::I want to make this clear: mystic to me (here and now) means that the
::focus of worship/practice is on the realm that is neither material not
::nonmaterial.
::The net result is that tantra is not really mysticism, nor is bhakti. The
::former concentrates upon the material world to reach mystical state,
::the latter uses the immaterial world. Both, however, generally wind
::themselves up in their respective states, not in the mystical.
Glorantha Digest v9 #323
So his strict redefinition of mysticism merely means that the magical practices of Tantra (ie Martial Arts) and Bhakti (ie weird magicians) are no longer mystical (or rather they are submystical) although the God Learners in their ignorance might have still classified them as mystical.
FWIW Bhakti isn't strange as it sounds for it is defined in my sources as ceremonial devotionalism to a God as opposed to ritual sacrifices. Theistic Devotees and Disciples anyone? Analogs for sorcery (i.e. Jnara) and animism (i.e. the Adoration mentioned in Revealed Mythologies although the term is now used for something else) should exist.
In the interests of clarity, I'll start defining a few terms. Firstly these submystical practices are exoteric (outer) as opposed to the esoteric (inner) practices of the mystics. Although many religious practices - such as the Orlanthi devotees - could be grouped as exoteric, I'll restrict the term to those magical practices that are derived from the (mis)application of mystical wisdom to the material and immaterial worlds. Mystics generally view exoteric seekers as people looking in the wrong place.
Exoteric practices differ from other magical practices (sacrifice, sorcery etc) in that they seek transcendental power - most end up with high magic instead but only the mystics are capable of seeing that it's not so.
Most exoteric seekers perform high magic through the three disciplines. Instead of relating to the three otherworlds as HW did, I relate them to the three levels of reality (physical, magical and transcendental).
Militant exoteric seekers normally learn a Martial Art as their physical discipline but the concept can be extended to other practices such as breathing, carnal arts, tea-making, gardening and so forth. Talents may be learned through the study of physical disciplines (i.e. flurry of blows) but this causes the discipline itself to become harder to learn.
Magical disciplines are transformative exercises to improve the seeker's psyche, soul or spirit. Unlike HW, exoteric seekers can only learn magical disciplines related to their higher self (i.e. a seeker with a spirit can't learn sorcerous disciplines). They could be used to defend against magical attacks but magics from a foreign otherworld are difficult to defend against. Spells, Feats or Spirits may be gained through study of a magical discipline but this causes the discipline to become harder to improve.
Transcendental disciplines are primarily a system of ethics and philosophy (i.e. charismatic wisdom) and most seekers learn only one. It confers no magic except the primal power. Transgressions against the transcendental discipline make it more difficult to improve.
The high magic is invoked (with great difficulty) through the performance of all three disciplines, beginning with the transcendental and ending with the physical. It's transformative in nature causing a permanent effect on whomever receives it. The nature of the transformation varies on whether the target is ready to receive it or not. An exoteric seeker that can summon the high power will usually survive it with no harm (but not always) while his targets will not be so lucky.
--Peter Metcalfe
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