Sacerdotal Initiation and Royal Initiation

Initiation sacerdotale et initiation royale, January 1931.

Although we deal with it often, particularly in our last work Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power, the question of the relations between the dual sacerdotal and royal functions, and their corresponding initiations, we think it would be of benefit to return to this once again due to certain erroneous conceptions which seem to be spread, and which tend to pre- sent each of the two initiations as forming by themselves a complete whole, so that we are not dealing with two different degrees of hierarchy, but with two irreducible doctrines. The main intention of those who propagate such a conception seems to be simply to oppose Eastern tradi- tions, which is of the sacerdotal or contemplative type, against the West- ern traditions, which are of the royal and warlike or active type; and when they do not go so far as to proclaim one superior to the other, they at least claim that they are on equal footing. It should be added that this is generally accompanied, as far as Western traditions are concerned, by somewhat fantastical historical views of their origin, such as, as an ex- ample, the hypothesis of a primitive and unique 'Mediterranean tradi- tion,' which likely has never existed.

In reality, in the beginning, and before the division of the castes, the dual sacerdotal and royal functions did not exist in distinct and differen- tiated states; they were both contained within their common principle, which is beyond castes, and from which they only emerged in a later phase of the cycle of earthly humanity. It is also clear that once castes have been distinguished, all social structures must have included them both, since they represent different functions that must necessarily co- exist; we cannot conceive of a society comprised solely of Brahmins, nor another composed solely of Kshatriyas. The coexistence of these func- tions imply their hierarchization, according to their nature, and conse- quently that of the individuals who filled these roles; the Brahmin is su- perior to the Kshatriya by nature, and not because he has taken a more or less arbitrary place in society; it is because knowledge is superior to action, because the ‘metaphysical' domain is superior to the 'physical' domain; as the principle is superior to everything that derives from it; and this comes, no less naturally, in the distinction between 'greater mysteries,' which properly constitutes sacerdotal initiation, and 'lesser mysteries,' which properly constitutes royal initiation. However, any tradition, to be regular and complete, must include both forms of initiation, that of the 'greater mysteries' and of the 'lesser mys- teries,' the second being subordinated to the first, as indicated by the very terms that designate them. This subordination could only be denied by the rebellious Kshatriyas, who strove to overthrow normal relations, and in some cases, succeeded in constituting a sort of irregular and incom- plete tradition, which is reduced to the 'lesser mysteries,' the only ones of which they had any knowledge, and falsely presenting this as the total doctrine. In such a case, royal initiation alone remains, moreover being degenerated and deviated by the very fact that it is no longer attached to the principle which legitimized it; as for the opposite case, the case where the sacerdotal initiation alone exists, it is certainly impossible to find any example of this anywhere. This is enough to put things in order: if there are really two types of traditional and initiatic organizations, it is that one is regular while the other is irregular, one complete and the other incomplete; it could not be otherwise, and this is a general principle, in the Occident as well as in the Orient. Admittedly, we have said on many occasions that, in the present state of things at least, contemplative tendencies are much more widespread and active (or rather 'effective') in the East than in the West; but this is only a question of proportion, and not of exclusivity. If there was a tra- ditional organization in the West, which is not the case now, but just as in the East, should include both sacerdotal initiation and royal initiation in one form or another, but always with acknowledgement of the supe- riority of the former over the latter, and regardless of the number of in- dividuals who would respectively be able to receive one or the other of these two types of initiation, because the quantity does not change any- thing about it and cannot in any way change what is inherent in the very nature of things. What acts as an illusion in the West, where any truly initiatic organ- ization has disappeared (in spite of the maintenance in some cases of certain misunderstood symbolic forms), we find it easier to see the ves- tiges of the royal initiation when compared to sacerdotal initiation; and even, by some rather strange phenomena, one sometimes sees reappear- ing, in a more or less fragmented manner, something of these deviated traditions which were, under different circumstances of time and place, the product of the Kshatriyas' revolt, whose ‘naturalistic' character is still the primary mark. It is not appropriate, at least in the current time, to press on this and give specific examples; we will only point out the pre- ponderance often given in such cases to the 'magic' point of view (and one must not exclusively search for more or less extraordinary external effects), which is the result of the alteration of traditional sciences sepa- rated from their metaphysical principle. The 'mixture of castes,' which is to say the destruction of any real hierarchy, which is characteristic of the last period of the Kali-Yuga, makes it much more difficult, at least for those who do not dive into the depths of matters, to determine exactly the real nature of the elements we are discussing; and again, we have not yet arrived at the most con- fusing points. The historical cycle, starting from a superior level to the distinction of castes, must lead, by a gradual descent in the stages we have described elsewhere, to a level below the same distinction, since there are obviously two opposite ways to be separated from the castes: we can be above or below, above the highest, or below the lowest; and if the first of these two cases was the norm for men at the beginning of the cycle, the second will be that of the immense majority in its final phase; we can see such clear indications that this is the case that it would be useless to dwell on it further, for no one can deny the tendency towards moving below, which is one of the most striking characteristics of the present epoch. However, one may object: if the end of one cycle must necessarily coincide with the beginning of another, how can the lowest point reach the highest point? An adjustment must take place, and this will only be possible precisely when the lowest point has been reached; this is related to the 'reversal of the poles.' This recovery will have to be prepared, per- haps even visibly, before the end of the current cycle; but it can only be done by him who, uniting within himself the powers of the Heavens and the Earth, that of the East and the West, manifesting both in the realm of knowledge and in that of action, the dual sacerdotal and royal powers preserved throughout the ages, in the integrity of its unique principle, by the hidden holders of the Primordial Tradition. It would be futile to try and find out when and how such an event will occur, and no doubt it will be far different from one could imagine; the 'mysteries of the Pole' (al- asrār al-qutbānīyyah) are well guarded, and nothing can be known of this before the time is set.