Initiatic Knowledge & Profane 'Culture'
We have already pointed out that one must be on guard against any confusion between doctrinal knowledge of the initiatic order, even when this is still only theoretical and merely preparatory to 'realization', and anything that belongs to purely outward instruction or profane scholarship, which in reality is without any connection with this knowledge. However, we must emphasize this point yet more strongly, for we have only too often seen the need to do so; it is necessary to put an end to the all too widespread prejudice that what is customarily called 'culture' in the profane and 'worldly' sense should have any value at all, even as a preparation for initiatic knowledge, when in fact it can have no connection at all with such knowledge.
In principle, there is in fact no question here of a connection of any kind, for at whatever level it is considered, profane education cannot be of any use to initiatic knowledge, and (with all due reservation for the intellectual degeneration that the adoption of the profane point of view itself implies) it is not even incompatible with it, [1] being simply indifferent in this respect as is a manual skill acquired in the exercise of some mechanical trade, or even the
'physical culture' so much in vogue today. Envisaged from our point of view all this fundamentally belongs to one and the same order, but the danger is to allow oneself to be deceived by the misleading appearance of an 'intellectuality' that has absolutely nothing to do with pure and true intellectuality; and the constant abuse of the word 'intellectual' by our contemporaries is enough to prove that this danger is only too real. Among other disadvantages, this can often result in a tendency to link or rather to mix things of totally different orders. In this connection, but without repeating what has been said regarding the intrusion of a type of utterly profane 'speculation' into certain Western initiatic organizations, we will simply call to mind the futility which we have often pointed out of all attempts to establish some link or resemblance between modern science and traditional knowledge, [2] some having even gone so far in this direction as to claim to find in modern science 'confirmations' of traditional knowledge, as if this latter, based on immutable principles, could derive the slightest benefit from an accidental and altogether outward resemblance to the hypothetical and ever-changing results of that uncertain and groping research that moderns are pleased to dignify with the name 'science'.
But it is not this side of the question that we must emphasize just now, nor even the danger that may exist, when the importance of this inferior (often even wholly illusory) knowledge is exaggerated, of devolving all one's activities to it to the detriment of a higher knowledge, the very possibility of which thus comes to be unappreciated or even wholly ignored. We know only too well that this is indeed the case with the immense majority of our contemporaries, for whom the question of a link with initiatic knowledge, or even with traditional knowledge in general, obviously no longer arises since they do not even suspect that such a knowledge exists. But even without going to such an extreme, profane education may very often constitute, in fact if not in principle, an obstacle to the acquisition of true knowledge (the exact opposite, that is, of an effective preparation), and this for various reasons that we must now explain in more detail.
To begin with, profane education imposes certain mental habits of which it may be more or less difficult to rid oneself later; it is only too easy to see that the limitations and even deformities that are the usual result of a university education are often irremediable, and that in order to escape entirely from this unfortunate influence special aptitudes, which can only be exceptional, are necessary. We are speaking here in a very general way, and will not dwell on more particular drawbacks such as the narrowness of outlook that inevitably results from 'specialization', or the 'intellectual myopia' that usually accompanies 'scholarship' cultivated for its own sake; what is essential to note, however, is that whereas profane knowledge in itself is simply indifferent, the methods by which it is instilled are really the very negation of those that give access to initiatic knowledge.
And then it is necessary to take into account as a far from negligible obstacle that sort of self-conceit often caused by so-called scholarship, which among many people is all the more marked as this scholarship is the more elementary, inferior, and incomplete. Moreover, even without going beyond the contingencies of 'ordinary life', the misdeeds of primary education in this respect are easily recognized by all who are not blinded by certain preconceived ideas. Of two individuals who are ignorant, it is obvious that the one who recognizes that he knows nothing is much more favorably disposed toward acquiring knowledge than the one who believes that he knows something; the natural possibilities of the first are intact, one could say, while those of the second are as it were 'stifled' and can no longer develop freely. Besides, even admitting good will on the part of both individuals alike, the second would still always have to rid himself of the false ideas with which his mind is encumbered, while the first could at least dispense with this preliminary and negative task, which represents what Masonic initiation symbolically calls the 'stripping of metals'.
This casily explains a fact we have frequently noted concerning people described as 'cultured'. The ordinary meaning of this word is well-known; it does not even refer to an ever so insubstantial knowledge, no matter how limited and inferior its scope, but to a superficial smattering of all sorts of things, to an education that is above all 'literary' and in any case purely bookish and verbal, one that allows
its possessor to speak with assurance about everything, even including what he is most ignorant of, and is liable to deceive those who are easily taken in by such brilliant veneers and who fail to see that what lies behind them is nothing at all. On another level, this 'culture' generally produces effects rather similar to those we have just now recalled on the subject of primary education; of course there are exceptions, for it can happen that someone who has received this kind of 'culture' may be endowed with natural dispositions favorable enough to enable him to judge it at its just value and not be duped by it; but we are not exaggerating when we say that, discounting these exceptions, the great majority of 'cultured' people must be numbered among those whose mental state is least suited for receiving true knowledge. There is in them a kind of resistance to true knowledge, often unconscious but sometimes also deliberate, yet even those who do not formally deny all that belongs to the esoteric or initiatic order deliberately and a priori show at least a complete lack of interest in this regard, and it even happens that they make a show of their ignorance about these things, as if in their own eyes it were one of those marks of superiority that their 'culture' is supposed to confer on them! Let no one think that we have any intention of indulging in caricature; we simply describe exactly what we have seen on many occasions, not only in the West but cven in the East, where in any case this type of 'cultured' man happily has little importance, having made his appearance only recently and as the product of a certain kind of 'Westernized' education, from which it results, let us note in passing, that this 'cultured' man is necessarily at the same time a 'modernist.' [3] The conclusion to be drawn from this is that people of this sort are simply the least 'initiable' of all the profane, and that it would be perfectly unreasonable to take the least notice of their opinion, even if only to try to adapt the presentation of certain ideas to it; and it is appropriate to add
that concern for 'public opinion' in general is as 'anti-initiatic' an attitude as it is possible to have.
Here we must clarify yet another point that is closely connected with these considerations. This is that all exclusively 'bookish' knowledge has nothing in common with initiatic knowledge, even when envisaged at its purely theoretical stage. This might seem obvious after what we have just said, for all bookish study is undeniably a part of the most outward kind of education; if we dwell on this point, it is because one could be mistaken when this kind of study bears on books of which the content is initiatic. Anyone who reads such books after the manner of 'cultured' people, or who even studies them in a 'scholarly' manner and according to profane methods, will not for all that come any nearer to true knowledge, because he brings to them dispositions that do not enable him to penetrate their true meaning or in any way to assimilate them; the example of the orientalists, who generally display a total incomprehension in this regard, is a particularly striking illustration of this. Altogether different is the case of one who takes these same books as 'supports' for his interior work, which is the role for which they are essentially intended, and who knows how to see beyond the words and find in them an opportunity and a support for the development of his own possibilities; here one retains the properly symbolic usage of which language is susceptible and about which we have already spoken. This, it will be easily understood, has nothing in common with mere bookish study, even though it begins with books. The accumulation of verbal notions in the memory is not even the shadow of real knowledge; the only thing that counts is to penetrate to the 'spirit' clothed in the outward forms, which presupposes that the being bears within itself the corresponding possibilities, for all knowledge is essentially identification; and unless this qualification inheres in the very nature of the being, the highest expressions of initiatic knowledge, in the measure that it can be expressed, and the sacred scriptures of all the traditions themselves, will never be to it more than a 'dead letter' and flatus vocis.