Ronald Richard Harris, 32°

Every stage of life is an opportunity for a new beginning.

In my years at graduate school, I  had the unique opportunity to write my thesis on midlife crisis. Fortunately, I had already completed that passage and now was in the laboratory to study the general population, while comparing notes with my own colleagues about their midlife crises. I found many people joke about this stage of growth, but most will not admit they have anguished over it. As a psychologist, I see this as denial and suppression.

Researchers have placed midlife crisis at a 20-year span covering ages 35 to 55. Most admit this time frame is shadowy and that sometimes a midlife crisis may occur much later in life as specific situations dictate. A crisis might result, for instance, from career changes, children leaving home, loss of a spouse (or significant other), or any major illness. Certainly, physical and emotional changes affect the way people in every situation view themselves and their circumstances.

Gail Sheehy prefers the use of the word passages instead of crises to refer to these times. Passages is a less diagnostic term, less illness oriented and labeling. I also prefer this term since it provides a wellness model and allows me to say to the person undergoing a significant change, "You're doing fine. Others have gone through this and gained a better understanding and more freedom from it, as you will." The integrity of the client demands this stance by the therapist.

Using a literary analogy, it is like Dante's Inferno in that the psychotherapist, like Virgil, guides the protagonist to safety through the nether regions of emotional turmoil. Looking at the same matter from a slightly different perspective, Maria-Louise von Franz uses alchemical symbolism to describe the experience. As the Adept in alchemy transmutes base metal into pure gold, so the person overcoming crisis is transformed from his or her former life to a new and better life through the emotional and intellectual process of therapy.

Dr. Carl G. Jung was a noted psychiatrist who did pioneer research in symbolism and its effect on the unconscious awareness of the processes of change. Given that his grandfather was a Freemason, Jung had knowledge of Freemasonry. After he broke with Sigmund Freud, Jung went through a crisis that was a passage. His understanding of ancient symbolism increased, especially the role these symbols play in all cultures and, therefore, in all psychotherapy.

Our Masonic heritage, while dated historically, may be as old as mankind itself. In the various Degrees, Freemasonry certainly teaches us the passages that are necessary to learn how a good man can become a better man. Jung used archetypal symbols to show the various paths each of us can take in order to achieve a healthful integration of personality and life.

He further states that all symbols may be likened to a universal language that truly makes all mankind a brotherhood. Daniel Levinson states in his book A Season in a Man's Life that any time of crisis in life is a passage, a time for renewal and growth. Freemasons will find within Levinson's book and the works of many other authors in the field of psychology a justification of their reasons for joining our Fraternity, especially an appreciation of its role as a guide through the seasons, passages and, yes, crises of life wherever and whenever they may occur.

Ronald Richard Harris 
is a professional counselor in Canon City, Colorado. He served with honor in 1972 to 1978 in the U.S. Air Force and, in 1981, the Missouri Army National Guard. He attained the National Defense Award, Outstanding Unit Award, and a Good Conduct Award. A graduate of Southeast Missouri State University with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology, he completed counselor education at the University of Northern Colorado and at Regis University with a Master of Arts in Psychology. He is a member of the American Counseling Association, a Community Mental Health Counselor for 10 years, and is now in private practice in Canon City. Raised a Master Mason in Canon City in Mt. Moriah Lodge No.15 on September 26, 1998, he attained the 32nd Degree on November 7, 1998, in the Scottish Rite Bodies of Pueblo, Colorado. He is a Noble of the Al-Kaly Shrine Temple. His wife, Nancy, comes from a long Masonic heritage, and they have one son, Aaron.