I've read with fascination some of what you've written in various comments about your family's history and connection with esoteric teachings. Compared to my own mundane (Methodist with a side of lapsed-Catholic guilt) parental roots, I can't help but be a little wistful for a familial-cultural mindset that is willing to accept... mmm... how to describe?... looser edges, perhaps, compared to the tightly bound hold on Reality (tm) required of the monotheistically-inclined mind (either Mono-deity or Mono-materialism).

I'm late to the game and definitely a remedial student :)