Self-Initiation
Self-initiation is a widely accepted process in most modern systems of magic, witchcraft, etc. regardless of the philosophy behind each of these currents. Within draconian magic, we place a special emphasis on this, since we are always talking about it being a personal and solitary path. In this article, I will seek to illustrate what self-initiation is for me and how it should be approached in a balanced way to have a real impact on our spiritual journey.
To understand self-initiation, you have to break the topic down into several pieces. The draconian path aims the search for self-deification, self-salvation, among many other things, but we can say that this is what resonates the most philosophically speaking. As we are talking about a purely spiritual aspect here, the first thing we have to understand is that no one has power or superiority in our spirituality, so why would this or that person come to initiate us? Why would that person have power over us, over our path, over our spirit? Here the excuses are many, the person who offers an initiation has the experience, therefore it must be a teacher, if this or that teacher initiates me, they will transfer their powers to me, or the person is a chosen one of this or that divinity, and since it has unique gnosis, it has the truth. I do not want to go into analyzing this, since it will be for another trial, but broadly speaking, this is what happens in most cases or is the reason why many offer initiations to others.
Now let’s look at the other side, why would someone look for someone else to initiated us while being able to do it ourselves? In my experience this happens for several reasons, the first is insecurity, the person does not have the necessary experience to perform a ceremony alone, so he seeks to fill this insecurity with the guidance of someone else. Here you have to pause, that person is not ready for that step, he has to continue training and practicing until he is clear that he is ready to take that step. Second question and no less important, the person fell into the trap of hyper simplification, instead of reading a book he looks for it on YouTube, instead of practicing meditation, he reads a summary on Wiki-how of how to meditate, instead of looking for information about what to do, simply send an email so that someone else can solve it. Thus, the person does not seek real progress, he just wants someone else to solve the issue, and of course, it has to be fast, effective, and with the least possible effort. Faced with need, there are those who, for a price, not necessarily money, will give that credulous person what he is looking for, although with dubious results.
Taking into account the aforementioned, we must understand the process properly, in this way we can avoid falling into the trap of the bitter disappointment of believing that we have done a real process when it is not. This is why before running you have to learn to walk. There is no rush on the path, we have to take our time.
Unlike other magical currents, we must first train and long before considering performing an initiation ceremony where we declare our willingness to walk the draconian path. First, we must learn meditation, energy control, develop and awaken our astral abilities, learn some divinatory method, be efficient in invocation rituals, and to a lesser but no less important extent, in evocation rituals, understand the philosophy that supports this magical path, and after all, this, if we feel that this is our thing, then we can only think of performing a self-initiation ceremony in the draconian current, not before.
The true initiation is not a ceremony, this is only a reflection on the material plane of our progress along the path, it is our expression of will, it is our way of affirming and saying I have done this, I have gone through this, I have learned this, and now I’m ready to take the next step. It is a symbolic way of dying and being reborn with a piece of new magical baggage. There is no single initiation, there are many, some will be smaller, others will be larger, some will culminate with a ceremony where we will deploy a whole ritual that we will have built for that purpose, and others will not. It is that true initiation is not something superficial given by others, it is something that happens inside us, in our mind, in our spirit. Everything else is just a reflection, an almost artistic expression, and a way of capturing what is spiritual on the material plane.
For this reason, we must not confuse the initiation within a magical order or school, with the initiation within the draconian current or the one that we can perform if we use, for example, the Tree of Shadows as a personal map to self-deification. The initiations within the orders are only recognitions of degrees earned and that is granted by said institutions, something like going to do a course and at the end, they give us a diploma, this is a bit the same, it is an internal recognition within that space, but this not gives us a real spiritual initiation because as I already said, true initiation is not a superficial recognition of someone else, it is a profound change within the adept.
From the magical and ritual point of view, when we celebrate a self-initiation rite, within it we invite different spiritual forces to join us in the ceremony, some may be our tutelary deities and others those that are typical of the rite that let’s do. For example, suppose that we have finished our journey through the Qlipha Gamaliel, the most logical thing is that we invite Lilith in our self-initiation rite, plus our patron deities and some others with whom we have worked in that kingdom, these forces will be ours witnesses of everything that we affirm there, and we will seek that they grant us their energies and their gnosis to continue our journey. This rite will involve several things, a change in consciousness, a spiritual advance, the acquisition of new gnosis, and new «powers» that come as part of the process. All this can be achieved legitimately as long as we have done our part, that is, we have worked spiritually with those forces, we have learned what we are supposed to learn, we have listened to our intuition, which will tell us that we are ready to go forward. All this, only we are capable of doing for ourselves, we do not need someone else, because nobody can do this for us, that is why this path is solitary and self-initiating.
Finally, only you can know if this is or not for you, but before you make a decision, keep in mind that there will be a lot of work to do, you will have to do a lot of research, have an awake mind, be analytical and cold, not accept absolute truths, nor dogmas, you will have to train and a lot, magic is doing, not reading, magic is not a state of mental masturbation, a magician is someone active and operative, one who has obtained a level of competence in art and is a teacher in it. All this only you can achieve, with your effort, at your own pace, with your mistakes and successes. There will be no one who can give you power, it is within you, it is just a matter of awakening it.
Daemon Barzai