For humanity as a whole, for all of us globally, we are entering into a profound initiation rite. Ancient tribes would see their pubescent boys at last taken away from the girls and women, to be initiated into the male rites of hunting and warriorhood. In other words, to learn to be men, and to learn to be providers and protectors. Only then were they ready for procreation and fatherhood.

The initiation we are now going through does not see us as male and female separated – far from it of course – but it does see us challenged. It does see us challenged to confront the realities of adulthood. We have been thrown back upon ourselves, into metaphorical darkness. We are required to take stock and to learn. But will we emerge wiser and more mature, or will we return to our old infantile ways?

Our relationships with each other have been at best juvenile. They have been too often transactional. They have been invariably fostering exclusivity rather than aiming for inclusivity. This is a spiritual test that we are undergoing. In other words, we are being required to re-evaluate ourselves as individuals, and ourselves as communities and nations: not in terms of material or physical things, but in terms of the human spirit. Are we ready for it? These initiations are important. To fail may well see us return to what we had known as ‘normality’. But the boy who failed his tribe’s initiation into manhood, never quite walked free again. Failure and stigma can haunt the human psyche. Are we ready to make the change into adulthood? Or just as importantly, are we ready to face the consequent awareness that we as a species had been given a chance to emerge into adulthood, but had blown it? We can never go back to how we were, because our memory of what we knew we could have become will haunt us for the rest of our generation’s mortal existence. Spiritual cancers are the worst cancers of all. They do not just grow in us, they ultimately devour us.