- Rebirth always passes through the doors of death; we need to acknowledge that for the new to come, some-
thing has to die. The purpose of a rite of passage is to become more alive by dying to the old. When our culture
denies death, we cannot become more alive through liminality.
Michael Meade Mosaicvoices.org US American storyteller, scholar of mythology, psychology, anthropology, ritualist, spokes-
man in the men's movement, author, cited in: blog article Don’t Get Over It!, presented by the blogspot High Road Artist,
Jeane George Weigel, 13. April 2011
- There may be no time more suited to the study of rites of passage than threshold between the end of modernity
and the uncertain future of humanity. Michael Meade Mosaicvoices.org US American storyteller, scholar of mythology, psychology, anthropology, ritualist, spokesman in the men's movement, author, Men and the Water of Life. Initiation and the Tempering of Men, Harper One, 1. July 1993, Harper, San Francisco, S. 27, paperback issue 3. June 1994
- A culture dies when its dream becomes lost, when the march of history crushes its dream in the dust of time. Michael Meade Mosaicvoices.org US American storyteller, scholar of mythology, psychology, anthropology, ritualist, spokes-
man in the men's movement, author, The Water of Life. Initiation and The Tempering of the Soul, Harper One, 1. July 1993,
Harper, San Francisco, paperback issue 3. June 1994, GreenFire Press, 2nd edition 1. October 2006
- This is a historic time, a time when the gods in the unconscious are transforming. We are living in a time that the Greeks called the "Kairos" — the right moment — for a "metamorphosis of the gods," that is, a transformation in
and of the collective unconscious itself. The peculiarity of our time, which is certainly not of our conscious choosing,
is that the timeless unconscious within us is transforming itself in unprecedented, dramatic ways. Coming genera-
tions, if there are to be any, will undoubtedly appreciate this monumental transformation in which we are all currently
participating, as it will deeply influence their very form of being. We are blessed to live in such "interesting" times. It
can be helpful to consider the possibility that those of us who are alive today may have chosen to incarnate at this
time in history so as to help birth this realization into living form for the benefit of the whole of humanity.
As a species we are experiencing an undeniable uprising of the dark, destructive forces of the collective unconscious.
As thinking, reflective, conscious human beings, we can no longer deny the dark stirrings of the unconscious as it
plays itself out ever more conspicuously on the world stage. These overwhelming psychic forces are active powers
that cannot be fitted into our rational world order, explained away by our reason, nor argued out of existence. If we
are not in denial, it is obvious that the powers of the underworld, as if they have a severe "control process," are at-
tempting to centralize power and global control over our entire species in a way that is devoid of any pretense of
democratic legitimacy, compassion, or redeeming charm whatsoever.
We are being confronted with the naked darkness of the soul, and asked, make that demanded, to come to terms
with and face up to this darkness. The dark side of our nature, or we could even say the shadow of God, is revealing Itself and incarnating through the unconscious of humanity. In these apocalyptic times we live in, the dark God, the "deus absconditus" – which is an essential element of the psychological self – is incarnating. This hidden God is
paradoxically present in its apparent absence. Something is being revealed to us in the process.
The times in which we are living are truly initiatory.
Paul Levy (*1956) US American psycho-activating healer, artist, author, Dispelling Wetiko. Breaking the Curse of Evil, North Atlantic Books, 15. January 2013
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