'Rites' Articles
What is our goal today in the beginning of the 21st century? To resolve old beliefs and understand that again. The lore behind death rites is as big as religion, science and magic itself, and the rites of death are really rites of life.
Rites of passage are very much parts of our lives and thinking. There are rites of passage all through life, and yet mostly in this day and age the concept of marking a rite of passage has gone by the wayside. Even our psychologists are recognizing these stages in human nature and warn if they are neglected they risk our mental health, but we keep on obsessing.
“Every ceremony or rite has a value if it is performed without alteration. A ceremony is a book in which a great deal is written. Anyone who understands can read it. One rite often contains more than a hundred books.” George Gurdjieff (Russian , 1873-1949)
“We needed this, it’s a rite of passage game, … When you get through a game like this, it shows you what you’re about and shows you where you’re trying to go. … At certain points, this is a journey. And it was a hell of a journey today.” Simeon Rice
Rites of Death
Death rites are perhaps the most universal in there nature and there significance. The lore behind death rites is as big as religion, science and magic itself, and the rites of death are really rites of life. They differ as much as the cultures views on life, from the Haitian “birthday” like celebration to an Irish wake. We can start with views of the body. They differed according to culture and in part according to region. In places where a body kept better there were often beliefs related to a spirit lingering in the body. In places where bodies decayed… Seek More
Abode for the Spirit
Many of our modern ghost stories once served to illustrate things they believed about life. If you got ill, it was because an ancestor was upset or because they withdrew from your disrespect, and an evil non human spirit was permitted to enter you. The idea of the body as an object, but also as an abode for the spirit, is wide spread. There is a chapel, I believe located in Spain, composed entirely of the donated bones of the congregations deceased. Some view it as quite beautiful, but it was built taking the idea that the body was the… Seek More
Resolve Old Beliefs
In Norse belief most people go to hell. This is the literal source of the word and it was governed by the Vnir goddess Hela. To the Norse, hell was just a place of dreary boredom. Hell wasn’t for the evil. It was just the underworld instead of the sky. Helios is Greek for sun, which would be heaven? Yes, but death rites in every culture are more about life than death. So hell was like being snowed in at one of their villages. Cold, hungry and unable to go anywhere. The idea of an afterlife reward or punishment arose… Seek More
Rites of Passage
Rites of passage are very much a part of our lives and thinking. For any who are familiar with the popular massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft (WOW), we see benchmarks in our lives. We “level up”. Graduate from school, get promotions, get married, get divorced. There are rites of passage all through life, and yet mostly in this day and age the concept of marking a rite of passage has gone by the wayside. You get these poor confused souls who were just recently divorced, or the recently widowed, or the recently adult, who are now lost in their social… Seek More
Go to the Edge
First seclusion, then the next stage of a rite of passage is limination. Going to the edge. These days many people make a career of that but there is no reason. It is sort of rebellion but without a clue. They go to the edge because they don’t like the center. Naturally it’s crazy, but they don’t have anywhere else to go. They just get stuck on that edge, made fringe, disenfranchised, and nothing changes. Yet some say the old traditions and rites were pointless, that they kept people stuck. Maybe they don’t know how to get to the center?… Seek More
Ultimate Hubris
How many of you are in a tradition of some sort? I eat breakfast every day. Yes the cult of breakfast, I sometimes venerate the flying spaghetti monster in that rite as my own personal heresy. I just left my marriage, am between homes and starting a new job. I don’t do tradition. Ok, now have you confronted it? Have you truly withdrawn from your normal? You’re saying we stay on the edge because we don’t really get there? Yes, the tradition of no tradition is a flat tire. The belief that the center cannot hold is making the tire unable… Seek More
Rule Tradition
If you’re proud of defying tradition, fine. Then if you don’t measure up, hell, you can defy your own tradition and go again. Don’t let the tradition rule you, you rule it. The old rites of passage were for dealing with what scared us, because honestly we are living things and whether we like it or not change is scary. We didn’t exactly get to pick that about ourselves. The rite of passage is empowering. It makes you the hunter, rather than a creature of the hunt. It makes you the seeker, rather than lost on the path. Like pulling… Seek More
Oldest Mystery
A female tradition that changes our values and priorities in amazing ways is menopause? Well, it can be. It used to be connected to one of humanities oldest mysteries. In many traditions the crone was the most powerful goddess, and crone does not equal ugly. Some people mistake that, but in fact the original meaning of the word crone and why it inspired fear, was because the crone was the most powerful deity. Be it the smiling and gentle grandmother goddess or the cranky old widow, she was still the one who knew most fully the rites of the mystery… Seek More
Rites of Spring
I don’t intend to delve too deeply into any one culture or beliefs on the rites of spring, and really it isn’t very necessary. Even in the most common view of orthodox religion, spring still means the same thing. The year is sort of intuitively perceived as a cycle of life and death, and it’s been this way in literally ever culture. But in this day and age, we don’t perceive it quite so clearly. It used to be that winter always held a very real risk of death, and the change of seasons kept us busy. They mattered quite… Seek More
Spirit of the Land
The Christ Easter story is mirrored in other religions, and it is the ultimate story of destruction and renewal. The pagan rites of kingship are heavily shown in the Celtic world, and this applied in Africa also, though the shamanic views were different from the monotheistic. Basically, it was believed that in order to truly have power over the land, the King had to become one with it. Thus the name ‘Pendragon’ meant Dragon King, and dragons were seen as being the spirit of the land. The same concept was present with the Dragon Emperors of China, but the rites… Seek More
