Initiation:
Module One
Exploring
Exploring Crises, Losses, Ordeals with Curiosity
Staying curious allows us to become objective-subjective participants. From this place of presence, we can notice ourselves: what we feel emotionally and physically, where we feel it in our bodies, and how we respond or react. Exploring is a place of curious questioning. As you move through the reflections and practices of the last module and incorporate new reflections and practices from this one, ask yourself (Who/What/Where/When/How):
Who is responsible for how I feel? Who is responsible for the particular event or action?
What part is mine? What happened? What happened before I felt uncomfortable, anxious, or fear? What happened before I felt open, secure, and authentic?
What do I feel (emotionally)? What is the information this emotion is conveying to me?
Where do I feel this emotion in my physical body? What does it feel like?
When have I felt this before?
How can I take care of myself before, during, or after a difficult moment?
How did or can I respond?
Keeping the why questions at bay usually help us stay out of blame, shame, judgement and self-judgment so that we can remain in a more open stance of observation, noticing, and curiosity.
Expectations of discomfort and disturbance
Within communities where traditions are intact, and ritual and myth inextricably linked, rite of passage structures are customary. During vision quests and other indigenous threshold ceremonies, participants actively provoke or bring about ordeals and crises. Ordeals may be brought on or accentuated through dance, drumming, entheogens, chanting, heat/sweat lodge, fasting, sleep deprivation, and isolation. Even if an external force instigates crisis (illness, loss, trauma), practices that engage the crisis actively create opportunities for transformation. Ordeals, whether external, developmental, or self-imposed, are embraced in order to bring about necessary changes for the individual and community.
Your journey of transformation is for you, and it is also for the benefit of the community and your systems of belonging. Your transformation is a permanent change state. Your transformation will impact your relationships and systems of belonging. Sometimes our transformations are welcome, and those who love us notice and easily relate to the person we are becoming. Other times, our transformation creates discomfort in our friends and family who have come to expect particular behaviors and responses from us. This is normal, and in both cases the change is generative.
Ritual action is agency
Whatever form or catalyst you choose, the ordeal itself offers a transformational opportunity. Crisis and ego-destructuring, both non-ordinary states of consciousness, have the ability to create a profound shift and expansion in awareness. Entering liminality through various practices induces non-ordinary states of consciousness that may cause you to question a belief system. These ritual actions create an altered sense of awareness that can open a new perspective. These crises tend to intensify the sense of isolation, uncertainty, and disorientation.
Being able to stand in the position of objective-subjective participant keeps us present and participatory while allowing the observer part of ourselves to curiously notice.
Transition is the passage through a doorway as we move from the profane into sacred territory. The presence of both the profane and sacred (secular and spiritual) co-occur in the liminal state during this ritual stage. Ritual involves an intentional act or action on the part of the initiate in the midst of transformation, a death and rebirth process, offered with the intention of making contact with the divine, spirit realm, or invisible mythological powers. Ritual acts are often a series of actions, incantations, gestures, story, songs, or dance performed in a sacred or designated location. Your altar or sacred space is a place for ritual actions.
Within the liminal state of the transformative process, ritual action is the medium for change. Emotional expression provides an opportunity to recover from distress, moving from upset to calm states, and emotional self-management and regulation. Contemplative exercises or practices that allow us to become more fully present enhance the initiate’s agency and introspection for a greater understanding, while also increasing self-knowing, connection, and compassion in relation to the situation. These kind of practices are ritual acts that create a potent, focused experience of new information generating a higher rate of retention and meaning. Initiates embody the liminal state through ritual actions so that ego can dissolve and new creative ways of being might be discovered. In a crisis, a sense of agency and belief in the power to influence and repair a disconnect builds resiliency and a transformative pathway.
Imagination, Image, Myth
Imagination and image have specific interpretations relative to consciousness states. The visionary poet-artist William Blake spoke of imagination as a “vivid prophetic and visceral...imagery”. James Hillman speaks of imagination in terms of a perceptive eye that can see the whole complex image and its potentialities at once, proclaiming the utter “Truth of the Imagination”. Ahkter Ahsen, the father of eidetic imagery, describes imagination as “a psychical visual image of unusual vividness” that is seen on the screen of the mind and shifts consciousness. Eidetic images are experiences that can be accessed over time and offer the seer new perspectives, connection, and resources. Images are partial or incomplete, but because they are holograms the whole can be completed from the part. Being in eidetic images moves the seer both into consciousness and the sensual body, into the holographic representation of the wound or event. Imagination includes the ambiguous concepts of myth and mythology (storytelling) that are inextricably entangled with one another. Myth, found in all cultures in the world, provides a lasting and dynamic story of human trials and tribulations over time that can connect to the current context of a culture. Imagination in terms of eidetic imagery and mythology provide a particular portal for deep imaginal states of consciousness.
We will work with practices that incorporate these concepts. We will practice embodied imaginal exercises that will train your mind and body to fully participate and become present. This training and practice will allow you to participate deeply in the ordeal of transformation.
Ritual action creates an opportunity to meet myth, the third thing that provides an epiphany or new vision. Myth is one expression of what you may refer to as God, Spirit, Universe, or Higher Self. Regardless of the nomenclature, myth generates the knowing of something greater than self.
Second Order Change
The ordeal prompts the rite of passage; and the level of change or transformation that occurs in the liminal state is related to the capacity of the initiate’s social paradigm. There are several levels of transitions ranging from first, second, and third order changes. First order change (incremental) occurs within a current and shared schemata or perspective. This kind of change is often surface level and without permanent consequence. First order changes essentially establish coping mechanisms for a repeated pattern of struggles that may on the surface appear different in some way; however, structurally they are the same problem. Second order change (transformative) modifies the perspective or paradigm; whereas third order change (transcendent) involves altering the capacity of the system itself to shift its paradigm as challenging events present themselves. First-order, second-order, and third-order change are possible on the macro-level (within cultures) and micro-level (for individuals).
The aim of this personal work is transformative, second order change.
Reflection
Journal
Consider the Womb of Support from Module Zero. What and who (beliefs, places, people, practices) create your womb of support? Name them, and how each provides support.
Using the Who/What/Where/When/How model from above, choose one or two events (comfortable/pleasurable or uncomfortable/painful) and explore the event in your writing.
Practices
When I See, I Feel
Choose an object from nature (leaf, shell, flower, rock). Hold it in your hand if possible. Notice the physical attributes (color, shape, texture). Choose one attribute, and proceed with the exercise in the following format.
When I see (physical quality) _________________, I feel (emotion) ___________________ in my __________________ (body part/region).
Example: When I see the white speckle on the rock, I feel calm in my belly.
Breath As Blessing
Seven Stones
Om
Ritual Action
Sacralizing a Space in Nature
Find a place in nature near your home and choose a particular nature being (tree, plant, wood, grass area, rock). Using the When I See, I Feel practice, begin the practice for a few rounds. As you feel your energy begin to merge with the fields around you, sacralize the space. You might encircle a tree with twigs and rocks, stack rocks, clear the area around a plant or flower. You will know what to do to honor the nature being.