The Sacred and Copy+Paste

I woke up this morning to see that one of my fellow workers is offering online initiations—then sat up in bed and swore.

That’s a lot to encounter before coffee.

I meant it when I said the sacred and the profane have blurry boundaries. They do. However, there’s a lot of work that goes into initiations which can only be done in person, and a lot that simply can’t be done by people who don’t have the training and permission to do it. Even if you sent directions to someone so they could do the necessary actions to themselves, they still can’t.

Disclosing knowledge without permissions and outside the guidelines in these traditions can be deadly.

More importantly, initiation is not for everyone. This is a tradition that you have to be invited to participate in, and not just to participate. At every step, you need to be invited to take it. Even if you were born into a family of priests, the spirits would still have to grant you passage to practice, let alone someone who hits you up off Etsy, Facebook, or some sort of social media because they have the money and are interested in the topic.

This is not a copy+paste tradition. This is not a tradition you can simply give instructions to people about and get a reproducible result with any hand. Every path is different. Every initiation is a little different. Every person is different.

I understand that business can be cutthroat and that people have to make a living, but I am struck by the disrespect for the tradition, the spirits, the lives of people who would buy something like this, and what it means.

I’ve had a chance several times now to observe people offering initiations, and I’ve been horrified often by that disrespect. If you initiate someone, they are your child for the rest of your lives, with all the love this entails. You will be their guide in rough times and good times.

Can you provide specific guidance to a random person you don’t bother to get to know?

Can you truly love someone you give the responsibilities of an initiate, which can ruin their lives, and never talk to again?

I cannot imagine volunteering to make spiritual orphans.