The Adept [alpha translation project]

[Nefastos]

In the spring 2008 I wrote a little book named "Adepti" (the Adept). It was published as a booklet & at the same time given freely in PDF format at Star of Azazel's website (here).

A year after that, brother Obnoxion started to translate Adept into English, but the project was cancelled almost immediately. (I think it was purely because of the lack of time.) At the January 2014, a new compilation of the brotherhood's texts is being published in Finnish, "Adepti" being one of them. That made me think possibilities for translating it to English too, in a form of alpha translation made here step by step. Because the text's roots are in web publication, it would be fitting to have it (that is, its first translation draft) readable at first here at the English language website. A possibility to go through the chapters slowly should be a big help for motivation.

So, after I've got some other things out of the way in next week or so, I'll start the translating process under this topic. Other people are welcome to join, of course, both to comment, correct, ask questions, or help in making the translation (the latter only in case you speak Finnish, obviously). Now when we're lucky enough to have native English speakers who have been kind enough to help polishing translations, it is not so needed to correct my mistakes in language in this first draft; it can be done after the job's done. But please ask if there are any points that are left unclear, be it because of my lackings in English language, or the problems in understanding ideas in the text itself. You are also welcome to comment without any questions asked too, of course.

Fra Obnoxion gave his permission to start this project with the prologue & the 1st chapter he translated back in 2009. I just read the "For the Reader" part of the text & changed one sentence; my modifications will be in brackets.

[Nefastos]

FOR THE READER

In this text I've been trying to clarify the essential nature of adepthood from the point of view of its individual genesis - in other words, as a result of that narrow road which the occultist has travelled, passing through the five gates of initiation. If we manage to gain some sort of idea of the kinds of characteristics that the four previous degrees have developed in him, then hopefully we will learn to understand something about the high ideal of the adept, and about the characteristics which he necessarily manifests. For the final achievement is but the crown of the previous degrees, and it cannot manifest unless upon the firm foundation prepared by those very same degrees.

The reader will do good to remember, not only the obvious fact that all hypotheses set forth in this text are my own, but also that, as generally pertains to initiated knowledge, the only ones equipped to give perfect knowledge are forbidden to divulge it. Thus it is that those who are able to share opinions about these matters, are at the same time those who haven't yet perceived the whole truth. With this paradox should come the understanding that the reader must be ever alert, studying most carefully all the information here given - he must compare and consider, and not take any information about these many-sided matters as absolute truth. Those who know keep silent, and there can be no valid manifestos, no matter under what authority the may be set forth.

[Let us search veneration by the profound things of nature.]

Johannes Nefastos 24.4.2008

[Heith]

Just commenting, excellent that this text is being translated. Your English language skill is a lot more sophisticated than mine, so I believe I can be of no use in helping this translation work. But I shall be reading most carefully.

[Nefastos]

Just commenting, excellent that this text is being translated. Your English language skill is a lot more sophisticated than mine, so I believe I can be of no use in helping this translation work. But I shall be reading most carefully.

Great to hear, although I'm not so sure about that sophisitication part.

Then to the Chapter One we go, translated by fra Obnoxion & altered a little by me. I also added the missing footnotes.

* * *

ADEPT: CHAPTER ONE

Adept, or "the achieved one"*[1], is a name for the initiated, that is, for persons having attained to spiritual and overall awareness of practical occultism and a full rebirth. This word has been used [sometimes in a more exclusive, sometimes in a broader sense, and popular parties have brought its meaning very close to earth], making adept just another name for the neophyte - a man whose spiritualistic and holistic worldview can [even nowdays be] a very strange one, but who despite of his [formal] knowledge has not necessarily been initiated [even to the first degrees of true occultism]. Initiation is something that radically transforms the individual as a spiritual and ethical being.

In theosophy the term adept has been refined to mean the ones who have taken the so called fifth initiation, that is, the "fully initiated" ones, and it is hardly necessarry to change this appropriate conduct. But what exactly is the meaning of these five initiations? Pekka Ervast[*2] named them as follows:

I [Initiation of Mercury]
II [Initiation of Venus]
III [Initiation of Earth]
IV [Initiation of Mars]
V [Initiation of Jupiter]

After these ones [follow other degrees, but herein it will be enough to focus on these five, taking of which would already mean] an immense increase of power and understanding - and responsibility.

As Ervast demonstrates, the [M]ars-initiation is the border line between "the old covenant" and "the new covenant".[*3] The inítiatory system of the old world was very traditionally aware and it was precicely organized, where as in today's world individuality plays a major part. In previous times occultism was generally well known - not as a doctrinal whole, but as an idea - and each country had its more or less public mystery schools, which have since been closed. In these schools, rigorous self-constraint and external control of the mind were demanded from the students. As a general rule the neophyte had to be able to concentrate his will on the traditional forms before he could attain to itse inner core.

What, then, was this core? In the septanary system[*4], [which] is the system pertaining to the manifested world, the middle point is the fourth. This corresponds to the already mentioned [M]ars-initiation, and thus the [M]ars-initiation is, in a way, the archtype of the concept of initiation: it seems to sum up the inner idea of the whole principle of initiation - sacrifice. But what is true sacrifice? What is altruism? What is the relationship between the Ego and the otherness? - [The one who knows the answer to these questions in his everyday life and in his own thinking and his feelings, who knows the answer in his soul], he has taken the fourth initiation.[*5]

Earlier, the road traveled to this point was long, even in terms of duration, because the psychological crisis and the widening unfoldings resulting from them were gone through in order from the first to the last, and under supervision by the external teacher of each individual student. In the older world, what has now become a more symbolic process pertaining to the inner aspects of the mind, was gone trhough in a literal fashion: the search for truth and teacher by travel, seeking admission into the temple, enduring of tribulations, and then progressing degree by degree in the secret inner circle. This was the system of the old covenant, wich changed when the sun entered the sign of Pisces two [millennia] ago, for this transition in question made possible for humanity a new type of transmission of energy.

First a right sort of arch[e]type had to be prepared, in cosmic terms a power or a conduct for that power, in human terms the kind of initiate who was able to express a new type of system that was wider than before. This was actualized by that great [man] whom the christian church considers - quite rightly on the one hand, but on the other, due to its form of presentation based on faith and restriction, in a grievously [erroneous] way in practice - "the one son of God" and "the redeemer of the sins of humanity". Through the birth of this new power, a new way was made possible besides the old[er], and because of this there now exists two occult [paths]: first there is the old system, wich is based on the realization of the external idea, and then there is the new system, wich is both easier and harder, for it begins, like [Platonic metaphysics], from above, striving to perceive the ultimate truth directly [ ]. In the latter, the human personality has more breathing space, and the importance of tradition is less stressed.

The man who takes the fifth initiation and becomes an adept - that is, the pure magician whose being doesn't restrict the immediate manifestation of his will and love and consciousness in the outer nature, but whose actualized will is repeated by the echo of nature herself in a pure, obedient and immediate way - needs to have passed through the four previous initiations, in order to realize the fifth one. How these four initiations may be taken depends on weather the old or the new way followed. Now we have to keep in mind that "the degrees of initiation" are merely an attempt to describe in a condensed manner a reality se very profound and strong that it cannot be constrained in any form of narrow mould. However, this doesn't mean that the students of the same initiatory degree could receive conflicting results from their initiatory processes, but that the realizations can be taken in different aspects, depending on the order in wich they are passed through. So now[a]days it isn't unheard of that the student doesn't proceed in a ritualistic order from the first initiation to the second, and from the second intiation to the third &c., but the way to the fourth initiation may [be] travelled by different individuals in widely different manners.

Until we have completely understood the first four initiations, we cannot set our foot, truly and finally, over to the fifth initiation, for it represents the quintessence, the pure[ ] essential existence of the Great Nature, and we cannot grasp that essence if we haven't understood its [living aspects] - the four elements w[h]ich the first four initiations represent. The "elements" are literally [ ] foundations, the basic principles, the fundamentals that have to be mastered. The road can be travelled in many ways, but the fifth degree of pure magic is for us unattainable before the four foundations [have at first been] realized.[*6]

Because there exists such freedom of choice on the initiatory road, it follows that there are in fact "higher" initiates who have less initiations than the initiates of the "lower["] degrees. The student of the old world may have taken all three initiations of the old covenant, but not the fourth one, when the student of the new world may have taken only the fourth initiation, w[h]ich is a higher one than the previous three initiations. Thus the last have indeed become the first, and the first have become the last. But the travellers of both ways share a common goal, w[h]ich they must achieve in different ways.

All this is presented here so that we could understand how the one common truth manifests in seemingly very diverse ways of progression for different types of men & women.


FOOTNOTES:

[*1 From Latin adeptio, to attain. Cf. Sanskrit yoga, that means joining. Object for these both is clearly the numinous.]

[*2 In his book Tähtikoulut, "The Star-Schools". Cf. also Bailey's "Initiations, Human and Solar".]

[*3 Also as a line between the preparatory and the actual Path.]

[*4 Of which manifestations are the seven notes of the gamut, seven primary colours, &c.]

[*5 Not too hasty conclusions should be drawn from this. The true initiate has one's initiatory knowledge as absolute and not just cognitive, let alone formal theoretical knowledge. There's plenty of intelligent people on the world, but true initiates, even of the first degrees, are few.]

[*6 The use of magic before the lofty grade of the true adept is not impossible at all, but in that case is to be seen as an exception, kind like a practice, and always remaining as subconscious in one or other part of its aspects - therefore often dangerous and potentially regressive. The practical magic is the man's natural heritage and crowining, which one can perfectly attain only at the mentioned period.]

[Jiva]

As always, the parts I've changed are in bold and underlined; most were just simple typos. However I didn't understand the last sentence before your signature so my edit might not represent the meaning intended. I can edit your other, longer translations and post them on the forum this way or send them in a Word document via email? I'm fine with whatever your (and indeed other peoples') preference is. Unfortunately I don't have Microsoft Word so I'm not sure the changes tracker in LibreOffice will be compatible.


FOR THE READER

In this text I try to clarify the essential nature of adept-hood from the point of view of its individual genesis - in other words, as a result of that narrow road which the occultist has travelled, passing through the five gates of initiation. If we manage to gain some sort of idea of the kinds of characteristics that the four previous degrees have developed in him, then hopefully we will learn to understand something about the high ideal of the adept, and about the characteristics which he necessarily manifests. For the final achievement is but the crown of the previous degrees which cannot manifest unless upon the firm foundation prepared by those very same degrees.

The reader will do good to remember, not only the obvious fact that all hypotheses set forth in this text are my own, but also that, as generally pertains to initiated knowledge, the only ones equipped to give perfect knowledge are forbidden to divulge it. Thus it is that those who are able to share opinions about these matters are at the same time those who haven't yet perceived the whole truth. With this paradox should come the understanding that the reader must be ever alert, studying most carefully all the information here given - he must compare and consider, and not take any information about these many-sided matters as absolute truth. Those who know keep silent; there can be no valid manifestos, no matter under what authority they may be set forth.

[Let us search for veneration in the profound things of nature.]

Johannes Nefastos 24.4.2008v

[Nefastos]

Thank you Jiva for being able to start the editing right away - although there isn't any hurry. The kind of marking the changes you used here is also great, at least when not a great deal of structural changes has to be made. Don't hesitate to arrange the sentences anew when they're clumsy.

About the last sentence of the foreword you mentioned: The original made by O. was, "Let us search piety by the deep things of nature", "by" as in meaning of "near by". The original text's "äärellä" means literally at the borderline of something, being a little archaic & often semireligious form of language & keeping in it a positive meaning of being involved with something; I'm not sure if there's a completely similar word or idiom available in English? Herein it was used to suggest that whenever we're contemplating this kind of deep things (like initiations) we should feel ourselves a little bit humbled & at the same time uplifted by the process, because only then we can understand them: we are "near" them, but not "in" them, because - as it was said in the text - we should not think the matter's clear or easy. But "in" might be the best possible way to say it in English after all. About the "veneration" I also thought herein as a more suitable word than "piety", the latter having - at least for me - too many possible meanings that are not meant here.

[Jiva]

Perhaps “Let us search for veneration by approaching the profound things of nature” is better? I also assumed you meant searching for veneration as opposed to something like being in a state of veneration and investigating it? Apologies for this . I'm just waiting for Sebomai to arrive and nail it in one go .

Something else that I find difficult about this text is that there isn't a gender neutral pronoun in English which always makes me feel a bit uneasy for some reason.

[Sebomai]

Haha, Jiva. I wish. I think your last attempt at editing is also as good as I could come up with given the information about the intention that we have. It's good wording and, unless fra. Nefastos wants to correct it further, it sounds right to me.

[Nefastos]

Perhaps “Let us search for veneration by approaching the profound things of nature” is better? I also assumed you meant searching for veneration as opposed to something like being in a state of veneration and investigating it?

Yes, searching for is right. I'm just terrible with English prepositions, even in their most basic uses; sorry about that.

Something else that I find difficult about this text is that there isn't a gender neutral pronoun in English which always makes me feel a bit uneasy for some reason.

Yeah, it's a bit problematic. Still it seems that any attempt to wrestle with the problem just underlines it, hence bringing gender aspect to mind when it isn't supposed to (like it usually isn't). Perhaps the problem is even more emphasized for the native speakers, while people who have learned to use the language purely technically & without their everyday connotations etched to the subconscious mind are relatively free of those more complicated issues of the language? I don't know.

I've even considered the possibility to write texts using masculine & feminine pronouns in turns, but that's very hard in these kind of texts where added emphasis really starts to connect the text to either of these aspectual polarities. Because in occultism the masculine & feminine archetypes/aspect really have important differences in nuances, even if those differences are acted out in our culture in a manner that is not balanced at all.

The editor of Fosforos had the approach similar to yours, and at first he'd thought it better to change to a more gender-neutral way of presentation. But either my opinion on the subject or the challenge of making all the needed changes without destroying the flow of the text made him to accept the old seemingly masculine presentation as it was.

I'll try to make some more alpha translation soon.

[Nefastos]

I'll try to make some more alpha translation soon.

Ok, it seems that I simply will have no possibility to do this in any time soon.

I had thought to make the Adept alpha translation ready before leaving to the esoteric side, but things going as they are now (overmuch to do almost in every possible field) I think I must surrender & leave the Adept for now, returning to it only irregularly with special spare time. There also is much material already waiting to be edited & published by the brotherhood, so this particular text is hardly the issue.