The rites of passage

Symbolic identity

Wind extinguishes a candle and energizes fire.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile

What a rite is in Kosmabeko

• The rites of Kosmabeko are not decorative ceremonies but landa transitions made experience: the rite deliberately leads the learner from one landa to another, so that they live in the body what they must understand in the mind.
• Anthropology described, since Van Gennep, a structure common to rites of passage: a phase of separation, one of threshold and one of reincorporation. The missing precision is the following, and everything depends on it: the phases of a rite are not the poles of a landa. They are whole landas chained together. Reading a rite as the path of a single landa —first p₁, then p₂…— would narrate a landa as a sequence in time, which is exactly what a landa is not.

The core of one landa seeds the wrapper of the next: p₄(Λᵢ) = p₁(Λᵢ₊₁).

The three phases

Separation

It is a landa: the process in which the learner is wrapped as they step apart.

Threshold

It is the link: the pole that is the core of the separation landa and, at the same time, the wrapper of the reincorporation landa. At the threshold, what was deepest in the first process becomes the field of the second.

Reincorporation

It is another landa: the process in which the learner is once again wrapped by the community, with something new at their core.

When the core of the reincorporation landa is, in turn, the wrapper of the separation landa, the chain closes: the rite is not a single passage but a cycle, and what is certified is precisely the capacity to walk it again. That is how the grade rites are built.

Principles of every ceremony

No Kosmabeko rite suspends these conditions:

Voluntariness

Nobody is forced to celebrate a rite. Whoever does not feel ready postpones it without any comment.

Preparation and a word on returning

Every rite is preceded by a conversation in which the learner knows what they are going to live —there are no surprises about their safety or about what will be asked of them—, and followed by a conversation on their return.

Transparency

Families know the content of every rite and are invited to its public parts. There are no secret rites.

Proportion

The trial is real but proportionate to age; durations are maximums, not minimums.

Care

No rite includes humiliation, induced fear, pain, marks on the body or deprivation of food, water or sleep.

The rite of welcome

• It marks a member's formal entry into the group. It is celebrated at the bridge festival of the Door —or in the first circle of a meeting, if the newcomer arrives mid-year— and it is built as a passage: a chain that does not return to its starting point, because the newcomer does not close a cycle of their own but enters the group's cycle.
• The whole branch forms a circle with an opening: the door. The newcomer waits outside with their reference partner. The custodian of belonging of their circle calls them by name; the newcomer crosses the door and the circle closes behind them. In the center, they say their name; the circle repeats it aloud. They receive the neckerchief from their reference partner, who ties it on them. Each member of the circle says a single sentence of welcome. The circle opens again and the branch goes on with the festival.

The open door

The group opens its circle and the newcomer enters.

Threshold

The core of the first landa —aggregation— becomes the field of the second.

Inside the circle

The group contains the newcomer, who keeps their own name.

In Harbor Confluence liberation is the field —the open door— and aggregation the core: the opening exists to gather. Its core becomes the wrapper of Ontic Respiration, where aggregation no longer gathers but contains, and at whose core is the singular: the newcomer does not dissolve into the group, they enter it with their name.

The grade rites

Each dimensional grade has its rite, and all four share the same structure: a closed chain of length two between the two cut loops of the dimension. Since the core of each loop is the wrapper of the other, separation and reincorporation seed each other, and the rite can be walked again and again: that is exactly what the grade certifies.

The «closing» column shows the pole through which the reincorporation landa links back to the separation landa. The durations of each rite are those of the Branch of the Landa; the Branch of the Edge celebrates short forms of the four rites, and the Branch of the Pole celebrates the recognition of its grades in the meeting circle, without a separation rite.

The solitary vigil

Entitative grade

agg

sin

Alone, carrying the circle inside.

What was carried inside comes to contain.

In the circle, carrying one's own word inside.

• Preparation. Before the vigil, each member of the circle writes or draws something short for the learner —a shared memory, a wish, a question— and keeps it in a sealed envelope.
• Separation. At dusk, the learner withdraws to their vigil spot inside the camp's perimeter, with their logbook, water, warm clothes, a flashlight, a whistle and the circle's envelope. They stay there, in silence, for the agreed time. They open the envelope whenever they wish. The landa of separation is Sovereign Sway: singularization is the field —they are alone—, but within that solitude, as a simultaneous facet, is the circle they carry with them.
• Threshold. When the vigil guide calls, the learner comes back. What in the vigil was deepest —the circle— is now what receives them.
• Reincorporation. The circle waits for them in a ring around the fire. The learner enters and says, if they wish, a single sentence brought from the vigil: their own word. The landa is Ontic Respiration: the circle is the field, and at its core is now what the learner brought back from being with themselves. A guide recognizes the grade before the circle.
• Duration. Branch of the Edge: thirty to sixty minutes, in sight of a guide. Branch of the Landa: up to three hours at nightfall, within earshot. Branch of the Systence: until midnight, in an individual tent inside the perimeter, with check rounds.

The threshold

Structural grade

res

lib

Open ground at whose core a limit rises.

The raised limit becomes the frame.

A space with limits at whose core a door opens.

• Separation. The learner is given open ground and, working alone or with a partner of their choice from another circle, builds a space with limits: a shelter, a fence, a small enclosure of branches and ropes. The landa is Liminal Systole: the open ground is the field of all the work, and at its core is the limit being raised.
• Threshold. When the space is finished, the learner sits inside. The limit they raised is now the frame they are in.
• Reincorporation. The learner opens a door in their enclosure and, from inside, invites their circle in. The circle crosses the door one person at a time, and inside the learner explains what they left open and what they left closed, and why. The landa is Porous Sentinel: restriction is the field, and at its core is opening. A guide recognizes the grade. The enclosure is taken down the next day.
• Duration. One day of camp. It is preferably celebrated at the bridge festival of the Door, whose own dimension in equilibrium is the structural one.

The ember

Energetic grade

inh

est

The lit fire, with the ember kept at its center.

The kept ember becomes the field.

The rest of the night, with the possible flame at its center.

• Separation. On the night of the bridge festival of Fire, the learner lights and keeps their circle's campfire: they feed it while the circle sings and talks, and make sure at all times that an ember remains. The landa is Feverish Oscillation: the stimulation of the living fire is the field, and at its core is the inhibition of the ember held in reserve.
• Threshold. When the circle withdraws, the learner covers the ember with ash. What was the reserved center of the fire is now all there is.
• Reincorporation. Through the night, taking turns with a guide and a partner, the learner watches over the kept ember. At dawn they uncover it and rekindle the fire on which the circle cooks its breakfast. The landa is Pulsing Lethargy: rest is the field, and at its core is the flame that can come back. A guide recognizes the grade before the circle gathered around the rekindled fire.
• Duration. One night, with vigil shifts of no more than two hours and guaranteed rest. In fire-risk season, the fire is replaced by an oil lamp or a protected candle, without changing the structure of the rite.

The remade rule

Stochastic grade

norm

pot

The storm, with a provisional rule at its center.

The provisional rule becomes the frame.

The council, with the possibility of change at its center.

• Separation. During a camp activity, the guides bring in a storm and task the learner with carrying their circle through it: together with the circle, they must propose a provisional rule that lets them go on. The landa is Telluric Hysteresis: the critical regime is the field, and at its core is the rule that emerges.
• Threshold. Once the storm has passed, the improvised rule remains in force. What was an emergency response is now the rule the circle lives under.
• Reincorporation. That same afternoon, the learner convenes and leads the circle council that reviews the provisional rule: what of it stays, what changes, what is dropped. The landa is Pregnant Latency: the rule is the field, and at its core potentiation remains open —the possibility of remaking it—. The grade is recognized as the council closes.
• Duration. One day. The storm is a change of plan, never a faked danger.

The Crossing: the rite of the hamiltonian grade

• The Crossing is the condensed experience of the whole year. For four to six days, the candidate for the hamiltonian grade walks, in their own life, the same cycle of four landas the group walks in a year: they pass through a yang hamiltonian, cross the energetic bridge, pass through a yin hamiltonian and cross the structural bridge back.
• It is the practical answer to the problem of the sign: the hamiltonian grade does not consist in staying in a hamiltonian, but in walking both without breaking one's own cycle.

The four days

The expedition

As a group, through new territory, towards the trial.

The candidates of the Branch of the Systence, in a group of three to six with two guides, go on a two- or three-day expedition through territory they do not know. They take turns holding all the custodies.

The night of the fire

Culmination: the fire lit and kept, each one with their own.

The last night of the expedition culminates with a fire the candidates light and keep together. Before sleeping, each candidate writes in their logbook what they take away from the expedition. It is the energetic bridge.

The retreat

Alone, in a bounded place, in silence, with a fixed rhythm.

For a whole day, each candidate stays in an individual bounded place —near the base camp, within the solitude protocol—, in silence, with water, simple food and their logbook. It is not an endurance test: it is the experience of rest as a process that consolidates.

The return through the door

The group, gathered in its rule, opens the door and receives.

At dusk on the day of retreat, the group waits for the candidates in a closed circle. The group's agreements and the Law are recited; the circle opens a door; each candidate crosses and is received. The guides recognize the grade.

The last link —aggregation— is once again the wrapper of the expedition. The cycle closes, shares its sixteen poles equally between the two hemispheres and brings each dimension into play in both.