Along the Way

This month's interview in The Sun magazine is about Rites of Passage. The interviewee, Malidoma Some, is from the nation of Burkina Faso where he was raised with the tradition of initiations, a tradition that we in the West have forgotten.

He says, "Initiation means a rite of passage from one stage of life to another. The absence of formal initiation in the West is why young people create their own informal initiations, such as engaging in reckless and dangerous behavior."

I truly believe that I got lost as I entered womanhood. I had no direction, didn't know who I was and what gifts I had. Maybe a formal initiation into womanhood would have been successful in creating within me a sense of belonging and purpose. Maybe not. I will never know.




"Growing up female in America. What a liability! you grew up with your ears full of cosmetic ads, love songs, advice columns, whoreoscopes, Hollywood gossip, and moral dilemmas on the level of TV soap operas. What litanies the advertisers of the good life chanted at you! What curious catechisms!" - Erica Jong


"It seems that it is only the recent West that has deemed it unnecessary to 'initiate' young men. Otherwise, culture after culture felt that if the young man were not introduced to 'the mysteries,' he would not know what to do with his pain and would almost always abuse his power. It looks like they were right." - Richard Rohr.