Rites of Passage along the Journey (New Song)

Hello Good People,

For the Hero's Journey to start there needs to be a catalyst. Mythologists and Depth Psychologists such as Robert Bly and Michael Meade often stress how there needs to be an event that transforms the innocent into the orphan. It is a painful but necessary process for a person to reach individuation and to understand what their bliss is. In fact, many tribal cultures engage in a painful rites of passage ceremony to initiate teens into adulthood. Where a boy or girl must go through a process to realize their adult identity....

The seeds of this song were planted in Bellingham, Washington. I taught a spoken word poetry class at Options Alternative High School. My heart was touched by all the youth who shared their childhood scars in their poetry. From there I took a train to Los Angeles. In L.A. I spent a weekend performing poetry on street corners, selling my poetry chapbook. At night, I couldn't afford a hotel room, so I would stay up all night walking the streets and talking to street youth, I kept hearing similar stories of Childhood trauma. I heard many stories of childhood wounds that needed to be healed. After LA, I got on a train for Chicago. Along the way, I kept thinking of the youth who I had met and at some point a burst of words came, words that told my story and told their story. Words that were meant to help youth reach the other side of the initiation process (It is quite sad and a sign of how unhealthy our culture and society is, that we don't often practice serious rites of passage processes.)

Concerning the Orphan, Carol Pearson wrote, "His or her accomplishment is to move out of innocence and denial to learn that suffering, pain, scarcity, and death are an inevitable part of life...After the fall comes the long and sometimes slow climb back to learning to trust and to hope...The Orphans task eventually is to learn self-reliance...We return to Eden and Innocence understanding that it is safe to trust ourselves, others, and the universe."

I know personally it took me many years to heal these wounds, and on some level, the process of healing is ever-going. However, I know that many songs and poems inspired me along this part of my path, hopefully by telling my story I can help others on this part of their path, So hear it is!

Listen to Rites of Passage.

Also if you like the song, please donate to my Indie Go Go campaign, I have yet to raise enough money to realize the project.


Peace, Love, Joy, Wisdom...
-Plaedo