This is the last in the series on initiation for men. Being the last I hope to briefly sum up all that has gone before. However I have tried to write each post so that it can stand alone.
Initiation rites were designed to cover the essential elements of mature masculinity and provide the spiritual eyes to see beyond.
While these rituals made little conscious sense to the young man it was there ability to speak to the unconscious mind that made them so effective. Initiation targets the instinctive modes of thinking that are hardwired into every male. Without consciously realising it the male psyche was being reprogrammed.
We come to our final initiation rite.
#5 You are not that important! Read More »
It is easy to confuse the word initiation with a beginning. But in tribal culture initiation was actually an end, a death. The end of the “little controlling you”.
Unlike western education, Initiation is not about adding more information, but about subtracting, stripping away and peeling back the layers of ego and identity that hide the real self.
Due to the lack of formal initiation today, the entry point for most men is generally a “Crisis of limitations”. This is the place where you are no longer in control.
We continue with our series.
#4 You are not in control!
Often when I talk to men the issue of control always seems to surface at some point whether directly or indirectly in the conversation. Control seems to be something we spend most of our lives trying to get. We seek it through more money, influence, relationships, personal competency and Read More »
This post continues our series on the five rites of male initiation.
One of the questions that puzzled me, was why men don’t warm easily to initiation?
Why do we usually have to be pushed into it by personal crisis before we are ready to consider another way of doing life.
I believe the answer lies in the fact that initiation is so counterculture to the way we currently live. When it is all about you it is hard for it to be about others.
We continue with our third rite.
#3 It’s not all about you!
“Life is the dancer and you are the dance” Read More »
This is the last in the series on initiation for men. Being the last I hope to briefly sum up all that has gone before. However I have tried to write each post so that it can stand alone.
