(something I wrote on Dreamwidth a few years ago, but still relevant, because it is still ongoing.)

I see a lot of people decrying how obstructionist the Evil Gatekeepers are.

My real question is “if the Gatekeepers are so bad, how did anyone get past them?”

I realize that a lot has changed over the 50 years that I’ve been practicing, but way before TikTok, Facebook, Myspace or Livejournal, folks were finding their way to the Craft.

I bought magazines, wrote letters to people and organizations that advertised, and some of those answered. Follow ups from those led to contacts. Contacts led to study & initiation. That was 1973 and living in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

Hekate is called the Keeper of the Keys.

SHE’S LITERALLY A GATEKEEPER.

She also holds the torches that Light the Path — the Way-Shower …

— plus, a comment in response by a friend there —
One thing I think a lot about – as someone who spends a lot of time sharing what I’m doing – is how little people are interested in it, simultaneously with decrying gatekeeping.
I think there’s a psychological element, in which people who talk a lot about gatekeeping are really seeking the pleasure of overcoming a gate, then becoming its new guard against others; but something about a wide-open archway offers no pleasure at all.

–and my reply to that–
Many of the loudest aren’t demonstrating interest in the work, just making noise.

and another from another friend —
The sincere will seek until they find (and make an effort to learn from what they are shown). The shallow merely complain loudly, because it’s all the effort they can sustain.