I’ve been watching some of the films about water having a molecular energy, life force and healing powers that actually changes (or dies) according to the consciousness around it ~ it makes me shudder thinking about our piped in city water. How fortunate for your family to be in a such a pristine area with such energized water! Have you ever considered this topic as a subject for an essay? Rhiannon seems to be a living testament to the harmonic effect of that river water she so enjoys ~

sorry to get off topic, but I’m hoping we can develop methods to consciously ‘beam’ or pray good thoughts into our water supply ~

Juni

We’ve just this week decided to create Animá correspondence courses that share information and tools without as much teacher/student involvement and exchange… making it possible to take on many more students than we do now. The existing, intense year long courses with a close teacher/student relationship will now be called (you guessed it!) “Mentorships”.

Thank you always for your exploration and comment.

Wolf

Okay, enough musing on semantics! Thank you, Wolf, for your provocative, intelligent article! May we all embrace our nature as Mentors and our role asTeachers!

Blessings and Beauty,
Jane

About you feeling self conscious when teaching, get over it. Just don’t preach or cajole. You aren’t selling anything, you are artfully giving something away — an idea, tool, hope, affirmation, healthy provocation or personal example. You teach by not just what you say but how you act, what you demonstrate is important to you, the trees you plant, the injustices you resist, or a simple look or gesture, a touch on the shoulder of a clerk checking you out in the store at the moment they are obsessing over some problem or feeling alone in the crowd. If you are aware you are significant enough to have an effect, then every single thing you say and do, every gesture can be be deliberate, purposeful, instructional or inspirational.

We are having a great event, but glad to have a moment to get back to you.

-Wolf

You pinned the nail on the head pointing out the hesitancy to face the truths about ourselves, and then to ACT. For me this is the biggest challenge ~ how to take that first step, and what if the confusion and indecision is so great that even that seems impossible? It brings to mind Wolf’s earlier posts cautioning about the ‘deer in the headlights’ syndrome ~~ for me, this is my dilemma, and the reason I seek, to find that impetus to take some step. Always fearing of floundering, of yet another wasted effort. My definition of being a student is to have the teacher tell me ~ guide me ~ what to do or how to proceed, that if I could figure it out myself, why would I be asking? I feel like a leech with this attitude! I think to teach anything one must have all that behind them, at least be on more solid ground than the student, and prevent themselves from being sucked dry.

Thanks for the Zen quote ~ the beauty of a few well chosen words!

From my own experiences being in a teaching role, so much of the Seeker/Teacher relationship is built around responsibility. Responsibility with a nice hefty helping of joy and gratitude for one another.

When I am in a place of Seeking it can be so easy to but up barriers especially when I am faced with truths about myself that I would rather ignore. But these truths are exactly why I “seek” in the first place! To discover more about who I am and what my place is in the world requires that I face truths that I would rather not see. Once that is done I must ACT. That is the real test of any student regardless of the discipline they study.

When I am in a teaching place I come back yet again to my responsibility as a Seeker. When I am in right relationship with my seeking then words and insights seem to flow easily and effortlessly. I feel like the harp of the Daghda, an instrument played by forces greater than myself. But I must keep up my individual practice to be the instrument, to keep my harp strings in tune so to speak. Like the Zen saying:

“Gaining enlightenment is an accident. Spiritual practice simply makes us accident-prone.” Suzuki Roshi

Yet I’m troubled by the not-so-subtle expectation by society that the ulitmate goal of one’s life and knowledge, seems to demand that they now go forward to teach and share what they know. What about those of us who find it painfully awful to do so, almost like trying to sell girl scout cookies to unwilling neighbors? For me, any type of teaching or lecturing has felt like a sales pitch, and being the armchair philosopher that I am, loving the deep ‘rap session’ metaphysical discussions and religious debates with interested participants more than anything, I find that it’s VERY HARD to find anyone interested in thinking on these deeper levels. I wonder, when you first started developing and revitalizing the canyon and Anima came into being, did people somehow find you and seek out your knowledge? “Build it and they will come” (sorry for the trite expressions, but they are accurate)? For me, any form of teaching anything – even how to do a recipe or something basic, has required an incredible amount of patience ~~ not all of us are equipped with this ability. Like healing, teaching is a calling. At this stage of my life I find teaching anything to anybody to be stressful and feel guilty about that!

So what would you suggest those of us do to share what we know, when the shallowness of people in our environment puts up a block? Perhaps just be a living example of our wisdom? I find that most are unwilling to increase their knowledge or understanding about anything, they are set and content in what they think they know and what serves them; they are not Seekers. You are lucky that people seek you out!

Most gratefully,
Juni

On the topic of gurus, we’re glad you point out that much of the resistance to opening and trusting comes from the place of self doubt. Well said. There are, of course, very good reasons to be skeptical in general – evaluating and testing all truths with the heart, instinct and intuition as well as the questioning mind. Everywhere one looks there are attractive lies, comforting distractions, and people and institutions actively seeking to control in one way or another. This includes some parents, certain lovers and spouses, most commercial businesses, a majority of churches, all too many school teachers, likely all politicians, a number of guilt-tripping ultra liberals and fearful conservatives, most cult leaders, “think tanks” and enforcement agencies.

Animá teaches awareness, discernment, liberty, personal choice and responsibility… all of which are the anathema of control, and all of which place us in opposition to the vast percentage of mindsets, institutions and “powers that be.” It also means Animá will have far fewer students, with most seekers looking for pat solutions, to be relieved of responsibility and spared difficult personal choices. We will never have followers, because we insist each person find and claim their own individual path and direction.

While we would never exert mind control, by necessity we do all we can to rattle, discomfort, influence and inform the minds of our students and readers… to shake their/your minds out of complacent self delusion and imagined powerlessness, to halt the spin and encourage clarity, to derail perceptual habits and make clear perception possible, to get the mind out of the way of full-body knowing. A mind-provocation artist, that makes me smile somehow.

We’re moved that you are feeling deeper your own affects on the world as teaching. When you consciously take on that role, you hold yourself to account for everything you put out. And not to “fix” as you say, but to empower and help bring back into aware balance. That this work “feeds both the student and teacher” in you, is one of more gratifying things we could hear. And it is hugely rewarding to know that whatever concepts, assistance or gifts we might be able to give you will in turn be given by you to others.

Finally, I personally appreciate your comments about reading my writings aloud. They were written that way, meant to be best from the mouth, with intonation as well rhythm and inflection, a song where each reader supplies their own music. I might use the new digital gizmo to record pieces, for an audio CD collection or simply to try and attach to the blog.

Thank you for giving yourself so fully to your growth, healing, purpose and fulfillment, with no b.s. or running away. You – and all our readers making this difficult effort – are and will increasingly be a blessing to the world.

Wolf & Family

Wonderful! And as usual, beautifully said. I’m going to read it aloud to myself here in a few seconds, because your words (I discovered while reading to my friend, Christine, and listening to her as she read your words to me) are, I think, meant to be heard!

Anyway, I think about this subject quite a lot. Usually I remind myself that to be a student of life is of the utmost importance. If I can be open enough to learn from everything and everyone I come into contact with, what a magical, open, wild existence I can have. And so I work at this. I can feel myself closing up at times, and I catch the doors before they slam. This is especially true of those uncomfortable teachings and teachers – like fears, confrontations, and things that I have prejudged almost as though the prejudgment was in my blood and not my mind. So, the path of the learner is one that I conciously tread daily.

As for teaching, well, I have in the past few years realized that I am perhaps more of a teacher than I am a therapist, and I like that idea. I am more comfortable with counseling and listening deeply than i am with the “fixing” that is implied by the word, therapy.

And both of these things have brought me back to Anima. I sincerely missed Kiva’s voice and guidance and knew that I had entered a magical, mind-opening, life-wilding path, by choosing to study as a Medicine Woman, and I wanted and needed that back in my life. Also, I knew in my core that what I had just begun to learn resonated so deeply with me that even the littlest bits were finding their way into what I was *teaching* my clients. So, both the student and the teacher in me are fed and nourished by Anima. Deepening my studies and bringing what I learn about myself and the living, breathing world around me to the womyn I work with – these are my deep intentions.

And a note: you mention our society’s mistrust of gurus. I have had first hand experience (as I’m sure many have)! Though I have been to the canyon before, worked with Kiva, adored Loba, and read your words with awe and gratitude, that weird socio/cultural voice has screamed in my ear. THESE PEOPLE ARE MIND CONTROL ARTISTS!!!! BEWARE!!! It’s amazing how loud and strong that voice can sometimes be. It’s the same voice that I’ve talked to Kiva about – the one that tells me I’m crazy for considering fully embracing my unconventional, wild, self and persuing dreams that don’t fit the mold.

Anyway, I hope all is well with you in the lovely canyon, and I’ll look forward to reading more soon!

peace,
Tara