wifty shit OTD

[aroraborealis]

From The Way of the Warrior

Element - Adversary/Ally
Air - Reason/Cunning
Fire - Pride/Will
Water - Indolence/Detachment
Earth - Attachment/Integrity

This was an interesting talk, discussing the balance between the search for ecstasy and the avoidance of fear, in life and in personal work. Obviously, this is a topic close to my heart, and there was a lot of good stuff here, which I'm mulling over. I'm probably relatively unlikely to go into more detail here, but you never know.

Two of the other workshops I attended were movement-based, and one was singing. Re: singing: I would like very much to get back to this. I haven't been doing much singing since my excellent voice instructor moved to Austin last April (!!!), but I'd like very much to pick it up again soon (in all my free time.)

One of the movement workshops -- sacred circle dance -- was more of a teaser than anything else. The leader kept getting confused about what she was telling us to do and what we were actually doing, so what could have been a sweet, mildly trancy morning dance was mostly nice while also confusing. Since she kept mixing up how many counts of what step we were doing, I couldn't just relax into the movement and let my body do the counting/flowing, which is too bad, but, hey, it was dance, so I liked it, anyway.

The second movement workshop -- spirit dance -- was much more successfully meditative and trancey. This shouldn't come as news to me, though I've only just now focused on it, but movement, particularly dance, is an excellent door into trance for me. In this workshop, we did several exercises, each 10-15 minutes, and each felt more like a taste than a full exploration, but even at that, I came out of this workshop lightheaded and drifty. The most surprising exercise we did had a Japanese name that I can't remember, which she loosely translated as "becoming the wave." It involved working with a partner, which I normally resist doing, especially with strangers, but it was surprisingly powerful and moving. I don't think I can explain it, but I could show it at some point to folks who are interested.

I know I love dance, and I've known that for a long time, so it shouldn't be surprising that it's a powerful medium for me, but I haven't particularly been thinking about it as a mode to altered experiences until just this weekend, which has brought it into relief. At Twilight, I was chalking a lot of the power of my experience up to the blindfolded aspect of the dance, but, while clearly important, that's obviously not the only thing going on for me. Okay, cool to know. Now, to do more with that, particularly when alone, when I rarely think about dancing.

Comments

[catya.livejournal.com]

Who led the different workshops?

I would love to see the wave exercise...

[aroraborealis.livejournal.com]

The Way of the Warrior was Andras, the singing one was three young people -- Donovan Arthen, Isobel Arthen, Rosalie Elkinton -- the circle dance was Karina Fireheart, and the spirit dance was Juniper.

We'll have to make time to try the wave piece at some point!

[catya.livejournal.com]

hee :) i totally guessed on the two dance workshops. i've done clans with both of them :)

I really adore Donovan and Iso, or did when i knew them better a few years ago. (I met Rosalie a couple times but never got to know her.)

[dilletante.livejournal.com]

i also would love to see any of the dance stuff you feel you could show others, if you're willing. when you were describing juniper's workshop at brunch it sounded very nifty, and i was sternly reminding myself that i'd gone to exactly as many workshops as i possibly could have, to avoid kicking myself for missing it. :)

in other contexts i've often heard of deliberately coming in and out of trances numerous times in succession as itself a technique for reaching deeper ones, which your description of the workshop reminded me of; though i've no idea if it'd generalize well to moving stuff.

[aroraborealis.livejournal.com]

At the least, I could try to show the other dancing/movement pieces. I'm most confident about the pairs one because I've done both parts of it, and I'd be happy to do that one with you.

Interesting point about entering/departing trances as a path to reaching deeper ones! That makes sense, but it wouldn't have occurred to me, I think. I could see that happening, though, with the right mindset/approach.

[macthud]

This was nice to read, and I'll be interested to hear more about your journey through all of it!