Initiations

'But who is an initiate? A person who has experienced a knowledge invisible from without and incommunicable except through the same process of initiation. Inevitably, Plato explains, there can be but "few" initiates. And in fact when compared with the Spartan version, Plato's initiation process is more subtle and more arduous. There are a greater number of trials to overcome and, having survived the last, the initiate may find is "the only one." Then there may not be enough time for him to pass on his initiation. And there may not be anyone to follow him, with the result that the chain is broken.

So one day Plato began to write the Republic. And he wrote the text in the form it is in so that one who wanted to understand it might be subjected to that initiatory process of "sufferings and pleasures...labors, fears, and convulsions." The many who did not understand, and were not supposed to understand, imagined they were reading a treatise on the perfect State.'
 -R.Calasso, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony

The Keeper of the Fire: Shamanic Initiation

Itzhak Beery

The growing spiritual movement and neo-shamanic community are hotly debating a number of questions, such as: What is the role and relevancy of shamanism in our modern world? Who is a shaman? What function must a person perform to be called a shaman?

Some years ago, I attended a special healing ceremony held by an elder Tungus shaman in full heavy attire in a New Jersey private house, with a diverse group of people, mostly Russian speaking. At the end of this transformative evening, I gathered the courage to ask him for the true definition of the word shaman. His translator, an elderly Russian anthropology professor, replied briskly, “The keeper of the fire,” and turned his back on me. I was surprised; I wasn’t expecting to hear that—and also taken aback, wondering if he just wanted to get rid of me. But although this definition was not what I had been told, nor had read in many sources, it made a lot of sense and broadened the meaning of the shaman—as a person of service, the keeper of the community’s soul and well-being.

Shamanic Initiation is not an end for itself or perhaps a medal for hard work. In my experience, it is just merely a beginning. Initiation into shamanism is best when an elder teacher that comes from a long lineage chooses a person to be his initiate. The elder must have recognized some characteristics which will make the initiate a fully responsible Keeper of the Fire, including: intentional life purpose; a deep commitment to bringing people together; humbleness; respect for wisdom keepers; the courage to face adversity; s sense of higher justice and moral values; the ability to resolve conflicts; nurture from the heart; and ‘seeing’ or communicating with spirit effectively.

For the initiate, the initiation rite is a life-changing moment – a test of some sort. It is a time in which the initiated accepts the weighty responsibility the shaman put on his shoulders and the realization that he is entrusted with being the keeper of his teacher’s tradition. It is a painful moment of shedding the old familiar, well-known skin and leaping into the void, the unknown future. It is a magical moment of truly experiencing becoming one with all, a divine moment of higher realization, in which every action has consequences in the cosmic matrix of life without fear.

The many who did not understand, and were not supposed to understand, imagined they were reading a treatise on the perfect State.'

Never heard this before.. I'm interested to learn more.