As this has come up a couple times recently I figure I should say something about it.
There are two ways to keep a religious secret concealed: the first is to never talk about it at all and the second is to talk about it all the time. We in the Starry Bull tradition have opted for the second approach. The reason that this works is because our mysteries aren’t doctrines to be learned or ceremonies to be performed but experiences that an individual must undergo. A sequence of experiences, in fact, which gradually transform the individual, their understanding of the world and who they are in it, as well as their relationship to the Gods and Spirits of our tradition. It is participating in the Story behind the stories if you will. Hearing other people talk about that is not a substitute for going through it; indeed because our mysteries express themselves personally by overhearing this talk one is liable to form false conceptions about what actually transpires during the experience – thus maintaining its inherent secrecy. In other words, by speaking so openly about these matters we are jamming the signal, cluttering the field with so much information that when a non-initiate hears the actual mystery in the midst of everything else they won’t recognize it, and even if they do they won’t understand its meaning without having gone through the sequence of experiences which activate it. It’s like having sex, or watching a sunset or listening to a Miles Davis album. You can read about these things all you want but you won’t really know anything of them until you’ve experienced them for yourself – and experienced them in the proper way.
And that is fundamentally something that transpires between the individual and our Gods and Spirits. These experiences can happen spontaneously while one is chilling out on the couch, in the midst of carrying out devotional practices, after extensive preparation and austerities to enhance spiritual receptivity, through dreams, visions and drug-induced hallucinations, alone or facilitated by a ritual expert and any number of other circumstances. Usually they do not come entirely out of the blue, though it has happened that way before. The more one engages with the Gods and Spirits of the Starry Bull tradition and become immersed in their stories the more susceptible one is to these experiences – which is another reason we talk so much about this stuff. The experiences may occur over years or hours, as discreet experiences or all blurred together depending on how things are arranged. What matters is the presence of certain elements which build upon each other, culminating in a state of particular awareness.
Once a person has undergone these experiences they are eligible to receive the Starry Bull rite of initiation, though it’s not as simple as walking up to your local Orpheotelest and requesting it be done. Usually the candidate has been working under the spiritual direction of their initiator for a while at that point, with the initiator taking the lead from the Gods and Spirits and performing extensive divination throughout. Once all of the criteria are met the candidate undergoes the rite, which must be done in person as certain things are transmitted through direct physical contact. Without going too deeply into what happens, the rite spiritually resets the candidate and confirms them in their new role which has been determined through counseling and divination.
This is the first stage of initiation within the Starry Bull tradition, and it comes with no obligations or expectations beyond fulfilling the role that one has been given. Often initiates who go through it together will form strong emotional bonds with their fellows, but unlike in other traditions those bonds do not carry prescriptive behavioral weight. Nor is one required to show deference towards their initiator (though etiquette-wise that is a good idea) or to continue in the tradition. Our initiation helps you figure out who you are and what the right path for you is, even if that means your path is elsewhere.
Minus certain elements the rite may be repeated for cleansing, healing, spiritual protection and psychic recalibration but it only initiates the first time and when fully intact. The second stage of initiation employs an entirely different ritual and you are only capable of performing the first rite once you have undergone the second initiation. Even if you were to remember the steps there are things it requires that you can only do once you’ve completed the second stage.
This initiation binds you to the Starry Bull Gods and Spirits and entitles you to be considered a tradition-bearer. The process leading up to the ordeal involves extensive training and the mastery of a number of spiritual techniques as well as the core rites of the tradition. It comes with a great deal of responsibility as well as privilege, including the privilege of initiating others into the tradition.
At present I am the only one who is qualified to do so, though we have a fair number of first-level initiates some of whom I suspect will be trying for their second before too long.
