Egypt Initiations
It all began the summer before with a meditation before an ayahuasca ceremony. In Peru, we would always invoke a particular deity to work with for the ceremony, and it was Isis night. I’ve always felt a strong love for Isis, even before my first trip to Egypt nearly 20 years before. In the past few years that connection had only grown stronger. So when our shaman guided us through a journey to meet her and invited us to give her an offering, it felt quite natural when what popped into my head was my van. Before I realised what had happened it was done. I’d given my van – which let me be clear, was not just a vehicle, but Misty, my home – complete with double bed, kitchen, wardrobe and wood burner – to a deity. I didn’t know what it meant but I was worried.
That evening the ceremony was one of the most impactful ceremonies I’d had, and one that contextualised a lot for me about my relationship with Isis, with Egypt, and with larger aspects of my soul. And the following morning, out of the blue, my teacher Peter Aziz announced he was planning a trip to Egypt for initiation. It took less than a heartbeat for me to sign up, despite the fact that I would need to sell my van to pay for it.
The trip was to follow the traditional passage of initiation, in accordance with ancient Egyptian initiation rites, which were multi-stage ritual passages through the magic encoded within the architecture of various temples, that mirrored a journey from the profane world into the divine. Having taken the journey and received the attunements, we were to complete the final initiation overnight in the desert, on an important power spot over a buried temple still venerated by the Beduin, so the energy was pure and powerful. Initiations are done this way, as once a temple is excavated, it’s guarded and no longer open for overnight initiations.
In preparation we had to undertake a rigorous 9 week devotional period for the deity we were to be initiated under, and prepare and recite our a set of prayers. I got a lot from this process. It was an opportunity to start to calibrate more intently with Isis. I was going through one of the roughest patches with my community there at this point and really needed support. It was Isis who was with me that whole time, supporting me, and preparing me for the initiation through the challenging interactions I was having. Teaching me how to embody her strengths and not take any shit.
A couple of months later it was time for the trip. As the plane circled over Cairo, I could already feel the spiritual energies in my body stirring in anticipation, and I felt the presence of not only Isis, but all the Neteru with me, watching on steadily.
The temples
I’m not going to go into too much detail on the pyramids and temples we visited, or what was passed on but we did the circuit around Egypt. Starting in Cairo, we visited Sakara, and it brought back memories from past lives being there and working with healing modalities. We went to Hathor’s crypt and connected with what felt like a giant cosmic battery storage unit. We visited Edfu, the Temple of Horus and gathered power. We visited Hathor’s temple at Dendera, which was the most powerful Goddess temple with many portals and star gates, and took Sekmet initiations at Karnak. At Abydos, we again were given various empowerments and connected with stargates, and I had a really powerful experience at the Temple of Sobek, Kom Ombo, on the Nile. The crocodile God gives strength, protection and immunity to disease and I went through a deep initiation into his healing powers.
For me, Philae was unsurprisingly the most emotional. I’ve been longing to go back there for months and when I arrived I was overwhelmed. I could feel her presence so strongly, and it was so intensely beautiful that tears were just streaming down my face basically the whole time from her temple, then by boat to the Altar of Isis, which was the original temple site.
Giza
The Sphinx guards the entrance to the pyramids, and it is a teacher of mystery as one of the keys to magick. We had arranged a private tour of the pyramids early that morning, so we commenced clambering through the narrow tunnels into the chambers. There are 3 important chambers inside the Great Pyramid: the lower deep well is the entrance to the underworld and a source of power. The Queens chamber, linked to Isis, something happened. And the Kings chamber, which connects with the stars. We meditated and took rapé to open us up to the cosmic energies.
The Initiation
For the initiation we took some rest during the day to prepare as we would be overnight in the desert. As dusk fell, we mounted our camels and headed out to the power site. Initiation isn’t an automatic thing. Your soul gets guided along the journey through the underworld much like the Pharaohs journeys as inscribed inside the walls of the temples. There are various gate posts and it depends on where your soul is on its journey, as well as what the various Neteru and guardian spirits deem most appropriate. I was only dimly aware of the process. Able to follow along as my soul went into the underworld then only barely in touch with what was happening beyond that. I dozed off for most of it, in a deep state of trance. Fortunately I passed, as did the whole group, and we returned back on our camels as Priests and Priestesses of this ancient lineage.
