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Thoughts On A Book About Elders

I have just read a book that does my heart good. The book is called The Elder Within, The Source of Mature Masculinity by Terry Jones. This is a book that resonates with my own elder within.

Terry is a man who has found the elder within after a long journey. He is now asking other men to take this journey, especially men in the second half of life. He is calling other men to be elders for the sake of all of our communities, especially for the sake of younger men. He believes, as I do, that "the immature male has remained a boy in chaos, not by choice, but because no one has shown him the way to grow." He knows that elders can show the way.

Younger men desperately need elders, yet find only the elderly. Elders bring "wisdom in an active state" while the elderly often bring retirement which seems to mean more "retreating, going backwards." The elder models a mature masculinity while the elderly often are unguided boys grown old. As such, Terry is acting as an elder, calling the elderly and near elderly to see the possibility of being elders.

Terry seems to be saying that the elder within resides within the shadow of all men. This would be the archetypal elder residing in the white shadow of a man, powerful but unrecognized, wise but not fully conscious. The white shadow bears the potential power for good, the latent wisdom of the ancestors, in every psyche. Terry believes that there are men who act with elder wisdom in this culture, unconscious but effective elders. They are unrecognized yet are quietly doing elder work basd on their experience and good will. These are the men Terry is calling to a fuller, more conscious elder role.

There are also men who act out the dark elder residing in the dark shadow of the pysche. These men unconsciously use elder energy to play out rigid patriarchal roles, using young men instead of blessing them. These immature men tend to control a culture, initiating younger men into their own image, rather than believing in the sacredness of each younger man's unique journey. "Successful" patriarchs give up power grudgingly, often dying in the saddle. "Unsuccessful" patriarchs merely retire into bitterness, unforgiving and depressed.

Terry speaks of eldership as a stage in the development of all men. As such, this growth stage is as important to an older man's fulfillment as his eldering is important to a younger man's growth. Eldering is the hope of the elderly, including older patriarchs, who want to live a satisfying life.

Terry talks in an interesting way of various psychological theories that reinforce the claim that eldering is a natural stage in the development of a man. He is adamant that becoming older need not lead to "recreation, depletion and retirement." This is a false psychological end point, truncating a man's growth, leading more toward depression than development. Instead of retirement, which implies passivity, Terry talks of a whole new active phase in a man's second half of life, possibly the most fulfilling time in his life.

The strength of this book is keeping alive the idea of the authentic elder and the vision of what an elder would be like in this 21st century. For models of this vision he calls on the history of eldering, in its many faces and incarnations. Terry's explanation of the elder in indigenous times has the closest description, I believe, of hardwired eldering in each of us. Subsequent forms of eldering brought significant eldering pieces to the communities they served, until a great decline of the eldering role with the coming of industrialization in the late 18th century . The fragmentation of family and culture has evolved as eldering has devolved. Which brings us to the elder within, and the hope that the archetypal push for elder wisdom will be answered by more and more men in modern times.

Yet conscious elders are made, not born. Men need initiation into elderhood as well as manhood. Men need to go though the spiritual, psychological and even physical transformation that initiation requires. The big question for both of us is how many unconscious elders are their in this culture at this moment. How many men have been informally initiated into manhood by life's initiatory experiences and the pull of their elder within, and how many have then unknowingly continued the initiatory path to a place of elder wisdom? How many men are on the threshold of elder initiation waiting for the call?

If these unconscious elders are out there, Terry's book challenges them to formally do the initiatory work and take up their elder role for the good of the next generation. As Terry says, younger men need the blessing of elders to find the path of mature masculinity. Young men also need models of masculine maturity as hope and help. Terry attempts to do the same initiatory work for men in the second half of life, reaching out to bless these shadow elders while providing a model of elderhood that holds hope for this culture. He is looking to bless men in the second half of life so they recognize who they really are and how much they are needed. He is holding space for them to recognize the wisdom within and find the strength to face their own elder initiation.

Terry makes it clear that elders are a necessity in our culture. Older men must take themselves and their path seriously. Retirement is not an option if this culture is to heal itself. I believe the power of Terry's message is that he sees a strong spiritual dimension to the whole journey, and eldering is the next step in that journey. He understands that it is the elder, both within and without, who guarantees that a man's growth does not stray from his spiritual path or that a culture does not stray from its spiritual values.

For more information about eldering and his book go to Terry's web site www.elderhood.org.

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