Beneath the Surface

Agreed; it's as if they want to be "told" rather than to "learn". Sure it's nice to have guidance- and necessary for some things- but to sit and be given it all on a platter, laid out neatly? Even if things *could* be transmitted that way, they would have little to no value in that format- not like knowledge that is fought for and truly learned "from the heart"- “won” or “earned”. I guess that's why "the mysteries" are deemed experiential. I also wonder sometimes if this "need to be told" phenomenon is due to the overall "dumbing down" in the education system that is occurring in most English-speaking countries. (Allen Bloom has a great book about this: "The Closing of the American Mind". It applies here in Oz as well, and from what I hear from my Brit pals, there too.) Or perhaps it is because most "pagan" seekers come from faiths like Christianity, Judaism & Islam that have such a legacy of authoritarian behaviour, and firm orthodoxy. Perhaps most folks aren't accustomed to practices that are orthopraxic.