Thoughts to Ponder

It is too early on a Sunday morning for this kind of input. ;-)

amqu has provided a link to a fascinating essay on the unintended consequences of reform which is giving me a new perspective on some of my own favorite reforms. I'm not ready to change my mind, but these observations certainly bear thinking about.

And then treeofstars quoted this from Dion Fortune's The Mystical Qabalah:

No student will ever make any progress in spiritual development who flits from system to sytsem; first using some New Thought affirmations, then some Yoga breathing exercises and meditation-postures, and following these by an attempt at the mystical methods of prayer. Each of these systems has its value, but that value can only be realised if the system is carried out in its entirety. They are the calisthenics of consciousness, and aim at gradually developing the powers of the mind. The value does not lie in the prescribed exercises as ends in themselves, but in the powers that will be developed if they are persevered with. If we intend to take our occult studies seriously and make of them anything more than desultory light reading, we must choose our system and carry it out faithfully until we arrive, if not at its ultimate goal, at any rate at definite practical results and a permanent enhancement of consciousness. After this has been achieved we may, not without advantage, experiment with the methods that have been developed upon other Paths, and build up an eclectic technique and philosophy therefrom; but the student who sets out to be an eclectic before he has made himself an expert will never be anything more than a dabbler.