Home
I quote from your message: “You state in your book of Advice to the Serious Seeker (as have other Traditionalist writers) that initiation into spiritual esoterism presupposes adherence to an exoteric path. Yet those who hold the reins of exoteric institutions, at least within Christendom, seem to reject, deny, or be oblivious to the esoteric dimension. I can see no point in committing to an exoteric body that cannot or will not provide a pathway to spiritual initiation.”
These words are most perspicacious; indeed they cut straight to the heart of the problem most Christian seekers face. My godfather, the late Alvin Moore, Jr., often quoted the following scripture in this regard: “Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered” (Luke 11:52).
To be sure, a small minority of seekers are able to find, among those who “hold the reins”, a few priests who are open to esoterism or (an even rarer possibility) who are themselves following an esoteric path. Among my own close acquaintances there are three Orthodox priests in this second category—one of whom is a hieromonk and abbot—and of course I often suggest that qualified inquirers visit their parishes.
By far the majority of Christians who wish to follow a jnanic path, however—and hence the majority of those who come to me for advice—are obliged to keep their esoterism to themselves when in church, while receiving the sacramental nourishment the exoteric tradition has to offer. But of course this is no little thing: the sacraments are precisely the “point in committing to an exoteric body” in the first place, and one should be thankful that such Mysteries are still accessible, whatever the opinions of those who transmit them.
I agree that this is a less than fully desirable situation, especially for someone like you who is looking for what you call “an integral spiritual community”, but it is by no means an impossible one.