It's time to talk about Mystery Schools. We'll start by putting B.O.T.A. in the hot seat. On her zaadz group, Iona Miller has managed to corral Lisa Dawn, who says that she serves as a minister of the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.). I have asked Iona to invite Lisa to join us in SBACE. We will see whether Lisa accepts this invitation.

I myself had an ambivalent relationship with B.O.T.A. for many years. The positive part of the relationship is linked to the fact that there was, at least in the mid-60's, a very real connection through B.O.T.A. to what Francis Yeats called the"Rosicucian Enlightenment" and what I have come to call the "Edenic Mandala." Suffice it to say that I have first-hand reason to believe that the Third Order juice that flowed through Ann Davies, who headed up the B.O.T.A. at that time, was about 10,000 times more powerful than anything that Albert Hoffman ever dreamed of.

Many years later, I managed to acquire the transcriptions of Ann Davies' "Meditational Ascent of the Tree" and some other material. The MAT material is amongst the MOST lucid, incisive and brilliant expositions on Kabbalah/Qabalah that I have ever seen. I'm not sure who REALLY transcribed that package of "lessons"--quite frankly, this looked very much out of Ann's league--but the consciousness behind it was the real deal. The group carried a shadow (all things do) but in its time, it was also connected to something much bigger than itself.

The problem for me was that many of BOTA's members and leaders appeared to be intellectually lazy and complacent. Too often, they spoke in bland cliches or, in a cult of personality worship, they paid mindless obeisance to their leaders, whom they looked to as ultimate authorities. They took the concept of "non-attachment" to a whole new level with their obsessional attachment to tarot, whose crystalized thought-forms would probably persist--to their detriment--for many lifetimes.

For now, however, I'd like to point interested readers to a policy letter from B.O.T.A. dated July 6, 1990 that I have scanned in the photo album of this tribe. See celestialearth.tribe.net/photo...4c585a .

If necessary, click to enlarge the text of this revealing document. It was written by Joseph Nolan, who served as an officer in B.O.T.A.. His job was to protect BOTA. I have since learned that Mr. Nolan was severely rebuked for releasing this letter, not because it was inaccurate but because he openly disclosed policy on such a sensitive subject. B.O.T.A.'s more senior officers believed that this policy should have been kept secret and that Mr. Nolan's decision to reveal it to me was a grave indiscretion. I can't do anything about institutional prejudices but I very much regret any retribution that Mr. Nolan suffered because of his candor. By making this letter public, I hope that I am, to some extent, mitigating negative karma associated with this incident, as it affected both of us.

What troubles me most is not that BOTA's letter espoused patronizing, ignorant and tautological nonsense--we have that in the far right and in the White House--but that its homophobic policies were kept secret from members who had spent years and even decades associating with the Order. This invariably was no small thing. It typically involved deep trust and receptivity at a psychic level. Talk about betrayal. How can people be expected to "break out of the cosmic egg" into a universe of non-separateness if they have to remain in the closet for fear of offending high-ranking homophobes through whom the initiatory current flows? B.O.T.A.'s secret policy of rejecting sexual minorities--rejection of their essential humanity and occult center, i.e., their sexual soul--had to have caused a lot of pain, confusion and consternation. That these emotions were only subliminally apprehended and then suppressed or repressed only adds to the tragedy.

I believe that B.O.T.A. should be called to account for the damage that it has perpetrated in the name of these policies. I do not know if these policies are in effect at this time but I have no reason to think that thay are not. I am hoping that at least some interested members of the "consciousness communitiy" might want to insist that BOTA be more forthright about this issue.

How do we do this? By spreading the word. The letter doesn't depend on any editorial comments. It speaks for itself. My hope is that it gets read. This sort of thing could be facilitated, say, through referencing the url of this post on an Amazon book review. Or, if you are so moved, you may wish to crosspost it on another tribe or send it to acquaintances whom you believe might have an interest in this matter.

For those curious about the chronology of events, I reaffiliated with BOTA in the late 80s in a futile attempt to re-experience the initiatory experience I had for a short time on a 24/7 basis in 1967. I've fretted for years about whether or not to release this letter. In the early 90's, there was not much I could do with it because the Internet hadn't really been discovered. Later, when the Web became more popular, I rationalized many reasons for not doing it. If I am honest, however, I think that one of the reasons why I did not step forward earlier was fear. There was this niggling fear in the back of my mind that if I outed BOTA, there might be some sort of retaliation burden that I'd have to absorb at an occult level. In the end, however, I dismissed the fear, resolving that I'd trust my angel/daimon to hold the peace.

Then again, I felt a curious kind of sympathy for Joseph Nolan and his treatment at the hands of more senior officers in B.O.T.A. His beliefs were ignorant, but he showed integrity in revealing B.O.T.A.'s policy on this issue. For that, I was grateful. It took me awhile before I sorted out my loyalties in this matter.

And there was yet a third issue that had to do with motive. What would be the point of bringing this forward? What higher purpose might be served? The answer, of course, is that occult initiations cannot take place without trust, and misplaced trust is very dangerous. After 16 years,that issue hasn't gone away. It's time to deal with it out in the open.

Now that Lisa has joined Iona's group at pods.zaadz.com/qabalah , it seems like a perfect time to go public with this. I am sincere in inviting a candid dialogue on this subject with Lisa and B.O.T.A. Let's see whether they are up for it.