Puer. Hero. Senex
Each man must pass through the three stages of manhood, and remember to play his role.
A note to readers of the fairer sex: Please keep reading. As a man, I am ill-equipped to speak to the women’s concerns, much less presume to know your stages. Perhaps there are parallels in the Maiden, Matron, and Matriarch stages. As I transition to senex, with greying temples, surely I have wisdom to offer young women, but a wise woman is a far better source. In terms of initiatory stages of priesthood, it’s best to segregate men and women until the adept stage.
Each man must remember the three stages of manhood and play his role. These stages are not mere ascriptions but deep realities through which a good man must move. Failure to play one’s role risks bringing evil upon the world.
The Puer arrives. In his youth, he radiates potential, burns with idealism, and moves with spontaneity. He resists commitment not from cowardice but from an intuitive knowledge that he is not yet ready to bind himself to duty. His restlessness drives him into his destiny. His role is to watch the hero and heed the senex.
The puer dreams the world as it could be.
The Hero emerges in middle life—the builder, the warrior, the one who engages. He is marked by achievement and struggle, by the necessary development of ego and will. The hero does not merely dream; he acts. He shapes the world and is in turn shaped by it. Through conflict and creation, he discovers who he truly is. His role is to be a model for the puer.
The hero makes the world what it must be.
The Senex is the elder, the keeper of memory, the transmitter of wisdom. He has fought his battles and built his monuments. Now he reflects, interprets, and preserves. His wisdom comes not merely from books but from living scars. He offers guidance without demanding obedience, knowing that each man must walk his own path. His role is to reveal the possible and the divine, while preserving the timeless truths.
The senex sees what others do not and transmits.
The Priesthood
Within the Grey order, the three stages of manhood can be formalized for a priesthood.
The Initiate stands at the threshold, characterized by receptivity, wonder, and the first stirrings of sacred knowledge. He transforms, learning the mysteries with an open heart. The initiate is marked by devotion and willingness to be shaped. He drinks from the well but does not yet appreciate its depths.
The initiate makes himself worthy of the torch.
The Adept has crossed the threshold and operates in mastery. He is the practitioner, marked by active service and embodied wisdom. The adept has internalized some of the mysteries and can skillfully perform rituals, interpret sacred knowledge, and navigate the order with competence. He possesses authority through demonstrated proficiency and serves as a functional mediator between the world inside the order (esoteric) and the mundane exterior (exoteric). He is ready to meet the entheos.
The adept carries the torch and lights the way for others.
The Hierophant reveals the mysteries as the elder teacher who has ascended. He represents wisdom and authority. He transmits hidden arcana with precision and care. The hierophant guides others into the mysteries, interprets their meanings, and carries responsibility for preserving and passing on what must not be lost. He has walked a long, winding path and serves as a mediator between his congregants and the divine. When he has passed the torch, he is ready for reabsorption into the All.
The hierophant shows the adept what the torch has illumined.
The Time Spiral
The progression from initiate to adept to hierophant mirrors the journey from puer to hero to senex—both move from receiving to mastering to transmitting—from potential to achievement to wisdom.
But time does not move in a simple line, nor does it return as a circle to itself without change. Time is a helix—a spiral that combines the looping of cycles with the forward motion of events. Each generation ascends the same path their fathers walked, yet they can climb higher, see farther, and stand upon foundations built before.
But only if they play their roles.
The torch must be passed. This is the sacred obligation of each man in his stage. The puer must become the hero, or he grows strong but retains a child’s outlook. (Boy Pharaoh) The hero must become the senex, or, unable to release his grip on power, he leaves an upcoming hero to pace in a cage. The senex must release the torch to new hands, or the flame dies with him.
So also for the priesthood.
The initiate must become the adept, mastering what was once a mystery. The adept must become the hierophant, taking responsibility for transmission. And the hierophant must recognize when new initiates and adepts stand ready to trust them day by day to receive a little of the sacred fire, they will burn themselves.
Puer > Hero > Senex
(Try > Toil > Transmit)
In helical time, we return to the same themes, the same questions, the same initiation rites. But we improve and evolve, with deeper understanding and greater insights, building upon what came before. Each generation does not start from nothing. They begin where their teachers left off, and continue to spiral out into the mystery.
Sacred Duty
Know your stage. Play your role with full commitment.
If you are the puer, embrace your wildness and your dreams, but prepare yourself for discipline and trials. Subordinate yourself to those who have earned scars and found wisdom.
If you are the hero, build and strive with all your strength, but remember that one day you must take up the staff. Even as a new leader, venerate the elders’ wisdom and accept that there is more for you to receive in humility.
If you are the senex, offer your wisdom freely, but do not cling to authority—prepare the way for those who come after. Transmit the arcana only to those who have proven themselves fit to receive it.
If you are the initiate, try new things, but learn well. If you are an adept, practice with excellence, and serve with integrity. If you are the hierophant, leave the boys and men with new powers of sight and transmit only the arcana for which they are ready.
The torch passes.
The spiral ascends.
The mystery endures.
This is the way it has always been and the way it must always be.
When this essay arrived in my email I happened to be reading the final chapter of Hayek's "The Fatal Conceit" titled "Religion and the Guardians of Tradition". In that chapter, Hayek says: "We owe it partly to mystical and religious beliefs, and, I believe, particularly to the main monotheistic ones, that beneficial traditions have been preserved and transmitted at least long enough to enable those groups following them to grow, and to have the opportunity to spread by natural or cultural selection." Your thoughtful attention to means of sustaining foundational beliefs is needed and welcome.
Hmmm
One thing that happens as we enter the "second half of life" (Fr Richard Rohr's term for the transition towards Senex) is that we become quieter, disconnect from the "fight," and begin to offer our gifts only when sincere seekers show up and ask for them. Unless one's purpose is to create a following or community, often that means we aren't visible in the sense that the world expects, and like it that way. This means that a torch can be passed only when an acolyte is ready to transition to the second half of life, too. Have you ever tried to get the attention of a Hero? They don't yet have the seasoning required to know that their heroic path is necessary now but that its ultimate goal is the dissolution of self. Society's obsession with youth doesn't really help. The revolution isn't televised, you know?