Me and Rajyo (co-founder of Celebration of Being) at Winchester House at the end of the workshop
This last month has been intense. I have done some sort of workshop every weekend. Powerful experiences each and every one of them. I finally have some downtime to integrate and feel what has happened. So far, it’s a bit of a blur. Though I feel clear that a lot has shifted inside of me. After all, participants at each of these four workshops have communicated something akin to “life-changing” and I did friggin’ four of them. Oh lord.
I came to the Isle of Wight to do the Noble Man workshop on the recommendation of a New Warrior Brother. He had done the Noble Man workshop before we were both initiated on the same New Warrior Training Adventure in June. I like the man and trust his judgment, so I decided to go.
I have done a huge amount of work with men by now. But women have been conspicuously absent from my learning environments. I am clear that I want to change that and so the Noble Man arrived at an auspicious and fitting time.
To make a long story short – I loved the workshop. I’m not entitled to tell you about the processes themselves, but what was richly rewarding for me about our time together was the deep sense of mutual love and respect that permeated the ritual space. It was an environment of true healing and the processes that we were taken through spoke to me deeply. The female facilitators described it as a rite of passage and though my mind still cannot quite tolerate the idea that women can offer a rite of passage to men (it goes against all the wisdom of our ancestors), I can but embrace the potency of the experience.
Many of the women on “staff” reported that they fell back in love with men and with their own femininity and that alone makes my heart sing.
For me, the biggest takeaway is that I can be sensitive and vulnerable and still be attractive to women. I have spent a lot of time trying to build a masculinity befitting a mature man and in the process, I have lost some of my boyish playfulness and young curiosity. Embracing my inner two-year-old and bringing him into life with me is now a more probable and inspiring concept for me. That alone is huge. I’m tired of not bringing all of me.
I am tired as I write this and know that while I could make a long story out of this, my mind can’t take it right now. So I will leave you with my heartfelt recommendation of the Noble Man with Celebration of Being. Rajyo, Gina, Debbie and the other women there were a delight and moved me deeply and I loved bonding with the guys there too.