Rhoda Weber Mack | The Writer's Studio Tour

Malleus Maleficarum: A SPELL FOR THE 21st CENTURY

A contemporary sorcery holds our young under its spell.

It is a spell as powerful as any fantasy tale, as invisible as a web of lies, and as real as daylight.

Just when our emerging adolescents are awakening to new powers of thinking, feeling and willing, the subliminal spell sucks them into its power. It hisses and whispers, it flaunts and seduces in a torrent of voices. It tells them what to do, what to value, what to choose, who to emulate. Casting its spell, the Science of Persuasion feeds on our young’s inchoate needs and passions to realize its own purposes.

DIAGNOSIS AND ANTIDOTE

In wiser times and cultures, the rising generation went through a powerful rite of passage:

a ritual separation from childhood and everything s/he has known,
a state of ambiguity, openness, and uncertainty, often with a heroic task to perform, and
supportive incorporation back into the community.

http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/waymac/Sociology/A%20Term%201/2.%20Culture/Rituals.htm

But we, the elders, live in our own echo chamber of self-fulfilling ignorance. We are ourselves too disconnected from our ancient history to understand the large forces that prey on us. We are largely at a loss to understand or guide our estranged adolescents. What is the narrative here? We barely know.

Developmentally, adolescence is the time when consciousness awakens to self-awareness and an understanding of the world. It is a delicate, critical time, a time of deep imprinting. It is a time of hormonal, physical, mental, and emotional surges that form the basis for cognitive patternings that will inform the choices and predilections of young adulthood. Potentially, it is a time of awakening to a desire to be one’s authentic self, a search for personal and social values, and courageous resolve.

The rising generation is an endangered species. The first step toward initiation is an inner separation from family and home, but what does the adolescent step toward when the network of family and community has fallen?

The awakening to ideals and authenticity is met with the fascinating flash of all that is dangerous, extreme, horrifying, grotesque, and cynical. Billions are made selling experiences to the young that feed the fascination for the extreme and dark, and our Emos succumb to the hypnotic narrative. The impulse for awakening to the world and one’s true self is crushed before it can be born.

So the spell whispers, and it feeds on us and our young. And with what motives?

Greed, which we naively applaud as an economic force, thrusts us all head-first into the consuming maw of commercial culture. BYTE NOW, BYTE NOW, the AdWorld whispers. I’ll tell you who to be.

And the hierarchical concentration of power and control, with its black/white spin on what’s true, what’s real, what’s important. BYTE NOW.

DORMIUS OMNIUS.

So how do we break the power of the spell? By being alive to ourselves. The rising generation unmercifully mirrors back to us our own unfinished development; personally, culturally, politically. A son or daughter plays back our own relationship with our parents. (Yes Virginia, this is the secret reason we have such a hard time with the kids.) If we can look clear-eyed into that mirror, and respond with integrity, open-heartedness and good humor, we are doing the inner work that will break the spell for the rising generation.

Like my father used to say, Remember who you are.

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from “Willa’s Postcards from Mom”
SHELTER ROCK CAFÉ PROJECT ©

When the school district called me to
come do a presentation on substance
abuse for the middle school, I said, “Let
me think about it—“ and she shot back
like she had the line ready, “Now Willa,
I’m sure you must have a lot to say to the
middle-schoolers. As an art therapist and
mother. After all, you lost a child yourself,
so sorry for the tragedy.”

I almost said No right there. They were
not going to make Max their Drug
Abuse Poster Boy. That’s not who he
was. He was too alive. He was just
beginning to find his powers to change
the world. He was so passionate about
everything he touched.

You did not fear danger, Maximostly.

                            That’s what took you down.
                            Then that night when I couldn’t sleep, I
                            thought, Why not speak TO Max? As if
                            he’s there in the room. Why not say all
                            those things that keep me awake at
                            night thinking, I should have said this to
                            him?

                            Before.

                            So I said Yes, and No no no I don’t need
                            Mrs. H to stay in the classroom. I can
                            handle them alone. I want to handle
                            them alone. I knew I was not about to
                            read them the standard substance
                            abuse script. These kids need something
                            bigger than that.

                            Even when I walked into the classroom I
                            wasn’t sure exactly what I would say. I
                            was still thinking about it.

                            The class took me by surprise. They were

sleepy, zombies shuffling into assigned
places. I wanted to shout! I wanted to
shake them all awake, say Look out!
Nobody’s telling you the truth! The real
world is a lot sneakier and more dangerous,
richer with wonder and surprise,
than anyone is telling you. Wake up!
I wanted to startle these kids back from
rushing into dangers bigger than themselves.
I never planned to do the drumming.
But seeing those empty faces,
suddenly I was speaking FOR Max when
I hit the desk.

I never planned to tell them either about
the night on top of the mesa, when the
colors played us like drums.

Because when the curtain opens, you
can’t talk about it afterwards without
destroying it. But I wanted to break the
walls down a little bit for these kids.
I wanted them to have a glimpse of the

                          immensity they are living in.
                          What I started to say was:

                          You are coming into the most dangerous
                          and powerful time of your lives.
                          You’re beginning to figure out who you
                          are. Who you could be. You are thinking
                          new things, and looking at everything in
                          a new way. And if you’re awake, you
                          may even begin to suspect that there’s
                          more out there that no one is telling you
                          about.
                          I said that much, and then I saw I was
                          going to lose them. I wanted to tell
                          them what I saw in their faces.

                          I wanted to say:

                          This is your time of going into yourself—
                          and going out into the world.
                          It is a time of awakening—
                          but you don’t know that you are asleep.
                          It is a time of new strength—

but you are also very unsure.
You feel a new love of beauty—
and a fascination with ugliness & horror,
You search for values to believe in—
yet you challenge the established order.
Your intelligence expands in new ways—
but you endanger it with quick-fix stimulations.
Ideals are born like secrets within you—
and you hide them with cynicism.
You long to become a true person—
but you’re afraid to trust your own worth.
You demand independence—
but you long for loving support.
You reject your parents’ authority—
but you’re hungry for their approval.

The order and rhythm of childhood turn
to an internal chaos and untidiness.
Sometimes your room is a metaphor for
the chaos in your head. Too many things
to have to deal with, and no place to put
them all.

                        But I knew they couldn’t hear me if I said
                        all of that. I knew their eyes would glaze
                        over, and then they would pelt me with
                        spitballs and erasers and books, roaring
                        out of that mysterious energy they have
                        but don’t understand.

                        So I beat them to it, and hit the desk.
                        I just wanted to wake them up a bit.

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Rhoda Weber Mack is a contemporary writer, of literary fictions and non-fiction articles for the edge. Her author's website has an online stream of FLASH FICTION and new fiction, article samples and excerpts from Shelter Rock Café, writing the edge of tween, adolescent, middle grade, YA, and women's fiction. This writer's website proposes that fiction is ready to break into new forms, beyond the linear printed word and the graphic novel, merging collage, zine, digital media, blogging, image, online video streaming, Youtube, Facebook, email and IM with textual information.