Stage 3: Crossing the Threshold

Crossing the Threshold

Crossing the Threshold is the defining moment in which the hero accepts the Call and acts---stepping out into the unknown and embraces the adventure that awaits.
In The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo and Sam leave the friendly confines of the Shire, in The Hunger Games Katniss volunteers as tribute to save her little sister. In the Chamber of Secrets, Harry chooses Hogwarts over the Dursleys and escapes. And in Divergent, Beatrice Prior leaves her parents and the known world of Abnegation by choosing the Dauntless faction.
To choose this new world, and to act, the hero must practice the virtue of Courage. Without Courage, the call will remain unanswered, and the journey will stall.

Sunrise Ceremony

Bar Mitzvah

Bullet Ant Initiation

Rumspringa

Quinceanera

Confirmation

Consider a sampling of rituals, rites, and ceremonies from around the world that mark and celebrate young adult "crossing the threshold" moments.* How many are you familiar with?

-Bar/Bat Mitzvah (universal)
-Bullet Ant Initiation (Brazil)
-Confirmation Sacrament (universal)
-Fulani Facial Tattoos (West Africa)
-Hamar Cow Jumping (Ethiopia) -Khatam Al Koran (Malaysia)
-Land Diving (Vanuatu)
-Lion Hunt (Maasai) -Quinceanera (Hispanic)
-Rumspringa (Amish)
-Scarification (Papua New Guinea)
-Seijin-no-Hi (Japan)
-Sunrise Ceremony (Apache)
-Teeth Sharpening (Mentawai Islands)

*https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/13-amazing-coming-of-age-traditions-from-around-th/

In mythology, 'thresholds' are often guarded by people, monsters or other difficulties that have to be overcome, in order to test the hero's courage and seriousness of intent.

"Fear is a feeling.
Courage is positive action in the face of that feeling."
-Ross Porter

Clark Poling (a Dutch Reformed minister), George Fox (a Methodist minister), Alexander Goode (a Jewish rabbi), and John Washington (a Catholic priest) met in 1942 while attending a training school for Chaplain’s at Harvard and the four became good friends. In January 1943 all four men embarked for England together on the USAT Dorchester, along with 900 soldiers. On February 2nd, the Dorchester was torpedoed by a German submarine and the ship immediately began to sink. The four chaplains worked as a team to try and get the soldiers into life jackets and onto lifeboats. When the life jackets ran out, the four chaplains took theirs off and gave them to soldiers waiting, but kept working to get the men off the ship. Within 27 minutes of being hit, the Dorchester sank, carrying 672 men down with it. It was reported by survivors that the four chaplains were last seen together on the deck, arms linked, praying as the ship went down.