Ancient Future: The History and Importance of Initiation Rites in Modern Society
The umkhwetha, a Xhosa boy— soon to be man — stands silently, aligned with a company of his peers. He is preparing for his rite of passage into manhood, breathing deeply and attempting to steady his nerves. How will he face the amakhankathaq when it’s time for him to get cut? Sweat beads form on his brow. It’s almost time. He must prepare himself.
The above account is both truth and fiction. It’s fiction, in that we can’t definitively know the young boy’s reaction in this traditional rite of passage. It’s real, because subjectivity aside, this rite of passage very much exists.
The initiate of Xhosa society, the umkhwetha, is a young boy who goes through a rite of passage that makes him a man in the eyes of his tribe. This rite involves circumcision and a tribe-imposed period of isolation for days after. Once the ritual — which typically lasts for a few days or more — is complete, the boy is considered a man.
Ancient Initiation Rites in History
What are the significance of initiation rites historically, and what will it’s benefits be today should we begin to perform modern rites of initiation? To explore these themes in more detail, we will examine several mystery schools, initiation ceremonies, and rites of passage both ancient and modern. From the Eleusinian Mysteries, to modern day Protestant baptisms, we’ll flesh out major themes, implications, and new insights regarding the efficacy of these initiatory rites.
The Eleusinian Mysteries: Initiation Into Higher Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mystery cult is considered one of the oldest in Grecian history. It took influences from religious practices everywhere, but especially Egypt, where they instated many mystery schools along the Nile and traded with the Greeks at the Nile Delta. The Eleusinian Mystery School was centered around the cult of Demeter and Persephone, and strikes a keen balance between reenacting and embodying the mythos of these prominent nature divinities.
As many know, the story of Demeter and Persephone is a tragedy. The myth is fully outlined in the Hymn to Demeter, written by Homer. In it, we see Persephone picking flowers in an open field. Suddenly, the ground opens and out springs Hades on his chariot. He forces himself on Persephone and carries her to Tartarus to become his bride.
Demeter, sensing that something was wrong, searches everywhere for her daughter. She asks Helios — God of the Sun — what occurred. Being the Harbringer of Light, Helio sees all that’s under the sun. He witnessed what happened to Demeter and confirmed Hades abducted her daughter. She also asked Hecate, who was in a cave at the time, what she saw. She saw nothing, but heard Persephone scream.
Beside herself, Demeter stalked the earth. Endless winter battered the cities, fields became barren, and spring was no more. The Gods were terrified, and sent Hermes to the underworld to bargain with Hades. While in Tartarus, Persephone ate three mustard seeds, linking her to Tartarus forever. For three months, she would stay in Tartarus, during which time she’ll rule as Queen of the Underworld. The other two quarters of the year, she’ll be led back to the surface, to reunite with her mother Demeter on Olympus.
We don’t know the nuanced details of the Eleusinian Mystery rituals. Initiates were forbidden upon pain of death to reveal the details. However, we know that it’s connected to the mythos of Persephone and Demeter, and follows the mythos closely.
The ceremonies were lengthy. We don’t have the space to go into detail, so we must paraphrase the work of Iordanis Poulkouras in his essay The Eleusinian Mysteries, which breaks down the entire rite. As you’ll note, there is much that we’ve left out, but we left some of the major facets of each of the nine days that the rites took place.
The ritual would last nine days — the same number of days that Demeter walked the Earth looking for Persephone. It began with a ritual cleansing — this cleansed any initiate of any negative influences or “sin” (for lack of a better term) that they might have performed before the Rite.
After that, the initiate traveled to a temple where they performed dream incubation. During dream incubation, the initiates are taken to a temple, where they experienced dreams from Demeter that priests would interpret.
Dream incubation is when people would go to temples to gain answers to their questions through sleep. The dreams were oracular, and told the initiate things about himself and the situation he was experiencing, as well as fated occurrences that would happen to the initiate in the future.
A few days after, before which all manner of festivities and sacrifices occurred, the initiation began. Yes. These were just preliminaries.
The initiation was secret, but anthropologists believe it followed the myth, with themes related to death, abduction, mourning, and rebirth that Persphone herself experiences over and over again every year. The rituals culminated in the Maiden herself — Persephone — appearing to them and gifting them with a numinous experience that left them transformed for the rest of their lives. Finally, they were brought out into the new world, as illuminated men and women.
Ancient Egyptian Craft Guilds: Initiation for Profession
It’s also not uncommon for people to “initiate” into various professions. As it is today, one is traditionally taken into the fold, introduced to the “field” of the profession, and taught how to behave in that sphere for greater success.
According to James L. Carroll in his article Egyptian Craft Guild Initiations, in Ancient Egypt, the ability to initiate into the secrets of a guild — such as tailoring or blacksmithing — was important to continue to generate demand. Prospective novices were sworn to secrecy, and then taught through apprenticeship by a master of the craft.
The reason why it was a secret is to keep up with fluctuations in scarcity, supply, and demand. If you kept the secrets of your technique, you’d be the only person in the city who can uniquely produce what you do. It’s essentially a clever, and practical way of cornering the market.
That said, there were tests to determine if one was worthy of the knowledge they were possibly going to apply. Over a few days, and perhaps weeks, the initiates were tested ethically, sometimes without their knowledge. If they passed, they were apprenticed and would continue their journey toward master craftsman. These initiates were given secret names, and bound to their brothers and sisters of the guild, as well as the master who initiated them using certain rites — many of which have been lost to history.
Initiation: Common Themes
We studied two initiatory practices and explored the reasoning behind them — one mythic and one practical. If you were looking closely, you’ll find that certain themes continued to crop up. We’ll explore these themes below in the order they’re usually performed.
Cleansing
The first act is usually when the priest or master cleanses the initiate. We should be familiar with this, since it’s a staple of the religion with the most adherents in the world — Christianity. Baptism is the quintessential cleansing rite, where one is symbolically washed in the blood of the Lamb and made a new person. This is the purpose of cleansing rites.
People carry decades worth of emotional, mental, and even physical baggage, preconceived notions, and psychological traces that might prove difficult to overcome without a clear demarcation between who you were and who you are trying to become. The best way to implement this demarcation is to literally make them “brand new” through cleansing. This subconsciously impresses upon the initiate that they’re a blank slate, and it’s far easier to move the initiation forward.
Death
All initiates die — at least symbolically. Death is a part of life. If you consider this closely this is an extension of “cleansing”, if only with a sense of finality. The initiate is dying to all that they were. In some traditions, the initiate is actually buried alive with a funeral shawl, or given a concoction that makes them immobile, then dug out by their fellow senior initiate brothers or sisters. The end result is the same as the “cleansing” rite. You’ve died, and as such, you’re no longer the same. While many of these rituals are illegal today — and for good reason — the symbolism is still the same.
Rebirth
After the cleansing rite and the trauma of ritual death, the initiate is reborn. Typically they’re given a new name, such as in the Zen rite of Jukai, or new vows related to behavior and ethics. They’re also typically sworn to secrecy at that point. From then on, they’re meant to change their behavior and treat their brothers and sisters as family. Fellow initiates of the same group are thought of as family — even more so than their blood family. In certain Taoist practices, it’s not uncommon for initiates to call each other Brother or Sister, and to be told their new “family” is deeper than blood — literally following them in death well into eternity.
The Necessity of Modern Initiation Rites
I propose a safe return to initiation rites of ancient society. Graveyard burials need not apply. Initiation has a useful purpose in society for many reasons, some of which are enumerated below.
You’re Transformed
When you’re initiated — whether it’s to celebrate your coming of age, or a graduation — you’re a new person. Since the initiate is a Tabula Rasa, it follows that you can move forward in your new life with dignity and integrity. You don’t have to bring your old baggage with you. For former prisoners, this is especially efficacious. While they offer half-way house programs, initiation ceremonies that’re designed to reintroduce them into society would benefit them greatly.
You Have a Mentor
A key facet of initiation is giving the initiate a “mentor figure”. Often men and women are lost, and many people come from one parent — or no parent — homes. We experience this all the time at work, when our boss has a senior coworker teach us the ropes, but how much more effective would this be in our inner cities, especially ones where gang violence is prevalent? Many people turn to gangs, not just for protection, but also for family and connectedness. If we required our boys and girls to have mentors from their families who are in good ethical standing, when a young person reaches 10 or 13, we’ll cut down on a lot of violence and “idleness” that becomes a blight on our city.
You’re Skilled Up
We mentioned professional guilds in ancient Egypt — and for good reason. It’s true that some of them are still available, especially in our physical trades. You see this schema today in things like blacksmithing, electrician, and plumbing. One could say that college is a great substitute for mentoring, but given that college can put you in debt of hundreds of thousands of dollars, it’s not always practical. Trade schools should expand to include high demand, white collar jobs, especially for the under-privileged in our society. You see this often with software development, but expanding this to fields like engineering is useful.
We’ve gone over the history of guilds and why they’re important for our modern social landscape. Traditionally, initiation rites have been used for spiritual purposes — where it continues today. While that has it’s place in the grand scheme of things, especially as a method of transforming a person, we should expand initiation rites on a professional, familial, and age basis. We see this in small pockets across the world, as with Bar Mitzvas and social service programs. If we continue to expand initiation rites to encompass more than just religious structures, we’ll be well on our way to a wholesome and logically run society.
Works Cited
- James L. Carroll, Egyptian Craft Guild Initiations
- Richard G. Geldard, Eleusis: The Secret and Meaning of the Mysteries
- Iordanis Poulkouras, The Eleusinian Mysteries
- Byron Stuhlman, The Rites of Christian Initiation: The Evolution and Interpretation
