>So, how is this [Heort's initiatory secret] demonstrated to the would-be
initiate?
>I can only guess that some task is set for the initiate, and is he invited
>to seek the advice of his elders. These elders would then give him bogus
or
>nearly bogus answers to his dilema. He passes only if he completes the
task
>using his own resources, ignoring the advice of his elders.
>Or do you conceptualize it as something more formal? A ritual, perhaps?
Initiations are a heroquest - the initiate experiences the mysteries. When I ran the Orlanthi initiation for the Seattle Farmers, there were two aspects to it: (1) elders reciting for the characters the appropriate myths, and (2) the characters actually performing/experiencing them. If I recollect, there is a point where each initiate fails or is lost or just plain really screws up and it looks like the heroquest is over. That is when the Second Son can be found and the Unity Battle fought.
Initiation begins with a mock kidnapping of the children by disguised elders (or better yet, strangers). The children are taken to a sacred site that they have not been to before (the sacred grounds of the clan tula). I've also heard of at least one account where the children are abandoned in a strange place and only a strange man dressed as the Second Son is there. He tells the children to follow him and leads them to the sacred ground. There they learn and experience what it means to be Orlanthi and Heortling.
Not all Orlanthi use the Second Son initiation rites - in fact, only the
Heortlings do. All Orlanthi do share the mysteries of I Fought, We
Won/Unity Battle and the Lightbringers' Quest (Orlanth travelled to
Underworld and saved the world). The Talastari, the East Ralians, the
Sylillans, the Wenelians, the Brolians, the Fronelan Orlanthi and the
Vesmonstrani all have their own "Hero who showed us how to survive the
Darkness" initiatory myth. One way of looking at this is that the Orlanthi
have three levels of core myths -
(1) The Lightbringers' Quest. Originally, all the Orlanthi knew was that
Orlanth and his companions went into the Underworld and saved the universe.
Each tribe had its own fragmentary Lightbringer mystery (see Rastalulf's
Saga in Enclosure 2 for one such fragmentary mystery).
(2) I Fought, We Won/ Unity Battle. I Fought We Won is a reproduction of
the Lightbringers' Quest from a different perspective.
(3) Whatever Darkness-survival Quest stories known to thse cultures (Second
Son, Hagodereth, whatever).
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