Paths to Transformation: From Initiation to Liberation:

It is our nature to transform ourselves from time to time; to cling to old ways is to resist a fundamental law of nature-- death before rebirth. In Paths to Transformation, Kate Burns traces this process, correlating it with rituals of initiation and amplifying the stages with a rich collection of images, dreams, and case studies.

Historically, the passage from adolescence to early adulthood was supported by extensive rites, and we now know that the absence of such rites in modern life has cast youth adrift and rendered them immature and dependent beyond their years. Similarly, our ancestors venerated aging, including its mortal goal, as a summons to wisdom rather than a horror to be resisted by every possible means. During the expanding years between youth and death, the question of how an individual is to find a personal path worthy of the soul becomes most pressing in our postmodern world.