Cegorakh: переводы

→The initiation in the Craft can mean a greater deal to the postulant, and it can be extremely moving. Even so I think it should be classed among the acceptance-rituals as mentioned above. As such it is the beginning of a new period in one's life, a new phase, and certainly not the goal to be reached, after which one can sit back and relax! Initiation into the Craft is a homecoming, finding and accepting one's spiritual brothers and sisters, but also it marks the first step on a road, sometimes hard, often joyous, which may lead through various experiences and lessons to the initiation on the higher levels. In some groups and covens the new initiate is left to his own devices, as far as his or her development is concerned; in other groups one is expected to adhere to a strict training programme. We feel however that the 'training' is highly individual, and does in no way amount to a 'drilling', but has everything to do with learning from the lessons which life presents to you, both on magical and one purely physical or social levels! Many of these lessons will be learned through experience, virtually unnoticed. Some can be learned through study, or dedication, and in some cases some lessons will have to be learned the hard way.

→First of all, a few words about the concept of 'initiation'. This word is used to cover a variety of experiences and happenings, and it might be a good idea to describe some of these. On the one hand, initiation is used to indicate that someone has made a definite step forward in his or her spiritual evolution. The ancient initiation rites of the Egyptians involved a time of 'death', usually three days spent in a sarcophagus, and during this period the spirit travelled to the higher worlds and received knowledge and wisdom. Upon its return to the body all the impressions could still be recalled, and the whole experience transformed the life of one thus 'initiated'. In modern-day spiritual dreams this type of initiation is still experienced, although it is no longer physically induced as it was with the Egyptians. But 'initiation' still means that one has found one's roots in the supernatural worlds; one is at home in the astral on a conscious level. The other use of the word initiation covers a wide field of acceptance-rituals, and this means that the postulant is now an accepted member of the society. Between these two extremes, the rite of acceptance on the one hand, and the reaching of a particular state in one's spiritual evolution on the other, one finds a vast field of minor experiences, lessons, insights, realisations and happenings, which form the basis of one's trainingprocess.

→Amongst all the questions we are asked quite a few deal with initiation and training. How important is initiation? Is it possible to start a coven without being initiated, from scratch of from knowledge taken from books? What does initiation actually mean? What does the training entail? Most of these and similar questions are very relevant to the Dutch audience, since it is still extremely hard to find companions or like-minded people in Holland, not to mention covens which can and will take in new people.

→(C) Wiccan Rede * Summer 1983

→This is the first article in a series, which attempts to deal with all the questions we regularly receive about the Craft. As suggested in the latest issue of Wiccan Rede we will do this by combining a few questions which are intimately related, and dealing with these in the form of a shortish article, rather than spending twenty or so lines on an individual question without taking the time to go into details or the why's and wherefore's.

→Merlin Sythove

→Initiation and training