Studying and Dedicating yourself as a Solitary

You may think that to be initiated into Wicca is quite simple. You get a coven, get accepted and start studying under guidance. Then after a year and a day, you're initiated and go on into deeper teachings. Simple, really. But reality isn't always so.

First, because after being the victims of so many prosecutions, covens are not something visible, and generally move in secret. Second, because sometimes there is not one available where you live. What should we do in such cases? The answer is only one: study on our own.

There are loads of books available, aimed to those interested in following Wicca as their religious path. There are also multitude of web pages giving the basics of the religion, even some take aprentices. There are also newsgroups and mailing lists to subscribe to. All this is good and useful for the obligued solitary: instead of socializing with his neighboors, he socializes with the global community. But nothing, NOTHING, can substitute experience.

Books are an invaluable tool. They let us learn from other's experience, avoiding ourselves mistakes. They let us read and compare what different author's say, without fully subscribe to anyone, and using our criteria. And also let solitaries have a guide to base themselves upon. But it's nothing more than that: a guide. Besides, I suggest reading other kind of books as a complement, like those dealing with mythologies of the tradition we're following, or the origins and evolution of the cult, or different ways people perform festivities around the world. Keeping an open mind and a curious spirit is the key to enrich ourselves with these information.

Another of the controversial points into the solitary practice is Initation, also called dedication. In it, the aspirant declares his intentions of dedicating him/herself to the religion, and is ritually "initiated" into his new life as a wiccan. Usually the ones in charge of doing this inside an stablished coven are either the High Priest or Priestess. But what happens if we decide to be solitaries?

Many traditions don't admit autoinitiations. Some others take autoinitiated as newly initiated, without asking for the traditional year and a day from them.And others take autoinitiated as full members, based mainly on their knowledge and attitude. Who is right? Well, all yet none. No one that really wants to practice a religion will stop because he lacks someone to initiate himself. Experience gathered from others is invaluable, but lacking it our own is the only one that remains.

After all, Wicca is a religion of personal inspiration and growth. Making ourselves responsible of our own actions is one of the fundaments of being wiccan. This shows that, among other things, we must learn to trust our own good judgement, whom will decide which path we'll follow.

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