The Role & Inherent Efficacy of Rites
[This is a question, which] most of our contemporaries, at least in the West, find ... hard to understand. ... These matters, which are at the root of all that is related to the traditional point of view in general or more especially to the esoteric and initiatic point of view in particular, are ... of an order that ought normally ... be regarded as rather elementary. Such for example is the question of the role and inherent efficacy of rites. ...
When one understands that initiation consists essentially in the transmission of a certain spiritual influence, and that this transmission can only be operated by means of a rite, which is precisely what effectuates the affiliation to an organization that as its chief function conserves and communicates this influence, it does seem that there should no longer be any diffculty in this respect, for transmission and affiliation are fundamentally only the two inverse aspects of one and the same thing, according to whether it is envisaged as descending or ascending the initiatic 'chain'. ISR23
And:
The rites, are always aimed at setting the human being directly or indirectlyin relation with something which is beyond his individuality and which belongs to other states of existence, writes RG.
And this happens in a conscient or inconscient manner, because the "spiritual influence" uses as a channel those subtle possibilities of the individual person which are generally totally unknown to the majority of people.
One could say that the Rite "always contains its efficacity within itself, on condition" RG adds rightly, "that it is performed in conformity with the traditional rules which guarantee its validity, outside of which it is nothing more than an empty and vain form of pretence. So it is clear that in the domain of rites there cannot be room for "phantasy or arbitrary (forms)."
Therefore the Rite is "active (taking effect)" when it is "regular," and this "regularity" obeys (is in harmony with) the rigourous non-modifiable, eternal laws.
DRG426
ISR: Initiation And Spiritual And Realization, René Guénon;
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2007-06-23