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the man without .
Evolution, in the esoteric sense of the word, should make of him a superman, then a

Christian, then a Saint, these terms being interpreted in the same way as the primitive

Church interpreted them. The schema symbolizes the difficulty of the passage to the
evolutive stage, by placing the superman vertically above the man; the passage

4
represents an ascension which, in another schema, is represented by a Staircase . The
line that separates man from the superman is the second Threshold and the man 4 is
situated at its level. The superman compartment is reserved for men 5 and 6. One can

measure the breadth of the work that evolution demands in remembering that the

disciple who reaches this level of being is not yet immune to a fall: Saint Peter's denial

provides us with an example. But it is usually only a temporary straying, and he who has

reached this stage of evolution will sooner or later return to the Way. And the more
headway he has made, the less prolonged will be the consequences of the fall. The

latter is to be feared most of all after the crossing of the second Threshold, if the person

is not watchful and allows himself to be overcome by a feeling of complacency. For he
does not possess yet the Consciousness, which is characteristic of the man 6, nor, above

all, the Will of the man 7. Only the latter, having been baptized by the Holy Ghost, and

become Holy and Perfect according to the terminology used by St. Paul, is wholly
5
sheltered from straying, for the will that he acquires is absolute .

3 Supra, p. 74, fig. 2 French original version.
4
Ref. t. I, p. 247, French original version; p. 269, in the English manuscript.
5
Certain texts dating back to the first centuries of our era, attach a wider sense to the word
holy or saint which is applied then to all those who have crossed the second Threshold; if one
refers to this broad conception, the saint is also subject to straying. Thus in the Didache, which
was written between 50 and 60 A.D. (Ref. The Doctrine of the twelve Apostles, Paris, Auguste
Picard, 1926, Intr., p. XXXIV, one may read the following verse at the end of the prayer which
follows the agape / ibid., X, 6, p. 21.: May grace come and the world pass away, Hosanna to the
God of David, If anyone is holy (aghios in the Greek text), Let him come, If anyone is not, let him
repent, Maran Atha, – Amen —, Literal translation from the French).