Awareness of the natural progression of life transforms chaos and crisis into opportunities for knowledge and personal growth. With insight and humor, Frank Natale shares his wisdom on the thirteen inevitable rites of passage and how The Circle of Life illuminates our path of spiritual development through four phases: Preparation, Initiation, Integration, and Realization. "Transformation is the essence of being alive," Natale writes. "These passages are the doorways to our power and spiritual evolution. The passages within the Circle of Life are so powerful that knowing what they are and when they will come is not enough to avoid them. The only possibility we have is to accept and extract value from them while consciously experiencing them." A native New Yorker, in 1967 Natale co-founded Phoenix House in New York, which became the largest residential treatment facility for chemical dependency in the United States. After twelve years as clinical director, Natale left to focus on successful, functioning personalities who want to experience new levels of creativity and aliveness. Working throughout the United States, Europe and Australia, Natale's teaching emphasized self-discovery, personal responsibility and choice as paths to conscious living and spiritual growth.