What Are Rites of Passage?
Some traditional
puberty rites
How and why did we lose the rites of passage?
Where are we now?
Imagine the stages of the The Tree of Life CONCEPTION: The seed is planted, the soil is fertile, the seed dies for the new life to be born. BIRTH: Even as its roots stay well within the darkness of the Earth, the tiny plant knows which way to grow. It peeks up through the Earth and always moves towards the light. CHILDHOOD: Its roots grow stronger and deeper, or wider and shallower. The little sapling bends with the wind as it grows stronger. As it adjusts to its environment and receives the nourishment it needs, its leaves and branches appear. ADOLESCENCE: The tree is vibrant, full of life and potential, its essence bursting; flower buds appear and begin to open. ADULTHOOD: Fragrance wafts through the air, and pollen is carried by bees and the wind to fertilize and impregnate new life. The blossoms begin to develop into fruit. ELDER: The fruit has ripened. There is now an abundance of food to nourish and nurture new life. DEATH: It has lived its life. What is left returns to the Earth in honor of all she has given. This in turn replenishes the soil with nutrients. Death gives new life. |
We all go through the process of maturation, transitioning from one life stage to the next in our journey from conception to death. Regardless of our chronological age during these times, it is the child within us that experiences the significant, and sometimes traumatic, internal shifts -- physiologically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and sexually.
Rites of Passage are the ceremonies and rituals that not only celebrate the individual and honor their growth, but also provide the essential context and energetic "boost" from one phase of life to the next.
These transitional stages occur whether we acknowledge them or not. It is vital that we embrace and celebrate these times in our lives so that our maturation reflects life lived fully with health, hope, happiness, harmony, and humor. [ Top ]
Some traditional puberty rites
For always and since always earth peoples lived close to the land. The Earth and her cycles, rhythms and seasons were an everyday part of living. It was as necessary to align with Nature to survive as right now we are breathing, autonomically inhaling and exhaling. Each unique culture, tribe and clan translated the symbols of nature in its own way, and all honored the rhythms of Birth, Child to Adult, Maturity, Elder and Death. The people knew that each and every cycle as a natural process has its challenge and its evolutionary and magickal transformation from one stage of development to the next. Historically, the rites of passage in adolescence have been symbolized by the search for the Holy Grail, the Hero/Heroines Journey. In some cultures, the teenager swam or ran great distances, showing their ability to test themselves and gain a deeper sense of who they were, to strengthen their connection to the Earth and to the elements. In our Sweet Medicine SunDance lineage from Turtle Island, the Rites of Puberty were taken through some form of a Vision Quest. Traditionally, the girls becoming women would go within Grandmother Earth -- into a dreaming lodge, a cave, or a hole dug in the ground. These young girls, who carried the eggs of all creation, were prepared so they could go into the "womb" of Grandmother Earth and dream with her. In this way they learned about their own womb, and discovered more deeply their feminine creativity and their sacred earth lodge (their physical body). The boys becoming men, carrying the seeds of life, light and focused action, vision quested on the mountain to gain the greater picture of their lives and expand their vision. In addition, the young men and women were taught how to pray with power, how to be receptive to spirit, how to align with the worlds of Grandmother Earth.
During this time they received the full support of their family and their Clan Aunts, Clan Uncles, and the community at large. These initiates were taught skills individually that matched their gifts, their hunger for knowledge, as well as those they would need to survive. The tribe knew that to survive they needed all to come together from a place of empowerment. [ Top ]
How and why
did we lose the rites of passage?
In three words: industrialization, separation, compartmentalization. Technology and industrialization have given us many gifts. It is said there is nothing we have created that comes close to the magick of our own body, and the fastest, most advanced computers do not approach the enormous potential of the human brain. And yet all we create comes from our imagination. At the same time, technology and industrialization have negatively impacted us by distracting our collective focus from Nature and our own innate naturalness. We have increased the pace of life. Religions, in their attempt to regulate people to their beliefs, labeled these ceremonies paganism, savagery, the work of Satan. Early on it became increasingly necessary to speak to Spirit through an interpreter rather than in direct dialogue. We lost our connection to who we are - our own spirit, our own body, our own heart - and fell into disharmony. We created greater and greater stress and tension, disease, and sickness. This is what William Reich termed the emotional plague, which often prompts seemingly random acts of violence. We are surrounded by evidence of this today. This has affected us individually and collectively by arresting our development, creating immaturity and a lack of connection to Nature, manifesting in our environment. Our waters are polluted. Our rain forests are being cut down, almost beyond their ability to rebirth. This is what the Elders call evil, death for the sake of destruction as opposed to death that gives life.
Some religions have retained aspects of rites of passage such as Bar and Bat Mitzvahs in the Jewish tradition, and Baptism, Communion and Confirmation in many of the Christian faiths. Many other cultures consider marriage, birth of a child, divorce, death, and other events to be important milestones in one's life, and these are celebrated. However, many of the old ceremonies have been forgotten, and those that survive in modern western society have become social and religious rituals with little ceremonial meaning or impact. [ Top ]
Where are we now?
We must honor the sacredness of our children, for they are the future, and ensure that nothing shall be done to harm them. We must recognize that it is also our duty to make the rites of passage available. We must recreate them with consciousness. Perhaps the old ways must be altered to reflect the needs and texture of the current generations. Change is inevitable, and collectively, we are at a crossroads. It is not common in our culture for schools, social clubs and families to encourage us to become unique free-thinking individuals. And yet the world today requires of us more than ever the survival ability to know how to be in the world and yet to be autonomous. One of the keys at any level of rites of passage, including and beyond adolescence, is knowing the difference between freedom and license. Freedom, means to make life choices and to be responsible, to have the ability to be response-able for your actions. License means doing it at the expense of others, regardless of consequences. An integral part of the rites of passage is the understanding of the interconnectedness of all things. When our children are cared for, they become creative and responsible adults, able and willing to give back to their family and community. And so what we give to ourselves in terms of freedom, living dreams, knowing and respecting our uniqueness and our beauty, so too do we give to all of life. [ Top ]
- Karen Laughing Otter Woman
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