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is an endearing one, but is inaccurate in a world of constant, accelerating change.
Mentoring requires both work and responsibility for both parties in the relationship.
It is a partnership between Mentor & student, based on mutual respect. Another
quote from Robert Anton Wilson is apposite to the discussion, that - communica-
tion is only possible amongst equals. Both Mentor & Student contribute & gain
equally from the relationship.
However, having said this, it must also be recognised that both Students and poten-
tial Mentors need to be clear about what expectations they bring to the relationship.
For the relationship to be effective, these expectations must be made explicit.
Mentoring is based on a friendly, informal relationship, and any attempts to extract
firm promises from either side are likely to end badly. This is not to say however, that
some form of agreement between Student and Mentor is not useful. If both parties
have made their expectations from the relationship explicit, then an agreement can
act to remind both parties of specific objectives which have arisen from their mutual
work, and secondly, it can be drawn on occasionally to clarify the boundaries of the
relationship to both parties.
This latter point is particularly useful in Magical Mentoring, where it is easy for the
Mentor s influence to extend beyond the boundaries of the immediate magical rela-
tionship - and often does, under a variety of guises and justifications. The desire for
this can come from Mentor or Student, or may even arise unbidden from the sharing
of intense magical experiences. Similar problems are not unknown between therapists
and clients, nurses and patients, or teachers and pupils. Yes, this situation is open to
abuse, but need not necessarily arise.
If we turn to ancient, rather than contemporary views of the Guru, it becomes fairly
apparent that studying with a Guru was often a traumatic process. There are many
stories about Zen and Tantric masters behaving in a way that is vastly different to the
modern idea of the other-worldly saint. AShN 55, writing in Nuit-Isis Vol. II No.1,
recounts the story of a Zen master who met every one of his pupil s questions with
a blow from a heavy cane. Eventually, the pupil shouts Enough! and jumps up
and snaps the cane, and then realises how unnecessary his slavish obedience to his
master was. It seems to me that the old masters were all too aware of the tendency of
aspirants to put their guides on pedestals and deliberately led them from away from
being dependent, often by recourse to rather extreme tactics. AShN 55 also points
out in the same article that Matsyendranath, when disturbed from his meditations by
would-be followers, responded by getting drunk, wanking and hurling his shit at
onlookers, only teaching those who remained!
There are also a number of stories centred around the deeds of Goraknath, the
primary pupil of Matsyendranath, the founder of the Adinatha sect of Tantrics.
Goraknath, it is said, could raise the dead, but unlike other great Spiritual Masters,
he often killed people first in order to demonstrate this power! One of my favourites
is a tale featuring Goraknath and his master, Matsyendranath. On their wanderings,
they came across a village where the local Rajah was overseeing the hanging of a
wrong-doer. As chance would have it, the wrong-doer managed to escape his guards
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Aspects of Tantra
and quickly made himself scarce. Thwarted, the angry Rajah declared that he was
going to hang the two tallest men in the crowd that had gathered - which of course
was Matsyendranath and Goraknath. As soon as they were brought before the Rajah,
the two began to argue about who should be hanged first. Matsyendranath argued
that, as he was the master, he should be hung first. Goraknath disagreed vehemently.
Intrigued by this unusual eagerness in his victims, the Rajah asked them why they
argued. The two replied that, by consulting the holy books, the sages and the move-
ment of the stars, they had determined that the first person to be hung in this place
would go straight to Nirvana. Hearing this, the Rajah declared that if anyone was
most deserving of such a fate, it was to be him and none other. So he went willingly
to the gallows and pupil and master went on their way! Legends such as these illus-
trate that although Matsyendranath and Goraknath were credited with superhuman
powers and wisdom, they were not un-worldly pure beings in the way that modern
Guru-figures are expected to be. This is very much a modern conception and I think,
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