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What's the appropriate age for initiation?

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    What's the appropriate age for initiation?

    I would like to glean the opinions of those who participate in theses forums. My daughter, who has been studying paganism, divination and magick for the better part of a year had asked to be initiated into our coven. She is eleven years old. Some traditions say the younger they are initiated the wiser elder they will make. Others say children don't have the capacity to understand the finer points of ritual magick. Tell me what you think.

    #2
    Re: What's the appropriate age for initiation?

    11 is around the age for other faith based initiatory rituals--confirmation, etc. I don't see that big of a deal, from that perspective. It also depends though on your coven's practices and your child. If your coven, for example, practices skyclad, and you lived in a religiously conservative area, I'm not sure I'd be okay with my kid participating--and the hubby and I are fine with naked, but CPS here is ridiculous.

    Honestly, I don't think that younger initiation makes for a better/smarter/etc elder, and I don't think that its a matter of not getting magic--kids usually get magic better than grown-ups. But I do think its something your coven should be deciding, as a group...if they will be including her, in the group. Group dynamics are an essential part of a functional coven.
    Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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      #3
      Re: What's the appropriate age for initiation?

      I would not worry about the capacity to understand magick, that seems to be something young-uns get, some of the finer points of ritual could possibly be baffling, but not in a major or prohibitive way. What I would worry more about is the fact that she is still quite young and my not really understand the decision, she may want it now, but will it be something she looks back on warily, as I do now with a Christian confirmation? Will she look back and wonder why she did it? I think religions are something you don't really know what to do with until you get older, if you are pushed into it too young, you end up eigther rejecting it or becoming zealous, extremes are never a good goal... but this is just my opinion, you are her mother, and your coven should be a large part of the decision as well. Whatever the policies of the group are should be followed, because they could well be based on experience.
      http://catcrowsnow.blogspot.com/

      But they were doughnuts of darkness. Evil damned doughnuts, tainted by the spawn of darkness.... Which could obviously only be redeemed by passing through the fiery inferno of my digestive tract.
      ~Jim Butcher

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        #4
        Re: What's the appropriate age for initiation?

        If she's been studying for a year, and you both feel she's ready, I'd say take it to the coven just to be sure but there's no reason she couldn't be initiated.
        ~J

        "The very young do not always do as they are told."

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          #5
          Re: What's the appropriate age for initiation?

          I don't really do Covens, but I would think that initiating someone as young as 11 would largely depend on the Coven itself. As Thal mentioned, if it's a skyclad type coven, that would weigh heavily on the decision made by you and your coven. Also, something to consider (and this was my primary reason for even posting) is what would change in the Coven if she were to be initiated? Assuming that the rest of the Coven members are adults, would she be taught differently because she is a younger child or would she be treated as an equal within the Coven?
          (Again, I'm not familiar with Covens so I don't know how the hierarchy works, maybe someone else who has knowledge can enlighten me/us?)
          �Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.�
          ― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
          Sneak Attack
          Avatar picture by the wonderful and talented TJSGrimm.

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            #6
            Re: What's the appropriate age for initiation?

            Certainly I don't think there's anything wrong with kids learning about spirituality, and exploring and practicing such things, but I have to agree with the others here - it really depends on what tradition your coven is, and how the individual coven practices, and also how the coven as a whole feels about it. I've seen some covens allow kids and teens into their practice, but there are also covens where that probably wouldn't go over well - a lot of Gardnerian covens, for example, only allow adults because of some of their ritual practices... It really depends.
            Hearth and Hedge

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              #7
              Re: What's the appropriate age for initiation?

              I was taken into my grotto when I was 15. Then again I'm a Satanist, so the things going on were more of a darker and mature nature.
              Satan is my spirit animal

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                #8
                Re: What's the appropriate age for initiation?

                Oh gosh, Ive never been initiated into anything other than being baptized into Christianity around the same age. Well, I guess my point of view is to wait until the child is at least 16, on the farther edge of puberty. I would never have been baptized if id have been old enough to have know what that really meant.

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                  #9
                  Re: What's the appropriate age for initiation?

                  Depends on the nature of the initiation, who the person is, and if the person involved has been raised around the religion or social group.
                  Are we talking about oneself? One's kids? Does the initiation involve something particularly mature or philosophical concepts that would be difficult for younger persons to understand? Do they involve sexual rites? There's a lot of questions one has to ask oneself, and I would not shoehorn a single, objective answer for something that is pretty complex and subjective.

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                    #10
                    Re: What's the appropriate age for initiation?

                    I think in every religion, 11 is too early to be initiated. And I say this if it is sunday school at church or in a coven. The mind, and heart, are not mature at the age of 11, at least not enough to really understand the choices that are being made or what they really represent. I think this depends on the individual, but maybe in adolescence, and depending if the adolescent in question is mature or not. Even if the parents don't impose a religion upon their child indirectly they wan't to be like the parents are as they are role models. When they grow up and start to think for themselves, making the right and more profound questions I think, that is the right time to initiate them in a coven, if that is what they desire
                    "I was born from a Spark and Fire I became"

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                      #11
                      Re: What's the appropriate age for initiation?

                      I would say it depends on what activities she would be doing. As her parent, you would know best what she can handle and what she is too young for. It also depends on what is expected from her by the other members of the coven... and whether you feel she, personally, would be up for whatever responsibilities it entails.

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