GATES, AND GATE KEEPERS, IN OCCULT STUDIES

Blessings Darlings!


How many of you are familiar with Odysseus' trip to the underworld? It was a necessary stop on his way home (he needed the advice of a shade there). But first he had to be told that he had to, uh, go to Hades. He had to buy a goat, to sacrifice once he got to the part of Hades he was traveling to. He had to drag the dang goat along as he traveled.
Ever smell an adult male goat that you are keeping REALLYCLOSE quarters with?
He had to find the entrance to Hades. He had to take the path downward. He had to cross the river Styx (and pay the gatekeeper there). He had to travel thru' different parts of Hades, to find where the shades he wanted to chat with were. Once there, he had to sacrifice the goat, and only let those shades that he wanted to speak drink the blood.
Then he had to get out ... the same way he came in.
This, my darlings, is a pretty typical entrance to Occult Studies. It is a trip that you need to do work on before you even KNOW that you need to take the trip. Once on the trip, there are gates, and gatekeepers. It is fraught with challenges and dangers.
It . Is . Not . 'Inviting' .
The path exists in equal parts to purify and to screen folks out.
To not let you enter the mysteries unless you are worthy, unless you have already started the Great Work.
Yes, the outer court information and rituals of Wicca are out there and available to all. Those are not the Mysteries.
Yes - no one can 'keep you from the Gods'. But that doesn't mean that a group, and certainly an egregore, is going to accept you if you don't make it thru' the screenings/gates/past the gatekeepers.
Here, this link explains why another religion, Judaism, makes it hard to convert, which rather explains why this protects their egregore:

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/248165/jewish/Why-Do-Rabbis-Discourage-Conversions.htm

Frondly, Fern