What is Initiation? What is Its nature? Every Aspirant early on in their Magickal Career must pose these two fundamental questions, for without this type of inquisitive thinking, no Adept can emerge from the Work. Oaths taken superficially and without a proper reflection can be disastrous for the budding aspirant, and the effects produced more negative than positive. One must at any rate have a general understanding of what it is being sought; what Aim is driving the Work; what motivation one has for pursuing so ambiguous a path. We have all heard the word "Initiation" thrown around among colleges, fraternities, as well as mystical and magical orders, but how many have actually contemplated the implication of this word, outside the typical designation of a "traveling inwards"?It is true, in simplistic terms, that Initiation is the traveling inwards. "But to what?" one asks. "To the Self, to the true Reality," replies the lighthearted Theosophist. "This explanation seems a bit too painless to be sufficient," interjects the Buddhist. From a practical standpoint, Initiation is a process of self-exploration and self- discovery. Involution, defined in most general dictionaries as a multiplying of a quantity by its self a particular number of times, could be appropriate as a description of Initiation when we consider that the Work raises our level Being to new heights. As a verb, Initiation is the moving progression of transcending the lesser self and realizing the greater. It is a merging of the Nephesch into the Neschamah and is organic in that it grows, develops and must be nourished lest it whither away and die. The essential nature of Being is the fabric out of which Initiation is sewn, and the force that holds it together....read more...
