The Spirituality of Initiation

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Introduction

As the Master grew old and infirm, the disciples begged him not to die. Said the Master, "If I did not go, how would you ever see?" "What is it we fail to see when you are with us?" they asked. But the Master would not say. When the moment of his death was near, they said, "What is it we will see when you are gone?" With a twinkle in his eye, the Master said, "All I did was sit on the riverbank handing out river water. After I'm gone, I trust you will notice the river."

This is a book about the spirituality of initiation. This is a book about noticing the river.

My last book talked about the steps a man takes on the psychospiritual road to manhood. That book used the template of the initiation of indigenous peoples as a guide and a structure for understanding. The process is archetypal. Knowledge of this process lies dormant in every man. The yearning for initiation is behind more and more actions, both constructive and destructive, that a man finds himself doing as he ages. The yearning increases as he grows older. Without understanding a man will find himself frustrated, angry, ultimately depressed. For he will look, as the song goes, in all the wrong places to find relief and release.

My earlier book talked of the detours and dead ends that an unconscious man, a man without understanding, will travel. Unfortunately, most of these roads are the ones our culture advertises as the highways to happiness. Who hears of a superhighway ending in a dead end? Can all those fellow travelers be wrong?

I also talked about a path that leads to that which a man most deeply desires. This is a path that leads to a feeling of manhood from the inside out. This path leads to a sense of peace that passes the understanding of this culture. This is a path that leads to passion and enthusiasm and aliveness. It isn't advertised widely. It starts out as a nondescript, prosaic foot path.

This is a path not without pain. Many men who read my first book were most touched by my discussion of pain in the life of every man. They began to understand that the emotional pain they were feeling was not necessarily a sign of defeat, nor a sign they were on the wrong road. The cultural advertisers of the superhighway don't talk of the confusion of feeling out of control, the depression of loss, the anxiety of an uncertain future. To them, those are signs of waywardness. If those feelings come, they are to be cast aside, never to be shown to other men, a part of the secret shame of not feeling manly.

The true road to manhood starts with pain, sometimes a great deal of pain. If men had true masters, like in the story, they would have the elders that all men need for initiation. These elders would prepare a man for the pain, lessening its terror dramatically, even helping a man to embrace it. They would give a man the understanding that this pain is part of their psychospiritual journey, their journey toward manhood. They would show that this pain is sacred.

I have written in the past mostly about the psychological steps of manhood. I have found that those steps lead inevitably onto a spiritual path. This is not necessarily a religious path, though this path often moves through religious countryside. This book is about that spiritual path. It is about a continuation of the journey. It is about sacred pain and sacred joy.

In my mind the path of initiation into manhood is a seamless garment moving from the psychological to the spiritual, back and forth, until the distinction is irrelevant. I believe, as in initiation, man is a spiritual being, only satisfied with spiritual answers. This is part of a man's hardwiring. This view of man doesn't mean leaving psychology behind. Psychological principles still hold. It is that most in the psychological field do not choose to go beyond a certain point in the psychospiritual path.

The problem with saying that man is a spiritual being is that the word spiritual is so overlaid with cultural meanings that misunderstanding and miscommunication is inevitable. So the first thing I must say is that I don't have spiritual answers. They are not in the back of the book. This is the problem with the usefulness of most religions when a man is ready for initiation. Religions pride themselves on the answer. Initiatory spirituality sends a man headlong into the terror of the questions. Religion is about the right answers. Initiation is about the right questions. Religion has no initiation into spiritual adulthood.

This is a book about initiation and spiritual adulthood. Earlier in a man's life he may need religious answers. This can be preparatory to the harder questions. Even in indigenous cultures, elders do teach of the universe as they see it, its origins, how ancestors have found their answers. However, in initiation a man is sent out to find his own answers, alone. Here there are no teachers, no rules, no right answers. A Christian catechism does him no good, nor the Torah or the Gita or the Koran or other sacred writings, nor any master's teaching. When he comes back, if successful, he no longer needs religious answers. He has found the answers inside, in his experience.

As in all initiation there is paradox. In one sense an initiated man no longer lives by external rules. On the other hand, he has more respect and understanding for the rules he formerly adhered to. Jesus said that he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. He was a prophet and teacher. He was an elder. He was killed for not following the rules as understood by uninitiated men.

This book will talk about the religious and spiritual traditions that move beyond the rules. Like my first book it draws heavily upon indigenous spirituality, the spirituality of initiatory cultures such as Native American, aborigine, Meso American, African tribal, Celtic. It will also drink deeply of the wisdom of the mystical traditions of many religions. The dying Master of the river, as many a Master, is part of that mystical tradition. Finally, the wisdom of the artist, be it poet, storyteller, transmitter of visions, will have its say.

This book is about the experience of finding the answers within. This is a book about the river. For the path of manhood always leads to the river, the water of life. I am again acting as an elder, like the master, with some teaching, some preparing, much prodding. I will be introducing you to the wisdom of many other elders as well. I am hoping to give hope. I am hoping that a man who reads this book will find what he already knows deep inside. For it is going inside that a man finds manhood. For it is inside that the path leads to the river.

My previous book, Toward Manhood, is archived here.