded of the words of the great writer and philosopher, Arnold Toynbee:

“At a time of crisis in any civilization certain individuals
turn from the outer world to the inner life of the psyche
and, discovering there a new way of life, return to the
outer world to form a creative minority which acts as a
leaven for the renewal of that civilization.”

— quoted in Gareth Knight's, A Practical Guide to
Qabalistic Symbolism, Vol. II, p. 9 (out of print)

If you are interested in pursuing more study in a Western Mystery School with members of your soul family here to help usher in the new psychology which marries our human nature with the divine, you are welcome to attend our next Mystery School session. (though most sessions are open to the public, some require that a past session be attended). Vist the Eupsychia Institute Mystery School home page or email me at jacquie@austin.rr.com.

EUPSYCHIA INSTITUTE, INC. • PO BOX 151960 • AUSTIN, TX 78715 • (800) 546-2795
eupsychia@austin.rr.com

© 2003 Jacquelyn Small. Eupsychia Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.
Eupsychia is a non-profit service organization under IRS code 501(c)(3)