The Container

The key element of a true rite of passage is the container. The container is also known as liminal space, ritual space or sacred space. In this space, the usual rules of normal reality are suspended. All the petty concerns fall away, and feelings of love and community join all the participants. Without the liminal (or "in-between") quality of the space, no transformation or growth happens. Yet it is an evanescent quality, hard to define and impossible to force. The trappings of ritual are designed to invite the sacred, but cannot force the magic.

We all strive, consciously or unconsciously, for liminal space. Rock concerts, football games, dance clubs, vacations, all have a magical feel to them because they partially create sacred space. But because there's no container, no knowledgeable elder holding the space, these experiences fall short of the true transformational space, and instead are given the technical name of "liminoid" space. This is why so many vacations, concerts and conferences are so unsatisfying. They tantalize, give a hint of the flavor, but fall short of authentic ritual space.

To create true transformational space requires intention. Someone, or some group, must take up the task of creating and holding the container for those undergoing the transformational process. Like any archetypal process, this goes on all the time, though usually it's described in different language. In the world of psychotherapy, for example, container-building can be called creating safety, transference, the therapeutic alliance or unconditional positive regard.

If the therapeutic process is held as a rite of passage, new possibilities open up. It's possible to break free of the static, passive view of a "patient" with an "illness." Instead, the suffering of life is reframed as a ritual ordeal, creating the movement necessary to break through and actually transform.