Regarding Acclerate Your Initiation Month
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In the Bardon tradition, November is Accelerate Your Initiation Month. The reason for this is that November is a fairly interesting time of the year. On the one hand, many Bardonists can look back on the year and realize that most of the year has gone by and they are still stuck on the same step and still haven't made any progress through IIH. But on the other hand, there is still some time left in the year with which to make progress. Once November comes around, one has two months left before the year ends. You can make a fair amount of progress through IIH in two months, but only if you use that time very wisely.
Personally, I get the idea behind Accelerate Your Initiation Month, but I find it a bit silly. From my point of view, every month should be Accelerate Your Initiation Month. When the year begins and it is January, treat January as if it were Accelerate Your Initiation Month. When February rolls around, treat February as if it were Accelerate Your Initiation Month. Do this for every month. Then, when November comes, you will already have made a lot of progress through IIH, and you won't be desperately scrambling to make at least some progress before another year has gone by.
Nice to see a new post. Is there a way I could sign up for your email list? frateriac@gmail.com. I'd appreciate it. As to this particular comment, I have been working seriously since March of this year. Note that last time I commented, I said I was using the seven deadly sins (pride, wrath, gluttony, lust, greed, envy and sloth) as the overall theme for my six-pronged approach. This approach did work. Quite well, in fact. It never stops, though. Each day there are one or more new things that show up to work on. Yet, I have achieved enough balance to move on to Step III, where I will be for awhile, as that step is quite content rich. Anyway, thanks for being a fine teacher. I mean it. Your latest book, Wisdom for My Younger Self, was quite good and gave me substantial help in being more successful. Again, I would appreciate if you would add me to your email list, if you still have such a thing going. - A serious question: Clark's 2nd edition has new narrative which says that when I have experienced the actual Fire element, I should begin working with Air, and so on until I'm working with all four elements each day. However, his first text, found later in this book, says I should wait until I am able to accumulate the actual element, then implies I should put that aside and work on the next element by itself. Have you any feedback? Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving! (we are celebrating this coming Saturday, because my children will all be in town, as well as the grandkids).
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear that approach worked. I kind of think of Step 2 as the "weed out" step of IIH, and it's the astral work of that step that makes it especially challenging. So if you're past that, I think the worst is behind you as far as IIH goes, although of course initiation is always a work in progress.
DeleteRegarding the email list, that was a 2021 only thing. All of the emails I sent to that list are compiled together in a book called Marian Hermetics which should be published sometime next year. After I ended the email list, a Christian Hermetics group was created on Facebook that is sort of a continuation of it. It's not very active, but the link is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/638124047463434
Regarding your question about Rawn, I'm not sure if you heard about this, but Rawn recently released a new book and video series called Companions Along the Way. If you google it, you should be able to find the videos on YouTube and the accompanying book on Amazon. I haven't had time to watch any of the videos or read the book yet, but based on discussions I've read about it, it seems like Rawn changed Step 3 by moving the elemental accumulation to Step 4. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but I disagree with his reasoning. He seems to think Step 3 is a bit early to be accumulating the elements, but IMO if the student has truly completed the astral work of Step 2, then it should be find to begin accumulating the elements at Step 3. That's based on my own experience. I pretty much followed Bardon's instructions for that step as exactly as possible. They're pretty straightforward and simple. But as for this new basic elemental breathing Rawn adds to Step 3 to replace the elemental accumulation, I do think that would help students get in contact with the elements and thus prepare them to eventually accumulate the elements.
There is another group on Facebook with members who have read the Companions Along the Way book and watched the YouTube videos, and may be able to give you a better summary of the changes Rawn made to Step 3 than I can: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1281196761935188
Like I said, I haven't had time to read the book or watch the videos myself yet, and am just going off of other discussion about the book/videos I've read, so I'm not the most reliable person to ask about this.
Anyhow, thanks for your comment, and happy Thanksgiving to you as well!
I wanted to give you a profound thanks for citing Paramahansa Yogananda. I continue to work with the elements of Fire and now Air, and am learning to accumulate and even play a little with VE. I have acquired the book on Kriya Yoga and am amazed at the similarity with Daskalos, the limited number of Christian mystics, I've been reading, and even Bardon himself. These similarities do indeed speak to a sort of 'primal' or original religion. Over the holidays, I took the entire two weeks off, as I usually do, partly to be with the grandkids, but also this year to really accelerate my Bardon practice. But, alas, the first Monday (Dec. 19th) I came down with the flu, and still have vestiges of the illness even today. My wife came down with it, and our grandson is in hospital because he got it really bad. Now, I'm not crying on your shoulder, but instead am thinking that I learned a valuable lesson here in not lusting for results, and in humility itself - the best laid plans of mice and men and all that. Anyway, thank you again. I will post again on the Facebook forum when I have more to say, because I have discovered through events that I really don't know much of anything as yet. Hope you had a great Christmas and have a really good New Year!
ReplyDeleteYogananda is great. Yeah, I've also noticed that he, Bardon, and Daskalos have many similarities. The thing with Bardon is he gives you the bare-bones info, which is enough. But sometimes it helps to have extra information in addition to the bare-bones info, so that's when I turn to authors like Yogananda and Daskalos, who practice similar systems.
DeleteSorry to hear about your illness. I will keep you and your family members in my prayers. I've had similar experiences where I arranged to have a lot of time to practice and then unexpected things came up preventing me from doing so, so I understand the frustration. I guess this is what the Buddhists mean by dukkha; life never goes exactly how we want it to. But as a Zen saying goes, "The obstacle is the path." I guess that applies regardless of whether the obstacle is illness, a lack of time, sleepiness, etc. Although sometimes it can be very challenging to see how the obstacle is the path and work with the obstacle in such a way that we advance; I guess that is what life is meant to teach us.
Anyhow, looks like I am getting a bit rambly. But thanks for your comment and updates, and happy New Year to you as well!