Single practitioners can complete the Minor Mysteries and eliminate at least 25% of the ego and even more.
However, to enter the Major Mysteries and eliminate the entirety of the ego, tantra or alchemy is necessary.
Begin where you are at. There are many great yogis or Masters of Minor Mysteries, such as Yogananda, who awoke a lot of consciousness on their own.
However, just be mindful that complete self-realization exists when the ego is fully dead and the solar bodies are perfected.
We can enter samadhi and begin eliminating ego even without solar bodies.
Obviously, solar bodies are a conduit to channel and awaken more energy to accelerate conscious development.
Creating a solar astral body is a major step in Initiation, since one becomes immortal in the astral world and can investigate many things.
Obviously, it is easier for people with solar bodies to enter Samadhi, IF they are working effectively every day in meditation.
The light you generate and the development you establish becomes absorbed in Geburah, the divine soul, throughout the initiatic work.
But yes, we accumulate energy within our internal bodies if we are working with hermetic science: non-identification and elimination of desire (egos).
Fallen initiates might access the solar bodies temporarily, in accordance with the Being's will and karma. Yet to have full rights to those vehicles requires recapitulation of each initiation and the death of the ego.
For thirty years I sought God. But when I looked carefully I found that in reality God was the seeker and I the sought. -Bayazid al-Bastami