Basecamp for Men E86: The Path of Initiation

E86: The Path of Initiation with Special Guest Hunter Toran

 

E86 Introduciton

In episode #83, The Myth of the Grail, I brought forth some of the initiatory themes that lie at the heart of the Grail. Living a life that is marked by initiation is one that allows a person to grow “slowly wise” to use the words of Wolfram Von Eschenbach.

In every persons life, there are countless small initiations and usually a few big ones. The big ones are marked with a big “BEFORE” and “AFTER” signs in your soul’s journey.

It can be a good exercise to take out a notebook and mark out your initiations large and small. It can help you see your Hero’s Journey with more clarity.  I like to mark the initiation in one column and what you learned or how you are different now in the other column. And then ask yourself, what initiations still await my arrival?

To broaden your scope on this, a list of initiations might include things like getting your drivers license or having your parents get divorced when you were young. It definitely would include leaving home for good or the first time you fell in love. Something like military bootcamp is clearly an initiation. Moving to a strange city or country is also an initiation. Anything that marks a clear before and after for the soul qualifies as you will learn much about yourself and where you are going through these trials and tribulations.

I have spoken of my big initiations from time to time but I will mention a few of them again here. Like I said,  it is good to know your own. To know when your Soul found a deeper, more truthful song for you.

For me, moving to NYC was an initiation. I had never even been there when I arrived and had grown up my whole life in the PNW. New York was a strange, powerful, scary new land where I would find new parts of myself that I didn‘t know I had. I became gutsier and more confident because of it.

Another big initiation, as you all know,  was doing the Mankind Projects New Warrior Training. This was a clear “before Tony” and “after Tony”. I came out with a chestful of new tools: a mission I created (and then lived), knowledge of the male archetypes and how to access them, a deep appreciation of the tribe of men and my place in it. MKP gave me a Warrior’s fire and a container to express it. I would never go back to the overly nice, people-pleaser I was when I was younger. Between NYC and the New Warrior Training, I was finding all sorts of newfound inner power as a man.

The next big initiation was becoming a father. I was scared shitless waiting for Lucas to be born. All new fathers feel this (although few will admit it). It is an absolutely awesome, terrifying initiation to be brought into. My son arrived like some tiny force of nature. Divine, powerful, full of raw feeling and powerful vocal chords. He let me know, in no uncertain terms, that my old life was over. It has been a big, incredible initiation. One that I am grateful for every day.

My sobriety was another initiation for me. I know this is true for any addict or alcoholic who has taken on his or her recovery. Quitting drinking 8 years ago changed me. It was an initiation that I was never quite sure I was up to until one day it just happened. I stopped and I didn‘t die. And in my soul, I could feel the excitement that accompanied this new me. I knew it would lead to a hundred new great things if I could just stay with it. And it has! You’re listening to one of the gifts that was awaiting me once I crossed that threshold.

And my marriage to Lisa has certainly been an initiation. In a long-term relationship, you don‘t have anywhere to hide. Oh, you can try and I certainly do. But a life partner or soul mate will bring your love to a new level. It often won’t look the way you would like it to look but the alchemy of a long-term relationship is undeniable. You bring your strengths and your short-comings (we all have them) and you ride life’s ups and downs together, learning the whole way.

What initiations still await me? I can see as men grow older, we are forced to deal with loss. Becoming an empty nester, when your last child leaves the house is certainly an initiation. And losing your parents and other loved ones and friends will be a series of painful initiations as we grieve for what is passing. This all helps to bring us to our final initiation (at least in this body and in this dimension). Our own passing.

If we have grown slowly wise, as Parzival did, then each initiation will ripen and prepare us. We will arrive at our final initiation full of wisdom and grace, rather than regret and fear.  Through all of the changes and passing seasons and lessons and wisdom and grace granted, we will come to our own death with a recognition of what does not change. God bless you on this journey my listener. I am happy to be on this journey with you.

Hunter Toran Bio

Hunter Toran is a Somatic Educator and Therapist within the discipline of Spacial Dynamics and other Somatic practices. Hunter performs individual therapeutic sessions and  group workshops on the entirety of the human experience through conscious movement here in Seattle.  Most recently Hunter has begun to dive deeply into ‘men’s work’ to support containers that see the evolution of the divine masculine as imperative to the survival and development of humankind.

E86 Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed my interview with Hunter Toran. To book a session for one of this excellent Spacial Dynamic sessions or to find out more about Hunter’s workshops, go to www.levitytherapeutics.com

Basecamp for Men E84: Health as Your Foundation

Wood background

E84: Health as Your Foundation with Special Guest Janell Hartman   E84 Introduction I hope you are all well. I wanted to start off by saying that I loved what Howard Ferguson said at the…

Basecamp for Men E83: Fireside Chat with Howard Ferguson

E83: Fireside Chat with Howard Ferguson

 

E83 Introduction-

As a show that is assisting in the awakening of humanity and attempting to do our part using myth, Gnosis or spiritual knowing, and an unflinching stand for what is true I see roughly three groups right now. There is the group that is having one epiphany after another, this is the group that are the meditators, truthers, , the seers and the Gnostics.  This group is excited. For these are the early adopters in this huge shift in consciousness. They are seeing more and more of the pattern.

There is a middle group where things have begun to stir. They are sensing that things may not be what they thought and perhaps the MSM is not telling them the truth about what is happening.

Maybe they took one or two of the red pills and things are shifting.  Or some of what we are talking about mythically is starting to resonate with them. Things are expanding for this group but cognitive dissonance may still be the order of the day as they try to discern the pattern that is emerging. This group is neither early adopters nor the laggards. This group is starting to right-size the ego and so not be as entrenched in their old ways of seeing and categorizing reality. They are starting to sense that we are at a tipping point and that THEY might have something to do with the outcome.

The final group does not appear to be stirring nor awakening and that is fine as well. They are perhaps too entrenched or invested in the old reality. They seem to believe that anyone  that does not think and talk as they do are crazy.

For this group there does not seem to be enough inner resources to either right-size the ego nor prepare themselves for the massive amount of information that will need to be downloaded and integrated into our tribe in the coming weeks and months.

I know a lot of people in each of these three groups: friends and former friends, collegues, family members, people I know in the community. I am fine with whatever group you find yourself in although my sense of the third group is that nobody is going to put themselves in that final group. The ego won’t allow it. Such is the way of things. My focus is on helping those that are showing the unmistakable spark to find some footing and participate in a growing tribe during these strange shifting sands we find ourselves on.

What follows is another red-pill episode.  Part of a series of episodes we have done and will do sprinkled throughout season three. Think of it as two friends sitting around the fire talking about the pattern they are seeing right now.

And make no mistake, these red-pill episodes are for the middle group, the one that is starting to make sense of things. If we can help fill in the picture a bit more clearly or you take something you heard and investigate it for yourself, then Howard and I will have succeeded.

Whether you confirm our findings as true or not is not really the point. Not ultimately anyways.  Your honest inquiry and ability to throw aside the mainstream media’s disinformation campaign and propaganda and discern for yourself is what will further your awakening. I wish you Godspeed listeners. We are, as they say, at the precipice.

Howard Ferguson Bio-

My guest today is a friend, entrepreneur, restaurateur, and fellow seeker of Truth. Howard Ferguson is a man known as straight shooter, a truth teller, and someone who is able to integrate new information and form it into a collective vision of what is happening and where we might be going.

Here is my interview with Howard Ferguson.

E83 Final Thoughts-

I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Howard Ferguson.  One resource that both Howard and I love is the writing of Martin Geddes. Martin is really good at giving you a birds-eye view on much of this stuff. I highly recommend you check out his latest book Open Your Mind to Change: The Guidebook to The Great Awakening.

The website is at www.openmindschange.com. I promise you that you will pull a bunch of things out of there that you weren’t aware of. I also promise you that you will feel more optimistic and more empowered about what is unfolding than you did before you picked up the book.

Basecamp E82: The Myth of the Grail with Tony Rezac

E82: The Myth of the Grail with Tony Rezac

 

E82 Introduction-

Why does the myth of the Grail still enchant us? What is it about it? Its instruction, its hidden meanings, its mystery? As you begin to engage with this myth, something starts to stir in you. If myths carry information and transformative images over time and generations, then this one packs a punch.  You can tell as soon as you start to step into it.

I found this episode to be a daunting task. This myth is mighty and commands my respect. I sense all the powerful beings that are connected to this story. My best option, and the one I took, is to approach it like Parzival, the innocent fool who becomes the hero of the story. Step into the myth in an unsophisticated way and allow it to shape this communication with you.

We must remember that a myth is a living entity and exists within every person. You will get the true, living form of the myth if you can see it as it spins away inside yourself. When working with a myth, it is good to keep in mind that the characters are representatives of all the various levels of consciousness or parts of ourselves as we seek to put ourselves back together. The boundaries between literal and psychological, inner and outer, symbolic and actual, part and whole, microcosm and macrocosm- become very fluid and porous…..

I hope you enjoy the episode!

Tony

Basecamp for Men E81: The Quest for the Soul

E81: The Quest for the Soul with Special Guest

Dr. Anne Baring

 

E81 Introduction-

So many of our wisdom traditions and myths speak of the recovery of the Soul. In the central myth of the Gnostics, The Goddess Sophia has fallen. The Feminine Soul has descended.  Out of the Pleroma or Heavenly Abode all the way to the material dimension that we find ourselves in. Sophia: confused, lost, bewildered, and homesick, the Feminine Soul begins its slow, steady journey back to its Heavenly Abode.

Myths and fairy tales often contain the clues and maps of the Soul’s Journey. It’s descent and eventual ascension. Myths awaken and nourish the Divine imagination. They nourish the Soul.

To use my guests’ words, when we are not in touch with the Soul, it is as if a vital part of us is asleep. It cannot communicate with us, nor we with it. Civilizations such as ours may die because we have forgotten how to nourish the soul and imagination. We have forgotten how to honor and love nature and the Divine Feminine.

All of our most vibrant myths seem to be pointing in this direction. To the marriage of the Divine Masculine Spirit  with the Divine Feminine Soul. We are, as a tribe, being asked to reclaim what has been dormant but not forgotten.

We will not restore the Wasteland we find ourselves in without this awakening. Technology will not rescue us. Not with its dry, digital landscape. It’s algorithms. Technology represents a kingdom without the Goddess, without nature and the Divine Feminine.

In mythic terms, the most beautiful maiden of the forest is in a deep sleep and awaits for the right Prince, for the right moment in the story. It seems we have arrived at this part of the story. We are there.

The destiny of the entire kingdom is dependent on this outcome. Can the Prince, the symbol of Solar Consciousness, turn inward and find the Lunar Soul, his inner Divine Feminine?

Each one of us holds part of this Soul. The myth of the Holy Grail includes all of us. Each one of us IS the Sleeping Beauty AND the Prince that restores her and the kingdom.

It is important to remember that the Soul does not communicate primarily through words. It does through myth and poetry but the Soul seems to prefer feelings, intuitions, emotions, and dreams. It is in this inner direction that holds the key to the Grail and has the potential to awaken the sleeping Princess.

My guest today has written an incredible book. One that ought to sit high up in anyone’s library.

Anne Baring Bio-

Doctor Anne Baring is a Jungian Analyst and the author of 7 booksincluding her most recent book The Dream of the Cosmos: A Quest for the Soulwhich was awarded the Scientific and Medical Network Book Prize for 2013. The ground of all her work is a deep interest in the spiritual, mythological, shamanic and artistic traditions of different cultures. Her website www.annebaring.com is devoted to the affirmation of a new vision of reality and the issues facing us at this crucial time of choice. Here is my interview with Anne Baring.

E81 Final Thoughts-

I hope you enjoyed my discussion with Anne Baring as much as I did. I felt like I could talk to her all night and not run out of things to ask her.

If you have not read the fairy tale The Sleeping Beauty or you have kids and you want to introduce them to a powerful tale of the lost feminine principle and the Soul’s Journey, go pick up a copy.

Fairy tales carry an amazing transformative power in them. I was speaking with a friend the other day and I was saying that sometimes I think you could take out all the literature of the world and leave only the fairy tales and the Soul would still be able to figure out where it is and where it is going.

Anne’s book The Dream of the Cosmos is as good as everyone says it is.  It is full of myth, magic, the Soul’s Journey,  and how we go about restoring the Goddess and the feminine principle to its rightful place.

To buy The Dream of the Cosmos or other books by Anne, go to Amazon. And to listen to Anne’s excellent talks and find her video archive, go to www.annebaring.com