The Training & Work of an Initiate by Dion Fortune

Author:Dion Fortune
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781609254698
Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser

CHAPTER VIII

A GROUND-PLAN OF ILLUMINISM II

OCCULTISM differs from Mysticism in that it makes no attempt at any direct or immediate approach to its goal, but rather seeks to establish a graded way to the Divine Union which it recognises, equally with Mysticism, as the ultimate goal of evolution. Working from this standpoint, it neither condemns nor disregards the material conditions in which we find ourselves, but accepts them as part of the soul's discipline and proceeds to study them, first, with a view to harmonising the soul with its environment, and, secondly, with a view to exercising a controlling, or at least a modifying, influence over that environment.

It may be alleged that the above is a counsel of perfection, and that occultists seek knowledge and power for their own sakes and with no higher motive than to manipulate their environment for their own benefit rather than to transcend it. This is undeniably true of many students of the Occult Arts, but a profession cannot justly be judged by its black sheep. Let us rather consider what Occultism is in the hands of its worthiest exponents.

The aim of occult initiations, rightly understood, is to lead the mind by a graded way to clearer and clearer apprehensions of spiritual truth as fast as consciousness becomes fitted to realise them. It is impossible to take the average man direct from his ordinary state of mind into the higher kinds of prayer and mystical consciousness, but it is quite feasible to lead him step by step through successive interpretations of a symbol-system to such an understanding and realisation. This is what an occult initiation should aim to do, and it falls short of achievement if it stops at any intermediary stage on the Path and declares that here is the ultimate enunciation of the Truth, for Truth can never be enunciated at all in its ultimate form, as is well known to all mystics.

In the end the Occult Path must terminate at the Mystic Goal, it has no end of itself; but as the mystic's way is steep and direct, so is the occultist's by contrast circuitous, but nevertheless, being circuitous, it is graded to a gentler incline. And indeed it is doubtful whether, at the present stage of evolution, it would be either possible or generally justifiable to abandon humanity to its problems and go straight up the Hill of Vision. After all, the occultist remains in touch with the lower slopes, ascending and descending upon the Jacob's Ladder of psychism and bearing his brethren company upon their journey.

When all is said and done, however, the choice of the Mystic or the Occult Path depends upon temperament; as the old saying has it, it takes all sorts to make a world, and no doubt a world composed exclusively of either the one or the other would prove unworkable. We cannot therefore undertake to contribute to the long-outstanding dispute between the occultist and the mystic except by the suggestion that both have their place in God's scheme.

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