ritual ordeals which test the faith of someone being initiated into an ascetic spiritual discipline.

Georges Bataille, Story of the Eye [Amazon, Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library]

Hermetic quote Bataille Story of the Eye ritual ordeals test faith initiated spiritual discipline

Consider also:

  1. “Reading and its rituals became acts of resistance; as the Italian psychologist Andrea Devoto noted, ‘everything could be treated as resistance because everything was prohibited.'”
  2. Opposing the System
  3. “But an emptiness filled my spirit, not forceful enough to be labeled depression. ‘Malaise’ fit the bill nicely. When night settled in, I felt grateful. Sometimes sleep is the best way to surf time.”
  4. “Given a fulcrum, a long-enough lever, and a place to stand, I could topple this son of a bitch.”
  5. “If only to keep the supply of food and books flowing in, I would have to fake some sort of participation in a human environment that had never really made much sense.”