One
modern poet wrote that nothing is sacred anymore. Many others have
stated or observed a lack of the sacred in our lives in modern
times. Others would contend that a sense of the sacred, a connectedness
with
that which is sacred, a knowledge of a sacred self within us
is a fundamental human need without which we are not whole beings.
We are instead shadows
of our potential selves wandering aimlessly upon the earth
seeking gratification through our senses, seeking material wealth
through which
to seek this gratification, and despoiling the earth through
lack of awareness that anything is sacred.
Many
people including the original inhabitants of this land would say
that everything is sacred, and that one of our fundamental
tasks in
life is to understand and maintain right relationship with
everything else that exists. This right relationship with everything
is the
essence of what is called spirituality. Science identifies
commonalities in
all that exists: atoms, molecules, light, energy, etc. Some
people call this common ingredient spirit or the spirit that
moves in all
things. This Spirit or the Sacred may best be apprehended
outside the noise and speed of industrial/technological society.
Thoreau,
John
Muir, and Black Elk (among others) have found in nature or
the wilderness a source not just of peace, but also vision, guidance,
and right
relationship expressed in the salutation, “All my relations,
four leggeds, winged-ones, those that creep and crawl, those of fin
and scale, plants,
rock people and humans.”
If
indeed the emptiness of human life is an absence of the sacred,
and young people feel and experience this emptiness
whether they understand
it or can express it in language intelligently to adults,
this feeling of spiritual emptiness may be precisely what
causes many people to
turn to drugs to try to synthesize some spirit or just
some basic feel-good for themselves. We have more, yet we are
less satisfied. We live in
material wealth and spiritual poverty, so much so that
many young people have no concept of what it is to be spiritually
alive. The Sacred is
something to be derided or scoffed at. Many commentators
point at the decline of the family and family values as
our
core problem. I would
paint with a broader brush and say that the failure of
family relationships is reflective of the failure to maintain right
relationship in general.
Our cultural disregard for the earth and all that exists
upon it and within it, our constriction of concern for
only
that which is nearest
to us (in worse cases only oneself) reflects in a decline
in the quality of our life and our relationships, our families,
and our communities.
Throughout
history all over the world young people have been initiated into
adulthood and have sought in silence
and seclusion
a vision
of their true identities, a sign to follow in the confusing
pathways of
life. Adults as well have retreated from the turbulence
of every day life to renew themselves and deepen and
strengthen their relationships
with Higher Power, and to obtain guidance for living
life. This time of social isolation, abstinence from food, and
exposure to nature
provided
an opportunity for initiates to answer the question, “Who am
I?” without direct influence or coercion from any other human
being. The answers came from the initiates’ independent
and individual relationship with Nature, Spirit, and
Creator, however
these essences
were conceived of in their particular cultural tradition.
Practices of this type occur in Christianity, Buddhism,
Judaism, and Taoism
as well as in virtually all indigenous ways of life throughout
the world.
The
initiate who returns from the threshold of the spiritual and natural
world is welcomed and honored by the community
for the sacrifices s/he
has made, for being willing to face the energies of
the cosmos single-handedly and without the props and definitions
provided
by everyday life. The
youth is welcomed and confirmed in adulthood by the
council
of elders. S/he is an adult. S/he has fasted for it
and sacrificed every day comfort
for it. No one can deny this newly acquired adulthood
nor take it away. Identity, self-assurance and strength
have
also been acquired.
In
the absence of some meaningful process of initiation sanctioned
by the community in which a youth has an
opportunity to gain
a clear sense of his/her own independent identity
and path in life, many
youths will attempt to initiate themselves without
the benefit of adult/elder
assistance or guidance. Some of these formal initiations
(i.e. gangs) are simply acts of violence and endurance
of pain. Other less formal
attempts involve flirting with death in a variety
of ways ranging from motorcycles to dangerous drugs. The
wearing
of black, death
rock, the
common occurrences of adolescent depression are all
signs of a normal developmental searching for a deeper,
fuller,
more complete sense
of self, attempts to gain whatever must be obtained
in order to traverse the passage from youth to adult.
Many
young people
get stuck in the
dark tunnel with no helping hand or guiding light
to show them the way to emergence at the other end. They
have withdrawn
into a cocoon
of prescient childhood with no way to grow enough
to break out of the
protective coating they’ve spun for themselves. They hold much
promise and potential, but little ability to manifest it in any way.
They may indulge themselves endlessly in child’s
play that seems to symbolize the rites/rights of
adulthood: sex, drugs, violence
(particularly
gunplay) which keep them stuck as children playing
with adult toys in bodies which now have a dangerous
amount of physical power.
Why
did ancient societies, in fact virtually all non-industrialized
societies place such a profound
emphasis on the formal
initiation of young people into adulthood and the
full community’s participation
in that initiation process? Clearly these societies needed full-fledged
responsible adults with a strong sense of their own unique identities.
The survival of these societies depended upon each young person taking
his/her place in the circle of adults and being recognized and encouraged
to develop his/her talents and skills. Some young people in our society
stumble upon this sense of self through the institutions and customs
of our society. Many, however, are guided by and only discover what
they are fed by mass media. They never even conceive of something deeper
to be sought, though the yearning may manifest in the form of addiction
to substances or thrill-seeking behavior. We now have children who
have been raised by parents who never became adults and themselves
were raised by parents who never got out of entrapment in childhood.
There is a crying need for a path to be available for the many for
whom our society’s limited customs and institutions
of school, church, and military do not provide
an adequate means to self-discovery
or self-actualization.
This
is a role of something like the Vision Fast as a Wilderness Rite
of Passage, to address the
legitimate developmental
needs of that substantial
percentage of our youth who are otherwise lost
or floundering
in a sea of possibility with no internal rudder.
A time
set aside for self-realization
with the assistance of Higher Power. Without
the successful development of identity, the youth fails
at all subsequent
developmental tasks:
intimacy, generativity/productivity, and integrity.
The Vision Fast is a proven method for helping
people to
develop a clear
sense of identity
and direction along with strength of purpose and
strength of character.
| home | rites
of passage | vision quest | sierra quest |
| ukraine
2006 - "Search for the Holy Grail" | elder
wisdom | links | about
howchi |
©Howchi Kilburn
