Formal Training Versus Self Taught "Eclectic"
Topic: Groups Versus Solitary
There has always been formal training in ritual and magick. Mothers taught daughters Fathers taught sons and they taught them as they were taught. They were taken out and shown what herbs were useful and what they looked like in the different seasons. They were taught what parts of the plants were good and how to prepare them. This is formal training. When they were taught how to gather them and prepare the that was ritual. When the tribal shaman or medicine man looked around he observed he watch and waited for someone in the tribe to show signs that they were candidates to be trained. I don’t need to ask myself if there is a need for formal training the answer is obvious and the answer is yes. In a world where alternative beliefs are scoffed at hindered, criminalized, derided, ridiculed and passed off as fad I believe that a presentation of knowledge is necessary to disprove the belief that a faith different from the dominate Western thought is evil.

I have read comments on this site where people have complained that pagan groups that were dominate in certain areas forced people to believe and act and observe as the group required. These people were not forced to do anything. They chose to join a group aware of that groups tenets. Choosing does not equal force. That a group shuns others who do not believe as they do is acceptable as long as they do not force, interfere or coerce anyone not freely choosing to join their group into believing as they do.

I think the statement that formal training somehow stunts or disallows freedom of thought is inane and an excuse. It is an excuse to not study it is an excuse to allow misinformation to be accepted as truth. It is an excuse to accept word of mouth information without questioning the information. Talk about freedom of thought. By its very nature formal training encourages questions and freedom of thought. Formal training does not mean dogma repeated by rote. Spiritual training is alive it is growing it is not static for the world is not static the elements are not inert they are in constant motion. Too many people equate formal training with discipline without question. Look at the old ways of teaching that is formal training by observation by questioning by the handing down of information and building upon the information.

Take the book of Shadows used by some belief systems. Those books are an individuals own notes their own observations from information handed down to them. They are a record of their results and how rituals and herbs and stones and chants and charms and incantations worked for them. They were never meant to be a textbook that all would be taught from they were that particular individuals practice or in some cases the groups. This is formal training.

Too often I have seen people assume the mantle of knowledge and proceed to deliver the wrong information or one filled with errors and misconceptions. The reason lack of training lack of information lack of study lack of formal training. There are going to be those who ask who decides what is an error or wrong information. I made the statement not from one belief system but by looking at all systems and observing what was understood on that particular subject if at all by different groups. There are also groups and systems that are not universal that are not for everyone and that is inherent in the system. The system is not to be faulted it is the structure of it.

All systems must be accepted as they are. I know of no alternative group that forces people to join them. There may be groups that dupe, deceive, and out right lie to entice people to join them and that those groups exist is apparent and the lack of formal training is one reason that such groups thrive. Anyone can start a group call themselves whatever they want and present information in any manner they wish and it be accepted by people. The world abounds with cults and they thrive because people do not question what is said there is no formal place to go there is no formal training in which questions can be asked and answered.

I have seen the statement made that there are a myriad of books on the occult and different paths that one can read and learn on their own. Again, because it is in print does not mean the information is correct. Look at the Sloan material in the British Museum, several are flawed and contain lots of errors simply because the scribe that copied them was doing just that copying them most of them couldn’t even read what they were copying so it is not hard to understand that errors would occur and those errors perpetuated and repeated as truth because they were in a book. The errors were discovered because someone reading them had the formal training to understand the information and spotted the flaw. There is a written and an oral tradition and both are necessary and you can’t get both from just reading.

If formal training means that there will be a priest/priestess class so be it. It is just a living library.

Egyptian Magick
Now Playing: There are a myriad of forums paths and temples
Topic: Egyptian Magick
Egyptian magick can be confusing and daunting when first approaching it. Reading Budge's "Book of the Dead" can be confusing and appear almost insurmountable but if read as a novel at first without trying to pronounce the egyptian without trying to figure out what specifics are and then going back and reading those parts skipped at the first reading you will find that it makes worlds more sense.