The Importance of Male Initiation

The Important of Male Initiation

“Enduring cultures have one thing in common: They pass information on what is expected of mature adults in gender-separate communities.”  Richard Rohr  

To most of us, the concept of male initiation seems at best quaint and at worst downright scary.  Why would our knowledge-based and enlightened society need a seemingly primitive ritual?  After all, we can form instant communities on Facebook, get life’s answers from Dr. Google, and receive daily mentorship from our chosen thought leaders in 140 characters or less. 

As a result, this important practice has been banished to the fringes of society as a mere peculiarity.  It lives in the pages of National Geographic—as a relic of history and tribal culture—or as an intriguing or humorous, but mostly irrelevant, practice of shadowy secret societies, college fraternities, scary cults, and totalitarian regimes.  

I would argue we need to think more than ever about how to properly initiative our sons into manhood.  I think deep down most of us realize that our modern society is making it difficult for our boys to truly understand what it means to be a man. 

If we are honest with ourselves the highly networked online World they live in has created a pseudo-community with a profound impact on our boys.  This pseudo-community naturally orients them to opinions of immature peers, exposes them regularly to poor role models, encourages them to live and seek their greatest accomplishments in a virtual world, and literally sucks the life and vigour from their bones.   

The impact of pseudo-community should not surprise us.  Throughout history, cultures and religions have endured by intentionally passing on their most important values, beliefs, and rituals from generation to generation.  As demonstrated by the incredible survival story of the Jewish people, this value transfer is usually more important to long term survival than wealth, land, or military power.   

Why have a majority of cultures recognized the importance of initiation and testing on the path to manhood?  Perhaps they have realized something we seem to forget: To exercise power appropriately men need a sense of belonging, duty and responsibility, respect, identity, confidence, and purpose.  We cannot just assume the immature young man will embrace these things once he gets it “out of his system”. 

A successful transition to Manhood cannot be assumed, especially with the decline of underpinning cultural values such as duty, responsibility, honour, and absolute truth.  Individualism and the rights of the individual to do as they please, choose their own destiny, and make their own choices now reign supreme.  It should not be a surprise then that almost everything our young men consume in our increasingly narcissistic society encourages them to remain selfish and immature.