Pioneering Mystic Lectures, 1985

Seven Paths to Transformation: An Overview

Linda Mihalic, May 1, 1985, Cleveland, Ohio

  In its most literal material sense transformation is the act or process of changing the form or external appearance of something—as in metamorphosis, transmutation, or transubstantiation. Transformation may be a change of heart, by which a soul’s disposition and temper are raised in degree more closely conformed to the divine image; when the embodied soul is transfigured, as was Jesus on the mount, the soul’s substance is raised in its rate of vibration to a higher, more rarified or divine state. Transfiguration is an initiation, the start of a new venture, Birth was our intiation into physical life. Life itself is a process of constant initiation because life on earth is the curriculum of a global mystery school.
  Every beginning is an initiation of some sort, but here we shall discuss formalized initiation as the path to all soul-based transformation. Initiation happens daily, although you may be unaware that you are an initiate in one of various degrees within various orders. Many personal growth techniques are the modern applications of ancient mystery school teachings. As Pioneering Mystics, we synthesize elements of psychology, metaphysics, science, philosophy, and mysticism to learn how to apply these principals in everyday life. A review of the great mystery teachings, rooted in prehistory, reveals that each mystery school would “leak” some information, knowledge that included the seven formal Initiatory Degrees—the Neophyte, the Disciple, the Adept, the Mystic, the Master, the Priest, and the Christos.
  The number seven is mystically significant: The human the body has seven vital energy centers—the head has seven openings, or “gates”—two ears, two eyes, two nostrils and a mouth. We know that a week has seven days, and ancient astrology used the seven visible bodies they called the planets—Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Traditionally, the world was formed in seven days of creation, had seven great wonders, and seven Lights before the Throne, as recorded in the Revelation, whom the ancients called the seven Lords of Creation. A spectrum of light in seven color rays, when combined, form white light; sound expresses in a scale of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch in an octave—the seventh note ascending serves as the pivot to a scale of seven notes in descending order. God ordered Moses to commission the first menorah, a seven-branched candelabra of pure gold—a single stem from which grow six branches; a cup atop the stem and each branch hold olive oil and wicks. The menorah is adorned with nine flowers, eleven bulbs, and twenty-two inverted goblets; every component number of this holds a mystery, but the whole expresses the seven.
  The Seven Degrees as Initiatory Paths: An initiatory path leads you to new places, into new situations and states of consciousness. You meet new people along the way, whose personalities may be pleasant or irritating, but whose function is to stimulate you into soul growth. Everything in the universe oscillates, including your individual consciousness. You swing constantly from self to soul and back to self again. Formal initiation makes you aware of this, breaking the mesmeric ebb and flow so that you may see, react, and choose differently.
  The Neophyte Degree: The Neophyte is the raw recruit, the beginner, the novice who has just begun a discipline but is not yet proficient. You are a Neophyte whenever you begin something new, and for as long as you are still learning basic tenets. We’ve all experienced the Neophyte Degree: A kindergartner is a neophyte at school, as is a freshman in high school or university. Newlyweds are neophytes at marriage. On the first day of your first job, you were a neophyte at employment.
  You are a Neophyte in the instant that you ask, “How do I…?” or admit, “I don’t know.” Your status is Neophyte when someone says, “Let me show you how to do that,” or asks, “Would you like to learn how?” Your aggregate experience combined with life’s ebb and flow always places you in the Neophyte Degree. Even if you live on a deserted island or in a cave at the back of nowhere, life will serve you change as constant as the seasons. As a Neophyte, you learn, but more importantly you learn to ask new questions: What’s real about the world I live in? Is this all there is? Is this real or is it an illusion? Why don’t my dreams come true?
  The Disciple Degree: As a Disciple, you place yourself under the instruction of a teacher, and submit to training or disciplined teaching. In this sense, all students are Disciples; if you are constantly learning, you are simultaneously a neophyte student and a disciple. As a Disciple, your most difficult assignment is consistently applying the self to the task at hand, sticking with it, staying the course. Depending on praise for a job well done is this degree’s pitfall. Your self-centered “ego need” for approval and/or acting to gain that approval may be your downfall as a Disciple.
  Those who seek an easy way, the path of least resistance, remain perennial Disciples because they lack staying power. They “stick with it” until they realize that attaining the goal will require hard work; then self often prompts them to seek an easier way again. As a Disciple, you discipline yourself by following directions from an outside source. However, you must learn to ask: Who’s running my life? Am I my own leader? How can I know who I am or why I’m here? Where do I find these answers?
  The Adept Degree: The Adept dedicates himself to perfecting his ability to control and manipulate the factors and people influencing his environment. Appearance is everything to an Adept but be warned—believing in the worldly “reality” definitely puts you in the back seat when you allow it along for the ride. People may say, “You’re really adept at that,” meaning you are really good at doing some task, usually involving manual dexterity. The world regards being adept as competence. For example, an “intellectual” Adept grasps the nuance of some field so thoroughly that others consider him an expert in his specialty. Having more facts at your command makes you appear expert, as knowing more than others do. Simply put, an “expert” knows one more fact than you do.
  We are all Adepts; however, an Adept who is “stuck” on that Degree is self-satisfied—literally satisfied with the self—detests being questioned and/or challenged to do/be or learn more in order to become a Master. As an Adept, you seek to control the self so you may control your world, not to conquer it. You must learn to ask: What’s my real job in this world? Why am I here? How can I better my best? Who and what am I trying to control? Am I satisfied with where and what I am, or do I desire more?
  The Mystic Degree: Mysticism is the practice of being in direct communion with God. Sceptics have argued that mystics are “delusional,” because the soul is an illusion, and our metaphorical descriptions of our experiences do not conform to the principles of logic. To them we say, “You can’t prove a negative, so your failed logic is beside the point!” The Mystic’s approach is holographic and nonlinear. Sometimes you just “know” that something’s true. You cannot say why, or base your knowing on any rational explanation. You may not have reasons, or proof—though you can probably find some if you search for it—you simply “know.”
  Knowing is the intuitive function of the Mystic Degree. Further, since you often know the truth about a thing, you may regard yourself as a Mystic in search of a closer relationship with your Creator. This seems reasonable, given the definition of a mystic as “being in direct communion with God.” As a Mystic, you must learn to ask: Can I hear myself think? What is the “Voice within”? Do I remember to go to God first? Do I know the mind that was in Christ Jesus?
  The Master Degree: Mastery is transfiguring your appetitive soul from being merely adept to true mastery of self in all its many expressions. Many have attempted mastery in some area of their lives. To begin a diet or exercise program is an attempt at mastering self. To do it, you must become adept first, then you can progress toward mastery. You have mastered a topic when you no longer need a reference guide, when you could teach it as well as or better than the book does. On reflection, you can see that you’ve mastered various facets of your life. Good cooks, for instance, have mastered that discipline. They’ve passed beyond being merely adept, no longer needing a recipe, intuitively knowing how this savory spice or herb will taste with that rather bland vegetable.
  Usually, you do not attain mastery of any complex subject in one life. Edna Lister used this progression: First you open the brain cells to do a thing, then you develop them into adept ability. After sufficient disciplined practice, perhaps requiring several lifetimes, you become a Master. As a Master, you are responsible and accountable for whatever is entrusted to your care. You must learn to ask: What is the scope of my responsibilities? Are they truly mine? Am I free? of the need to compete aggressively or to win at any cost?
  The Priest Degree: A Priest is consecrated into the practice of ministering to others. Priests are dedicated to attaining soul stability through service, whether it is tending a flock, ministering to those in need, or keeping alight a flame of truth in a world that seems chaotic and dark. For example, we have all answered the phone to a friend who is in crisis. Your counsel gives him the strength of his own insight. If you help him focus on the answer that he already has—as opposed to telling him what to do, as an Adept would—then you’ve acted as a priest or a priestess.
  The world associates the term “priestess”—which is merely the feminine form of “priest”—with a pagan practice, but that isn’t exact. The “nuns” in various religions fulfill the role of priestesses. Mothers tend their children and listen to their doubts, problems, and fears, inspiring them with mother love. A woman or man who counsels others, nurtures them and helps them to attain a new level of awarneness. Any woman who serves as a counselor-priestess is a “mother” in the eyes of the Law, just as a male priest is a “father.”
  Despite gender, which is only physical, your nurturing, caring, sustaining capacity comes under the Priest Degree. No Priest is successful until he willingly becomes a conduit for Mother Love—this includes nurses, doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, teachers, and social workers. As a Priest, you serve. You must learn to ask: Do I know how to choose the good? Do my memories cancel or enhance my future? Is who am I now who I desire to be? How can I have a future I want?
  The Christos Degree: The Christos Degree is the least familiar and most poorly understood of all degrees. The Christos was the greatest degree attainable in the temples of Egypt, and existed long before Jesus of Nazareth became the Christ. A Christos keynote is ideality—having an expansive ideally transcendent vision of reality. Having opened the spiritual “eyes and ears,” the Christos “sees and hears” as God does. This soul vision is both acute and discerning, not subject to confusion, doubt or wonderment.
  “Sacrifice” is the great Christos requirement. Jesus’ sacrifice involved laying down his life to become the Christ; he became our template for “How to do it.” As a Christos candidate, you constantly sacrifice by surrendering your old attitude to become a new way of being. Seldom is anyone required to sacrifice his life, as Jesus was, but asked instead to sacrifice every mode of identifying with the world. You identify with the world according to gender, marital status, education, IQ, profession, hobbies, politics, earnings, house, clothes and car.
  Enlightenment, a Christos Degree byproduct, is the consciousness that “I and my Father are one”—or my mother, my sister, my brother, my friend, my enemy. All is The One. Various cultures have given such mystical enlightenment many names, including communion, illumination, satori, samadhi, the ever-new bliss, cosmic consciousness, or Christ consciousness. As Pioneering Mystics, we often speak of Christ consciousness and soul illumination. We define illumination as an inner state of equilibrium, harmony and a balanced heightened awareness, a perception in which you are perfectly in sync with the universe. Atonement is another name for this—“at-one-ness,”—achieving that universality of consciousness where you are separate from nothing, yet at one with everything that is. As a Christos candidate, you ascend without dying a physical death, but by transforming who you were becoming into who you really are. You must learn to ask: Does anything of the world still own me? If I’m so happy, why am I still afraid? What remains for me to surrender? Have I overcome all tears of regret?

Travel Advisories on the Via Christa

  Pioneering Mystics are travelers on the Via Christa, which is “the road less traveled”:

  The Road Not Taken 
  Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
  And sorry I could not travel both
  And be one traveler, long I stood
  And looked down one as far as I could
  To where it bent in the undergrowth;

  Then took the other, as just as fair,
  And having perhaps the better claim,
  Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
  Though as for that the passing there
  Had worn them really about the same,

  And both that morning equally lay
  In leaves no step had trodden black.
  Oh, I kept the first for another day!
  Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
  I doubted if I should ever come back.

  I shall be telling this with a sigh
  Somewhere ages and ages hence:
  Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
  I took the one less traveled by,
  And that has made all the difference.
  –Robert Frost

  Any route through unknown territory will have its pitfalls and obstacles. Pioneering Mystics through the ages have written and shared travel advisories to aid those new to exploring the high territory of ascension of consciousness, as Edna Lister named it. You will find here disambiguation advice to help you discern the truth of reality in this world of illusory appearances, such as free will versus free choice, divine personality and divine principle, and polarity within a spectrum versus mere dualism, to name a few examples. We also include travel advisories—on how breathing affects your physiology, endorphin euphoria, the addiction to self, soul debts, transformation, the need to know yourself, how Mind, Substance and Power operate though you, and the effects of misusing God’s Power, etc.
  A word of advice to the novice traveler: The work of ascension of consciousness and sacrifice of self on the Via Christa is holistic, “the belief that the parts of something are intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.”–Oxford English Dictionary Your best starting point is whatever subject captures your interest. Yet no matter where you start, you’ll find yourself in a wonderland of ever-new emerging insights and questions. The Via Christa is not a single trip from here to there, but a way of life, a way of viewing and interacting with reality while separating yourself from the illusions of this world.
  The world can give you a syllabus for life—education, courtship, marriage, parenting, career, financial success—but what if you experience a poor education, a barren love-life, divorce, death of a loved one, or any of a thousand other hardships? Every generation writes its own lesson plans for how to live life the “right way,” but with no guarantees. Mystical pioneers guarantee that the Via Christa will challenge you with broad interlocking concepts that recur at every level of consciousness. We can promise you at least one paradoxical conundrum that may take you decades to unravel and “see” for yourself.

How the Holy Breath Affects Your Physiology

  When the Holy Spirit descends, it runs along every nerve ending, filling the central nervous system and bloodstream, affecting your endocrine system, altering your chemistry. This is why the Hebrew Bible repeatedly declares that the blood is sacred to God. Disambiguation: “The Father and Mother aspects of God act as One through the Holy Ghost. Universal Christ consciousness or the Christ principle acts through the Holy Spirit. The Christ life within humanity acts through the Holy Breath.”–Edna Lister, A Design for Ascension
  If science could measure the effect of the Holy Breath, it would find that breathing deeply alters the body’s hormonal levels; it directly affects the hypothalamus, which regulates heart rate, blood pressure, and your appestat (the hunger center). The hypothalamus tells the pituitary gland what to do, which releasing hormones to release; thus, the hypothalamus controls the body’s chemical balances. Anatomy and physiology texts call the pituitary the body’s master regulating gland. Yet the pituitary cannot act until it receives a releasing hormone from the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus monitors the bloodstream and constantly adjusts hormonal levels.
  Travel Advisory—Endorphin Euphoria: You release endorphins (the brain’s natural opiates) during moments of what the mystics call enlightenment. You can reach this euphoric state by physical activity—running, for example—acupuncture, “mind over matter” or “thinking the pain away,” drinking cayenne (red pepper) in milk, sipping peppermint oil in water, or by meditation. The Pioneering Mystic practices joy-consciousness to achieve this.
  Weddings, births, birthdays, and graduations are all occasions for joy. When you are with people you really enjoy (“in joy”), you become joyful. A human heart is no bigger than your fist, but joy expands it to fill your chest; you’re happy, joyful, thrilled to be here. This is the door to soul exaltation. Such euphoric joy is an extremely difficult state to maintain. As the law of gravity says, whatever goes up must come down.
  You may reach a high state of consciousness and think, “Oh, if I could only hold onto this, I could make it!” Invariably, within a few hours, the bottom drops out and you hit solid granite rather than a soft cushion. You must find a better answer than this! To release endorphins typically places a great strain on the body. For example, you want to move a load of paving stones twenty feet, then to set those stones in a path through your garden. If heavy manual labor is not part of your normal regimen, you could probably still do it, if you’d had breakfast and felt good. So you begin.
  You work the whole day; desire prompts you to move all those stones, and set half of them. You dust your hands off in satisfaction and say, “Well, I’ve only got a little bit more to do tomorrow. This is great.” You go inside to dinner, well satisfied. Tomorrow morning you feel as though someone has beaten you with a board. It’s all you can do to get out of bed—you hurt everywhere and realize that you can’t set the rest of those stones today!
  The body builders say, “No pain, no gain.” You must develop the muscle for any attempt to move your awareness from self to soul; otherwise, the results are painful. Every time you slip, the “bottom” you hit is slightly higher, so you can climb just a bit farther the next time, last a little longer. Finally, you can last for three days, and know you can go for four.

Free Will versus Freedom to Choose, and Soul Debts

  The whole world is addicted to self, which is only natural since the impulsive appetitive soul is the first facet of the full living soul to reside within the body in increasing degrees from birth. Appetitive soul is the overseer of the body’s physical “plant”—the metabolism, organs, and systems, its maturing anatomy and its physiology. All appetites and impulses are designed by nature to serve the self in their interlocking processes and functions. This is why we can say that self is inherently addictive in nature.
  Alcoholics Anonymous teaches conquering self “One step at a time.” Their approach to dealing with impulsive appetitive soul and the addicted self loosely follows the work of the first four of the Seven Degrees. Their founders presented the outline for conquering self in terms that alcohol-addicted people can use in a simple way. Most people are afraid or unwilling to try to break their addictions, whether to substance, sensation, emotion, or selfishness. Fear is the great contractor that paralyzes you. The great universal principles of expansion and contraction are familiar to all as increase and diminution, growing larger and becoming smaller. As an embodied soul however, you are intimately familiar with expansion and contraction as the principles of desire and will as they apply to you personally—self’s desires expand without limit unless soul exerts its will to contract desire within the bounds it sets. If self is in charge, you are a slave to your senses, appetites and desires.
  To decide, to choose your own course of action is your greatest God-given gift. Will is an attribute of God. Some sects believe you come to earth with free will. All souls may have personal will, but it is seldom free. What you really have is free choice, the freedom to choose. You may choose whatever you desire, and if it is within the parameters of universal law you will pay nothing more than the effort you must expend to attain it. The balance of Universal Law attaches a perfectly merited price tag to personal will; if your choice creates an imbalance in the universe, you are responsible for redressing the balance. {To better understand the laws governing soul debts, see the discussion of cause and effect under Correspondence and Reciprocity.}
  Everyone is subject to the law, and must maintain it in balance. Step outside the parameter of universal law, and you will pay. You may entangle yourself in spiritual debt in many ways: As an individual you participate in family, school, religion, politics, and work. Unless you are conscious that every decision is a choice for or against some act, your every interaction can serve as the basis for creating a framework of opinion and prejudice, which you then allow to shape your life, possibly deforming you spiritually. If you think you got away with it because no one saw you do it, think again.
  Really, any imbalance, any disparity, any state that is not in harmonious equilibrium will create a soul debt according to the degree and kind of the action, the cause. Balance through repayment of soul debts is how the universe maintains symmetry. The law of cause and effect, correspondence or reciprocity isn’t necessarily bad; you could have the kind of effect or reciprocity that attracts millions—dollars, people or debts! Some people effortlessly attain what they want, and others say they have good luck. What they’ve really done is to make wise choices within the parameters of universal law.

Divine Personality and Principle

  “Principle is the absolute, universal, unchangeable, undeviating immutable foundation upon which all universes are based and established. Principle is the absolute framework of the universe. One principle hinges on another, and using one without involving the whole or parts of all the others is virtually impossible.”–Edna Lister.
  “Personality is the indwelling living soul’s personalized outer expression. God speaks as personality through personality to personality. Personality is soul expression. Individual personality is what the world sees of a soul, the synthesis of emotional experience and developed intellect. Soul does not change, but personality can and does transform it. Personality must express soul identity, which is the great individuality called the Oversoul.”–Edna Lister
  Understanding the distinction between the concepts of principle versus personality is essential because it begins to reveal the difference between objective and subjective views of reality. The definitions above imply that the prophets of old and world-changing have received their messages about principle, The One, from divine personality. In short, divine personality communicates with its creation, e.g., humanity, regarding the nature of divine principle. We call the resulting event a “mystical experience.” Principles cannot be transformed, but our understanding of them can be. Your experience is constantly transforming your personality. Transformation means to change from one state of being into another physically, emotionally chemically, intellectually, spiritually—change in any state of consciousness.
  Elijah the prophet feared Jezebel’s wrath, for she wanted to kill him, the bearer of the Lord’s messages about her evil. He fled into the wilderness with no provisions and laid himself down, ready to die. An angel awakened him, bidding him to rise and eat the bread and water he provided. Elijah did so and slept again, and a second time the angel awakened him, saying, “Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God. And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”–1 Kings 19:4-12
  Elijah had to eat and drink twice, once for the body and again to prepare his soul for the mystical journey ahead. He was new to the task of prophecy and needed more training. While he was perfectly obedient, he was not yet experienced, so he needed initiations to to learn to know himself better, how to stretch and expand his soul virtues. The Via Christa, the way of the Pioneering Mystic, will not attract you unless you have undergone initiation at other points, in other lifetimes, in the distant past, or perhaps recently. One great teaching runs though all mystery schools—carved on the lintel of the door gates to Pythagoras’ school of the mysteries was the message: Know Thyself. To know yourself is one of the ultimate results of initiation.
  One great teaching runs though all the mystery schools: Carved above the gates of Pythagoras’ school of the mysteries in Crotona, Italy, was the message, “Know thyself,” which is the ultimate initiation. Saul of Tarsus “kicked against the pricks,” and Light struck him blind. Initiation triggers transformation; initiation transformed Saul into Paul, who later said, “I die daily,” which Edna Lister rephrased as “We must die daily to self.” In a poignant story a father who begged Jesus to heal his demon-ridden son: “…the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!”–Mark 9:24, he acknowledges his own lack of faith.
  People who say, “I believe I know myself,” later find themselves thinking “Oh, I was wrong again!” We’re all in good company on this issue. Being a Pioneering Mystic would not attract you unless you’ve undergone initiation at other points, in other lifetimes, in the dim and distant past, some perhaps recently.
  A Campfire Tale About Transformation: Transformation can arrive from any direction: A woman went to a doctor because she didn’t feel well. After he examined and questioned her, he said, “Well, physically, you should improve your diet, get a little more rest and exercise. Overall, you’re not in bad shape. Emotionally, I’ve seen worse. Mentally, you’re a steel trap. As a physician, I believe in treating the whole patient—and prescribe what I think will do you the most good.” He reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a little book, entitled The Practice of the Presence of God, saying, “I think your ailment is spiritual malaise, and for that, I prescribe this.”

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