The Equinox (Volume I, Number VIII)

THE EQUINOX sacred should be exposed to the gaze of the vulgar, and be bespattered by them with mud. This would only impede the society in its work. Another necessary requirement is mutual confidence be- tween the teacher and the disciple; because a disciple who has no faith in his master cannot be taught or guided by him. There may be things which will appear strange, and for which no reasons can be given to the beginner; but when the disciple has attained a certain state 01 development all will be clear to him or her. The confidence which is required will also be of little service if it is only of a short duration. The way of the development 01 the soul, which leads to the awakening of the inner senses, is slow, and without patience and fortitude nothing will be accomplished. From all this it follows as a matter of course that the next requisite is obedience. The purpose of the disciple is to obtain the mastery over his own lower self, and for this reason he must not submit himself to the will of his lower nature, but follow the will of that higher nature, which he does not yet know, but which he desires to find. In obeying the will of the master, instead of following the one which he believes to be his own, but which is in reality only that 01 his lower nature, he obeys the will 01 his own higher nature with which his master is associated for the purpose of aiding the disciple in attaining the conquest over himself The conquest of the higher self over the lower self means the victory of the divine consciousness in man over that which in him is earthly and animal. Its object is a realization of true manhood and womanhood, and the attainment 01 conscious immortality in the realization of the highest state of existence in perfection. xu