DOKAN 6/Dokan 06.iso/Webs/128.120.24.39/nge/q11.txt

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                       Notes on Kabbalah

The author grants the right to copy and distribute these Notes provided
they remain unmodified and original authorship and copyright is retained.
The author retains both the right and intention to modify and extend
these Notes.

Release 2.0
Copy date: 17th. January 1992

Copyright Colin Low 1992 ([e-mail])

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Chapter 5: Practical Kabbalah
==============================

     "But  just  as I was going to put my feet into the  water  I
     looked  down and saw that they were all hard and  rough  and
     wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before.  Oh, that's
     all right said I,  it only means I had another smaller  suit
     on underneath the first one,  and I'll have to get out of it
     too. So I scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled
     off  beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying  beside
     the other one and went down to the well for my bathe.
          "Well,  exactly  the same thing happened again.  And  I
     thought to myself,  oh dear,  how ever many skins have I got
     to  take  off?  For  I was longing to bathe  my  leg.  So  I
     scratched away for the third time and got off a third  skin,
     just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon
     as  I  looked at myself in the water I knew it had  been  no
     good.
          "Then  the lion said - but I don't know if it  spoke  -
     "You  will have to let me undress you." I was afraid of  his
     claws,  I  can tell you,  but I was pretty nearly  desperate
     now. So I just lay flat down on my back and let him do it.
          "The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought
     it had gone right into my heart.  And when he began  pulling
     the  skin off,  it hurt worse than anything I've ever  felt.
     The  only  thing that made me able to bear it was  just  the
     pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off."

                                             C.S. Lewis

     From an historical and traditional perspective the practical
techniques of Kabbalah include techniques of mysticism and (to  a
lesser  extent)  magic  to  be  found  the  world  over:  complex
concentration  and visualisation  exercises,  meditation,  breath
control,  prayer, ritual, physical posture, chanting and singing,
abstinence, fasting, mortification and good works. Many different
combinations of practice were used at different times and places,
and it is clear that practice grew more out of the temperament of
the individual than from a long historical tradition.  From  time
to time an outstanding teacher would appear,  and a school  would
form,  but  these schools tended to be short-lived,  and  one  is
struck  more by the diversity and individuality of the  different
approaches,  than by (what is often presumed) a chain of  masters
handing  down  the  core  of  a  secret  tradition  through   the
centuries.  A problem with trying to find an authentic  tradition
of  Kabbalistic practice is not only is it difficult to  identify
just  what  such  a tradition might be (given  the  diversity  of
approaches over the centuries), but more importantly, the keys to
many of the practical techniques have been lost.  In her book  on
Kabbalah [1],  Perle Epstein makes a number of wry comments about
the state of Kabbalah in Judaism today, and regrets the loss of a
practical mystical tradition. Outside of Judaism the situation is
little better;  Kabbalah has become an element in the syllabus of
many traditions,  but its practical application is often  limited
to  exercises such as pathworking.  It is instructive to  examine
the  Golden  Dawn initiation rituals [2] as an  example  of  what
happens when Kabbalah is boiled up with a mixture of  ingredients
drawn from Greek,  Egyptian,  Rosicrucian and Enochian sources  -
there is a pervasive smell of Kabbalah throughout,  but it rarely
amounts to a meal.
     The  following description of Kabbalistic practice makes  no
attempt to be comprehensive;  on the contrary, I have chosen only
those  practices with which I am personally familiar.  This  will
be unsatisfactory to those readers with an academic or historical
interest,  but  these  notes were intended to  have  a  practical
value, and I see no value in trying to describe techniques I have
not  used.  Epstein  [1] provides a useful  introduction  to  the
breadth of Kabbalistic practice, and the personalities which have
shaped Kabbalistic thought.  I am aware that there will be  those
who  would  not wish to associate the name  "Kabbalah"  with  the
practices  I am about to describe - although I am not  Jewish,  I
respect the beliefs of those who are - but at the same time there
is  a  great  deal of variety in nearly  two  thousand  years  of
Kabbalah,  and one living tradition is worth at least as much  as
several dead traditions. There is no right or canonical tradition
of Kabbalistic practice.
     The   practice  of  Kabbalah  as  I  will  describe  it   is
underpinned  by  the  theosophical  structure  I  have   outlined
previously  in these notes.  First and foremost comes the  belief
that there is a God.  The ultimate nature of God is neither known
nor  manifest to us,  but just as light can be passed  through  a
prism  to produce a rainbow of colours,  so God manifests in  the
creation as ten divine lights or emanations,  usually referred to
as sephiroth.  Each of one of us is a part of God, a microcosm, a
complete  and  functioning simulacrum of the whole,  and  so  God
similarly  manifests within us as ten divine lights.  Because  we
can look in the mirror of our own being and see the reflection of
the macrocosm it follows that self-knowledge shades imperceptibly
into  knowledge  of  God,  and as the whole  of  creation  is  an
emanation  of  God,   so  self-knowledge  moves  the  centre   of
consciousness away from a subjective awareness of reality towards
an objective and non-dualistic union with everything that is.
     The second key idea is that the emanations or sephiroth  are
aspects of the *creative* power of God.  On a macrocosmic  scale,
the  creation  is  seen as the continuing outcome  of  a  dynamic
process in which creative energy manifests progressively  through
the  sephiroth;  at  a microcosmic and personal  level  the  same
process is at work, and this is the Kabbalistic interpretation of
the  notion that we are "made in God's image".  By  understanding
the elements which comprise our own natures,  by going far enough
inside ourselves to understand the energy and dynamics  operating
within  our  own consciousness,  so we touch  the  same  energies
operating in the universe. When we have touched these energies we
can  call  on  them;  one  name  for  this  process  is  "magic".
Traditionally  these energies are called upon by  name,  and  are
characterised  in  concrete ways - the  list  of  correspondences
given  in Chapter 2 of these notes provides many ideas as to  how
these energies are likely to be observed at a level where we  are
most likely to observe them.  The Kabbalistic Tree of Life is  an
abstract representation or map describing the creative energy  of
God and the process of manifestation.
     And  that is it,  in essence.  How literally you take  these
assumptions  is  up to you;  my attitude resembles  that  of  the
engineer  Oliver  Heavyside,  who didn't care whether  his  self-
invented mathematical methods made sense to mathematicians  (they
didn't),  as long as his calculations produced the right  answers
(they did).  I will talk about angels and archangels and names of
God, powers and sephiroth and invocations, and leave it to you to
make  your own sense of it.
     But to return to the discussion of practical  Kabbalah:  one
can identify two major kinds of practical work arising out of the
assumptions above. From the idea that we are made in the image of
God  we  can conclude that by knowing ourselves we can  (in  some
degree)  know  God;  this  leads to practical  work  designed  to
increase  self-knowledge  to  the  greatest  degree  possible,  a
process  I will refer to as *initiation*.  From the idea that  we
can  call  upon aspects of the creative energy of God  to  change
reality  we  arrive at practices intended to  increase  *personal
power*. Kabbalah has divided along these two paths, and I believe
it  is  accurate  to  say that  traditional  Jewish  Kabbalah  is
predominantly  mystical,  with  the emphasis on union  with  God,
while  non-Jewish  Kabbalah is  predominantly  magical.
     It is easy to sit in judgement of these two approaches; many
authors have done so. To seek for union with God is to seek to do
God's will; the world-wide mystical agenda is composed largely of
the subjugation of ego and the replacement of personal wilfulness
with divine union.  Magic is seen to be predominantly wilful, and
so  shares  the original Satanic impulse of pride  and  rebellion
against  the divine will.  It is easy to conclude  that  mystical
union  (devekuth,  or "cleaving to God") is the  true  goal,  and
magic  an "egocentric" aberration of consciousness.
     It  is  difficult to provide a *rational*  counter  to  this
argument:   to   be  rational  is  to  fail  to  appreciate   the
ineffability of mystical insight,  and to argue is to demonstrate
Satanic  wilfulness  - one is condemned out of one's  own  mouth.
Nevertheless, there is a middle way between the two extremes, and
in  what follows the process of initiation is combined  with  the
use of magical techniques in a blend which I believe captures the
best of both approaches. I have chosen to describe the process of
initiation  first  because  I have the romantic  notion  that  an
ethical sense grows out of self-knowledge.  I follow that with  a
discussion of some general magical techniques.

Initiation
----------

One  of the meanings of the word "initiation" is "the process  of
beginning something".  What is one beginning?  One is  committing
oneself to find answers to certain questions. What questions? The
questions vary,  but they are usually fundamental questions about
the nature of life and personal existence:  "why is the world the
way it is?",  "why am I alive?", "what lies behind the phenomenal
world?",  "why  should  I continue living?",  "what is  good  and
what is evil?",  "how should I live?", and "how can I become rich,
famous and sexually attractive without expending any effort?". It
happens (for no obvious reason)  that there are people who cannot
escape the nagging conviction that some or all of these questions
can be answered,  and the same people are determined to wring the
answers out of somebody or something.  The situation resembles  a
cat in a new house;  the poor creature will not rest until it has
explored every nook and cranny from the attic to the  crawlspace.
So  it is with certain people;  they look out on the  world  with
cat's eyes, and metaphysical and philosophical questions are like
dark openings into the attic and crawlspace of existence.  And it
happens   that  every  question,   when  followed   with   enough
determination,  leads  back to the questioner.  What is the  pre-
condition for knowing anything? We are the attics and crawlspaces
of  existence,  and so in the end we forced to look  within,  and
know ourselves.
     There is another aspect to initiation:  on one hand we  have
the desire to *know*, and on the other hand we have the desire to
*be  something  else*.  Initiation  is also the  beginning  of  a
process of self-transformation,  a process of becoming  something
else. Becoming what? Answers vary, but in the main, people have a
vision of "myself made perfect",  and if they believe in  saints,
they want to be saintly;  if they believe in God, they want to be
united with God.  Some want to be more powerful, and some want to
be rich,  famous,  and sexually attractive. Two easily observable
characteristics  of  people  looking  for  mystical  or   magical
training  are a lust for knowledge and a desire to  be  something
other than what they currently are.  A bizarre situation  indeed;
not only do they seek to know what they are and why they are, but
even  before  they know the answers,  they want to  be  something
else.
     Kabbalistic  initiation  is a process  of  increasing  self-
knowledge,  and an accompanying process of change. It is based on
a  practical  experience  of the sephiroth:  if  each  of  us  is
potentially  a simulacrum of God,  and if the creative energy  of
God  can  be  described  in terms of  the  dynamics  of  the  ten
sephiroth,  then  by understanding the dynamics of the  sephiroth
within  us we begin to understand the nature of the  God  within,
and  by extrapolation,  the nature of God in  the  absolute.  The
learning  process  (like most learning)  mirrors  the  alchemical
operation  of "solve et coagula" - that is,  before we can  reach
the  next stage in knowledge and understanding ("coagula") it  is
necessary  to break down what already exists into  its  component
parts  ("solve").  This  can be observed whenever we  attempt  to
learn a new skill;  we begin in a state of unconcious  competence
where we can do many tasks without difficulty,  but when we try a
new  skill we find that our old habits are a  positive  obstacle,
and we become unconsciously incompetent - we approach a new  task
in  an old way and make a mess of it.  When we have  made  enough
messes we either give up,  or we realise the necessity of change,
drop  old  habits  as a prerequisite  for  acquiring  new  habits
(solve), and become consciously incompetent. Finally, with enough
practice (coagula), we return once more to a state of unconscious
competence,  ready to begin the cycle one more time.  The process
of  kabbalistic  initiation leading to  increased  self-knowledge
begins with the sephiroth,  and each sephira contains within it a
world of "solve et coagula",  a world where one may function with
limited  unconscious  competence,  but to reach a  new  level  of
understanding  and  competence one must go through the  fire  and
experience   the   energy  of  the   sephira   deliberately   and
consciously.
     What possible advantage could there be in understanding  the
nature of a sephira?  What "things" are there to be  learned?  In
answer,  there are no "things" to be learned.  A sephira is not a
particular manifestation of consciousness (e.g.  pleasure),  or a
particular  behaviour  (e.g.   being  honest,  being  kind);  the
sephiroth underpin manifestations of consciousness,  they are the
earth in which behaviours (and their opposites) are  rooted,  and
by understanding a sephira one burrows underneath the *phenomena*
of  consciousness  and  grasps an abstract  state  of  *becoming*
(emanation,  or sephira) which gives rise to phenomena. This is a
magical procedure;  when one ceases to identify with the shopping
list of qualities,  beliefs and behaviours which can be  mistaken
for   personal   identity  (a  necessarily  fixed   and   limited
abstraction) then one touches the raw substance of becoming,  and
it  is on the power to manipulate the "becoming" of reality  that
magic  is based.  The closer one tries to get to the energy of  a
sephira, the more one must abandon the artificial restrictions of
personality;  the  mystical  quest  for  self-knowledge  and  the
magical quest for personal power unite in the same place.
     There  are  many  ways  to investigate  the  nature  of  the
sephiroth,  but one of the simplest and most direct is to ask the
powers of the sephiroth for help.  In principal all one has to do
is call upon the powers of a sephira,  and ask to be  instructed.
There are three potential problems with this procedure. The first
is that it is like asking to be dropped in a wilderness;  you may
learn to survive,  or you may not. The second possible problem is
that  people tend to have a natural affinity for  some  sephiroth
and  not  others,  and left to themselves tend to  develop  their
knowledge in a lop-sided manner.  Lastly, many people do not know
how  to call upon the powers - you can't ask Gabriel to help  you
if  you  don't know Gabriel,  and you don't know how  to  contact
Gabriel. But, if you knew someone who knew Gabriel....
     The time-honoured method of initiation into the nature of  a
particular sephira is to ask someone who has had that  experience
to  invoke to powers of the sephira on your  behalf.  The  person
chosen  as initiator would use the techniques of ritual magic  to
invoke the powers of a sephira with the intention that you should
receive  instruction and insight into the nature of that  sphere.
It  works.  Metaphysical theories may be impossible to  prove  or
disprove,  supposed  magical  powers  evaporate  in  the  physics
laboratory,  but  people who undergo this kind of initiation  can
change visibly and even claim to have learned something.  One can
argue  about the objective reality of the Archangel  Gabriel  and
the Powers of the sephira Yesod,  but it is difficult to  dispute
the  validity  of  initiation when someone  changes  his  or  her
outlook  on  reality and actually does things  differently  as  a
consequence.
     I  would  like to clarify some  possible  misunderstandings.
This  kind  of  initiation is not a ceremony  with  a  fixed  and
lengthy script,  like the masonic-type rituals which have  become
so  closely associated with magical initiations.  The  initiation
ritual  I  am  describing is a  challenge;  it  is  a  one-to-one
encounter  between  an initiatee,  and an initiator who  acts  as
agent for the invoked powers. If there is a script it is minimal;
the purpose of the ritual is not to impart secrets,  or impose  a
view of the world,  but to challenge the initiatee to demonstrate
a   personal  and  individual  understanding  relevant   to   the
initiation.   The  success  of  the  initiation  depends  on  the
initiator's ability to invoke and channel the powers,  and on the
initiatee's  willingness  to be challenged at a  deeply  personal
level  in  an  atmosphere  of  trust.  The  challenge  aspect  of
initiation is a vital part of its success; it creates a catalytic
stress which can act to bring about sudden and sometimes dramatic
changes  in perspective.  The initiation is also a challenge  for
the  initiator;  each initiatee is different and  approaches  the
same place from a different direction.
     This kind of initiation is not a lightweight  procedure.  It
is easy to abuse it.  The purpose of initiation is not to  select
for conformity (quite the opposite),  but it must be said that it
is easy for an initiator to use an initiation to enhance personal
power.  This  is  a  problem in esoteric  systems  which  use  an
apprenticeship  system and is not unique to this particular  form
of initiation.
     Self-initiation  is possible and may be the only option  for
many  people.   It  suffers  from  a  number  of disadvantages:

     - people  are  naturally  self-important  and  endow  their
       opinions,   attitudes  and  prejudices  with  far   more
       importance than another person would. Working with another
       person produces beneficial friction.

     - it is easy to make excuses to yourself which you  wouldn't
       make to another person. Their presence is a   challenge to
       make an effort, or do things differently.

     - magical work can produce dramatic changes in behaviour. An
       observer can provide useful feedback.

     - most of Kabbalah isn't "facts"; it is "ways of being", and
       an  excellent method of learning is to let  someone  else
       demonstrate.

     - it is easy to reinvent the wheel when working by oneself.

None  of  these  difficulties  are  insurmountable.   Joining  an
amateur  dramatic   group as a conscious and  deliberate  magical
exercise should provide some of the raw input needed, and provide
lots of stress,  friction, and challenges to one's personal world
view. It is easy to think up other examples. What is important is
not to treat practical Kabbalah as something separate from normal
life, but to use normal life as the stimulus to put Kabbalah into
practice - this is a traditional Kabbalistic idea.  If you  can't
do it in ordinary life, you can't do it.
     It  is  easy  to mystify initiation  and  pretend  it  leads
somewhere different from the "school of hard knocks". It doesn't.
Ordinary  life is a perfectly adequate initiator,  and people  do
change  in many ways (sometime dramatically) as they grow  older.
At most initiation may go further.  It can and should  accelerate
the process of acquiring self-knowledge and (in theory at  least)
lead  to someone who has explored their personal microcosm  in  a
broader,  deeper and more systematic way than someone who has had
to  suffer "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune"  in  the
patchy and random sequence that is our common lot.  The Kabbalist
should  be  able  to go further in exploring  and  analysing  the
extremes of consciousness, boundless steppes in the shadowland of
"not-me", where daemons of "otherness" threaten the fragile ghost
of personal identity.
     Much of what an initiator does is to ask questions.  If  you
want to carry out a self-initiation you will have to ask your own
questions.  I  will  use  the sephiroth of  Hod  and  Netzach  as
examples to show how the sephirothic correspondences can be  used
to ask questions.  Suppose you want to identify those  behaviours
and  attitudes in your personality which are underpinned  by  Hod
and  Netzach.  Read the correspondences in Chapter 2 for Hod  and
Netzach and try to decide.  Are you impulsive? Do you do what you
want to do and ignore people who warn you of the consequences? Do
you have strong passions for things, people, places. If asked why
you  are doing something,  how do you explain yourself -  do  you
give  elaborate rationalisations,  or do you say things  like  "I
haven't any choice", or "you made me do it", or "I just want to",
or "I can't explain why".  Do other people tell you to stop being
irrational? Do you find it hard to suppress your emotions, do you
think you are transparent to others?  Are you furious one minute,
miserably  sad  the  next,  do your  moods  and  feelings  change
on the fly?
     On  the other hand,  you might be someone who  is  concerned
with  the  protocol of relationships and  situations  (you  worry
whether it is right to kiss on the first date!). You like to talk
about  things and have definite ideas about the right  and  wrong
way  to  conduct  a  discussion - you refer  to  this  as  "being
rational". You analyse your conduct in some detail according to a
constantly developing set of rules, and you dream up hypothetical
situations to test your ability to apply these rules - you  don't
want to make a mistake. You are skilled at handling problems with
many rules,  and may be adept at cheating the rules.  You have  a
clear  grasp  of high-level abstractions and might work  in  law,
medicine,  finance,  science,  or engineering,  where you can use
your  ability  to  apply rule-based  knowledge.  You  might  feel
uncomfortable  with  a  display of  emotion  in  another  person,
particlarly when it cuts across your sense of protocol,  and  you
keep a tight rein on your own emotions. Other people may find you
sharp  but  clinical,  able to communicate verbally but  poor  at
responding to real-life situations involving emotional  conflict,
poor  at  any problem where there  is  insufficient  information,
where  variables  cannot  be quantified,  or where  there  is  no
abstract model.
     The first set of behaviours is appropriate to Netzach, while
the second set is appropriate to Hod.  Few people are purely  one
thing or another, and behaviours change according to circumstance
- drinking alcohol tends to shift people from Hod-type behaviours
to Netzach-type behaviours. A person may sustain a Hod persona at
work,  then  go to a bar in the evening and become  the  complete
opposite.  My  favourite  Hod/Netzach joke  concerns  the  (real)
couple  who  were asked which of the two sephiroth they  had  the
greatest affinity to.  The man responded "Well,  I feel I'm Hod",
and  the woman replied "I think I'm probably Netzach".
     The  analysis  can  be  taken  further.   Suppose  you  have
identified a large number of Hod-type behaviours in yourself. The
virtue  of  Hod  is honesty or  truthfulness,  and  its  vice  is
dishonesty - the power of language to represent  and  communicate
information  about  the world automatically brings  with  it  the
power  to  *misrepresent* what is going on.  How  often  are  you
dishonest?  With yourself? With others? In what situations do you
sanction  dishonesty?  What value do you perceive in  dishonesty?
Are  you capable of giving a purely factual account of a  failed,
close relationship without rationalising your own behaviour?  Try
it,  and ask a good friend to score the attempt. I must emphasise
that  there  is no moral intent in this  dissection  of  personal
honesty  - it is an exercise designed to expose the way in  which
we represent events so as to make ourselves feel comfortable.
     The illusion of Hod is Order, and the qlippa or shell of Hod
is  Rigid  Order.  It is easy to observe during  discussions  and
arguments how people try to defend and preserve the structure (or
form)  of their beliefs.  Do you know anyone with an  unshakeable
view of the world? Does it annoy you that no matter how ingenious
you  are  in finding counter-examples to his or  her  view,  this
person  will always succeed in "fitting" your example into  their
world view?   What about yourself?  Do you collect evidence which
reinforces your beliefs like someone collecting stamps?  Are  you
conscious  of  trying to "fit" and "interpret"  the  evidence  to
support  your beliefs?  Why are your beliefs important?  What  is
their actual *value* to you. What would happen to you if you gave
them up?
     You  can  do the same thing with the  sephira  Netzach.  The
illusion  of Netzach is projection,  the averse face of  empathy,
the tendency to incorrectly attribute to others the same feelings
and  motives  as  I have.  Suppose I  am  sexually  attracted  to
someone;  I  look at this person and they smile in  return.  What
does  that smile mean to me at that instant?  How many  different
mistakes might I have made?  Suppose I say to someone "I know how
you feel",  and they retort angrily "No you bloody well  don't!".
One of the fastest ways of alienating someone is to  consistently
misinterpret how they feel. Are you constantly puzzled why people
don't share your taste in clothes, music, literature, films, art,
or decor?  Do you feel that if only their eyes were opened,  they
might?  Do you ever try to convert people to your taste?  How  do
react when they aren't impressed?  Do you make secret  judgements
which  affect the way you treat them?  Have you  ever  discounted
someone  because their taste offended yours?  What  *value*  does
your  personal aesthetic have to you?  What would happen  if  you
gave it up?
     As  you  can  see,  this is not  a  procedure  where  anyone
(barring yourself) is going to provide answers.  Questions,  yes;
lots  of questions,  but no answers.  Asking the right  questions
isn't  easy;  we tend to have a peculiar blindness about our  own
behaviour,  beliefs,  and attitudes,  and that translates into an
unconsciousness  of  what we are.  One of the oldest  jokes  that
children play is to stick a notice on someone's back saying "Kick
Me".  The  poor  unfortunate  walks around and  wonders  why  his
acquaintances are behaving oddly - tittering, sneaking up behind,
and so on. He can't see what other people can see clearly, and he
hasn't  the  power to understand (and possibly  influence)  their
behaviour until he does see.  Suppose an "initiator" walks up and
says:

     "Have you looked at your back recently?"
     "Ahhhh....!" says the victim in a sudden flash of insight.

     According  to folk wisdom,  asking questions is a  dangerous
business.  Asking yourself questions certainly is.  It hurts.  It
has no obvious benefit.  You may find yourself hating yourself as
you  penetrate  layers of self-deception and dishonesty  only  to
discover  a fear (or terror) of changing,  and pious  resolutions
and commitments fall apart in the face of that fear. You take off
the first skin, and then you take off the next skin, and then you
take off the skin under that.  Then you get stuck.  You can't  go
any further by yourself - you haven't the courage to do it -  and
at the same time you can't go back to what you were.  A blind and
deaf man can stand happily in the middle of a busy road, but give
him  sight  and hearing for only a second and that  happiness  is
gone.  It  is at this point where it helps to have a faith  in  a
power greater than yourself - your Holy Guardian Angel,  God, the
Lion, whatever.
     In summary,  the process of kabbalistic initiation described
above is based in detail on the map of consciousness provided  by
the  Tree  of Life and the  correspondences.  The  sephiroth  are
explored  by  using  ritual magic to invoke  the  powers  of  the
sephiroth   for  the  purposes  of   initiation.   Incidents   in
ordinary   life  are  interpreted  as  challenges   or   learning
experiences supplied by the powers. Major steps in the process of
initiation are marked by observable changes in the initiatee, and
confirmed  by  an  initiator whose role is primarily  that  of  a
catalyst. This technique of initiation has been used for at least
one hundred years, but its execution has tended to be marred by a
good  deal  of  superfluous dross  -  elaborate  ceremonials  and
scripts,  pompous  and often meaningless grades and  titles,  and
magical  systems so vastly elaborate that the  would-be  initiate
spends more time looking at the finger than the moon.

(to be continued)