The Pragmatism of Secrecy

Happy 6/6/06!!! I have been coming to some revelations into the secrecy aspect of the mystery schools, mine included. It used to seem really ridiculous to me. Between the internet and Barnes and Noble: THE SECRET IS OUT!!! I mean, no one is burning us anymore guys, what’s the point of it? However, working within the system of my order, I’m coming to a different perspective.

When I run into stumbling blocks, Frater Achad AL rarely gives me a definitive answer. Instead, he’ll give me a hint, or rather he’ll steer me towards a hint by asking questions that force me to reflect on the logic and my experience of what I’m asking. Then he’ll usually say, “Pay attention in your rituals, plant the seed of this question in your mind and get back to me when you think you have the answer.” Is Frater Achad AL being pompous, and withholding? Is he flaunting his superior wisdom in front of me to remind me that I’m but a lowly neophyte? NO! He is causing me to cultivate, and rely on my intuition, which in turn cultivates the ritual, and so on. Not by acquring another fact for the file cabinet, but by finding a piece of the puzzle, the whole picture now becoming clearer with the inclusion of this new ingrediant.

This is the crux of it. Being an academic, I am very used to the flash-card-drilling, fact-collecting method of learning. I tried that with Hermeticism for many years, and only wound up with a hodge-podge of valuable concept, a kind of philosophical matrix, but nothing really practical. In example, learning the Tarot and Astrology comprises quite a volume of material. My attempts at the academic method lacked results. Now however, I use the cards in my ritual, and I am finding a symmetry to my learning process, everything dovetails into everything else.

On a Tuesday a take the fives out the deck along with the Tower, and set them up on my altar. I always keep the Major Arcana card for the sign we’re in on the altar as well. Before I meditate, I closely examine each card, take in the subtleties and make the planetary attributions glow red in my minds eye as a strong part of the design. This serves several purposes:

· I am utilizing archetypes to cue me into the energy of the day

· I am Learning the attributions and nature of the cards, through which:
o On the Tree I learn the attributions and nature of the 4 worlds of 7 of the Sephiroth, as well as,
seven of the paths
o I learn about the signs of Zodiac
o I learn about the seven sacred planets

· I am imprinting the cards in my mind, and allowing the archetypes to summon aspects of
the universe/myself, normally unconscious, to the surface

I could think of still more benefits, but the point is that this is the way to learn the path. The answers are within, and when they come they don’t come alone. Each new light bulb that goes on illuminates everything more. It’s a Gnostic trip; Sophia does not arrive through the reading of a book, or pontificating to one’s beer buddy. Sophia lives inside and she is only freed through experience, and experience only happens in the here and now.

Relating this back to the apparent secrecy, I am trying to give an example of obtaining some truths that have not been handed to me on a silver platter. Wisdom, acquired through experience, produces Understanding. Facts acquired through mundane transmission produce Knowledge. Knowing all the facts about bicycles does not translate into knowing how to ride one.

ONION-PEELINGS

The Universe is the Practical Joke of the General at the Expense of the Particular, quoth FRATER PERDURABO, and laughed.
But those disciples nearest to him wept, seeing the Universal Sorrow.
Those next to them laughed, seeing the Universal Joke.
Below these certain disciples wept.
Then certain laughed.
Others next wept.
Others next laughed.
Next others wept.
Next others laughed.
Last came those that wept because they could not see the Joke, and those that laughed lest they should be thought not to see the Joke, and thought it safe to act like FRATER PERDURABO.
But though FRATER PERDURABO laughed openly, He also at the same time wept secretly; and in Himself He neither laughed nor wept.
Nor did He mean what He said.