Initiation and Self-Initiation

Consider that Truth is unchanging and absolute, or it cannot be true.  Physical existence is

dependent upon relationships and symbols which requires duality.  Truth, being non-dual, is physically nonexistent.  Nothing is true; all else (i.e., everything, reality, existence, etc.,) is illusion.

Doubt emancipates the mind. Doubt creates a change in perspective through a reassignment of associations and relationships because of a revaluation of perceptions. Voluntary restrictions are imposed, and new awareness is implemented, in order to allow new or different perceptions.

"Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense." ~ Carl Sagan

However, do not doubt your symbols, for that means failure as value has been attributed to those symbols to perpetuate existence. Doubt your current perceptions of your symbols and your lack of awareness concerning the relationships involved and associations known regarding those symbols; be skeptical of the narrow range of your perceptions regarding the symbols and relationships you think you know or understand.  

New associations or manipulation of symbols into different symbols, and awareness of other relationships, allows the Mind to discover other probabilities of existence due to the newly realized perspective.  By immersing your conscious perceptions within your normally "non-conscious awareness" you expand your perspective.

This is initiation. As Kenneth Grant writes in Outer Gateways, "...initiation is necessary before the faculty can be activated and utilized.  But such initiation is always and can only be self-initiation; all other forms of initiation are false because [they are] necessarily inadequate. Initiation denotes a journey inwards and may only be undertaken by each traveller for and by himself."  Therefore, genuine initiation is that which the Mind confers upon itself; all others are simply different means of attaining to this.

A fundamental lesson of enlightenment is the realization that alteration of the Self alters the Universe.

Doubt offers discernment. Appropriate doubt offers another perspective; inappropriate doubt offers delusion.

The practitioner, in order to become magus, must first be the master of his body, his speech and his thoughts.

Change yourself, your perceptions, your symbols and your relationships, and you've transformed your perspective.

To change your perspective is to transform Kaos itself.-- Kaos Axiom of the Codex.