The Pandemic as Global Initiation

The Pandemic as Global Initiation

“Deep, unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state. Suffering can be likened to a baptism - the passing over the threshold of pain and grief and anguish to claim a new state of being.” - George Elliot

It is dawning on me that the covid pandemic is a kind of worldwide initiation test, if we make it so, by allowing it to be. An initiation is a bridge to greater responsibility. It is a rite of passage into a higher level. 

It is a test, usually an ordeal, and not everyone passes it. Initiations tend to be scary and dangerous. It is like the trial by fire, in which all that is not valuable (the true gold) is burned away, leaving us purified. 

It is usually some sort of odyssey in which our usual ways of doing things must change. So, it interrupts patterns so new ones can replace them.

Sometimes the proverbial hero’s journey ends in failure. The hero is lost. The hero loses the fight. The would-be hero is traumatized and fatally scarred.

Initiations are inherently perilous. So they are only worth the undertaking if we come out better. If we emerge wiser and more useful.

But it is essential to embark on the test voluntarily, or else it is not an initiation, but merely a catastrophe.

If this is a global initiation, and not a mere random ordeal, then what are we being initiated into? For starters, an awareness of how interconnected we have become, how much we affect each other, and yes, how much we need each other. And hopefully, we are learning new ways to help each other. Paradoxically, as we stand apart, we are growing closer.

Are we learning? Or just denying? Responding, or just reacting? Adapting, or just postponing? This break from business as usual will gradually fade, and the interruption or the opportunity will pass. Things will have changed, and will never go back to how they were. But will they be better?