414 ROSICRUCIANCOSMO-CONCEPTION
been open to man only since the beginning of the Mercury
half of the Earth Period. Some of the lesser mysteries were
given to the earlier Lemurians and Atlanteans, but not the
Four Great Initiations.
The black serpent on diagram 15 indicates the winding,
cyclic path of Involution, comprising the Saturn, Sun and
Moon Periods, and the Mars half of the Earth Period, during
which the evolving life built its vehicles, not becoming fully
awake and clearly conscious of the outside world until the
latter part of the Atlantean Epoch.
The white serpent represents the path that the human
race will follow through the Mercury half of the Earth
Period, and the Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan Periods, during
which pilgrimage man's consciousness will expand into that
of an omniscient, Creative Intelligence.
The serpentine path is the path followed by the great
majority; but the “Staff of Mercury,” around which the
serpents twine, shows the “straight and narrow way,” the
path of Initiation, which enables those who walk therein to
accomplish in a few short lives that which it requires
millions of years for the majority of mankind to accomplish.
It need scarcely be said that no description of the initia-
tory ceremonies can be given, as the first vow of the Initiate
is silence; but even if permissible, it would not be important.
What concerns us in getting a bird's-eye view of the evolu-
tionary path is to ascertain the results of the ceremonies.
The whole result of initiation is to give to the spiritually
aspiring an opportunity to develop the higher faculties and
powers in a short time and by severe training, thereby
gaining the expansion of consciousness that all mankind will
surely possess eventually, but which the vast majority
choose to acquire through the slow process of ordinary