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Many cultures practice or have practiced initiation rites, including the ancient Greeks, the Hebraic/Jewish, the Babylonian, the Mayan, and the Norse cultures. The modern Japanese practice of Miyamairi is such a ceremony. In some, such evidence may be archaeological and descriptive in nature, rather than a modern practice.
Initiation rites are seen as fundamental to human growth and development as well as socialization in many African communities. These rites function by ritually marking the transition of someone to full group membership. [18] It also links individuals to the community and the community to the broader and more potent spiritual world.
"[initiation's] function is to reveal the deep meaning of existence to the new generations and to help them assume the responsibility of being truly men and hence of participating in culture." "it reveals a world open to the trans-human, a world that, in our philosophical terminology, we should call transcendental."
The various phases of the life cycle were described by David Lancy [2] as belonging to six practical categories: 1) Birth and early infancy, which Lancy describes as ritually being the least important given the doubt over the child's survival; 2) Joining the community when the infant's survival is confirmed, usually denoted by a naming ceremony ...
The Upanayana rite of passage was also important to the teacher, as the student would therefrom begin to live in the gurukula (school). [34] Upanayana became an elaborate ceremony, that includes rituals involving the family, the child and the teacher. A boy receives during this ceremony a sacred thread called the yajnopavita to be worn.
It is a single creature, yet often with a plurality of heads. It lives in water, perhaps as the guardian of a sacred spring or waterhole, yet also spits out lightning fire. It is a non-human beast, but with human sexual appetites – it is famous for desiring maidens. It is gender-ambivalent, being sometimes male, sometimes female and sometimes ...
The Chain of Union is used in most blue (craft) Lodge rituals and can occur at specific moments in Masonic ceremonies. For example, craft lodges working the Scottish Rite is performed twice during initiation ceremonies: first, when receiving a new initiate into the brotherhood and again at the closing of the works. The chain is also formed ...
Ritualization refers to the process by which a sequence of non-communicating actions or an event is invested with cultural, social or religious significance. This definition emphasizes the transformation of everyday actions into rituals that carry deeper meaning within a cultural or religious context.