Initiation and Counter-Initiation

Initiation et contre-initiation, February 1932.

We have said to conclude our previous article, that there is something that may be called 'counter-initiation,' which is something that it presents itself as an initiation and which can give this illusion, but which goes against true initiation. Yet, we added that this designation calls for some reservations; indeed, if taken in the strictest sense, it could force us to believe in a sort of symmetry, or an equivalence, so to speak (albeit in the opposing direction), which, is in the claims of those who are attached to it, but which does not exist and cannot exist. It is on this point that it is necessary to insist, because many, being deceived by appearances, imagine that there are in the world two opposing organizations fighting for supremacy, a wrong conception which corresponds to that which, in theological language, puts Satan on the same level as God, and that, rightly or wrongly, is commonly attributed to the Manichaeans. This conception, let us note, amounts to affirming a radically irreducible duality, or in other words, to denying the Supreme Unity which is beyond all oppositions and antagonisms; there is no reason to be surprised that such a negation is the result of the very adherents of 'counter-initiation,' but, at the same time, it shows that the metaphysical truth, even in its most elementary principles, is totally alien to them, and thus their claim destroys itself.

It is important to note before everything else, in its very origins, 'counter-initiation' cannot stand as something independent and autonomous: if it had been spontaneously formed, it would be nothing but a human invention, and thus would not be distinguished from pure and simple 'pseudo-initiation.' To be more than this, as it is in fact, it must necessarily proceed from the sole source to which all initiation is attached, in a way, and, more generally, all that manifests in our world as a 'non-human' element; it proceeds through degeneration to go so far as this 'reversal' which constitutes what can properly be called 'Satanism.' Therefore, it appears that this is, in fact, a deviated and distorted initiation, which, by the same token, no longer has the right to be truly described as initiation since it no longer leads to the essential goal of the latter, and even removes it instead of coming closer to it. It is not enough to speak here of a truncated and reduced initiation at its most inferior part, as it may happen in certain cases; the alteration is much deeper, but there are two different stages in the same process of degeneration. The point of departure is always a revolt against legitimate authority, and the claim to independence that cannot exist, as we have had the opportunity to explain elsewhere;^[305] what immediately results is the loss of all effec- tive contact with a true spiritual center, thus the impossibility of reach- ing the supra-human states; in what still subsists, the deviation can then only worse, passing through different degrees, to arrive in extreme cases, at the 'reversal' of which we have just spoken. A premier consequence of this is that the 'counter-initiation,' what- ever its pretentions may be, is nothing but a dead end, since it is incapa- ble of leading the being beyond the human state; in this very state, be- cause of the ‘reversal' which characterizes it, the modes which it devel- ops are those of the lowest order. In Islamic esoterism, it is said that who- ever brings himself to a certain 'door,' without having reached it in a normal and legitimate way sees the door close before him and is obliged to turn back, not however as a mere layman, which is now impossible, but as sāhir (sorcerer or magician); we cannot give a clearer expression of what this is. Another related consequence of this is that, due to the link with the center being broken, the 'spiritual influence' is lost; this would be enough for us to be able to speak truly of initiation, since this, as we have ex- plained previously, is essentially constituted by the transmission of this influence. However, there is something else which is transmitted, with- out which we would have reduced it to the case of 'pseudo-initiation,' devoid of all efficacity; but it is no more than an influence of a lower order, 'psychic' and no longer 'spiritual,' and which, thus abandoned to itself and without control of a transcendent element, inevitably takes on a 'diabolic' character.^[306] It is also easy to understand that this psychic influence can imitate spiritual influences in its external manifestations, to the point that those who stop at appearances will be mistaken, since it belongs to the order of reality in which these manifestations occur (and do we not say proverbially, in a sense comparable to this, "Satan is the monkey of God?"); but it imitates it, one could say, just as the elements of the same order evoked by the necromancer imitate the conscious being to which they belonged. ^[307] Let us say by the way, this fact is one of those which show that identical phenomena in themselves can differ entirely as to their root causes; this is one of the reasons why, from an initiatic point of view, there should be no importance attributed to such phenom- ena for whatever they may be, they cannot prove anything in relation to pure spirituality. That being said, we can specify the limits within which 'counter-ini- tiation' is likely to oppose true initiation: it is obvious that these limits are those of the human state within its multiple modes; in other words, the opposition can only exist in the field of 'lesser mysteries,' while that of the 'greater mysteries,' which relates to supra-human states, is, by its very nature, beyond such opposition, as it is so completely closed to all that is not true initiation according to traditional orthodoxy. ^[308] As for the 'lesser mysteries' themselves, there will be between initiation and 'coun- ter-initiation,' this fundamental difference: in one, there will only be a preparation for 'greater mysteries;' in the other, they inevitably will be taken as an end in themselves, the access to the 'greater mysteries' being forbidden. It goes without saying that there may be other differences of a more special character; but we shall not enter into these considerations here, of which are a secondary importance from the point of view in which we place ourselves, and which would require a detailed examina- tion of the whole variety of forms that 'counter-initiation' may take. Naturally, centers may be set up by organizations which are linked to 'counter-initiation;' but it will then be purely 'psychic' centers, and not spiritual centers, although they may, by reason of what we have indi- cated above as to the action of corresponding influences, take completely external appearances. It will not be surprising is that these centers them- selves, and not just some of the organizations subordinated to them, may in many cases be in conflict with one another, for the field in which they are situated is one in which all oppositions are given free rein, when they are not harmonized and brought back to unity by the direct action of a principle of a higher order. Hence, as far as the manifestations of these centers or of what emanates from them, there is often an impression of confusion and incoherence which is not illusory; they agree only nega- tively, one could say, in the struggle against the true spiritual centers, insofar as they are at a level that allows such a struggle to engage, which is to say, according to what we have just explained in regards to the field of exclusively 'lesser mysteries.' All that pertains to the 'greater myster-ies' is exempt from such opposition, and even more so the supreme spir-itual center, the source and principle of all initiation, can it not be at-tained or affected to any degree by any struggle whatsoever (and this is why it is said to be 'elusive' or 'inaccessible to violence'); this leads us to point out yet another point which is of particular importance.

Representatives of 'counter-initiation' have the illusion of opposing the supreme spiritual authority, which nothing can oppose, because it is obvious that then it would not be supreme: supremacy admits no duality, and such an assumption is contradictory in itself; but their illusion stems from the fact that they cannot know its true nature. We can go further: despite themselves and without their knowledge, they are subordinated to this authority, in the same way that, as we said before, everything is, even unconsciously and involuntarily, subject to the Divine Will, to which nothing can escape. They are therefore used, though against their own will, for the realization of the divine plan in the human world; like all other beings, they play the role that suits their own nature, but, in-stead of being aware of this role as the true initiates are, they have fooled themselves, and in a way which is worse than the simple ignorance of the profane, since instead of remaining at the same extent from the same point, it results in rejecting even further from the principal center. But, if we consider things, no longer in relation to these beings themselves, but in relation to the whole world, we must say that, as well as the others, they are necessary in the place that they occupy, as elements of the en-semble, and as 'providential' instruments, as one might say in theological language, of the march of the world in its cycle of manifestation; there-fore, they are, in the last resort, dominated by the authority which man-ifests the Divine Will by giving to this world its Law, and which makes them serve its ends in spite of themselves, all the partial disorders neces-sarily having to contribute to the total order.^[309]