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| King Arthur and Sir Lancelot, William Morris |
My son recently turned eight and I
decided it was time to knight him. No, seriously. So much of the studying of
culture and mythology that I’ve been immersed in has brought the deep loss of
rites of passage to my attention. With so much early developmental mind mapping
coming from technology and television, I’m doing as much as I can to introduce
ancient and classical myths orally and experientially. I would like birthdays
in my family to be symbolically marked by more than a stack of material gifts.
This year, largely inspired by my own personal commitment to reeducation in
myth and meaning, I broke tradition to initiate a new tradition.
To be clear, I myself am not a knight
of any official capacity whatsoever. Not many are after all. So, what made me
feel able to perform such a ceremony? Well, I’m his damn father for starters.
Secondly, I realized on the day, if not me, who else? The answer was obvious.
The inspiration was sudden and came on the back of a week of my own contemplation
of the loss of Rite of Passage rituals in our contemporary culture.
This largely unnoticed phenomena
struck me as simply unacceptable and I sought the best remedy as I could come
up with on short notice. The circumstances that brought about this mode of
thinking started with a viewing of the 1981 (the year of my birth) film, Excalibur.
The fantastical Hollywood rendition of the classic King Arthur story served as
a lightning rod for my own remembrance of youth and the necessity of heroic
myths. Without knowing from where or how they came to me, the Arthurian legends
reemerged from a deep recess of my imagination. Not having considered him in
decades, there he was again, like an old friend.
My head began swimming through what
it all meant. After a refresher of the outline of Arthur’s life and his
symbolic tales, the concept of the knight archetype surfaced as key to his meaning. The resonance of the Arthur
legends magnify with the presence of the noble Knights of the Roundtable. Here
we have not merely the individualistic themes of strength, bravery and honesty
but the collective commitments to brotherhood, honor and loyalty.
There was an urgent call to reset the principles of the
chivalrous knight back into my own life. Not so much that these codes had no
base in my life, but more to identify which ones held the firmest and which
needed further crafting. I saw that in my own study of the Mystery School
traditions of old as well as my physical dedication to the martial arts, the
principles of the knights were not far from my day-to-day life.
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| The Knights of the Round Table |
At the point of identifying with the knight, this invaluable
tool of rekindling strong symbols and archetypes as a source of motivation,
charged forth. We all are instructed to some degree by an inherited set of
values and morals to live by. But words are just words. When expressed in the
most visually dramatic form conceivable, words spring into life. I think of
this as embodiment. When words are grafted onto actions in the world, be
they in the manifest world or the world of imagination, this is where
inspiration finds it’s footing. When ethical principles speak to us through the
deeds of the hero, visualization and mirroring can do their transformative
work.
The instructive lessons encoded into the hero tales of every
culture serve a critical purpose in animating the minds of the young and
impressionable with active illustrations of what it looks like to live by
principle. Heroes are called into action, sometimes willingly, other times,
unwillingly. But act they do, and by embodying bravery, determination and
honor, they achieve their mythic status.
It appears that these tales have been with us since the dawn of
civilization. Instead of boring lectures filled with “must” and “shall not,”
someone got the bright idea to occult these teachings into super-hero stories. Carl Jung would hold that this impulse is born
out of the Collective Unconscious. According to his theory, we are all born
with encoded archetypes – in this case, the hero. Because this figure already
exists within us, it’s only a matter of activating its symbolism through words
and images.
“The archetype — let us never forget this — is a psychic organ present in all of us. A bad explanation means a correspondingly bad attitude toward this organ, which may thus be injured. But the ultimate sufferer is the bad interpreter himself.”
― Carl Jung, The Psychology of the Child Archetype
Over time, the figure of the archetype is reborn and outfitted
to suit the day at hand. Convinced as I am of the importance of continuing to
revitalize these vessels of truth, I began wondering who today’s heroes are.
Multi-million dollar pro-athletes? Spoiled and extravagant pop culture stars?
Computer generated video game characters? With the increased psychological
complexity and angst of Hollywood renditions of classic comic book characters,
I’m still left looking back for a purer standard.
More troubling than the subjective suitability of contemporary
examples of nobility in action, was the utter lack of meaningful symbolic
ceremonies. Speaking as an American, I can say that we are a culture poor in
powerful Rites of Passage. I’m sorry to say Sweet Sixteen birthdays and the
first drink of alcohol fail to live up to my idea of an inspired demarcation.
High school and college graduations are events to be endured with boredom. What
else is there? A hazing given in a Fraternity or Sorority? The thought of my
upbringing and the future of my children’s suddenly became depressing.
Sometimes it takes a negative to motivate a positive.
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| The Black Knight |
With a little bit of
heroic thinking, I realized there’s something I could do to fill the void. If I want my son to have rituals for
marking his growth and development into manhood, it was up to me to create
them. To resurrect the image of the knight out of the distant past, obscured by
a culture of superficiality and consumerism, I had to step forward and take up
my rightful duty.
“This is the oath of a Knight of King Arthur's Round Table and should be for all of us to take to heart. I will develop my life for the greater good. I will place character above riches, and concern for others above personal wealth, I will never boast, but cherish humility instead, I will speak the truth at all times, and forever keep my word, I will defend those who cannot defend themselves, I will honor and respect women, and refute sexism in all its guises, I will uphold justice by being fair to all, I will be faithful in love and loyal in friendship, I will abhor scandals and gossip-neither partake nor delight in them, I will be generous to the poor and to those who need help, I will forgive when asked, that my own mistakes will be forgiven, I will live my life with courtesy and honor from this day forward.”
― King Arthur, Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table
For further study of the
knight, a thorough consultation of the Tarot brings nearly every aspect of the
persona to bear. Anyone with a basic knowledge of the symbolic cards would be
familiar with the Royal cards associated with each of the four suits. The
Knight cards signify energetic action, freedom and fiery purpose. The sons of
the Kings and Queens, and the older sibling to the Pages, the Knights have been
prepared well and are expected to seek out their destiny and claim it.
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| Rider-Waite Tarot |
“The Four Knights represent exuberance, the first taste of power, real freedom andthe ultimate defining stage of the young to mid adult years of the CourtCards. Their energy is masculine (females can also be represented by a Knight) excitable, infectious and outward. Full of ideas and promise, TheKnights are determined to make their mark. However, they are just findingtheir way in the world and are prone to making mistakes.”
– Vivien NÃ Dhuinn, Truly Teach me Tarot: The Knights Intro
My intent wasn’t to send
my son out into the world to slay dragons at this stage but more so to initiate a
role-playing towards future knighthood. And so, with a few simple props on
hand, I constructed a simple knighting ritual. In the ceremonies of old, the
initiate wore white to symbolize their innocence and purity. At the time there
was nothing better than his karate gi, white for the exact same reason. I too,
dressed in my own karate uniform. Because I have my own spiritual rituals and
commitments, an altar was already dressed for the occasion. Also to my luck was
the availability of historical oaths of knighthood, easily found on the Internet.
With my references, I wrote up what I felt would be an appropriate oath for an eight-year-old
to understand.
It goes without saying
that a proper knighting ceremony requires a sacred sword to tap the shoulders
of the boy, officially dubbing him as a knight in training. While not a
full-length sword, I used a long knife that adequately fulfilled our purposes.
With the addition of sage for a simple purification, I had everything I needed
to carry out my vision.
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| Henry Clarence White's Arthur in the Gruesome Glen |
The timely urgency to
mark this birthday made all the more sense when my research turned up the fact
that back in the day, the making of a true knight happened in three stages. The
first occurred at the age of seven or eight and was coined the Page phase. This initial stage was meant
to instill the fundamental elements of obedience and courtesy, laying the
groundwork for further instruction.
The second stage would
have been marked between the ages of 12 and 14, sending the adolescent into the
phase of the Squire. This period
could be compared to an apprenticeship, in which the trainee was required to
take on more responsibility, like care of the knight’s weapons and observance
of other tasks. If the acolyte had proven themselves competent and dutiful by
the age of 21, they became eligible for the conferring of full Knighthood.
The biggest obstacle I
faced was to get my precocious son to agree to actually participate in this odd
thing I sprung on him out of nowhere. At eight, his trust in his father was
still fairly intact and he very curiously agreed. The production itself took no
more than five or six minutes. Considering my lack of experience in the matter,
I was satisfied with simply having accomplished the task.
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| From Boy's King Arthur, N.C. Wyth |
How much he understood the event or what if any impact it had on
him, I can’t claim to know. Having previously involved him in the Boy Scouts as
well as karate training, the concepts we talked about were not totally foreign
to him. If nothing else I reinforced ideals in a new, creative way. The most
important thing, for me, if not for him, was that it was a personal moment for
only the two of us. I got to own a moment and take personal responsibility for
setting the standard and example of what knighthood was all about.
In a society of increasingly absent fathers and a disregard for
the ancient mystery teachings, I took an oath towards the achievement of
knighthood on that day right along with him. The time to reignite the guiding
myths of old is now. The place to look for permission to do so, is within each
and every one of us. The call to adventure is our birthright – may our bravery
not fail us.
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