Key terms

Initiations (or rites of passage) have existed for thousands of years in different cultures and traditions for different purposes. Initiation means the beginning. The beginning of a new period of life, the beginning of a new understanding of life, the beginning of a new role in life. In order for the new to begin, the former must be completed, ended. When we go through life initiation, we usually move from one state to another, from one level of consciousness to another, from one period of life to a completely different and new period. There are several important initiations that almost every person goes through in life - birth, growing up, first love, marriage (and often divorce), parenthood, old age and death. Each of these and many other events in life are initiations. In the Western world which is collectively unaware of the existence and importance of initiations, such life events are celebrated on a superficial level, very often in a theatrical way to entertain the audience and preserve belonging to a particular group of people.

Every initiation we go through consciously becomes an opportunity for enlightenment and opens the door to new opportunities, insights, and discovering aspects of ourselves that we are not aware of. In order to come out of the process changed and to integrate experience and insights at all levels - physical, mental, mental, emotional and mental, it is necessary to go through a ceremony or ritual designed just for that purpose. Then each initiation takes on a new dimension.

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Through the experience of participating in Munay-Ki initiations, we receive energy seeds to become persons of wisdom and strength who put themselves at the service of all creation and become sources of light in their communities. It is a journey only for the most courageous ones, and we can only start it when we feel the time has come, when we feel a call from the depths of our souls and when higher forces call us to put ourselves in the service. We can try to resist to that call, which often leads to an even greater personal crisis - health and emotional.

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When we truly experience initiation on a deep level, feelings of helplessness and fear dissipate, allowing courage, curiosity, and creativity to grow. Then we finally break from the entanglements caused by dramatic events from our own past and the past of our ancestors.

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Initiations that are in harmony with natural laws return us to our own center, to our infinite nature, to the state in which we discover our own truth in order to live our purpose and be in the service of all creation and make us independent of the teacher or group of people through whom initiation comes to us. We become uniquely irrelevant. We stop being consumers of other people's truths, content, beliefs, methods and tools, as we return to our center and remember that everything we need is already in us.

Such initiations are significantly different from the initiations through which we become members of a certain group of people who identify according to predetermined characteristics when we often hand over our own power and integrity to someone or something outside of us to confirm our loyalty and affiliation.

A ceremony is an organized process that involves an individual or group of people attending it with a specific purpose and intent. Initiations take place as part of the ceremony, but the ceremony can be organized for another purpose, depending on the need. Through the ceremony we have the opportunity to dive into the unexplored depths of our being and (again) connect with life and nature, our physical state as well as our infinite state. Each ceremony consists of preparation, creation of space and atmosphere in which it takes place, the main process and integration.

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Ceremony creates change and is transformative in itself because through it we re-establish a healthy and powerful relationship with nature. We surrender ourselves to the flow of life, and experience dying and being born again. Through the experience of participating in the ceremony, we learn how to surrender and accept all that life brings us. We consciously work with invisible threads that weave the web of life in order to walk through life more awake and conscious, in harmony with everyone around us.

A ritual can be a ceremony and a ceremony can be a ritual. The meanings of both concepts often overlap and there is no clear difference, but they depend on the context. The ritual would be an organized process that is repeated in a certain format and with a certain intention, while the ceremonies are transformed as needed.

Archetypes are the organizing principles of the Universe. They represent the primordial consciousness of nature and contain certain qualities and therefore have a personality that is associated with the face and form in human consciousness. At Munay-Ki, we work with archetypes in a number of ways, through initiations, but also to create a safe space to work.

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Safe space is created by invoking the four cardinal directions of the world, as well that which is above us (heaven) and that which is below us (earth). In this way we work in a protected space and time. Each of the directions is associated with one of the archetypes. Their names are symbolic because each of them represents one of the primordial forces of nature with its unique qualities that can support the process. 

Reciprocity means being in the right relationship with life. It is the foundation of the well-being of the individual and the community. When we live a life with an open heart, everything around happens in a way that is good for us and for others. Otherwise, our reality reflects our selfishness and we constantly have the feeling that we have to work hard or that we need to defend what is “ours”. Being in a relationship with life means feeling oneness with the most natural course of life. If we respect and honor life and renew our connection with nature, nature and all living beings will give us back in equal measure.

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The concept of spirituality that we work with is based on the belief that everything that exists is alive and infused with the same life energy - spirit  that manifests itself in different forms. This kind of spirituality implies that we are all spiritual beings living a human life on the same planet in a body created from natural elements. Both the physical and spiritual dimensions are equally important for us to know how to live in the Garden, on this beautiful Earth in harmony with all living beings and fulfill our soul's mission.

This kind of spirituality is practical, down to earth, and embodied. It implies the awareness that we know where we came from and what is the mission of our soul, that we are aware of our infinite and divine nature, and at the same time live an ordinary human life in a body made of blood and flesh, woven of various natural elements. As such we are vulnerable and exposed to the action of higher forces and all the processes that take place around us.

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