Aeon418
Sure, if you were to walk into a Karate dojo it's reasonable for you to expect the instructor to be competent and know his or her stuff. The colour belt they are wearing should give you some indication of their ability to practice and teach. Initiatory grades serve a similar purpose.Much like you have belts of various colours in many martial arts schools.
I'm not sure which belt Mr Barlow wears though, aside from the one that holds up his trousers.
In this context the Tree is a guiding structure, not a defining structure. Just like the way you can map developmental landmarks in young children, that same developmental map doesn't define every single facet of a child's growth process. The same is true of spiritual growth too.But I am sceptical that the ToL will truly tell you about an apprentice's level of spiritual attainment, or where they need to go from there. Spiritual development is far too complex and individual a matter for a simplistic approach. I feel that submitting to the rigidity of such a scheme may cause its followers to miss out a lot.
The Tree of Life and it's use in graded teaching systems is a complicated issue, and one that is frequently made even more complicated by generalised assumptions about how the Tree is worked within different systems.
For example the Golden Dawn and the A.'.A.'. use a grading structure that superficially appears identical in the way it maps onto the Tree of Life. And yet these two systems are totally different. As a consequence the notion of 'spiritual attainment' is difficult to address.
The Golden Dawn model is an 'initiation first' system. It doesn't necessarily confer any sort of 'spiritual attainment' as such. It's more like a series of doors being opened to the possibility of attainment. Each of the grades is basically a 'ceremonial exposure' to each of the Sephiroth (and connecting Paths) and the learning of the theory associated with the grade. There is no question of 'attainment' in any of this though. In fact substantial 'inner work' is not undertaken until the G.D. Adeptus Minor grade 5=6. (Which is not the same as the K&C of HGA. Barlow is yet another author who mistakenly confuses the two. ) In the Golden Dawn scheme the aspirant is merely initiated into a grade (i.e. made a start), they have not attained it.
Crowley's A.'.A.'. uses a similar grade structure, but because it is a 'work first' system it is totally different. The grades are not bestowed upon aspirants in the formal sense of Golden Dawn style orders. Rather they are the seal of attainment and represent the successful completion of work and the development of skills. Despite Barlow's uninformed and ignorant remark about the grades being used to separate the "higher up's from the plebs", the grades actually represents an individuals capacity for the work. Everything is earned through the students own efforts. Instead of the snobbish status symbols that Barlow "imagines" the grades are, they actually represent an ever deeper level of service to others. Crowley makes this abundantly clear in the essay, One Star in Sight.
As for the complaint that the scheme is rigid, I can't agree. The A.'.A.'. curriculum is very specific, but it is more like a skeleton framework. There is absolutely nothing to prevent a student working with material and practices outside of the formal curriculum. Provided the particular requirements of each grade are met, the student is free to explore anything else that they choose.Aleister Crowley said:He is furthermore trained to the one habit essential to Membership of the A∴A∴; he must regard all his attainments as primarily the property of those less advanced aspirants who are confided to his charge.