iritual exercises"'promises that all perception will eventually be successive yet simultaneous, hzmtcd yet rnfimte But it sounds a cautionary note as well Care must be taken to keep a tight control OB the blossonang transcendental consciousness lest it come unbidden, without the manifest will having called upon it Such an instability could be dangerous, leading to seriously reduced effectiveness of the practitioner who must neces sanly plan all action aad reaction with disci plined intention Phenomenal consciousness can not function at the mercy of an intenser plane of consciousness that could supersede rt invol u&tanfy Unity is to be preserved so that a split or divisive apprehensive mode is rendered unde sirable and ineffectual: More specifically, the initiate was to take part in activities mat stimulated other faculties beside those of intenonty since cultivating interior modes too exclusively could drain the action of the will The activity of will, the manual mates clear, the extended recognition of an ever-changing, often antagonistic, plurality in normal existence, and the sensitive response to stimuli, must all be exercised regularly Hie trained consciousness is capable of intense concentration but this fo cus is not incompatible, it would seem, with an ever-widening and deepening expansion of that same consciousness For the Reverend Mother would ideally substitute the living experience for the conceptual, social, and political schemes of those who sought her guidance as possessor of an indwelling, transforming power However, the process of transformation that would inaugurate a Reverend Mother, she who was both means and vessel, re quired three phases In the Fundamentals of the Way they are described as three stages the purgation of recalcitrant selfhood, the dawning of wisdom the reconciliation and union with all who have gone before 3 Thus, the body, soul and spmt were purified, enlightened, and made whole What was to result was a new and peerless power of life, with the Reverend Mother mediating be tween the world of appearances called reality, and the unseen world which is Reality An equilibrium was thought to be established in this way with Reverend Mother the ritual center The entire process initially required a pen od of renunciation and detachment during which the initiate became as a vessel wherein transformation of self was precondition to later stages and requirements As m the early training of a B G , consciousness of base reality woufd be transformed into apprehen sion of the Absolute, so m the later and final training the poisons would be purified into liquid knowing Like a prehistoric alchemist whose mission it was to transmute base maten al into pure gold so the Reverend Mother would quest m the common labyrinths of the spirit for the incorruptible substance which she alone could transmute into new form And onl> she who would be Reverend Mother could behold what was to others concealed The complex ceremonial