[split] Mystery Schools and Initiation

[Black Dragon]

Yeah, dude, I'd agree with you that you've drifted off the general pathway of thoughts in this instance.

In my experience, when you demand of someone, "Hey, prove to me that you're not a stinkin' butt-hole," you're unlikely to receive a welcoming or otherwise constructive response.  Is your experience any different?

I would add this, organizations dedicated to experiencing the mysteries of being often are intended to serve those who show (internally) a deep desire to seek and to serve.  Considering what that might smell like, feel like, taste like could be helpful to you in your bumptious searching.

The irony and paradox is that no, my experience isn't any different. The "prove to me your not a stinkin' butthole" thing goes both ways, and from what I've seen, the "casting pearls before swine" attitude of mystery schools is just that,  demanding people prove to them they aren't swine before they will consider them worthy of anything. I'm not saying dump advanced knowledge and ritual magic in the hands of the uninitiated, I'm just asking to see them as more than swine and treating them with a little more respect(which is a two-way street) and humanitarianism-seeing them as equals, as the creator and working a bit more diligently on their behalf, rather than throwing them to the wolves.

With my own distortions, maybe I can't achieve a 100% perfect idea of what a "deep desire to serve" is, but the notion that I have not considered it, is dismissive and condescending, to say the least. That's the point I keep getting back to. Dismissiveness. Judgment. Condescension. Elitism. Holier than thou attitudes. Well, I know that a deep desire to serve other-selves has nothing to do with any of that. It doesn't smell like judgment. It doesn't taste like dismissiveness and aloofness. It doesn't sound like viewing the uninitiated, the distorted, and the imperfect masses of other-selves as "swine".

To me, a deep desire to serve sees other-selves as equals. It sees humanity as troubled, but inherently worthy. It sees the magical personality as the birthright of every sentient being, and not some award to be won or privilege to be earned through trials and tribulations and the approval of some authority outside the self. To me, a deep desire to serve isn't just a desire to serve the elect few, the initiated, but all of humanity. In fact, I don't even understand how those with a pure and strong desire to serve can still believe the in the notion of an "elect few".

Feel free to give a quick reply here, or a more thorough one in PM or to my new thread-I have realized that my posts in this thread are off-topic enough to probably warrant a split, and I'd rather self-regulate than have the mods be bothered with it. I am going to remove, copy, and transplant my large post to its own thread, and just leave a heads up that I did so. I do definitely want feedback, so any of the original posters here that would perhaps have the more firsthand perspective I'm looking for can hit me up with a PM, or post on my new thread.