The Ordeal

At the heart of the rite of passage is the ordeal. I confront something, face and struggle with those parts of myself I'd rather disown. Jacob wrestling the angel, Luke Skywalker facing down Darth Vader, Frodo leaving the fellowship behind and striking out alone for Mount Doom -- these are some of the images our culture shows us of the initiatory ordeal.

It need not take such a dramatic form, however. A writer struggling with writer's block, or an adolescent taking the risk to ask someone out on a date, or someone asking the boss for a raise, are all enacting the archetypal struggle. Any confrontation, any risk, can meet this need -- as long as the act is held in the proper context as transformational.

This is what therapy, at its best, does. It creates the safety to face the primal agony and come to terms with it. This, too, is the creative process at its truest. This is what Arts of Passage is all about.