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Initiatory events are those that mark a man or a woman's life forever, that pull a person deeper into life than they would normally choose to go. Initiatory events are those that define who a person is, or cause some power to erupt from them, or strip everything from them until all that is left is their essential self.
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The old saying is that initiation never ends. When the rites are ongoing a man goes from being pulled through the emotions and spiritual orders the first time to preparing the rites and helping to pull others through. He keeps reliving his own initiation and adding to it the events and emotions currently in his life...If a man doesn't take his inner life seriously, his outer life will lack meaning.
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One of the purposes of the pain of initiation is to allow the initiate to known pain in himself so he won't need to put others in pain in order to learn about it. Another purpose is to establish a compassionate relationship between the elder in a man's heart and the suffering of both genders.
-- Michael Meade
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