by Stan Crow
Initiation is defined in the dictionary as "the rites, ceremonies, ordeals or instructions with which a youth is formally invested with adult status in a community, society or sect." Rites of Initiation have always been rooted in Community. Their intent was to shift the perception of youth toward their roles in the community and the perception of the community toward their youth. More important, however, Initiation was about the creation, maintenance and longevity of the community.
When a young Masai initiate stood before the community, allowing himself to be circumcised without flinching, he was participating in an ancient ritual which assured that warriors would protect the village with all their being, not turn to run or give up if they were injured or in pain. Initiation rituals, also bonded the men of the village in a way which created the teamwork necessary on the hunt or in the warring party.
In several cultures, when young women were taken away to the encampments of the women's societies to learn the traditions of the tribe and the secrets which allowed the women to maintain their power base in the community, similar bonding and imprinting took place. In Ritual: Power, Healing, and Community, Malidoma Some says: "A true community begins in the hearts of the people involved. It is not a place of distraction but a place of being. It is not a place where you reform, but a place you go home to.
Finding a home is what people in community try and accomplish. In community, it is possible to restore a supportive presence for one another...The others in community are the reason that one feels the way one feels. An elder cannot be an elder if there is no community to make him an elder. The young boy cannot feel secure if there is no elder whose silent presence gives him hope in life. The adult cannot be who he is unless there is a strong sense of presence of the other people around. This interdependency is what I call supportive presence. Initiation is about the maintenance of community. In initiation, roles are defined and redefined.
The stories which freight the values and history of the community are retold and learned to be told again. Adults become elders as youth become adults, and the familiar (family) bonds are forged and tempered. Initiation is about finding your home knowing who you are and where you come from. One's personal history is founded upon a unique genealogy passed on by parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts. In a true community, all people evolve active relationships. One's personal cosmology is built upon that of those who have gone before.
The experience of the elders and the ancestors has value because it is one's dowry --life tools which have worked for your forbearers, and will continue to work for you. Initiation in traditional communities was HIGH DRAMA with three acts and many scenes. It was performed by members of the community who became the enactors of the age old enactments. In each Act, there were specific roles; and only certain community members were permitted to portray particular parts. The dramaturgy (the script, rationale, mood and tone) was intended to have specific effects on the individuals being initiated and on the community itself.
ACT ONE - The Severance or the Separation
In the first act the Initiate was cut off from parents, community, and most importantly, from the very life she or he had been living. 'I'his was intended to shut the door forever on former relationships and to create strong new ones which would sustain the community. In this enactment, the Initiate and the parents experienced loss and fear. The Initiate at this moment decided to step through a passageway into a new world, and her/his parents decided to let go. The only parallel I can think of in our modern society is in times of war when parents say goodbye to children going off to be soldiers. In most instances, the poetry of the drama of separation told a story of the death of the child. Children were "taken" from their homes by the enactors and delivered to the initiation ground for a scene in which they were ritualistically separated from their role of child. In many cultures, they were isolated in huts or caves or buried up to their necks in the ground. In one tribe, they were lined up and one by one trussed up and thrown over a fence. On the other side, a log was dropped with a thud or splash to create the appearance for observers that the initiate had "landed hard," while the enactors on the other side caught the incoming youth. The community members who played these parts did so with the very future of the community in mind.
ACT TWO - The Threshold or Transition
In, most cultures, Initiation was not short. It lasted from several months to several years. One might think of this transition period as going to another space and time -- passing out of the world that was known, being transformed, and passing back into the world that was left behind. The world was still the same, the Initiate was radically different. Our forbearers used the metaphor of death (act I), descent into the underworld (act II), and rebirth (act III). During the second act, the young person was afforded the chance to become a fully accepted member of the community. In many communities, this was not a foregone conclusion. Scenes of this act varied from culture to culture, but commonly, youth were required to learn and be tested. Learning was based on things youth needed to know to assure the future of the community. Training was done either in groups or with mentors (frequently in both ways). The training was intended to widen the child's world view. Mentors offered the child a chance to learn from a different individual's life experience. She/He was not a surrogate parent, but a proxy for the whole community. This individual (usually an elder) helped to form a bridge which transported the Initiate into an adult way of thinking. Testing was frequently life threatening. The young African male was sent out to kill the lion or be killed. The male Initiate in Papua New Guinea tied vines to his ankles in the original bungee jump and dove from a tower. Many died from infections which were a result of circumcision and scarification. In Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin, the Initiates are told before beginning their Trial, The important thing to remember is it makes being an adult a meaningful sort of thing, because adulthood has been earned when you comeback form Trial. That makes Trial worth concentrating on." Rituals ran throughout the threshold of time. The final ritual was about preparing for the return journey. The Initiate was honored for having completed the trials, was received as a fully responsible member of the community and was charged to put the community's interest first.
ACT THREE -- The Incorporation into The Community
During the entire time of Initiation, youth and community were saving goodbye to the children they knew. During the third act, they would welcome persons who had never been a part of this community -- strangers who wanted to join this community and had demonstrated their allegiance to the community in learning its mysteries and passing its trials. This was not about reincorporating people who had been away, but rather, about incorporating new beings into the community.
WHERE ARE THE MODERN RITES OF INITIATION?
With few exception, children today do make the transition from youth to adult. So, where's the rub; why are we so concerned? The purpose of Initiation was to keep the youth linked to the community. In this century, in North America, we have evolved into a situation in which youth initiate themselves. The "gang" or "posse" initiations are the most obvious, as they require the youth to separate themselves from the community in a dramatic way which sometimes include random acts of violence directed against the larger anonymous community. The Mall culture and the substance abuse crowds have their entry rituals as well. Now, consider parents who have fallen victim to an impossible to fulfill story called the Nuclear Family. Whether a couple or single, parents are expected to give all the guidance, discipline, values, and support to their offspring while working and commuting 50 to 60 hours per week. How are they to initiate their own children and into what society? Finally, as we have stratified our societies, we have relegated the elders to insignificant, non community related roles. Their life experience is ignored, and their participation in the rearing of children is seen as objectionable. In former societies, the elders were those who cared for the society by initiating the youth. Many of us who are doing Rites of Initiation work are doing so with the future of the larger community in mind. This task, however, is far too big for us. The larger community must once again assume the task. That will not happen by some large governmental program, nor should it. Instead, every church, mosque, and temple, every service club, lodge and ethnic association, every quilting group, civic club, and sports association must assume responsibility for the youth whose lives or parents' lives they touch.