Linden: Walking the priestess path

I am the tree that will meet you at the crossroads. I am the entrance to the labyrinth that is the central mystery of life.

I invite you to enter. I ask you to leave your preconceptions at the door. I am the place where you agree to let go of certainty. I am the path your life takes when you align it with the higher values of the universe. Enter if you want to be of service only. I am the path of the shaman and the priestess.

Note that my pathways are not straight. I do not offer up my secrets easily. Those who come to me for initiation will need to accept that the path ahead of them is not always what it seems to be.

I ask you to give me your pride. I ask you to give me your fear. What I offer you in return is the joy of a life well-lived. But make no mistake: the price I am asking you to pay is higher than you think.

Humility and simplicity may appear to be simple things, and to be the pathways of those who are without ambition or purpose in their life. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is in giving up yourself that you will discover your true purpose in life. It is in agreeing to let go of your desires that you will discover that which you want the most.

Will you come to me? I am offering you my guidance in this journey, but it is up to you to take the first step.

If you agree to do this, I will ask you to perform this little ritual of dedication.

The rite of flowering.

Wear white. If possible do this ritual at the time of the new moon. You will want the energy of the rising tide to be with you in the weeks that follow.

This is a very simple ritual. Take a large sheet of paper. Draw a flower on it. Then, with your eyes closed, step inside the center of the flower. Then call on me.

I will appear to you in the form of a dryad or animal guide. You may or may not have encountered me before. That depends on your own journey prior to this point.

I will come to fetch you. Stepping onto that flower is a conscious act of stepping onto the path towards initiation. The next thing is to confirm this by taking a white ribbon and tying it around your wrist. This is a kind of betrothal. You have agreed to step on this path, and you recognize that this is a path of service, one where you align your will with something that is bigger than yourself. The ribbon signifies that you understand this. Continue wearing this ribbon as a bracelet while you work through the other rituals.

Do not rush this process. This is an offering of yourself. You need to be certain that you want this. Once you have confirmed your choice, there will be no way back. You will have aligned your will with the bigger streams of life, and getting out of that stream once you have entered can be extremely difficult.

Do not fear. You are not at that point yet. If you decide to walk away after all, simply stop wearing the ribbon. There will be no hard feelings. This path is not for everyone. You can take away the lessons you have learned and use them to enrich your life in other ways.

Now that you have started your journey, you will need to learn to be open to the voices of Spirit. They are the ones that will show you the pathway that is yours. It is likely that this will take time, and that you will first be making detours and work with several other trees before you get back to me. That is the nature of the labyrinth. Remember that this path is not a straight one. It will probably be right when you are convinced that you have almost reached the center that the path will suddenly snake away and take you on another course of learning first…