Applying Integral Consciousness to Occupy

There seems to be increasing awareness around moving integral theory from the map into the territory. Not that it wasn't being done by some---see Terry Patten and Marco Morelli's excellent article "Occupy Integral" on the online magazine Beams and Struts---but when you log on to sites like Integral Life, there seems to be a huge disconnect between the reality of what's happening in the world and "feel good" articles that promote the meta-theories on integral. It's as if there's a sort of spiritual bypass that's going on in the mainstream integral community, or what Terry and Marco refer to as "integral inaction."

For me, Terry and Marco's article---they call it a "manifesto"---is a call to action for us to get up off and out of our arrogance and complacency and into the world. In other words, become the Sacred Activists that are called for at this point in mankind's evolution.

So what might that look like in the real world? Terry and Marco call for us all to "Occupy Integral," and I call for us to occupy Occupy.

Bringing the Map to Occupy

I'm an occupier. I work with the local OccupyWNC group where I live. I'm there because that's where the action is and if we're going to be able to successfully navigate (whatever that means) the coming chaos, then we must first get out of denial and into acceptance that it's happening. Denial could kill you. This requires that we pay attention to what is actually happening in all four quadrants, in the interior, exterior, individual, and collective quadrants. I speak to this in earlier blogs here and here.

But this article isn't about why we should get involved with the Occupy movement, it's an article about how we bring integral consciousness to an awakening phenomenon whose participants span the traditional, modern, postmodern, and post-post modern worldviews. And when you get all these people in the same room, trying to solve problems, there are bound to be conflicts.

First, I think it's important to note that I am not in a "big city" Occupy group. I'm in Western North Carolina, and for those of us living in the rural mountains, Asheville is a big city, never mind New York City or Washington, DC! The tactics of a small town Occupy group and how OccupyWNC interacts with our community is very different from how a big city occupy would interact. People with very different worldviews are our neighbors, not faceless masses.

One of the first things I did when I joined OccupyWNC was to propose a Visioning Work Group that would attempt to provide a small city vision of how we connect with our non-occupy neighbors. I framed the invitation in a way that spoke to post and post-postmodern consciousness so that the people who needed to be there would come. I also spoke of how, in a small town environment, we could build bridges across the local political spectrum rather than dividing the community, and told them I would be showing them a system that revealed how to reach across and communicate with people who had radically different worldviews.

About ten people showed up and I introduced them to Spiral Dynamics integral. Much to my pleasure, they all got it! For the next four hours we talked, discussed, and honed their understanding of how SDi could help them, not only in the community, but within the occupy group itself. I reminded them that these are not people within systems, but complex multifaceted systems within people, and then stressed the importance of not labeling people as one element of that system and showed them why. I've done this presentation many times through my men's groups, the Integral Warrior.

This has proved to be extremely useful in our meetings and our continuing Visioning Work Group, which will probably now morph into a Strategic Planning Group. The following part of this article will demonstrate how this has been valuable.

Competing Worldviews

In the last couple of weeks one of our members proposed that we begin each General Assembly (GA) meeting by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag to show our loyalty to our country. This suggestion triggered some of our members, and a passionate discussion ensued, after which a consensus was asked for to adopt the pledge resolution, which, in turn, was "blocked" by another member. In the consensus model of governance used by Occupy, everybody must agree or the resolution fails. Well, this, in turn, triggered the person who proposed it, and we ran out time to discuss it so it was tabled to the next GA meeting a week later.

The following week the discussion continued, with passion rising once more, even though a majority of the members were calling for compromise. With not much practice at using SDi in context, the group was, once again, at a bypass. At the end of the discussion, I had an opportunity to briefly speak to what a compromise would look like and why it was in the best interest of the entire group, and wrapped it up with a promise to write up a deeper exploration and suggestion on how to compromise so that everyone got what they wanted. Here is a partial transcript of my email:

The single most powerful thing we have is each other, this community. But there is no prototypical model of what the OccupyWNC member looks like. We are the 99%, and that encompasses a lot of different opinions, beliefs, and worldviews. It's not just the 1% who are different than you. It's all of us, and that is also our strength.


There are two primary opposing worldviews at play here (there four generally at play in the US).

Worldviews are composed of values and universal beliefs. Values are perceptual filters minds use to determine (“evaluate”) what is important in any given situation. Universal beliefs are broad-based beliefs about self, others, and system (how the world is perceived to work). I wish the two members who are carrying those opposing worldviews most profoundly would have been there last night, so I'm going to muddle on without the benefit of their comments.

Neither of  these two worldviews are wrong, and, in fact, they are both right...to an extent. The worldviews I'm talking about are traditional and postmodernism. The traditional worldview wants to honor the flag, while the postmodern view wants nothing to do with it. They are both right, for their own reasons.

So now I'm going to ask everyone, including anyone at odds with someone else around this issue, to pretend you have a jetpack strapped to your back (indulge me) and you are suddenly able to leave the horizontal viewpoint of standing where you are, and suddenly jet up to about 50,000 feet where you can get a glimpse of the larger picture, not just what's in front of you.

What we can now see is that the 99% includes those with traditional values (I love the flag and all that it stands for) and that if we don't include and honor (we don't have to agree) those values, we are not inclusive and can't claim that we are the 99% because we just excluded someone, and that's just not right!

Likewise, we can also see that the 99% includes those with postmodern values (I resent the flag and all that it stands for), and that if we don't include and honor them, again, we can't claim that we are the 99% because we also just excluded someone.

If we are to be successful with this movement, if we are to ever to build bridges between us and those with whom we have more in common with than differences, we must learn how to honor everyone's beliefs, no matter how wrong they may seem to us.

So how do we do that? How do we make room for different worldviews without compromising our own belief systems? How can we honor differing perspectives without dishonoring our own?

First and foremost, we must never force our worldviews on others. Everyone has the right to be who they are. I don't want to force my worldview around this upon you, but hope that you're open enough to hear what I'm saying and to find your piece of truth within my words.

So if we have someone who wants to stand up and say the pledge at the beginning of the meeting, even though we may not want to do that, let them do that. I suggest that we stand with them (that we stand together in the largest sense of the word), and honor their wish to do this, standing silent if we need to, not to honor what we may resent about how we are individually triggered by it, but to honor the person.

And if we have some among us who cannot say the words because of their worldview, that we honor them standing in silence, honoring whatever experiences they have had that brought them to where they are, and that we know they are honoring us by standing with us (again, in the largest sense of the word) and thereby we also stand with them.

It's about connecting across belief systems and differing worldviews, and it's great practice for building empathy and compassion for each other. And in a world of compassion and true empathy, there is no 99% and 1%.....there is only 100%.

If we are to succeed, we must do it together, 100%.

Invite them in, one and all.

Gary

The response has been extremely positive with the caveat that the two people who were triggered at opposite ends of the worldview spectrum have not yet responded. I assume there are wrestling with letting go of what needs to be let go of, and we shall see if they are able to do that.

Occupy Occupy.

Worldview graphic from http://integralthinkers.com/featured/new-and-improved-worldview-lenses/

Guest Blog: What in the World are They Spraying?

Water, Fire, Earth…now Air: What in the World are They Spraying?

This blog was written by my wife, Anyaa. The facts presented here are true and can be fact checked. The question is why? And will we wake up and put a stop to this before it's too late? This must be passed on. - G.
Posted by Anyaa on Tuesday 14 February 2012 at www.goddessontheloose.com

by Anyaa McAndrew: I received a link to a long documentary today, one that my sister~friend sent to me a few days ago, and asked me to watch it and get back to her about what I thought. Her tone in the email caught my attention, as she was evidently upset about the content.  I emailed her back and told her I did not have time to watch it and asked her what it was about. Then on a hunch, I suggested to Gary that we watch it this evening. I was ready for one more documentary on what we are doing to the planet, more info on Chem Trails, something I know very little about. I expected to be better informed and enjoy some popcorn!

Then, as we got deeper into the subject, my mind was blown once again, a regular occurrence in these times! I realized that again, our sacred elements, our elementals, are being hijacked from where they belong, and in this case, sprayed from the air in the form of toxic aluminum, barium and strontium, called GeoEngineering. We have mounds of evidence now that we are being poisoned with these substances in alarming amounts, and it does not matter how clean our diets or environments or habits…it is everywhere in our soil, our food, our water and is coming from our air.

One of the most interesting yet believable phenomena regarding Chem Trails is that everyone sees them but no one really knows what they are or what they do or who sprays the stuff, including our representatives in Washington DC who are oblivious.  Most elected officials seriously had no idea about what the filmmakers were even talking about. Yet the levels of toxic aluminum in our environment and the associated diseases are on a very dramatic rise.

Several folks interviewed pointed out the crazy cloud formations that have never been seen before, the crisscrossed web of  trails in the sky that we all barely notice. What are we doing to ourselves? The official answers are that we are protecting ourselves from global warming, reflecting aluminum into the skies to deflect heat. Wonder how that interacts with the sunspot activity and solar storms that are coming at us from the sun? Some say it is weather manipulation, others say it is population control, making us sterile and sick.  Then there are the Monsanto crops that are genetically engineered to be aluminum-resistant.  All say that you simply have to follow the money to find out where it all starts. And, you guessed it, it all traces back to big money because it is apparently very profitable to spray us.

I personally love the 2nd dimension, the beings, bacteria, minerals, rocks, crystals, microbes, and the roots of all things that lie beneath the surface of the earth. I love the 3D plants, the trees, insects, and animals that interact with the earth and what is beneath it. In the last few years we have seen the horrendous assault on Mother Ocean in the form of the Gulf Oil disaster, which is said to be much bigger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill a few years before that, then the Fukashima nuclear meltdown that is still happening, which some say may also have been the HARP work of the Big Bullies that have been running our planet. These are two of the reported major assaults….most don’t hit the news corporation or the people. But there are many documentaries out there on every form of environmental abuse. All you have to do is Google.

I guess we really have been asleep, or maybe we are all just late teenagers finally hitting our first Saturn Return as a species, and some of us are finally realizing that we cannot ignore these bad-boy shenanigans anymore….we are going to have to get real, get angry and pick an issue! Any issue you like, but it’s time to get off our butts and get involved in some kind of Sacred Activism. Some are already on the streets for us, and some write books and articles, others talk about it and make films and teach and work in the trenches of activist groups like Occupy, and some hold space in meditation and prayer. Others rescue the innocent ones and prevent more needless deaths in the animal world, allowing the innocent ones to teach us about unconditional love. I am personally so proud of the young people, those who are not taking denial for an answer and are demanding to know the truth, to unveil every last stinking bit of it, so we can start to repair the earth and build the new world. What i know is that i have to do more, and more, with my heart and soul passionately involved in what has heart and meaning for me.

So, I plan to purchase this film, which is what the filmmakers suggest, copy it, as they suggest (no marketing, just consciousness-raising!), and distribute the link and the film widely. I also plan to get more intimately connected with my soil this year, my inner terrain too, and get to know more healthy minerals and microbes and 2D elementals that are here to assist us to get through this. I have been taking Diatomaceous Earth for awhile now and am looking into other minerals like Zeolite, as well as greens that attract and bind heavy metals. We must get proactive…think probiotics!

I encourage you to find ways to get more involved with your inner and outer planet….and please take an evening to watch this documentary….it is really important for us to know about this!

To find out more about aluminum poisoning from Chemtrails, click here

To view the documentary, click here

The Integral Warrior and Shamanic Astrology

In my book, Awakening the New Masculine: The Path of the Integral Warrior, I've included some new material I have not previously used in the process. As I consider the Integral Warrior Men's Process an evolutionary approach to men's "work," that goes to new places other men's work has not gone, it only makes sense that it evolves and goes deeper as I evolve my understanding around how all these processes and modalities fit together.

One of the new modalities I've added---to the book, first, and to the workshop, next---is Shamanic Astrology. One of the few shortcomings of Integral Theory is that some of its well-known proponents don't recognize the value of anything archetypal. However, I'm claiming that if I can put archetypes in a developmental context, the door opens to placing them in an integral context. That is not to say Shamanic Astrology is integral, but that it can placed inside a larger integral perspective and that it adds value to that larger perspective.

To give you a feel for Shamanic Astrology, I'm going to use my own chart as an example. I was stunned to see my chart and how it fits together with the work I'm doing around the masculine. It is literally a map that explains not only why I do what I do, but how.

"Well, of course that's why you're on the path you're on!" It's another tool for discovering our Sacred Purpose and its validation.

Shamanic Astrology uses a mythic and archetypal storyline that runs counter to "behaviorism," saying we don't come in to this life as a blank slate, but, rather, that we bring an "original essence" with us that is revealed by our birth time as it relates to the position of the moon. In my case, my moon was in Sagittarius at the time of my birth, which means I used to be a Sagittarius. It is my lineage. It is where I come from. My birth time also reveals that I have the Aries Job in the Sag Tribe. Sagittarius' main issue is the desire to find meaning and purpose. It is a Jungian approach centered around the quest for meaning. The spiritual higher octave of Sagittarius is the love of truth, not as a mental concept, but reality,  or what is true in the moment. Sagittarians have historically been explorers, adventurers and philosophers.  If a Sag were a mountain climber, he wouldn't climb it to get to the top, but to see what lies beyond.

When we add the Aries Job, it is the rugged individualist, or lone wolf of the Sagittarian tribe. It is also the warrior adventurer, but not in the sense of a soldier, but as a commitment to a noble cause or purpose. Again, this is all about what I came in with, and it's helpful to know this, both for the individual and with those who love them.

So, according to my chart, how does my lineage fit in with my current life intent? My chart has a lot on it that has more similarities to my lineage rather than something different, and there are some interesting additions. Less focus is placed on the sun sign than in other systems. I have Mars in Aries and my sun is in Gemini. Aries is the most masculine of the astrological archetypes as it is described in the culture as a mission and purpose oriented individual who has a 100% complete identification with a noble cause or purpose. This is exactly the man that David Deida writes books for. Mostly yang, the Aries man is classic, pure warrior male. With the lineage of the spiritual explorer warrior, this current life intent brings the warrior to being more in the world. My chart says I came into the world at this time in history to investigate an authentic expression of Aries, the masculine. Andrew Harvey is another example of the leading edge expression of how we're re-visioning the masculine archetype. What is the new archetype? Well, that's what my book is about! Shamanic Astrology tells us, "no surprise, there!"

Next, we look at current life purpose, which for me is the Rising Sun, or the Capricorn Mystery School. Here I have the Libra Job in service to Capricorn Rising, which means, instead of the lone wolf warrior of my lineage, I am now here---one of my purposes---to be in a non-hierarchical equal life partnership. It is about responsibility and getting results. The challenging part of this is that for thousands of years, the Capricorn Mystery school has been usurped by the extremely strange aberration known as  hierarchical patriarchy and monotheistic religion which resulted in that pathology instead of evolution of the masculine. But the essence of Capricorn is similar to the Native American view of making no decision without considering seven generations to follow. It is the proper custodianship of  resources that serve the planet and its people. It is the wise elder working with the circle of grandmothers. Mars in Aries/Capricorn Rising is a combination of the new evolving masculine, noble images of responsibility, and my chart says I can't do it alone. Conscious equal partnership is essential....and none of what I'm doing would have been possible without stepping into conscious equal partnership with my wife, Anyaa (who is also a Shamanic Astrologer) because she was the reason all this came up for me and why I found this path. It is this conscious collaboration that allows me to learn more about myself. It is this combination of conscious partnership and being able to demonstrate the capacity to embody the new masculine and the willingness to take on the responsibilities to become a teacher/elder.

But we're not done....My Venus archetype, the feminine, also in Aries, is the warrior amazon. The leading edge of the Aries archetype in the feminine is actually the very same quality that is generally projected on 80% of the yang masculine: the capacity to have this noble cause and purpose. It is also what I project upon my partner.

There's a lot more, of course. But everything in my Shamanic Astrology chart points me to being exactly who I'm being. It confirms everything in my life: my work with the masculine and how it leads to developing the leading edge of that masculine, my relationship as a leading edge of conscious relationship and partnership, and my book. I can look at this and say to myself---as Anyaa has said to herself and to me---"well, that explains a lot!" And then....did I choose what I'm doing around awakening the new masculine and the Integral Warrior, or did it choose me? What does it matter? It is who I am.

While I use the reading to validate what I'm doing, most men I work with will use the Shamanic Astrology reading we'll do in the Integral Warrior Men's Process to get them thinking in a deeper way about finding their purpose and their mission. Also, for most men, this will be the first time they have ever looked deeper at, or even considered, their feminine.

From Awakening the New Masculine: The Path of the Integral Warrior:

One of the best ways to work on the masculine and feminine energies within is through  Shamanic Astrology, which gives us a very helpful map for moving through the cultural and societal changes we have entered. In addition to the larger perspective needed for the immensity of the acceleration and intensity of our interior realm, and the cultural, societal, and survival tools that Shamanic Astrology provides, it’s also a way to use and bring forth the archetypal qualities of the masculine and the feminine. These archetypes are called the mediating energies between heaven and earth—a metaphor for interiority and exteriority, the top two quadrants and the bottom two quadrants of the AQAL model. To do this with women, we’d look at their Mars so they can get in touch with their masculine side, and with men we look at their Venus so they can get more in touch with their feminine.

According to Daniel Giamario, the creator of Shamanic Astrology (and the person who did my reading), the readings “provide clues within an archetypal and mythical framework creating greater awareness for conscious participation with life purpose and the great mystery.” In addition to the prerational— magic and myth, the framework and foundation of all astrology—is added what [Ken]Wilber refers to as the “as if” framework of the rational level of consciousness and the very high metaphoric or “interpretive” framework of the transrational to events and how they shape and inform our lives.

With Shamanic Astrology, we explore the archetypes of each man’s lineage, refining and integrating the dance of his inner feminine and masculine and his best enlightenment and relationship paths. Each man also creates an experiential medicine wheel to acknowledge all of his personal archetypes, deepening his understanding of who he is. Last, each man co-creates a Sacred Marriage ceremony. This is not about telling the future; this is about gaining a deeper understanding of who we are.

To find out more about Shamanic Astrology visit:  http://shamanicastrology.com/
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The Integral Warrior Introductory Weekend

The Integral Warrior Men's Transformational Process is just that: A transformational process. The full process doesn't happen in a day, but rather over a lengthy period of time that includes an Introductory Weekend, and three 4-day segments that happen about two months apart. The process is full, holistic, and complex, and demands a lot from the men who choose to walk this path, including shifting perspectives. Not an easy thing to do. The two month period between the 4-day segments is intentional so that men who emerge themselves in the Integral Warrior have plenty of time to process and integrate each of the segments.

But what I'd like to address in this article is the Introductory Weekend, a 2-day workshop intended---as the name implies---to introduce the Integral Warrior Men's Process so men can experience and discover what it is about and to see if they resonate with it and my teaching. 

I'll be upfront with you: This is not for every man. It assumes that an emerging developmental perspective is present in the men who choose do the process. Unfortunately, this developmental perspective is only even beginning to emerge in about 20%, or less, of  men. The process also "self-selects" men who do the process because men who are not yet at or beyond a post-modernist viewpoint simply won't be interested in it. For those men, I point them toward other workshops which are closer to their particular needs. And all men need to do their work with other men, regardless of any perceived stage of development.

This will sound arrogant to some. That's okay. The Integral Warrior recognizes that there are natural developmental hierarchies at play in the world and does not strive to be "politically correct" (please don't confuse "natural" hierarchies with "dominator" hierarchies). The process moves men from power to empowerment.

That said, let's actually talk about the Introductory Weekend so you have a better understanding of what happens in it.

First, this is the only weekend that women will be allowed to attend. There are several factors at play, here, and I think it's important that you understand the reasons. First, both men and women carry masculine and feminine energies and I've described those in another article here. As I said in that article, masculine and feminine energies are not the same thing as gender, or sexual orientation. Everyone carries them both in different combinations. Consequently, there's a lot here for the feminine, and their masculine, as well, but that's not why I'm inviting them in. I invite women in to the Intro Weekend, because about half of the men who do the full process come at the urging of their women partners. I want women, who are emerging into later stage consciousness a little faster than men (sorry, guys, it's true, but that's another article), to see the value of this work so that they can urge their men to do this critical work. Many women understand that in order for the masculine and feminine to come together in Sacred Union, each must do their own work, but men have some catching up to do. I address many of the reasons why men are playing "catch-up" in the introduction of my book, Awakening the New Masculine.

Some women may bring a man who might not otherwise attend or have any desire to attend or to do this process, and that's okay, too. And last, women, it's good for women to have a better understanding of what your man might be going through should he choose to.

The weekend consists of music, movement, interpersonal group meditations to enhance communication and our listening and speaking skills, a fairly detailed overview of the four primary Jungian archetypes with special attention the shadow aspects of our King archetype so we begin to see and understand why we have blockages that slow down or prevent our further awakening and how they're related to our early childhood and family of origin. We also examine the continuing evolution of masculine archetypes. Over the weekend we also learn about the integral approach---and why it's so important to our maturation---and developmental systems theory about how and why we change, how the masculine grows and how it differs from the feminine. And, there's a whole lot more, which is why there's a couple of months in between segments: so there's time to process all of this.

The weekend also consists of a lot of experiential work, guided meditations, shamanic journeying, and exploring the interior world of the post-modern shaman. The balance of cognitive and experiential, missing in so many other approaches, actually anchor each other in our pysches, further enhancing our development.

The introductory weekend gives men---and women---a chance to experience the process, to find out more about how it can benefit them, and to decide if the men want to continue the complete process spread out over several months. Read what one man had to say about a recent introductory weekend in North Carolina: 

 "I have worked with archetypes before and done shadow work but never worked with the two together, releasing one while embracing the other. I feel this is very powerful work and just what I need at this point in my life. I feel that when we complete this series of workshops that I will finally become the man I was meant to be. Thanks again and I look forward to this journey with you and my new found male friends." - John

We are all intensely aware that we are in the midst of the global shift humankind has been waiting for. At the very time this huge Global Awakening is going on, we're also in the midst of our darker side trying to gain control. It's why everything is breaking down. It's the oldest battle on the planet, and why it's more important now than ever for men to step up and embody the new masculine---the Divine Masculine--- as Integral Warriors following the path of Sacred Activism.

Here are some links to what other men are saying about the process:

http://www.awakeningthenewmasculine.com/endorsements 
http://garystamper.blogspot.com/2010/09/another-review-for-integral-warrior-in.html 

and a review about the introductory weekend:
http://garystamper.blogspot.com/2010/06/review-for-integral-warrior-in.html 

I hope you'll join me at an Introductory Weekend coming to a city near you.


Gary

The Integral Warrior Book Talk to an MKP iGroup

Last night I did my first official "book talk" and my book hasn't even been released. Oh, we're not too far off from that happening, maybe 4 weeks from this writing, but I was invited and I went. I'm very glad I did.
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I first want to say thanks to this Mankind Project mens' group for allowing me to present my book, "Awakening the New Masculine: The Path of the Integral Warrior." I hope the 25 or so men who attended got as much out of the evening as I did. I learned quite a few things. Slow down, relax, and perhaps most important, framing the discussion of masculine and feminine outside of gender aspects and labeling.

One of the criticisms I got from a couple of the men about my presentation last night was that it lacked a multicultural viewpoint. They were right. It did. I flat forgot to set up the conversation with the caveat that---although I would frame the conversation within a gender context, because that's the perspective I come from---all references about masculine and feminine transcend gender and apply across the board, regardless of our sexual essence, but strongly informed by it. If you don't know, sexual essence is a complex subject all about how we each identify more with either masculine or feminine qualities, and more, and nothing to do with gender (this is a simplistic telling, as books have been written around this subject)

So all of us can carry a preponderance of masculine or feminine sexual essence, in spite of our physical gender. This is also known as the two fundamental energies of the Universe in Chinese Philosophy: Yin and Yang, with Yang being masculine, and Yin being feminine (again, somewhat simplistic). This is also where it gets interesting.

Each of us, men and women, can carry a combination of these energies. For instance, most men in our culture---but not all---carry Masculine, or Yang, as their primary archetypal energy, and most women---but not all---carry Yin as their primary energy. But there are also many of us who do not. Some men carry more Yin energy, and some women carry more Yang energy. It doesn't necessarily mean they are gay, but they may be. To further complicate this picture, there are also men who carry more Yang energy who are gay, and lesbian women who carry more Yin energy. 

So that creates four patterns and here's what that might look like:
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Men: Yang-Yin

Men: Yin-Yang

Women: Yin-Yang

Women: Yang-Yin
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Gay or straight, male or female, the majority of us are going to pick a partner who represents the polar opposite of who we are, because the polarization of the opposites is one of the qualities that create sexual tension between human beings.

My friend, Joe Perez, writes in his book "Soulfully Gay" (Shambhala 2007):

"If you're not used to seeing the world in terms of archetypal masculine and feminine energies, then you may have doubts that this way of thinking works for queers, You may wonder, does same-sex attraction somehow disprove 'yin and yang?' The answer is it gets a bit complicated. I largely agree with David Deida's perspective."

"Deida acknowledges universal sexual principles, but he also allows for complex permutations of gender and sexual preference. Deida believes there are universal sexual essences corresponding to yin and yang. A sexual essence is an inner psychological and spiritual drive and is not the same as our sex, gender identity, or sexual preference."

Joe then goes on to say that he believes this approach is generally correct, but that he would prefer a more nuanced typology than than Deida's, and points to that approach in another chapter. I have shown a short version of it above as the "four patterns."

For an even more nuanced approach to this subject, I highly recommend Joe's book.

I believe everyone pretty much got where I was coming from by the end of the discussion, although I could tell there were still some men who didn't yet trust me, but it was a valuable lesson for me, one I won't soon forget.

Again, this is part of why I'm doing this and why I wrote the book in the first place: To deepen my own understanding about these issues. And when we go to these places together in a "we" space instead of "me vs. you" duality, we all benefit. I couldn't ask for more.
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Thank you, men.

Read what one Cincinnati MKP man had to say about the workshop, The Integral Warrior

Awakening Thought of the Day

"With increasing awareness and understandable anger at centuries of patriarchal behavior, or false male power, we have come to believe that masculinity and patriarchy are the same thing. Consequently, we deny and repress the power and gifts of the Divine masculine."

We forget this at our own peril. It is not only women who have suffered at the hands of patriarchy. The vast majority of men who have lived on the planet are also victims of patriarchal consciousness, most often, as cannon fodder for ambition and power. The Integral Warrior no longer buys into it. The Integral Warrior questions authority in all its guises.