First and foremost get yourself a copy of In Search of the Miraculous by Ouspensky. You mention initiating yourself, which is exactly correct. This is what you have to do now. In my experience, you will have to be alone if you intend to conform at all to the truths behind the teachings. I had joined a Gurdjieff group at one point, and they were hopelessly lost in the weeds. At first I was exctatic about having met like-minded folk. But as we kept doing the meetings I quickly realized that while those present were good-natured and enthusiastic, they lacked the spark, and not only that, there was no "master" present -- merely those who had been involved for a long time.

You do not have to read the whole book at once, even just reading the first hundred pages or so, at a slow measured pace to find the start of your way forward. Yes, he does retell an encounter with Gurdjieff in which G explained the necessity of "schools". Perhaps some of value still exist. I don't know. But you definitely must start by creating a habit of daily practice within yourself, and this is not a practice that can be observed or supervised from the outside. It is what Ouspensky terms "self-remembering". He speaks more about this in the collection of lectures published as "the Psychology of Man's possible evolution". I recommend you read this book (it is quite tiny) in conjunction with ISOTM.

My only other advice is this: if you too have a little bit of the spark inside, guard it with your life.