Working with Ordeal

Thank you all for the praise! :)

Thank you for the contribution as well, extra information and sharing a little about your culture at the same time, Person. I definitely agree the ordeal work is blown out of proportion nowadays and people do fixate on the pain and blood aspects of it, distracting them from the true purpose.

Again, my many thanks for everyone's praise! I appreciate it and would love to see this topic being 'brought out of the dark' so to speak.

I just got a question via mail that might answer any thoughts:

''Are the 6 purposes for ordeal the only purposes that ordeal work can be used for?''

No. There are many more- however in this post I listed what I would consider to be the main, more common reasons.

This is an awesome post thank you, I am going to try this with some Egyptian deities and also for the self cleansing, very well written, well done =]

Glad you liked it, thank you! I would be curious as to know how you get on.

I will definitely let you know =]

Great, feel free to pop me a message.

Quick question:

Would this be ok for members of pantheons that are more light than dark, or is it strictly for the darker?

It can be used with any members of a pantheon, in the post I was just highlighting that the darker members especially seem to like it, not that other members don't. Sorry if it was a little confusing.

As I mentioned in another post, my husband does this. One way he does it without actually causing physical injury is hot wax from a candle. He begins to meditate and enters a trance, then he takes the candle and slowly pours the wax onto his palms and wrists. It comes right off and at most causes a small scald here and there. He used to use a dull knife (digging into his hand but not piercing the skin) but I asked him to stop because I was afraid the trance would prevent him from realizing if he actually seriously cut himself and there are arteries there that could be very bad to knick. As I said in the other post, he is usually a big whiner when it comes to aches, injury, and illness, and will be the first to take something for it, but put him in a ritual setting and that all changes. I personally didn't understand it nor did I ask questions. I just respected it. But your post makes sense. Thank you.

I personally feel pain is necessary and I never use pain relievers unless I absolutely need to--if it gets in the way of performing an action/job. I notice that I get over illness and injury far quicker than those who use pain relievers and my theory is that pain causes increased circulation, which means speedier healing, which would actually pose a scientific explaination for it shortening shamanic sickness duration. I embrace pain, not because I enjoy it (trust me I could live without it quite happily!) but because it reminds me I'm alive, its grounding, and I feel it strengthens me.

I like your viewpoint on pain. I agree that it is a necessary and natural part of life- as you said, in ways, it seems to keep me 'grounded'.