Rites of Passage

By Ian Elwood, WireTap. Posted July 26, 2005.

Recently, as California raised the age requirement for getting a full driver's license from 16 to 18, I realized that in today's secular society this is our only rite of passage into adulthood. But although a driver's license allows for freedom of mobility, it does nothing to foster freedom of thought, help youth connect to community, or help them to seek a higher purpose.

During adolescence, youth are assaulted with a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts. Many adults identify this torrent of emotional upheaval as "just hormones," something that should be ignored until it goes away. But hormones aside, many youth experience this turmoil as a need for growth and change. Much as the body experiences growing pains, so too does the spirit, and rites of passage serve as an alternative to the traditional, "just hormones" way of growing up. So in order to create a society of empowered, ethical individuals we should offer more meaningful rites of passage for youth.

A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual that marks an event in a person's life, helping them transition from one stage to another. In most cultures, this ritual takes place around the time of puberty, is conducted by elders and involves a challenge or an element of risk. Once this challenge is overcome, a young person gains the cultural wisdom for transitioning into adulthood. The elders provide a ceremony that encourages youth to explore, question and reflect on their lives.

While rites of passage are common in most cultures -- the Dagara of Africa, the Aborigines of Australia, the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic and countless others -- our secular groups lack a thoughtful ceremony that initiates youth into the adult world.

Luckily, two Bay Area organizations -- Youth Speaks and Rites of Passage -- fill that gap for American youth. Both organizations guide youth during their transition by helping them to define their individual voices and aspirations.

Rites of Passage, a Santa Rosa-based non-profit, provides youth with the opportunity to participate in a vision quest. This ceremony is consciously converted from the Native American tradition, helping today's youth to deeply examine their hopes and fears. Youth are taken from their parents to a remote location where they fast, sing and dance. They then go into the wilderness alone in order to seek knowledge through deep introspection and, hopefully, revelation.

Over the first few days a facilitator leads intense discussions about what the participants would like to change about themselves, and what knowledge they seek from the vision quest. Over the next days, the youth go into the wilderness alone, with no belongings or food, and try to think, meditate, and perform self-made ceremonies. The purpose is to connect to a higher power or purpose, whatever that might be for different people -- Great Spirit, true self, God, collective-unconscious -- in order to gain a deeper understanding.

The experience is often intensely powerful, and although the revelations are different for every person, a common thread is that they provide clarity of direction in life, and challenge participants to transform themselves. After returning, they share their experiences with the group in order to incorporate them into their lives and iscuss the meaning of these experiences relative to the greater culture.

Jordan Howell reflected on this rite of passage, which he underwent at age 18: "The beauty of the vision quest is that it is a defined ritual that is meant to put your life into perspective. The ritual helped me focus and learn intently from my experience and, also very important, was the community which helped affirm my experience." Jordan added that he often wonders why more youth aren't going on vision quests.

Ian Elwood is a student at the New College of California, part-time radio DJ, freelance writer, San Francisco taxi driver and full-time cultural prognosticator.

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