Сорри, но переводить не к спеху. Если кто постарается - буду крайне признателен.
Lies of the World/Myths of the Real
by Don Webb
In the supermarket nearest my house, there is a Ticket-tron. They sell tickets to all sorts of events, from avantgardista performance art to Disney on Ice. Every night tons of things happen here in Austin, and like anyone I am sad when I missed buying the ticket to the event that (in retrospect) I really wanted to go to. Heck I could've taped Buffy that night.
The word "initiation" is tossed around a great deal. So much so that it has come to be an almost meaningless term. I have seen people call themselves "initiates" because they bought (or even shoplifted) a book or video, because they took some drug, or because some idiot taught them a secret handshake in a bar. Since human beings, by their (mainly forgotten) better natures, long to improve themselves, there is a great hunger for such "initiations" -- they are as popular as that perennial best-seller, toilet paper printed to look money.
And certainly they are as valuable.
I would like to discuss Initiation as seen from a Left Hand Path perspective. The Left Hand Path is the path of nonunion. Our Right Hand Path brothers and sisters look for patterns external to themselves to harmonize with -- be it god, goddess, or dialectical materialism. We look for existent but underdeveloped patterns of the divine within our own experience to bring forth to create a unique harmony within ourselves and our world. Our path is burdened by strife, false pride, and true anguish of not knowing what to do -- and rewarded by Love, personal victories, mindful cooperation, and the sense of the unknown. Given our values, and our weaknesses, Initiation is a very important concept to us. Now keep in mind that I am the CEO of a Initiatory School and not-for-profit corporation, so you will remember my biases, which is the first step of changing reading into Reading . . .
Since we live in an age of distrust, any group that seeks to recreate mankind's legacy of Initiation will be (and for the sake of keeping the group honest, *should* be) viewed with two types of distrust. The first is the commendable, "Why are these bozos any better than the rest of us?" If that answer is made by reference to scripture or lineage, rather than the achievements of the students, the group deserves the contempt it gets. The second type of distrust is a subtle and ignoble one, "I don't think I can get better." The latter view breeds a nihilism and cynicism that eventually rots both its holder and his culture.
Initiation is about Process, not (merely) ceremony. I wonder if any intellectual historian has paid attention to the fact that Process philosopher Henri Bergson's sister was MacGregor Mather's wife. The essential idea of Process philosophy is that, "The many become One and are enriched by one." As we develop into the only open place for us, the future, we are constantly putting our lives together. Generally this is done on a haphazard plan. We are somehow the product of our genes, our relationships, our education, and so forth. The Initiate, however, seeks to control more and more of how her life is put together. Life should not be a blender into which all things are thrown, but a vessel in which care is exercised as soon as people realize that everything is going into the whole. The ceremonies of Initiation don't do this work: they can however focus it by use of Symbols which represent the new whole the Initiate has made of her life. Since the ceremonial part of Initiation is the visible bit that anyone can get, foolish people assume that it is Initiation. This assumption has spawned countless cults and kooky books that focus on ceremony. These are as misleading as a book that describes the cap-and-gown ceremony -- but fails to mention the four or five years of university beforehand.
Initiation is about Exchange not (merely) book learning. People love to read and surf the Web, and otherwise amuse themselves. Playing with new ideas is lots of fun. But amusement is not change of a very high order. Change is an interesting word, because it holds two ideas. One, that something exists that can be changed by applying materials and labor from a particular man or woman's Subjective Universe. Two, that this process is different than simple intellectual or cultural change. The Work of a School is not simply changing people's ideas, the TV does that very well. The Work of a School is to create a space where certain ideas, moods, artistic achievements, and magical powers will cluster. Now this is very hard work, because no one wants to hear a new idea. Everyone thinks they want to hear a new idea, and the Teacher is deluged with people that are willing to take up her banner, but with no deep idea of what they are marching for. People marching under her banner may come to ask themselves -- exactly what is this thing that I am marching under? And if that
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