I feel that Initiatory Rites of Passages are crucial to personal development, whether that’s a Vision Quest or some other form of initiation. Each native tribe had specific coming of age Rites of Passage ceremonies for their young people, men and women. Often the ceremonies were different for women than men. But sometimes they were the same. The importance lies in a “marking in history” of a person’s transformation from one form to another. From a youth to an adult, traditionally. In today’s modern, adapted Vision Quests adults of all ages desire to mark a life transition, find deeper connection to the Earth, themselves, Spirit. The Vision Quest is an opportunity to step into the Spirit world and speak directly to Creator and the Earth and Spirit helpers (animal helpers). Any visit to the Spirit World is life-changing.
It is important that someone desiring to Vision Quest find someone or an organization that is experienced in holding this type of ceremony. Safety is priority – not just physical safety, but psychic and spiritual. When we’re sitting praying in the Spirit World, alone and altered from fasting, many different kinds of Spirits (good and bad) may approach us. When there are experienced people (traditionally a Medicine person) holding the ceremony and praying for the quester, the quester is protected and there is less of a chance for negative energy to sneak in.
Some tribes would traditionally use hallucinogenic plant medicines during Rites of Passage rituals, in particular in Mexico and South America. The traditional North American Indian vision quest did not use plants in this way. The altered state came from fasting from both food and water. Some quests required that the person stand the whole time, never sitting down. Others required that the person pray all night and only rest during the day.
I personally tell questers to refrain from mind-altering substances, all drugs, coffee, nicotine, etc for at least two-weeks before, during the quest, and a month after the quest. This is for safety reasons as well as helping them to let go and trust Creator’s plan for them without enhancing it in anyway. If one is pure in heart and mind as they fast for three to four days, this is what Creator listens to and sees. Sometimes people jump to enhance a spiritual ceremony too quickly with hallucinogens – because they are afraid nothing will happen otherwise, they want a profound “big” experience right NOW, or they are trying to connect rather than just trust that what is, is enough. These reasons usually come from the more immature mind who is still attached to wanting things immediately. Vision Questing transforms the immature mind into a mature mind – opening the mind to inner-wisdom, respect for all-creation, and humility. The mature mind can sit in nature and receive vast amounts of teachings and wisdom simply by observing.
When youth have no elders to hold a structure for their growth into the larger “tribe”/community, and have no structure to discover their own unique “medicine” for their people, they will instinctively create their own Rites of Passage experiences without guidance. Gangs are the most extreme example of this – symbolizing the initiation into a men’s or women’s society that makes one special, part of a like-minded group, having specific rituals (tagging, tattoos, killing) that everyone honors. Since the Sixties many people have tried to create tribal living on intentional communities – living off the grid, growing their own food, wearing their hair long, raising their children with a deep respect for nature and learning primitive technologies. Suburban and urban youth today often reach for drugs experiences, and skin mutilation rituals such as tattooing, scarification, and piercing. Early sexual experiences, without education about pregnancy, also can throw youth into Initiatory experiences such as parenthood!
Modern society is a culture without respect for the needs and power of youth or elders. Both of these groups are at the heart of community Rites of Passage ceremony. Without honoring Rites of Passage rituals and ceremonies our culture has become vulnerable to brainwashing by any “power that be”, for example the advertising industry that would have us be infantile consumer/producers, “Me, me, me” focused. Men in particular need Initiation rites. Without them, they remain boys forever, even in fatherhood. Women have an embodied form of Initiation with the menstrual cycle, where they can’t deny that they’ve just become a woman and can now become pregnant. Though, the menstrual/Moon cycle in women has been degraded to a “dirty” illness rather than the powerful purification process that it is –accompanied with heighten psychic energies and powers to heal others.
Without Rites of Passage, our culture will remain children longing for something more and grasping for outside “fixes” to fill the void. Of course it all depends on the parenting as well – some parents will celebrate their children’s transitions appropriately and provide strong enough guidance and support as their children discover their “medicine” for the world. But these cases are few.
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