Initiation

This September Tenneson Woolf and I are offering another one of our Online 4-Week Wisdom Series. This one is focused on our relationship to Initiation. Each week has a different focus.

• Week 1: Elders

• Week 2: Surrender

• Week 3: Spirit Walk

• Week 4: Earth Walk

As always when I put something like this on my calendar it starts to work me. It starts to send me things to prepare me for hold space for the people who are coming. One of the things that popped into my mind yesterday was this poem below that was written by one of our Fire & Water participants after her interview while she was in her our discernment about joining or not. Enjoy!

Initiation By Saoirse Charis-Graves

she spoke about initiation.

i thought i might be too old,

and maybe too battered, to say “yes” to yet another

initiation.

there have been many.

i thought it meant

“coming into” a new life.

a rite of passage for the young, the uninitiated, those who are just becoming.

i have been a long time becoming what i am meant to be.

perhaps i am tired of becoming, perhaps i want to be done with becoming

perhaps i want to be un-becoming

perhaps i want to be complete

whole as i am

“hmm,” she said, paused a beat,

told me her-story of initiation.

not coming into a new life.

coming into one’s self.

“hmm,” i said, paused a beat.

felt my body humming with recognition,

with yearning,

with desire,

yes, that. coming into my self.

not me-becoming,

becoming-me.

finally. FINALLY. (finally)

then she spoke

words of caution.

surrendering all,

letting go of pseudo safety

pseudo security

pseudo affection trusting.

a difficult journey at any age,

the danger is in thinking of limited time, of desiring completion, and wanting to be done,

settling for “enough” —

stopping short of wholeness.

Quanita