Week One + Two
Ensemble Hero:
Journey Through The Dark Forest
Walking The Path Of Unknowing & Mystery
Developing The Capacity For Unknowing
Requires Humility & Courage
Requires Us To Face & Question Our Most Fundamental Ways Of Being
Takes Us Into Uncomfortable New Territory
Confronts The Subtle Arrogance Hidden In Our Ideals & Values
Understands Yielding & Receptivity As Ego Strengths
The Practice Of Unknowing
‘Unknowing’ is a very different experience from ‘not knowing’. To enter into the sense of mystery and wonder that can be experienced in adventures into the unknown, we must transcend the duality of knowing-not knowing.
In these cases, we compensate for our fears with needing to know. Then our ways of knowing become more fixed, rigidified, and certain. We can become sanctimonious and righteous in our belief and position of knowing something in a way that cannot be questioned. We can also impose our knowing onto others, in ways that can feel patronizing, intrusive and disempowering to others.
The posture of ‘unknowing’ requires humility. It also requires a certain amount of ego strength that can tolerate un-binding one’s self from fixed and rigidified beliefs, attitudes, and ways of seeing self and others.
An Essay In Support Of The Theme
ENTERING THE DARK FOREST OF THE PSYCHE
by Michael Mervosh
Once we cross the threshold into the Journey myth of the unknown, we confront the threshold guardians at the boundary between safety/familiarity, and that of risk/unknown. We leave behind the ‘well-worn path’ already made before us, and instead enter the multi-dimensional, mythic realms of the psychic forest.
Here, we enter inner territory where a previous path does not exist. We make our own path, as we go.
Week One Whole Group Recording
This is the recording from the live session on March 5th.
A Reflection
Whenever we enter the ‘Forest Adventurous’, the distinctive feature of these exterior and interior worlds is always the lack of a clear path in front of us. A clear way cannot already be laid out for those who undertake a worthy adventure; otherwise, it would not really be an adventure.
Mythic pathways always unfold over time, little by little. Yet if we are really paying attention to the unfolding, each little step along the journey can be more fully engaged and lived, and each step can become something that moves us forward in new ways.
The challenge for us, as we learn to tolerate the unknown, is to gradually begin to see it as a helper, or a necessary support. It is the herald or harbinger of a potential time of growth and development, but in ways that are very likely to make us feel inadequate, insecure, unnerved, or quite foolish.
We must ask ourselves:
- Why the rush to certainty?
- What exactly seems to be unbearable for us in this moment or circumstance?
A Guided Meditation
BUILDING OUR TOLERANCE FOR THE UNKNOWN
- Look more deeply at facing the inevitability of being in the unknown.
- Build your tolerance for bearing initial tension in the body and reflexive anxiety in the mind when feeling moments of uncertainty.
- Practice the fundamental embodiment skills of grounding & deep breathing.
ACTION OPTION ONE
FACING THE NECESSITY OF DISORIENTATION
Every now and again, and at certain particular times in our lives, we will find ourselves entering the dark forest of the psyche – the deep unknown – going down into the soul’s unknowable depths, and perhaps wandering ever further from ‘the path already made’.
Allowing ourselves to be disoriented, to move beyond the familiar frames of reference, going out beyond the typical dualities of life – good/bad, right/wrong – this is a very counterintuitive posture, one that can be quite perplexing to the ego.
Read more about LEARNING TO WAIT IN THE UNKNOWN.
ACTION OPTION TWO
OPENING YOURSELF TO THE ‘OTHERNESS’ IN ANOTHER PERSON
For this option, make it a point to have an encounter or a conversation with someone with whom you would not typically seek to engage – someone ‘other’ than your typical choice of connection.
Notice what keeps you from opening yourself in a new way, or if this might be an example of how you might tend to ‘over-protect’ yourself from the ‘otherness’ of someone who is different from you in some fundamental way.
Open up to the possibility of being surprised by what you find; look for their humanity underneath your differences; what did you learn about yourself?
ACTION OPTION THREE
DO EXACTLY WHAT YOU WOULD DO IF YOU FELT MOST SECURE
Follow this encouraging advice from Meister Eckhart, make it a point this week to try one thing that you would have never attempt to do before, due to your own sense of inadequacy, fear of rejection or failure, or inability to tolerate a personal discomfort.
Do not dismiss any type of new action because of its apparent simplicity or smallness, and don’t try to take on something too large or daunting as a compensation. Just give yourself ten seconds of courage, step into an unknown encounter, conversation, activity or pursuit, and see what new possibility may arise.
SEPARATION – INITIATION – RETURN
These three essential stages of the Hero’s Journey myth provide the seeker with distinct features and tasks to support a transformational process. For those of you looking to understand more about the various components for each of these stages, and want access to more resources from our library of information, you can access them here.
Access To Journey Resources
Suggested Books & Highlighted Readings
Relevant Podcasts - coming soon
Poems That Reflect The Inner Journey
Short Video Clips - coming soon
You Make The Path By Walking It
“Traveller, the path is made by your own footsteps
And nothing more.
Traveller, there is no path
The path is made by walking.
By walking you make a path
And turning, you look back
At a way you will never tread again
Traveller, there is no road
Only wakes in the sea.”
- Anthony Machado
JOURNEY MAP
Introduction Week
Week One
Week Two
Week Three
Week Four
Week Five
Week Six