You need to enter the castle by invitation, do the quests there and leave, get through the next area, go rescue Zandalor, let him teleport you somewhere, clear that area, then get and complete the quests to recruit the 7 council members. Once that is done (about 90% through the game) you can trigger the blessing ritual. You can skip optional quests to reach the wastelands early (one person managed to get to the blessing ritual at level 12), but it is a one way trip.
There is a way to enable the divine path early, though. See
Some more hex offsets...