The First Degree deals with the emotional nature and the need to bring it under the control of our soul. In esoteric parlance this degree is called the Baptism Initiation because it relates to the purification of the emotional nature and water is the symbol for the emotions.
Many of us have our attention polarized (focused) in our emotional nature and believe the fulfillment of our desires is essential to our happiness. In pursuing our desires we may be denied them and then the sense of frustrated desire stimulates the whole gamut of emotional reactions that can have a negative impact on our lives and relationships. Anger is often provoked by our desires being frustrated, as are all the negative emotions such as jealousy, envy and so on. The various passions we experience are a part of our animal nature and they can cause a lot of distress when they are overly-indulged or even repressed.
So the experience of our feelings and emotional nature is the focus during the Water Initiation which comes around in cycles and the essential need is to discipline them. Values such as patience, forgiveness and tolerance are important expressions of unconditional love and practicing them can help to refine our emotional nature and show us the value of a disciplined life. When desires and emotional reactions are raging then the inner voice of our soul tends to go unheard. It is like being caught in a bush fire.
If we refuse to address our emotionalism over a prolonged period it can lead us into suffering which can then only be relieved by cultivating patience, forgiveness and acceptance. These qualities seem to calm the emotional torment. As we face the suffering and challenges of each cycle of the Water initiation we gradually develop discernment and learn to identify those desires which can be satisfied and those which may be best left alone.
Another means to manage desire is to redirect our focus from our desires back to our inherent duty as a parent, partner, worker or other roles. This redirection helps to calm us as we undertake the activities that are ours alone to fulfil. It is our unreasonable desires that lead to enmeshment in the non-self because they require time in order to be fulfilled and we then battle with time. The battle leads to feelings of impatience and lose the present moment by focusing on the future, an imaginary moment when we hope our desire will be fulfilled. As long as our desires remain unresolved there can be no contentment.
Our emotional nature has been given to us so that we can learn to refine our desire and learn the true nature of love. Our emotional desires are the unrefined matter, the "lead" of our personality nature and we need to turn them into the "gold" of unconditional love. In loving others the self-focus of the emotional nature is overcome and a truer and more lasting happiness can develop. Using reason can also help us manage our emotional life. Through reason and directing the searchlight of mind's illumination toward the foggy awareness which is our emotional life the glamour we are caught in can be dispersed and dissolved.
If there is a strong emotional reactivity or insatiable desire in your life and it is not being resolved you can try to accept the situation provoking it by saying “Father, I accept the need for this situation, please show me how to resolve it.” Then you open yourself to the insights and intuitions that can come. When emotional factors cloud our judgment we are undergoing a cycle of the Water Initiation and through humility and acceptance of the higher will, the initiation can be successfully resolved and the emergence of unconditional love then dawns in our awareness.
If you should you find yourself hating someone then why not try directing unconditional love and light towards them each day for 10 minutes, for as long as it takes for your feeling towards them to change. If the boss isn't giving you that raise then direct unconditional love towards him until you accept the situation. White magic presents many opportunities to direct positive energies towards those whom we are in conflict with and presents a whole new way of dealing with our problems, one which is very simple and economical.
In learning to tame the emotional nature, it is important to recognize that desire is infinite and insatiable.
A person who is an alcoholic, gambler, sexaholic or shopaholic is battling with the First Degree, because his whole issue is pleasure and desire in its manifestation as an addiction. There are hundreds of different addictions, but they all resolve down to being dependent on something outside of us for our happiness and represent an attachment to a sensation. No doubt the things of the world are wonderful to enjoy, but none of them will bring happiness if we pursue them in excess.
We can all learn, like members of AA and other self-help groups, to resolve the emotional conditions we find ourselves lost in by surrendering to our inherent helplesness and by accepting the intercession of a higher will. These attitudes will allow us to move through the First Degree and progress in our spiritual realization. The barometer of that progress is often the recognition of our growing self-reliance. One Teacher summed this up by saying that he kept his happiness in his top pocket and would get it out whenever he needed it. He had mastered self-reliance and resolved his desire nature because he no longer required any external factor to make him happy.