(no subject)

[arethinn]

I recently received an announcement about an upcoming RJ Stewart workshop (subject Inner Temple, purification, Arch of Heaven) which I wasn't planning on attending anyway, but one aspect of which makes me very uneasy and seems almost way out of character, like something's gone wrong. As time goes on more and more stringent copyright warnings have been written into his books; one can only assume that he's had problems with people taking the material and distributing it unattributed, and/or claiming to be initiated teachers of his "tradition". But the one that accompanied this workshop announcement amounted to essentially oathbinding: you could never reveal to anyone who was not there any of the material imparted to you. This seems to me not only counterproductive - isn't sharing this spirituality and practice a good way to help heal the wounded mass human psyche and rift between the realms? - but positively squirmy. I mean, I did agree to just such an oath when I was initiated as a Wiccan, but... I don't know. It seems wrong in this context somehow. I hope it's just reaction to bad experiences and not that he is finding it good and right to clench a tight fist on spiritual knowledge.

Comments

[rialian.livejournal.com]

===He had a few folks take things whole cloth from him and present it as theirs...as well as a few "teachers" that tried to claim they were trained by him. Rather annoying, that.

===(Faery Wicca I believe is one of the more blatant cases that set him off..)

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

*nods* I know... or at least I inferred from the wording of the warnings. But there was just something about the wording of this one which didn't feel good.