Recently I have been reading Dion Fortune and Rudolf Steiner. Both of these authors make much of the distinction between Eastern and Western methods of esoteric practice. From what I have read in the master Samael's books, I understand that his teachings are a religion of synthesis of all religions.
I am confused on this issue so you won't find a clear question in this post. Instead, I will explain what I understand and hope that you can help me by correcting or confirming what I write.
From Dion Fortune's
Esoteric Orders and Their Work:
Meditation and asceticism will bring the Eastern chela to the feet of his Master, but the Western initiator, working in the much denser material conditions of that civilisation, has to employ ritual to get his results - rituals that very few Eastern bodies could stand. The meditative methods of the East will not get results in the West unless the vitality is lowered, and it is a very risky thing to attempt to handle higher potencies on a lowered vitality; nor will the aspirant fare well in the rush and drive of our civilisation.
The fact that the Gnostic tradition of the master Samael does not encourage asceticism or vegetarianism, makes it seem more like what Dion Fortune is calling "Western". However, I haven't seen any rituals attempting to channel high potencies of energy in the Gnostic tradition, so in that respect, it seems more "Eastern".
The only "high energy" ritual I am aware of in Gnosis is sexual magic, but that seems to be prevalent in both Eastern and Western traditions.
From the above, I am guessing that the teaching of sexual magic, offered publicly, allows gnostic students to make contact with teachers in the higher planes without the need for ritual, thereby creating a new system of initiation that is neither Eastern nor Western. If so, then does that mean that the initiation system that Dion Fortune belonged to did not teach the Great Arcanum? That also seems unlikely to me because she alludes to it in her book,
Esoteric Philosophy of Love and Marriage.