Crossroads: The Quest for Contemporary Rites of Passage [Paperback]

Louise Carus Mahdi (Author), Nancy G. Christopher (Editor), Michael Meade (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0812691903 | ISBN-13: 978-0812691900

Thinkers and activists from many orientations and traditions are now coming together to explore ways to reconstitute rites of passage as a form of community healing for our public and personal ills. Crossroads is a comprehensive collection of over fifty cutting-edge writings on diverse aspects of the transition to adulthood.

"In no uncertain terms, Crossroads opens our eyes to our responsibility to the adolescents who are now growing up without sacred rituals and hence without knowledge of spiritual roots in their culture. Many of the writers have first-hand experience and first-rate ideas of how to transform this cultural crisis. Crossroads also challenges us to integrate our own inner adolescent. Piercing insight with realistic hope!" -- Marlon Woodman The Ravaged Bridegroom

Editorial Reviews

Review

Crossroads opens our eyes to the responsibility to the adolescents who are now growing up without scared rituals and hence without knowledge of spiritual roots in their culture. Many of the writers have first-hand experience and first-rate ideas of how to transform this cultural crisis. Crossroads also challenges us to integrate our own inner adolescent. Piercing insight with realistic hope! -- Marion Woodman, author of The Ravaged Bridegroom

Crossroads serves as a guide book exploring all new terrains through the development of fascinating new programs in education. These new programs are designed by devoted elders to instruct and help to bridge the gap. Apprenticeship, visionquests, outdoor wilderness adventures, youth service activities, adolescent clinical programs which employ concepts of rites of passage as a methodology for healing, and others are discussed in detail. Just as Black Elk, shaman of the Ogalala Sioux tribe, had a vision for the survival of his people, so to do the contributors of Crossroads. -- Ronnie Landau, The Round Table Review

Modern society differs from all other cultures in its lack of rites at life's transitions: this new collection of fifty writings on aspects of these transitions document rites of passage in different cultures around the world, examining both myth, history, and contemporary rites of passage. Enjoy a balanced representation of races in a strong cultural investigation. -- Midwest Book Review

The writing is superb . . . this all encompassing book is a must for professionals in the helping professions, parents, and anyone interested in moving from separation to wholeness and understanding the needs of the community to heal -- Small Press

Product Details

• Paperback: 488 pages
• Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812691903
• ISBN-13: 978-0812691900
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #771,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bob Eckert is a Founding Partner and CEO at NEW & IMPROVED, a firm which enhances the innovation and productivity of the human resource through various training, facilitation and consulting services. His focus is on overcoming organizational challenges, team development, productive relationships, productive thinking and leadership development. The vision of the firm is first and foremost to "...help people lead great lives..." and collectively, NEW & IMPROVED is doing that on a global scale.

A constant learner, Bob has been involved in the business of helping people reach their highest potential in one way or another for the last thirty years. After diverting from an early planned career in medicine, he speaks and trains from a perspective enriched by a diverse background which includes: management experience in both manufacturing and retail, creation/direction of an internationally renowned health promotion program, teaching in both youth and adult criminal justice systems, work as the senior instructor in adaptive "Outward Bound" programming for incarcerated juvenile delinquents, as founding director of a county-wide drug abuse treatment and prevention system and as a national trainer in the area of neuropharmacology and addiction. Bob has been doing his work on a global scale for the last 15 years. He is a certified "Creative Problem Solving Facilitator" and a charter member of the Toronto based Facilitators Without Borders.

Leveraging his work and research in the area of Rites of Passage, Bob makes change efforts stick. The author of numerous articles and books, his most recent (co-authored with Jonathan Vehar) is "More Lightning, Less Thunder: How to Energize Innovation Teams" which looks at a model for healthy human development in the service of great personal creativity and the emotional intelligence that leads to great team membership.

Bob has a solid track record of satisfied clients in the areas of innovation, team development and facilitation of globally diverse leadership teams for companies such as Lotus Development (Asia Pacific), Novartis (Switzerland), Nordion (Canada), Pfizer (Worldwide), Adams (Central/South America) and Kraft Foods (USA).

Since 1985, Bob's personal mission statement has included the line "...facilitate great change in the world for the health of humanity..." and his work at New & Improved is his way of bringing that vision to life. To his credit as a facilitator are improvements in: chemical dependency treatment and prevention, hospital procedure, corporate IT infrastructure, welfare system reform, homelessness mitigation, domestic violence prevention, diabetes prevention, speedier development of a number of life saving pharmaceuticals, environmental protection, economic development, and educational reform. He has facilitated new product development and process improvement efforts for a wide range of Fortune 500 companies. His work also includes strategic plan facilitation and cultural improvement efforts for a wide variety of government agencies and economic development consortia.

An avid outdoorsman who's as comfortable driving a tractor on his tree farm as he is driving meetings in corporate boardrooms, Bob lives with his wife, son and daughter and produces Maple Syrup in the Northern Adirondack Mountains of New York State.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent contribution to our culture, with one misgiving..., January 13, 2000

By 

D. H. Bollinger (West Lafayette, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crossroads: The Quest for Contemporary Rites of Passage (Paperback)

I can't say enough about how timely, valuable and important the quest for contemporary rites of passage is. Thanks so much for giving us a template to use. This topic is important for all of us. How many of us can say with assurance, "I've been initiated into adulthood?"

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Initiation From Every Angle, September 17, 2009

By 

G. Campbell - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crossroads: The Quest for Contemporary Rites of Passage (Paperback)

The need for authentic initiation or rites of passage is so obviously urgent in our society (and world-wide as well)that almost any worthwhile book concerning this topic is to be welcomed. This particular book is an encyclopedia of initiation and that is both its great value and difficulty. If you are already aware of how urgent and even desperate our lack of understanding of initiation is you will be well served by this massive book. If you are a new comer to this topic you will probably be over-loaded. In the almost complete absence of initiation mentors I suppose we need 450 page books like this...