separate consciousness ceases and in which the human being
flowers forth into the universe, for such a thought would only be the
expression of an opinion resulting from untutored reasoning.

Following this stage of development something takes place that in occult
science is described as "beatitude." It is neither possible nor necessary
that this stage be more closely described, for no human words have the
power to picture this experience and it may rightly be said that any
conception of this state could be acquired only by means of such
thought-power as would no longer be dependent upon the instrument of the
human brain. The separate stages of higher knowledge, according to the
methods of initiation that have been here described, may be enumerated as
follows:

1. The study of occult science, in the course of which we first of all
make use of the reasoning powers we have acquired in the world of the
physical senses.

2. Attainment of imaginative cognition.

3. Reading the secret script (which corresponds to inspiration).

4. Working with the philosopher's stone (corresponding to intuition).

5. Cognition of the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm.

6. Being one with the macrocosm.

7. Beatitude.

These stages however need not necessarily be thought of as following one
another consecutively, for in the course of training, the occult student,
according to his individuality, may have attained a preceding stage only
to a certain degree when he has already begun to practice exercises,
corresponding to the next higher stage. For instance, it may be that when
he has gained only a few reliable imaginative pictures, he will already be
doing exercises which lead him on to draw inspiration, intuition, or
cognition of the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm into the
sphere of his own experiences.

-------------------------------------

When the occult student has experienced intuition he comes to know not
only the forms of the psycho-spiritual world, not only can he recognize
their inter-relationship through the "secret script," but he attains a
cognition of these beings themselves through whose co-operation the world,
to which he belongs, comes into being. Thus he learns to know himself in
the true form which he possesses as a spiritual being in the
psycho-spiritual world. He has struggled through to the higher ego, and
has learned how he must continue the work in order that h