Interesting to hear about the Template in Australia.
From what I saw in the UK participants were 'Members' in all but name: there was a very strong emphasis on the 'Template family', everyone encouraged to stay in touch with other participants, be on the email/Facebook lists, do repeat ceremonies etc. Those of us who stopped going to the ceremonies or who pulled away were pretty well shunned by the party faithful (some of whom we had known for a long time).
As for vegetarianism, Juliet completely lost her rag before one of the ceremonies a few years ago when a woman asked about maybe eating meat when pregnant or blessing meat if you are going to eat it. It certainly came across that vegetarianism is a rule if you are going to do the ceremonies.
Keeping your sovereignty is a nice idea but J and J just seem to be replacement gurus.
The guy who was running a lot of their Australian stuff was known for years, even over here in England, for being 'creepy'. It was unbelievable that he was allowed to carry on with this sort of behaviour for so long without any sort of sanctions. I'm pleased he is finally out, but why did it take so long? Why only now has any action been taken? There is absolutely no way that the Template mob can claim not to have known about his behaviour or try to make out that it is a recent problem, even people on the periphery like me knew about this.
Yes, they do let some people have ceremonies for free or at reduced rates but the payback on it is that these will often recommend others to attend the ceremonies and also make money on the books, geometry, jewellery, dvds.
All in all, I'm glad to be out of it. I'm surprised at how many people are now backing away from the Template, even some of the afore-mentioned party faithful who have been involved for years are realising that something is very rotten at the heart of it all and distancing themselves.
As I said before, it provided me with a big lesson in discernment.
From what I saw in the UK participants were 'Members' in all but name: there was a very strong emphasis on the 'Template family', everyone encouraged to stay in touch with other participants, be on the email/Facebook lists, do repeat ceremonies etc. Those of us who stopped going to the ceremonies or who pulled away were pretty well shunned by the party faithful (some of whom we had known for a long time).
As for vegetarianism, Juliet completely lost her rag before one of the ceremonies a few years ago when a woman asked about maybe eating meat when pregnant or blessing meat if you are going to eat it. It certainly came across that vegetarianism is a rule if you are going to do the ceremonies.
Keeping your sovereignty is a nice idea but J and J just seem to be replacement gurus.
The guy who was running a lot of their Australian stuff was known for years, even over here in England, for being 'creepy'. It was unbelievable that he was allowed to carry on with this sort of behaviour for so long without any sort of sanctions. I'm pleased he is finally out, but why did it take so long? Why only now has any action been taken? There is absolutely no way that the Template mob can claim not to have known about his behaviour or try to make out that it is a recent problem, even people on the periphery like me knew about this.
Yes, they do let some people have ceremonies for free or at reduced rates but the payback on it is that these will often recommend others to attend the ceremonies and also make money on the books, geometry, jewellery, dvds.
All in all, I'm glad to be out of it. I'm surprised at how many people are now backing away from the Template, even some of the afore-mentioned party faithful who have been involved for years are realising that something is very rotten at the heart of it all and distancing themselves.
As I said before, it provided me with a big lesson in discernment.