{"id":104409,"date":"2019-05-06T10:47:36","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T15:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=104409"},"modified":"2026-09-24T20:47:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T01:47:59","slug":"mens-rituals-rites-of-passage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/mens-rituals-rites-of-passage\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #505: A Man&#8217;s Need for Ritual"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For thousands of years, men&#8217;s lives were structured by rituals &#8212; rituals that helped them mark significant events, make sense of the world, and move from one phase of life to the next.<\/p>\n<p>In our modern age, our lives are largely devoid of rituals, and my guest today says we&#8217;re worse off for it. His name is <a href=\"http:\/\/williamayot.com\/\">William Ayot<\/a>, and he\u2019s a poet, men\u2019s group facilitator, ritual leader, and the author of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0993030653\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0993030653&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><em>Re-Enchanting the Forest: Meaningful Ritual in a Secular World<\/em><\/a>. We begin our conversation discussing William\u2019s introduction to the power of ritual, why rituals have declined in Western culture, and what makes a ritual, a ritual. We then discuss the history of the mythopoetic men\u2019s movement kickstarted by Robert Bly and his book Iron John. William then unpacks why it&#8217;s important for men to undergo a rite of passage, why it&#8217;s never too late to participate in one, and how men can have multiple rites of passage over their lifetime. We discuss how to give your son a rite of passage as well. William also provides some ideas for daily rituals you can incorporate in your life to provide more meaning and enchantment to existence. We end our conversation with William\u2019s advice on how to get started with a men\u2019s group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For thousands of years, men&#8217;s lives were structured by rituals &#8212; rituals that helped them mark significant events, make sense of the world, and move from one phase of life to the next. In our modern age, our lives are largely devoid of rituals, and my guest today says we&#8217;re worse off for it. His [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,156,42388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-podcast","category-self-improvement"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/505-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/505-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/505-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/505-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/505-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 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