The need to join a healthy, functioning Temple, so that you are exposed to the transformative magic of the Order, is the most important thing to take away from this discourse. The Order has always used group ceremonial for a reason.
It might take many years to find such a Temple, for all sorts of reasons. But that should not be a barrier if your heart is truly in it, and not just your head. Carefully, with as much common sense as you can muster, do due diligence on any Temple you encounter before joining. Eric Sisco has written some excellent advice on what to look for when choosing a Temple in his “Esoteric Orders Survival Guide” and I don’t need to repeat that here (thank you Eric!).
I’d just emphasise that you do not need to be in a hurry. Heaven is not going to fill up!
In ancient times, it might have taken initiates years to finally be initiated into a Sanctuary of the Mysteries, such as at Samothrace in the Northern Aegean Sea – the tyranny of distance was vast and dangerous in those days. In our modern times, there are many temples, but it could still take years to sort the wheat from the chaff, or to have the means and the time necessary. A temple around the corner may not pass the muster, and you might even need to travel or move country, as did the ancient initiates – or just find another path, of which there are still many so don’t be disheartened, it just will not be “Golden Dawn”.
For those that persevere, avoid reading about the Order’s Grade Ceremonies in particular. You will do yourself a great disservice by doing so. The magic of the Order has its strongest impact on those who are least informed about what is to unfold. This follows a very long tradition. Make sure your garden is not full of the weeds of preconceptions, particularly of others, or your task will be even harder for it.
Some Temples will do things slightly differently, due to inexperience. As long as they are sincere and you do your part, advancement will occur and the rose of the Order will unfold to you, very naturally.
This transformative magic requires surprise exposure to sacred symbols, in an atmosphere conducive to sacredness. A seed is sown, and you must then work to nurture and grow it. Ambiguity, incongruity, incomprehensibility, even apparent errors. These are the puzzles YOU must solve. Don’t seek answers from others. Figure it out by YOURSELF. Like snakes and ladders at times. But in this know that this journey of personal enquiry IS most important. You are looking for an elusive thread to follow, the knight errant in search of the Grail.
However, in diligently LOOKING, you are actually carefully LISTENING. Listening for the first signs of the Soul awakening, awakening from her deep slumber. The Order’s magic is beginning to stir her awake.
Bit by bit, as you witness new ceremonies and new symbols, and as you work away at your studies to try and figure it all out, the Soul starts to reach out, starts to whisper in a language you are beginning to understand, as your vocabulary in symbols expands. This conversation comes in the form of intuition (inner-tuition), and it often strikes like lightening but sometimes forms like dew, as she takes you by the hand, ever more often, and leads you down illuminated paths not seen before.
What appeared to you before as an error, you now see was a key.
And by this time, whether you were aware of it or not, the magic of the Order will have been performed and served its purpose. Will have served THE purpose.
Kallah the Bride will have awoken and become Malkah the Queen, and you will be in love, and have taken your place beside her as her willing King, and the Kingdom will be united under a single Crown.
Thus the Summum Bonum.
Kasmillos
