Initiation or Consecration

Having characterized in this way the mood that should prevail in the principle of initiation, let us go into a little more detail about what is called the development of the abilities that lie dormant in human beings. We will start with the obvious and move on to the more distant. Three abilities are already there for ordinary observation: thinking, feeling, and willing, thought, feeling, and will. That is what you find in the human soul. That is the level of the average human being. All three abilities are capable of development. First, thinking: even if it is developed to the finest and most intimate degree, thinking cannot take human beings beyond this physical world. Nevertheless, thinking is the first stage of development when it comes to going beyond the physical world. This is an apparent contradiction, but one that will soon be resolved. I will shortly speak about the principles of initiation that were common in the secret schools over the last few centuries and which today may be communicated to the public in their basic principles by those who know something about them.