"I" is for Initiation

I recently found a wonderful website (ABC Wednesday), and this is my first time posting in accordance with their challenge.  The letter for this week, as you might have guessed, is 'I'.  I'm going to try and keep these challenge posts on the Craft, for now.  We'll see how it goes.

You hear a lot about initiations in Pagan circles.  "You MUST be initiated."  "Initiations don't matter." "You're not really a witch unless you've been initiated."  "I initiated myself." "Self-initiation doesn't count."  Etc., etc., etc.

I myself am torn on the issue.  A part of me would love to find an established  coven where DH and I could belong.  And another part of me shies away from possible politics and power plays.  But what if there IS no such coven, or at least there isn't one yet?  Does that make what we do any less meaningful, any less valid? 

On the one hand, I don't think so.  I feel like a witch, I describe myself as a witch, I AM a witch.  On the other hand, some part of me would feel more 'real' if it was "official."  Not to mention I would enjoy the company, the feeling of fellowship, or sisterhood, that officially belonging to a group would mean.

(Are you beginning to see what I mean about being torn?)

I haven't actively looked for a local coven, but that's because we've been caught in limbo for the past two years.  I hesitate to get close to people only to move away a month or a season or even a year later.

I suppose, for now, DH and I will just continue being 'solitary' Pagans--a coven of two, if you will.  We may or may not perform self-initiations.  

I can't decide.  :)