Initiation

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Initiation can be attained through a path of spiritual practice which serves the spiritual development and leads the spiritual disciple step by step to initiation. The disciple will work according to literary instructions or seek advice and help from a spiritual teacher who will point out to him suitable exercises for concentration and meditation (soul exercises) and other rules helpful to the training of the spirit. The path of initiation is a path of knowledge on which the spiritual disciple works on his etheric body, after after he has previously purified his astral body. Once he has completed his spiritual training, he becomes an initiate.

„Everything that works only on the astral body is only preparation for the actual esoteric training, for the actual occult training. Occult training begins where we learn to work into the etheric or life body, where man is enabled, through the guidance given him by the occult teacher, to transform the temperaments, inclinations and habits, where man becomes another. With this comes only the insight into the real higher world, that man becomes another man.“ (Lit.:GA 96, p. 258f)

An important principle of occult development

„An important principle in occult development is that of attaching no other value to oneself than that which comes from the achievements in the physical world within the present incarnation. This is extremely important. Any other value must first come on the basis of a higher development, which can only come about when one first stands firm on the ground that one considers oneself to be nothing other than what one has been able to achieve in this incarnation. This is also natural if one looks at the matter objectively, for what one has achieved in the present incarnation is also the result of previous incarnations; it is what karma has made of us up to now. What karma still makes of us we must first have made; we must not include that in our value.“ (Lit.:GA 136, p. 41)

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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