Practical Reasons for Closed & Initiatory Cultural Practices

When a spiritual practice is closed, it is not solely from a xenophobic, “hating outsiders” point of view. There are many reasons for a spiritual practice being closed, all focused on maintaining the quality of practice and knowledge. It is important to remember that with all traditional magic, people do not add additional work for the sole reason of making rituals more complicated. There is always some practical magical reason behind the heavy preparation and specificities involved in traditional rituals of any kind. 

Conversely, cultural appropriation often reduces the quality of practice and can introduce incorrect knowledge into the mainstream. This creates a cycle; the more appropriation occurs, the more incorrect knowledge is introduced. 

Overall, most practices are closed for two main reasons:

1. To foster correct practice and protect against incorrect practice
2. There is required cultural knowledge that an outsider will not understand. 

(In)Correct Practice

Most closed practices are highly traditional. It is important to remember that unlike many modern and mainstream forms of magic, traditional magic has Right and Wrong methods to perform magic. This is because in traditional paths, magic and spirits are, and must be seen as, completely real. As they are real, interacting with them incorrectly or improperly can have grave consequences. 

With closed traditional practices, it is very difficult to know the correct methodologies unless you go to a teacher, or read the traditional texts. Therefore you are more likely to experience the negative consequences of being ignorant. All other points elaborate on this one. 

Required Cultural Knowledge

The vast majority of closed practices have heavy cultural ties. As traditional magic is heavily based on the culture it originated from, if someone is not part of the culture then it will be a lot more difficult to have true understanding of correspondences, methodologies, and reasoning for them. Studying a culture academically cannot give you the emotional meaning of culture.  And in all traditional practices, having a true understanding of the depth of meaning behind ritual symbolism increases the strength of the magic. 

In addition to the above two, there are several other practical reasons that are a derivative of the top two. 

To Protect You and Others

Self-Guided Dangers

There are some practices which have both closed and open parts. For example, qigong. Qigong is a Chinese framework of energy work, breathing, and meditation exercises closely tied with Traditional Chinese Medicine. As someone performs these exercises, they help to maintain and balance the Qi by stimulating or calming certain energy systems and meridians. 

Much of what can be found about Qigong online is open for anyone to practice. However, while much of qigong is open, there are also closed sects which require initiation for entry. The primary reason for these closed sects is that they have their own secret exercises, which are far more specific and effective in what qi meridians and systems they target. 

Therefore without proper guidance, a beginner could easily overstimulate areas and therefore unbalance their energy system further, leading to qi deviation. In qi deviation, the organ systems become more unbalanced by unguided qigong practice, rather than becoming more balanced. This is similar to how someone starting physical strength training on their own can easily gain muscle imbalances, which can lead to pain and injury. In extreme states, qi deviation can be very difficult to reverse without a master, which is also similar to the way that fitness beginners have difficulty correcting their muscular imbalances without a physical therapist or fitness trainer. 

To Prevent Collateral Damage

In addition to protecting yourself, practices are closed or initiatory to prevent the untrained from hurting others as well. One primary example is acupuncture- though it is not ethnically closed in any way, it is often cheapened and discounted; simplified for people who have no interest in trying to learn its full background and history, and true teaching stringency, but still judge it against White Man European Science. 

One of my friends told me a story from his acupuncturist: 

“My physiotherapist is a white man from Australia, but I trust him with acupuncture because he did a four year degree in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) in Beijing, China. My physiotherapist said that while he himself did a four-year TCM degree in Beijing and thus actually knows how to do acupuncture, a lot of Australian physios did 2-day weekend courses in physiotherapy and then started advertising themselves as “dry needlers”. Since they did not have the time nor experience of practicing acupuncture hundreds of times before doing it in the real world, as a result, a lot of acupuncture accidents happen in Australia, such as puncturing lungs because they don’t know what areas to avoid. 

But, if you look at where the cases come from, virtually none of them come from TCM clinics — all of them come from white physios who did those 2-day training sessions. But as a result, TCM shoulders the blame, while the gentrified malpractice continues running around puncturing lungs while branding themselves as being the scientific and civilised White Version.”

Commitment is Required

Closed practices often require a high amount of commitment. They are not meant for people who cannot make time for spiritual work on a regular basis. This is again, related to the deeply ingrained philosophy in traditional magic that magic and spirits are real and therefore there are real consequences for impropriety.

Many people are attracted to closed practices because they hear of tales of power. But it is important to remember, no matter what culture or practice it is, power is not free. You will have to make more time for magic in your life. 

For example, with many spiritual initiations, you are giving yourself to them in some way. Whether it is making a vow, or signing a contract, you are giving them rulership over at least some part of your life in exchange for that power. And backing out of that commitment because you weren’t ready to go that deep will result in consequences. Initiation is not a one-way street: it gives you a line of power to all of the former lineage holders and deities and protective spirits pledged to the lineage. But it also gives them a line of power over you to enforce their disciplinary and moral values on the practitioner. 

By having practices be closed, it helps to protect the people who are not ready for the commitments that come in exchange for magical power. They can’t back out of a binding vow that they never made. 

Spiritual Benevolence has a Catch

There are many benevolent spirits and divinities. Some are truly benevolent to all- but for others, benevolence comes with a catch- you must approach them the proper way. Approach them properly, and they will rain their blessings upon you. But approach improperly, and you will gain their wrath instead. 

You may wonder why, if a spirit from X culture is said to be so benevolent, why is there so little information about approaching them on the internet? Often it is because there is an unstated catch such as above: you must approach them the proper way or else you will get their wrath. This lack of information is meant to protect you, so that you do not approach haphazardly. 

You may be wondering, “why not simply post the correct information publicly?” Often, it is because an initiation, empowerment, or transmission from a master is necessary to interact with the spirits properly. Simply reading an article will not grant you those- you need an actual person to give it to you. 

To Maintain True Efficacy 

Initiation Master’s Strength Matters

In many initiatory practices, the power you gain through initiation is based on the power of your master. Therefore if your master is weak, your powers will be weak as well. And if your master is strong, your powers will be strong as well. 

This is because your master is a conduit for the initiation. Similar to how more electricity can flow through larger and well-maintained wires, and less electricity can flow through frayed and rusting wires, a stronger master is able to pass more and higher quality energy to you during an initiation, whereas a weaker master will not be able to do so as well. When false, weak “masters” start to go out and initiate others, then the “lineages” continue to get weaker and weaker, until the original practice is seen as a joke- especially by Westerners. 

One magical practice I have unfortunately seen this happen to is Reiki. Reiki is an initiatory energy healing practice originating in Japan, founded by Usui. It consists of three levels: aptly named I, II, and III. Each level is its own initiation, and is spaced out several months to years depending on how much practice is needed to be ready for the next level. In addition to information about reiki, general energy work basics are taught at each level. This time is also important because the energy channels that reiki is sent along in one’s body take time to develop. Rushing that development can be disastrous on the energy body. 

However, shitty fake white masters in the US will sometimes bundle all three into one class. And have literally no knowledge of energy work at all; no concept of energy centers, or of energy channels or meridians. They will also have no intuitive or psychic abilities at all, which are a large part of all energy healing practices in general. So of course, when people go to these “masters”, whether for healing or to learn reiki, and feel nothing, they then think that Reiki is a joke. When really, these fake masters are the jokes. 

And you can’t correct these fake masters either, because they will take your legitimate correction as an attack on their “love and light” policy.

To Summon the Real Spirit

When conjuring spirits, you can summon up literally anything you can imagine. This is because the astral is an infinite set of realms filled with anything you can imagine and more. While this results in endless conjuration possibilities, it also results in endless look-alike and false spirit possibilities as well. This is why in modern conjuration rituals, you must be extremely exact in your wording during the calling, to ensure the actual spiritual species you intend to summon comes forth. 

This is also why modifying traditional conjurations can be disastrous. It is important to remember that with all traditional magic, people do not add additional work for the sole reason of making rituals more complicated. Every specificity has meaning; and therefore, how do you know you got the right spirit if you’re not following any of the rituals to summon that exact spirit? 

Closing

Closed practices and initiation requirements are for your own benefit. They protect you while you are outside of it. And once you are allowed in, they help keep it real. 

Post Edition: March 17 2022