Nov 25, 2006
Passages, ordinations, and initiations. Similar, yet different.
Is it something that happens anyway, which people have chosen to mark as a milepost? Is it the result of a quest and a process of learning? Or, it is something that happens - perhaps even when you are unwilling - that causes a change?
Are we acknowledging a change which has already come to pass, conferring something on someone who has achieved something, or is it something that actually causes a change in the person? Is it an acknowledgement by society or a group of people, or might it be something that is at least partially secret?
Those are some of the distinctions. And therein lie the differences. But therein are also some of the similarities.
But they have one thing in common: they are signposts on your spiritual journey. Some might also mark your mundane journey. Some of them, you can see ahead of you, or at least anticipate them. Some of them, you can see behind you. In some cases, you might only recognize them when you look back at them. Some initiations are especially like that.
To recognize where you've been is one of the secrets to knowing where your spiritual journey will lead you.