In the lives of individuals and cultures, initiation takes place at many times and at many levels of experience. Joy and tragedy visit the lives of individuals, initiating profound transitions. Societal upheavals such as war, and natural ones like earthquakes, affect entire cultures. The rhythmic change of seasons, both natural and personal, deeply influences the human experience.
Before we learned to explain, or attempted to control such events "scientifically," human societies celebrated these occurrences by means of initiatory rites. From the perspective of initiation, experience was seen in the context of an archetypal world blessed by divine presence. In this way, the important transitions of human existence attained symbolic meaning.
This lecture will inform us about the archetypal dimensions of the stages of individual and collective life. Using illustrations from many cultures, it will show how ancient rites of passage still exist; and how, through dreams and similar materials, they reappear as symbols in the contemporary psyche.
Manisha Roy, Ph.D., is a psychological anthropologist and Jungian analyst. Born and brought up in India, she was educated at the universities of Chicago and California. Author of Bengali Women (University of Chicago Press, 1976), she has also co-edited Cast the First Stone: Ethics in Analytic Practice (Chiron, 1995). She was a close friend and colleague of the late Kate Millard.
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