© by Salomo Baal-Shem 2006
What distinguishes a good mystery education from a bad one?
Unfortunately, it is seldom a rewarding task to try to separate the wheat from the chaff; nevertheless, I will try to describe the differences as clearly as possible, in the hope of giving the seeker a way of understanding what distinguishes a good training from a bad one.
Magical training is a matter of objective skills that a teacher must have. It is similar to becoming an electrician: you have to apprentice with a trained electrician. The skills to be learned are objective. If someone cannot lay electrical cables, then he is not an electrician. One must not be deceived by simple things. If someone can change a light bulb or install a simple switch, then he is still not an electrician, but at best an amateur with a few basic skills. And such an amateur cannot logically train anyone to be an electrician. It is the same in magic. A charlatan in magic may have half-climbed the little hill of lower magic, but he does not know the mountain beyond and he cannot prepare those who follow him for it. (This is true even if he can produce useful results in some areas of lower magic). And often such charlatans do not even know how little they know, and usually they do not want to know. Not infrequently they even react irritably when someone questions their experience. Some even believe that after reading only a few books they would already be able to teach others. Unfortunately, there are groups on the subject of witchcraft or magic that offer training in magic without anyone behind them who has themselves undergone serious training as a magician. Beware of any online magic training, online magic school or online witchcraft school and avoid any website about magic training that does not tell you where the founders of the school or group got their knowledge. A reputable magician can always tell you which organisation he or she was trained in.
In the hermetic tradition of the Western Mysteries, one can nowadays assume that every serious magician comes from a magical lodge, a magical order or a magical school that has a good reputation and a traceable line of tradition. (Those who do not want to say where they learned what they want to pass on to others usually either have only book knowledge or their knowledge comes from an untrustworthy source. It may also be that he learned in a reputable organisation and did not take his training to the point of teaching others, or was even thrown out of it or had to leave it in bad standing and is considered unworthy by that organisation to lead a magical group or teach others. Of course, he doesn’t want people to know about himself, so he doesn’t tell them where he comes from. Trainings by would-be teachers who do not state in which magical school or magical order they themselves were trained should rather be avoided).
In some Wicca learning groups, one hobby witch teaches another. (If the blind leads the blind, both fall into the pit.) Thereby the training completely lacks deeper understanding. (It is not unusual for people from such groups to be completely surprised when they learn that there is much more to magic than the usual formulas and customs, and that magic is a path of spiritual development). I am not saying that it is bad when people get together in a study group and exchange experiences, but that is not a full-fledged magical education.
A good training system is not just a stringing together of teaching units, but a coherent system that leads step by step to higher work. Moreover, even the individual teaching units will be of much higher quality if the teacher has the knowledge and experience of a true occultist.
What is the characteristic of the true occult teacher?
If the leader of a group […] is indeed an initiate of the Mysteries, he will lead his students on to the inner school where they will receive further training and be able to set foot on the Path. But if he is not a regular initiate in connection with one of the greater systems, he will have nothing to offer his students except the resources of his own intellect, and this is a fountain which the more advanced among them will soon drink dry.
(Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and their Work. p.60)
It was the firm view of the great occultist Dion Fortune that initiation into the Mysteries is the indispensable prerequisite for a true occult teacher. However, one must not be deceived by the so-called “initiations” in Wicca. Someone may have the degree of High Priest in Wicca and even lead a coven, but be far from fulfilling the requirements for initiation as it is understood here. The initiation spoken of here is of a higher nature than initiations in Wicca, which is not to say that the latter cannot be considered personally important experiences in individual cases. (Nor is Wicca all the same.) Something similar applies to the “initiation” rituals in Freemasonry. The initiation referred to here is the initiation in the sense of the Western Mystery tradition, given by a school, brotherhood or order with full contact with a teacher or master on the inner planes.
The Brotherhood of Eternal Light and the Lodge Chayot ha-Qodesh are led by initiates of the Western Mystery Tradition and are in full contact with the inner planes.
A true teacher does not just teach spells and recipes, but prepares the student for the higher aspects of magical work. It is not only primarily about the outer aspects of the training, but about the processes that are going on within. The teacher will lay the invisible seed for the higher magic in the student’s soul from the very beginning. Some students who are not yet ready for the higher work will give up the training when the higher aspects make themselves felt, but the seed of the higher is waiting in them for the right time. Some will not come so far in this life to benefit from that seed, but some will come back years later when that seed of wisdom begins to blossom and they are ready to experience the greater mysteries.
