Maidens and purity Balls, Warriorings and Manhood ceremonies

[valarltd]

So, today I found out that some Christian groups, in addition to purity balls, do Manhood ceremonies.

Generations of Light is a group that throws purity balls, where daughters pledge to remain abstinent until marriage and fathers take the responsibility to see that they do. They also have Brave Heart of a Warrior ceremonies for 12 year old boys. (12, because that was when Jesus questioned the elders in the Temple, and also because at 13= Today I am a Man)

The boys are also given a purity ring. But the get a sword as well, one almost too large for them to wield. And no, they are not given training. "At that time the immense sword was almost his height. I explained to him that although he could not wage war right now with this imposing sword, he would grow into the weight of the sword just as he would grow into the weight of manhood."


It strikes me that these are very similar to rituals we have in my own grove, but the warrioring is done at the wrong time. We honor the Fourfold Goddess: Maiden, Warrior, Mother and Crone. The God also has four faces: Green Man, Warrior, Father and Sage. They correspond to the elements, the seasons and the Quarters.

At menarche, we have a Maidening. The girl who has previously only attended rituals is now allowed to be part of them. She is encouraged to bid farewell to childhood, and the women of the grove celebrate her maturity. She is now considered a physical and spiritual adult. (Mental, emotional and legal must wait a while).

If we had a young man in the grove, he would have a Greening. The men would celebrate his passage into manhood, dedicate him to the service of the God of his choice, and announce his spiritual adulthood.

The Warrioring comes in the early to mid 20s, after the person has moved out of the learning phase of life and is moving into the protector phase. This often corresponds with college years. It is a time for getting out, being active and making things better. Doing it too early deprives a person of the learning time and thrusts too much responsibility on them too soon.

Mother/Father is not necessarily a physical phase. It is an automatic ritual when someone becomes a parent, but non-parents may have the same when they are ready to move out of protecting and into nurturing the group. Some people never have a warrior phase, or it comes later.

Crone is more a physical phase than Sage. Menopause marks the onset of cronehood, for some. Some women choose to remain as mothers until their children no longer need them, regardless of their cycles. Some women may never go through menopause or may have hysterectomies while still young. These will choose their time of croning, when they are called to it. Saging is generally set around 50ish.


Not everyone will hit every phase of life. I missed the warrior phase entirely.

But the Generations of Light seems to miss that each phase must come in its time.
They rush them, pushing the Maiden and Youth back to childhood, leaving the girls maidens--but under the guidance of men who really don't GET the phase--until they become mothers, and pushing warriorhood on the boys too early. Of course, they push early parenting as well, for purity's sake, as if no one is living past 50.

Each season in its time. Holiday, Year-wheel or Season of Life, each in its time.

Comments

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

Interesting... The thought that comes to me, after pondering this a bit, is that the way Generations of Light does it has the effect of depriving young people of their agency by thrusting upon them responsibilities they're not ready to handle and consequently making them dependent on their elders. Then, when they reach the mother/father stage (again early), they're not ready for that (never having had the chance to master the earlier stages of life) and so remain dependent on the organization. It's an interesting trick, to create dependence in women under the guise of protecting them, while at the same time creating dependence in men under the guise of honoring their power. I'd be impressed, if I wasn't so disgusted.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I hadn't quite pieced it out that far. But yes, it keeps everyone dependent on the elders and on their god. Which is a stated objective of most Christians.

[(Anonymous)]

I had never heard of the fourfold goddess. I have always felt that the threefold goddess was missing something, but I was never quite sure how to fix that. I honor childhood as the first stage of life where learning takes place. The second stage is the maiden stage where experience is gained. The mother stage is less about nurturing and more about leadership, and the final stage is about using a lifetime of wisdom to guide others. I completely agree with you that each stage, whatever it is called, is different for each person, and each person's path will be unique. These groups like Generations of Light, are about control. They make young people feel special by giving them all of these ceremonies, to cover up the fact that the young people involved don't actually have any choices. Each young person in these groups are meant to fulfill a very specific roll, regardless of their gifts, talents, and dreams.

The D-Man Checks In

[(Anonymous)]

Not at all surprising the Christians are mimicking the pagans, as most of their holidays & ceremonies are borrowed or co-opted from the pagans.

Naturally Christians will want their young indoctrinated early; does not give their youth time to start thinking for themselves, because, yesss... There are more & other choices out there -- some of which make more sense, are more tolerant of outsiders, and are more forgiving of mistakes, not to mention some actually (*gasp*) empower women as equal partners with men. Orthodox religions really don't like that.

In the end, with the Jews, Christians & Muslims -- leastwise the ones I have encountered -- it is not so much about growth as it is about symbolism, branding, and the priesthood maintaining power & control; both over their young and their women... and it never hurts if the priests can also tap into & control the finances of their flock as well.

Re: The D-Man Checks In

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I maintain that religion is the oldest form of theater and priests were bad hunters who discovered people would feed them for telling stories.

Not to condemn stories. We as humans need stories almost as much as we need food. But things got out of hand, as they always do.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Childhood is a pre-spiritual phase, the way I walk.
They learn, but they are not part of the greater life of the group. Much as Christian children aren't before baptism.

The "You will be what we say you are" was part of why I left Christianity. There wasn't a place for a queer genius witch, they couldn't make one and they didn't want one. (Their god also let me know I wasn't his)

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

All I did was take the idea the next logical step beyond where you'd taken it. I'd never really thought about the idea of dependency as a tenet of Christianity, though; it's certainly an interesting idea.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I've heard Christians say that having a safety net is bad because it makes people depend on the government when they should depend on God.

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

Which reminds me of a joke (you've probably heard it, but I love this joke so I'm telling it anyway): During a flood, a man climbed up on the roof of his house. In a little while, some of his neighbors floated my on a raft. They urged him to come with them, but he said, "No, the Lord will save me." A little while later, the water had risen higher. Some people came by with a boat and tried to rescue him. He said "No, the Lord will save me." A little while later, when the water was higher still, FEMA came by with a helicopter. Again, the man refused to go with them, saying "The Lord will save me." Soon after this, the water rose up over the roof of the man's house. He swam until he was exhausted, then drowned. When he got to heaven, he asked God "Why didn't you save me?" God looked at him and said "I sent a raft, I sent a boat, I sent a helicopter..."

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Yes, one of my favorites.