the greatest occult secret is that all magickal events occur as a process, initiation is the first degree and can occur at any time in one's lifetime, or not. the secret schools are hidden, they are not institutions or physical, they exist on another realm but their events are filtered down onto the material plane,

(there are four kabbalistic worlds. in basic terms there is the one of creation the highest world, then the one of non duality, pure conciousness and potential, then there is the world of creation where ideas are born, then the formative world where ideas form into more than just the idea, the blueprint and plan, and lastly the material where they manifest.)

from initiation there are various grades the magickian needs to attain, in physical magickal schools such as the goden dawn or the iot or the oto the grades are sequenced and follow a linear path however the one fundamental point that i have discovered through research is that the grades do not occur in sequence and these skools have got it wrong. it is notheless a process and it occurs after initiation.
so if one is initiated at an age of 15 or 16 over the next forty or fifty years depending on the skill of the magickian one could have reached magus. all one needs to do is map the pattern of magickal events to ones life and relate them to each stage of a magickians path, then explore the idea of re arranging them in the sequence and collecting the set. once you have them it's a matter of application. do what thou wilt.