39 The Greater & Lesser Mysteries
We have already spoken of the distinction between the 'greater mysteries' and the 'lesser mysteries', names borrowed from Greek antiquity but in reality susceptible of an altogether general application; we must now dwell a little longer on the subject in order to show how this distinction is to be understood. What must be understood above all else is that these are not different kinds of initiation, but stages or degrees of the same initiation when considered as a complete whole that must be pursued to its ultimate end; in principle, the 'lesser mysteries' are therefore only a preparation for the 'greater mysteries' since their terminus is only one stage on the initiatic path. We say 'in principle' for it is quite clear that each being can progress only to the point where its own possibilities come to an end; thus, some may be qualified only for the 'lesser mysteries', or even for a somewhat limited aspect of these; but this only means that they are not capable of following the initiatic path to its end and not that they are following a different path from that of those who are able to go further.
The 'lesser mysteries' comprise all that is related to the development of the possibilities of the human state envisaged in its entirety; they therefore end in what we have called the perfection of this state, namely in what is traditionally called the restoration of the 'primordial state'. The 'greater mysteries', on the other hand, concern the realization of the supra-human states: taking the being at the point where the 'lesser mysteries' have left it, that is, the center of the domain of human individuality, they lead it beyond this domain,
through the supra-individual states that are still conditioned, to the unconditioned state that alone is the true goal of all initiation and that is called the 'final Deliverance' or the 'Supreme Identity'. To characterize these two phases, one can apply geometric symbolism [1] and speak of 'horizontal realization' and 'vertical realization' respectively, the first serving as a basis for the second. This basis is represented symbolically by the earth, which corresponds to the human domain, and the supra-human realization is then described as an ascent through the heavens, which correspond to the superior states of the being. [2] Moreover, it is easy to understand why the second necessarily presupposes the first: the center of the human state is the only point where direct communication with the superior states is possible, and this is accomplished along the vertical axis which intersects the human domain at this point; it is therefore necessary to have reached this center first in order to raise oneself thereafter along the axis to the supra-individual states; and this is why, to use the language of Dante, the 'Terrestrial Paradise' is a stage on the path leading to the 'Celestial Paradise'.3
We have elsewhere cited and explained a text in which Dante relates the 'Celestial Paradise' and the 'Terrestrial Paradisc' to what are, from the traditional point of view, the respective roles of the spiritual authority and the temporal power, in other words, to the priestly and royal functions; [4] we will content ourselves with recalling briefly the important consequences that follow from this correspondence according to our present point of view. The 'greater mysteries' are indeed directly related to 'sacerdotal initiation',
and the 'lesser mysteries' to 'royal initiation';[5] if we use terms borrowed from the terminology of the Hindu system of castes, we can say that normally the first can be regarded as the proper domain of the Brahmins and the second that of the Kshatriyas. [6] It can be added that the first of these two domains is 'supernatural' or 'metaphysical', whereas the second is only 'natural' or 'physical', and this in fact effectively corresponds to the respective attributes of spiritual authority and temporal power; this also allows us to distinguish clearly between the orders of knowledge to which the 'greater mysteries' and 'lesser mysteries' refer and which they effect for that part of initiatic realization that concerns them: the 'lesser mysteries' essentially imply a knowledge of nature (envisaged, of course, from the traditional rather than the profane point of view, which latter is that of the modern sciences), while the 'greatcr mysteries' imply the knowledge that is beyond nature. Pure metaphysical knowledge therefore properly derives from the 'greater mysteries' and knowledge of the traditional sciences from the 'lesser mysteries'; and since the first is the principle from which all the traditional sciences necessarily derive, the 'lesser mysteries' depend entirely upon the 'greatcr mysteries' and there find their very principle, just as temporal power depends for its legitimacy upon spiritual authority, where it also finds its principle.
We have spoken only of the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas, but must not forget that the Vaishyas can also be qualified for initiation; in fact, we find everywhere, as if especially destined for them, initiatic forms that are based on the practice of the crafts; we will not reexamine these here since we have sufficiently explained their principle and purpose elsewhere, [7] and since we shall have to speak of them again on different occasions, for it is precisely to such forms that everything that still exists of initiatic organizations in the West
is linked. For Vaishyas cven more than for Kshatriyas, the most suitable initiatic domain is that of the 'lesser mysteries'; this community of domain, so to speak, has moreover frequently led to contacts between the forms of initiation destined for each, [8] and consequently to rather close relations among the organizations by which these forms are respectively practiced. [9] It is cvident that beyond the human state the individual differences upon which the craft initiations are essentially based disappear entirely and can no longer play any role; once the being has reached the 'primordial state', the differeniations that give rise to diverse 'specialized' functions no longer exist, even though it is here that all these functions have their source, or rather, for this very reason; and it is indeed a matter of returning to this common source, by going to the very limit of the 'lesser mysteries', if one would possess in its plenitude all that is implied by the exercise of any function.
If we look at the history of humanity as taught by traditional doctrines, in conformity with cyclical laws, we must say that at the beginning man, by the very fact that he was in full possession of his state of existence, naturally possessed the possibilities corresponding to all functions, prior to any distinction among them. The division of these functions occurred at a later stage that represents a state already inferior to the 'primordial state', but one in which each human being, even while having no more than certain determinate possibilities, still possessed an effective consciousness of these possibilities. It was only in a period of greater obscuration that this consciousness came to be lost; and since that time, initiation has become necessary to permit mankind to recover the earlier state which is inherent to it, together with a consciousness of it. This indeed is its primary goal, that which it has most immediately in
view. Such a possibility implies a transmission reaching back by an uninterrupted 'chain' to the state to be restored, and thus, step by step, to the 'primordial state' itself; yet initiation does not stop here, and as the 'lesser mysteries' are only a preparation for the 'greater mystcries', that is, for the acquisition of the higher states of the being, it is finally necessary to go back even beyond the origins of humanity; and this is why the question of an 'historical' origin of initiation is entirely devoid of meaning. Moreover, it is the same with regard to the origin of the crafts, arts, and sciences, when these are considered traditionally and legitimately; all of them, spanning multiple though secondary differentiations and adaptations, derive equally from the 'primordial state' which contains them all in principle; and by this they are linked to the other orders of existence, beyond humanity itself, so that they can, each in its own level and according to its own measure, effectively work toward the realization of the 'plan of the Great Architect of the Universe'.
We must still add that since the 'greater mysteries' have for their domain pure metaphysical knowledge, which is essentially one and immutable by very reason of its principial character, it is only in the domain of the 'lesser mysteries' that deviations can occur; and this accounts for many things concerning certain incomplete initiatic organizations. In a general way, these deviations imply that the normal link with the 'greater mysteries' has been broken, so that the 'lesser mysteries' are taken as an end in themselves; under such conditions they cannot really reach their term but are as it were scattered in a development of more or less secondary possibilities, a development that, not being ordered to a higher end, therefore risks acquiring a 'disharmonic' character which, precisely, constitutes the deviation. From another point of view, it is also in the 'lesser mysleries', and here only, that the 'counter-initiation' is capable of setting itself against true initiation and of entering into battle with it; [10] the domain of the 'gretter mysteries', which relates to the suprahuman states and to the purely spiritual order, is by its very nature beyond such opposition and therefore entirely closed to all that is
not true initiation as defined by traditional orthodoxy. The result of all this is that the possibility of deviation exists as long as the being has not been rcintegrated into the 'primordial state', but it ceases to exist once the being has reached the center of the human individuality; and this is why it can be said that whoever has reached this point, namely the accomplishment of the 'lesser mysteries', is already virtually 'delivered', [11] although he is not delivered effectively until he has traveled the path of the 'grcater mysteries' and finally realized the 'Supreme Identity'.