Pathworking and Fairy Tales from Problems on the Path of Return by Mark Stavish, M.A. in Vol 3 No 1 of Caduceus.

“While most entertainment offers little genuine entertainment value and is mostly designed for the absorption of our life force and time, all forms of story telling offer a moral lesson and cosmological view whether we realize it or not.” [via]

Consider also:

  1. “The future development and the value of the Order as a moral force in society depend, therefore, upon the view its members take of their system. If they do not spiritualize it they will but increasingly materialize it. If they fail to interpret its veiled purport, to enter into the understanding of its underlying philosophy, and to translate its symbolism into what is signified thereby, they will be mistaking shadow for substance, a husk for the kernel, and secularizing what was designed as a means of spiritual instruction and grace.”
  2. “Dogmatization is the opposite of routinization, in which spiritual realities are affirmed so strongly that it becomes a duty that must be done for others, humanity, the environment, but never for one’s self. The idea of growth becomes simply another goal on a long list of goals, and the genuine joy it offers is lost in its metamorphosis into duty. (Geburah/Mars)”
  3. “In fact few people stay with any system long enough to realize the genuinely spiritual aspects of the Work they are doing. The need for genuine self-honesty and purification on the level of the ego and the repressed areas of the subconscious, before the refined and powerful forces of the soul can shine freely and effectively through the ego and not be overly distorted by it, must be recognized by students if they are to derive full benefit from the Work they are doing.”
  4. “But, in the advanced degree of M.M. the answer is that he comes ‘From the East,’ for by this time the Mason is supposed to have so enlarged his knowledge as to realize that the primal source of life is not in the ‘West,’ not in this world; that existence upon this planet is but a transitory sojourn, spent in search of ‘the genuine secrets,’ the ultimate realities, of life; and that as the spirit of man must return to God who gave it, so he is now returning from this temporary world of ‘substituted secrets’ to the ‘East’ from which he originally came.”
  5. “The effects of pathworking are to greater or lesser degree well documented. Once the basic concepts of what each sphere represents in terms of psychological elements on the Tree of Life is understood, then the links which they form are realized either through ritual, mythological metaphor, meditation, or a combination of the above. However, in the rush to realize magical powers, altered states of awareness, celestial beings, and interior worlds, one of the most significant and important facts of pathworking and all magical work in general is often overlooked.”