Initiation

This is a ceremony marking the transition from one state to another, usually indicating the end of childhood and acceptance into adult society, or the end of a period of novitiate and entry into a particular group. Initiation is very often accompanied by rites or ordeals which frequently symbolize death (to the old life) and rebirth (to the new status). They may include symbolic burial or forgetting of the past, and then reentry into the womb, sometimes referred to as being "devoured" and "regurgitated" from a monster, usually in the form of a building where novitiates are isolated. The newly initiated may receive a new name, may speak a new language. Some rites and ordeals may require courage and endurance. They may involve physical mutilation (male or female circumcision, tattooing, ear piercing, ritual incisions and scarring) and the withstanding of torture and terrifying experiences. The initiate may be expected to perform deeds of valour; perhaps he would wear the skin of an animal and symbolically metamorphose as that animal, or he might have to kill a wolf, boar or lion singlehanded. There may be a re-enactment, possibly in dance, of death, burial and resurrection. Having passed through these rituals, the initiate is considered worthy to receive the privileges of adulthood/his or her new status. Initiation is usually accompanied by instruction and the divulging of secret knowledge or mysteries; it is followed by a renewal of relations with the ordinary world, when there may be symbolic relearning of the things connected with that life – walking, eating, speaking. The previous candidate (or uninitiated) is introduced (initiated) into the community.

Initiation may be obligatory for all members of a particular society as they effect the transition to adulthood; it may be for comparatively small groups only, usually of one sex, as they enter a secret society; or it may be in connection with a mystic vocation, for instance as medicine man or shaman, when it is usually accompanied by an ecstatic element. Initiation may be for a number of persons of a similar age, thus forging a strong relationship among them; or it may be for an individual, when the relationship is with his inner self; or it may involve both. As well as the puberty rites common to many societies, specific examples are: baptism; bar mitzvah; conferring of knighthood; masonic rituals. Other less formal rites, many of which are replacing traditional rites, are entering military service, first pregnancy and owning an automobile.

In keeping with the latin word for initiation, from which the term sacrament derives, the new mode of existence may be considered as born in spirit. This spiritual person – the real person – is not the automatic result of a natural process but made according to models revealed by the supernatural. There is an ontological change which is reflected in the new status, and the rite may be thought of as safeguarding the person from disintegration while the change, involving temporary loss of ego, takes place. Coupled with initiation are an expansion of awareness or consciousness and the ability (temporary or permanent) to transcend illusions and limitations. The stretching of the mind towards universal understanding invariably has some permanent effect and it does not return to its original "dimensions".

The different religions have different "initiatic methods" in order to foster spiritual realization. In Tibetan Buddhism, every detail of spiritual activity has an initiatic purpose. In particular, there are a number of special initiations, or wang-kur, each giving access to one particular form of meditation based on a mandala. There is a clear distinction between those who receive initiation for mixed motives and those who follow the path with full intent, keeping the end in view. In Zen, the spiritual training combining stringent discipline and koans (conundrums) constitutes an initiatic process.

The ritual process of initiation can be considered to include ceremonies to mark rites of passage between childhood and maturity, admission into secret societies, as well as spiritual initiations into some new mode of awareness. There are strong resemblances and overlaps between these three forms. Rites of passage may involve entry into a secret society of adults. Admission into secret societies (or into higher grades in those societies) may involve rites of passage. Both may, or may not, be associated with significant changes of awareness. Some rituals of initiation may symbolize changes of awareness without there being any expectation that the initiant should actually experience such a change, whether immediately or after the experience has been digested.

Initiation cannot simply be defined as admission to groups, whether secret or not. Secrecy is not an invariable accompaniment of initiation rites, although this is often the case. Oaths an affirmations are commonly found as are tests and ordeals of varying severity. Initiation defines boundaries between members of a group and outsiders, between different statuses and between contrasted ideas. The rites often involve ideas of hierarchical order, through which the initiates are not only transformed but also gain status. Each stage reveals the ignorance of the earlier one, changing and deepening the initiates understanding of their world and its control by ritual. The knowledge acquired is often equated with power, based on the control of mystical rather than material resources. Although such spiritual power conflates power defined as a coercive force (as the result of physical or economic pressure) and as authority (understood as the right to command). The legitimacy conferred on ritual officiants is that of traditional knowledge: the information, understanding and experience needed to ensure correct performance.

Initiation rituals present offices to the individual as the creation and possession of society into which he is incorporated through the office. They mobilize incontrovertible authority behind the granting of office and status, guaranteeing legitimacy and imposing accountability for the proper exercise of an office. Rituals are purposive in that the participants believe that they are accomplishing their aim through what they do. Participants belief that rituals effect change. They are not simply the expression of ideas and social meaning. They are seen as effective action, whether transforming individuals or the material world. The performance is not an end in itself, but a means to achieve other ends.

The transformation of individuals, by the ritual which transfers them from one state to another, is a demonstration of the power of ritual knowledge, experienced by the initiates and other participants alike, reaffirming the positions of all involved. Initiation is a process through which individuals cross a boundary between two states. The contrast between the two states is symbolized in the ritual. The ritual thus provides a symbolic mould through which many fundamental oppositions can be contrasted: child/adult, human/spirit, wild/cultivated, and others. The full meaning of a ritual, like that of a play, relies on a set of shared conventions and assumptions that may be quite difficult for an outsider, first to elicit from those involved, and then to understand. Some of these refer to the symbols, which condense many layers of meaning, drawn from both tradition and from daily life.