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Author Topic: Recognising Aging  (Read 3271 times)

Sefiru

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Recognising Aging
« on: September 12, 2019, 07:08:13 pm »
In honor of my very first grey hair ...

Does your path have any traditions around aging? Is it seen as a positive or negative thing? Are there any particular celebrations or milestones for later in life?
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Donal2018

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Re: Recognising Aging
« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2019, 08:24:24 pm »
In honor of my very first grey hair ...

Does your path have any traditions around aging? Is it seen as a positive or negative thing? Are there any particular celebrations or milestones for later in life?

Jungian Psychology is a part of my practice and has some things to say about aging. In that system of thought, self realization is attained by the process of individuation, or the process of becoming more and more yourself. Jung's Psychology is largely a psychology of adulthood. Much of the rest of psychology focuses on childhood and development. Jung covers those subjects, but is primarily about adulthood. He views the middle and later stages of life as an opportunity to go beyond establishing one's career, life, and family, and developing spiritually and psychologically.

It is later in life when people tend to have the freedom for spiritual development and a focus on the development of the self and associated involvement in community. While not all life paths follow this direction, many do. So, middle and later stages of life often afford opportunities for self development and spiritual growth that earlier life stages do not tend to.

Earlier life stages are often consumed by establishing oneself materially, physically, and financially. As such, later life tends to afford the opportunity for self development and spiritual development that is a core part of Individuation and Jung's Psychology. By middle age, many people have already established themselves financially, career-wise, and with families. With these established, one then has time and energy for other things, particularly individuation, self development psychologically and spiritually. So, that is all part of the psychological background to my spiritual practices and issues of growing older.

Sefiru

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Re: Recognising Aging
« Reply #2 on: September 16, 2019, 06:48:50 pm »
It is later in life when people tend to have the freedom for spiritual development and a focus on the development of the self and associated involvement in community. While not all life paths follow this direction, many do. So, middle and later stages of life often afford opportunities for self development and spiritual growth that earlier life stages do not tend to.

Hmm. I know that some esoteric traditions, such as kabbalah, are not supposed to be open to practitioners until age 40. 
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Jainarayan

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Re: Recognising Aging
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2019, 11:31:07 am »
In honor of my very first grey hair ...

Does your path have any traditions around aging? Is it seen as a positive or negative thing? Are there any particular celebrations or milestones for later in life?

Indian tradition - though I'm not Indian - is that elders are given utmost reverence and respect. An old tradition that many still adhere to is bowing or bending to touch the feet of the elder. This is done for the guru, priests, and all those who are of venerable age or stature.

Now for the obligatory smart-ass wisecracks...

Ageing is just one body part saying to another "Ha! You think that's bad? Watch this!"     :D

Italian tradition with elders is that you get to say anything you want to anyone you want anytime you want. Example: telling the President of the United States "I gonna slappa you face", do it and get away with it.  ;D

Jenett

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Re: Recognising Aging
« Reply #4 on: September 19, 2019, 01:03:59 pm »
In honor of my very first grey hair ...

I had my first ones in college! (My family goes silver early.) I'm about to turn 44, and my recent driver's renewal (from a card 4.5 years ago) just made it very clear I have gone from 'brown hair with a few silver' to 'mostly silver with a little brown' in that time.

(I am actually eagerly awaiting the time when I'm all silver. I've never dyed, because one of my initiation names means 'silver' and I figure that in taking that I made a particular sort of commitment. Though I occasionally contemplate getting the bottom few inches dyed a deep cobalt blue, so I could hide it at work if I wanted/needed. Ahem.)

Quote
Does your path have any traditions around aging? Is it seen as a positive or negative thing? Are there any particular celebrations or milestones for later in life?

The larger Wiccish community I've been a part of has the concept of croning (particularly), which in the parts I've been around has been a mix of community recognition and personal choice, specifically around shifting from more active leadership to more indirect modes (being around, being active, but maybe no longer leading a group/actively teaching/etc.) I've been to a couple of equivalent ritual celebrations for men, but the nomenclature is more varied in that case (sageing, eldering, etc.)
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Sefiru

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Re: Recognising Aging
« Reply #5 on: September 19, 2019, 06:36:48 pm »
Example: telling the President of the United States "I gonna slappa you face", do it and get away with it.  ;D

And now I'm feeling better about the whole aging thing  ;D
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Sefiru

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Re: Recognising Aging
« Reply #6 on: September 19, 2019, 06:41:58 pm »
I had my first ones in college! (My family goes silver early.)

One of my aunts went silver very early, but I think that was just her. It's probably gong to be a while before there's much silver on my head; my one hair is, uh, elsewhere.

Quote
The larger Wiccish community I've been a part of has the concept of croning (particularly), which in the parts I've been around has been a mix of community recognition and personal choice, specifically around shifting from more active leadership to more indirect modes (being around, being active, but maybe no longer leading a group/actively teaching/etc.) I've been to a couple of equivalent ritual celebrations for men, but the nomenclature is more varied in that case (sageing, eldering, etc.)

Are there any usual elements to these celebrations? The 101 books I've read mention croning a lot less than handfasting and such.
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Jenett

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Re: Recognising Aging
« Reply #7 on: September 19, 2019, 08:01:57 pm »
One of my aunts went silver very early, but I think that was just her. It's probably gong to be a while before there's much silver on my head; my one hair is, uh, elsewhere.

In my case, I'm a bit earlier than most of my family, but not absurdly so (also, it's hard to tell: my mother and sister dyed their hair well into their 50s.)

Quote
Are there any usual elements to these celebrations? The 101 books I've read mention croning a lot less than handfasting and such.

The most common things I've seen are "telling stories about things the person has done, and how they did that thing" - you know the stories that have a sense of the style and personality, as well as what happened? Some sort of presentation of an object or objects is pretty common - usually relevant to the thing the person is most known for, or a particular connection, not something more random.
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