The guide code

A guide walks beside a student on the Steps of Initiation. The role carries trust, and trust carries duties. Every guide agrees to this code before guiding, and again whenever it changes.

What a guide is

A guide is a fellow practitioner who has walked further on the path, keeps their own daily practice, and has been asked by the Temple to accompany others. A guide:

• meets with the student on a rhythm they agree together,
• reads the diary entries the student chooses to share, and replies briefly and kindly,
• confirms a stage when the practice is steady, by what can be seen in the diary and in conversation,
• notices warning signs and follows the Safety protocol, and
• helps the student keep the Steps separate from ceremony.

Practice, never status

A guide confirms practice, never spiritual status. A guide never tells a student they are advanced, chosen, awakened, or spiritually above or below anyone. A guide never claims powers, and never treats an inner experience, their own or the student's, as proof of anything.

No stage is ever given for anything experienced in ceremony.

Two guides from the Portal onward

No guide confers the Portal or any stage of the Inner Order alone. From the Portal onward, two different guides must each confirm a stage. Neither guide confirms on the other's word alone; each meets the student.

Care, not treatment

A guide does not diagnose, does not give medical or psychological advice, and never tells a student to start, stop or change a medication or treatment. When something is beyond the practice, the guide refers the student to a doctor, a licensed therapist or a crisis line, as the Safety protocol says.

A guide never pushes a student through distress, never presents suffering as a sign of progress, and pauses intensive practice when a warning sign appears.

Boundaries

• No romantic or sexual relationship with a student, ever, while guiding them, and not for at least two years after guiding ends. If attraction arises on either side, the guide asks the Temple to match the student with another guide, without blame.
• No financial ties. A guide does not accept money, gifts beyond the token, loans, or business dealings from a student, and does not sell a student anything. Gifts to the Temple go to the Temple.
• No touch. The practice needs no touch. A guide does not touch a student, except a handshake or a hug the student clearly offers, and never during practice.
• No dual roles that cloud judgment. A guide does not guide their own partner, family member, employee, employer or therapist. Where a guide also facilitates ceremony, they keep the two roles distinct and tell the student which role they are in.
• Meeting places are public, online, or Temple spaces. A guide does not meet a student alone in a private home without the student's clear agreement in advance.

Confidentiality and its limits

What a student shares stays between the student, their guides, and, where safety requires, the Temple's leadership.

A guide never asks to see a student's soul mirrors, never shares what is in a student's diary or mirrors with anyone else, and never discusses one student with another. In a circle, no one shares what is in another person's mirror.

The limits: a guide shares only what is needed, and only with those who need it, when there is a risk of serious harm to the student or to others, or when the law requires it. Where possible, the guide tells the student first.

Safety notes on the platform are short and factual. The student can read every note written about them.

The student's freedom

A student may pause, stop, or change guide at any time, without giving a reason. A guide never pressures a student to continue, never takes a pause as a failing, and never holds a stage back as leverage.

A student may raise a concern about a guide with the Temple's leadership at contact@templeofhermes.org. Concerns are read by people outside the guide's line, and a student is never penalized for raising one.

Respect

A guide treats every student with equal respect, whatever their gender, sexuality, body, ability, faith background, wealth or culture. A guide offers the equivalent of any physical practice to anyone who needs it, and the equivalent counts in full.

Keeping your own practice

A guide keeps a daily practice, meets regularly with another guide or the Temple's leadership to talk through their guiding, and asks for help early when unsure. A guide steps back from guiding for a while when their own life needs their full attention.

If the code is broken

Anyone may report a concern about a guide to contact@templeofhermes.org. The Temple's leadership:

1. acknowledges the concern within three days,
2. may pause the guide's guiding while it looks into the matter,
3. hears from the student and from the guide,
4. decides what follows, from a conversation and further training, to ending the guide role, and
5. tells the person who raised the concern what was decided, as far as privacy allows.

Any sexual contact with a student, any threat, or any harm to a student ends the guide role. Where a crime may have occurred, the Temple will not stand in the way of a report to the police, and will cooperate with it.

By accepting the guide role you agree that

• You will confirm practice, never spiritual status, and never confer the Portal or the Inner Order alone.
• You will not diagnose, advise on medicine, or push a student through distress, and you will follow the Safety protocol.
• You will keep no romantic, sexual or financial ties with a student while guiding and for at least two years after.
• You will keep what students share confidential, within the limits above, and never ask to see their mirrors.
• You will respect every student's freedom to pause, stop or change guide.
• You will keep your own practice and ask for help when unsure.
• You accept the process above if a concern is raised about you.

Questions about this paper go to contact@templeofhermes.org.