initiation
The Circuit of Initiation
Potential is realized—is made real—when awakened and activated through initiation. The Holy Spirit who set our heroes of faith in motion calls us to initiation. Consider when Melchizedek came out with bread and wine to initiate Abram (Genesis 14:18), or when Moses commissioned Joshua through the laying on of hands (Deuteronomy 34:9). To initiate Elisha, Elijah threw his mantle over him (1 Kings 19:19). Yeshua sought John for baptism (Matthew 3:13), but John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Yeshua answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:14-15). Initiation happens through a circuit of giving and receiving. Both must submit to this circuit for initiation to transpire. Like a lit candle touching an unlit candle, the will to impart joins with the will to receive. When both disappear in this reciprocal circuit of light, initiation fulfills all righteousness.
We Need Initiation
The entire way of the gospel is founded on initiation. Through Yeshua’s submission to baptism, the Spirit of Messiah entered him. While the potential of Messiah was with him at birth, the awakening and activation of Messiah required the initiation of John the Baptist. Submitting to initiation fulfills all righteousness. This submission of our potential to activation with another who has more experience, knowledge, and actualization guards us against the hubris of being “self-made.” Individualism confuses information with knowledge and recognition with realization and deludes many individuals to claim unfounded titles of themselves. Apart from a Spirit-filled initiation, the gnostic experience of higher, expanded states of consciousness, of greater, dimensional depths, and nearness, even oneness with God, are inaccessible. When Yeshua submitted to initiation, he modeled the way to Messiah. He needed initiation. So do we.
Initiation in Our Tradition
People who seek initiation in our tradition will experience a three-fold rite of baptism, chrism, and Wedding Feast, or Eucharist. This simple, outdoor ceremony in living water models the way John initiated Yeshua and his gospel: Our old self dies in the water; who we truly are rises up from the same living waters. We’re then marked with holy oil on our brow and sealed in remembrance of Me—the bread and wine—of Messiah’s body and blood. This is the outer form of our three-fold rite of initiation. With time and integration into our community, the Holy Spirit might inspire the three-fold rite of the mystic word, radiant holy breath, and laying on of hands. This inner ceremony of initiation mirrors the outer, but in a heightened degree of intensity. The word one hears is as God speaking to one’s soul. The breath one feels breathed upon them is as the breath of the Risen Savior upon the disciples. The laying on of hands communicates the fullness of the Holy Spirit to every layer of oneself. Through this inner rite of initiation, many companions in our tradition have experienced gnosis—the Light Transmission of the Messiah—the knowledge beyond words or concepts that one has never been apart from the Holy One.
Learn More
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI7rIhR4uWs&t=50s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emrrjEiReBc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP14oPRXyOc&t=2184s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWatDnghu3o&t=2952s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIQeOdic68A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BljLL4DEG-Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o94IZRDLLbs
http://www.sophian.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3316#p3316