Why Initiation

Initiation
[edit] The Road of Trials
The road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.
Campbell: "Once having traversed the threshold, the hero moves in a dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where he must survive a succession of trials. This is a favorite phase of the myth-adventure. It has produced a world literature of miraculous tests and ordeals. The hero is covertly aided by the advice, amulets, and secret agents of the supernatural helper whom he met before his entrance into this region. Or it may be that he here discovers for the first time that there is a benign power everywhere supporting him in his superhuman passage. The original departure into the land of trials represented only the beginning of the long and really perilous path of initiatory conquests and moments of illumination. Dragons have now to be slain and surprising barriers passed – again, again, and again. Meanwhile there will be a multitude of preliminary victories, unretainable ecstasies and momentary glimpses of the wonderful land." [6] Joseph Campbell- Hero with A Thousand Faces

The simple idea is that we must be challenged out of our comfort zone. We must pass over the threshold- that which is known- into the unknown. If we don't we become stuck or stagnant. The adventure is a challenge and we must seek it out. Learning something new- a new sport, instrument, program anything that makes you challenge yourself makes you leave the old for the new. It is essential for our human existence to move forward. We may know very little about the unviverse and why we are here. One thing is for certain we are evolving- somehow and in someway. You can wait for it or you can go out and seek it. Just do it.