Initiations

 Initiation, as I  understand  it, is the essential passage into the unknown, the call to adventure that pulls us from the ordinary world and thrusts us into a realm of tests, allies and shadows. It is not something we choose so much as something that chooses us. The hero does not begin as a hero. Often, they begin with fear, resistance, or denial. But the threshold waits. Something dislodges the familiar, a death, a betrayal, a great love, a deep loss, and suddenly we are no longer who we were, and the path behind us disappears. The world as we knew it dissolves, and we are asked to go forward, without a map.

Initiation teaches that the mythic journey is universal: across cultures and timelines, humans are called to leave comfort behind in search of something greater. But initiation is not only about triumph; it is about descent. It is about willingly entering the belly of the whale, the place of darkness and unknowing, where the ego dies and a deeper self is born. The old self cannot return. In the abyss, we confront what we most fear and discover the hidden strength that lives beneath fear. It is here, in the depth of the underworld, that the true initiation occurs, not in victory, but in surrender.This is where truth is born.

When we emerge, we are not the same. What  we carry is rarely gold or glory, it is knowledge, compassion, the ability to see with new eyes. It is the medicine of the journey, meant to be brought back to the village. This return is as important as the quest itself. The hero does not stay in the forest. She comes home with the gift that heals, the insight that transforms. The true initiate becomes a bridge between worlds, between what was and what can be.

And yet, this path is not reserved for mythic figures. We are all called, in our own ways, to answer the summons. Whether through illness, heartbreak, birth, artistic devotion, or spiritual longing, we are all invited into the great myth. The refusal of the call is human, but the call itself is relentless. It will find us again and again. 

~Shanti Freedom Das