Where are the models for the New Masculine?

In my workshop, Integral Warriors, I'm often asked by men who want to shift their perspectives on their own masculinity who the models are for the New Masculine. It's a great question.

In What is Enlightenment? magazine (issue 41, October 2008), Ken Wilber and Andrew Cohen address the question of What It means to be a Man, Redefining the Masculine Principle at the leading Edge of Cultural Evolution (pg 36). In that discussion, Andrew Cohen says, that in researching the article, it was "very hard to get men, even those who seem to be very sophisticated in their cognitive capacity, to express some example of what they thought an evolved man would look like."

I agree with him that, because of post-modernisms feminizing the masculine, there is a cultural block and fear around stepping up and embracing the greater potentials of the masculine.

One of those problems, from my perspective, is that 3rd stage masculine looks like 1st stage masculine from the vantage point of 2nd stage masculine. Ken points out that postmodernism prevents us from using wisdom judgement (discernment) and discrimination around our inherent capacities, in this case our masculine essence. As 2nd stage men, we have worked so hard to suppress our masculinity, that we can't see the positive aspects of our Masculinity.

Some argue that both the masculine and the feminine should drop away into a state of oneness, the non-dual, or enlightenment, but before that can happen, we have to do the work that heals our wounded masculine and feminine selves, or we can't get to that enlightened place. Of course, there are rare individuals who can embody the non-dual without having to re-integrate their inner essences, but most of us have to work at it. The danger of not doing the work for the majority of us is that we skip the developmental stages required to fully integrate and we wind up in spiritual by-pass: all light, no darkness.

And it should be obvious to all of us that the light cannot exist without the darkness.

So, let's come back to the original question, "where are the models for the New Masculine?" The very same question could be asked of the feminine, who, at 2nd stage, has integrated their own inner masculine.

In an evolutionary sense, this is all new territory, and we, the men and women who are doing this work, as teachers and students, happening at the leading edge of consciousness, are the ones who will determine what this evolutionary shift looks like. As we step into this work, willingly and consciously, we become the models for the new masculine.

Last note: I don't claim to have all the answers for this. Like so many, and both a teacher and a student as we begin to step into this.

Day 6: The Sedona Daka/Dakini Conference

I'm finding myself somewhat amazed that the majority of teachings here at the conference are so basic and elementary. So much so, that I'm left with the conclusion that the majority of these attendees, sex workers, tantra teachers, healers, etc., simply have not done their own work.

As Anyaa, my Beloved, so eloquently pointed out in her talk, Healing the Wounded Feminine, and referring to Wilber's state/stages model, people can get a taste of higher stages of consciousness through ecstatic, or altered, state experiences, and "spiritually bypass" (as she calls it) their present stage. They think they've moved to a higher level of consciousness, when all they are really doing is interpreting that glimpse of the next stage from their own level of consciousness.

What's worse is, if they haven't completed the personal work that needs to be done translatively, that is, horizontal development, the widest and healthiest perspective possible at a particular stage, they tend to disassociate from what they haven't completed, leaving unhealthy aspects of that stage in their psyches that will come back and kick their ass later. It's unavoidable. It becomes shadow.

It's not until one attains the widest and healthiest perspective at their present stage (translation), that they're ready to move into the next stage. This is transformation, or vertical development, where one transcends and includes the previous stage, being able to call on that stage's particular qualities as they are needed. If those qualities aren't healthy, pathologies will develop and a healer can wind up doing more harm than good.

Beside....it can make for really boring presentations.

Although Anyaa's presentation was about Healing the Wounded Feminine, both men and women have been coming up to her, some crying, some ecstatically happy to have these realizations pointed out to them. Many of them have said that they recognized themselves in her presentation and have committed to seeking out the personal work they need, many of the women with her. Some have called her presentation profound and deep. I agree.

I am so honored to love and to be loved by this woman.

For more on transformation and translation go here: The Nature of Translation: Stop and LiveIt's the third video down.

A Shamanic Breathwork Vision

Digital painting by Gary Stamper (click for a larger version)
I recently wrote about my first experience with Shamanic Breathwork. Since then, I 've had two more sessions, both ecstatic. In the second, I found myself supporting other friends who were also going through the process with me. In my third experience, a few days ago, I was 'breathed" again by Anyaa, who, among many other talents and gifts, is a Shamanic Breathwork Facilitator.

Ever since Ken Wilber recently asserted that our shadow is the number one block to our transformation, I've been working hard at examining my own shadows, and it appears to a never-ending quest, and I'm going to write about that in a future blog.

Still chasing my shadow, for this latest breathwork I set my intentions to try to visit the darker aspects of my subconscious. However, that is not what I experienced. This time I had what I can only interpret as a vision.

I'm assuming you've read my earlier blog on Shamanic Breathwork and at least have a basic understanding of it's origins with Stan Grof and Holotropic Breathwork, but I'd like to lay some groundwork of the process for you.

To begin, I was blindfolded and "cocooned" on the floor in warm blankets and pillows behind my head and knees. Anyaa then set the tone of the process, based on my intentions and her years of experience, in an almost prayer-like induction. Once the induction was completed, breathing and a musical journey through each of the Chakras began and lasted about 80 minutes. The combination of music and breathing creates a deeply altered state of consciosness in which whatever needs to arise, will.

For what seemed like a long time, nothing happened to me....then, for whatever reason, I began crying softly, not feeling sadness or joy, but just releasing. Under Anyaa's guidance, I was encouraged to "just let it go," and began sobbing and wailing, literally yelling, as I released tensions and pressures from my deepest being.

Eventually, I calmed and my father came into my consciousnessness, and I continued gently crying. Now, my father and I have always had a great relationship, and what I experienced was just pure, deep love for him. At 88, and so far healthy, I am blessed to still have him in my life, and there was just pure gratitude.

Then, the vision portion of my breathwork kicked in.

As the music continued to move me emotionally though the Chakras, I had a vision of standing in what I can only describe as a giant hall, open to the universe above, with streaming white light on both sides of me, travelling and moving toward a point in front of me, leading me to the end of the "hall." Also on both sides, were rows of spiritual beings (Shamans?) welcoming me on my journey through the lights. At the end of the hall, bathed in white light, stood Anyaa, in her Priestess robes, also welcoming me....and as I moved forward, she gently took my hand, and began guiding me to what I believe was a possible future. The digital painting I created at the top of this blog piece is almost exactly what I saw in this process. Anyaa eventually led me out of the breathwork and I just laid there for a while.

Later, while deconstructing my vision, I asked, "how much of what I saw was ego-induced?" Anyaa replied that, if you're truly immersed in the process, you can't manifest through your ego from those deep places: ego doesn't exist there.

Now I'm left with interpreting my vision, and while I won't share all of my interpretation, I can tell you that I believe a path was further opened for me, and that it was both a description of what is already happening in my life and a continuation and affirmation of what is possible for me. I believe it's time for me to start stepping out more as a teacher, sharing my gifts with others, and that the teachings I bring will be of service and value to others. I also believe that this is the right time for this to manifest, because it is manifesting in my life. Right now.

I'm going to continue doing the Shamanic Breathwork, and I'm producing a SeattleIntegral Shamanic Breathwork weekend event here in Seattle in June with Anyaa and her fellow teacher, Jeff Berger, who lives here in the northwest. I'm going to meet Jeff in April, when I travel to North Carolina to do an eight-day intensive on Shamanic Breathwork, as I'm considering becoming a facilitator.

Anyaa McAndrew is a licensed psychotherapist and resides in Western North Carolina. Her work is grounded in Transpersonal and Shamanic psychology as she walks the spiritual path of the Goddess. As an ordained Madonna Ministry Bishop and a Magdalene High Priestess, she has birthed the Mystery School of Life Force Energy, encompassing the Scorpio-Taurus Mysteries. Her Priestess Circles empower women to reclaim the lost soul essence of the priestess within.

Transcending the Ego

I got my ass kicked by my bloated ego this week. It reared it's ugly head and went after someone else's bloated ego, and almost caused a problem that could have torn apart some really important work. I finally refused to play anymore, and found a way to move in a different direction, but there will probably have to be some serious repair work somewhere down the road if I'm to have any kind of relationship with them.

All of this got me thinking more about ego. Our egos can be our friend or they can be our enemy. I speak of ego as if it were another, but we have met the enemy, and he is us. I am my ego, and my ego is me. Ego is one of the fiercest of all the warriors and will fight to the death when attacked.

The trick, I think, isn't getting rid of, or squelching, the ego, it's learning to work with it in healthy, as opposed to pathological, ways. Ego reality and agenda are very strong, and mine was in serious shadow, and, fortunately, I'm doing enough shadow work (3-2-1 Shadow Work Process, private therapy) to know my shadow when I don't see it. It may take me a little while, but I can recognize when I go into "ego mode," and then I know what I need to do to let go.

I'm working on seeing at the moment it arises.

This got me thinking about how ego affects our transformation and structure stages. Can someone who's at higher levels of development have a huge ego? Obviously, yes. But if they allow that ego to be the boss, then while they may be still be operating from a higher stage, it's not in a healthy way.....and if lower stages of development have unhealthy aspects, why wouldn't higher stages, as well? Ken Wilber reminds us that there is nothing linear about overall development.

An unhealthy, or even pathogical, display of ego is in the self-system, and has failed to integrate, caught up in infantile wishes and never satisfactorily moves past earlier stages, and can show up as fixation: "I want to be right."

Ego is a basic indredient of our essential make up. From time to time it will reign supreme anyway, regardless of any attempts to diffuse its tryanny. When you are lit up like a hundred watt lightbulb, don't deny it. Smile and tell the truth about it.

Digitally enhanced photo by Gary Stamper

HUH?

"Integral Institute is now searching for a CEO, which will be the first time we have officially filled the office of CEO since our inception. In other words, this is the chance to be the first CEO in the history of the first truly integral organization in history." (source)

What happened to Steve Frazee, and isn't he still listed as the CEO of Integral Institute on this page on Integral Institute's website as of this writing? First, ITP became ILP in a bit of revisionist history in Integral Spirituality (see pg 201, IS, and A Theory of Everything), and now this? Wha 'sup?

So, in the last couple of weeks, Gail Taylor, Community Director, and Steve Frazee, the CEO, have both resigned from I-I. What's going on, there? I constantly hear, "you have no idea what's going on at I-I." Duh, you think? I wonder how that happens?

And how did I-I go from not being second tier to a truly integral organization within a year? Am I mistaken (possibly), but wasn't I-I listed as Turquoise in the Culture by Altitude column of the September issue of Holons? Not anymore.

I can only imagine how difficult it must be at I-I at this time, but let me be perfectly clear: I-I is coming under fire from a lot of places, and I'm concerned that this stuff just gives critics more ammunition.

What's an Amber person to believe, anymore?

Digital Pinnochio by Gary Stamper

Why No ILP or ITP?

At our ITP/ILP meeting (Integral Transformative Practice and Integral Life Practice) last night, we had about 10 people attend. Our reservation for a room had been messed up, so we retired to a small meeting room to meditate and dialogue.

SeattleIntegral, the second-largest integral salon in the world (I know....you've heard it before...), has hit a milestone of 150 members this week, and yet, we only have 10 people show up for the ITP/ILP group.

I've been pondering why, out of a group this large, we only have 10-12 members show up on a regular basis. Does this mean that only a small group of people actually have an ITP/ILP? Well, I think it depends on how you define those practices. By Integral Institute's current measurement, the ILP Home Study Kit is the embodiement of the highest practive available anywhere on the planet.*

Can you truly claim to live an integral life, or embody integral, if you're not doing Integral practices that touch on each quadrant? If, like me, you favor one quadrant, and most people do, there's a tendency to remain "stuck" in the safety of that quadrant. One of the things an integral practice should do, is balance you out. It doesn't mean you have to be a superb weightlifter (upper right quadrant activity) for example, but that you're doing something in that quadrant to balance out the tendency to be too much in your head (okay, I gave away my favorite quadrant).

Now, in fairness, we have several other smaller sub-groups of SeattleIntegral that meet specific needs: Couple of study groups, and spiritual, leadership, psychology, and Meetup. groups....but....read what Ken Wilber says in Integral Spirituality, "The Myth of the Given Lives On," appendix III, page 300:

"Not supplementing is no longer something that is without its effects and consequences. Not supplementing - not making one's spiritual practice into an integral spiritual practice - can slowly kill you, more or less literally, or worse: figuratively, because what kills you is the the soul struggling to be reborn into today's integral age, struggling to be born into it's own highest estate of Freedom and Fullness,** struggling to acknoweldge the the Spirit that that embraces the the entire Kosmos whole, with love and charity, valor and compassion, care and consciousness, interiority and identity, radiance and luminosity, ecstacy and clarity, all at once, and once and for all."

What Wilber is talking about, spirit, could easily be any other, and all other, practices.....and without balancing those practices, heart, mind, body, and spirit, you have to stop and ask yourself, "is it integral, or am I not quite there, yet?

*That's too bad, because , as good as it is, and it is very, very good, it is by definition, a solitary practice. i.e., "Home Study Kit." Murphy and Leonard's ITP is, at this point, and in my opinion, more integral than the I-I's ILP. Why? Because ITP does include group practices. There's an entire chapter called "The Magic of Community," something sorely lacking in the ILP Home Study Kit.....so far. It's not that the ILP creators aren't aware of the lower left community aspect, so it's hard to understand why they left the lower right structures out. I think they may have just run out of time. New ILP study groups, like SeattleIntegral, are exploring the community aspects of an ILP.

**"Freedom and Fullness" are the elements of enlightenment: see pg 243, Integral Spirituality, Integral Post-Metaphysics.

Logo image by Gary Stamper