Chapter 1
Prerequisites for the Mid-Birth Passage
In order to experience Mid-Birth we must first surrender our nature and destroy our magic. This is necessary to successfully pass the tests presented in the masculine-energy, hunter-dominated world of the workplace. At work in most of modern corporate culture we align with the masculine. We go into the world to compete and win. This passage occurs around age 26 and begins a journey that includes the passage“Realization of Betrayal” and on into“Mid-Birth.”
The Father Quest: Alignment with the Masculine
This is the time of slaying our dragons, making our mark on the world and being good enough. We begin to acquire practical power for the first time. We buy homes and launch businesses. Couples marry and start families. The young adult is born. Suddenly we focus on the material world, something we may have rejected in our early life. One of the most common complaints about fathers is that,“He was not there enough.” My response to this has always been,“No, he wasn’t. If your father was there more he would have been your mother.” When we separated from our nature we lost the symbols of the Earth, which are feminine and nurture us. When we move toward our father we move toward the Sun, which is masculine and protects and warms us from a distance.
During this passage we feel a need to come closer to our father. There is a desire to experience that relationship, to resolve and heal it, and in order to do that we must come closer to his way and to his point of view. As we begin to duplicate him we begin to understand and accept him. But, if we remain angry about his absence during our childhood or the way he parented us, then we get stuck in judging him and competing with him rather than healing these biased memories. This attitude of getting even with our father hurts us more than him as we miss the opportunity to become clear about important issues around authority, work values and the acquisition of skills.
Work is the way we contribute to the world, our family and community. It is a demonstration of all the skills we have learned since our birth. Work is how we show the world that we are capable and how the world is willing to compensate us. When we work with passion we lead ourselves to excellence. When we ignore this distinction we risk the worse fate possible, which is to become successful at something we hate. When we work with passion our work has purpose and direction. Otherwise we work solely out of our need to be accepted, out of not being good enough for daddy and mommy, wife, husband, children or our community. Instead of being self-determined we respond to everyone else’s needs. In doing so we are literally trying to be someone else, whether that’s our father, sports coach, business mentor or spiritual guru. Eventually we realize it’s a lot easier to follow our own passion and just be ourselves.
During this passage we become obsessed with the world of the masculine and start to think in terms of competition rather than cooperation. We va