Welcome to the Temple of the Jedi Order's (TotJOs) Initiate Programme (IP).
The IP is the first step to becoming a Jedi Knight at TotJO, you do not need to have submitted an application or be a member of our Temple if you wish to do the IP, but please be aware you will need to have completed lesson 1 before you can apply for membership. We encourage people to invest time reading the FaQ before they begin studying at TotJO.
There is no prize for completing the IP quickly and to prevent people from rushing through the IP we will only grant the rank of Initiate after 60 days of study or contribution to the Temple. This waiting period is to encourage patience, because becoming a Knight will likely take longer than a year. If you are serious about becoming a Knight then you will be just as serious after 60 days, but this time will give you greater insight into our community and our teachings.
If You Are Under 18
If you are under the age of 18 years, we ask you to first introduce yourself, by sending a private/personal message (PM), to a Youth Officer and follow their instructions. For more information about this please read this section of the Youth FaQ.
Our Youth Officers were carefully selected and need to be made aware of you for legal reasons.
Non-English speakers
Most IP materials are in English, but you may write in any language. Most members speak English as a first or second language. Your work cannot be reviewed, and we cannot give help or feedback, if it is written in a language we do not understand.
Purpose of the Initiate Programme and Journaling
The purpose of the IP is to familiarise you with some of the basic ideas present within our Temple. The purpose of a Journal is so the TotJO community can familiarise itself with you!
The material in the IP is not doctrinal. The ideas in the material can explain some of the doctrine, but they are for teaching purposes only and need to be looked at critically and with an open mind. We're not looking for the "right" answer, we're looking for your views on the material. If you agree with some of the material say why you agree, if you disagree then say why you disagree.
Your journal will be one of the ways in which all members in the Temple come to know who you are as a person. Your journal will be reviewed by a potential Training Master (TM) when they are deciding to take you on as an Apprentice. The more personal and in depth your journal is the easier it will be for a TM to judge if you are compatible for training with them. You will more than likely continue to use the same Journal should you be taken as an Apprentice.
The IP Team
The IP team is a group of apprentices who assist our members with the initiate program. Your assigned sponsor will be available to answer your questions, provide feedback, and ensure that your Completed ip journal is ready for the knights check. While they will not challenge your opinions or beliefs, they Will help guide you as you explore your own personal philosophy and thought process. To request a sponsor please click the link below to message our IP Team Lead.
There is also an IP Study Hall where you can discuss the IP.
Introduce Yourself
First of all please introduce yourself. We want to welcome you to our Order, we are a friendly community and we enjoy greeting new people. We also encourage you to select an avatar and fill in your profile information. You can also post a hello on our Shoutbox and the Temple Chat (lower right of the screen)!
Creating a Journal
Your Journal is where all your responses to the IP exercises should be posted and some also use it as a diary. You can use the first post to tell us about yourself, maybe where you have come from, physically, emotionally, spiritually, why you are here, what your hobbies and interests are etc. Your Journal can be as personal and in-depth as you like. One day you may go back and reread what you have written, showing you how much you have changed since you joined TotJO. Some people continue to use their Journal long after Knighthood and beyond.
In the Studies forum there is a section called Journals. Go there to create your own Journal by clicking on the 'NEW TOPIC' button to create a thread. The subject/title can be anything you want, but we suggest your Username+Journal. For example if your username is 'Jimbo' then we suggest you call the thread "Jimbo's Journal".
While our servers are reliable we encourage everyone to create a back-up of their work, because if your work is lost then we will require you to re-do it.
How to Post your Answers
Please make sure you post a reply to your journal rather than starting a new thread for each exercise.
Please follow this format when posting your responses:
Lesson 1, Part 1 - The Hero's Adventure
This way it is clear what you’re talking about and a lot easier for the people who check your work to keep up.
Please proof read your work before submitting it, double checking spelling, grammar and punctuation.
If you have posted your first full lesson response in your journal, please contact Edan so your rank can be updated. Changing rank is not automatic, please be patient and continue your studies while you wait for your rank to change.
Every journal will be read, but members generally do not post in your journal because:
- Posting in journals by a member with great experience might make you mistakenly believe that their view is definitely true.
- Posting in journals can and has led to people changing the way they post thinking it might please a specific person or get them noticed.
- Posting can make it harder for a potential Training Master to read and check your journal because additional posts can make it incredibly cluttered.
- Posting in journals can also confuse that journal owner's line of reasoning with another's.
Plagiarism (Copying Another's Work)
To get the most out of the IP you must ensure the work is your own and done from the heart. You will need to do some deep thinking and soul searching while studying the material which is entirely normal and even encouraged.
Plagiarising other people's work is not allowed and please cite any sources you use. If you plagiarise other people's work you will lack the wisdom to progress far; all cheats eventually lose interest or are discovered in time. This is your training for your benefit, what kind of Jedi do you want to be?
Self Help and Research
Later exercises will require you to be self-sufficient in information seeking. We are aiming to have you find your own information so you can find the truth of matters for yourself.
Privacy
We advise people to read the FaQ: Privacy. Your Journal will ony be visible to registered users, search engines will not index it.
Do Lessons have to be Completed in Order?
Lessons in the IP do not have to be completed in the order they are presented, but the order they are presented in is the order we suggest you do them in.
How to use our Materials
We realise that some people learn in different ways so some of our materials will be available as audio, video and text formats; you are free to use whichever version you prefer.
Please do not 'stream' the files from the server; we would prefer that you downloaded them which can be done by right-clicking on the link and selecting the 'save as' option and saving it onto your computer.
If the material is not currently available in our library then the material should be available elsewhere, such as a public library or a bookstore or available online.
Bonus Material
Bonus material is included in many of the lessons. All parts, except bonus parts, of the lesson must be completed to finish the IP. These parts are here for your benefit as many include teachings you might find valuable.
