By Michael Meade

This is a hard time to be alive. We are in the middle of a resurgent pandemic, in the midst of a public health crisis and on the edge of economic collapse. We are in the middle of civic uprising and a struggle against racial and social injustice. We are still facing a global climate crisis and in the thick of a critical election year. Because all things turn out to be interconnected, the transition we are all going through involves not a single change, but a cascade of complex changes, ultimately a genuine transformation of the world.

We are being called to a greater sense of meaning and purpose in our lives and such essential changes must come from a deeper level of understanding. The ancient sense of a rite of passage offers a “theory of transformation” and psychological perspectives that can help us find ways to navigate and orient our lives in the midst of radical uncertainty and rapid change.

Rites of passage begin with the sense of departure from one state or stage of life in order to arrive at a place of renewal and regeneration of life. Such an initiatory journey comes down to three basic steps. First, a phase of separation detaches us from the daily world and disrupts familiar patterns. The second step entails a period of undetermined duration involving uncertainty, ordeals and transitions. The third step involves a reincorporation of community at a level of deeper understanding and greater unity. An old name for that is communitas or deep community.

This process parallels our current state of multiple crises and social upheaval. The element of separation can literally be seen in forms of social and physical distancing as well as acts of quarantining to protect each other from Covid-19.

The closing of businesses, shutting down of services and widespread loss of jobs also depicts a process of separation from normal life. And, separation painfully appears in standoffs between police and those protesting against the epidemic of systemic racism, persistent injustice and violence by police.

The current controversy over wearing masks symbolizes separation in the sense that it has become emblematic of deeper social and political divisions. Refusing to wear a mask indicates a refusal to accept hard realities and the life-threatening issues we face. It also attempts to deny the important fact that we are simply all in this together. Not only that, but the need to close down areas that opened up too soon reinforces the sense that we have separated from the world as we knew it and there can be no going back.

You can get a sense of the second phase of a rite of passage when the protests following the death of George Floyd erupt and quickly spread across the U.S. and around the world. The protests are noticeably multicultural and multivocal as they exhibit elements of the changes in social unity and social justice that need to develop for a true cultural transformation.

Such “transitional societies” or groups appear in times of crisis. They become temporary communities and vehicles of change that align with the second step found in rites of passage. They must be at odds with the accepted status quo as they express and manifest the painful need to radically reform society. However heated they may seem initially, the point is not simply to oppose or depose prevailing hierarchies. The greater aim is to awaken a deeper sense of inclusive humanity that alone can find ways to renew and reform an otherwise stuck society. 

It has become clear that we will be in the coronavirus crisis for months to come. It is also clear that the struggle for social justice and cultural healing will take time and continued attention. And the political issues will likely intensify before genuine solutions can be forged. In that sense, we will be in this period of uncertainty and transition between forms for some time. 

We are already in a rare state of transition, a collective rite of passage that can not only shift our society, but can truly transform our culture. If we can imagine that the eventual outcome of all the disorder is a transition to a greater sense of inclusive humanity and social unity, we may find ways to navigate all the rough terrain. Meanwhile, we need to find and trust the unifying moments of sudden community that appear in the midst of protests and in the healing process where we agree to protect and care each for the other.