Firstly, the assumption that old is better or “more pure” than new. This is demonstrably false because EVERY idea that is now old was once new. Maybe it was a really good idea that made sense for a long time, and that’s great, but imagine if we never embraced new ideas as being just as valid as old ones? We’d still think the universe was geocentric. We’d still cure headaches by trepanning. You get the idea. 

Secondly, the assumption of holiness via an “unbroken succession” within a tradition. Sorry to break it to you, but little, if any, sacred texts have escaped the editors pen. History is anything but a straight line. Catholic papacy does not go back to St. Peter. Solomonic magick was not created by King Solomon. Moses did not write the 6th-10th books of Moses. The texts we have now have been modified by translators (not all of whom were good at translating), editors (many of whom were influenced by politics), redactors (who were more interested in power than truth, omitting everything they didn’t agree with), invaders (many of whom burnt texts/buildings and converted people) and let’s face it….people lie (for fear of persecution, ambition for power, peer pressure etc.). The people who wrote sacred scripture were still people. Fallible, human people. We don’t know all the circumstances surrounding any text so it’s our responsibility to read widely, with an open mind, and use our hearts as our guide to discern their meaning for us. 

Thirdly, the assumption that revelation is sealed. It is not. The Divine did not stop giving messages to humans in the 1st and 2nd centuries. They were no better or worse than we are now. They were not more holy or less. Just because a church named them a saint or a prophet doesn’t change their nature, or ours. Communication with the Divine is possible for ALL of us. In a sense, every venerated religious or occult idea of today was once “somebody just making stuff up.” Every idea has to start somewhere, with someone. Why not you or I? Why not now?