This has always been a problem in initiatory groups. The need to retain the original meaning and intention of the tradition without killing forward evolution. As evolution progresses or initiation procedures are changed components go missing because the prejudices of the age lead the group to think 'this is too' (insert you favourite dislike here - prudish, odd, out of place, etc). 'Maybe its mis-spelled. They really meant heart, not heat' (or something similar). This is the same thing that lead to the confusion in which organs relate to which vital bodies etc. This is what the 'tradition' part is - misunderstanding symbolism of some kind as unimportant and changeable. If the original tradition was understood and kept to, problems would never have arisen.

If you have some way of accessing the origin of a tradition, be it through chaneling, secret documents, thought experiments or whatever then you're a lucky bugger. Don't let the material reductionist bs which pretends to be scientific observation trick you into shrugging off what you learn from those connections. Ironically enough, you could consider this a tradition in itself, just don't ritualize it and we should be ok (oh sh!t, am i too late ;)