To further echo Campbell, do we suffer from a lack of ritual? Do we continuously go through rites but gain no ground on passage? Are the rites so downplayed, so absent that we lose a sense of where we are? Are accepted rites of the day impersonal, the administration of credentials, but not much more?

The modern shaman, as if to mirror, goes through the process day after day, coming back from the psychological trials to murmur the cures for what ails us.

Taking the cat to the vet's leaves one with a sense of mortality.