Ceremony [only for those who FULLY wish to]

Ceremony [only for those who FULLY wish to]

Note: this ceremony, if properly done, WILL result in a temporary loss of identity!!!

The ceremony to release oneself from the grips and vices of the past is a difficult one. One has to prepare for days on end. The underlying motif is isolation, the loneliness must be made real to actually be able to let go. Solitary release, a test of survival; these things are necessary to partake in this ceremony.

The one to be the focus of the ceremony is called the Old One until the end, at which time they become the New One. The Old One must pass a week without any contact in the sparsely populated Colorado Rocky Mountains. There is a grove of trees that encompass a pond. That is where the journey begins.

The Old One is left there, with nothing but the clothes on their back. This is a very dangerous ceremony, but it is necessary to be dangerous in order to make it worthwhile; in order to threaten the memories to the point of release. They must forage and shelter themselves well, for this ceremony is to be done one week before their birthday. They must survive the horrors, in silence, of the treacherous Rockies.

The pond grove full of verdant pine is only the beginning. By the end of one week, they must find their way to a rocky outcrop near a glacier with a brook running out of it, about 150 miles away. Not all who partake in this risky rocky ceremony make it. The Old One must, while traveling to the outcrop, be thinking intently of every single thing in which they wish to forget, and have the strength to forgive themselves. That is the single most important goal in this ceremony, is to be focused upon forgiveness. The most important is to forgive oneself. Few people have the capability. Retreat is not an option; there is no turning back once it had begun.

The first night is the hardest, but that is not to say the others are unchallenging. To survive is to overcome the thought processes that, undoubtedly, the Old One has slipped in to. This journey is so difficult; it has so many risks mental, physical, and emotional. The risks are to enforce the letting go and forgiveness that need to be accomplished to actually complete the ceremony.

The Overseers, or people who follow the progress of the Old One, have only to observe. They shall not interfere, even if the Old One is on the verge of death.

There is no trail from the pond to the outcrop; they must blaze their own trail. This is both a physical and metaphorical sentiment. Their mind should not be thinking of survival, at all. The key to survival is to ignore it. If they are truly following the path they choose to make, survival will occur. If, at the end of the adventure into unknown territory, both physical and mental, they have completely forgiven themselves, the Overseers will call upon the Sage to perform the Cleansing. The rocky outcrop with the glacier is where it shall be performed. The Old One must lie on the glacier. The Sage stands, cloaked, masked. He says “you shall be released” the number of times that the person’s age is. Then the Overseers must snap three times while chanting in Latin “libertas [freedom]”. Then the Old One becomes the New One. Pacta Sunt Servanda.