April 2018 Book Club

   April 11, 2018
   John Michael Greer
   118 Comments

   This week's post is the tenth  of a monthly series of open-discussion posts
   focusing  on books  I've  written. Our  theme for  the  present is  Mystery
   Teachings  from the  Living  Earth,  and this  week  we're discussing  "The
   Spiritual Ecology of  Initiation" (pp.101-118). I'd like to  ask readers to
   keep their questions and comments focused  on that chapter and the ideas it
   contains; I'm currently hosting a weekly Ask Me Anything post on Mondays on
   my Dreamwidth journal at  https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org, and there'll be
   a more general  open post here in  due time, so comments  on other subjects
   should go there instead.

   The chapter covers a fair amount of  material, but the central theme can be
   summed  up simply  enough.  The  work of  the  mystery  schools we've  been
   discussing for the  last nine months centers on the  process of initiation;
   while there's been more nonsense written  about that subject than about any
   other detail  of occult  philosophy, with  the sole  exception of  the lost
   continent of Atlantis,  there's a vitally important reality  behind all the
   pompous blather and handwaving. Every human being has the capacity for some
   form of  greatness; most human  beings never  get around to  awakening that
   capacity;  but the  experience  of  the mystery  schools  down through  the
   centuries has been that certain  specific disciplines reliably help trigger
   the inner changes that enable the awakening of the potentials hidden in the
   individual person.

   What   are  these   disciplines?  Ritual,   either  performed   by  trained
   practitioners  or  practiced repeatedly  by  the  initiate for  himself  or
   herself, starts the process; meditation, study, and certain other practices
   build on  the foundation of ritual,  and foster the ripening  of individual
   capacity.  It's not  fast and  it's  not foolproof-quite  the contrary,  it
   requires steady labor  over a period of many years-but  it works remarkably
   well.

   Questions? Comments?  Discussions? Have  at it-subject,  of course,  to the
   usual rules.

                                 ***********

   Next month's book  club post will finish up our  study of Mystery Teachings
   from the Living Earth.  After that, we'll be going on  to an important work
   of occult  philosophy, one of  the most  influential such works  in today's
   occult field: The  Cosmic Doctrine by Dion Fortune. Please  note that there
   are two  different editions  of this  work in  circulation these  days. The
   currently available  edition, published by Weiser,  reproduces the original
   1924 privately  printed edition; the edition  most often found in  the used
   book market, published by Helios in  hardback and Aquarian in paperback, is
   the revised 1966 edition. I  personally prefer the revised edition, because
   that's the one I  used in my original study of the  text, and the revisions
   to  my mind  sharply improved  the clarity  of the  presentation; the  same
   material is covered in both editions, though. I own copies of both and will
   give citations from both for those who are prepared to read along and study
   this extremely useful manual of magical philosophy.