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Initiation: a Memoir
INITIATION is a memoir that reflects on the moral and ideological changes of the last sixty years. Written in a perennial voice de Angeles, witch, scholar and feminist, rewilds her own story and transforms cultural stereotypes into the language of myth. "Witch people, like magicians and sorcerers, conjurers, druids and hoodoo hexers, like cunning women and cunning men, kadaicha, shaman, manitou, angakok, curandera, bruxa, enchanters and shapechangers are needed in this world. They are the stories not bound by dogma or displayed as relics in a museum. They cause disquiet. They summon questions but it's not their way to give answers. They take us to the wild and the frightening places. The cave entrance under the ice at the base of that crevasse. Blue handprints on the rock face imprinted with an ochre of confusion. By people we cannot name and from a time we cannot confirm. Once Upon a Time people. People of the reindeer. Volcano people." Born in 1951 and put up for adoption, de Angeles was sold by the church for �300. She was always going to be a problem.
299 pages, Paperback
Published September 16, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 22, 2017
This is a beautifully written book and a memorable account from someone who has had some truly interesting life experiences during interesting times (both in the Pagan scene and the world in general) and has an equally interesting perspective on it all. To say it was a real page turner is an understatement; I'm not exaggerating when I say I couldn't put it down.
I love how the theme of initiation is woven throughout the telling of her story, and she tells entertaining stories about the various witchcraft initiations she has been through, as well as the deeper informal initiations she has gone through where life itself was the initiator.
I corresponded with Ly briefly many years ago after I read Witchcraft - Theory and Practice, and while she initially seemed really gruff and straight-to-the-point (just thoroughly Saggitarian really), she did reveal to me her compassionate and fiercely loving side. She is such a character - so smart and sassy. I'm so glad she wrote this memoir and I got to read it, and it just makes me admire her even more.
I love how the theme of initiation is woven throughout the telling of her story, and she tells entertaining stories about the various witchcraft initiations she has been through, as well as the deeper informal initiations she has gone through where life itself was the initiator.
I corresponded with Ly briefly many years ago after I read Witchcraft - Theory and Practice, and while she initially seemed really gruff and straight-to-the-point (just thoroughly Saggitarian really), she did reveal to me her compassionate and fiercely loving side. She is such a character - so smart and sassy. I'm so glad she wrote this memoir and I got to read it, and it just makes me admire her even more.
December 5, 2016
‘Initiation’ is a blisteringly raw autobiography that reflects not only on a personal journey but a fascinating social history of occult Australia.
Ly de Angeles is many things but readers of her books (or those for whom she has read the tarot) will know her as a witch and psychic, and a magical veteran of the antipodean witchcraft scene.
In print Ly comes across as smart and fierce and more than a little wild, with a disarming frankness whether speaking of politics or personal relationships. She’s a champion of Celtic history, a swordswoman and martial arts practitioner, and so much more. Forget the ‘Renaissance man’, Ly offers up an alternative portrait - one of a curious mind twinned with a strong and determined spirit, a scholar, a poet and a modern-day gypsy with a feverish passion for myth and life.
And life for Ly has been a series of initiations from girl to woman, woman to witch, witch to mother, mother to warrior, warrior to scholar – not that all of these passages have been mutually exclusive.
Underneath this story is a steady thrumming, an undeniable and potent energy pouring from the pages. There are many lessons to be learned here, and knowledge to be shared about birth, life, death and everything between and beyond. Predictions manifest, frequently. As do challenges. But Ly’s human too; making the same mistakes we all do, but learning from them as she finds and breaks with destructive patterns and partnerships.
Ly dispenses with the blinkers of convention and deftly explores the world’s liminal spaces and places, guided by intuition, ancestry and an animistic kinship with the natural world. ‘Initiation’ makes for an engaging memoir, certainly the best I have read in a long time.
Ly de Angeles is many things but readers of her books (or those for whom she has read the tarot) will know her as a witch and psychic, and a magical veteran of the antipodean witchcraft scene.
In print Ly comes across as smart and fierce and more than a little wild, with a disarming frankness whether speaking of politics or personal relationships. She’s a champion of Celtic history, a swordswoman and martial arts practitioner, and so much more. Forget the ‘Renaissance man’, Ly offers up an alternative portrait - one of a curious mind twinned with a strong and determined spirit, a scholar, a poet and a modern-day gypsy with a feverish passion for myth and life.
And life for Ly has been a series of initiations from girl to woman, woman to witch, witch to mother, mother to warrior, warrior to scholar – not that all of these passages have been mutually exclusive.
Underneath this story is a steady thrumming, an undeniable and potent energy pouring from the pages. There are many lessons to be learned here, and knowledge to be shared about birth, life, death and everything between and beyond. Predictions manifest, frequently. As do challenges. But Ly’s human too; making the same mistakes we all do, but learning from them as she finds and breaks with destructive patterns and partnerships.
Ly dispenses with the blinkers of convention and deftly explores the world’s liminal spaces and places, guided by intuition, ancestry and an animistic kinship with the natural world. ‘Initiation’ makes for an engaging memoir, certainly the best I have read in a long time.
December 3, 2016
In the world of reading every now and then one hits the mother lode ~ Gold ~
where ones thirst is not just satisfied but deeply and satisfyingly satiated.
The fire has been lit, the bones rattled and the world of Myth and Magic is wonderfully alive.
Truth, ice cold, screams through it all, the Ancestral breath blows strong and the comforting warmth of trust and knowing walks tall.
The reader is taken on a transformative mythological journey steeped deep in reality.
One is deliciously ensnared on a journey of no return ~ Dare you voyage and enter a damascene conversion ?
The words are rich and deep, weaving a tapestry of knowledge and beauty in honour of our ancestral bloodlines and for our children to come. Words long forgotten are remembered, tasted on the tongue once more and tears of gratitude shed.
Sentences are re read for their delight and wonder. Memories long stored resurface and blood long cold is warmed, revitalised, alive and pulsating once more.
‘Initiation ‘ is a tour de force, a sacred text ~ Gracias ~
Diolch yn fawr iawn
Dominique Wolf Amanzi
where ones thirst is not just satisfied but deeply and satisfyingly satiated.
The fire has been lit, the bones rattled and the world of Myth and Magic is wonderfully alive.
Truth, ice cold, screams through it all, the Ancestral breath blows strong and the comforting warmth of trust and knowing walks tall.
The reader is taken on a transformative mythological journey steeped deep in reality.
One is deliciously ensnared on a journey of no return ~ Dare you voyage and enter a damascene conversion ?
The words are rich and deep, weaving a tapestry of knowledge and beauty in honour of our ancestral bloodlines and for our children to come. Words long forgotten are remembered, tasted on the tongue once more and tears of gratitude shed.
Sentences are re read for their delight and wonder. Memories long stored resurface and blood long cold is warmed, revitalised, alive and pulsating once more.
‘Initiation ‘ is a tour de force, a sacred text ~ Gracias ~
Diolch yn fawr iawn
Dominique Wolf Amanzi
December 11, 2016
Initiation is a deft and beautifully woven memoir integrating all aspects of de Angeles' story. At once intimate and inviting - a personal and significant explorations of the labyrinth of identity, belonging and rebellion - it is also written with quiet restraint where the unsaid, the magic, the secret, blooms between the lines.
Travelling between the shallows and a deeper mythical world, we meet The Shapeshifter, Flidias and The Trickster and learn from The Time Hunter that time itself can never be linear but instead, perhaps, the thread unravelling to the centre of the maze.
There is danger and terror and destruction for which we mourn but also great joy, wonder and love. In some ways, Initiation should come with a warning for by the final page you are left irrevocably changed and know that beyond the author's own rewilding, it is also the beginning of your own.
Travelling between the shallows and a deeper mythical world, we meet The Shapeshifter, Flidias and The Trickster and learn from The Time Hunter that time itself can never be linear but instead, perhaps, the thread unravelling to the centre of the maze.
There is danger and terror and destruction for which we mourn but also great joy, wonder and love. In some ways, Initiation should come with a warning for by the final page you are left irrevocably changed and know that beyond the author's own rewilding, it is also the beginning of your own.
February 6, 2017
Ly de Angeles presents her life as it truly is, thus far. With phrases like brush strokes, she reveals glimpses of the mythical story that is ours collectively, as well as individually, that lies just beneath the surface of the events of her life. It is honest and reflective and unapologetic.
Ly’s openness is an invitation to the reader to find their own genuine self-expression, not bound by rules and conventions, and winding through the light and shadowed paths of our own histories.
It is beautiful, intriguing, inviting, courageous, challenging, tugging, warning and warming, mystical, magical, dreaming, timeless ... an utterly lovely work of art.
Ly’s openness is an invitation to the reader to find their own genuine self-expression, not bound by rules and conventions, and winding through the light and shadowed paths of our own histories.
It is beautiful, intriguing, inviting, courageous, challenging, tugging, warning and warming, mystical, magical, dreaming, timeless ... an utterly lovely work of art.
November 30, 2016
This is a phenomenal piece of work. I have never read anything remotely like it and I never will and I knew that as soon as I held it in my hands. It spoke to the marrow in my bones, the parts of me I know and the parts of me I haven't met yet. I read it in less than 24 hours, I could not put it down. I lived inside it for such a short time and yet never wanted to leave. It was a journey deep inside yourself through another. I believe that Part Three in particular will always stay with me. What a gift to give someone, thank you. Highly recommend.
December 10, 2016
Initiation is a deft and beautifully woven memoir integrating all aspects of de Angeles' story. At once intimate and inviting - a personal and significant explorations of the labyrinth of identity, belonging and rebellion - it is also written with quiet restraint where the unsaid, the magic, the secret, blooms between the lines.
Travelling between the shallows and a deeper mythical world, we meet The Shapeshifter, Flidias and The Trickster and learn from The Time Hunter that time itself can never be linear but instead, perhaps, the thread unravelling to the centre of the maze.
There is danger and terror and destruction for which we mourn but also great joy, wonder and love. In some ways, Initiation should come with a warning for by the final page you are left irrevocably changed and know that beyond the author's own rewilding, it is also the beginning of your own.
Travelling between the shallows and a deeper mythical world, we meet The Shapeshifter, Flidias and The Trickster and learn from The Time Hunter that time itself can never be linear but instead, perhaps, the thread unravelling to the centre of the maze.
There is danger and terror and destruction for which we mourn but also great joy, wonder and love. In some ways, Initiation should come with a warning for by the final page you are left irrevocably changed and know that beyond the author's own rewilding, it is also the beginning of your own.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews