Welcome to the Wisdom Wheel Law of Initiation # 15

How did we become who we are? To initiate and to be initiated are ancient and sacred tasks.  We can all learn to honor this Law…by including knowledge gleaned from other cultures…

Excerpted from the Wisdom Wheel Initiation card

Your Study Schedule for This Law

Full moon Sun June 11 2006 begin Week One – East quadrant – Mental, intellectual aspects
Last quarter Sun June 18 2006 begin Week Two – South quadrant – Emotional aspects

New moon Sun June 25 2006 begin Week Three – West quadrant – Physical and intuitive aspects

First quarter Mon July 03 2006 begin Week Four – North quadrant – Spiritual aspects

Next full moon Tue July 11 2006 begin next Law of Shadow
Introduction to the Law of Initiation

Time to study the Law of Initiation, number 15th on the Wisdom Wheel. As you know all these outer Circle Laws being studied during the second year are Birth Laws, because they represent the annual cycle time at the calendar level on the Wheel of Life. Initiation holds the space between June 21 and July 21, also known as the water sign of Cancer. (Last month’s Law of the Eternal Present marked the time between May 21 and June 20, the air sign of Gemini.)

As you travel down the southeast rim of the Wheel towards the Summer solstice, you are also traversing the place of the Professionals and Academicians, between the mental pursuits of the East and the emotional issues of the South. While passing through this quadrant, think about the Warrior energy of the East and the Teacher energy of the South. How have these energies been expressed in your life?  

Who (or what) initiated the fighting (Warrior) spirit in you?

What kinds of conflicts have you initiated?

Were they primarily about people, places, possessions or principles?

Have you ‘fought the good fight’? How do you evaluate that?

What sort(s) of opponent(s) have you attracted and why?

Reflect upon battles you’ve won or lost and the ones you have yet to initiate. Do you fight more with your spirit, body, head or heart?  

Think about what you have learned so far in life and how you learned it.

Have struggles taught you more than easy times? 

What style of Teacher have you become? 

Do you teach by example? Do you demonstrate what to do, or what not to do?

Who was the Teacher who initiated the Teacher in you?

If you look across the Wheel from the Law of Initiation, you will see the Law of Renewal balances it. This makes an interesting pair. Those who need Renewal may also require an Initiation and vice versa. Those born under these Laws ought to be ready to perform these tasks for others.

Think about your home domain on the Wheel (the quadrant of the Season you were born in). A clue to your particular type of Initiation might be gleaned from meditating upon your elemental nature, your particular gifts and what you tend to avoid. There are many varieties of Initiation for example; baptism is a ‘water’ type of Initiation, ‘fire’ is another…

Here’s an example. I’m a Fire in the spring spirit, born near the end of March on the East side of the Wheel under the Law of Enlightenment. Any type of Initiation with the goal of Enlightenment (as with the Wisdom Wheel) appeals greatly to me. My Warrior energy makes me enjoy taking on the Establishment for instance, as I was born with the need to fight and struggle. I tend to use my head, always trying to know more and reason things out, sometimes to a fault. As I’ve said before, our virtues can become our vices, unless we’re wise enough to appreciate our opposites, and what keeps us in Balance. 

When I reached the West, the opposite side of the Wheel from my natural place, things fell apart (in my early 40’s). It was time to grow, and develop, by incorporating qualities I’d previously ignored or distained. Any time we need to rebalance our lives, we may need to explicitly initiate a new cycle. At times of crisis and transition, it can help a great deal to be familiar with the wisdom inherent in the Law of Initiation. This is how we transform what seems like a curse into a blessing, and turn tragedy into triumph.

I learned about the medicine wheels while going through the Goes-Within Place of the midlife crisis and Higher Purpose. 

As you carry this Law through the four quadrants this month, reflect upon the Initiations you have experienced as you’ve gone through the life cycle. How was your birth celebrated? Your school graduation(s)? End of adolescence? Your adulthood?

What sort of Initiation(s) are you looking forward to? Publicly celebrating the post-menopausal life passage is becoming popular as more of us reach the Wise Woman crone hood stage.  

There are many book titles listed on Amazon.com under the keyword Initiation. I noticed most of the classic ones were translated from French, like Rites and Symbols of Initiation:The Mysteries of Birth and Rebirth by Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) and The Rites of Passage by Arnold van Gennep (first published in French in 1908, and not translated to English till 1960). rituals of other cultures there has been some blending of ways. Growing numbers of Americans have now experienced vision quests which were originally a Native tradition, of going out alone to pray and fast and ‘cry for a vision.’ Now vision quests include Outward Bound programs for executives and those wilderness camping sojourns designed to help troubled teens.  s

You might want to begin thinking about how you would initiate others to the wisdom of the Wheel.

Many blessings, Malcolm & Cynthia Davidson

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