Following any tradition can become a path to dogmatism and scholasticism. Blind adherence to tradition is, first and foremost, a cage.
It is amusing to hear practitioners of Quimbanda shouting about lineage. Quimbanda itself arose from a mixture of Western and Southern traditions, folk sorcery and the orderly structure of occultism. Yet now, one step to the left or right and you are condemned.
And then there is the most important question: initiation. Whose initiation is worth more — a human being’s or a spirit’s?
These days, you do not have to travel to the ends of the earth to receive initiation, nor do you have to have someone’s hands laid upon you. The Age of Aquarius and the Aeon of Horus — nearly the same thing in this respect — speak of freedom of information and freedom in practice.
There are now countless charlatans trading in initiations, especially in Brazil. So a reasonable question arises: do we need initiation at all? Do we need to restrict ourselves? Or is it better to follow the path of the Free Magician?
“Those who worship men are fools; their men and their gods are both fools.”
Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law, I:11