“Initiation” and “Initiate” are terms (like so many in modern metaphysical circles) which are given a variety of somewhat ill-defined meanings.  It is usually necessary to deconstruct what a particular person, group, or tradition means when they use these terms, because they may be used with very different connotations (which may be quite incommensurable).

There have been numerous sensationalistic - and factually inaccurate - predictions that the end of the Mayan Calendar in Dec. 2012 means the end of the world.  This is actually not part of any classical understanding of the calendar, it is entirely a modern invention.

December 21, 2012 is not the end of the world. It is the beginning of another great

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In Christian esotericism there are nine ranks of spiritual beings who are older in cosmic evolution than human beings: they are traditionally referred to as the ‘Spiritual Hierarchies’. We Human Beings are the group of younger spirits currently undergoing spiritual initiation and awakening on the Earth...

We think of a plant, how it has its roots in the soil, how it sends out leaves one after another, and blossoms at length into flower. Now we imagine a man standing beside the plant. The thought lights up in our mind that the man has characteristics and capabilities which can truthfully be called more perfect than are those…

Ancient spiritual mysteries are -- rightfully -- a source of great fascination for modern spiritual seekers. They come from time when humanity had greater faculties of direct spiritual perception, and hold tremendous secrets of the spiritual origins and destiny of the human being.
The deep esoteric knowledge of every tradition, whether ancient or modern, is always linked to practical methods of Spiritual

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