What is an Initiate?

These days, it’s amazing, you come across initiates everywhere, even in nightclubs and places of entertainment! And how do you recognize them? Oh, that’s easy! They are the ones who tell you, ‘I am an initiate.’ Some will even add that they have reached the seventh, eighth or ninth level of initiation, and those who are naïve and blind rejoice at having found an initiate who will only take a few days to initiate them – what a blessing!
In the past, no one knew who the initiates were, except those who were sincerely seeking them and knew how to recognize them.
They never said they were initiates; they remained secret, obscure and hidden, like the hermit from the ninth tarot card – an old man holding a lamp, which he holds in the folds of his great cloak, hidden from the eyes of the crowd.
This is the image of the true initiate.