Second Degree – The Air Initiation – Summer Solstice

The Second Degree or Air Initiation deals with the challenge of bringing the mental nature under control.   The essential purpose of this degree is to learn to purify the lower mind (intellect) and allow the light of the higher mind to flow into awareness. The challenge lies in the fact that the lower mind will always try to block our surrender to the higher mind or soul by constantly stimulating doubt and fears about the spiritual path. It is at this stage that one becomes aware of the cleavage between the personality nature manifesting through the lower mind and the soul nature manifesting through the higher mind.  The lower mind is the monkey mind that is conditioned by our material desires and works as the servant of the ego in achieving all of the desires of the separate self. It is conditioned by instinct and racial memories and it often drives us so that we feel like the tail is wagging the dog.  The Second Degree is attained when thoughts don’t overwhelm our awareness with negativity and doubt and we are able to act on the spiritual insights we receive about our purpose and destiny.

If the lower mind dominates we find ourselves caught up in fears, desires, doubts, insecurities and judgments. This keeps the mind constantly moving and unable to act in accord with our heartfelt intentions. Then we never experience the peace that is our birthright as souls.  We find ourselves unable to dive deep into the silence of the soul because the lower mind is too preoccupied skating around on the surface of life, worrying and analysing everything. It can come as a shock to recognise that our lower mind fears and despises our spiritual nature. Having an intellectual interest in spirituality seems quite satisfying as long as no one expects us to sacrifice or serve the divine Will.  The ego does want to maintain its control and allowing the soul to determine how we live is not part of its agenda. 

As we evolve suffering accumulates because a "Battle Royal" develops between the dweller (ego) and the soul. Self-realisation is the last thing the personality self wants because it represents the death of the lower mind. Thus it insinuates and stimulates doubts about our spiritual purpose and nature in order to distract us from spiritual service and realisation.

So the challenge during the Air Initiation is to learn to detach from lower mental activity and allow the more subtle ideas from the higher mind and even the pure consciousness of the divine mind to come into our awareness. The potent energies of pure consciousness purify the mind and raise our vibration because they are charged with love, light and peace. They carry glimpses of our relationship to the divine Plan and our role in it.   What concrete techniques are there for developing our link with the higher levels of mind?  Mindfulness practises enable us to simply witness all that is in the mind like you would watch a leaf floating in a river. You can do simple awareness exercises like “Watching the Breath” to condition the mind to silence and train it do detach from its constant tendency to externalise through the senses and idntify with mental activity. The mind has to be redirected inward to its source in the soul. Once one has seen a mental habit clearly it can never again have the same strength it had while it was unconscious. Merely to see the ego at its games helps to weaken its hold on our lives. Another technique is to do a review of the day’s thought activities to see where one has become too negative or caught up in issues. In fact, any technique which develops the dispassionate, witnessing process of the Soul is helpful. When we access the higher mind there is a sense of joy and light and the visions, insights and communications that we receive can guide us further along on a our spiritual path, using our discernment as we go.

So we need a finely balanced approach that allows us to listen to the soul but not to get carried away by the illusions that are the main trap on the mental level. If we find ourselves too caught up in our intellect it can be a signal that the lower mind is in control and some heart-based activity can bring in some balance. It is the close association between the ego-self and the lower mind that makes it a challenging initiation.In the course of a life time there may be several episodes of the Air Initiation during which we experience the higher mind but the lower mind wants to remain in control.  It helps to remember that our Spirit is our true identity during these episodes because the mind will have us believe otherwise. Only a growing relationship with God and glimpses of the Self can truly convince us of what is Real.  

It may also be helpful to point out that we don’t actually have an individualised mind. There is one Universal Mind with different levels ranging from the formless awareness of God at the level of the Divine Mind, through abstract ideas within the Abstract Mind (Soul) level and then the concrete thought forms of the Lower Mind. Ultimately, when true realisation dawns we may simply be aware of all levels of consciousness without attachment to them. This spacious state of being contrasts strongly with the limited viewpoint of the lower mind which remains isolated within its narrow world view and lacks the creativity of the consciousness that has a strong connection to the One Life.