Rites of Continuity
/As we continue the Hero’s Journey and completing the cycle of John Mosher’s Healing Circle model we come to the fourth and final ritual. The Rite of Continuity.
Looking at John’s model seasonally this ritual coincides with the height of summer and an abundance of light. It is about affirming the community and a person’s membership in it. It has elements around elevation and raising up the entire community. It affirms the worth and value of each person so that they live in accordance with the values of the group to keep the community growing into the future.
Elements of a Rite of Continuity:
1. Uplift and uplifting
2. Continuance of the community
3. Ceremonial, celebratory, and sometimes circus like
4. Investiture of self in community goals
5. Balancing between self in community goals
6. Taking an earned higher place in community
7. Defines ethical behavior
8. Often contexted by abandonment and/or loss
9. The breaking and making of attachments
10. Images: of air, bright light, God, music, visions, high/low, flying, “family,” the “star,” seasons from spring to summer
John Mosher wrote the following about Rites of Continuity:
“It is about affirming that our new beginning (whatever it is) has been good
Theme: Newborns and new beginnings
Often loss of parents, about defining moral, purposeful behavior
Taking an earned higher place in community
Having an investiture: a mutual exchange, raising up of self and community
About making and breaking attachments, lose faith and regain it
Always (about) looking for a mom, dad, family
A need to know, or find out, what is enough-we learn about this by getting skin to skin contact with mom-if too little contact we don’t know
For 1’s- those that experienced abandonment-whose being was not affirmed they get relief by doing. By developing their spontaneity, we defeat the past-the unnoticed child becomes king or queen
Goal: Adapt yourself to community while holding onto yourself
What is needed to heal from abandonment is a robust optimism! i.e., training the self to expect positive experiences
Why an impossible task is an abandonee theme: they will create one impossible task after another with no reward-it is there drive to keep moving and not feel the let down of their not belonging
And their biggest impossible task: to be loved by their parents
They need a seemingly divine intervention- a need to recreate their story to move beyond it. Their therapist helps them reframe the abandonment-group therapy can be the needed divine intervention
Lastly, John adds: “You need to become a disciple of yourself.”
A wedding can be a Rite of Continuity. If performed by a conscious leader who is aware of the needed elements it can be an uplifting experience for all. Not just the bride and groom. Or groom and groom, or bride and bride.
You will see elements enacted like the bridal couple and attendees dressing up in their finer clothes signifying the importance of the occasion. There will be special music and a ceremony that is about showing us the best in the couple and what is expected of them (love, honor and cherish). And a celebration afterwards where good food, dance and speeches of good will elevate all of those into a community of hope and one that will continue into the future with the promise of children for the couple.
Several movies that have a Rite of Continuity theme are: Contact, Whale Rider and Close Encounters of the Third kind.
This blog completes our look at the four rituals needed to help us all belong, separate, transform and incorporate our learning to help us become whole
