Doing the Inner Work

We have been reflecting on what it means to take responsibility even for what we’re not responsible for. We did not choose to be born into a culture that fails to initiate us into conscious masculinity. We are certainly not responsible for childhood traumas or anything that got us stuck at immature levels of masculinity.

But it is still our work to do. The work of becoming better men is the work of taking responsibility for ourselves, our community and the culture we were born into.

It demands that we show up differently. And to show up differently, we must do our inner work. The authors of “King, Warrior, Magician, Lover” name a number of techniques that we can use to grow ourselves into conscious men:

There are a number of techniques we can use in this construction project. Analysis of dreams, the re-entering and changing of our dreams, active imagination (in which the Ego, among other things, dialogues with the energy patterns within, thereby achieving both differentiation from and access to them), psychotherapy in a variety of forms, meditation on the positive aspects of the archetypes, prayer, magical ritual process with a spiritual elder, various forms of spiritual discipline, and other methods are all important to the difficult process of turning boys into men.

I am a fan of these approaches. I am also keen on embodied practice, including sacred sexuality, and the ceremony of medicine work. 

How about you? What tools are you using? What are your techniques? What’s working for you? Is there a practice that has been calling you? Let’s share a bit of what we know. And more about what we want to know.

Our call is at 8:30PM East. We always welcome men who are joining for the first time. This week you are invited to read pages 43-45 (just THREE pages!) of King, Warrior, Magician Lover.

Saludos,

Gibrán