As a Transpersonal Consultant I have lead individuals and groups through the Wheel of Initiation™, creating a means for people to move through the four conditions of an initiated life. The Wheel begins in the South where you set your intention, on to the West, where you move through resistance and release of old patterns; into the North which is the direction of contemplation and meditation and then the East, the direction of Initiation and new beginnings. My yearlong Initiation Course, as well as The Wheel of Initiation Retreats are available to you and your circle. Please refer to my calendar for up coming classes and retreats.

Four Conditions for the Initiated Life

“The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.” –Joseph Campbell, from The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers

“We have to take personal responsibility for uplifting our lives.”
– Chogyam Trungpa, taken from SHAMBHALA, The Sacred Path of the Warrior

Traditionally, initiation ceremonies pulled the initiate out of the “cult” of the present culture. The youth would be taken from the village and into the bush for up to two years. This separation from their families and culture created a nonattachment to their past, their communities and their assumptions to how things work in the world. The youth then returned energized with the ability to reignite and renew their communities. They were in a state of what Zen refers to as the “Beginners Mind.”

Today little support exists to create this separation from the present culture, so our institutions and social environment stagnate. This phenomenon is not natural. In nature everything is dependent upon change and regeneration. Our stagnant, unchanging cultural environment creates adults who are over-identified with its existing institutions, beliefs, and habitual ways. Consequently, we often suffer from living a less than authentic life. Providing our selves with the conditions for initiation – an ongoing process of challenging our beliefs, views, and identity—regenerates our selves and our communities.

The Wheel of Initiation ™ leads you through your own journey of initiation which incorporates your chosen spiritual practice and traditions. The Four Conditions give you the foundation and the means in which to initiate yourself and to regenerate your community. The aspects of yourself that are frozen in habitual ways, that remain uninitiated, will be thawed and released when you practice these conditions in your life. Thomas Paine said, “It takes only one person to change the world.” One initiated adult impacts everyone in his or her life and naturally challenges the existing culture.

Initiation is about breaking free from the “cults”—the cults of medicine, of religion, of education, and the cult of family. Ultimately you break through the cult of personal habitual thoughts, perceptions, and behaviors. You are then free to think fully for yourself, live more authentically in the moment and trust your own intuitive truth. Parker Palmer, writer and activist, encourages us to bring forth our true self in all settings, not to give in to the existing illusions of the social environment. He writes that these are “ the illusion that violence solves problems, that both rich and poor deserve their fate, that the young sent to die in wars fought to defend the rich are heroes rather than victims, that the murderous drugs are the way beyond despair–just to name a few. These illusions serve a societal function: They keep us in place.”

The Four conditions for the initiated life will help you break through the illusions that keep your true self hidden, that keep you “in place.”

The Four Conditions are...

1. A Principled and Intentioned Life
This means a consciousness of intentions (aspirations) and living by a set of principles.

2. A Life of Meditation and Reflection
This includes an actual daily meditation practice, keeping a journal and refelctive time in nature.

3. A Life of Ritual
A life of ritual is a practice of daily, yearly, seasonal, as well as transitional and initiatory rituals to honor the sacred. Rituals which assist you in moving through resistance are vital part of anyone's Initiation process.

4. An Active Life
An active life is one of risk taking which brings forth your Authentic Self. It is a life of knowing and living your personal timing and knowing and living your purpose. For a free article on personal timing email me at Jewelhrt8@aol.com

“This is the first, wildest, and wisest thing I know, that the soul exists, and that it is built entirely out of attentiveness.”
-Mary Oliver, poet

Books for Teens

“This is the first, wildest, and wisest thing I know, that the soul exists, and that it is built entirely out of attentiveness.” -Mary Oliver, poet

Books for Teens

“This is the first, wildest, and wisest thing I know, that the soul exists, and that it is built entirely out of attentiveness.”
-Mary Oliver, poet