Post by afterthought on Mar 21, 2009 6:28:30 GMT
I have been captured by the deep esoteric and transformitive effect of initiation since I was a small child. I have always been receptor to initiatic energy.
This is a very good article on initiation by Tau Allen Greenfield.
Some of you may find this of interest.
This is my quick chance to take a stab at definition (of initiation) myself, so allow me to give it a try. We ought to distinguish between that which is initiatory in effect by its inherent nature and that which is initiatory in intent, in particular ritual initiation as practiced by OTO in a graduated series of mystery plays and wisdom literature with both a collective and an individual goal embedded in the process.
As to the former, any woman who has given birth to a child, or, for that matter, any man who has been present for the birth of his children, as I have, can tell you with confidence that not all things that qualify as initiatory are necessarily ritualistic or the product of human design. Birth, formal legal union with another, bodily union with another, death and the presence of death can all be initiatory-- that is, they are critical events or life passages that have the power to transform the percipient from one state of being to another. These are not even always the great life passages. There are barbecues that have been known to be initiations by ordeal, and, for that matter, there are overlong talks before dinner that are initiation by ordeal as well. Hopefully, that is not the case in this instance.
Those of us who, while waiting to be called into formal ritual OTO initiations, finding ourselves sitting on a floor in an increasingly uncomfortable series of positions for two, four, ten hours, not knowing what to expect and, indeed, by the tenth hour not much caring, all know a secret: that sometimes the initiation before the formal ritual initiation can be just as transformative, just as challenging and just as important as the ritual itself, even if you do not get a certificate for it. www.mindspring.com/~hellfire/bishop/
This is a very good article on initiation by Tau Allen Greenfield.
Some of you may find this of interest.
This is my quick chance to take a stab at definition (of initiation) myself, so allow me to give it a try. We ought to distinguish between that which is initiatory in effect by its inherent nature and that which is initiatory in intent, in particular ritual initiation as practiced by OTO in a graduated series of mystery plays and wisdom literature with both a collective and an individual goal embedded in the process.
As to the former, any woman who has given birth to a child, or, for that matter, any man who has been present for the birth of his children, as I have, can tell you with confidence that not all things that qualify as initiatory are necessarily ritualistic or the product of human design. Birth, formal legal union with another, bodily union with another, death and the presence of death can all be initiatory-- that is, they are critical events or life passages that have the power to transform the percipient from one state of being to another. These are not even always the great life passages. There are barbecues that have been known to be initiations by ordeal, and, for that matter, there are overlong talks before dinner that are initiation by ordeal as well. Hopefully, that is not the case in this instance.
Those of us who, while waiting to be called into formal ritual OTO initiations, finding ourselves sitting on a floor in an increasingly uncomfortable series of positions for two, four, ten hours, not knowing what to expect and, indeed, by the tenth hour not much caring, all know a secret: that sometimes the initiation before the formal ritual initiation can be just as transformative, just as challenging and just as important as the ritual itself, even if you do not get a certificate for it. www.mindspring.com/~hellfire/bishop/