All courses run in cohorts. Currently, a new cohort will begin when I have 12 people expressing a desire to join. Every other week you will receive a video lecture discussing both theory and practice, along with text of any practices involved. On alternate weeks we will have a Q&A. Each course includes a access to a Discord discussion group for that course.
The Art of Devotion
Devotion is my core spiritual practice, for which I have endless gratitude and love. It is a practice of incredible beauty, depth, and power, and one which works on multiple levels of our being at the same time. When employed correctly, I regard it as nearly a panacea for psychological and emotional disturbances, as well as one of the best practices for bringing enlightened wisdom into our lives. However, it is also a practice that is misunderstood and vastly underestimated in much of the contemporary western spiritual world. I regard it as one of my missions to teach to teach the art of devotion in a way that makes its benefits accessible in our time.
In this course we develop the necessary skills to engage in a devotional practice that feels alive and rewarding, we reflect on the mental and emotional attitudes to cultivate during devotion, and cover a number of specific ritual formats that can be employed according to one’s needs. This is a 3-month course, including seven lessons and seven Q&A sessions. However, in order to really establish devotion as a spiritual resource in your life, I recommend that people dedicate at least one year of practice to the material in this course. In truth, this is a vehicle sufficient to provide lifetime of fulfilling and transformative practice.
$600.
Into the Heart of the World
Training in the stages of devotion centers us in the love and wisdom which lies at the heart of the mandala. In this course, turn our attention to the circumference of the mandala, bringing the perspective we have gained into relationship with all the complexities of the world. This course introduces a symbolic map of the cosmos which we can engage with in order to pin-point our ritual or spiritual practice while exploring the self-world relationship.
The course has three major sections, corresponding to the widespread three worlds model (upper, middle, and lower worlds). The upper world is explored through traditional the seven planets system, exploring the major domains of our personality and mind, and gaining the clarity and inner purity needed to proceed. Next we enter the lower world, facing and claiming our shadows, as we meet the writhing mass of demons. Finally, we consider the enspirited quality of our daily life, exploring the middle world through the rubric of the four directions.
The cosmological field we explore in this course is always simultaneously inner and outer, taking us deeper into our own being and into relationship and connection with the world around us.
Phase One, The Upper World: $700
Into the Fairy Mandala
This is my take on an explicitly anarchic, earth-based spirituality. While I was working on my Ngondro, I was contacted by a collection of spirits that identified themselves as fairies, making it clear that they were a western guise through which one could access energies akin to that of the dakinis — that is, beings of wild energy that lie beyond our maps and conceptualizations. I have maintained and developed my relationship with the fairy since that time, and this course is the result of that relationship. The fairy are so frequently spoken of as a group because they function as relational collectives. True to their reputation, the fairy are indeed tricksters, and not always friendly to human beings, but they are an incredible fun and the embodiment of everything you ever wanted magic to be.
Forthcoming