Rites of Passage
From Boyhood to Manhood
by Jared Feria
It looms before you like a mighty fortress, seemingly impregnable. Peaking high above, its massive arches cast a giant shadow, coating your surrounding world in a cold darkness. Steep walls of sharp rock thrust skyward, penetrating the gray canvas. The sight of the jagged cliffs stab the life out of the very air you breathe. Clouds roll over the peak, at times obscuring the summit, your destination.
The
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The little boys of the tribe knew it was coming. The day they would be stripped away from Mommy and all that was feminine and taken away into the world of men. Often abducted in the middle of the night by the elders of the tribe, young boys were stolen away from crying mothers who grasped to hold onto the little man they birthed from their womb. Robert Bly writes about this “ripping away” in his book, Iron John. In some tribal cultures, the women knew it was coming, the day their offspring would ascend into manhood. But they still played along to enhance the drama of the passage for the boy.
The feminine influence nurtured and carried the young men up until the day they, as well as their peers, were selected by the older men to participate in the long awaited rites of passage ceremony. They were to be educated by the elders of the community in the ways of manhood; instruction in the areas of finance and trade, and relationships and hunting were just a few of the many realms young boys were introduced to for the first time.
Accompanied by their return to the mixed culture of men and women they were looked at as men and expected to act and integrate into the culture as men. No longer did mothers carry the role of nurturing their boys. And no longer did the men leave them behind to be with their mothers. The dual transition of leaving and cleaving was embraced by both genders. The tribe understood this new dynamic and respected the young men as they learned their new role in the community. They were to come away from the tribe little Johnnie boys, only to return as big Johns.
To a young man growing up with rites of passage it meant everything to his manhood to participate and share with his peers in this life-altering event. Without his passage into manhood he was left behind to be swallowed by the feminine world, not given permission to engage in the fellowship of his brothers and fathers.
Young boys today are not taught to admire the transition from boyhood to manhood. They are not led by the older into the ways of men. What do they look forward to then? Losing their virginity in junior high? Gazing at their first nude magazine? Drinking their guts out once they reach twenty-one? Going to college?
Now, what we have is a culture filled with twenty to eighty year old men still living in the minds and the emotions of ten year old boys. Still longing to be led up the Mountain of Manhood by men who have embraced the path themselves and are willing to climb the Mountain again for the sake of another man.
Copyright © 2005 Jared Feria
Worth Mentioning...
“It is a great thing to be on the mount with God, but a man only gets there in order that afterwards he may get down...and lift them up. The mount is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something” (My Utmost for His Highest).
-Oswald Chambers
