In short, history. Paganism is barely accepted/tolerated in today's society. It's embraced in some places and still to this day is punishable by torcher and death in other places. Throughout history those practicing alternative religions (quite often defined as anthing that wasn't Christiantiy) were forced to be secretive. It was a matter of life and death that those you practiced with could keep your secret, so people had to proove themselves as trustworthy. So there are traditions that maintain the old ways and traditions that understand that isn't always necessary anymore (depending on where you are in the world).

Jennifer

hi suzi, i don't really have an answer either, as i belong to an open tradition. i'm curious as well. my guess though is that there is a history of secrecy because it was necessary during the dark ages and even currently in certain parts of this country to protect those passing on the teachings from being ostracized, punished or hurt from close-minded governing forces or individuals. also i think there is a difference between compensating a teaching for their time & effort in passing on information, skills and techniques and paying someone for "secret" information. i think there is a general misconception that there are secrets within traditions that one can find out from the right person or the right tradition, when in reality, the secret is really something that one must learn either with the guidance of a teacher or on one's own: all the answers lie within the individual! i'm curious what others say. blessings artemisia

I agree with the responses you have already received and have one more to add.

I think that some spiritual/mystical experiences can only be transmitted through experience. When you try to describe it in writing or verbally, something is lost. I think that the danger in this is that the value of the knowledge is diminished. In other words, someone who has never actually "had" the experience but read or heard about it, will judge it's value without having a real understanding.

It's not really so much that it's a secret, but it's a bad idea to trivialize it by talking about it with the unprepared.

For example, try describing "drawing down the moon" to a die-hard atheist. Chances are they will tell you it sounds like the dumbest thing they ever heard. Just telling them about it exposes something sacred and mysterious to ridicule. But, as we have experienced, place a prepared person in the circle to witness drawing down the moon firsthand, and they will have an experience that can't be given justice with mere words.

I guess it has something to do with not casting pearls before swine...

First, you would have to assume that someone is paying for instruction. That is a whole other issue

And, are we talking secrecy or mystery? The two are often confused.

You can find all the information you want out there! The Universe can transmit it to you...but the bottom line is that only knowledge + experience = wisdom.

You can have knowlege without experience and all you have is knowledge ( you know it, but do you KNOW it?)
You can have experience, but without learning from it? All you have is something that happened, not something you have become.

Some interesting posts here. now thats what im talking about. good dialogue starting here. I would like to add my two cents of course.

Firstly, as for as worrying about who sees what "secrets" I submit the concept of Personal power;
Practitioners of chi kung refer to it as SHEN Or JING depending on how you look at it.
It is a type of energy that builds up in our person over time and knowledge. It can be seen in the eyes as one is awake. Its why some people have shinier eyes then others, “ seeing wisdom in their eyes”
(see : Shen and jing in any traditional Chinese medicine text)

Personal power translates as your ability to attain understand and acquire knowledge. For example: a teacher could walk up to you and speak one phrase that equated to a major mystery of the cosmos, and unless you had enough personal power you would just here Charlie browns mom. “ wma mwa mwa mwa ah mwa a”
Conversely, if you have enough personal power to understand a given “mystery” the universe its self or God/ Goddess if you prefer will show you the knowledge its self. Usually it takes a trigger. Sometimes it sends a teacher to whisper in your ear sometimes a radio program or a horoscope will jog something and you will suddenly understand.
Not that a teacher isn’t important I am just now getting to the level where I am going to seek a master for my self soon. Many mistakes can be avoided that way. Especially if your art can be used martially as mine can. ( Qui gong )

But I digress ( I love digressing tehe), Secrecy is rather pointless in my opinion unless you want to draw people in to pay for your services, or really like the feeling of belonging to a super top secret club. That’s cool if that’s what your in to, but very very unnecessary.

Which brings me to my second point. Closed communities?? Wtf is up with that. Were living in America man. Sure you might get ridiculed for being different, but if every one would stop being so damned secretive everyone would know about it and it would be more accepted.

So in conclusion the more our world is the sum of the perceptions of those in it.
If everyone in our world has an opportunity to learn the universes secrets, the world we create for ourselves will open up and we will evolve.

Good night everyone,
Pleasant dreaming.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This whole thread has been very interesting, with many good points made. But I'm a little surprised that nobody has mentioned one of the major reasons for secrecy: karmic resonance in the egregore.

**** WARNING: VERY TRADITIONALIST P.O.V. TO BE PROPOUNDED. (And, come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen anything about it in any of the books--I guess this has been treated as a "secret of the Craft" by many, but if so, I think it's a secret whose time to be told has come.)

Egregore energy and its cultivation is one of the reasons that initiatic lineages exist. When you work with magic, usually you are starting with basic natural energies--drawn from the soil, etc. Over time, you build up a connection with the energies and build on them, creating (out of your own practice) a continuing current of energy that you work with, which becomes stronger and more easy to use as you continue with it. This is called an egregore (from Latin, "e gregore", "out of a group/flock"), because it is built up out of the entire collection of workings you have done with it.

Each person builds their own egregore, which is both a quick-access portal to broader energies, and a resource in itself, rather like a battery. The power, nature, and flavor of that egregore are shaped by the person creating it: both what they do with it, and who they are as a person, because they are putting their personal stamp on it. Doing a ritual over and over attaches egregore energy both to the practitioner and to that ritual, making it a "key" to access the energy current built up over time, both through that ritual and through other work done by the practitioner.

When a group of people work together over a period of time, likewise, they build a group egregore energy current, with the same effects. As time goes on, the battery, in effect, gets charged up--acquiring, thereby, the energy and flavor of the work done with it. It accumulates karma because of its use, and that karma resonates back through the egregore to those who have contributed to it.

Now: suppose a coven has worked very hard to learn healing, and has built and developed a fairly powerful egregore. They have tried a number of different techniques, and through experience have created a repeated ritual that readily accesses that egregore. They have written the ritual into their Book of Shadows, so that they may continue to do it the same way and keep building the energy. They have a shared vision for what they are building--it's a joint project, a labor of love, ethics, and commitment.

If they are a traditional type coven, they probably do something to physically link new members to the current. This is usually done in the second degree elevation ritual, so that a new first degree gets a little experience working with the current in "lite" form before being expected to handle the whole thing. (It's worth noting here that experience has shown this delay to be wise: too-soon full power passing is often linked to subsequent problems, including pancreas trouble.) It is in this way that many Craft lineages are formed: all the people in all the covens of the lineage are working with the (now-Traditional, with a capital T) current, building and cultivating it. The current comes to have its own distinctive feel and flavor, different from the egregore currents of other groups.

Suppose also that the coven runs a study group, and one of the students is mad at her boyfriend for running off with another woman. The angry student copies the ritual out of the Book, then later uses it, substituting certain words--such as "destroy" instead of "heal"--to attack her rival.

What happens to the egregore then?

Several things happen. Firstly, although the student, not having been initiated, will not have been given a physical link to the egregore, she can still get (limited) access to it through using the linked-in ritual. Secondly, the egregore becomes somewhat polluted by the energy generated by that use. Thirdly, there is resonance back through the egregore to everyone else who is linked into the current. Lastly, there's an energy "bleed" from the egregore.

Now, the egregore probably won't be completely ruined, and it won't work as effectively for the curse as it works for healing--it's not "calibrated" for cursing, after all--but it will still pack some wallop. And its integrity has been violated--it's been modified by a use that runs counter to the cultivating group's ethics.

And THAT is one of the biggest reasons for secrecy--at least among traditionalist groups.

The egregore current is a real physical thing, not just a metaphor or a symbol. If you doubt it, try this: attend a ritual performed by a bunch of Gardnerians--a standard outer-court version will do just fine. Then attend a ritual performed by a bunch of Feris. The difference in flavor is quite apparent, even to people familiar with neither tradition--even to non-magicians. As a final follow-up, go to an eclectic ritual performed by a group who know each other, and work together, but are not part of a lineage. The flavor will be different still.

Please note, I am not saying that the traditional energy currents will be "better", or even more powerful: the eclectics may even have a more powerful effect, if they are the more skilled. But the respective energy currents will all have their own flavors, and will each be best suited to the type of work done by the people who have cultivated it.

Well, I apologize for being a bit long-winded and not as organized, clear, or complete as I would like: but if I put off writing this until I can do a better writing job, I'll never get round to posting. I have some further thought on related stuff, but I'll save that for some other time (unless everybody is cast into permanent somnolence from reading this post--;-).

Thanks to all for a most interesting thread.

Blessed Be,

Valerie