By Martin Gauthier
I am an avid reader. My personal library contains hundreds of works. Due to lack of space, new books are now more often than not shelved electronically. The works I bought over the years remain essentially of a nonfiction nature, ranging from philosophy to education, history, science and technology. I have what I consider many gems, some originating from private sources. One of them stands out to the point I consider it to be the most influential book I have ever read: Initiation, by Elizabeth Haich.
I remember to this day how I acquired it, twenty years ago. I was walking down the aisles of a bookstore, looking at various titles in the esoteric section. Suddenly, I stopped in front of a book with the picture of a young woman with athletic features, dressed as an Egyptian priestess standing in front of a temple entrance, her arms crossed and her piercing pale eyes staring straight at me. Then the title caught my attention. I did not know who this Hungarian spiritual teacher was at the time. But one of the things I liked about the book was the fact that it was written well before the New Age craze that brought forth so many books of a dubious nature that gave and continue to give a bad name to spirituality. When I presented myself at the cashier to pay for a copy of Initiation, the cashier looked at it with a quizzical expression on her face and said: “Oh, you’re buying that book.”
Initiation was written as an autobiography. It almost reads like a novel as Mrs. Haich’s narrative criss-crosses between her 20th Century life and her past life as a neophyte and priestess in Ancient Egypt, in a time frame where lions were tamed by initiates and used to pull chariots. I say ‘almost’, because what constitutes the body of the book certainly does not read like a thriller. But it is as captivating.
One of her disciples tells us in the introduction of the book that Initiation came to be only after he told the author that telling her life story would be an inspiration for all who want to know how she was initiated, even though Elizabeth Haich insisted that each and every one of us has to follow his or her own path to achieve ‘recognition of self’. For those of the secular world who do not know what initiation is, suffice to say that it is the traditional way used since the dawn of history by schools and spiritual teachers to have those who aspire to be conscious at the highest level possible, to be able to experience consciousness on the divine plane.
Those who are not yet quite ready to follow this long and difficult path can fall back on what I consider is the main feature of the book: the presentation of invaluable and timeless teachings usually available only within the confines of traditional schools. These teachings dispensed mostly by the Egyptian High Priest Ptahhotep are so far-reaching that it takes many readings to discover. They encompass all known levels of manifestations of life. Ptahhotep explains with remarkable clarity and depth, among many other things
- the workings of universal laws
- how energy works
- how duality operates and is at the base of heightened awareness for whoever masters its characteristics
- how telepathy or thought transference works
- how sacred geometry operates dimensionally to constitute the building blocks of matter
- how the Universal Intelligence – God – fits in all of this
- how the creative force manifests itself on all levels in a vibratory manner
- how cosmic energies influence world history, how matter came to be
- how Atlantis – referred to as the home of the Sons of God – was destroyed and its knowledge was preserved and transferred out to places like Egypt, before the fatal catastrophe.
Those who doubt these assertions can do so at their own expense; they are simply missing the point. Mystics understand that knowledge of this caliber remains solely at the intellectual level when the words conveyed are only taken at face value; these spiritual seekers fully understand that it is in experimenting what is said that truth let itself be known and experienced.
In other words, the proof is in the pudding. If you only look at these teachings and analyze them from an intellectual perspective, this is exactly what you will reap: mental amusement or contentment, at best, marvel. It is only when you dirty your hands and make real efforts to apply these teachings in order to foster awareness that the Light irradiates in you and that understanding shines forth loud and clear, in a definitive manner. Truth is no longer something appreciated but experienced at the deepest level. You become unshakable in your belief regarding the information transmitted and most importantly, in yourself. You have made it to the top of the mountain of your uncertainties. You have been initiated.
This being said, one has to remain careful concerning these teachings. Albert Einstein, who lived in the atomic age and theorized that a large amount of energy could be released from a small amount of matter, once said: “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot.” And so it is with this kind of knowledge. Because when one ponders on these teachings and begins to apply them, inevitably, doors open and experiments happen. There’s no two ways about it.
As Ptahhotep explains, initiation requires total self-control and mastering of the ‘divinely creative power within the body’. He states that without learning to control its physical manifestation, there is a danger of burning nerve centers. He cautions: “The awakening of consciousness must begin on the lowest scale of manifestations, because then you will only be guiding into your body power corresponding to the level of your development (…) In this way the nerves have strong enough resistance to carry the forces conducted in them.”
And so it is good policy to be patient.
In a nutshell, Initiation delivers in a grandiose way and remains a towering book for raising spiritual awareness. The book was originally published in 1953 and has since been translated into 17 languages, selling millions of copies worldwide. Elizabeth Haich, who wrote many other influential books, died in 1994. She was 97 years old.
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Martin Gauthier is the author of We only live once. The book is available in paperback and ebook format on these links at Amazon.com and Amazon.uk. Watch what it’s all about on YouTube. Visit Seek Publications on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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