{"id":1436,"date":"2018-05-09T15:37:57","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T23:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/?p=1436"},"modified":"2018-05-09T15:39:36","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T23:39:36","slug":"witch-heart-the-effects-of-initiation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2018\/05\/witch-heart-the-effects-of-initiation.html","title":{"rendered":"Witch Heart: The Effects of Initiation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"
Photo by Erik Witsoe on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

(This post is part of an ongoing series exploring a new twist in my path \u2013\u00a0\u00a0you can read the first one here<\/a>, but it\u2019s not necessary.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Nothing in Witchcraft is really unplanned, is it?<\/p>\n

My reading choices for the plane ride to Rhode Island were relatively random, yet so beyond coincidental.<\/p>\n

A few days earlier I had visited our local occult bookstore: Edge of the Circle<\/a>\u00a0while showing visiting friends around town. I always try to buy something to help support the shop, and this time I selected two books by Harpy Books<\/a>. One of these included The Heart of the Initiate: Feri Lessons<\/em> by Victor and Cora Anderson. They\u2019re slim books, so great for carry-on reading.<\/p>\n

The other book I loaded on to my tablet for digital reading \u2013 a preview copy of Jason Mankey\u2019s<\/a> Transformative Witchcraft <\/em>(which will be out in early 2019, put it on your want list now!). I also brought along some fiction, but I didn\u2019t crack those open until the flight home.<\/p>\n

Obviously from the title of the first one, the topic of initiation comes up \u2013 and Jason also covers the subject extensively in his book. The fact was not lost upon me, as I sat in the evening darkness of the plane illuminated by my tablet, that I happened to be reading about initiation while on my way to one. It had been years since I had underwent or performed an initiation, and I\u2019ve heard and read a lot about many kinds over the years \u2013 many styles, traditions, and systems.<\/p>\n

Honestly I was really trying not to think about it too much.\u00a0 As my friend Misha<\/a> remarked to me last year about certain oathbound material that someone was considering publishing, certain things like initiations are better off as surprises. It\u2019s supposed to be an experience, not an expectation.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo by Melissa Askew on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, that sentiment does little in the face of the chronic over-thinker who also has a wealth of information standing by.\u00a0 And accounts of initiation where people remark on how they felt it drastically changed how they saw the world (physically and\/or spiritually), or awakened them in a new way, tapping them into a new source.\u00a0 That\u2019s a tall order for an experience to live up to.<\/p>\n

I mean really, when you\u2019ve been a Witch for over two decades, it\u2019s an ever-deepening experience over time.\u00a0 Can there really be a noticeable change at that point? Or worse, what if nothing is different at all? Hence, perhaps you can understand why I was trying not to focus on it too much.<\/p>\n

So? What did happen?<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 Well, I\u2019m not going to write about the ritual itself.\u00a0 For reasons that should be obvious.<\/p>\n

But I will share with you some of my thoughts and feelings after the initial experience.\u00a0 I came home with a sense of being profoundly rooted in a way I haven\u2019t quite experienced before \u2013 and more peaceful, at ease.\u00a0 I feel deeply connected to a group of people \u2013 many of which I have never met prior to last week \u2013 that it feels like I woke up with a new extended family.\u00a0 There are patterns I\u2019ve normally sensed that are even more in focus. That all may not sound super witchy, but it\u2019s definitely pulling at a metaphysical level within me.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u201cWitch Heart\u201d \u2013 original painting by the author<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019m not going to lie \u2013 it\u2019s a bit chaotic too.\u00a0 Not that that is a bad thing, but rather it\u2019s like finding that the map you\u2019ve been holding on to, turns out to be part of a much larger map. Amazing, yet a bit disconcerting at the same time. Especially when you get the feeling that someone else has had a peek at the larger map for a while longer than you have.<\/p>\n

Overall, I\u2019m left with a sense that I\u2019m definitely embarking on a new journey, and I\u2019m wondering what to pack.<\/p>\n

Oddly I\u2019m also reminded of something that happened 8 years ago.\u00a0 That year, a new mentor\/teacher entered into my life through dance. I remember being in one of their workshops and feeling overwhelmed with the urge to cry.\u00a0 I felt so at home in the style of dance, the music, the energy of the room \u2013 and I couldn\u2019t remember the last time that I felt like that in a classroom.\u00a0 Later that year, the teacher gave me a reading and announced that my throat and heart chakras were blocked.\u00a0 Now, chakras were and are not part of my practice, and at the time I really wasn\u2019t sure what to make of that. Now I would call that area the Cauldron of Motion \u2013 what moves YOU in life.\u00a0 In retrospect I can see that due to the relationship I was in, I had essentially shut that part of myself down \u2013 for protection. I had stopped moving for me and was going through the motions to survive. Through the course of the next year, that cauldron would be upended, the contents spilled all over.\u00a0 After the mess was made, things were truly set in motion, for all of the right reasons.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a formal initiation into a specific path, but it certainly was an\u00a0\u201caction of beginning something.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve kept my Witch\u2019s heart in good condition since then \u2013 so there\u2019s a sense of a new and exciting phase, which will bring changes.\u00a0 Regardless of how, when, or where an initiation takes place \u2013\u00a0 the bottom line is you are beginning something.\u00a0 The effects won\u2019t be all apparent at once, but instead will be something you\u2019ll be able to look back at, and see where the heart first started to beat its own rhythm, the start of threads, the weaving of worlds.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nothing in Witchcraft is really unplanned, is it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2676,"featured_media":1451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[530,350,518,107,7,4],"class_list":["post-1436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-modernpractice","category-tradition","tag-initiation","tag-modern-traditional-witch","tag-tradcraft","tag-traditional-witchcraft","tag-witch","tag-witchcraft"],"yoast_head":"\nWitch Heart: The Effects of Initiation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nothing in Witchcraft is really unplanned, is it?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2018\/05\/witch-heart-the-effects-of-initiation.html\" \/>\n<meta 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