Last Sunday (Feb. 20) I attended an event with a friend hosted by Evolver and the local spore group that had a discussion on the lack of "Rite of Passage" ceremony in our modern society. I found it very INTERESTING but I found it to go around the MAIN POINT. We talked about addictions, death, adolescence, menstruation, menopause, and a lot of the different stages of LIFE. We talked about COMMUNITY about SUPPORT and about how SOME get stuck in the different STAGES OF LIFE.
There is nothing that I heard during the event that I would disagree with or even to do differently. In ALL of the discussion I never heard any mention of SPIRIT. I do not mean RELIGION or any similar topic, but the realization that LIFE is more than the PHYSICAL. We did mention SHAMANISM and the use of PLANT MEDICINES, but without some anchor in the SPIRIT part of LIFE it is very LIMITING in the benefits.
I believe we need to approach LIFE with a broader understanding than just the PHYSICAL. We can go through these Physical Passages with extreme difficulty when we are only focused on the Physical. In some aboriginal cultures when one comes of age, they are no longer children of the adults that raised them. At this time Father Sky and Mother Earth adopt them, in this way they are never alone. Today we would see this as very SYMBOLIC and of very little real value. In the ancient ways this was more than symbolic, there was a much more REAL relationship with Father Sky and Mother Earth.
It is this RELATIONSHIP that we have lost. We lost this relationship when we abandoned our BELIEF and replaced it with PHYSICAL KNOWLEDGE. For the last 200 years or more we have followed the adage “Knowledge is Power” and this knowledge has replaced our BELIEF. In our haste for knowledge we have demoted our BELIEF to religion and/or superstition. I have been told “Facts are more REAL than Belief”. Do you find it interesting that you can have a number of labelled “Specialists” debating over the interpretation of FACTS? Does this not signify that our FACTS are not as absolute as we may BELIEVE they are?
It is not a matter of one or the other (Knowledge or Belief) both has a critical part to play in our Life, one does not trump another. There is a good example where both have a place to play;
A California medical doctor was in a skiing accident and broke his lower spinal cord. The prognosis was that he would be paralyzed from his waist down, for the rest of his life. He was a medical doctor and knew the medical science and the knowledge that the spinal cord does not heal itself. It was over two years later when the doctor was interviewed on the NEWS because he was actually walking around his doctor’s office visiting his patients. In the interview he was asked how he explained his incredible recovery. The doctor responded “Life always overcomes difficulties” he went on to say “He kept sending the message from his head to his legs ‘to move’ and that LIFE would find a way to connect the message to his legs.” He continued sending the message for 2 years before he had any sign the message was getting through.
What is so amazing with the story of the Doctor is that his BELIEF in LIFE took him beyond the FACTS and the KNOWLEDGE that SCIENCE is consumed with. He knew the SCIENCE and it was his BELIEF that took him beyond that KNOWLEDGE. He kept his BELIEF in spite of the KNOWLEDGE and even with everyone (physiotherapist, other paralyzed patients, friends and co-workers) around him BELIVING he would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his Life. To keep his BELIEF up even with no sign of him walking again for 2 years, it is truly incredible.
We know that Medical Science has immense value, but when we put all of our BELIEF into this KNOWLEDGE we can only go so far. When we can respect Science for what it can do and we put our BELIEF in LIFE we can do the IMPOSSIBLE. The doctor KNEW the knowledge of medical science and KNEW the limitation of this knowledge, he also had a RELATIONSHIP with LIFE and this RELATIONSHIP was his BELIEF that LIFE always overcomes difficulties.
What has this to do with “Rites of Passage”? When we go through the many different phases of our Life in a strictly PHYSICAL aspect it becomes a lot more difficult. We NEED to have a very fundamental RELATIONSHIP with LIFE and then we can truly appreciate the many different PHASES LIFE has for us, to enjoy. Without this relationship we become fearful of what we are losing and what is ahead. We see our self in isolation and more vulnerable to being a VICTIM OF LIFE, and not a intricate part of LIFE.
It is this RELATIONSHIP WITH LIFE that I found to be missing in the discussion on Sunday (Feb. 20).
