The year 1978 was very special in my life, because on that date I experienced a great revelation within myself, although it would be many years before I became aware of what had been revealed to me.
I was then 28 years old, had just married in 1975 and despite being so young, I had already been searching for years for the path that leads to occult wisdom, because since my adolescence I had been in contact with the philosophical precepts of both Eastern Hindu and Western philosophy through astrological, alchemical, magical and kabalistic knowledge; all this, thanks to the guidance of a true Guru -now deceased- whom I consider my teacher and spiritual father.
When I turned 21 and after 7 years under his instruction and guidance, Andres my teacher considered that I was ready to follow the path of self-knowledge on my own, that is, without the need of his invaluable guidance.
Thus, he let me know that he had come to the conclusion that the path I should follow for my spiritual development was not in Eastern philosophy, but in Western philosophy, even though he was one hundred percent Orientalist.
He then recommended that I investigate the philosophical teachings of the ancient Greeks, especially those of the great philosopher nicknamed Plato, and concluded that from there, if I heeded my intuition, I would find "my own way".
At the time, I was an enthusiastic follower of the Eastern philosophy promulgated by the Chinese martial arts, specifically Taoism, and I remember that I had become hooked on that philosophy in 1972, when I saw on television the first - and in my opinion the only and best - of the famous Kung Fu series starring actor David Carradine in the role of Kwai Chang Caine.
That first film in the series was for me an unforgettable and pleasurable initiatory experience, and I consider it a masterful teaching for those seeking self-knowledge and inner enlightenment.
Six years later, in 1978, I had the great fortune to see another film titled Iron Circle (although its original author called it The Silent Flute) and where the same protagonist of the Kung Fu series played the main role of a blind master who plays a great flute.
In this also highly initiatory film, a young and arrogant martial arts expert competes in a tournament for the right to make a dangerous journey to an island where a famous magician and his sect of followers are said to reside, guarding a secret book containing all the knowledge of the universe, and with whom he must fight to the death to wrest the book from them and seize that knowledge.
The young man defeats all his opponents in the tournament, but is disqualified for fighting dishonestly; even so, he decides to follow the final winner closely, in the hope that he can reach the island and be the one to face the powerful wizard.
As the plot unfolds, the two suitors in the book meet a blind master who plays a large flute and who will show them the obstacles they must face on the way to the island to achieve their goal.
The author of the script of this initiation film tried to use metaphors to reflect the various experiences that he himself, as an unconscious initiate, had to face in this existence in order to become aware of his true mission in life. It also shows the enormous difference between Eastern philosophical thinking (the blind master) and Western thinking (the young and arrogant martial arts expert). Unfortunately, the author of this script died prematurely at the age of 32, in 1973, and could not see his film finished, in which he was to play the character of the blind master of the flute, his name was Bruce Lee.
Few people know that Bruce Lee, besides being a great expert in Chinese martial arts, had a degree in philosophy and that in real life he did not like to fight or participate in competitions, because he only liked to transmit his own philosophy of life, a knowledge that he reached by himself and within himself.
The plot of the film has an unexpected ending, which reveals the true initiatory secret that is jealously guarded in both Eastern and Western initiatory philosophy; the film culminates when the young warrior arrives on the island and meets no resistance from the magician who guards the book, who not only allows him to see it, but asks him to replace him as its new guardian.
When he opens it, the young man is surprised to find that its pages are only made up of mirrors, so the magician explains to him that in reality there is no book at all, that enlightenment can only be found when one knows oneself.
The young warrior, laughing, refuses to take the magician's place and leaves the island, goes to meet the blind master who passes him his flute and tells him that now it will be his turn to serve as master and guide other warriors on their way.
The scene of the mirrors made me understand two things, firstly, that I should concentrate my search on those teachings of the West that would help me to know myself; secondly, that it was through selfless service to others that I could reach my goal and, since then, both have become a kind of beacon that guides and illuminates my steps.
The only true path of the awares initiates
Ancient Greece is considered to be the seed or causal culture that served as the basis for the formation of Western civilization and with it that of our occult and esoteric tradition.
According to our oral tradition, the Greek initiates inherited the occult and initiatory knowledge from the Egyptian civilization, the Egyptians from the Atlantean civilization and the Atlanteans from the Lemurian civilization, so much for the historical and traditional memory of our initiatory heritage.
Tradition has it that Greek philosophers and initiates had a temple dedicated to the god Apollo, who symbolized for them the sun, as the archetypal force or energy that guided those who sought knowledge and enlightenment.
For the common people, this temple was nothing more than a sacred oracle to which they went to consult about the future, but for the Greek initiates it represented the place where the most precious treasure an initiate could find was hidden, the secret of knowledge and ancestral wisdom that would lead them from the state of unconsciousness to that of consciousness.
Thus, there were two types of visitors to the great temple of Apollo at Delphi; one, those who sought guidance through the oracle or divination as to what they should do with their lives; and the other, the unconscious initiates who knew that this temple was a kind of open book on whose walls were inscribed as instructions, 174 maxims to be put into practice by any initiate who wished to reach higher states of consciousness, I have collected here the three that were inscribed just at the entrance of the temple:
Know yourself
Trust brings ruin
Nothing in excess
Tradition also tells that in the most private part of the temple of Apollo, to which only priests and initiates who were considered worthy of entering the temple had access, a message could be read containing the secret that grants to those who reveal it all the knowledge of the vast universe:
"I warn you, whoever you are,
O you who wish to probe the arcana of Nature,
that if you don't find within yourself what you are looking for,
you won't be able to find it outside either.
If you ignore the excellence of your own home,
how can you pretend to find other excellences?
In you is hidden the treasure of treasures.
Oh, man, know thyself
and you will know the Universe and the Gods."
A aware initiate, then, is one who has come to understand and realize that it is not outside himself, nor in what others know or understand, that he will find his purpose and reason for existence in this or other lives.
In our next article I will address the topic: Prosperity and Adversity.
Prof. Publio S. Colmenares B.