Q : … Well, as the apprentice that I am, I keep quiet and listen…
A : As an ‘introduced', though, you can already think that the ‘initiatory spirit' cannot get to the point of illuminating the administrative core of the various ‘accountancy offices', inhabited by men who, for the most varied reasons, not all of them splendid, have chosen to devote themselves to the most prosaic aspect of the Institution: money.
The ‘administrators' of the most prestigious Institutions, as well as their ‘politicians', have their own raison d'ętre ; they are part of a reality with ‘reasons' that we must acknowledge. But we must also recognize another truth, in many ways more uncomfortable. That in Freemasonry not everybody becomes a true initiate, just like not all university students become researchers or Nobel prizes and not all religious people become saints. The majority is happy to ‘participate' to the experience.
Freemasonry, University and the universal Church, all represent the highest model of knowledge, science and spirituality of the human Being. The initiate refers to them in order to reach what is called the real Initiation called, which encloses in itself the three mentioned aspects.
But as it is well known, it is quite difficult ‘to elevate' oneself so much, because it requires total dedication to the project, and there is no room for interpretations or the sectarianism of individual needs.
Very few people can fulfil those models; even less people can understand how they can be summed to create the ‘ fourth element ', metaphysical, that expresses the fourth path of Initiation , which the Hermetic Doctrine refers to.
Despite the widespread use of gaudy furnishings and paraments, there are many people that cannot see, don't know and therefore they cannot understand yet. The majority is still happy to live in the ‘shadowy side' of Institutions; they are unable to imagine their ‘sunny side'.
Therefore it is unfair to judge initiatory Institutions through the work of those who cannot ‘see their spirit', and therefore cannot conceive the metaphysic feature of a fourth aspect.
Fraternally