Dove-tailing systems? How many max?

[Cybernetic_Jazz]

I'm still quite early in my career of exploration, currently neophyte in two Rosicrucian related orders and playing with IIH.

My background in martial arts and just generally other such fields of interest whether music, science, etc. really makes me wonder one thing about mysticism and WMT. When I think of something like, say, martial arts - when you start getting toward the good stuff and away from the belt factories you get to the point where it's all closer and closer to the same, it can be integrated, and someone like....say... Inosanto... can blend JKD, Kali, Silat, Kuntao, Wing Chun, etc. and it makes perfect sense. In that sphere great stuff mixes with great stuff to make even better stuff.

I'm wondering if it's the same with magic and mystic systems - for instance if I'm formally studying the tarot and looking at IIH, I'm seeing a lot of crossover already just from a very beginner'ish glance. For instance black and white mirror in Step 1 of IIH? The GD tarot correlate would be the scales of Ma'at in Key 11: Justice. Taking that in for work? Whether it's Franz Bardon or Paul Foster Case it's the magician's table just that Bardon likes to bring Aristotle's 8-armed cross to the foreground (PFC may have as well but it's too soon for me to tell yet).

It seems like when I've looked at the systems that are really at the center of it all they tend to bolster each other and at worst if you join too many orders at once you could get schlepped down with to many redundancies of the same stuff to match hours in a day. Other than that though I can't see where one thing would poison the other. Seems like anyone I ask as well about ToL's in Qabalah indicate that the tarot key issue isn't a problem if you consider that the strict adherance of certain systems to tarot cards as ToL paths isn't stressed at all on an Ari or Gra tree and at worst you're considering the same sephira but rearranging the intelligences and Hebrew letters or whether or not the tree in question was designed with 'the fall'.

When I think of it that way I tend to think well.... for the martial arts example, it would be very impractical for someone to go take something like Russian Systema, Krav Maga, Kali and Panantukan, or Wing Chun and simultaneously take some kind of ultra-belt factory variant of a style because if the better is telling them that the other is teaching them skills that will get them killed they'd be at the other school smiling, nodding to the instructor, and still doing what they'd rather do - hardly a point in being there right?

I know I might sound like I'm coming to table with a full cup here or that I'm looking for a rubber stamp on my hypothesis above. I guess really I'd like to get input on this from people who have a lot more experience in this than I do in both the affirmative or the negative to what I just said above. For those of you who would agree what systems do you think are front and center to it all and that you found from experience to dovetail in a positive manner? For those who disagree - what would you consider the core issues of clash or the important things in mysticism/magick that are inherently going to be developmentally incompatible for the aspirant from school to school? I remember Nick Farrell saying something about concocting systems, that if they're not balanced right it doesn't work and that you can't just pile a bunch of stuff together - I could see that same concern being raised with a person taking multiple systems with multiple development paths; I guess I'm really wondering just what the spread is or how/why the syntax of different systems would grind (providing that the systems in question are high end and not the top shelf vs. well situation).

I really want a better understanding of this if possible just because I'm still in that stage of vacuuming up any information I can get my hands on, wanting to get to know as much about whatever good orders are out there as I can, and it's all I suppose because I'm still drilling into bedrock, scouting out the foundations, and trying to figure out just what kind of building I'm going to set to work on. The triage aspect saddens me a bit and ruling other systems out of my life is something that I feel I need to be very judicious about if I want to be happy with the all-around of the spiritual path that I set my sights on.

[NariusV]

I have not worked within an order but I have worked with various systems over the years, and with some groups.There are various kinds of systems. The western hermetic tradition itself is already a large conglomeration of various things from many cultures. Other systems are reconstructions of what people think might have been from the past, like asatru. Some of the traditions have a straight lineage going all the way back to pre-recorded history, ala some yogic or tantric schools, etc. Some are completely made up. (In fact all of them were at one point). There are also the differences between the groups/order paths, and the self initiation paths. At some point though there is solo work that must happen regardless.

The systems provide a common language for it's practitioners to communicate or transmit the information in an organized manner. There is an underlying truth or message encoded within the systems. To be successful with some systems requires mastery of their symbolism, structure, etc. This can take a long time for complex systems. The process of studying and using the symbols until they become manifest forces in the subconscious mind requires continued use over time, then they can provide sometimes miraculous results.

From my experience there are some core disciplines that are common to all the successful working systems. Sticking with one system alone could give one a skewed or partial view of the truth, interpreting the system as the cause of the success, rather than the growth and development of the individuals faculties through that system. As for mixing and matching, the best advice I could give would be to seek mastery in the practical pragmatic basics of whatever system you are following. If you try to do too many things you may take longer to develop the insights and revelations that those practices and systems hold. One of the other benefit of learning the theory and symbol systems are that they can provide a mental model or basis of understanding for things you might experience along the way that would make no sense otherwise. This is difficult to explain since these are for example sometimes non-verbal states of consciousness that defy exposition other than metaphor.

Max systems? My advice would be to master whatever it is you are studying, preferably some useful or applicable skill or technique that can produce verifiable benefit for you. Don't spend all your time memorizing correspondences, theory, history, etc. Those are there to help provide a context for your own experiences, not to be your experiences. Ask your teachers/mentors for guidance, as that is the main benefit of an order or group.

[Solving Ennui]

To answer more simply, the truth remains the same regardless of what system you study, the more broadly you study, the more pieces of that truth you find, there are also systems from people who thought that way, in karate JKD, in magic, thelema is one fine example.

Liber Al I 56. "Expect him not from the East, nor from the West; for from no expected house cometh that child. Aum! All words are sacred and all prophets true; save only that they understand a little; solve the first half of the equation, leave the second unattacked. But thou hast all in the clear light, and some, though not all, in the dark."