As an aspirant of the A.'.A.'. and as a martial artist I am well aware of the hierarchical nature of human instituted systems. Currently I am preparing for a fairly major grading in my martial art, so I have been reflecting on what it means to work within a system, and what it doesn't mean.
Firstly, as an A.'.A.'. aspirant I did of course go up through the grades. I probably still am, although the lines are less clear cut these days, and defining exactly what grade I am is less important to me than it was, although it is useful to know roughly where one is on the tree of life, and I do occasionally get intuitions about this, so I know enough to do sufficient course correction, and of course a supervisor who occasionally comments on things but who generally leaves me to get on with it. Suffice to say, the work I am doing now looks nothing at all like the work I had expected to do at this stage, and I never would have imagined the turn things have taken.
A persons grade is a very personal matter, not one to be shared too much and certainly not something you would advertise. The simple reason is that it is nobody else's business. More than that, since standards and expectations differ between Orders, the work carried out to earn that grade can also differ, there is in reality little consistency except (I hope) for the basic benchmarks.
My personal feeling is that these bench-marks should be set firmly so that anyone can tell that a person of a particular grade has (should have anyway) conducted a given type of work. Traditionally, for example, a 1=10 has to demonstrate control over the astral by going on an astral journey and bringing back something useful or acquiring knowledge of a previously unknown symbol. A 2=9 has to demonstrate proficiency in Hatha Yoga, primarily by sitting in Asana for one hour in a posture that is steady and easy. In reality there are many ways to obtain the level of proficiency required, and each order and lineage will have it's own approach.
Individual examiners will also vary according to their own requirements, my own supervisor for example, accepted my passing a 'Mind-body unification' examination as confirmation of my Zelator grade, although I hasten to add that I then went off and confirmed for myself that I could sit for one hour in Asana; this was for my own satisfaction really, although I now understand how unnecessary this was and probably had more to do with ego than anything else. Thus, when two aspirants get together and compare notes they may find that they have been tested in different ways. This is where trouble can begin, what Crowley called 'comparing hats'.
As a martial artist too, testing differs. I practice Aikido, and there are several different schools, and even organisations within schools, that all teach the same thing but grade in very different ways and have different standards, each Shihan (teacher) tests according to a set lits of techniques to be performed, but what standard he or she will except for these can vary. To complicate matters, a Shodan (black belt) in one organisation may be tested to very different criteria to the same grade in another. And between martial arts the difference is huge, a Shodan in Aikido is a very different animal to a black belt in Taekwondo, for example, both in the time it takes to get to the required level and the type and quality of martial artist they are. The reality is, ones grade only matters in the dojo. As with the A.'.A.'., ones grade only matters in terms of the work you are doing, your private, spiritual dojo. It may also matter for administrative purposes, for instance you have to be at least a Neophyte to take on Probationers, and of course it would be nice of people making up the three officers of a lineage hold the technical grades associated with those offices, although history tells us that this was rarely the case in Crowley's day. But beyond these considerations there is room for flexibility, and I see no reason for a rigid approach so long as the core requirements, as set out in the tasks of the grades, are maintained.
One thing is certain, an Adept is an Adept. That is, an Adept has made contact with, and communicated with, his or her HGA. In practice this means that he or she knows where he is going and what he is doing, he has his marching orders so to speak. However, exactly how he got to that point is entirely individual, and he may have gone through the grades to get to that point in a way unlike any other aspirant. In fact, I would hope that this is the case, lest we evolve a generation of Crowley clones that strive to follow the exact path that AC took, or some other idealised version of the path, rather than following the dictates of their own HGA. Those of the adeptus grades I would expect even more variation, partially because these are the grades defined the least in the documentation of the Order, but also because each adept, being in the charge of her Angel, must necessarily follow the path given to them at that point. I would suspect an adept who decided they were a reincarnation of Crowley of having made a miscalculation somewhere.
My only caveat here would be to say that an aspirant should have a fairly comprehensive knowledge of the grades they have supposedly worked through. They need to be familiar with a range of core systems and practices, which we can find in the syllabus of the A.'.A.'., not only for their own use, but to better assist their students. The A.'.A.'. is a path of service, we don't just climb up the tree of life solely for our own benefit, only to disappear up our own proverbial Kether, never to be seen again. As stated in One Star in Sight, brothers of the A.'.A.'. only hold any grade whatsoever insofar as they exist to assist those who follow behind.
So, a bit of a ramble for which I make no apologies.
Love is the law, love under will.
Pertinax
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