This is perhaps the most important of the commands. The old cliché of 'Knowledge is power' cannot be stressed enough. Knowledge is information, and information is the essence of structure, and structure is the basis of reality.
The old Hebrew verb 'yada' meaning 'to know', being euphemized as 'experience' in a sexual sense is quite apt, however to purely sexualize in a physical sense is to show stunted mental development. In Jewish kabala, Knowledge (Daath), falls between Chokmah (Wisdom) and Binah (Understanding) bridging the two, and also bridging the gap between the lower bodies on the Tree of Life. I use this only as an illustration.
For in truth one cannot claim to understand something until one has knowledge of it, and knowledge can only be gained by direct experience with the thing itself. It is very different to read a romance novel, than to actually be in a romance. Can one really understand sports if one has never played them, but only ever watched them?
We know things by doing them. The elderly are supposed to be wise because they have experienced and they 'know'. As life progresses from physical health to infirmity, the individual is forced to become more mental. Thus, Wisdom is what you take with you into the spiritual life.
Sadly, Western civilization has allowed a process of stupidifying of itself, encouraged mainly by corrupt civil, and ecclesiastical individuals. The 'hyenas' that tend to prey on the masses, found it convenient to water down the mental and philosophical capabilities of the people as a means of control. Unfortunately, this has had an effect on all levels of society, so that even the so-called 'prodigies' and 'adepts' don't exactly measure to their processors.
Much of the era known as the 'Burning Times' was really the aggressive push of this watering down. Contrary to popular belief the word 'witch' did not come from the Old English wicca, meaning 'to bend or twist', but from the word witan, meaning 'to KNOW'. The confusion came about from the term 'wicked witch', basically denoting twisted knowledge'.
Basically the 'Burning Times' was more of a Church declared war on Knowledge, and thinking. The vast majority of the people targeted during this era weren't witches or Satanists, but were simply groups who did not buy the Catholic Church's line. Ironically most of the people burned were the religious ancestors of the Protestantism. Today's Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Pentecostals would do well to remember that they were among the alleged Witches and Satanists of the Burning Times.
The methods of indoctrination and mass hysteria were used to target both the Gnostics, and the Knights Templar with the extremist propaganda they still receive to this day. Even more depressing how many of the Fundamentalist groups of today don't realize that they owe their existence to these groups. For the remnants of the Templars did much to bankroll the protestant movement, and had the Templars not fallen then we would have probably experienced the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution some 500 years earlier than we did.
The systematic degrading of Knowledge continues to this day, being perpetrated by info wars, bogus revelation, taboos and false theology. While some degree of taboo is needed for a society to function, what we are seeing in current times is less about society, and more about the power and ego gratification of the immoral.
Technology has done a wonderful job of pulling us away from Knowledge. Little Johnny might not be able to read on his grade level, but he knows how to get to the next level on his video game. His teacher may not be able to understand the most basic of philosophic ideas, or even how to balance a checkbook, but she knows all about Spongebob Squarepants.
Even us in the Pagan community have become lazy. When we just hand a book to someone and say 'read', and then never discuss it with him or her. When we perform rituals for events and holidays that we ourselves do not understand, we are destroying Knowledge. We would do well not to allow our continued enslavement by lack of Knowledge.
The Ancient Mysteries were systematically annihilated because they did not respect Knowledge or it's process. Many of them declined quickly because in their zeal to expand their power and influence, they adopted the technique of ritual by proxy. Ritual by proxy is where you have a number of initiates, and one is selected from the group to be the one initiated by in the ritual while the others watch. This is fast food approach is great for churning out a large number of initiates, but horrid as they don't have the knowledge they would have had if they had been the initiate selected for the ritual. They ultimate result was the degeneration of those Mysteries into superstitious drivel and dogma.
