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Page 62
Buckland's Complete Book Of Witchcraft
by Raymond Buckland
A typical initiation ceremony is the one found in Gardnerian Witchcraft. It is in four parts. The first part is known as the Challenge. The Initiate is asked if she really does want to go through with it. This may seem a simple and needless question. But from first making contact with a coven it may have taken anywhere up to a year for the would-be Witch to reach the point of initiation. This time is necessary, from the Craft’s point of view, to sort out the wheat from the chaff; those who are sincerely interested in Witchcraft as a religion, as opposed to those who have all the wrong ideas—believing it to be Devil-worship, looking for wild orgies, wanting to join "just for kicks” etc., etc. So after the very long waiting period, during which she has been reading and studying, the Initiate is at last there on the threshold. She looks about the Inner Sanctum for the first time—at the flickering candles, the smoking incense, the stern-faced Priest pointing a sword directly at her. It may seem a little ominous to her; a little frightening. It would be small wonder if she then and there decided she would not bother going through with it after all . . . perhaps she’d take up macrame instead! If such should be her decision she is free to turn around and walk away. But after the long waiting period there are few, if any, who decide that way. So, after the challenge, the Initiate is blindfolded and bound and led into the Circle. . . There is an Oath of Secrecy taken by the Initiate, in the majority of traditions. Once this has been taken the blindfold can be removed and, shortly afterwards, the cords. It is strictly an oath of secrecy. There is no repudiation of any previous religion. There are no crosses to spit upon, no pacts to sign in blood, no goat’s buttocks to kiss! After the oath comes the Showing of the Tools. Each coven has a number of so-called “working tools?’ These are presented, one by one, to the Initiate by the Priest. As each one is presented its use is explained and, to show she has understood the explanation, the Initiate lays her hands briefly on the tool... At the end of the ceremony the Initiate is taken, by the High Priest, around the Circle to the four cardinal points. At each of these she is Presented to the Gods—who are believed to be there witnessing the event—as a newly made Priestess and Witch.
Anatomy of the Occult
Raymond Buckland
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Last Changed On 2006/10/11 |
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