What I've learned about transformation design thus far #26

How did we lose something so essential?

There are multiple reasons we’ve lost Rites of Passage. Industrialisation disrupted traditional communities, breaking the continuity through which initiatory knowledge passed. Secularisation delegitimised the religious contexts in which many initiations occurred. Individualism prioritised personal choice over communal obligation, making mandatory rituals seem oppressive. And the pace of modern change outstripped traditional structures' ability to adapt.

The loss was gradual and largely unnoticed. Each generation had slightly fewer than the one before. Meanwhile, new transitions emerged that traditional societies never faced: the first job, the career change, the divorce, the midlife reinvention. These transitions cried out for ritual support but received none. Individuals navigated them alone, inventing their own ceremonies or, more commonly, simply muddying through without ceremony at all.