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Warrior Mind Podcast

07/10/2017

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Rites of Passage: Warrior Mind Podcast #354

Over four years and going strong!  With over 500,000 downloads from over 9 countries and 5 continents’…. rites of passagethis is the Warrior Mind Podcast.

In this episode of the Warrior Mind Podcast I’m going to discuss the importance of rites of passage like The Dark Night of the Soul.

Creating Modern Rites of Passage

A Rite of Passage is a marking of the passing of a particular phase of life.  Their creation requires first recognition of the old and new phase and then some way to symbolize and reinforce that change. Ideally someone other than the person going through the change creates the Rite of Passage.

Modern Rites of Passage Should Include:

  • Creating a sense of community
  • Public acknowledgement of the boy by his father and/or other men
  • Allowing boys to hear the stories of older men
  • Modeling respect as a primary learning tool
  • Challenging the boy to determine his own future, to be a positive, responsible member of his community and to live his life to its fullest potential
  • Creating a community celebration upon the return of the young men
  • Setting up of an ongoing supportive environment (all men who attend are aware that they do so not only for the boy they come with but also for every other boy in attendance)

Rites of Passage as the ultimate form of Preventative Medicine

Given that much of the health dollar is spent on dealing with the long-term effects of addictive behaviors such as cigarettes and alcohol, it is reasonable to say that anything that decreases their use will improve the overall health of the community.

An inspired man with a mission in life that is rewarding, a healthy relationship, family and a strong sense of belonging is much less likely to partake of self-destructive behaviors. This man will have an interest in his long-term health and an awareness that his future impacts upon those around him. Rites of Passage at appropriate times in his life will strengthen his connection with himself and his community.

Rites of Passage

Despite societal variation, rites of passage have been at the core and foundation of virtually every educational, social and spiritual dynamic – pervasively expressed throughout society. This is especially true of Indigenous tribal-traditional societies, which represent over 99% of human history.

The entire life-cycle of an individual, from birth to childhood to old age to death itself, for both men and women, is marked by a series of rites of passage – pervasively expressed throughout the life of an individual.

Social science research has shown that rites of passage are particularly pronounced in those societies whose foundations are built upon three key focuses:

  1. The importance of social solidarity, and group cohesion and cooperation, be it in male or female associations – the importance of ashammaléaxia; *
  2. An understanding by its members that the spiritual, transcendent reality is primary – acknowledgment of snqhepi’wes, and the need for its members, in varying degrees, to realize that spiritually in their lives – acquire baaxpée, súmmesh, or wéyekin;* and
  3. A reliance on what can be called “traditional wisdom” or “Heart Knowledge,” a way of knowing based in the teachings of the elders, derived from the First Peoples at the beginning of time, and expressed and brought forth in the great creation narratives and as you walk upon the landscape and encounter its animal, plant, fish and bird

As the Inuit people say, “all true wisdom is to be learned far from the dwellings of men, in the great solitudes.” This is knowledge found in societies the anthropologist Margaret Mead calls, “postfigurative societies,” look to the living perennial traditions as the guide.

We find rites of passage used among the Aranda of central Australian, who perform a series of circumcision, sub-incision and fire ordeals, to strengthen the cooperation among male hunting groups and gain access to the Alcheringa, the Dreamtime. We see it when a young Crow man goes to the mountains to fast for three days without food and water to gain his baaxpée, his medicine.

We see it when an Inuit is apprenticed to a powerful angokoq, a shaman, and becomes a healer. We see rites of passage among the Kwakiutl when a man emerges from the dark forests, alive, having overcome the Hamatsa, or cannibal spirit, his role as a leader now established in the eyes of others. And we see is as an Ashanti young girl is snatched from her mother’s arms and taken to “bush school,” to emerge a year later as an adult woman.

Correspondingly, social science research has found that rites of passage are much less important in those societies that emphasize:

  1. The role of the “individual” as the most pivotal social unit, in contrast to the family, clan or some other association
  2. Which are fundamentally secular in nature, and
  3. Which rely upon knowledge based exclusively upon empiricism and This is knowledge found in societies Margaret Mead calls, “prefigurative societies,” look to one’s peers and the future as the guide, where a premium is placed on “discovery” and “innovation.”

Nevertheless, in Euro-American society rites of passage are implicit, operative, and critical. Induction into the military or a fraternal organization, or participation in a religious retreat, all entail rites of passage.

Indeed, the bar mitzvahs, baptisms and confirmations, and the marriages and funerals of the monotheistic religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all are rites of passage. The educational processes of Euro-American society, from kindergarten to high school through college are but a series of rites of passage. Every adolescent teen goes through and experiences a rite of passage, albeit, much less structured and ritualized when compared to similar rites of passage for youth in an Indigenous tribal-traditional society or as institutionalized in a religious tradition.

Enjoy this podcast on rites of passage

rites of passage

Social science research has shown that there are at least three distinct functions rites of passage provide. Rites of passage serve not only to publicly acknowledge the transition from one educational, social or spiritual status to another, but more fundamentally, to facilitate within the individual and bring about such a transformation in the first place. In so doing, the individual acquires knowledge, which can be religious, social, political and economic in nature. Such knowledge can relate to the spiritual power of a shaman, or to a woman’s role and status in her family.

The individual also acquires a strong sense of self-identity and self-worth relative to other social groupings, and consequently, gains an enhanced self-esteem supportive of others. Typically issues relating to psychological insecurity relative to other personalities are not found. As such, rites of passage facilitate: 1. educational, social, psychological and/or spiritual transformations of all types, 2. the acquisition of new knowledge, status, and identity, and 3. the public acknowledgment of the transition.

Four universal components to the symbolic structuring of any rite of passage are evident.

First, a rite of passage presupposes an orphaned status.

Second, a rite of passage involves a separation, a journey and a sacrifice.

Any rite of passage involves a “ritual death.” The symbolism of “death” has multiple meanings.

  1. To “die” is to validate the One seldom elects to give up one’s life, as death is that stage in one’s life that comes from the gods. You’ve been “chosen” by powers greater than yourself.
  2. To “die” is also to be brought to the threshold of the sacred, to journey to the “other side camp,” to follow the road all those now deceased have traveled to the abode of the ancestors and spirits.
  3. To “die” is to sacrifice and give up If a quest is to be successful, if one is to receive a vision, the individual must offer up what is most cherished. Reciprocity and a gift exchange between the self and the spirit world must occur.
  4. To “die” is to render the individual void, as nothing, emptied, and thus very He or she has been torn from the living, separated and stripped from one’s mundane existence and identity, without a name and social conventions. Stripping away the mundane reveals and exposes within oneself what is most essential the soul.
  5. To “die” is to get down to the When you “get down to the bones,” you are symbolically getting down to what is most elemental, that which is most permanent, that which gives life to the body – the soul and seed.

Third, a rite of passage involves the acquisition of power and knowledge, the void is filled.

Fourth, any rite of passage involves affirmation and rebirth.

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