The Altar of the Initiate
Insight Into the Cycles of Enlightenment
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
From conception to birth, from the trials of childhood, adolescent, middle age, to the moment of death and transition to the after life, we are never prepared when real initiations happen in our life. They are unexpected and impose themselves on us with the totality of a do or die situation. They cage us into a corner, with no escape, putting the whole of our being on the spot, and thrusting us whether we like it or not, into the present. They leave us no choice but to step forward and live them with our entirety. The greatest teachers and perhaps only real teachers in life are the initiations provided by life itself. This driving force behind life compels us to move, seemingly whether we like it or not through our existence even if we are unconscious to its evolutionary purpose.
The initiate is the Spiritual traveler, adventurer and the explorer who through life, strives and battles to open and expand new territory within the self. The altar of the initiate is not outside, but the stillness on which rests the final surrender to the higher self when this journey, and path of the warrior end in the sovereignty of self-realization.
Metaphor of The Sea
A great sage once gave an example he saw while he was watching the water. He explained how a wave would come in from the sea and lap up the beach, picking up a bit of debris. And when this bit of debris is put back down on the shore, it was almost at the same place but moved over slightly. And so the bit of debris will gradually travel down the shore, being picked up and placed back down by the waves.
He said this we can compare to our life cycles. We go through our lifetime, learning and growing, until death takes us back to the sea, and then the next wave picks us up and re-deposits us in a new incarnation. With each new wave our soul is re-deposited a bit further along to where we want to go.
What We Resist Persists
It is as if one single human life is composed of a series of waves. When they lap in, we choose each time to either resist their movement and lessons, or we can choose to shift with them. The process can be very slow and painful if we are stubborn, like we mostly are, requiring stronger more violent waves to dislodge us from stagnation. When we come to realize that the journeys of life are like the endless tides, waves and movements of the sea, and we somehow gain a sense that nothing can stop this process, not even death, a sense of urgency develops in us, and we realize that each and every one of the moments of life are too precious to waste.
The First taste of Life
We walk along the shores of a vast and untamed sea. We taste the salt in the spray of the waves as they come thunderously crashing in, breaking themselves on the rocks. We watch and can feel the agitation of the water as the storm clouds gather on the horizon, and can sense the water spirits of the earth and sky communicating. We feel the damp cold chill of this new world, this new dimension for the first time. Our world is a world of consciousness only, and as we touch our feet into the surf, we for a moment experience what it is to be an individual, an identity separate from God. We touch upon glimpses of desire, passion and pain, and are completely saturated in our ability to absorb any more. We withdraw, fulfilled, and sense the power and potential of dream made manifest, and tears in our eyes the overwhelming love and glory to be God ever expanding.
What is the First Direction?
The metaphor describes how a soul’s first descent from the Spirit world into a human body may be experienced. It is our first brush with physical reality and the ego, which separates us from the whole. In Native teachings, this is a young soul who in their first incarnation into a human body lives only several moments, days, months or years.
Select Format
Book Details
About the Book
The map to healing, expansion, and enlightenment, this companion volume to Artisans of the New Earth allows you to
• locate yourself on this fascinating map of human evolution crafted through the framework of the Seven Directions—an indigenous understanding of the trajectory of soul development;
• understand that what many are now living on the Earth, and what had previously been limited to a small number of individuals, is what has been called through the ages as the Shamanic Birth;
• discover from the timeless perspective they offer—why, for a growing number of people, working with the multiple dimensions of existence has actually become a natural part of human maturity and a stepping-stone on the path to enlightenment; and
• be guided through this profound and grounding finely detailed map as it demystifies the passage through each stage and development of human awareness, finishing at the tumultuous process of enlightenment and spiritual awakening.
• understand the magnitude and meanings of what the current Earth changes really are and the adjustments required for the assimilation of these energies.
Through its warm narrative, Cosgrove explores the stages of addiction and illness, and then moves into the world of artistry and expanded perception. He then points readers further, indicating that shamanic birth is merely a milestone on the way to enlightenment. Profound and grounding, and drawing its foundation from indigenous North American, Celtic and Vedic teachings, this finely detailed trajectory serves to demystify the passage through each stage of your development, and to provide you with an in-depth understanding of the soul through which you can heal yourself and others.
—Rachel Freeman, BComm, is a freelance writer and editor specializing in the field of
consciousness and human evolution.
About the Author
Matthew Cosgrove was born and still lives in the Ottawa valley in central Canada. He spent the first part of his life working as an independent artisan where he developed his practical approach to Spirituality and Shamanism. Beginning his Spiritual practice at age 16 quickly opened him up to his multidimensionality, and over a 3-year period, beginning at age 30 he underwent a profound Spiritual transformation and began to receive the vision on which this book is based.
This vision, and the pragmatic approach of his Shamanic practice have allowed him to adapt this ancient healing modality to identify, and effectively treat the fragmentation of the self. This fragmentation, which he calls The Subdivision of the Kingdom, caused by the false identification with ego mind is what he sees as the real impediment to wellness facing us today.
His non-academic writing style speaks directly from experience. His words speak directly into, and awaken the heart of the reader, enticing them to embrace their inherent gifts that are described in this book.
In 1987 he and his wife founded the Bioenergetic Institute and later Earth Based Healing, both dedicated to the practice, teaching, and research of Shamanism.
For contacting him or for information about upcoming events and workshops and retreats visit: www.earthbasedhealing.com