DEFINITION:
A ritual or event that indicates a spiritual and/or psychological change and movement to a new period in life or a new awareness. Traditionally, the candidate for initiation would symbolically die and be reborn into this new way of being. In some traditions, being initiated is supposed to confer various spiritual powers.
In magical orders, initiation also provides entry into the private organization. According to occultist Dion Fortune, there are two basic types of initiation, physical and non-physical. It is hoped that they either occur together or that the physical initiation triggers the non-physical one, however a non-physical initiation can occur at any time and at any place.
Related Encyclopedia Articles
The word has been given a variety of definitions over the years, everything from the pledging and hazing of college (and even high-school) students into fraternities and sororities to the admissions trials of secret societies, entry into occult and Masonic lodges and their grade or degrees, and to ...
"There is no oath, and all who have taken the second degree are qualified to work it, but ‘tis the quintessence of Magic, and it ‘tis not to be used lightly, and then only with one whom you love and are loved by, may it be done, all else were sin.
"To misuse it were the greater death, ...
New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit Since 1901
