Initiation and Pain

[qos]

Initiations -- both the planned and the unexpected -- have been an interest of mine for many years. Every so often I'll make lists of major transition points in my life, looking at which are simply that -- transitions -- and which qualify as initiations.

One of the most important qualities which sets initiations apart from other milestone events is that of transformation. After going through an initation you are not who you were before, and there is no going back to your pre-initiatory state. You have changed.

Today, for the first time, I started wondering about the pain that so frequently accompanies initiation, at least in my personal experience. I'm reluctant to say that all initiations must include an element of pain, but when I reflect back on my own iniatory experiences the ones that were most significant and the most profound were the ones that hurt -- or at least were deeply challenging.

It's too late in the evening now for me to come up with a personal conclusion, but I wanted to pose the question here and find out what my friends think.

Comments

[edwarddain.livejournal.com]

Eh, I think it depends on how you want to define transformation and what you are going to qualify as pain - and if you think that an initiation has to have a conscious, intentional quality to it or not.

[qos.livejournal.com]

After reading the responses above, I see there's a lot more variance in the interpretation of 'initiation' than what I was expecting. Once I get some other tasks done this morning, I'm going to make a longer post about what *I* mean by it.

But as far as intention goes: my personal experience is that my unplanned/unexpected initiations are the most powerful, and the ones most likely to involve pain. I've only experienced a couple of planned or formal initiations which truly "took" and resulted in authentic change.

I hadn't thought about defining pain. . .

[edwarddain.livejournal.com]

I turn around and suggest, at least as I use the term, that while all (or most) initiations are rites of passage, not all rites of passage are initiations.

Initiation is a pretty specific term and concept the way I hear and see it used. So that may just be where I'm coming from.

[psychgeek]

And our experience of pain is highly impacted by our perception of it - and our perception of it is highly determined by how we define it... ;-)

[/psychgeek]

[qos.livejournal.com]

that while all (or most) initiations are rites of passage, not all rites of passage are initiations

Yes!
In fact, when I make my personal lists I usually make that distinction. I just wasn't thinking about it last night.

Still pondering the pain part. . .