It is in my opinion one of the most harmful stereotypes out there that you absolutely need some guru, master, adept, whatever to show you the ropes in Classical magic, traditional witchcraft, and the majority of the goetic current. Maybe at one point in time depending on the tradition this is true. I will say it’s true for things like African Traditional Religions, or Jewish Kabbalists, where the tradition is obviously closed.
But Classical magic? Traditional witchcraft? Totally untrue you need a mentor of any kind, and stay the hell away from anyone who insists otherwise. It’s steaming pile of horseshit that you have to get ahold of some “master” to “initiate you into the mysteries”, or someone who isn’t a member of a lodge or coven or a lineage isn’t a legitimate practitioner.
a byproduct of Victorian era lodge LARPing to feel ~spooky and official~ like in Thelema or the Golden Dawn, who were essentially Greek-aboos (Grecaboos?).
Often used to groom younger practitioners into feeling like they need the “mentor”. Mix this power dynamic with intense spiritual experiences and you have a recipe for really abusive scenarios, like the kind I have experienced, and women like Sarah Anne Lawless. And the belief alone in necessary mentorship propagates the idea that a mentor is needed in the first place and fuels the fire that is the situation itself. It enables people doing that in the occult community, to get more people to believe they need a master or an adept.
At times completely politically movitated, and full of infighting. This is illustrated beautifully in the lame, pointless, magically impotent, and absurd A:A: lineage wars about “who is the real A:A:”. Both sides will furiously try to recruit more people so they can wank off about how much more legitimate they are than another group. They don’t care about educating you. They just care about their beef and how you’ll advance it.
Ripe for con artists ready to rip you off. “Occulture” is extremely profitable if you have access to the inexperienced and any level of charisma or writing ability whatsoever. These people, who may be practitioners or may not be, have taken absurd amounts of cash from people looking for guidance. It might actually be better for you to fall down and scrape your own knees a few times.
Color your ideas of what should and shouldn’t be happening, or what is good and bad. This is a far less serious issue than the points above, but it will stunt your magical growth in the wrong conditions. Keep in mind too, even if you have a trustworthy and dedicated teacher, you have given them the power to arbitrarily keep information from you for any reason they choose. Be it the maddeningly pretentious and self-important “You aren’t degreed enough for that information”, or literally any reason they feel.
If you have the hunger and can rapidly develop critical thinking skills, and even the most banal access to the internet and a library, you can teach yourself Classical magic or traditional witchcraft. Is it harder sometimes without guidance? Yeah, for sure. You’ll probably mess up more. Sometimes it’s more alienating too. But it’s not necessary to have some yogi on a mountain shaping your path. And honestly the people who I would consider to be the most impressive magicians I know all did it themselves.
I’m not saying don’t do group work or don’t hang out with other occultists. Having an extremely diverse peer group both online and in real life has definitely helped my practice grow in amazing ways–I can’t emphasize that enough! Off the top of my head some of my circle, besides other goetes, includes a Serbian zmaj, a voodou priest, a Hindu yogi, a First Nations practitioner of traditional magic, a hoodoo folk necromancer, a braucheri, and a Shinto magician. When we work together as peers, compare notes and research, and spend time together, we all benefit, not just with techniques but strong, lifelong friendships–all without the charged environment of power dynamics, oath taking, and political infighting.
Please don’t swallow blindly the notion you have to be “initiated” into anything or guided by some wizened ancient master to dominate and enrich your life with magic. That’s just not true. Period.
