Gatherings
Welcome
Week 1
Richard Rohr O.F.M. closes his work From Wild Man to Wise Man with a quote from Carl Jung; and this is where we’ll begin our Midlife Passage Journey.
From Carl Jung, in his Collected Works (8,784) “We cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning; for what was great in the morning will be of little importance in the evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie.”
In this offering, we’ll follow Homer’s story of Odysseus:
“Going forth is necessary when we are young. We have to prove ourselves, seek our fame and fortune, find out who we are in the world so we can build what we have been given to do in our lifetime. Returning is the work of more experienced people, who, having gone forth in bright dreams, have encountered the twists and turns of pain and suffering, and so are ready to come home… And the journey of return that we must take after we have gone forth may be just as long, and just as perilous.” Sailing Home (19-20)
Setting Forth
Week 2 and 3
Navigating the midlife passage is a long journey with many twists and turns and unexpected surprises. For men, the journey home can last anywhere between 3-10 years. For such an arduous journey, we’ll need to find practices that we can learn to trust and lean on through the inevitable challenges that will arise. We’ll explore 7 modes of experiential learning through the offering.
Releasing
Somatic
Active Imagination
Dreamwork
Mirroring
Music
Poetry
Disasters
Week 4 and 5
From Sailing Home (83)
”Unavoidably, disaster teaches us lessons we thought we’d learned”
Rumi says: “the cure for the pain is the pain”
In the offering, we’ll explore a few of Odysseus’ most famous episodes. Harrowing, tense, tragic, always colorful and instructive tales of disaster.
More importantly, we’ll share a few of our own stories of transition, struggle, loss and disappointment. Stories of knowing that ‘Life is hard’.
“There’s something powerful about sharing the darkest thought you’ve pushed down for decades”
Return Home
Week 6
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time”.
—T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets
Like a spiral, our Return home is one of awakening, being present, and awake to our reality and to the reality of the human and more than human world we depend on.
Sending Ritual
Week 7
We conclude the offering with some possibilities for next steps and a Sending Ritual.
To place a mark, a waypoint, on your own unique midlife passage.
Your Journey Begins
To respect the sea is to trust that we can welcome life’s immense and unknowable currents rather than resist them, even when they seem to be drawing us to shores we don’t want to visit. We live our lives too much on small islands of conscious awareness and control. Homecoming requires that we set out to sea, as Odysseus does, and give ourselves over to its powers and gods. The journey home cannot be predetermined. We may not always enjoy the sea’s course-altering storms and paralyzing calms.
But we must sail forth.
