Please join with your Illuman DC brothers in a dialogue about systemic racism / internalized white supremacy, with the objective of beginning to learn how to engage in connective and essential conversations with non-white members.
This workshop, while open to men, will be focused on what white-identified men can do. This is Illuman DC’s initial response to support all of us in our response to the expanding awareness of the imperative to learn and then act, toward creating a safe and brave space for all members to feel able to engage fully.
We don’t know what we don’t know, and we are collectively on a learning journey.
This initial offering is a three-part workshop, on consecutive Tuesdays – July 28, August 4 and 11; 7:00 – 8:45 pm, on Zoom. More details will be provided upon registration.
Deliverables –
This is what we can anticipate receiving from this work.
– Community engagement
– Individual and Collective Self-Assessment
– Foundational Training on Individualized Racism / Systemic Racism
– Unpacking the Story of Whiteness
– Overview of the Aspects of a Sacred Discourse conversation / dialogue
– Initial Exploration of Cross-Racial Conversations (including invitation and relationship-building)
– Identification of Recommended Next Steps
Conveners –
Tom McSteen and Will Osmun
Tom McSteen, J.D., is the Founder of Sacred Discourse, which is a heart-centered framework for intentional and relational conversations across any type of conflict, divide, or difference.
https://www.sacreddiscourse.com/about
Will Osmun, Ph.D., is an Associate of Sacred Discourse, also with his own practice, Wicked Bridges. Will’s primary focus is on the factors that create resistance to equity and entrenched cultural dehumanization and then providing clients with practical methods to address and overcome them.
http://wickedbridges.com/
Both Tom and Will are certified facilitators with The Compassionate Listening Project.
https://www.compassionatelistening.org/meet-our-facilitators
Join us on August 8th for an interactive morning wherein we will personally and collectively move with and towards the fullness of the warrior energy. With awareness of the death that is around us, we’ll seek to move towards the life (vitality, generativity, creativity) that awakens and compels the flesh and bones of the warrior.
Through a combination of personal preparation and reflection, collective engagement and activity, and council we will join hearts, minds, and bodies with each other in ways that deepen and broaden our sense of connection, loyalty, and solidarity to all that is around and within us. Our morning will be a mix of Zoom and non-Zoom time: sitting, moving, and following the lead of the warrior energies that emerge.
To register:
- Send an email to rsvp@illumanofwa.org with your name, phone number, address, and a note as to your preferred payment method from the two options below.
- Send a check to Illuman of Washington at
19110 – 17th Ave NW
Shoreline WA 98177 - OR Pay via Paypal or Credit Card Here
What is the Men’s Rites of Passage?
For most men, the question of what it means to be a man is perplexing. Many men have a longing for the support and guidance of other men in their journey towards masculinity, maturity, and a deeper experience with the Divine. In ancient cultures initiation rites and vision quests were used to help boys make the journey into adulthood.
Opening the door to this journey can start with the Men’s Rites of Passage (MROP). The MROP is not just a men’s retreat, but five days of formal male initiation. These teachings on the “mysteries” and the accompanying rituals have been met with a very positive response in recent years. Over 5,000 men have now been initiated through these rites of male initiation over the past 20 years
This Journey begins with the age-old traditions that teach the five lessons every man needs to learn before he can fully engage in the adventure and mystery life will bring. MROP can awaken men to their own masculinity, their deep spirituality, their potential for leadership, and their life’s purpose. This is not about religion but about spirituality, about age old traditions that guide us into manhood (regardless of our chronological age), about coming to trust that there is something much greater at work in our lives than we could ever imagine.
What Does It Mean to Be a Generative Man In The World Today?
Jim Taylor is known to the many men of Illuman as a dynamic speaker who ignites fire in people’s souls. He has a brilliant, visceral wisdom that speaks to the deep and excites us. He is highly energetic and delightfully insightful. He serves as a Weaver and Wisdom Teaching Elder in Illuman’s men’s spirituality work and MROPs. For 21 years he has served as pastor of an emerging Church (Mosaic Community Church) in Seguin, Texas. His Church has a vision to live within the creative imagination of God. Jim has done extensive work on the Enneagram as a vehicle of self-awareness and transformation, and will focus this webinar on Blessed Generativity amid these challenging times.
For more information and registration, please link to:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/114137973752
During this intensive, nature-based experiential gathering we will explore the original design God had for creating us “male AND female”, how that design for wholeness has been distorted to “male OR female” or even “male VS female”. There will be opportunities to explore and reclaim the continuum of feminine and masculine aspects inherent in us all.
The intensive will include a combination of council sharing, directed wanders, journaling, dream tending, and a variety of artistic expression. Everyone at any place on the gender identity and sexual orientation spectrum is welcome. In fact, the more diverse our group is, the richer and more “wholing” the experience will be for us all.
Learn more about the Retreat and Guides by reading the Fearfully and Wonderfully Made Flyer.
Henry Beecher Hicks III, is President & CEO of the National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM). Illuman’s male spirituality community is eager to engage in a deeper dialogue about the issues of race and social justice, and are realistic about how difficult this topic is for even the most sincere participants, and Henry has a demonstrated ability to get to the hard issues in a most engaging and thoughtful manner. The starting point for our Webinar is Henry’s recent talk at TedX Nashville entitled “One Nation Under A Groove”, which looks at the history of African American music as the anthems of survival, hope and justice throughout the American centuries, shouting that Black Lives Matter long before the movement had been given that particular name.
For more information and registration, please link to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/114043507200
A Father for Gen Alpha led by Anthony Monticchio
They say the Spirit works in mysterious ways, indeed it’s true, she assembled a group of men from the Illuman Community in 2019, that worked together and designed a new eight-week online offering called: ‘A Father for Generation Alpha’. The offering is designed to meet new millennial Dad’s at a moment in their young lives when life has initiated them into Fatherhood. The offering’s approach is to drop keys of Wisdom each week, starting with ‘What it means to be a Man’ and then moving to ‘What it means to be a Father’ and ending with an overview of Men’s groups that they may want to follow-up with.
Registration is now open for our second pilot that will most likely be starting in the June time frame.
There is no cost to Register and all Registrants will receive more info about the program in their US postal mailbox after they Register.
Please see our page for endorsements from Fr. Richard Rohr, Illuman of DC and Illuman of Indiana-Michigan- https://a-father-for-gen-alpha.net/endorsements
What is the Men’s Rites of Passage?
For most men, the question of what it means to be a man is perplexing. Many men have a longing for the support and guidance of other men in their journey towards masculinity, maturity, and a deeper experience with the Divine. In ancient cultures initiation rites and vision quests were used to help boys make the journey into adulthood.
Opening the door to this journey can start with the Men’s Rites of Passage (MROP). The MROP is not just a men’s retreat, but five days of formal male initiation. These teachings on the “mysteries” and the accompanying rituals have been met with a very positive response in recent years. Over 5,000 men have now been initiated through these rites of male initiation over the past 20 years
This Journey begins with the age-old traditions that teach the five lessons every man needs to learn before he can fully engage in the adventure and mystery life will bring. MROP can awaken men to their own masculinity, their deep spirituality, their potential for leadership, and their life’s purpose. This is not about religion but about spirituality, about age old traditions that guide us into manhood (regardless of our chronological age), about coming to trust that there is something much greater at work in our lives than we could ever imagine.
Many people believe that the ephemeral images of dreams are letters from the Divine, often unopened and unappreciated for the treasures they hold for us. In this pandemic time, as we are inundated with external information and misinformation, this online intensive offers us a chance to listen to and learn from a uniquely personal source of knowing —our dreams.
What are our psyches doing with this uncharted, liminal, and seemingly futureless period of pervasive disruption? Most if not all of the familial, social, economic, political, and religious structures we have become accustomed to have been vastly altered. Perhaps our dreams can help inform us about the impact of these changes at deeper levels. What are our dreams telling us about our unique responses to this pandemic time? How are our core wounds being triggered and expressed? Messages come to us in dream form for a reason. Our waking egos keep them out of conscious awareness in order to protect our sense of security and avoid the risk of deep change and transformation. Ironically, those who attend to dreams dare to awaken further.
Learn more from the Conference Flyer- Pandemic Dreaming
4 Daily Sessions— 2 hours each
September 10-13, 2020
Thursday and Friday: 7pm-9pm CDT
Saturday and Sunday: 10am-12pm CDT
The Elders’ Rites of Passage (EROP) is a five-day intensive retreat that serves those beginning or already on the eldering journey. Eldering like all of life, has its own seasons, beginning with the most socially active and energetic eldering years, through the release of roles and responsibilities, the lifting of the eye to a broader more distant horizon, and the dawning of the Holy Fool within. The EROP holds all these seasons of the Elder, tending to each in turn.
Thus for some the EROP serves as an entrance into the journey, and for others it is a deepening of work that has been ongoing for a long time. Using ritual, story, time in nature, council, and image, participants are invited to harvest all that has been, sit with death, practice deep listening to the cries of the world, and discern what is theirs to do (and not do) in their final chapter. It is an encounter with life and death that is uncontainable, and calls one deeper into their own story as well as The Great Stories.
After the EROP one finds they have been ushered into a community of Elders, who have gone before, and are welcomed into a council of elders in which the work began can continue. In the end, how each Elder chooses to bless the world is as varied as their fingerprints, but one thing in common is that one cannot elder alone- there are no solo journeys into the sunset, eldering is a communal experience.
“Elder” by definition is a relational word, naming a sacred connection and responsibility on behalf of others. On whose behalf are you being called to elder? It is not (only) for or from one’s own self that the call comes. The call is on the lips of descendants, in the dreams from the ancestors–even the more-than-human world is crying out for men and women to rise up as Elders: to give, live, die, laugh, bless, on behalf of all that is…
Racial Reconciliation Retreat September 18, 7:30 – 9:30, and September 19, 10:00 – 11:30 and 2:00 – 3:00
The current pandemic has thrown the world into liminal space and has created the context for unprecedented racial healing to occur. But it won’t come easy, and it has not been without cost. The killings of George Floyd, Amaud Arbery, and Breona Taylor, and countless others, the nightly protests, the tearing down of Confederate symbols, the call for police reform – where will it end? Where will it lead? How can you be a part of the needed change? This retreat will help participants become more aware of their own racial biases and the systemic racism we live collectively within. Join Anthony Gaboton and Joel Blunk of Richmond Hill for an intensive 24-hour men’s retreat to include storytelling, learning, personal exploration, and tools for constructive dialogue around race you can apply in your own context.
The weekend of Sept 25-27, Brad Pickel, administrator of Illuman, will be offering an in-person weekend in Darien, IL on the Enneagram and the Journey of Illumination. This will be an exciting start to a new academic year, as we reclaim our lives after this pandemic isolation.
This Enneagram retreat is unique in that it is centered around the five touchstones Journey of Illumination- Gathering, Centering, Connecting, Releasing and Serving. The Retreat is an immersive investigation of the Enneagram that includes Illuman tools of ritual, teaching, small council groups, music, movements and mediations, and video clips for each type.
Information and registration is on our website: ilmidwestmalespirituality.org
Illuman will host Soularize 2020: The Masculine Path to Healing virtually from October 15-18, 2020. We are excited to once again welcome Fr. Richard Rohr to be with us!
The event will begin on Thursday evening, October 15 and end by 1pm on Sunday, October 18. Please visit the Soularize 2020 webpage for registration and more information. We hope you will join with Fr. Richard and the men of Illuman in October. All men are welcome!
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]What is the Men’s Rites of Passage?
For most men, the question of what it means to be a man is perplexing. Many men have a longing for the support and guidance of other men in their journey towards masculinity, maturity, and a deeper experience with the Divine. In ancient cultures initiation rites and vision quests were used to help boys make the journey into adulthood.
Opening the door to this journey can start with the Men’s Rites of Passage (MROP). The MROP is not just a men’s retreat, but five days of formal male initiation. These teachings on the “mysteries” and the accompanying rituals have been met with a very positive response in recent years. Over 5,000 men have now been initiated through these rites of male initiation over the past 20 years
This Journey begins with the age-old traditions that teach the five lessons every man needs to learn before he can fully engage in the adventure and mystery life will bring. MROP can awaken men to their own masculinity, their deep spirituality, their potential for leadership, and their life’s purpose. This is not about religion but about spirituality, about age old traditions that guide us into manhood (regardless of our chronological age), about coming to trust that there is something much greater at work in our lives than we could ever imagine.
The Younger Men’s Rites is a life-changing experience for men 18 – 28.
During the 5 days in nature, we explore the transition from adolescence to manhood.
It is a physical, emotional and spiritual challenge. It will be hard. It will test you.
But you will also experience a sense of purpose and see how you fit into a larger story. You will receive tools for your journey as you walk a shared path – one that many have walked before. This is an utterly grounding experience that will hold you, help you grow and open up new beginnings.
The Rites is not a teaching retreat – it is a felt and lived experience. It’s more about feeling it in your gut than understanding it with your head. This is the doorway to the rest of your life. Set in wildland in the Australian bush close to Somerset Dam Queensland, the Younger Men’s Rites involves living outdoors and participating in a range of practical group activities, solo-time, discussions, journaling and wilderness time.
The Younger Men’s Rites is led by a team of experienced elders who have themselves been through Rites of Passage. Supporters and Fathers of the men attending are invited to assist the Rites in various ways.
In the words of the program’s founder – Richard Rohr:
“Men are asked to come with a willingness to participate from beginning to end and not as an observer. All participants begin at point zero with no agendas to live up to or down to. All that is required is for a man to come with a “beginner’s mind’ and the readiness of a novice seeking wisdom. Ultimately, initiation, like life itself, is not a spectator sport.”
What is the Men’s Rites of Passage?
For most men, the question of what it means to be a man is perplexing. Many men have a longing for the support and guidance of other men in their journey towards masculinity, maturity, and a deeper experience with the Divine. In ancient cultures initiation rites and vision quests were used to help boys make the journey into adulthood.
Opening the door to this journey can start with the Men’s Rites of Passage (MROP). The MROP is not just a men’s retreat, but five days of formal male initiation. These teachings on the “mysteries” and the accompanying rituals have been met with a very positive response in recent years. Over 5,000 men have now been initiated through these rites of male initiation over the past 20 years
This Journey begins with the age-old traditions that teach the five lessons every man needs to learn before he can fully engage in the adventure and mystery life will bring. MROP can awaken men to their own masculinity, their deep spirituality, their potential for leadership, and their life’s purpose. This is not about religion but about spirituality, about age old traditions that guide us into manhood (regardless of our chronological age), about coming to trust that there is something much greater at work in our lives than we could ever imagine.
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