What’s All That Blood??!!?

 

When I was in high school, a friend took a copy of “Magic Power of Witchcraft” by the Frosts from his grandmother’s house and gave it to me because he knew I was into magic. He was not, and in fact, we’re still Facebook friends and he is now raising a very conservative Catholic family. The book was mostly an advertisement. One chapter explained a sex magic ritual for invoking the forces of Mars. It talked about squeezing blood out of meat onto a woman’s bare breast and other bizarre salacious things. My friends and I used to stand out in the courtyard of our somewhat posh Catholic prep school and read that chapter out loud to each other amongst a twitter of adolescent boy giggling. I still remember one guy who insisted he wanted us to read it every afternoon because he thought it was funny, despite the evidence he enjoyed it for another reason. It was hysterical, good fun while ridiculing a goofy description of blood magic. 

Recent discussions of blood have been way less fun. 

I recently taught a class on witchblood. I presented it at two different conferences. It’s a subject that is important to me and that I’ve talked about frequently over the years. As there was interest in the classes, I shared the audio from them for free online once I wasn’t set to present it anywhere else. 

A lot of response has been fairly positive. There have been a few negative responses that were quite visible. There were some more responses in support. This blew up into lots of posts about how everyone was discussing the subject…as happens on Facebook and other social media. 

I have felt some of the negative response has been unfair. There is a possibility that some things were questions with earnest intentions and seemed more intense than intended because of the hubbub. It’s also possible I may have interpreted some people as more confrontational than they were because of it, and if I have, I apologize. 

A very close friend and frequent co-collaborator that I’ve known offline for about 20 years pointed out that she doesn’t know what I mean exactly by “witchblood,” and so it might help if I define it. If she is unsure of my meaning, it’s fair others might not be. A couple other people have similarly suggested a simple definition post. 

So, here we are. My goal here isn’t to further stir up controversy. The controversy has been neither fun nor helpful. I’m also not using this to address an individual who has been intentionally antagonistic. This is meant in good faith to clear up the basic idea’s meaning and a couple other points of confusion for folks who might really just be scratching their head and unsure if it’s safe to ask an honest question…or folks who thought they were but were interpreted otherwise. 

I plan to address…

1. What is witchblood?

2. Is this about physical blood, or genetics or an idea about exclusivity or racial purity?

3. Is this just a way for some people to sound special? Am I just talking about this so I sound special?

4. Why should we even talk about this?

Point 1: Witchblood

Witchblood is a word typically used to describe the nature and power that makes a witch a witch in more traditional or historical modalities of witchcraft. The term is likely contemporary but the ideas behind it aren't new. 

Often it is used in the context of families in which certain affinities, spiritual gifts, and connections with spirits are frequently present. 

The term is not exclusive to families in which such things are inherited. It is also used in some tradcraft contexts to refer to the power that is birthed in and changes a person into a witch through initiation or transmission. Sometimes it is also used to refer to it when someone seems to develop it spontaneously or through experiences. 

Witchpower and witchfire are similar terms. Witchblood was the term I knew when growing up, and as a young adult when I met people with similar experiences they also used this term. I use it largely because it is the one most familiar to me. 

Some people dislike the term but acknowledge that gifts like the sight and connections with spirits may be in born, might pass through families, or might be acquired through dramatic and deeply transforming experiences. They contend that those capabilities or features don't make someone a witch, because you choose to be a witch and you learn the skills or religious beliefs and practices that make you a witch. 

This contention is the newer view. Even through the 1970s, decades into the advent of NeoPagan witchcraft, the common perception and the folklore perception was that having the sight, or consortium with spirits, de facto made you a witch. Prior to the 1920s, witch was never a term one elected for themselves. The idea that possessing these traits was what denoted someone as a witch was the traditionally held view and still influences many traditional concepts of witchcraft. 

This does not invalidate newer concepts of witch or witchcraft. Both can have value and meaning. This also isn't an assertion that this is the only way people can have or do magic. There have always been many types of magic and many types of magician. 

So, when I talk about witchblood and promote the concept, what exactly am I asserting?

The core of my argument is that the historical and folklore conception of the witch is based on real components. While these descriptions need some filtering due to sensationalism and propaganda, we can still look globally at trends and determine ways of understanding the witch as it occurs throughout the world. 

By understanding the witch through an historical lens, we can understand and explore experiences people still have today. This can also create modes for understanding how to approach and pursue witchcraft. 

Specifics of my view have evolved over time as I have continued research. Some core elements I am currently exploring and discussing include:

The witch is a particular subset of magician. Magic is diverse, not just in details of practice but in terms of forms of agency, the ways it works, and the ways in which we engage it. Those elements associated with the witch are one of several ways of experiencing magic. 

Witches are defined by their nature and power as a witch rather than a particular tradition of practice, their practices can be similar to other magicians outwardly, elements of the witch, their agency, and how they engage magical power and practice define witchcraft. 

The power possessed by the witch is innate and intrinsic. It is part of the nature of the witch and can not be removed from the witch. 

The power possessed by the witch can be acquired in several ways which include:

1. Being born so that power or connections with spirits are inherited and occur naturally

2. Being born under particular circumstances or times which imbue power

3. Experiencing life events that connect the individual with power and the spirit world in an intrinsic way

4. Being changed by a spirit through intimate exposure to that spirit’s power

5. Being changed by a spirit through empowerment, or being rebuilt spiritually

6. Being changed by consuming or grafting spirit elements that fundamentally change you

While this includes the idea that people can be born with witchcraft either through familial inheritance or circumstances irrespective of family context, it also includes several options not related to birth by which this can be acquired. These could be sought out by an individual, and some could be conferred as part of initiation or adoption.  

Point 2: Blood and Genetics

For the sake of clarity, to begin I will state flatly that witchblood is not about concepts of blood purity, the passing of traits through biological means of inheritance, any sort of racist or racialist concept, or similar problematic beliefs. 

I do not believe there is any reason to think that physical genetics have any relevance to this concept. I do not think that we have a full explanation of the mechanism for this, or most magical concepts. I believe it is likely that various mechanisms can exist which create this same result. 

I believe this is one amongst many ways to engage magic and is not the only way. I also believe this mode is not specifically a doorway to dangerous ideologies since it includes several ways in which people can obtain this nature without relation to birth. Concepts of power being tied to birth are not exclusively concepts related to familial inheritance. It is neither tied to an exclusionary assertion nor to assertions about national, tribal, ethnic, or racial identities. 

A handful of people are concerned about the use of the term blood. Some have noted that my explanations seem fine but the choice to use the word blood is concerning. Personally, I think the content is more important than the term, and those with an ability to engage and understand the concept and the details of its presentation should be able to engage it, and even express concern over word choice in responsible, civil, and reasoned ways. An inability to do that reflects more of an issue with those individuals than the term or the concept. 

As noted above, the word was chosen primarily because it is the term I’m used to. The choice was not a particularly intentional choice and was innocent in nature. 

There are reasons I do like this term, in addition to familiarity. 

It would be dishonest to say that blood does not apply familial connections. It does. In my case, and the cases of several people I know, family context is part of their experience. There is also a wide community that uses this term for whom the implication of family is important because it describes the nature of the relationship described in the initiatic lineages through which they obtained and through which they pass witchfire. It is also my view that most ways of obtaining this also have the potential to continue to pass this along family lines. 

The utility of the term is not limited to the implication of family. It also describes the intrinsic and permanent quality of the concept more than a word like witchfire. Witchblood indicates the visceral quality. Many writers would say it expresses the “embodied” nature of witchcraft and how the body specifically exists in an embodied context. Embodied also often has links to political discourse and performance art that are less desirable for me, and so I would use “visceral” to describe the idea that this is a core, personal, intimate, organic experience tied to our bodies and our physical experience of life. I wouldn’t be bothered by someone using embodied to express the same idea. 

Blood also has clear links to the concept of life force. Bone is a good physical material for binding spirits to physical locations and structures. Blood can have similar properties for transferring, containing, applying, and linking to spirits and spiritual power. Blood calls to mind that there is a link between spirit presence, and spiritual power with our bodies because of the occult faculties of blood. Bone has a similar potential and could easily result in expressions like “he’s a witch in his bones,” but “witchbones,” feels like an odder turn of phrase. 

I am intimately aware of the types of problems racist and blood purity rhetoric can lead to. As a biracial person, I am very aware that we are frequently seen as worse than others within the ideologies of blood purity rhetorics. As a person of color I have literally snuck away from an event and fled because people showed up in hoods claiming to be from the KKK.  

In terms of Pagan, occult, and cultural identity contexts, I have avoided going to Heathen events I was interested in because I was concerned I wouldn't be welcome. I have been invited to Heathen events and then been told maybe it wouldn't be a good idea since the group was Volkish. I've been warned not to go back to a Heathen group I previously visited because they've become Volkish. I've had people suggest I've been passed over for leadership roles in occult groups, and promotions at work because of my skin color. I've had white family members tell me to drive straight home and not stop anywhere til I was out of their town because my skin made me unsafe there. I’ve had non-family members question my presence at family events. I’ve felt uncomfortable at cultural festivals celebrating elements of European heritage I possess - and with which I was actively very engaged - because I was worried people would look at me and think I shouldn’t be there. I’ve had the leader of a magical group I was in laugh at me when I mentioned European heritage.

I have significant more experience with these issues on a personal level than those who are dismissing my position as Harry Potter level thinking and describing it as blood purity rhetoric. 

Talking about witchblood is dramatically less Volkish than people who say “Only black people can do Hoodoo.” It’s more realistic than NeoPagans doing Golden Dawn derived practices and claiming they’re living the path of their ancestors. 

There are lots of good ways we can talk about heritage, inheritance, talent, connecting with ancestors, and drawing from our past. We can discuss those things with an openness to self-determination and exploration. It’s also possible to drift into AFA style territory and talk about how “we thank our white gods, for our white heritage which has provided us with our beautiful white children, hailsa!” It’s also clear that that isn’t what is going on here. 

Point 3: Well aren’t you special…

Above, I list six ways people can have witchblood - four of them are things people can engage in to acquire it. I have been fairly consistent in discussing it as something that can be acquired. That means it’s open to everyone. Things which are open to everyone aren’t exclusionary and they aren’t modes by which you can claim to be special. 

I’ve never seen anyone who seemed to legitimately have witchblood, whether by family inheritance, circumstance, experiences, or initiation, talk in anyway about how special they were because of it. There are a lot of circumstances where it can be a problem. It can create serious problems for people. Through most of history and in most cultures it isn’t an advantage. Even in contemporary NeoPagan and Occult communities, it might help you magically, but it doesn’t have any social currency. 

Suggesting, in response to me talking about it, that it’s just about being special, is frankly insulting. My bio doesn’t reference witchblood. I don’t lean into it to promote my books or classes. I am a very educated and accomplished magician because of my work and commitment and that should be obvious to most people who know me. I’m also accomplished in several other areas of life. Witchblood discussion tends to result in pushback, not praise. I have no reason to need to talk about witchblood to try to look special, nor do most other people I know who have it. 

Point 4: Why talk about this?

The most absolutely daft example of this question has been someone essentially raising the question “The Greek Magical Papyri aren’t based on witchblood, so why do we even need to discuss it?” There are lots of things lots of sources don’t talk about which are useful to explore in the right context. Most thinking people know that. 

The questions of what do we do with this? Or , is there a reason to explore this? Are fully valid questions though. It’s a topic most people aren’t familiar with so “what’s the point?” is a fair thing to wonder. 

There are three main reasons.

First, it’s part of my experience and so it’s interesting to me to explore. It’s also part of the experience of other people and so they may have interest in exploring it and understanding it more deeply. More importantly, it is helpful for people who have experiences with this and don’t understand it. As was mentioned on one thread, most people with knowledge of this subject or who have experience of it, or who come from traditions which incorporate it, avoid talking about it. A large part of this avoidance is because the reception to discussion of it is usually bad. That’s a problem that can only be overtaken by more openness. That openness can help enrich understanding across traditions and modalities. It can also provide comfort for people who have experiences related to this and don’t understand them. I have had multiple people at this point who felt helped by me talking about this because they felt odd, or they realized things about their own experiences that they hadn’t understood or contextualized before. Being a resource for that is meaningful, and while not everyone needs to be available as such a resource, having resources to make that understanding more common is important. 

Secondly, I believe exploring this can help us deepen how we discuss and understand witchcraft. These are modalities which can be pursued whether they’re things people have already or things people might want to pursue. More exploration of different peoples experiences, understandings, and how it plays out in different cultures, systems, and contexts will give us a deeper fuller picture. We can potentially learn more about different ways of engaging spirits and how power, agency, and authority work, and different ways of exploring how magic and spiritual power manifest within people. The more we understand these things the more we can explore how to use and improve them. 

Third, I don’t think there is a reason to suppress it if its true. That in and of itself is not a reason to explore it, but if its true and exploring that truth involves us expanding our worldview, then that can be useful. Framing this concept as one which is reasonable and comprehensible involves a relatively traditional mythopoetic worldview. That kind of worldview inherently looks at the world as alive, magical, and immanently active and present in a spiritual sense. It’s a deep counter to an overly materialistic worldview. I think that is part of the fear of it. It requires not just thinking of magic as something reasonable to do and explore as a mode of spirituality, but magic as a viscerally and meaningful real and present active element in the structure of ourselves and the worlds around us just as much as thinking, breathing, flesh, bone, water and dirt are. This apprehension of the world is something people are moving towards, but a lot of people still struggle to fully immerse themselves in that as a defining view of existence consistently. This idea confronts us by demanding we engage the world through that mythic lens.  

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Initation Pt. 2 - Esoteric Initiation: Roses, Crosses, Golden Generative Organs, and Great White Brotherhoods

 

In our previous post in this series, we talked about the moment in which we encounter a question. That question has a series of iterations and may be encountered in many ways. Exploring it can happen in structured ceremonies, or in your own personal initiatic journey. That isn’t the only structure for, or part of initiation. 

 

Formal systems of initiation, often structured as lodges or orders today, previously structured as mystery schools or mystery traditions, frequently move through a series of stages. The questions we discussed might be scattered through those stages, but there is often a greater structure the initiate moves through in this process. These stages are what we will refer to as esoteric initiation. In most cases they involve esoteric teachings, changes in perspective, and adjustments in how we understand ourselves and the world, but they are not typically about fundamental changes in who we are, what we are, our capabilities, or spiritual connections. These latter sort of changes will fall into what we have called magical initiations, and sometimes are part of religious initiations. 

 

A single ceremony might have both esoteric and magical elements. We are not discussing specific ceremonies, and are instead talking about structures and concepts. Some structures might straddle the line between the two. 

 

This installment will focus on esoteric initiation. We will consider three ways of structuring such initiations. The life cycle, the elemental rotation, and the stages of mastery. 

 

The life cycle can be addressed with different demarcations of its stages and occurs in various social systems of initiation, as well as religious and cultural initiation structures. Generally, it will be focused on three moments, but those moments might be expanded to four or five in more esoteric contexts. Birth, Adolescence, and Marriage are a basic breakdown. Many religious systems have moments which acknowledge these phases. A similar structure in some cultures is Youth, Adult, Elder. A popular modern iteration of this is the Maiden Mother Crone concept. While this iteration does not have a particular basis in mythology as a theological structure for goddesses, this sort of life cycle approach to ritual observance is widespread and has a long history. 

 

Cultures which mark these moments as part of participation within the community, or as part of one’s status in the religious community have ceremonies which acknowledge these naturally existing moments. The ceremonies occur at the appropriate moments in the life cycle and are made special through these acknowledgements. Guidance might be provided. Tools, or promises of aid to move through these periods of life might be gifted. Celebrations might occur which make these moments, which could be otherwise difficult or awkward to navigate alone, into something happy and normative. The rituals are not necessarily viewed as creating the experience of this phase of life, rather they mark it, they might ease the transition, and they might provide blessings and assistance. A great deal has been said by many people about the detriment cultures experience when they lose these modes of structuring life’s key moments. 

 

In more esoteric contexts the experience is different. These moments often become symbolic and adult initiates experience initiations based upon these moments, rather than ceremonies which inform a naturally existing moment. The ceremony may be viewed as having the esoteric power to immerse the individual in the creative powers and universal forces associated with that phase of life, or the phase of life might simply be a symbolic allegory that contextualizes the lessons of the initiation. The movement through an esoteric life cycle also highlights the idea that the initiate experiences a second secret life in which they more deeply explore and master the elements of experience of the world and the secret components hidden therein. 

 

This esoteric life cycle may have different phases than the three more standard phases. Conception, Birth, Youth, Life, Adulthood, Elderhood, Death, and Afterlife might all be phases that could be explored as part of the esoteric lifecycle. 

 

These phases of the esoteric life cycle each teach a different series of lessons, and they are often two-fold. One portion teaches us the esoteric understanding of that phase of life. The other portion teaches us the responsibilities and mental or emotional skills, or the social virtues which the system believes allow us to navigate problems from the perspective of that phase of life. 

 

An initiation of Conception might teach us about exploring new opportunities, entering into new situations, or undertaking new possibilities. We might learn that the navigation of such situations involves coming to know the customs and routines of the situation and connection with the community of people who know about and who have also engaged in that endeavor. Death might teach us about release from burdens, understanding continuity and cycles, and the balance between resolve and prudence when facing things others are not as prepared for. It might show us that through change, the exploration of the unknown, and situations of apparent chaos, that our own constancy, strength, and possession of the core of who we are, can carry us through to the solution. 

 

Each phase can teach us different lessons. Different organizations and structures will value different virtues and teach different lessons within those same constructs. There may be a relationship between the core elements of those lessons even if specific focuses and interpretations vary, because they’re still all dealing with core elements of human experience. 

 

These elements of human experience are lessons that belong to everyone. Everyone has a right to explore the meaning of birth, or life. We all experience those things, and we can learn from reflecting upon our own experiences. The esoteric meanings of such things may be germane to us all. 

 

The difficulty in exploring these things on our own is that we don’t know what the lessons will teach us until we have explored them. Creating a structure for exploring the esoteric meanings and the tools that are taken from reifying the phases of life into expansive moments of interwoven inspirations designed to coalesce into realization, isn’t really possible unless we know what those realizations are. This process is definitely one that is easier to undergo within a group. 

 

The sad part of that is, even in a group, you need to be able to find the answers the experience offers. Not everyone is insightful. Not everyone embodies the lessons of the experience. Everyone who does it, and everyone who steps up to lead and coordinate, wants to think they have really grasped what’s there. Sometimes, we’re lucky, and we have teachers and leaders who really did get it. Sometimes we’re not lucky and their own baggage or inability gets in the way. Or, they aren’t really looking for true initiation, so initiation doesn’t click for them, but they still want to be a leader. Maybe they just didn’t do the work needed for the spark to unfold into an actual guiding light. When we have people like that around us, they’ll convince themselves they get it, make up neat little explanations that feel like cool occult intellectual knick knacks, and they’ll think it’s the wisdom they’re supposed to teach. They’re probably even being earnest in teaching it. It just might not be too meaningful. 

 

If you find these groups, and take these initiations, do the work. Dive deep into reflection. Look at the lessons in your own life. Read supporting materials and philosophy. Read material beyond what they recommend to you. Pay attention and try to find people who do seem to really get it, and who reflect something beyond just organizational standing…people who seem to be implementing something with meaning. See if those people are willing to give some guidance, but still, be critical and apply your own reason and discernment. 

 

A good way to understand phase of life initiations is as a house. A house has rooms. At different points, depending on what you’re doing, different rooms will be more useful than others. You can move around in a house and go to the room that is most appropriate, and you aren’t stuck in one room forever. Sometimes, you don’t have access to all the rooms, but as you get older, you probably get more access. 

 

These initiations work the same way. Taking one doesn’t mean you lose the last one. It does mean you have new tools and perspectives. Some situations in life will be best handled using your new tools and perspectives. Some will be better handled using one of your previous tool kits. Just like a house, you can move from dealing with things as a Master of Death, to an Apprentice of Birth as the tools fit the situation. Each initiation unlocks a new room and you can freely move between the rooms as needed because you retain access to each. 

 

That metaphor is not my own, it comes from the late Bill Heidrick, but it’s a very good one and one I’ve enjoyed the last 22 years or so. 

 

Our next structure is the elemental rotation. The rotation of the elements is an alchemical process in which a material is moved through states of earth, air, water, and fire, or by which it is impacted by the power of each of those elements. This can also be understood as one element acting on another element to produce a transition to a third element. 

 

In the context of initiation, the material is the initiate, and the stages of initiation are elemental in nature. Often, people think of these as invoking the particular force of the element to act in the initiate’s life. There can be a component of these initiations that acts that way. More importantly, the work of the initiate immerses the initiate within the perspectives, nature, and modes of thinking and operating related to that element. Rather than grasping this as molding the initiate by means or elemental force, or the initiate acquiring elemental power, the initiate moves through the phases of creation as understood through the elemental worlds or the elemental natures. 

 

When exploring earth the initiate understands the world through material senses and experiences. Manifest forms express the world for the initiate. Stability, fecundity, firmness, resolution, the ability to grab, grasp, mold and build are the conceptual elements which guide the initiate. The initiate seeks to comprehend the world as fully and completely from these perspectives as possible. Interaction is understood as the collision of materials and the sense impressions that brings. The world is a tactile, sensible, physical series of experiences and interactions. 

 

The initiate of the world of air deals with definition and form. The world is crisp. There are clear dividing lines. Words, sentences, glyphs, icons, these all have meaning and those meanings cut like a knife. As if a sculptor, the initiate can chisel away at the material of the world and uncover the individual meaning of each idea and identity present before him. Instead of being singular boxes, words are strokes of the chisel, each word and label applied to an identity cuts away at all the things it isn’t and reveals some piece of what it is. The various words, ideas, and meanings, which give form to a thing come together to elucidate each definitive line that makes it what it is specifically and sets it apart from everything else. By setting each thing apart as its own identifiable reality, we see how it cuts against the space around it, we see how like a puzzle piece it fits back to the rest of the pieces in its environment. The cutting away of that which isn’t provides form, the the specifics of the form allow us to see how that which has been individuated fits in with everything else around it.  

 

The initiate of the world of water deals with concepts, feelings, emotions, and associations. Sounds, smells, shapes, colors, each of these can call to mind feelings and memories. These feelings and memories join together with the myriad of other experiences we ourselves have had, and those we’ve read in stories, seen in movies, and heard about from those around us. All that which is alike about a thing tells us more deeply about it by reminding us of what else it is like, and how it connects and interconnects with other pieces of the world, other concepts, other experiences. We see the currents of things. We see how love, and joy, and anger, and hatred can all be modes of seeing red and we understand how there are threads of experience shared between each of those states. We begin to see how those shared threads can cause one to lead to the other, or pull someone from one more safely back to another. We begin to understand how various pieces can gel together to create something greater than each individual piece, and how the characteristics that congeal together shape the concepts which occur within our lives. 

 

The initiate of the world of fire experiences impulse, action, movement, energy, and the explosive nature of beginnings. Before motion has characteristic, definition, or material, it is the spark towards something. Each spark may have its own particular movement, but it shares fire with each spark that moves from the same initial source. Directionless stirring, impulse, desire, growth, these all precede anything we feel, think, or make. There is a “doing” on some level, an action or a movement, even if it is just within the spirit, or the flash of a thought, that precedes shape, form, and birth of any thing or action that comes into the world. In the fires of inspiration we can see potentials, and understand that the whirling form of coming into being often has myriad directions into which potentials can go. We begin to understand the interconnectivity of motion that underlies those things which often seem so specific and divided, and how the powerful commitment to trajectory allows the creation of a current within the concourse of unified motion that allows fruition or non-fruition to occur, and brings that spark of existence into gestation through the formative elemental natures into something knowable and experiential. 

 

The process of moving through these phases of work involves moving through these modes of seeing, understanding, thinking and experiencing. As we move through one it becomes everything. The entirety of our sight is opened up to a new world; we are immersed in this mode of comprehension. We unbalance ourselves and we risk our ability to stand amid the forces and experiences of the world and safely walk through them without snapping or breaking due to the fact that we have leaned so far into one experience at the expense of all others. Once we have fully immersed ourselves in that perspective, the imbalance is corrected as we are pulled towards the next perspective that we will acquire within our journey. 

 

While Bill compared the life phases to rooms which we continue to possess and move through, he felt that these elemental initiations were ones in which our status changes and so we don’t move back through them. My magister felt that once you completed one series of initiations through this process, it was often useful for the adept to refine themselves by moving through new forms of engaging this process. These two perspectives aren’t fully at odds, but they differ in whether or not you can return to a place where you were. Bill says you can’t, OVI says you can, but by re-engaging the process, and that each time you do it, it will become more natural and less extreme. 

 

My view is that if you successfully undergo these processes, you don’t return to them in the same way. You can re-experience them. But, as an adept you inherit and balance them. The understanding you had isn’t lost. It just isn’t percolating to the point that it’s all you can see. Over time it settles into the core of who you are and how you think and see. The lessons of it become part of you and they now work together as one to more fully and deeply experience the world. The imbalance and the potential madness and obsession of it no longer remains. That is the nature of having triumphed within that path and successfully birthing the rose from the walled garden. 

 

I’ve explained these pieces in fair detail here. I guess that means you can reflect on this and that works, you don’t need to go initiate through these processes? Obviously, the answer to that question is no. You can read about them and determine if they’re something for you or not. You can decide if they are part of the process that calls to you, or if that seems like a road to insanity, or a stroll through nonsense. Maybe it seems fully reasonable to you but doesn’t call to you. Maybe it calls to you strongly. 

 

Reading about it can only help you determine those things. It can let you know what the steps might look like and what completion is. Until you do it, it’s meaningless though. You can know what sex is, but you haven’t felt it until you’ve done it, and even then, you still might not quite have really had what the experience has to offer you. The same thing here. 

 

Like the path of life, the elemental road appears in many different variants in many different groups. Meaningful initiation through them doesn’t occur for everyone who does them, and not every initiator is equipped to actually guide you. They can give you tools, but you have to do the work. They might have a sense that it’s about checking specific boxes, doing certain practices, or passing some written tests. Ask yourself, does obtaining the powers of the sphinx sound like memorizing Crowley poetry, or passing a quiz on which astrological symbols can be tied to which Hebrew letters, or does it sound like what I’ve described above? If you join a group for this work, do the work of that group. Do it with an eye to creating the immersion you need for real initiation. Add work, study, reflection, and experiences which help with that immersion if you need to. 

 

This kind of initiation you can do on your own. 

 

It might be hard to create a curriculum for it wholestock of your own imagination and ingenuity. There are plenty of books which provide structures for this kind of elemental work. The A.’.A.’. System is publicly available for anyone who wants to look at it. Crowley described it in various different ways and didn’t strictly follow any of them consistently. There is some room for interpreting but the resources are there. Regardie provided access to the materials and curriculum of the Golden Dawn. Other writers have since extrapolated on that system. Other systems, both from before and after the Golden Dawn, have had their initiations, and sometimes their teachings, published. The magical writers who informed those systems wrote books which are available, as did the people who created those systems. There are structures you can work with on your own to build an approach. You can tweak it as you go. You know what kind of experience you’re looking for; you’ll know if you’re having it. 

 

A good teacher won’t protect you from the pitfalls entirely. They won’t stop you from adding elements which you find useful. They might enforce elements that they know are useful, but which might seem less obvious to you. They might help reign you in if you start to go crazy, or fall off the path more than is safe. A good organization might be able to do the same things. The drawback is many organizations will have politics or agendas. They might also have fixations on elements which simply aren’t useful, but which define their particular organization or lineage. 

 

It’s up to you to use discernment and weigh what any group or person has to offer. Look at whether or not they come with baggage that is counter productive. Recognize that everyone will probably come with things you don’t want or need, so not everything is a deal breaker. If all you can find are folks who come with deal breakers, you can still do this on your own.

 

The final structure we’ll talk about are the stages of mastery. Sometimes, these are also thought of as Birth, Life, and Death (or Marriage.) This is a three phase structure. This could be viewed as the underlying structure on which the other two structures we discussed might play out. The elemental rotation, and the phases of life are both means by which the individual can explore…particularly when taken with the questions in part one…and move from the first stage to the second stage of this structure. These stages are sometimes described as degrees, and sometimes as symbolic orders which provide the meta-structure for initiatic bodies. The way they are laid out, in terms of whether they are treated as three discreet degrees alone, or three phases with grades or degrees making up each phase, can vary dramatically. There are many legitimate ways to approach this. 

 

Part of why there are many legitimate ways to approach this is because this process is always individual.

 

You might find it useful to explore modes of moving through the first phase in multiple systems. You might enter the second phase and revisit modes of the first phase in new systems. A key thought in this cross system approach is to do work in a given phase in one system at a time, or if working two systems at once, use two that have different structures. 

 

While some systems will have initiations tied to each of these phases, the experience and perspective for each phase is very personal. This structure typically overlaps with magical initiation. Because of that, you will likely need to go through real and personal changes, and acquire real and meaningful connections to fully move through these phases. Some systems will lay their degrees out using this three phase structure. Taking those degrees will likely help you, but don’t accept that as settled attainment of these phases. Use them to guide yourself to a real and deep intrinsic attainment. The process described here is a major one involving significant developmental changes. 

 

The three phases are basically a Novice or Seeker, An Experienced Skilled Individual, and a Master. Different systems call these different things. 

 

The novice might be called: Novice, Mason, Initiate, Magician, Witch, Man of Earth, Aspirant. In the A.’.A.’. Structure and the Golden Dawn this is the GD. 

 

The experienced skilled individual might be called: Adept, Companion, Knight, Priest/ess, Lover. In the A.’.A.’. Structure and the Golden Dawn this is the RC or RR et AC. 

 

The Masters is…well, a Master. They might be called, Master, Magister, Magus, Hermit, High Priest/ess. In the A.’.A.’. Structure and the Golden Dawn this is the SS. 

 

The first phase involves entering into the journey, recognizing that there is a light to be sought after and pursuing it. That pursuit involves understanding the world through which that light moves, and understanding yourself in juxtaposition to that world. This will often involve obtaining a series of skills and perspectives, it might involve community and learning the ways and processes of a community. 

 

The second phase comprehends that there is a relationship between you and the light you are seeking. To some degree, this may involve seeing the light as part of yourself, or the light as a particular guide for yourself, but neither with full identification therewith. This phase may involve deepening understandings of oneself and the skills one has acquired, learning new skills, navigating more esoteric and spiritual elements of reality, and gaining knowledge and experience beyond those afforded by mundane means by the utilization of the tools and skills your previous phase provided or prepared you to acquire. There is often a deepening of that “secret life” of the initiate both in terms of deeper exploration and in terms of elements and processes that may connect your more fully with the initiatic currents you are exploring. The connection with a personal guide or expression of the light is often key to this phase, and that is where this phase touches the space of magical initiation. While the last phase may have involved community, this phase is frequently more about individuation, although context within community may still be relevant in some systems and approaches. 

 

The third phase is in a way the abrogation of the previous phases. This phase involves the elevation of everything that came before to its fullest, and then releasing it. This release occurs because this phase is a phase of union. The threads which unite all the pieces of what you have previously experienced and obtained are understood. Seeing and understanding the threads which connect all you have done allows you to see the unity of all the pieces. Once you comprehend that unity, you are able to give it over to the infinite, in doing so, the alleviation of those specific elements of individuation allow you to also experience unity. The question of focus on the self versus the community is transcended because the two aims become one. The acquisition of a guide becomes the comprehension of continuity between the self, the guiding light, and the source. Rather than a priest or priestess communicating the influence of that guiding light, you are an expression of it, and that act of expression feeds the community and in doing so conducts the particular work through which you are also the One. This phase also has elements which involve magical initiation to truly attain it. This phase is transient; its component parts are a concurrent unity, but it is also not fully apprehendable as a consistent state and so the Master will at times move closer to their state before obtaining mastery. 

 

Some elements of each of these phases could be obtained without necessarily entering into any system which offers processes or direction to obtain these developmental experiences. Some systems recognize that either the second or the third phase can be obtained individually, sometimes spontaneously. The first phase heavily implies participation in some curriculum. Even having undertaken a curriculum for the first phase, the second and third phases are often understood to be based primarily in the guidance and direction of the forces and powers that the first phase directs you towards. Some systems will still provide structures for initiation, teachings, or work to help develop through these last two phases and they might support the personal work and exploration you are doing. 

 

Generally, this will be a lifelong process. It might involve long periods of work and long periods of rest and exploration of multiple systems and approaches. For most people, the first phase is the primary occupation and a reasonable occupation. For most people, the second phase is a reasonable and admirable goal, and is much more attainable than many people realize. 

 

In these cases “most people” means most people who would set out on these paths of esoteric initiation. For the vast majority of people none of this will be a calling at all, even though some of these paths would be useful on a more broad and accessible basis - particularly the path of life phases. For some called to magic, these paths will be unattractive, but there may be many attractive elements of magical initiation. As we said, magical initiation overlaps with some of these experiences and might also be done in tandem with some of these experiences. Particular sorts of magical initiation will be the subject of our next installment. 

 

 

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