“We Killed God: Why Our Children Are Starving for Soul Rites”

In a culture that glorifies convenience, idolizes instant gratification, and drowns sacredness in consumerism, one thing is clear:

We don’t initiate our children.

We throw them birthday parties with bouncy houses and sugar crashes. We post their milestones on social media. But we don’t initiate them. Not into responsibility. Not into soul. Not into anything real.

“Our rituals have been perverted to be around consumption more than sacredness… we don’t even have the nuance of multi-year traditions. Everything’s the same every year, and it’s always just more consumption.” -Vesuvius The Dreamweaver

It wasn’t always this way. In the ancient world, initiation was a spiritual necessity, not an Instagram opportunity.

“In the ancient world… you would take a boy and you would tell him hey, you’re gonna go out into the wilderness and you’re gonna go on a vision quest and you’re not gonna come back until you’ve had that vision… If you succeed, when you come back you will be seen as a man.”

That rite of passage marked the transition from boyhood to manhood. It was the hardest thing they had done—by design.

“You are forced to put your character through that funnel, that test, and… through that hardship, I have evolved.”

Today, the funnel’s gone. The test is gone. The elders are gone. And the results?

We’re raising generations of soft souls in a soft culture, with no sense of sacred responsibility.

“In cultures that do not have initiation… boys don’t go through that. So they stay boys. That’s why we are plagued with man-children.”

You see it everywhere: grown men chasing dopamine. Entitled, addicted, and emotionally stunted.

“All they’ve done is continue to go to their boyish impulses. And now they think they’re a man because they have a job and pubes and a porno mag.”

Meanwhile, girls still get initiated—whether they’re ready or not.

“Girls naturally become women through their physiology… having to go through the menstrual process… or becoming mothers, which is a huge stressor on the body and the spirit. You’re automatically forced.”

We expect our daughters to grow up fast while our sons get to coast on vibes and video games. But that gap is destroying everything sacred in family dynamics.

“Our culture would be so much healthier if just the men alone… were raised by men who were connected in that way… Oh man, we’d have some honorable men taking up women and doing the right thing. Women would feel so loved and safe.” -Starlite The Oracle

This isn’t about going back in time. It’s about remembering what time has erased. Sacred rites. Elders. Standards.

It’s also about adapting. Because no, we can’t send our kids into the wilderness with a spear. But we can craft intentional modern rites.

“You can’t throw them out into the wilderness… We have to do modern initiations. And the reason you put them through something hard is because it should be the hardest thing they’ve ever done as to create that stark psychological soul imprint.”

Last week, our daughter flew alone for the first time. Just two hours. But it wasn’t just travel—it was training.

“She was basically amongst adults alone. And that comes with tight awareness… you’re about to do something without a direct guardian. You have to be your own guardian. You have to be responsible for yourself.”

She was given a Virgo Moon assignment: independence with integrity. It was small—but it was sacred.

And we need more of that.

Because the truth is, without rites of passage, there is no identity. No character. No legacy.

“The world seems relatively unsafe… because we have a culture of people who don’t have any of these spiritual values. We don’t have wisdom. We don’t have these rituals. We don’t have these initiations that we’re talking about.”

Why?

“Because we killed God. And because science is now God. And AI is now God.”

Our children are starving for meaning. They don’t need more comfort. They need fire. They need soul. They need us to remember. If this stirred something in you—good. It should. Because this isn’t just a parenting issue or a cultural crisis. This is a spiritual emergency. And it starts with us reclaiming the sacred, not just for our children—but for ourselves.

At #YES2U, we’re building the frameworks that culture forgot. Through our Academy, magazine, and podcast, we explore what it means to live initiated—spiritually, emotionally, relationally.

Because the revolution doesn’t begin in politics. It begins in the home.

🔥 Say yes to soul.

🔥 Say yes to sacred responsibility.

🔥 Say YES to you.