Re: Pantheon Initiation

From: John Hughes <nysalor_at_...>
Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 21:45:25 +1000


Ian:
>
> Thus the Herotling culture following the Storm Pantheon would 'baptise'
all
> the kiddies into the way of the Storm, and within the Ceremony list all
the
> principal deities this
>
> But this minor difference could easily be overlooked, and a Pantheon
> Initiate would be able to call on one minor affinity from each major deity
>

> I would think that some hard and fast rituals are required for becoming a
> Pantheon Initiate, plus a continuing involvement in the culture and
> religious activities

While my comments are background musings, and secondary to the rules /game discussion of initiation, I think its worth exploring what initiation is actually *about*. The question is, WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE MODELLING?

Initiation is not primarily a test of skills, or a way of gaining them, but a deliberate, induced
change in the way you look at the world.

Humans seem biologically programmed to learn certain things at certain times - language is the strongest example. (You git it by four or you don't git it at all). Human cultures make use of the psychological and physiological changes of puberty to impress upon their young a set of lessons and values. This we call initiation.

Initiation is a way of cutting someone off from one set of attitudes (childhood dependency, ignorance, self-centred pleasure, stagnation) and substituting another set in their place (adult selfdom, gnosis, conscious social will, growth). It tears apart one reality and replaces it with another. It is symbolic rebirth.

Initiation rituals make use of fear, pain, hunger, thirst, exhaustion, isolation, ecstasy and transcendence to impart their lesson.

My first point is that (in terran cultures at least) initiation is not a test of skill except in the most rudimentary way. One's courage and patience may be tested, but not one's jumping or weapons skills. (You'll be expected to be reasonably fit and to be able to handle a weapon in some fashion - but you won't be considered for initiation until AFTER you can do all that). Remember initiands will have been preparing for years, and the entire stead will have been watching very carefully. Courage and dedication count for almost everything, skill levels very little.

(Major exception: hunting/gathering societies where if you can't hunt or gather enough to feed yourself, then you won't survive. But here the test is 'scrounge by yourself in the desert for a week', not spear 15 check, jump ditch 15 check etc).

My second point is that initiation (sometimes quite literally) scares or sears a new way of thinking, a new set of symbolic orientations (religious or moral ideas) into your head. Because of this, religious symbols ALWAYS take their part, whether or not the initiation is overtly cultic. (Our own society is one of the few on either world where one can realistically separate religion and community).

For heortling youth, this may in part involves a visit to the Other Side, an encounter with Second Son, and participation in IFoughtWeWon.

What I'm suggesting is that rather than a test of skills - one of our game models - initiation is primarily a kind of selftransforming  heroquest.

Initiation is dangerous, and sometimes deadly. Initiation should strip initiands down to their core, and begin their reintegration. It should release their adult personalities, both the noble and ignoble sides. And it should align them absolutely with the values of their people/cult.

Initiation literally scars that loyalty onto the depths of your soul. Hence the almost universal distrust of strangers and foreigners in the tribal world. (Heortling 'four-ways').

In terms of our own cultures, think of what participation in a street gang, or military service, or bikie initiation gives a young person in terms of loyalty, belonging, and sense of place in the world.

I'm off, like a krashkid at an Uroxi temple bash...

John



nysalor_at_... John Hughes
johnp.hughes_at_...

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