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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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New Beginning
Spring is a time when many new things come. If you would reject any supernatural element, then why does proper observance of spring seem to make so many things prosper? Even things supposedly unaffected by the weather? The astral is more active in spring. This is why we have spring fever, the “psychic disturbance” so common in…
Category: Rites
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