For the neophytes it is quite common to anticipate times, rushing to plan ‘the roof’ of their ‘philosophical abode’ without building sound foundations and ‘right and perfect’ perimeter walls first. This inconsistency occurs also when a mind still ‘reasonably limited’ is directed towards the use of intuition.
Many devotees often talk about ‘heaven’ without making an effort to do what it is needed to get there; likewise many esotericists discuss with great deployment of words about what is right, useful and necessary; but they do so whilst sitting down, without ever bothering with a proper endeavor that can prove their qualities.
To say that a ‘normal’ reason can penetrate a symbol with the help of intuition, as far as I am concerned, equals asking someone to stare into the eyes of a goldfish swimming in its glass bowl and try and understand what ‘it thinks’.
And some people, staring into the eyes of the goldfish, end up truly believing that they can understand what it is thinking; they even convince themselves that they are communicating with the fish! A joke? No, it happens. Despite the fact that neither a symbol nor God, are goldfish, many people would still like to explain them to us.
In order to avoid the trap of delusion, then, we must follow the rules.
We must use what I call a shrewd modesty. To know and apply with abundance ‘rules and principles’ of the initiatory tradition is not a waste of time at all. But it appears that most people don’t have the time or wish to do so. Perhaps because they are neither modest nor shrewd, or because they consider themselves ‘already learned’.
For the ‘rest of the world’, that is those that are not born ‘already learned’, and I am among those, it is necessary to learn and understand rules and procedures in order to advance successfully on the initiatory path.
We start by learning how to strengthen our mind, freeing ourselves (dis-integration) from useless and undesirable ‘mundane impressions’. Then, knowing ourselves better, we proceed to ‘becoming free’ by correcting ourselves.
But to do it by ourselves is out of the question because everybody, although to different extents, tends to absolve himself for everything (self-indulgence and self-pity mine the impulse to improve).
In order to avoid this absolutory anomaly, a ‘speculum’ is necessary.
This is ‘someone’ that is wise but intransigent and that places himself in front of us as a ‘mirror’ to reflect every action, word or thought of ours, in order for us to see and judge it for what it is and not for what we would like it to be.
This is the only way we can change the attitudes that influence our character.
Character and mental tones, finally, form a rather indissoluble twine, but by transforming them we end up also transforming the mind. Thus, increasing the perception of self, we also change the psychic structure up to widen it (up and down) and deepen it.
If it is not clear yet, I am talking about transforming the mind from a two-dimensional instrument to another with three-dimensional faculties and…beyond.
Therefore, only ‘halfway along the path’ we will be able to talk, realistically, of the use of intuition and the ability to dynamically penetrate the symbol, the ideogram and, why not, the idea. 
