An adapted initiatory lesson for people in China (App Module 10 lesson 8).
It has been brought to my attention that the Initiatory lesson that bridges the Apprentice to Initiate has caused some problems for some students in China and other eastern countries that practice ancestor worship/veneration. This confusion and difficulty is caused in part by the word ‘ancestor’ having a slightly different meaning or understanding in the west than it does in some eastern countries.
With reference to the initiatory lesson at the end of the Apprentice section, the word ‘ancestors’ refers to members of your recent blood line who are now dead. It does not refer to founding ancestors, mythic ancestors and heroes, Immortals etc. The Chinese Immortals, founding ancestors and mythic heroes are included in the meaning of the words 'inner contacts', 'spirits' and 'deities' in all Quareia texts.
The reason that part of the ritual exists is to break connection with recent ancestors whose spirit still carries cries for vengeance, or who wish to cling to life by living through you – this can particularly occur where there is a history of war, conflict, etc - sometimes a recent ancestor wants you to continue that conflict. It is also about filtering out ‘bad ancestors’ – we all have at least one person in our family lines that was corrupt, vicious, or generally a bad person, and they can try to bind themselves to you under certain circumstances.
However, such a cultural difference can cause worry or distress for the student magician, and I do not wish to inadvertently cause any break between a student and their culture, or any heritage that has existed for many generations.
With that in mind, I have re written and reworked magically the ancestor parts of the initiatory ritual for people who are from cultures with ancestor veneration. It will still work just in a slightly different way, and as the student progresses towards adeptship, they will figure out how to say no to any recent ancestors that wish to manipulate the magician.
Students from countries that have Ancestor worship can choose to either do the original Initiation ritual, or they can do choose to do the adapted one.
The adapted initiation lesson - Apprentice Module Ten lesson 8 can be viewed here
It may mean that the future path of the student magician might be slightly different because of the change in the ritual, but that might be a good thing for a magician in a culture that works with Ancestor veneration. Quareia magic should be able to adapt and evolve in order to work for people of all different cultures.
The adapted ritual takes out any action of severing connections with any ancestor. The student cleanses the path of any unhealthy imbalances that they may still carry from their own past behaviour, and they connect the path of their ancestors to the path of the future of the magician. The path to the stars in the future and the path of the ancestors from the past are connected together as one.
I hope that as more people from different cultures engage with Quareia, that if any such potential serious problems arise, we can adapt and offer alternatives wherever possible. Quareia magic should always be able to bend and flex, to evolve and grow whenever truly necessary.
Kind regards
Josephine McCarthy