The So-Called Dangers of Initiation

Now they are confronted with theosophy and the secret science with its rigorous, internally logical thinking, which has the source of certainty, like mathematics, within itself, and they are confronted with an enormous disharmony between what they have been accustomed to from the outside world and the demands that are suddenly placed on them. Until now, they have clung to the surface of things; now they see into abysses. They have often lost half their lives and more. They are concerned whether the rest of their lives will be enough to pour everything that confronts them into the holes in their souls that the world has beaten into them. Or they come from this or that social circle and cannot break away from it; then the most terrible obstacles arise for them. The most practical and secure path for them would be to engage in esoteric research, but a thousand threads pull them back. They are confronted with the disharmonies that must arise when the deep, that which the soul longs for, is opposed to the superficial, the external. A peculiar phenomenon emerges in some people, which we can best understand by means of a comparison. Imagine that a corner of a room has not been cleaned for weeks and is very dirty — forgive the analogy. If there is no proper lighting in this room, those who look inside may believe that everything is clean. But once it is properly lit, the disorder becomes apparent. It just depends on whether it is properly lit.