If you want to perform a self-dedication, it’s really up to you what you do. In any case, it is a ritual, and therefore falls under the guidelines of the ritual basics. But this one really should be done outside, not in your living room or bedroom, because it really is about becoming one with Nature and the divine.

You can probably find self-dedication rituals in many books and on many Web sites; you won’t find a specific one here because you are encouraged to make one yourself. Just know that purifying yourself with a salt-and-oil bath is a great idea, and then going outside and telling Nature about what you intend to do. Just meditating outdoors and promising to heed that calling is plenty. You may want to inscribe symbols on yourself with oil or spices or in the dirt or sand; you may want to sing your love for all of creation; you may want to just strip off all your clothes and dive into the nearest lake to commune with Nature, and anything is fine. Dedicate yourself however you choose and celebrate afterwards with food or a special treat for yourself.

If you choose to join a coven eventually, they will accept you in a way they choose or you and they come up with together, but a self-dedication ritual is all your own. It’s something you can renew later as well. Dedication is not the same thing as initiation, though; it is very hard to do an initiation by yourself because often it is sort of a passage into something you’ve never experienced, so it’s hard to be your own guide. Usually initiations involve a symbolic death and then rebirth of the new self, sometimes a re-naming or something like that, and a passing of power. In any case, if you do want to initiate yourself it is possible, and it’s good because you can choose what you want to do. But if you initiate yourself, what are you initiating yourself into? It has to be something you already know if you are both the Priest/Priestess and the Initiatee. So you see, a dedication is fine and good, but if you are truly practicing alone, you need no initiation, because there is no one to answer to. You may very well be extremely advanced in your Craft without ever having anyone recognize your abilities and talents, or giving you “permission” or “power” in a ritual. The fact is, a ritual is a rite of passage, something to mark your progress, much like a graduation; one learns everything one needs to know and THEN graduates, so the graduation is the dog-and-pony show presented after everything is achieved, there is nothing achieved in the actual presentation of the diploma. You should know that no coven elder elects to initiate someone to any of the degrees without their already having proved their worthiness of the title. HOWEVER, you should also know that this acceptance, this recognition by others in a ritual just for you, does give one a sense of achievement and power, and in some traditions the coven may invoke the God or Goddess into the new initiate for the first time, thereby transferring power of a kind. Some say there is nothing like this process in solitary practice, which may (from some standpoints) be true; however, practicing alone is not less legitimate; you do not have less “power” with which to work, you are not deserving of less respect just because your title, whatever it may be, is self-granted. Keep in mind who you’re doing this for: Are you doing it to impress someone, or are you doing it for yourself? If it is the latter (it had better be), then it doesn’t matter what others think of your abilities as long as they are satisfactory for your purposes. One is not better than the other; they are simply alternate ways, with pros and cons.

Now that you are informed intellectually on this subject, try practicing solitary and attend a ritual or two like the ones mentioned—you might start with a large multi-purpose Pagan festival or some sort of nighttime natural-site party for a popular Sabbat like Beltane (May Day), and check with any local occult supplier for dates and purposes, you should be able to find an appropriate one to check out. Make your decision with discretion after experiencing both types.