Gate 166: כל — INITIATION

כל

Pillar 6: THE PATH

[166:1] "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,

[166:2] he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

[166:3] --- John 3:5

[166:4] "The old man must die before the new man can be

born."

[166:5] --- Traditional teaching

[166:6] "Initiation is the gateway to the unconscious."

[166:7] --- C.G. Jung

[166:8] [166:1] Initiation is the ritual of

threshold-crossing---the ceremonial marking of passage from one state to

another.

[166:9] [166:2] "Except a man be born again\..." Jesus speaks

of initiation: a new birth, a passage through water and spirit, an entry

into a kingdom invisible to the uninitiated. Baptism is initiation; it

marks before and after; it creates the Christian where none existed.

[166:10] [166:3] "The old man must die before the new man can

be born." Initiation has death-and-rebirth structure: the boy dies, the

man is born; the catechumen dies, the Christian is born; the seeker

dies, the adept is born. What was is sacrificed for what will be.

[166:11] [166:4] Traditional societies had elaborate

initiations: adolescence, marriage, elderhood, shamanic calling. Modern

society has largely lost these; the passages happen but go unmarked,

unprocessed, unsupported. The loss may be why adolescence extends

indefinitely and adulthood feels arbitrary.

[166:12] [FIGURE 166.1: Three stages---separation from the

ordinary, trial in the liminal, return transformed---the universal

structure of initiation.] [166:5] "Initiation is the gateway to the

unconscious." Jung saw initiation as more than social transition; it

opens access to deeper psyche, to what was hidden, to powers and perils

the uninitiated cannot face. The initiate returns changed because the

initiate has seen what cannot be unseen.

[166:13] [166:6] The structure of initiation (van Gennep):

separation (leaving the ordinary), liminality (threshold time, betwixt

and between), incorporation (return to the ordinary, but transformed).

The middle stage is crucial---the ordeal, the vision quest, the dark

passage.

[166:14] [166:7] Initiation involves ordeal. Not arbitrary

hazing but meaningful challenge: fasting, isolation, confrontation with

fear, encounter with the sacred. The ordeal is the death; the survival

is the rebirth. What doesn't challenge doesn't transform.

[166:15] [166:8] False initiations mark transitions without

transformation. The graduation ceremony without education; the bar

mitzvah without preparation; the baptism without conversion. The ritual

is empty; the threshold is not crossed; the initiated remains

uninitiated in everything but name.

[166:16] [166:9] You have been initiated---and you will be

again. Every genuine crisis is initiatory; every real loss, every

confrontation with mortality, every surrender of what you thought you

were. Life initiates; the question is whether you recognize and

integrate the initiations.

[166:17] [166:10] Seek initiation where you find it. If your

tradition offers it, approach with seriousness. If your tradition has

lost it, find or create what you need. The passage must be marked; the

threshold must be honored; the death must be died for the new life to be

born.

[166:18] See Also: • Gate 103: וג --- The Gate of Birth

(initiation as birth) • Gate 104: וד --- The Gate of Physical Death

(initiation as death) • Gate 160: יה (Yah) --- The Gate of the Dark

Night (initiatory ordeal) • Gate 165: יכ (Yach) --- The Gate of Ritual

(initiation's form)