FEMININE INITIATION AND CRAFT INITIATIONS
It has often been pointed out to us that in the traditional Western forms still extant today there seems to be no opportunity for women as regards an initiatic order, and many wonder what may be the reason for this state of affairs, which although certainly most regrettable would doubtless be quite difficult to remedy. Besides, this should give pause to those who imagine that the West has granted woman a privileged position which she has never had in any other civilization. This may perhaps be true in certain respects, but primarily only in the sense that in modern times she has been taken out of her normal role by being granted access to functions that ought to belong exclusively to men, this being yet another case of the disorder of our time. From other more legitimate points of view, on the contrary, Western women are in reality much more disadvantaged than they are in Eastern civilizations, where notably it has always been possible for them to find a suitable initiation as soon as they possesses the requisite qualifications; thus it is, for example, that Islamic initiation has always been accessible to women, which, let us note in passing, suffices to reduce to nothing some of the absurdities often heard in Europe on the subject of Islam.
To return to the Western world, it goes without saying that we are not speaking here of antiquity, when there were most certainly feminine initiations, and when some initiations were even exclusively feminine, others being exclusively masculine. But how was it
in the Middle Ages? It is certainly not impossible that women were admitted at that time into organizations possessing an initiation connected with Christian esoterism, and this is even quite probable, [1] but since there has been no trace of such organizations for quite some time, it is very difficult to speak of them with certainty and precision, and in any case it is likely that they provided only very limited possibilities. As for chivalric initiation, it is more than obvious that by its very nature it could not in any way be suitable for women, the same holding true for trade initiations, or at least for the most important among them, those which in one way or another have continued right up to our time. The true reason for the absence of any feminine initiation in the contemporary West is that all the initiations it retains are based essentially on trades the exercise of which pertains exclusively to men; and as we said above, this is why one does not very well see how this regrettable gap could be filled, unless it proves possible some day to realize a possibility that we shall presently consider.
We are well aware that certain of our contemporaries believe that in cases where the effective exercise of the trade has disappeared, the exclusion of women from the corresponding initiation has thereby lost its raison d'être; but this is veritable nonsense, for the basis of such an initiation is in no way altered on that account, and as we have already explained, [2] such an error implies a complete misunderstanding of the significance and the real extent of initiatic qualifications. As we said, the connection with the trade, entirely independent of its outward exercise, necessarily remains inscribed in the very form of that initiation and in what characterizes and constitutes it essentially as such, so that it could not in any case be valid for anyone unsuited to exercise the trade in question. Naturally, it is Masonry that we have particularly in view here, since, as concerns the Compagnonnage, the exercise of the trade has not ceased to be considered an indispensable condition; moreover, we
do not know any other example of such a deviation as is found in 'mixed Masonry', which for that reason will never be admissible as 'regular' by anyone who understands even a modicum of the true principles of Masonry. Basically, the existence of this 'mixed Masonry' (or Co-Masonry as it is called in English-speaking countries) quite simply represents an attempt to transport into the initiatic domain itself, one that in particular ought to be exempt from it, the 'egalitarian' idea which, in refusing to see the differences of nature that exist among beings, ends up attributing to women a role that is properly masculine, and clearly lies at the root of all the contemporary 'feminism. [3]
Now, the question to be considered is this: why are the trades included in the Compagnonnage exclusively masculine, and why do no feminine occupations seem to have given rise to a similar initiation? The question is really quite complex, and we do not claim to resolve it entirely here. Leaving aside research into the historical contingencies that may have arisen in this regard, we shall say only that there may be certain difficulties involved, a chief one being due perhaps to the fact that from the traditional point of view feminine occupations must normally have to do with the interior of the house and not with what lies outside, as with masculine trades. However, such a difficulty is not insurmountable, and could be gotten round by special provisions in the constitution of an initiatic organization; and on the other hand, there are doubtless feminine trades perfectly capable of supporting an initiation. A clear example is weaving, the particularly important symbolism of which we have discussed in one of our works. [4] However, this trade is one that can be practiced by both men and women. As an example of a more exclusively feminine trade we might mention embroidery, which is
directly related to the symbolism of the needle, of which we have also spoken on various occasions, as well as to that of the sūtrātmā. [5] From this perspective it is clear, at least in principle, that the possibilities for a feminine initiation are by no means negligible; but we say 'in principle' because under present conditions there is unfortunately no authentic transmission that can realize these possibilities. It cannot be too often repeated, since it seems always to be lost to sight, that aside from such a transmission there can be no valid initiation, for the latter cannot in any way be constituted by individual initiatives, which, whatever they may be, can by themselves only end in pseudo-initiation since the supra-human element, that is to say the spiritual influence, is necessarily lacking in such a case.
Nevertheless, one can perhaps glimpse a solution in recalling that by taking into account their more particular affinities, the trades belonging to the Compagnonnage were always in a position to affiliate themselves with some other trade and to confer on it an initiation that it did not previously possess, and that would then be regular by the very fact that it amounts to an adaptation of a preexisting initiation. Is there not some trade capable of effecting such a transmission with respect to certain feminine trades? This does not seem absolutely impossible and is perhaps not entirely without precedent, [6] but we must not in any case pretend that there would not then be great difficulties as concerns the necessary adaptation, the latter obviously being a far more delicate matter than an adaptation between two masculine trades: where would we find today men sufficiently competent to realize such an adaptation in a rigorously traditional spirit, who were also wary of not introducing into it the slightest whim, which might risk compromising the validity of the
initiation transmitted? [7] However that may be, we can naturally formulate nothing more here than a simple suggestion, and it is not for us to proceed further in this direction; but so often do we hear it deplored that no feminine initiation exists in the West that it seemed to us at least worthwhile to indicate what, in that order, seems to constitute the sole possibility that presently exists.