Change and initiation
Rites of passage, alchemy and ceremonial work aimed at changing the practitioner.
Magic of change and initiation aims at transforming the practitioner or the world. It covers rites of passage, shamanic initiation, the initiations of Vodou and Santeria, the alchemy of Europe, the Middle East and China, and the ceremonial work of orders such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It asks how a person becomes a priest, a healer or a magician, and what a change of state is believed to involve.
Passage and rebirth
Many initiations follow a pattern: leave the ordinary, endure a trial, receive new knowledge, return changed. Shamanic callings are often described as an illness or visions followed by training. In Vodou and Santeria, initiates are shut away, dressed in white, and given new status in a house. Many societies have coming-of-age rites for boys and girls, some of which, such as female genital cutting, cause real harm and are opposed by health and rights bodies.
Alchemy and the self
Alchemy in Egypt, the Islamic world, India, China and Europe sought to transform substances, to prolong life, or to refine the soul. Chinese neidan turned the body into the furnace, and European writers such as Paracelsus linked metals and medicine. Carl Jung read alchemy as a map of inner change. Many alchemical remedies were poisonous, and mercury and arsenic killed seekers. The same ideas run through monastic life, where a new name, a new robe and a vow of poverty or obedience mark the change from one person to another.
Orders and secrets
In Europe, orders such as the Golden Dawn, founded in 1888, and later groups built graded systems of initiation, drawing on Kabbalah and Hermeticism. Modern Wicca has its own degrees. Such groups depend on secrecy and hierarchy, and some have been accused of exploitation or abuse by leaders who held power over members. In many Indigenous and African traditions, initiation knowledge is closed to outsiders. The end of alchemy came from the rise of chemistry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, though a few writers kept the language of inner change.
What scholars see
Anthropologists, following Victor Turner, call the threshold state liminal, a time in which people are between roles. Psychologists note that shared ordeals bind groups together. Practitioners speak of becoming someone who can carry a responsibility, and the community sees them differently afterwards, which may be the main change. Initiations may also be refused or repeated, and teachers say a rite is only the start of what a person has to do.
Change and initiation on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
🇮🇳 India and 2 moreKalachakraདུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ།
A Tibetan Buddhist tantric deity and system of yogic time cyclesTradition · Change and initiation · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇨🇳 China and 4 moreSky burialབྱ་གཏོར་
A Tibetan funerary rite where human remains are offered to scavenging birdsRite · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Living
🇪🇬 EgyptAncient Egyptian afterlife beliefs
A system of rituals and texts guiding the soul through the underworld to eternal rebirthTradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇨🇳 China and 2 moreDiyu地獄
The underworld realm of trial, atonement, and rebirth in Chinese mythologyBelief · Cleansing and purification · Change and initiation Living
🇬🇷 GreeceEleusinian MysteriesἘλευσίνια Μυστήρια
Ancient Greek secret initiation rites honouring Demeter and Persephone at EleusisTradition · Change and initiation · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreGardnerian Wicca
An initiatory neopagan tradition tracing its lineage to Gerald Gardner and the New Forest covenTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Living
🇯🇵 JapanChinkon kishin鎮魂帰神
A Japanese spiritual practice combining soul calming with spirit possessionRite · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Healing Living
🇮🇪 IrelandFellowship of Isis𓊨𓏏𓁐𓌞𓋴𓅱𓂻𓏥
An international spiritual fellowship honouring the Divine Feminine and the goddess IsisTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Living
🇺🇸 United States and 1 moreChurch of Satan
An atheistic religious body founded in 1966 that practices ritual magicTradition · Power and authority · Change and initiation Living
🇬🇷 GreeceSacred mysteriesμυστήριον
Secret ceremonies and divine doctrines held to exceed human reasonBelief · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Living
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Chinkon kishin: Tomokiyo Yoshisane (友清歓真), also known as Tomokiyo Kyūgo (友清九吾), Public domain, source
- Ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs: Hunefer, Public domain, source
- Church of Satan: Palnu ., CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Eleusinian Mysteries: No machine-readable author provided. Marsyas assumed (based on copyrig, Public domain, source
- Gardnerian Wicca: Midnightblueowl ( talk ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Sky burial: FishOil at English Wikipedia, Public domain, source
- Diyu: ScribblingGeek, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kalachakra: Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Sacred mysteries: Johannes Hopffe, Public domain, source