"... But a study of any mystery tradition, unless it be purely historical, requires that preconceived notions be set aside, and that the system be judged solely on the merit of its efficacy. One must use the word efficacy because that is the only valid measure of a metaphysical system. Does it work? But how do we establish whether it works or not? The answer to these questions is certainly not to be found through the present methods of the sciences, or of the humanities, which are predicated on those of science; data is collected and analyzed empirically. And since those ideas known as "The Mysteries" do not lend themselves to this sort of attack, being in high degree irrational [emphasis mine], they may be denigrated even by historians...
"The problem arises in that to study any aspect of the Mysteries the investigator must himself or herself become a part of the system. A person must evaluate it from the inside, which may make it appear that one has abrogated investigative objectivity. Today's academicism does not allow for the acquisition of knowledge through intuition and psychism, an attitude placing it in paradoxical contradiction to a high proportion of those great thinkers whom the humanities study and purport to revere. In the humanities, the universities have deteriorated into observers of, rather than participants in, the development of mankind's creative and intellectual faculties."
From The Qabalistic Tarot, by Robert Wang
No comments:
Post a Comment