Is there a difference between initiation and self dedication in Wicca?

Answer 1

OK, first, read about the lives of famous occultists:

http://usminc.org/famous.html

Then decide if it's worth persuing. If you want to wind up broke and forgotten, go for it!

If there is any truth to the old saying "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.", that truth is found in the occult, and Wicca in particular. Silver Ravenwolf has written close to a dozen books on the subject of "The Craft", and claims she has been studying it since about 1969, which is almost as long as I’ve been alive. She has written a book on how to cast money spells, and includes a chapter on how to do so in her Teen Witch book. But the thing is, she doesn't particularly sound all that prosperous herself. Ravenwolf writes,

"For years I couldn't afford to go to a hair stylist (still can't, it's shop and chop for me). I got pretty good at stying my own hair from looking at magazine pictures" [SOURCE: Teen Witch, Llewellyn Publications, 2003 edition, page 145]

OK, she so rich she can't go to the hairdresser. Hey, get me a copy of that Prosperity Spell book!

Silver Ravenwolf seems to have inadvertently discovered that Wicca makes things more complicated, not easier, but won't ever admit it as such.

In Teen Witch she says

"A lot of people tell me how bad their lives have gotten after casting a spell and tell me they won't do Witchcraft anymore. I tell them their lives would have been much worse for not having cast the spell".

Gee Silver, you would think a lot of people would be saying things like "Hey, Silver Ravenwolf, my life has improved tremendously with Wicca!" if Wicca is as great as they claim. Instead it makes lives much worse, and even Silver Ravenwolf admits she hears this a lot!!!

Why? Because sometimes, things are just as you think they are. Most people woukd tell you the occult will bring misery into your life, and most people are right. When you stop trying to rationalize it with inaccurate data and just use common sense you will realize this. There are two forces at work in this universe: the counterfeit and the genuine. Wicca’s source of power is not the genuine. There’s just simply no way Wicca (and thus the copycat Neopagan religions) can be created from the black magic writings of “The Great Beast 666"(where much of Wicca is plagarzed from), the bizarre sexual practices of Gardner, the spiritual “guidance” of the Watchers (fallen angels) mentioned by writers like Grimassi and Huson and still be a source of good!

None of the people who have answered your question can make it work either, Don't delude yourself. It's an incredible waste of time and money, and it's spiritual poison.

I'm an ex-wiccan.

Answer 2

Initiation is usually done by a coven, school or other group to bring a person into that path. Self-Dedication is mainly what Solitary practitioners do.

Answer 3

Yes. Initiation is something that can only be done by a group -- you are initiated INTO a pre-existing structure. Self-dedication is something that you do by yourself, or with a group of like-minded friends who are there to witness your act of dedication.

Answer 4

Self dedication is done alone, initiation requires at least one other person, but both are equally valid.

Answer 5

Initiation requires more than one person. Period.

There is no way around that.
Initiation enters you into a tradition or a group.

Edit: The term Self-Initiation is an oxymoron.

Answer 6

Yup!

An initiation is a group ritual in which a cowan (muggle for you Harry Potter fans) is inducted into a coven.

A self-dedication is a private ritual in which a person commits himself/herself to the Wiccan way WITHOUT a coven.

Answer 7

Yeah, only those initiated are real Wiccans. I studied and practiced Wicca for many years, but I was never a Wiccan. You have to be initiated to be a wiccan.