Part of the Casswiki article series Fourth Way
The staircase or the path of access to the Way, according to Boris Mouravieff in his [[Gnosis (book trilogy)|Gnosis books]], corresponds to four notes, SI, LA, SOL, and FA of the Way. Each note represents and forms a step on the staircase, starting at the end of the first threshold and ending at the beginning of the second threshold. This also corresponds to stages three through six of the ten stage octave from DO to DO, on a diagram of the Way. The staircase is the most important and most difficult part of the Way to pass.
The staircase is symbolic of a period of gestation. With the words, “know thyself”*, the person takes a course which leads to the level of man #4, the level of the master of the coach. Tasks and tests are set forth for each note. Working with the conditions and completing the requirement of the staircase, the birth of Individuality, the second Birth, happens with the crossing of the second threshold.
The tests happen all together on all notes of the staircase. According to the particularities of our personality, they are distributed unequally, driven by the force of desire. The ensemble is put in resonance with each shift in emphasis of each step, note SI first then LA, SOL and FA.
Anyone seeking to climb the staircase, “must make this effort the principal aim of his life. From now on, esoteric work must become the axis of his existence, round which the inner and outer circumstances of his life revolve.” Though this categorical demand should not frighten one, one should be aware that the tests begin from the first step of the staircase. The test of (desire?), being “ablaze with the ardent desire to overcome the entanglement of life in the wilderness, so that he can throw himself into the unknown in a search for a new, reasonable, and real life,” lets him cross the first threshold. This allows the seeker to stand with a firm footing on the first step (SI) of the staircase, provided that this desire for transformation has enough vigour and intensity, which fills the interval between DO and SI, the first threshold.
The importance of desire along the staircase is that the four notes are linked by a deep interdependence, as their resonance draws its strength from the initial impulse of desire. If the “initial desire does not unite all man’s existence in obedience, if it does not dominate his whole being, it is better for him to stop in time and not cross the (first) threshold. We repeat: the Way is a path of no return. This is the real reason for the test of desire. This desire must have the strength of thirst, says the tradition.”
The Way is a one-way street, a path of no return, and a return being forbidden. After the first threshold, there is either progress on the Way or a fall. Each step on the staircase gives the person enough time to accomplish the task set out for that note. However, the step will give way as one cannot stay indefinitely on a particular step. This can lead to a fall. For fear of a fall, because of man’s tardiness and time constrain, he is obliged to move to the next step without having fully succeeded in completing the task of that note. In doing so, he also carries his karmic debt with him. This is accepted so long as his purification is completed at the note FA.
The task at note SI is for the person to go back carefully through the film of his life, so as to reach two results. One, to distinguish between permanent, eternal elements and temporary, karmic ones as objectively as possible for him at this phase of his evolution. The other, with the help of this analysis, to stimulate within himself a strong desire to cross the second threshold. “The strength of this desire, and the firmness of his decision are the only measures of success.” This is why the person, “should attach particular importance to the work at the note SI of the Way.” It is a short note with only a half tone. A helpful remark for this note is,” he must take as objective not this external life, with all its illusions, but instead the film of his own life.”
At note SI, having forged a link in the chain of esoteric influence, the person is saved in hope, though he remains as before. His conscious efforts have allowed him to cross the first threshold, discernment between [‘A’ and ‘B’ influences](A, B, and C influences) created the embryo of the magnetic center, at stage 1, with the magnetic centre pure and sufficiently firm, at stage 2, he has crossed the first threshold under the direction of a man of [influence ‘C’](A, B, and C influences). Though he has made an enormous step forward, at this point, his sincere desire to get out of exterior life is not enough to free him from all ‘A’ influences. Mesoteric work unfolds. Solidly established and facing forward, he attempts to successfully accomplish the task of note SI.
The test of note SI is the test of faith. “To Believe is not enough; one must have faith. The test takes the form of a need for man to surmount his fear of abandonment to Faith.”
The task at note LA is, “to make the Personality grow to its fullest possible extent.” The test of note LA, for those committed to the Staircase, is the test of Strength.
The task at note SOL is to develop the personality. The test of note SOL is the test of discernment and skill.
The task at note FA is, “to balance the three lower centres by replacing the mechanical ties between them with conscious ties from each centre to the magnetic centre, to which the lower centres will then be subordinated.” The test of note FA is the test of love, “of true life-giving love.”
On the fourth step, the balance sheet must be drawn up and accounts settled. He was until this point allowed to take his defects of the past with him: lying, weakness, self-pity, inner compromise. With the blazing sword of true love, all that is not quite true love within or toward him-all that he takes for love, is burnt up, and he is then able to judge every movement of the heart and know whether or not it contains traces of true love.
Having passed the test, the note in full resonance, man 4 should theoretically be master of himself. He has nothing within him but pure love, which contain the elements of “transfigured Desire; of Faith, Strength, and Discernment.” Poor and naked, only on condition that he is consistent and pure, the essential being that he is consistent, meaning that he contains within himself true love, he is accepted at the second threshold. “Everything false within him will be burnt by the flames of this blazing sword…”
The balance sheet drawn up, “the moral burden of his unpaid debts, and of his transgression against the principle of Equilibrium…and all their karmic consequences,” have to be paid for in full at the note FA.
Man takes his fate into his own hands when stepping on the staircase, approaching and crossing the second threshold. This new attitude has consequences as he should take a sensible and conscientious attitude in his decisions concerning those around him. A look at the “film” of life would further help clarify this.