In recent years the lack of formal recognition of manhood has been of increasing concern for certain groups. The most obvious example is the movement spawned by Robert Bly’s Iron John, which has led various Americans into the woods to bang drums and hug each other. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is debatable, but it is obvious that, as in so many ‘New Age’ adaptations of more ancient ideas, it is rather a wishy-washy dilution of what was once a serious area of concern. What worries me is not the idea of recreating Rites of Passage for boys and men, but of what we should adopt in a modern society, and how should this be done. What is clear from any study of ancient societies is that many recognised only two levels of male existence, boyhood and manhood. Although, as men, many levels of initiation might be available (as in Australian Aboriginal societies), these were levels of manhood itself, not further levels of existence. An exception might exist in specialist areas, such as entry into male professions or for chieftains, but even so only two distinct levels were found.
A good example of what might be expected can be found in Alex Haley’s Roots, where the Mandinka initiation was recorded, and shown to millions of television viewers. Once a year, boys at the age of puberty, about to become adolescents, were ritually kidnapped and taken to a special male-only camp. Certain skills of hunting and fighting, particularly wrestling, ended with a ritual alteration to the appearance. In the Mandinka case this was a painfully late circumcision. In other societies, tattoos, scars and other signs were concerned. At the end of the process the boys had become men, were expected to act in accordance with tribal laws about male behaviour, and were full citizens of their society.
It is noticeable that the last main group in Western society to continue such a tradition is also one of the most law-abiding and mature. The Bar-mitzvah marks the moment that a Jewish boy becomes a man and, although this is done at an age which our laws insist is still too young for marriage, traditionally marriage would have followed fairly soon after. Confirmation in Christianity is the adaptation of this idea, but has become so specifically religious that it is no longer a mark of adulthood in society at large.
Although there are no longer any general traditions for this moment in our society, many remnants can be found. From the moment that our society moved from tribalism we see an adaptation of the idea. The most obvious is that of apprenticeship. This marked the point at which a boy began to learn the trade that would eventually become his livelihood. Although it appears only for those who do not choose the life of a farm labourer, there are reasons to believe that some sort of event would mark even that choice of profession. Apprenticeship was usually marked by some sort of ceremony, if only a party to say farewell to a boy who would now live with his Master. Here, someone other than the father was responsible for bringing up the new man, and three grades existed. The apprentice would eventually become a journeyman, and finally a Master himself after performing some act of Masterpiece – a work demonstrating his mastery of carpentry, dyeing, even musical composition.
Two examples of this remain in our Esoteric traditions. Those who follow an Arthurian path will recognise the three grades of Squire, Knight and Lord. A Knight was responsible for choosing and training a Squire, but only the Knight’s Lord could raise the Squire to Knighthood, and only the King could make a Knight into a Lord. In modern society this has completely decayed, with old men being made Knights for services to whatever political party is currently in favour. The right of Lords to make Knights still exists, although they are only Knights of that Lord’s court, not Knights of the Realm. The last time I heard of such a right being exercised was when Baron Strathlock, one of the three founders of the Fellowship of Isis, instituted the Noble Order of Tara, in which I am myself a Knight. The other obvious example is that of Freemasonry. The three degrees of regular Lodge, or ‘Blue’, Masonry, correspond to the Apprentice, Journeyman and Master grades of the other ancient Guilds. But Freemasonry is self-defined as ‘speculative’, seeking inner meanings to the old grades of operative Freemasonry. Consequently, the youngest at which one can enter is far older than puberty. In the United States this is dealt with by the existence of a junior Masonic Order, that dedicated to Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of the Knights Templar at the time of their destruction. Amongst the many men to have gone through their initiations are both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton – make of that what you will!
However, a far rougher guide to how ceremonies of manhood might have decayed since Pagan times can be found in some of the newer professions and institutions. Initiation rites featured as part of many industries, ranging from the Fire Service to the entire Printing profession. These were far from spiritual, mainly involving an act of ritual humiliation, which nevertheless acted as a bonding between the new apprentice and his new workmates, inasmuch as he knew that they too had been through the same process at some time. Most of these have now been banned due to the presence of women in these professions, where what seemed a still-boyish lark to some became acts of sexual harassment when done to women. Since there was little real content to these rites of passage, their disappearance is no bad thing.
More grotesque examples are still to be found on American Campuses. Viewers of ‘Animal House’ and ‘The Simpsons’ will be aware of how the ‘Greek’ societies – those named with a series of three Greek letters – have elaborate initiation rites. However, these seem both humiliating and rather late in life to act as true passage into manhood. Perhaps the most notorious is the élite ‘Skull and Bones’ society. From its name it would seem to be based on a grotesque parody of Masonry, but the final act to be performed by the initiate is to lie in a coffin, reciting one’s sexual encounters to date, while masturbating to orgasm. I don’t think the Freemasons do that. The most famous alumnus of Skull and Bones is ex-President George Bush, who has always refused to comment on his membership, apart from confirming it, and I don’t really blame him. Stop visualising his initiation this minute! Even worse are some of the initiations that have been uncovered within the British Army. Some of these involved torture and male rape, and are being destroyed wherever they are uncovered. These, however, do not seem to be traditional, it being evident from some reports that they were invented by the perpetrators.
So given both the prevalence and subsequent disappearance of rites of manhood, it is no surprise that attempts have been made to revive them in groups looking back to earlier times. I remember one talk being given in which the speaker, a famous Wiccan, asked if any of us had gone through more than one initiation. Both I and some others put our hands up, at which point he claimed that if we had to go through more than one, they hadn’t worked. But I and at least one other present were counting our first initiation as being when we first joined the Scouts.
The Scout Movement, and its American original – The Woodcraft League of America – was conceived as a way of guiding young men through the same period of adolescence that apprenticeships and earlier rites had once done. Only later were girls, and boys below 11 years of age, admitted into other forms of the movement. But the idea was mutated into a church-based militarist tradition soon after it was formed. As a result, in 1919 John Hargrave founded Kibbo Kift, the Woodcraft Kindred, which looked to such diverse sources as the Samurai, Anglo-Saxons, the Dik-Dik society of the Congo, the Rosicrucians and the Native Americans for inspiration. Magnificent ideals were there, but he set the joining age at 18, again beyond the age of adolescence, and succeeded to turn his movement into a political party.
His failure is also an indication of a general problem that will exist for anyone attempting to model male rites of passage on earlier models – society has become more complex than in simpler times. Whereas, before the Second World War, boys became men and that was that, nowadays boys become teenagers first. Not only are they not initiated into the responsibilities of manhood as they come out of puberty, they aren’t allowed to exercise them. The 15-year-old male is fully formed sexually, can be as strong as any adult, have skills (especially modern computer skills) sufficient to make a small fortune, and is not allowed to leave school or have sex. At the age of 17, a young man can have a business employing dozens of people and earning millions of pounds, yet cannot vote on how a government should spend the tax revenue he generates.
The existence of an intermediary stage is nicely demonstrated in a film called ‘The Wanderers’, set in the Italian-American community around the time of the Kennedy assassination. Here there are two levels of initiation. First, young men are initiated into gangs, much milder than those of modern-day New York! The hero is torn between the attractions of a life, and a girl, more suited to his intellect (represented by the Greenwich Village scene) and the responsibility he has towards his pregnant girlfriend. In the end he marries her, and is symbolically welcomed to the company of his new peers when the local ‘bowling-club’ sub-mafiosi give him one of the Hawaiian shirts they all wear. It is several sizes too big, but the beer-bellied crew promise that “you’ll grow into it, kid”.
Gang initiations in America exemplify the biggest problem in the lack of rites of passage. If none exist, they will be invented. The attraction that criminal gangs have for young, poor American youth is endemic. It arises from the fact that the rights and responsibilities of manhood are being denied whole sectors of American youth. As a result, kids with no fathers find new role-models who will take them under their wing and train them. The fact that they are being trained in violence, drug-dealing and appalling disrespect for women is no problem. Members begin to ‘apply’ from about the age of eight, when any youngster who starts ‘showing out’ by disobeying and insulting his mother is noticed. The respect that young men need to have their manhood confirmed comes only from older versions of what they are becoming – cannon-fodder for wars between drug cartels, more likely to die from murder than any other cause.
On the other hand, it is often the case that young men are capable of creating mutual identities with positive effects, and this is particularly true in the modern ecological protest scene. The dreadlocks, nose rings, tattoos and other tribal signs have been deliberately adopted, but by an evolving process that involves women just as much as it does men. But, even in this example, what is being joined is not the first phase of manhood, but an alternative to it. It may be that this haphazard approach will best fit the new millennium, but it is still small and affects only people from certain social groups.
So if we are to try to re-create male rites of passage, we need to identify the modern stages of manhood. We need to see how one becomes a man in the modern day, and we need to have the courage to carry out such rites. If we either exclude youngsters from ceremonies until they are 18, or allow them into everything, it won’t work. We also have to say to ourselves that we have a responsibility to youngsters to teach and influence them, instead of hoping that they are somehow automatically responsible enough to behave honourably. And that means creating organisations that young males are excluded from until around 14 years of age, and which time they will actually want to join, even if it is only certain social events.
I fear, however, that the hippyish laissez-faire attitude so many Pagans seem to have towards their kids makes this difficult. Above all, a rite of passage is focused on the initiated youth, who will have to listen to an adult lecturing on a manhood that they will have to identify with. This is not the same as joining mum and dad around the campfire. Paganism needs to be arranged for age as well as experience, along the lines (I suggest) of the martial arts programmes such as Judo. It has to offer a vision of manhood that consists of more than hairy New Agers beating drums in the woods. Above all, it needs Pagan men to be something that youngsters will want to emulate, and that might yet be the biggest challenge of all.