I have always liked realistic , practical and operative esotericism , rather than the pompous and melodramatic lyricism of generic esotericism , which has the only purpose of emphasizing banal fragments of egocentrism.
Your writing implies that generic esotericism is more interested in ‘talking' than ‘doing'. Indeed, I believe that it is easier to talk about intellectual or spiritual top concepts, rather than try and reach them.
Those who prefer ‘to dream' rather than ‘to do', are worried about erecting more and more oligarchic utopias. Also because talking is easy and doesn't ‘cost' much, on the contrary of ‘doing' that costs everything, even life. This cost means to change the course of life , abandoning old habits, even the habit of identifying ourselves with our own social activities.
The Builders, on the other hand, talk very little. They only achieve the ‘little' they can and we can see that.
Also in the initiatory field there are two big categories, made of those who fill their lives with words and those who achieve what they think.
The former don't leave a trace of their life; the latter leave many works and facts. Therefore utopia as well, provided that it is in the right hands, can become ‘project' and then ‘action'.
And so, welcome utopia, but most of all welcome the Builder who was able to achieve the dream.
Nevertheless it is not sufficient to discover the top of the initiatory standards. It is necessary to recognize their foundations, which is man, viz. the Builder (of ideas); not as an element of ‘mystery', but ‘ man ' as a necessary aspect for the exteriorization of the Idea (project-man).
This is the centrality of man according to the initiatory principles. The centrality of the Initiate starts when ‘man' stops being an egocentric and conflicting element and becomes an instrument of transmission. First by communicating with the different parts of himself (conscious, subconscious and finally super-conscious); then by manifesting this ‘inner unification' outside his own vital sphere.
The man-initiate is the vehicle for the transmission of a perennial conceptualism; therefore the immortality of the idea becomes that of its bearer.
If we agree on this point, ‘ Know Thyself ' becomes the key for any process.
But in order to know ourselves we must learn to look at ourselves, and we know it's not easy. So much so that most postulants avoid it, because they know that by stopping and looking into their own eyes, they risk seeing things that they don't like. Therefore, by tacit agreement, a huge group of claimants to initiation decide not to look towards that direction. They prefer to talk rather than to have an unpleasant view of themselves; they actually manage to reassure one another about their alleged excellence.
Yet, although ensuring oneself cheap self-esteem is quite a common choice, it is still a low profile option. It is all but initiatory, despite the ‘beautiful scarves' behind which they would like to hide contradictions. But those who can discern can see these contradictions quite clearly.
A wise man wrote: ‘… the first test is to be able to bear the pain of truth '.
But which truth is he talking about? Most people prefer to think that life is cruel because of the faults of the ‘world'. But the world is not cruel; if anything the humankind is stupid, especially because of its alleged excellences. Therefore looking into ‘our own misery' causes our pride to be hurt. It is necessary to get rid of the ‘covers' on these lies and delusions before starting the ‘new building'.
Here is the use of the mirror.
The initiatory speculum (see The Symbol of the mirror ; Intellectual speculation ; On metallic transmutation 7 ) is the mirror of the superior Conscience that reflects the image of the person who accepts to look at himself. But even if we want to, this is not possible until the mechanisms of self-defense of the physical-animal mind are deactivated and their energy addressed to more suitable aspects (see sublimation). This is the ‘liberation' represented by the wings of the Caduceus of Hermes (see Caduceus of Hermes ).
The person who is not able to be impartial in looking at his own ‘inner mirror' (self-diagnosis is always an uncertain element) turns to an advanced Brother, a guide that is truly ‘expert and terrible', able to reflect, without prejudice, in the eyes of the Brother he faces, the true image of his physical personality.
A Masonic metaphor mentions an expert (due to initiatory consciousness) and terrible (towards deficiencies) Brother , which elsewhere is called Master (Magister vitae).
Unfortunately there still is who mixes up metaphors and reality. Hoping that a symbolic representation can replace a real concept, they give in to the deceit that the shadow of a symbolic character can replace a true Initiate in his tasks.
This deceit is present not only in the mysteriosophic field (Freemasonry) but also in religious and devotional mysticism.
The duty of a (true) Initiate is to give back all the knowledge that he has been generously offered, by educating and correcting who is entrusted to him to be guided in the ‘journey' towards the Light of Initiation . Which is an inner light (unveiled knowledge) and not the dim glimmer of a spotlight lit for the occasion .
Therefore we should distinguish between symbolic representation (the grotto) and initiatory reality (the mystery of spiritual nativity). This way, we don't risk turning the ‘initiatory journey' into a closed circle and the initiation into a farce.
‘ ...the scale that covers the ‘mirror', made of an imaginary reality...that ‘must' embellish...to be made suitable to a ‘consumption' ...totally ‘common', with a disguised image to the point of confusing the object of the representation with the representation itself...'
Although shortened, the passage I quoted shows the intentions of the writer. I think that by ‘scale' he means the masks behind which we hide and where we look for elements necessary for easy self-esteem. It is not difficult, indeed, that man forgets what he is (natural temperament) and believes what he does as an activity, art, job, profession or occupation.
To identify in those ‘masks' is for many people a habit, which is reflected in the statements: I am (the) doctor (doctor, doctor, doctor...!) I am (the) lawyer (lawyer, lawyer, lawyer...!), I am (the) architect (architect, architect, architect...!), I am (the) dealer (dealer, dealer, dealer...!), I am (the) musician (musician, musician, musician...!), I am an initiate (initiate, initiate, initiate...!).
These echoes usually contradict the essence of the being, hiding conflicts inside it (see evolution of psychosomatics), which are rarely cured with the right medication (for example, by looking into them), but appealing to censorships and removals, which move the conflict on a level more difficult to reach (the subconscious) than the physical level of personality.
By identifying with the ‘doing' (social roles and models) many people forget that they ‘are' something more than a role or a social purpose. Therefore they cannot but continue being public masks that smile at other masks in the eternal comedy of appearances.
The comedy of life (profane) is one of the first veils of delusion and not even the most difficult to remove.
But precisely because it is the closest to the physical personality, it is the most loved. Because it is reassuring, it joins together and can be easily shared with other comedians that compete in these deeds. This happens because they cannot give any other sense to life than following the flow of conformism masked as autonomy, freedom of choice and thought. On the contrary, freedom to be is on the opposite direction of the easy costs of appearances. A first instrument to go towards that direction is indeed the Mirror of life, or the guide of a Brother that is truly expert and terrible; he must make us understand what is better to leave in order to conquer the top of our inner mountain (called top experiences in psycho-synthesis). 
