If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.
-Jesus, The Gospel of Thomas
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The Eye of Horus. Sunlight on a Tree. The Church. The depths of the Oceans and the Twinkling of the Stars. The Sword, the King, the Circle.
In poetry, religion, storytelling and dreams, humanity has been in love with the symbols that radiate meaning, that help us make sense of life, the world, and our selves.
Most cultures have their own unique symbols and stories. Ours is no different, but we also have access to millions of different symbols from other times and cultures — we drown in them.
We are more abundant in symbols than ever before, and yet the irony is we have a skeptical relationship, at heart, with the symbols that our culture gives us — few of us grow up with the kind of clear guidance that past cultures would provide in terms of who we are, what symbols are appropriate for us, etc.
But in this seeming poverty of riches there hides an immense possibility: we can step into a kind of unique expression, reflection and embodiment of self through our use of symbols in a way that people in the past did not have access to.
It is part of the life path of this being (i.e. Andrew) to help others work with these symbols, to come up with a unique mandala of the self, one that reflects the energies that form this unique life, that are asking for fruition, and that you can use to practice with and help birth the being only you can be.
Deepen your embodiment and expression of your unique life path. Claim who you are and emanate this on the planet.
***Practicals: What will we actually do?***
I lead from a place of openness, and so I’ll be responding to the actual needs and practices of the people in the room — however, with this workshop in particular, there are some clear exercises we will most certainly do:
*What is an Avatar? What is an Archetype? - we will generate this discussion together to give you a sense of what I mean by an Archetypical Energy
*Coming up with an Avataric Mandala: a map of your own inner energies and potentials
*Learning how to Practice with Energy & Symbol
*Practicing with an Entelechy — that ‘self’ you are when given 10,000 lifetimes to evolve
*Practices to learn how to embody and emanate particular energies at will, and what to do when you encounter them in daily life
That is, you should leave this workshop with a very clear sense of a few key energies that you feel close to or that compose you, how to merge and access those energies with awareness itself, how to continue developing this sense of self, and how to practice to foster a deeper awakening of your being.
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Qs:
Is this blatant narcissism? Would I just be worshipping myself?
No, entirely not. We are using these energies to tap the intuitions we each have that form us prior to our becoming aware of them as egos.
While there is deep wisdom in working with instantiations of the divine - i.e. Deity Yoga (and I recommend that and work in this way myself!) there is something else available from working with the signature of one’s own highest representation. I believe this to be an aspect of this unique path of 21st century Tantra — I will add resources here as I develop them, there is much more to this than I can answer here.
Q2: Do I need to have practiced any of this before coming to the workshop?
No, not exactly. This workshop is more helpful for people with at least some practice, in whatever form (yoga, Circling, meditation, etc.) If this is the first thing you’re going to do on the path of awakening and personal development, reach out to see if it’s a fit. Otherwise, welcome in, game on.