Awakening

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Awakening ritual diagram, by Wildbow

The awakening process is a ritual which gives practitioners the ability to see, use, and bargain with spirits and magic.<ref name=":2">The Awakening ritual is fuller opening of your eyes to the practice, and the commitment to your word.  From that point, you would be unable to tell a lie without consequence, sometimes steep and life-altering.  By committing to your word, you will be heard. - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1</ref><ref name=":1" />

Doing so binds a practitioner by the rules and contracts set forth by Suleiman bin Daoud, restricting their use of lies and making them a target for others;<ref name=":1">Bonds 1.7</ref> by abandoning the ability to lie, their words become more magically meaningful.<ref name=":2" /><ref>“The practice, as we call it, is best summed up as an ongoing contract. By pledging to make your word inviolable, forces in this world will start listening. Routine, ritual, and expectation have formed the grooves and determined how best to communicate with those forces. Diagrams, symbols, knowing who and what to appeal to. Many, many things become possible. If your word is inviolable.” - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1</ref> Awakening has been called the first step toward becoming an Other.<ref name="1.3e1" />

Process

There are many variations on the exact details of the ritual, but they are all very similar.<ref name=":3">“When making this commitment, it is best you are quintessentially, markedly you.  Most do it unclothed.”

“Not gonna happen,” Lucy said.  “Not in front of all of these people,

and not when it’s still cold as tits outside.  You said there was 

another way.”

“There are many variations on the ritual.  What you wear may be what the spirits expect you to wear [...] If we make these the focus of what the spirits see in the ritual, you’ll find your practice is best when you’re in full raiment.  It will give your words more weight then.  You’ll want to keep at least one thing with you when you might be practicing.” - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1 </ref>

The person being awakened draws 3 concentric circles from chalk around them, each made of smaller circles. The Thorburns used five in the first, six in the second, and seven in the third;<ref name=":1" /> while the Mile End coven used five in every layer and then two circles outside the main diagram.<ref name=":0" /> An alternate version of the ritual exists to awaken multiple people at once, who each stand inside one of the middle circles holding the symbolic items,<ref name=":0" /> people who are awakened at the same time are stronger magically when together than apart.<ref>“You’ll be bound together if you awaken together.  You’ll be stronger as

a trio than as a pair, and stronger as a pair than alone.” - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1</ref>

In each of the circles in the inner ring are bowls with crystal, myrrh, oil, spice, and iron or iron ore (or possibly holly; see Trivia below).

In the Thorburn version the second second ring holds a dagger, a hourglass, a dreamcatcher, a rose, a skull, a coin, and something personal. Candles are placed around the outside, and incense needs to be lit and the iron ore heated.<ref name=":1" /> In the Mile End version, it (including the two outer circles) holds an empty vessel, something woven, a timepiece, a bone, something living, an edged weapon, and a handheld source of energy.<ref name=":0" /> A Blood Magic version of the ritual uses a skull, a coin, a dagger, a skein, a means of tracking time, and the image of a flower, all derived from a single sacrifice which is then used to empower an Implement.<ref>Rowan is initiated into the practice.  Death is his first step onto the bloody path.  He welcomes his pet cat Bartles into his arms, given to him as a kitten when he was four, and at his parent’s instruction, severs its head, being careful to catch every drop of blood in a prepared bowl.  The ritual calls for a skull, a coin, a dagger, a skein, a means of tracking time, a flower.  For his ritual, the cat’s head is the skull, the tag- his parents made it a coin, a long time ago.  The tendons and whiskers are the skein, woven crudely with blood-sticky fingers and tear-heavy eyes.  A drop of blood in water blossoms, to be his flower, and the weapon used to kill Bartles is his dagger.  He completes his ritual and he goes to where his parents have set up a table with common implements.  He chooses a chain and he soaks it in the blood he put in the bowl, before binding it around his arm.  A meaningful sacrifice, the first step onto his path is a binding one. - Pact Dice - Blood Magic</ref>

In the outer ring goes food offerings for the witnessing Others - molasses, milk, vegetable ash, honey, meat, and alcohol;<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> it is essential that the food offerings not be stolen.<ref>Brochure, Experience Kennet</ref>

The person being awakened then strips naked, sits in the center, and reads a certain text. This triggers the awakening. The ritual requires the awakened to name their associations with the ritual items, and they see the circle move and shift as the ritual progresses.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> Variations on the ritual where the practitioner is clothed are rare, and tend to tie their abilities to the items they were wearing.<ref name=":3" />

Trivia

• Rose Thorburn Junior used holly instead of iron in her ritual, as instructed by her version of the text, but it didn't work.
• A copy of the ritual is found in the book Essentials.<ref name="1.3e1">Read Essentials. It sits on the book stand. A novice’s guide to the most basic things, it outlines the steps to awakening yourself.  Be warned, these steps open the door to becoming Other, in a respect. 

The oldest of them made agreements in times well beyond us, to 

guarantee safety and maintain a kind of peace.  Foremost among these agreements is truth.  Should you lie, you may well forfeit your power for a time.  Break a promise or an oath, and you will

be forsworn, and you will be stripped of every protection afforded to 

even the common, ignorant people that decorate this Earth.  On finishing

Essentials, awaken yourself. - excerpt from Bonds 1.3 </ref><ref name=":0">Pact Dice: Mile End - Essentials</ref> 

References

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