Reverend Kirk White is one of those super-accomplished people who have done it all and most of it well. So what is a workshop with an overachiever like? Well, in Kirk's case, it was a lot of fun and very informative. The resume page of Kirk's website lists well over 40 different titles and awards this man has achieved in his 47 years. From this, one could expect that this presenter would be intelligent, but dry and boring. Well, Kirk White is far from that.
Primarily, White is energetic and amusing, telling stories of the myriad initiations he has gone through himself and making jokes about “Garden Party Wicca” and “Calling the quarters in the style of ‘Bronx Wicca.’ ” He also has a lot to say about what constitutes an effective initiation.
“No one system will give you the whole picture,” he states. This is one reason why White has undertaken a whole roll call of different initiations, not just into Wiccan and Pagan traditions, but also as a Free & Accepted Mason, and into many other tradtions. He jokes that he collects them and wants to try them all. He has an unending thirst for new knowledge and this is another driving factor in his search for new pathways of enlightenment.
“If your initiation didn’t change you in some profound, life-altering way, then it wasn’t a true initiation,” he says. He talks for quite a while about the differences between Initiation, Dedication, Translation and Transformation. Dedication comes when you decide to start studying a new spiritual path or a new subject. That’s about all it means. You are learning. You are studying. You don’t know a lot, but you are on the path. Initiation can occur in two ways. It can be a celebration of a milestone or a level of achievement or it can be a profound, life-transforming experience. In a celebratory initiation, you receive an acknowledgment that says you now have a certain level of knowledge and proficiency about a certain subject. In the transformative initiation, you may receive the acknowledgement as well, but you achieve a profound transformation of one type or another. From that day on, you are a different human being.
White also feels that fear and the unknown, of being out of your normal day to day element is a huge part of the initiation process. There is translation and there is transformation. Translation is, "Oh! I heard something so interesting the other day and now I am going to tell you about what I heard." Transformation can be terrifying. Transformation is, “Everything I do is no longer real for me. I am changed forever.”
The group broke out into questions and answers with many members interested in general descriptions of individual initiations that Kirk White had designed and experienced. Kirk felt that degree and initiation process had been significantly dumbed down and that this was leading to a break down in the degree system and the efficacy of the initiation process.
The workshop definitely gave those of us who are products of spiritual and celebratory imitations and the Wiccan degree system something to think about. Also—it was great for groups trying to design their own ideas of what initiations should or could be for their own evolving traditions and paths.
Presently, Kirk White resides on 50 acres in central Vermont where he operates Laurelin Retreat Center. He can be contacted for several types of services including:
- Weddings, Handfastings, Commitment Ceremonies and other Rites of Passage
- Ritual Design and Logistical Planning
- Pagan Education Consulting
- Healing Work
His contact informations is:
Kirk C. White, M.A.
307 Christian Hill Road
Bethel, Vermont 05032
(802) 234-9670
laurelin@sover.net
Here is his biography from his My Space website at :
www.myspace.com/revkirk
"Kirk White, M.A., L.Ac., is a healer, teacher and author. He has been a practicing Witch since 1973, a psychotherapist for 13 years, and a licensed oriental medical practitioner for 14 years. A past president of Covenant of the Goddess (North America’s oldest and largest association of Witches and Wiccans), and past director of the University of Vermont’s Parapsychology Program, he also founded Cherry Hill Seminary, a professional Pagan ministry program with faculty and students worldwide, and co-founded the National Association of Pagan Schools and Seminaries. In 2006, Wildhunt.org named him one of the “25 most influential modern living Pagans today”. In addition to working as a consultant with Pagan seminaries nationwide, he is a licensed acupuncturist/ Chinese herbalist, registered psychotherapist, and legal Pagan minister. His skills and interests include traditional healing modalities, various magickal and spiritual traditions, and models of Pagan leadership and ministry. A contributor to “Exploring the Pagan Path: Wisdom from the Elders” (2005), he is also author of “Adept Circle Magick: a Guide for the Advanced Wiccan Practitioner” (Kensington Press 2006), and its companion volume “Advanced Circle Magick: Essential Spells and Rituals for Every Season” (Kensington Press, 2008)."
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