The Alchemy of Initiation: Soul Work and the Art of Ripening Audio Recordings
How do we become seasoned adults, a true human being? Clearly, this is not a given. Traditionally this was the work of culture. Through the long labors of multiple initiations, individuals were gradually crafted into persons of substance and gravity. The process yielded someone more attuned to responsibilities than rights, more aware of multiple entanglements than entitlements. They were initiated into a vast sea of intimacies; with the village, star clusters and gnarled old oaks, the pool of ancestors and the scented earth. Through the sustained attention of culture, individuals were ripened into adults capable of sustaining culture: A marvelous symmetry.
We are meant to cross many thresholds in our lifetime, each a further embodiment of the soul's innate character. Yet for many of us, the failure to complete the first crossing continues to affect our ability to fully show up in our lives. Many of us carry the uncomfortable thought that we are unsure of our place in the world, still anxious about our sense of value and our right to be here. The unfinished business of adolescence haunts us and makes it hard to live into the fuller arc our life longs to engage.
These five nights of reflection and consideration offered a rich exploration into the vast territory of initiation. We began with a premise: initiation is not optional. Psyche/soul will insist on this encounter, even in the absence of culturally held rites of passage. Initiation is an ordeal, a tempering induced by heat and pressure. Heat we have and pressure aplenty. The circumstances of our lives and in the surrounding world, are the initiatory thresholds compelling us to change. The losses, intimacies, defeats, challenges, illnesses, and breakdowns, are the prima materia, the material required to activate the movement into our adult presence.
In the end, these evenings granted us something akin to a prayer, a plea, that we ripen into a wider and more encompassing identity; one rooted in a lingering intimacy with the singing world and where we recognize that we have come with gifts the world desperately needs.
Session 1: Cooking the Soul: The Alchemy of Ripening
Session 2: Fire in the Voice: Facing the Predator
Session 3: Rough Initiations: When the Bough Breaks
Session 4: Baptized by Dark Waters: The Call of Soul into the Underworld
Session 5: Love's Fierce Embrace: The Great Inducement to Ripen
©2019 FRANCIS WELLER
Audio engineer: JOSE ENCISO
Production engineer: ALAN FITCH
Musical introduction: TOM HOLDEN
TO PURCHASE THE MP3 AUDIO PROGRAM, CLICK HERE.
We are meant to cross many thresholds in our lifetime, each a further embodiment of the soul's innate character. Yet for many of us, the failure to complete the first crossing continues to affect our ability to fully show up in our lives. Many of us carry the uncomfortable thought that we are unsure of our place in the world, still anxious about our sense of value and our right to be here. The unfinished business of adolescence haunts us and makes it hard to live into the fuller arc our life longs to engage.
These five nights of reflection and consideration offered a rich exploration into the vast territory of initiation. We began with a premise: initiation is not optional. Psyche/soul will insist on this encounter, even in the absence of culturally held rites of passage. Initiation is an ordeal, a tempering induced by heat and pressure. Heat we have and pressure aplenty. The circumstances of our lives and in the surrounding world, are the initiatory thresholds compelling us to change. The losses, intimacies, defeats, challenges, illnesses, and breakdowns, are the prima materia, the material required to activate the movement into our adult presence.
In the end, these evenings granted us something akin to a prayer, a plea, that we ripen into a wider and more encompassing identity; one rooted in a lingering intimacy with the singing world and where we recognize that we have come with gifts the world desperately needs.
Session 1: Cooking the Soul: The Alchemy of Ripening
Session 2: Fire in the Voice: Facing the Predator
Session 3: Rough Initiations: When the Bough Breaks
Session 4: Baptized by Dark Waters: The Call of Soul into the Underworld
Session 5: Love's Fierce Embrace: The Great Inducement to Ripen
©2019 FRANCIS WELLER
Audio engineer: JOSE ENCISO
Production engineer: ALAN FITCH
Musical introduction: TOM HOLDEN
TO PURCHASE THE MP3 AUDIO PROGRAM, CLICK HERE.