Some everyday initiations you may already be familiar with:

Christening. Baptism. Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Induction to any institution. Your first day of school. University Enrollment Day. Graduation day. The rigorous training of the armed forces. The first day of a new job. Join the local golf or rugby club. The Freemasons. American Fraternity Houses. The high mile club.

In a new job, Initiation can be simply learning the ropes, learning procedures, where to put your coffee cup, and what hours “people” work until. Usually you get a special “tome” full of arcane laws and guidelines that no one really reads. There may even be a registration fee.

History shows that medicine, physics, chemistry, reading, mathematics, writing, astronomy and anatomy were at the same time “occult” secret arts. In the modern world, you were probably introduced to most of them before the age of 16.

Oxford dictionary definition:

Initiation [v] – to initiate and admit a person with rites of introduction to secrets, mysteries or science. The Latin root “initium” means “to begin.” So it’s a rite of passage ceremony, signifying the transformation of an individual to a higher, more desired level of identity.

initiated [n] – the person who has been initiated

Imagine you want to join an exclusive members-only social club. You can walk to the building, but the people at the door will escort you unless you are a member. However, if you have a friend who is already a member, you will walk up the stairs together and receive a warm welcome. You now have access to higher powers. [in this case the social, economic and prestige benefits of club membership] as well as the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual changes that initiation causes.

Now, if you don’t have a friend who is already a member, the alternative is to keep going to the club, making your face known, trying to chat up the doorman, and occasionally leaning out the window to see what’s going on inside. The way people do that is by reading books and trying random things.

Unfortunately, enlightenment does not come from books: it is only experience that brings realization.

Initiation gives you membership, fellowship with like-minded people, and access to deeper and broader levels of knowledge and power. In many systems, it is believed that many of your new contacts will be former Initiates who are no longer with us. Initiation does not give you anything in tangible terms. Instead, it allows you to start a particular system or practice.

Practical training involves:

o Physical Body Training – a hardening, strengthening and purifying regimen. This is usually accomplished through exercises, breathing, and postures.

o Learn to control your emotions. Feel the full range of the positive and the negative. Being able to accept and release the painful and enjoy the pleasant. Never be at the beck and call of an involuntary emotion.

o Training the mind to focus on what you want and eliminate the “noise”. Train laser-like focus. Develop discipline and determination in your outcome. This is one of the purposes of the ritual and ceremony. You will soon learn if you have the discipline to practice every day. Learn how and constantly practice meditation – stillness of mind

o Conscious knowledge of logic and philosophy that gives you the full range of thinking at all logical levels, as recommended by Aristotle.

o Develop and use imagination. What the mind can conceive, it can achieve. All physical manifestation requires first the spark of creativity.

Science begins with data from reference experiences and then looks for principles to explain them. Experience leads to knowledge. “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Proof is required to prove that something is real.

The esoteric study begins with the guiding principles, then looks for reference experiences that support them. Knowledge leads to experience. “I’ll see it when I believe it.” Faith is required to know that something is real.

Therefore, a spiritual initiation is the process through which a student is given access to deeper layers of knowledge and practice. [often called secrets] by your teacher or mentor.

In the worlds of mysticism and esoteric study, this is supposed to cause a fundamental change within the person being initiated. The initiator, carrying a certain power or status, transfers it to the person being initiated. Symbolically, this is a simultaneous death and rebirth, because it is not only a beginning, but also a kind of ending as the student ascends to a new level.

Very often it would be given a new name, a magical name. One of the many reasons for that was to reinforce the change in her identity.

Fully Initiated signifies devotion to mystical, occult wisdom and contact with natural forces. It also brings with it Fraternity and fellowship with the group or “family” into which you are initiated. Because you are not born with mystical, magical, or psychic abilities, you have to learn and practice them. The training and guidance is there if you are willing to put in the work. Unfortunately, more people read about esoteric study than about the practice. The real measure of a spiritual initiate is how he demonstrates it in real life, not the intellectual knowledge of him. It’s what you do that counts.

This was repeatedly emphasized by Dion Fortune, who lived from 1891 to 1946. [real name Violet Firth] – a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn [a magic organisation formed in the 1880’s]Prolific author, psychologist, Christian and psychic.

She recommended that an Initiate should live a normal life and not be locked away in a secret order. Do you remember where Obi-Wan Kenobi lived? You don’t want to become the eccentric weirdo in the woods! You also don’t want to be a devotee of “good weather.” You know, the guy who practices religion on Sundays, but he lets charity and forgiveness and moral strength slip a little Monday through Saturday.

An initiate’s mindset should be centered on the focus he or she has been initiated into. So no matter where you are, who you are with, or what you are doing, you always have the philosophy of the method in the back of your mind.

There are three Initiators on your path: the first great initiation begins with your birth, the second is from your teacher, the third and most important are the lessons you learn through your life experience and learning from the Higher Self.

The real question is the question of authority: who is in charge and what are their intentions. This is often abused and therein lies all the horror stories you might have thought this article was about.

And “as within so without”. Beware of the Initiate who has no money, dysfunctional relationships, and emotional baggage. The external signs of the effects are usually the symptoms of the internal causes. If a person lacks the everyday world, he probably also lacks the esoteric world.

Finally, know that many believe that it takes three lifetimes to become an initiate. So the sooner you start, the better.