(08-08-2015, 03:21 PM)Bring4th_Plenum Wrote: and so a 'school' is of use because it is able to concentrate such efforts, and helps connect the seeker with those are able to facilitate that seeking?

(08-08-2015, 03:09 PM)Bring4th_Plenum Wrote: I honestly have no idea about what this concept is.

-- have you ever been part of a mystery school?

(08-08-2015, 03:09 PM)Bring4th_Plenum Wrote: -- how do you actually envisage it working?  (in terms of commitments, financial contributions, is it professional/purely amateur in one's own time).
-- how would the hierarchy be structured?
-- who would you actually trust to be the 'head' of such a school?  and by that, I mean, at the end of the day, you are not going to have a lot of direct information or contact with that individual, except by reputation.

(08-08-2015, 08:47 PM)Aion Wrote: Then the question of trust in others is the fear of their ability to sway or potentially interfere with your free will maybe?

(08-08-2015, 11:00 PM)Monica Wrote: PS.  A Mystery School isn't on Earth, so this thread shouldn't be in the 'Life on Planet Earth' sub-forum. 

(08-08-2015, 11:19 PM)Bring4th_Plenum Wrote:  so you mean all the activity takes place on a spiritual plane?

(08-08-2015, 11:19 PM)Bring4th_Plenum Wrote: actually, in reference to the OP, I do have some tangential knowledge about a Mystery School, just no direct experience of one.

My friend was an academic at an Alice Bailey-themed Esoteric School, and you can see how structured and organised it is, and how many people are involved in it.  You would sign up for courses each semester, and you would have assignments and essays and reports, much like taking a university degree.

You can also see by their application forms, how detailed the vetting process is before they will accept you as a student.

My friend also told me that once they received your application, they would have one of their astrologers do an in-depth chart, to determine your personality, and would also have their psychics scan you for suitability.

I don't know how the financial arrangements worked.  My friend certainly wasn't paid to do this work.  (He has since passed away, unfortunately).

ps, I didn't actually consider the organization he was part of as a 'Mystery School'.  He never referenced it by those terms.  But in the wider context, I think it fits the definition.  (Esoteric School?)

(08-08-2015, 11:25 PM)Monica Wrote: That sounds more like a school of metaphysics. Not a mystery school.

Quote:15.12 Questioner: How does an individual go about balancing himself? What is the first step?

Ra: I am Ra. The steps are only one; that is, an understanding of the energy centers which make up the mind/body/spirit complex. This understanding may be briefly summarized as follows. The first balancing is of the Malkuth, or Earth, vibratory energy complex, called the red-ray complex. An understanding and acceptance of this energy is fundamental. The next energy complex, which may be blocked is the emotional, or personal complex, also known as the orange-ray complex. This blockage will often demonstrate itself as personal eccentricities or distortions with regard to self-conscious understanding or acceptance of self.

The third blockage resembles most closely that which you have called ego. It is the yellow-ray or solar plexus center. Blockages in this center will often manifest as distortions towards power manipulation and other social behaviors concerning those close and those associated with the mind/body/spirit complex. Those with blockages in these first three energy centers, or nexi, will have continuing difficulties in ability to further their seeking of the Law of One.

(08-08-2015, 11:37 PM)Bring4th_Plenum Wrote: do you think this is an accurate representation/description of a Mystery School?

(08-09-2015, 01:02 AM)Aion Wrote: I think the modern idea of a mystery school is more like the Rosicrucians, that is a body of individuals who are organized through their natural association of the heart with no true outer body of organization (despite groups calling themselves as such). It is considered the true 'inner order' of the Golden Dawn and is not of the physical body and is of the higher vehicles. Supposedly communication and communion in such a school is all astral or metaphysical or mostly.

(08-09-2015, 12:17 PM)Aion Wrote: In historical context there would basically be two sides to a Mystery. There is the exoteric side which revolves around the rites, ceremonies and beliefs regarding the Mystery and then you have the esoteric side which corresponds with adept understanding and study. To progress from the outer order to the inner order one had to complete the work of the outer order.

To the people, they saw them as the initiates whom would first study in public and learn all of the exoteric features of the Mystery and then they would graduate to the inner order and begin to work on the true secrets of the Mystery which are discovered only internally. Hence the 'Mystery School' which is both exoteric and esoteric is called as such because of its association with some great Mystery of the universe and less so because of its secrecy.

The truth is the secrecy is more something put in by elitist mindset to reserve it for those of power. This has convoluted the idea somewhat.

(08-09-2015, 12:35 PM)Aion Wrote: Well yeah, that was the core of that misunderstanding but is also due partly to magicians falsely attributing it as such. I actually haven't examined the exact 'lineage' of that change in ideas, but I feel it was actually a misinterpretation of Victorian occultism which took a novel approach to 'dark' practices. I think that was the time that the idea of 'black magic' became really widespread as an idea and threat. There have been fears of dark magicians and shamans for a long time but it was in that time that the concept became somewhat regularized.

(08-09-2015, 12:56 PM)Monica Wrote:

(08-09-2015, 12:35 PM)Aion Wrote: Well yeah, that was the core of that misunderstanding but is also due partly to magicians falsely attributing it as such. I actually haven't examined the exact 'lineage' of that change in ideas, but I feel it was actually a misinterpretation of Victorian occultism which took a novel approach to 'dark' practices. I think that was the time that the idea of 'black magic' became really widespread as an idea and threat. There have been fears of dark magicians and shamans for a long time but it was in that time that the concept became somewhat regularized.

But there really were dark magicians as well. What I'm referring to is that the fundamentalist religious people thought that any magician was dark, that it was all 'satanic.' They were so fear-based and rigid in their thinking that they couldn't tell the difference.

Add to that, that there were mystery schools within the religions too. Rumor has it that the Pope's bathtub is painted with astrological symbols. At the higher levels, the religions have the knowledge, but it's kept secret and only a watered-down version is fed to the masses. The 'mystery schools' were secret attempts to share this knowledge without the permission of the religious leaders in power.

In an effort to thwart the dissemination of occult knowledge (which would empower the masses and they couldn't allow that), the religious leaders taught that all occult knowledge was evil and anyone engaging in it would be deemed a heretic and put to death.

But there were other reasons for secrecy too. It was thought that occult secrets could be dangerous in the hands of people who weren't ready for it. Hence, the initiation process to weed out those who weren't ready.

...

(08-09-2015, 03:13 PM)IndigoGeminiWolf Wrote: There was a school that taught astral projection/lucid dreaming, but to take their program you had to have abstained from self-pleasure for at least a year.

(08-09-2015, 04:43 PM)Monica Wrote:

(08-09-2015, 03:13 PM)IndigoGeminiWolf Wrote: There was a school that taught astral projection/lucid dreaming, but to take their program you had to have abstained from self-pleasure for at least a year.

Goodness gracious, they sound really uptight! Unless they are also teaching how to accumulate, harness and channel all that energy (instead of just letting it build up), I'd suggest finding another.

(08-09-2015, 04:58 PM)IndigoGeminiWolf Wrote: Their leader also claimed to be Beelzebub, another name for the devil.

(08-09-2015, 04:58 PM)IndigoGeminiWolf Wrote: I don't want to try to even remember the website, because I don't want their energy.