Sacerdotal & Royal Initiation
Although the preceding chapter suffices on the whole to characterize sacerdotal and royal initiation clearly enough, we believe we must dwell somewhat further on the question of the relationship between them because of certain erroneous conceptions we have encountered from diverse quarters which tend to present each of these initiations as forming a complete whole by itself, so that they appear to be two irreducible types of doctrine and not two different hierarchical degrees. The pincipal intention of those who propagate such a conception generally seems to be to oppose the Eastern traditions, considered to be of a sacerdotal or contemplative type, to the Western taaditions, which are taken to be of the royal and warrior or active type; and even when they do not go so far as to proclaim the superiority of the latter over the former, they do at least put them on an equal footing. Let us add incidentally that when it is a question of the Western traditions, this is usually accompanied by rather fantastic views of their historical origins, as, for example, in the hypothesis of a primitive and unique 'Mediterranean tradition', which very probably never existed.
In reality, at their origins and prior to the division into castes, the two functions, sacerdotal and royal, did not exist in distinct and differentiated states; they were both contained in their common principle which is above castes, and from which they emenged only in a late phase of the cycle of terrestrial humanity. [1] It is evident
moreover that from the time the castes came to be distinguished, every social organization has had to include them equally in one form or another, since they represent different functions that must necessarily coexist; one cannot after all conceive of a society composed solely of Brahmins, nor of another composed solely of Kshatriyas. The coexistence of these functions naturally implies their hierarchization in conformity with their own nature, and consequently that of the individuals comprising them; the Brahmin is superior to the Kshatriya by nature, not because he has more or less arbitrarily taken first place in society; he is superior because knowledge is superior to action, because the 'metaphysical' domain is superior to the 'physical' domain as the principle is superior to what derives from it; and from this no less naturally arises the distinction between the 'greater mysteries', which constitute the sacerdotal initiation proper, and the 'lesser mysteries', which constitute the royal initiation.
Thus to the extent that every tradition is regular and complete, it must simultaneously comprise in its esoteric aspect these two initiations, or more exactly, these two parts of initiation, namely the 'greater mysteries' and the 'lesser mysteries'; the second is in any case subordinate to the first, as their very names clearly indicate. This subordination could only have been denied by rebel Kshatriyas who strove to reverse the normal relationships and who, in certain cases, were able to set up a sort of irregular and incomplete tradition that was reduced to what corresponds to the domain of the 'lesser mysterics', the only one they knew and which they presented falsely as the total doctrine. [2] In such a case, only the royal initiation remains, degenerate and deviant moreover because it is no longer attached to the principle that made it lawful; as for the contrary case, where the sacerdotal initiation alone might exist, it is impossible to find an example of this anywhere, which suffices to substantiate our point: if there are truly two types of traditional and initiatic organization, it is because one is regular and normal and the other irregular and abnormal, one complete and the other incomplete
(and, it must be added, necessarily incomplete on its higher side). Things could not be otherwise, and this is true in an absolutely general way, in the West as well as in the East.
As we have said on many occasions, contemplative tendencies are much more widespread in the East, at least in the present state of things, and active tendencies (or rather, 'busyness' in the most outward sense) is more common in the West; but this is after all only a question of proportion and not of exclusivity. If there were a traditional organization in the West (by which we mean an integral traditional organization that effectively possesses both the csoteric and exoteric aspects), it would normally include, as do those in the East, both the sacerdotal and the royal initiations, whatcver particular forms they might assume to adapt themselves to the conditions of their environment; but the superiority of the first over the second would always be recognized, whatever the number of those respectively qualified to receive one or the other initiation, for number plays no role here and could in no way modify what is inherent to the very nature of things. [3]
What can deceive is the fact that in the West, although the royal initiation no more exists than does the sacerdotal, [4] one more readily finds vestiges of the first than of the second. This is especially due to the links that generally exist between royal initiation and the craft
initiations, as we said above, and for this reason such vestiges are to be met with in organizations derived from those craft initiations that still exist in the Western world. [5] But there is more. By a strange phenomenon, one sometimes observes the more or less fragmentary but still very recognizable re-appearance of something from these diminished and deviated traditions that were the product, in very different circumstances of time and place, of the revolt of the Kshatriyas; the principal mark of these things is always their 'naturalistic' character. [6] Without wishing to pursue the matter, we will only draw attention to the preponderance often accorded in such cases to a certain 'magical' point of vicw (by which we need not understand exclusively a quest for outward and more or less extraordinaty effects, as in the case of pseudo-initiation), which results from the alteration of the traditional sciences when they are scparated from their metaphysical principle. [7]
Moreover, the 'mingling of castes', that is to say in the final analysis the destruction of all true hierarchy that is characteristic of the final phase of the Kali-Yuga, [8] renders it more difficult, especially for those who do not go to the heart of things, to determine cxactly the real nature of elements such as those to which we are alluding; and we have doubtless not yet arrived at the most extreme degree of this
confusion. Having started at a level higher than the distinction of the castes, the historical cycle, by a gradual descent the various stages of which we have traced elscwhere, [9] must end at a level lower than this same distinction, for as we said above there are obviously two opposed ways of being beyond caste: one can be above or below, that is, above the highest or below the lowest of them; and if the first case was normal for men at the beginning of the cycle, the second will have become so for the immense majority in its final phase; we now see such clear evidence of this that it would serve no purpose to dwell further on this point, since no one, unless he be completely blinded by certain prejudices, can deny that this tendency to a leveling from below is one of the most striking characteristics of the present. [10]
One could however raise this objection: if the end of one cycle must necessarily coincide with the beginning of another, how can the lowest point rejoin the highest point? We have already answered this question elsewhere. [11] A rectification will indeed have to take place, and this will only be possible precisely when the lowest point is reached; this relates to the secret of the 'reversal of the poles'. Moreover, this rectification will have to be prepared, even visibly, before the end of the present cycle; but this can only be done by one who, by uniting in himself the powers of Heaven and Earth, of East and West, will manifest outwardly, both in the domain of knowledge and in that of action, the twin sacerdotal and royal power that has been preserved across the ages in the integrity of its unique principle by the hidden keepers of the primordial tradition. But it would be vain to seek to learn at present just when and how such a manifestation will occur, and doubtless it will be very different from anything one could imagine; the 'mysteries of the Pole' (al-asrār-alqu(bāniyalt) are assuredly well guarded, and nothing will be known of them outwardly until the fixed time is accomplished.