Rites of Passage are
the actual tests or challenges one faces in an initiation. While the
actual flavor or applications very from culture to culture, the process is
almost always the same. It is this universal use and acceptance that helps
us see how imperative these rituals are. Many of the negative and
self-destructing dynamics common to modern American teens are a direct result of
not having these "rights of passage" available. Rites of Passage
are simply a manifested, choreographed implementation of the Hero's
Journey. Rather than wait or hope for everyday life to present a
life-changing challenge for a youth. every traditional culture found the need to
create these processes, thus ensuring a healthy transition from adolescence into
manhood and womanhood.
Risk is the most common and necessary factor in a rite of
passage. Initiations are set up to create an ego death of the boy (or the
girl), or put another way, to create a developmental shift. The process
simply sets a boy up in a situation that requires a man to complete. Risk
is the doorway to this internal shift. Risk, however, has a dubious and
often negative connotation in this modern culture. Indeed, risk is the
opposite of insurance, which strongly drives our culture in it's desire to
eliminate risk in America. The fear of injury and/or legal liabilities
makes it almost impossible to create true rites of passage for our youth.
Another universal dynamic in all rites of passage is
'community acceptance.' Quite simply, what a youth goes through as part of
his or her initiation must be accepted and supported by his or her
community. This creates a clear expectation for the youth to follow and
the adults to expect. There is no question as to whether what the youth
experienced counts or not. Everyone has agreed beforehand that it
does. This is a critical issue that is all but impossible in a melting-pot
culture with no common or unifying threads. It is this reason that makes
so many wilderness treatment models not achieve what they are trying to
provide. What a youth experiences in the wilds of Utah, for example, have
trouble transferring to an inner city life elsewhere when the local adults don't
support or understand the process done elsewhere.
Another common dynamic in rites of passage is that when
working with boys, women are never included. To break the boy from the
feminine ties to mother, all cultures found the need to keep women out of the
boys coming-of-age process. This dynamic is in critical condition in
America where our 50% divorce rate helps create a society where almost 60% of
our children live with single mothers. A single mother will never be able
to turn a boy into a man.
There are a number of other
dynamics that are universal worldwide and historically, yet are missing and/or
failing in our modern culture. Much of our teen violence, drug addiction,
gang involvement, teen pregnancy, etc., can be attributed to the loss of these
age-old approaches. Rites of Passage are discussed in the Hero's Journey
Workshop, the Journey Workshop, and the
Adolescent Mind workshop.
