“Every ceremony or RITE has a value if it is performed without alteration,” he said. “A ceremony is a book in which a great deal is written. Anyone who understands can read it. One RITE often contains more than a hundred books.” Fragments: Fifteen

“Transitions from one level of being to another were marked by ceremonies of presentation of a special kind, that is, initiation. But a change of being cannot be brought about by any RITEs. Rites can only mark an accomplished transition. And it is only in pseudo-esoteric systems in which there is nothing else except these RITEs, that they begin to attribute to the RITEs an independent meaning. It is supposed that a RITE, in being transformed into a sacrament, transmits or communicates certain forces to the initiate. This again relates to the psychology of an imitation way. There is not, nor can there be, any outward initiation. In reality only self-initiation, self-presentation exist. Systems and schools can indicate methods and ways, but no system or school whatever can do for a man the work that he must do himself. Inner growth, a change of being, depend entirely upon the work which a man must do on himself.” Fragments: Fifteen