Tradition: Towards Corruption or Improvement?

by UrbnTbone

If you wanna check there is something into tradition and see really weird stuff happening, go to a voodoo gathering. I was not, but heard a 1st hand witness. The guy was a Jew, totally secular, but after what he saw there he became ultra-orthodox, kind of said "well I saw that, it means tradition is not necessarily a hysterical mythomania". So he embraced his own tradition.

~~more philosophical:

Now, it happens with paganism as with anything: as soon as there is genius somewhere, at some point the power of adversity corrupts it, or makes it commercial and by doing so, kills its soul. Then only the few founding fathers, some early followers, and seekers with real long-term commitment and cossack-like bravoure can end up having an idea of what it is all about. The masses still have a basis to self-improvement, but not everyone is a samurai and can kill the fake prophets within himself and ignore the corruption in the system, instead of the opposite: kill the 'fake prophets' in the system and ignore the corruption within himself.

A good example of adversity is, what the xian myth did to general belief and/or interest in the notion of God: with its corrupt myth of a feeble god dying on a cross, unable to fight some supposedly evil, rebel, forces, it turned the very sane idea of a superior creative force, into a ridicule caricature, and as such it turned away the masses from healthy weighing of a supreme being hypothesis, while giving infinite secular power to its priests.

And this is the essence of what they call satan, without understanding the ethymology, from the Hebrew "adversity", or as a verb: to cross, to oppose, but in no way rebellious to the will of the supreme. Actually the cross is a pretty well accurate cosmic mirror of what it does historically between man and Godliness: 1. It crosses the relationship between Earth and Heaven. 2. it is a torture tool, made symbol for 'god', and proved itself through history as the essence of that religion: torture of oneself, and/or of any 'heretic' (not formatted to that configuration).

Without a doubt, there is the same dynamic in any spiritual, artistical, political, caritative, or elsewise positive human movement: the worm is in the fruit, everything is a mix of good and corrupted material.

That's why one needs to look around in various directions so as to compose our own mosaic out of man-transmitted materials usually being also synonym of relative corruption.

On the other hand, any fake stuff also has a part of good, due to the fact that among the followers there are sincere people with good hearts, and through them data will be sifted towards some kind of a truer meaning, joining again with what we can call the tree of life, real inspired stream of consciousness.

Therefore we can draw three conclusions:

1. tradition needs to be transmitted with unalterable tools as possible. It has to be of an allegorical nature, and provide keys for opening the 'temple' of man's heart to grace and truth. In that regard, the study of compared religions, while keeping the practice of one of them, and assembling data out of learning, experience and intuition, can be a basis for searching the 'grail', one's higher self. BTW what I gathered hints that masonry is a serious way towards that aim, since it not only supports learning, but also provides the master-builders' timeless tools, which were as is well-known used to cut stones and all operations of building, but also, used as an allegory for self-developping in the sacred guilds of temple builders along the ages.

2. the older the traditions, the less they should be taken lightly, even when they are based on seemingly stupid stuff. Because common sense has permeated them through the ages (as well as manipulative stuff). So with one's common sense and compared religions skills, some essence of the real thing can be extracted from man-made poisonous mix.

3. that said, I can't personally learn anything positive from christianity, but sometimes, I can notice footprints of greatness within it. There have been saints there as well. Maybe a bit less than the Jews and, to say, the Sufi moslims, but well I personally knew an old venerable exorcist monk who passed away in the 80's, and was close to some definition of a saint. Actually his fellow monks didn't believe in what he was doing, and were making fun of him. But the church let him receive patients and treat them in the monastery. I had a friend who was, as me, a punk rocker at the time, and found out he had real big problems. He travelled there, the guy passed him his old bony hands on some body parts (not those, why are you smiling). He kind of felt the hands inside, doing stuff in his belly. Then after various manipulations, he gave him a medalion, and told him if he wakes up in the middle of the night under attack, to put his hands on the medal, on his chest. Which happened. He woke up, felt two hands grabbing his shoulders from behind, while lying on his back. As soon as he touched the medal, he could see and feel a form flying away until disappearing in the obscurity. He was free by then.

And from atheist punkrocker he became practicing catholic; well, punk rocker still but going to mass almost daily, doing prayers all the time with the beads, and all that, incense, ritual of white magic, whatnot.

Which is to say, even a corrupt tradition which pretends almighty God cannot command the 'satan' angel, god forbid, some angels can rebel and fight against their almighty creator, and such sleep-while-standing insults to both common sense and the idea of a supreme being, even such a no-head-and-no-tail cretin-generating creed, which was the power basis of mighty dictators ruling barbarian illiterate masses, even that, can draw some people of intelligence and holiness into its fold and provide them with a structure, a set of spiritual tools which, well-understood, can heal (that monk was a smart man to begin with, a traveller who had made to Nepal and other places in search of magical truth, and entered the orders on the late after much mind-stimulation in his life).

So we cannot judge anyone after their religion, race or anything else. Just think about it BTW: if you judge, it may be a trap and you might find yourself in some comparable situation later on in life, thus having given yourself the sentence.

Without digressing too much I'd say traditions carry seeds of good and evil, so people who cleave to tradition can have their inner nature revealed. At that point they may choose to be faithful to their good self, or else follow their corrupt nature and sell their soul litterally, drawing secular benefit at the expense of the soul. Such people can eventually become leaders in their church hyerarchy, bishops, popes, whatnot. Usually power brings corruption opportunities.

But you can't judge a tree by its rotten, fallen fruits. Also, you can't judge a fruit by its perfect shape. A healthy fruit can have scars due to birds, while a good-looking fruit can be worm-eaten and rotten, deep inside.

So, traditions, actually, may be just a revelator for one's self, some will improve through them, while some might well be strengthened in their corrupt nature, since through tradition some inner core of human character will be triggered, for the best or for worse. BTW the stronger, the deeper the tradition, the more its effects will be drastic and push the individual to extremes: for worse, or for good and the better.

Like in Rembrandt's oils, light and darkness are so intricately mixed, only the real admirator will love its true value: touching the divine, an anatomy of the soul, or, for an agnosticist, traditions can be viewed as a huge collection of masterpieces, forming an enormous mosaic dedicated to the higher, and for those who don't participate of the hypothetical higher realm, even as a mere option, traditions are a gigantic piece of art, just as intricate in the distribution of light and darkness, as a Rembrandt, and as energy-filled as a Van Gogh painting.

Traditions are a unique feature of mankind, from the sight of the horizon announcing the countryman tomorrow's weather, to the highest conceivable assembly of holy adepts entertaining the higher source of beings with their ever-renewed combinations of cosmic keys developping an infinity of hypothesis and, maybe, at some point, put a finger on the real nature of the universe, by some miraculous chance.

A royal art, maybe touching to the heart of some great king of all kings, and pleading the cause of all humans through their most accomplished delegates, a countryman watching the horizon, and a scholar of all essential knowledge, united in adoration of their first source and the art it shows in expressing itself and veiling itself, one long step, one short step, and again.