INITIATIC TRANSMISSION
We have previously stated that initiation is essentially the transmission of a spiritual influence, a transmission that can only take place through a regular, traditional organization, so that one cannot speak of initiation outside of an affiliation with an organization of this kind. We have explained that 'regularity' must be understood to exclude all pseudo-initiatic organizations, which, regardless of pretension and outward appearance, in no way possess any spiritual influence and thus are incapable of really transmitting anything. It is therefore easy to understand the supreme importance that all traditions attach to what is called the initiatic 'chain,' a succession that ensures the uninterrupted transmission in question; outside of this succession even the observance of ritual forms is in vain, for the clement essential to their efficacy is lacking.
Later we shall consider the matter of initiatic rites in more detail, but first we must answer an objection that could be raised here: do not rites themselves have an intrinsic efficacy? Our reply is that they do indeed, for if they are not properly observed, or if any one of their essential elements is altered, no effective result can be obtained; yet even if these are necessary conditions for the efficacy of rites, they still are not sufficient, for it is also necessary that they be accomplished by those with the proper qualifications. This, it may be noted, is not at all peculiar to initiatic rites but applies to exoteric
rites as well, to religious rites, for example, which have their own particular efficacy yet cannot be validly accomplished by just anyone. Thus, if a religious rite should require priestly ordination, anyone who has not received this ordination would observe all the proper forms in vain, and even if he brought the correct intention to the rite [2] he would obtain no result, for he does not bear the spiritual influence that is to act taking these ritual forms as its support. [3]
Even in rites of a very inferior order that concern only secondary traditional applications, such as magical rites, where the intervening influence is in no way spiritual but merely psychic (understanding thereby in the most general sense, the subtle elements of human individuality and their counterparts in the 'macrocosmic' order), the production of a real effect is also conditioned in many cases by an unambiguous transmission, common country witcheraft furnishing numerous examples in this regard. [4] We will not however emphasize this point, which lies outside our subject, and mention it only to show more clearly that in rites involving the action of influences of a superior order (an order that can properly be called 'nonhuman' and that includes both initiatic and religious rites), a regular transmission is even more indispensable to permit their valid accomplishment.
This is the essential point, and we must again insist upon it: we have already said that the constitution of regular initiatic organizations is not a matter of merely individual initiatives, and exactly the same can be said for religious organizations, for in both cases the presence of something beyond human possibilities is necessary.
Morcover, we can bring these two cases together by saying that both involve the totality of organizations that truly qualify as traditional; it can then be understood without further reflection why we have refused to apply the name tradition to things that are purely human, as profane language mistakenly does. It would not be without benefit to note that in its original sense the word 'tradition' expresses the very idea of transmission that we now have in mind, a point to which we shall return later.
Now, for the sake of convenience we could divide traditional organizations into the 'exoteric' and the 'esoteric', although these two terms understood in their most precise sense cannot perhaps be applied with equal exactitude; for our present purposes, however, it will suffice to understand by 'exoteric' those organizations that in certain forms of civilization are open to all without distinction, and by 'esoteric' those organizations rescrved for an elite that admits only those possessing a particular 'qualification'. Only the last are initiatic organizations, while the former comprise not only specifically religious organizations but also, as seen in Eastern civilizations, social organizations that lack a religious character, though they are also attached to principles of a superior order, which is always the indispensable condition for recognizing them as traditional. Since we do not need to consider exoteric organizations in themselves, but only to compare them with esoteric or initiatic organizations, we can limit ourselves to a consideration of religious organizations, for these are the only traditional exoteric organizations known in the West, so that what pertains to them will be immediately comprehensible to our readers.
In light of the above we can say that all religion in the true sense of the word has a 'non-human' origin and is organized so as to preserve the deposit of an equally 'non-human' clement which it retains from this origin. This element, which belongs to the order of spiritual influences and exerts its effective action by means of the appropriate rites, of which the valid accomplishment furnishes a real support to the influences involved, requires a direct and uninterrupted transmission at the core of the religious organization. If this is true of the merely exoteric order (it is understood, of course, that we are not addressing those negating 'critics' to whom we have
previously referred, who try to reduce religion to a 'human fact' and whose opinions we need not consider any more than anything else that similarly proceeds from anti-traditional prejudices), it must be even more true of a higher order, that is, of the esoteric order. The terms we have just used are broad enough to be retained when we substitute the word initiation for the word religion, in which case the whole difference will lie in the nature of the spiritual influences that enter into play (for there are still many distinctions to make within this domain, in which latter we would include all that pertains to possibilities of a supra-individual order), and especially in the respective ends of their action.
If to make ourselves better understood we focus on the case of Christianity in the religious order, we can then add that the rites of initiation, which have as their immediate aim the transmission of a spiritual influence from one individual to another individual who, in principle at least, can continue the transmission in turn, are precisely analogous in this respect to the rites of ordination. [5] And we may even note that both can contain several degrees, for the plenitude of the spiritual influence is not necessarily communicated at a single stroke with all its implied prerogatives, especially as concerns the actual capacity to exercise particular functions in the traditional organization. [6] Now we know how important the question of 'apostolic succession' is for the Christian churches, and this is not difficult to understand, since, if that succession were somehow interrupted,
ordination would no longer be valid and most rites would then be no more than empty formalities, lacking any effective influence. [7] Those who rightly admit the necessity of this in the religious order should not have the least difficulty understanding its no less rigorous imposition in the initiatic order; in other words, that a regular transmission, constituting the 'chain' of which we have spoken, is also strictly indispensable there.
We have just remarked that initiation must have a 'non-human' origin, for without this it can never attain its final end, which extends beyond the domain of individual possibilities. That is why truly initiatic rites cannot be attributed to human authors; in fact, we can no more know the authors than we can know the inventors of traditional symbols, [8] and for the same reason, for these symbols are equally 'non-human' in their origin and essence. [9] Moreover, there are very strong links between rites and symbols, which we will examine later. Strictly speaking, one can say that in such cases there is no 'historical' origin, since the real origin is situated in a world to which the conditions of time and space, defining historical facts, do not apply, which is why such things will inevitably cscape profane methods of research that by definition, as it were, can lead to relatively valid results only within the purely human order. [10]
In such circumstances it is easy to understand that the role of the individual who confers initiation on another is veritably one of 'transmitter' in the most exact sense of the word. Such a person does not act as an individual, but as the support of an influence not
belonging to the individual order; he is only a link in the 'chain' of which the starting-point lies outside and beyond humanity. This is why he acts not in his own name but in the name of the organization to which he is attached and from which he holds his powers; or, more exactly still, he acts in the name of the principle that the organization visibly represents. This also explains how the efficacy of the rite accomplished by an individual can be independent of the true merit of the individual as such, something that is equally true of religious rites. We do not intend this in any 'moral' sense, which would clearly have no importance to an exclusively 'technical' question, but in the sense that even if the individual lacks the degree of knowledge necessary to comprehend the profound meaning of the rite and the essential reason for its diverse elements, that rite will nonetheless be fully effective if the individual is properly invested with the function of 'transmitter' and accomplishes it while observing all the prescribed rules and with an intention that suffices to determine his consciousness of attachment to the traditional organization. From this it immediately follows that even an organization that at any given time has only what we have called 'virtual' initiates (and we will return to this question later) is nonetheless capable of really transmitting the spiritual influence of which it is the repository. For this to be the case, it is sufficient that the 'chain' be unbroken; in this regard the well-known fable of 'the ass bearing relics' is susceptible to an initiatic interpretation well worth meditating on. [11]
On the other hand, even the complete knowledge of a rite is entirely devoid of any effective value if it has been obtained outside
it (wheteas historical facts themselves are, on the contrary, only valuable when they can be taken as symbols of spiritual realities), commit a serious error to the detriment of the 'transcendence' of this religion. Such an error, which evinces moreover a highly 'materialized' conception and an incapacity to raise oneself to a higher order, can be regarded as a haumful concession to the 'humanist', that is to say the individualistic and anti-traditional, point of view that characterizes the modern Western mind
In this connection it is worth noting that relics are precisely vehicles of spiritual influences, which is the true reason for the cult of which they are the object This is true even if the representatives of the exoteric religions are not always aware of it, for these representatives sometimes seem oblivious to the very 'positive' character of the forces they handle, which nevertheless does not prevent these forces from acting effectively even without their knowledge, although perhaps with less scope than if they were better managed 'technically'.
of regular conditions. It is for this reason-to take a simple example where the rite is reduced essentially to the pronunciation of a word or formula-that in the Hindu tradition a mantra learned otherwise than from the mouth of an authorized guru is without effect because it is not 'vivified' by the presence of the spiritual influence whose vehicle it is uniquely destined to be. [12] This applies in some degree to everything to which a spiritual influence is attached; thus study of the sacred texts of a tradition can never substitute for their direct communication; and this is why, even where traditional teachings are more or less completely available in written form, they still continue to be transmitted orally, for this is indispensable for their full effect (we are not restricting ourselves here to a merely theoretical knowledge) and also guarantees the perpetuation of the 'chain' to which the very life of the tradition is linked. Otherwise, one would be facing a dead tradition to which effective attachment is no longer possible; and although knowledge of what remains of a tradition can still have a certain theoretical interest (beyond merely profane erudition of course, which latter has no value here except insofar as it is capable of aiding the comprehension of certain doctrinal truths), it can in no way promote 'realization' of any kind whatsoever. [13]
In all this it is so completely a matter of communicating something 'vital' that in India no disciple may ever sit facing his guru, in order in order that the action of prana, linked to the breath and to the voice, not be exercised on him too directly, for it might produce a violent shock that could be dangerous psychically, and even physically. [14] This action is all the more powerful because in such a case the prana itself is only the vehicle or subtle support for the spiritual influence transmitted from guru to disciple; and in the exercise of his proper
function the guru must not be considered as an individuality (individuality, except as a mere support, truly disappearing at such time) but only as the representative of the tradition itself, which he incarnates as it were with respect to his disciple, this being exactly the role of 'transmitter' referred to above.