Helping to guide the processes of transformation are essential opposing forces in life, a dialectic involving a give and take that is at one moment simple and straightforward and at another moment a core mystery of existence. These inherent opposing forces represent the polarities of life, of existence, that define the natural, organic patterns that govern the Creation. Each day ends with darkness and begins with light. Fall follows summer. This ubiquitous dialectic creates a dynamic of opposition that is with us every day of our lives.

This polarity shapes the most fundamental processes of human and social development, balancing stability and change, and guiding us to our fullest potential. There is a basic struggle within each stage of personal and collective development that creates an essential opposition designed to generate and facilitate growth.

Life is made up of an ongoing series of contradictory struggles meant to move us along the developmental path we were designed to move along. Development could not happen without the tension that forms the core of the pattern of transformation. This pattern (birth/death/rebirth or separation/initiation/return) is built into traditional rites of passage and is found in the sacred stories of the world’s myths and religions.