Many people looking for spiritual development stumble across this concept on their search and start to find all manner of interpretations.

The simplest answer I have ever found can be summed up in the phrase, “Your path is your life lived wisely”. This means that the same everyday life that you live in this world of matter, with all its trials and tribulations, is potentially a spiritual path, if you know how to step back and view it objectively.

We not only learn social and intellectual lessons from the “University of Life”, but at the same time we learn spiritual ones as well. However very often we misinterpret or ignore these deeper teachings and keep looking for soft options, quick fixes or “get – happy- quick schemes”.

If we consider that we don’t take anything with us when we die, either physically, emotionally or intellectually, it makes you wonder why we bother getting so caught up with the external life to the extent we do. Therefore when people feel driven to search for spiritual answers, despite encountering many obstacles, they must be feeling some other force from within that defies logic and cannot be denied.

Other words associated with The Initiatic Path, are “Initiates”, “Initiations” and Initiatic Schools. All of these can sound a bit pompous to sincere and down to earth people and that is understandable. However, if a person wanted to go down that route, it might be useful to them, at some point in their life, to meet regularly with other focused people to expand on their access to information and experiences. This process would be directed by their Inner Being and would help them fulfil the requirements of their “inner driving force”.

Many people feel they are on a Path, but is it really and initiatic one? We have heard these declarations many times, but “when the going gets tough”, it seems only a very few of the tough get going. An Initiatic path by its very nature requires a person to sacrifice a lot of time, energy, effort and personal resources to gain true Self-knowledge and understanding. Deep down many people realise this, which is why they cannot accept the practise of buying and selling Initiations and arbitrary titles of Self-aggrandisement, it quite simply “does not feel right”. Initiations are like spiritual grades or certificates of merit and are only awarded in the “internal worlds” and are given as a result of a student’s conscious effort and the merits of their heart

Like ordinary schools, colleges and universities, Initiatic schools have their own structures, curriculum’s, discipline, and required attendances. They would also require a student to make a consistent effort “to correct themselves” and develop themselves and their spiritual work. They differ from workshops, retreats or one off lectures in that the relationships between the “school” and the students are more “familial”, intimate and long-term. It’s the same as when we learn much more from our families (good, bad or indifferent) because we make time to be with them and really interact with them. Initiatic schools concentrate on human interactions rather than reducing spiritual teachings to momentary “information transactions”. If we treat the dissemination of any spiritual teaching like this for too long, we are in danger of imposing upon it our consumerist mentality, which will lead us further away from finding the truth. We should be rediscovering the truth with us, not consuming someone else’s version of it.

So some may ask why is this article included on our website. Is the GCA S.A.W of UK and Ireland an Initiatic school? Externally we would have to say no, we are more like a Gnostic community because our physical organisation is probably too low key to the critical eye to warrant that grand title. However we do encourage fraternity and serious study like any school would and apply both formal and informal methods of studying the Gnostic teachings. Like a school, we also value having discipline and making a serious effort to do these studies since Gnosis, by its very nature challenges everything we have come to accept as the “norm” or real about ourselves and our perception of life. This is why Gnosis is so often described as being revolutionary, but we are not going against society, we are going against ourselves! If any teaching does not permanently change, improve and enrich us, what would be the point of doing it in the first place?

So that is why the main starting point for us, within the Gnostic teachings, is to study our own psychology first. This provides a stable and solid foundation for any mystical work and experiences we may have, because on an Initiatic path, a student needs to apply a lot of discernment and consciousness to make any sense or use of these experiences later.