Initiation: an attempted overview, a draft typology

Hello Subscribers. While I was away, Fred bounced right off that wagon (those wiser of you will have seen that one coming). Of course, I had to "help" him wallow :-) Worse, we had to stop making Rick Simpson Oil for the most extraordinary of reasons - and a somewhat depressing one at that. I'll share updates in all their grisly truths over the next few weeks but in the meantime, here's my entry for krnel's psychology contest:

https://steemit.com/psychology/@krnel/psychology-writing-contest-reminder-usd20-sbd-prize-2-days-left

#krnelcontest

Congratulations, krnel, on attracting so many followers in such a short period. You required personal input to your competition entries so here's my explanatory preface. It reads like an intro and ends at the point my draft script (my real submission: under 2000 words) begins. Does that make sense? I just hope that this is not too long for you.

I'd been off Steemit for a few months, working on my project: Initiation: an attempted overview, a draft typology.

But what a surprise: on resurrecting my Steemit channel yesterday, the first post I read was your own, encouraging me to do exactly what I was doing at the time (posting the draft script) and offering me an entry into your competition! So here it is, the actual initiation of my own psychologically-related project on Steemit via your celebration of success. Steem on krnel - imagination, sharing and co-operation rock.

If this entry does not win, well, fair play - congratulations to the other winner(s) anyway and heartfelt thanks for what was an imaginative and potentially profitable opportunity to share a project with others who might be interested.

So why is initiation psychologically relevant? Well, it is a very real psycho-spiritual phenomenon that affects each one of us, both individually and collectively, not least because of its birth, death and endurance motifs. Joseph Campbell's classic The Hero with a Thousand Faces tackles different aspects of this vast "monomyth" and many believe that CG Jung experienced his own prolonged initiation as he produced his beautiful Red Book. A more recent example of a similar, prolonged "esoteric" type of initiation is recounted in Laura Knight-Jadczyk's book The Wave Series. But there is so much more to this rich topic.

http://www.mythichero.com/what_is_mythology.html
https://www.academia.edu/31201528/Initiation_the_Guardian_and_Jungs_Red_Book
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces
https://cassiopaea.org/category/volumes/the-wave/

After all, even Homer was initiated into the sinister Stonecutters:

It has been observed that general interest in initiation seems to ebb and flow over the decades (Kirsch 2007): currently, it appears to be reviving. As experts have bemoaned society's loss of indigenous initiation rituals to serve as a rudder for young people navigating adulthood's choppy waters, a revival may signify that young adults are now reaching out to fill this gap themselves. Like the many thousands of diasporic Afro-Americans (and countless culturally-displaced others) who are yearning and seeking to revive their indigenous initiatory systems and religions through reconnecting with their ancestors. And better for everybody all round in our societies, surely, to re-connect with a grandmother spirit, reconstruct a Vision Quest, make an ayahuasca journey or take up a martial art than participate in a brutal frat or military hazing "initiation"? Surely initiation is more about inner truth than smashing in the faces of new recruits?

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-5922.2008.00747_1.x/abstract
http://prevos.net/humanities/sociology/ritual/
http://www.ifafoundation.org/the-ancestors-egun-egungun

Noticing this revival in general and perceiving a little (understandable) confusion about all the different types of initiation, we (and by "we", I mean "I" but I'm switching because it sounds better) felt that an overview might help. So here is our factual overview. Its purpose is simply to offer perspective to anyone researching the topic. That's all. We do not claim to be initiates or experts and we're anything but spiritual teachers.....we're nothing more than Librarians.... but if you've ever been caught short with a dead phone in a large library at dusk, well, you're pretty happy to see those Librarians at the desk....

Over to you, readers. You know which books you need - we're just pointing you in the direction of the shelves.

Krnel - the preface ends and word count begins here:

Initiation: an attempted overview; a draft typology

Initiation represents one of the most significant spiritual phenomena in the history of humanity.

Mircea Eliade (1958)

The word initiation means beginning.

Its roots lie in the Latin verb initiare, which also means to begin, but with specific reference to joining a Mystery School and participating in sacred rites. Like the Eleusynian Mysteries. From around 1600 BC for 2000 years or so, seekers from different corners of the world and all walks of life - from emperors and philosophers to slaves - converged upon the ancient Greek site of Eleusis to participate in a series of transformative rituals, or initiation rites. These took place over several days and culminated in a magnificent vision: initiates were freed from fear of death and emerged reborn, with new zest for a well-lived life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleusinian_Mysteries

We still use the word initiation in the same way: in reference to psycho-spiritual transformation. Secular initiations do occur in the form of fraternity hazings, gang inductions and so on but in general these are just imitations or symbolic. So from now on, when we use the word initiation, we are referring to the spiritual type. And by spiritual, we mean broadly of the spirit, of the soul.

In his investigation Rites and Symbols of Initiation, Mircea Eliade states that in its most general sense the term "denotes a body of rites and oral teachings whose purpose is to produce a decisive alteration in the religious and social status of the person to be initiated. In philosophical terms, initiation is equivalent to a basic change in existential condition; the novice emerges from his ordeal endowed with a totally different being from that which he possessed before his initiation; he has become another."

https://media.8ch.net/pdfs/src/1424583216131-0.pdf

So initiation is a transformative event or process within the spiritual progression of the individual - an expansion of consciousness if you like. And that progression, that step forward, will involve crisis at some level; some challenge, some disruption. In fact, the personal transformation may be so complete that in some systems it is said that the initiate has been born again; resurrected. And yes, this can be meant literally.

But most initiations are nowhere near as extreme as resurrection. There are numerous types, a person can experience many in a lifetime. All the same, they are serious commitments; priceless gifts; secret passwords; unbreakable oaths. It's said that some can be difficult to undo so it's advisable to research thoroughly before seeking them out.

Here are just a few examples of what initiations can be about:

• becoming a master craftsman/woman;
• committing to a religion;
• working through an addiction;
• having a breakdown;
• being accepted by a guru;
• coming of age;
• finding purpose in life;
• joining a magical group;
• a near death experience;
• moving up in the Lodge;
• being born again;

A person can be initiated one to one, as in a Christian being baptised by a pastor or one to many, as in a Freemason entering the Lodge. But no matter what the setting, the individual initiate's experience will be unique, entirely subjective. Person A may see psycho-spiritual fireworks during or after an initiation, while Person B experiences nothing. Another person might grow gradually into it. Another might even die. Or fail and fall never to be resurrected. It depends on the individual. It depends on the initiation.

So here's our draft typology. It's nothing official, it has not been peer-reviewed or published. There are many overlaps and generalisations so there's more work to do. But here are our categories so far. We're going to examine them briefly now then go into more detail in the rest of this series. Listed in no particular order:

1 - Esoteric initiation
2 - Shamanic Initiation inc entheogenic
3 - Initiation into or within a Religion
4 - Initiation into or within a Fraternity, Secret Society, Magical Group/Mystery School
5 - Initiation into a Practice
6 - Indigenous initiation: into or within a tribe or people
7 - Initiation by a Guru
8 - Mythological initiation
9 - Other e.g. NDEs

1) Esoteric or "soul" initiations

https://meader.org/articles/spiritual-initiation-milestones-to-enlightenment/

These occur at different stages on a person's journey towards enlightenment. Over lifetimes. This applies to all human beings, it is said, but at their higher stages these initiations represent the pinnacles of spiritual development and esoteric understanding. They cannot be bought and apply across traditions and religions. Examples of high degree Initiates are rare but include:

*Buddha Shakyamuni, who awakened fully beneath the Bodhi tree;

*The philosophers Plato and Pythagorus, who received high degrees in the temples of Eleusis and Egypt respectively (believe it or not, Pythagorus had to re-apply a couple of times);

*Jesus - the Bible discusses Jesus' Baptism or initiation in the lineage of John the Baptist and the Nag Hammadi texts state that Yeshua initiated his followers;

*Enoch and Elijah who, according to the Old Testament and Jewish mysticism ascended into heaven;

*Babaji, the Indian saint who allegedly appeared to the contemporary Indian guru Nityananda and gave him his name.

Some esotericists believe that in soul development terms, most of us are around initiation stage 1 or 2. Depending upon the esoteric system used (and there are many) the first two stages can be viewed as "Lesser Mystery" preliminaries for the third, which is considered the first "real" initiation and the starting point of the Greater Mysteries. You do not have to be a member of an esoteric school or a religion to experience one of these initiations. These are the initiations Rene Guenon bemoaned; David Spangler regretted calling "luciferian" (no, they are not Satanic either) and CJ Jung experienced...allegedly.....and we'll be going into more detail about them later in the series.

2) Shamanic Initiation

In this category we see genuine - grueling - shamanic initiations, in which a person's psyche transforms spontaneously into a shamanic healer, sangoma or other type of shaman - whether they choose it or not. Much research exists to validate these mysterious processes: it is thanks to this that the category "Religious or Spiritual Problems" has been added to the US' DSM-IV Diagnostic Manual for mental illness (implying at long last that people undergoing these psycho-spiritual ordeals are not chemically coshed or otherwise pathologised).

http://www.spiritualcompetency.com/dsm4/cases/shmncase.html

The sangoma in the video below had been enjoying her work as a schoolteacher when her grandfather's spirit appeared to ask her to become a healer! She tells how her illness persisted until she complied - and now she's replaced the classroom with the wild as she passes on to other sangomas her knowledge of the plants:

Different but also included in this category are the initiations of indigenous shamen by other shamen, plus those of shamanic practitioners and neo shamen. We've also added in entheogenic initiation here; shamen have worked with entheogens for millennia, such techniques are now popular: the Sufis viewed cannabis as the "initiator of those who do not have a human initiator".

http://www.cannabisculture.com/content/2001/04/14/1883

3) Initiation into or within a religion

Most religions and traditions recognise - celebrate - different types of initiation, including rites of passage. Yoruba and the African-American religions offer rich initiatory and indigenous traditions. Most Hindus understand the meaning of the word diksha (an initiatory blessing from a guru); Daoists and Buddhists recognise different initiations.

Christianity, Judaism and Islam, however, set themselves apart in not really recognising spiritual initiation, even though it is fundamental to the esoteric branches of these religions. For example, Gnostic texts describe Yehsua's initiation and his initiating his followers, Jewish Kabbalah discusses ascents and Islamic Sufism maintains strict initiatory lineages. So it appears as if the mainstream branches of these religions sideline initiation as something occult, something undesirable while worshippers who dig deeper are taught otherwise.

4) Initiation into or within a Fraternity, Secret Society, Magical Group or Mystery School

This is another huge category. Depending on the organisation and its function, all varieties of initiation are seen. Their purposes vary: they can be administrative; oaths of secrecy; empowerments to work with a God or animal form; induction into a group or progressions through the Lodge - and many of these are based on esoteric systems. Then there is self-initiation. And the theurgic, magical type to develop a person. And dark side initiation, too, although we're not really going to go into that for the moment.

This video discusses initiation into the Golden Dawn (i.e. not "dark side" despite the suspect-looking hats):

One example of initiation into a secret society is the men-only Nyau secret society, of Mozambique Malawi and Zambia. Members perform a transitive group-to-one initiation in which the initiate lives in a cemetery for a week and is beaten with sticks (to remind him what will happen if the group's secrets, which include a system of passwords, are betrayed). The initiate is taken to a secret location and taught how to dance. Secrecy is so important to the Nyau that if one of them sprains an ankle and starts to limp, the rest of the group will also start to limp in order to protect his identity.

It is rumored that dark side groups demand murder as a qualification for initiation into the higher grades. This could have some truth in it but we have yet to investigate dark side/left hand path initiation.

5) Initiation into or Within a Practice

Many arts, practices and crafts require initiation. Like the European guild compagnnage networks or the Klikor weavers guild of Ghana, which passes on a series of movements during initiation. Many practices e.g. yoga and meditation were originally taught in the eastern guru-shishya-parampara tradition in which a master teacher initiates a talented student so initiation is par for the course. Then there are healing traditions like reiki; that contains all variety of initiations. And some martial arts. And musical instruments. We'll be looking at a few of these later in the series.

6) Indigenous initiation: into or within a tribe or people

"One of the most important tasks of post-colonial scholars is unravelling the misrepresentations foisted on indigenous peoples by colonizers." Barbara Alice Mann

Before their systematic destruction by religions, colonisers and/or corporations, most indigenous peoples had their own methods and systems of initiation, for example the vision quests of the different American tribal peoples and the 5 initiations within many African systems: birth; adulthood; marriage; eldership and ancestorship. Tragically, so little has survived that it is almost ironic that hundreds if not thousands of western anthropological articles have been written about indigenous rites of passage rituals. But we're not really going to be looking at these in our series, instead we'll be focussing on people like initiated Dagura Elder Malidoma Some and his mysterious initiation into his Burkina-Faso-based tribe. The fact that after his initiation, Malidoma was able to read his exam questions in the aura of his teacher illustrates very well why colonisers might have sought to destroy this sacred indigenous initiatory knowledge.

http://malidoma.com/main/

These Ethiopean guys are members of the Hamer tribe, whose tribal initiation includes jumping bulls:

7) Initiation by a Guru

These initiations - for example diksha and shaktipat - are in general mysterious. They are usually transmitted by a living spiritual teacher to an individual seeker or student, although mass initiations do occur and the accounts of gurus themselves achieving their own high degree initiations can be momentous. We're going to be looking at some of these and, most importantly, asking how they work: what mysterious source somehow generates and transmits shaktipat, with all its sensations and perceptions? Stay with us to find out!

8) Mythological initiation

Initiation myths and legends have been expressed through humanity's collective mythologies for as far back as recorded time - we'll be examining a few later in the series.

9) Other

This burgeoning category could include near-death experiences; spiritual emergencies and some alien abduction experiences. Then there are DIY initiations in which, for example, parents design a coming of age ritual for their children and the initiations of objects e.g. shamen's drums. And, of course, fictional initiations as in Dan Brown's Lost Symbol or those found in games.

So that's our draft typology. Please subscribe if you'd like to see us going into more detail about each of the different categories in the rest of this series of videos.

Cheers, krnel - end of wordcount (just under 2000)