Saturday, November 06, 2004
A ritual
happy2fight
This morning our process lab ended with the ritual of the Magic Pot. The lab spread over 5 days with four sessions of small group work, each session of 90 minutes. We spent time talking of our experiences and then exploring them with the underlying choices and meanings that we hold. We also talked of our feelings of here and now. We were two facilitators with 14 participants.
The ritual of the Magic Pot is very powerful indeed. It needs to be held very firmly and delicately. Participants come to the pot and announce what they would like to leave behind, as they prepare to depart. This morning the pot received so many things: numbness, overaggression, diffidence, impatience, procrastination, dread of losing parents and so on. Every time the pot - consisting of five people sitting in a circle - receives something, it gives back to the participant something or the other.
The pot does not give reassurances and guarantees nor does it offer compensations for the negativities. Instead, it looks at the whole experience surrounding the socalled negativity and the experiencer and offers that part which the participant is not in a position to look at and own. It is extremely interesting, rewarding, humanising and demanding to explore the universe surrounding the negativity.
As I write this, I am with the offering of Numbness. To me, it has meant suffering, helplessness and also protection against incapacity. Too much suffering can render me incapacitated. Instead I become numb and carry on. But I don't want to continue benumbed. Then I have to work with my suffering. I have to face it and unfreeze myself so that I can move. I need to offer some warmth to myself. Where do I discover it? When it gets too cold, I rub my palms and feel warm. I can't wish away pain and suffering. I can bring my hands together. So as the person offers numbness, let the person recover the need to protect oneself from incapacity and discover inner resources that offer warmth to oneself and if necessary, feel free to ask for warmth from others. That's what the pot offers back.
As I took my place in the pot, I started working with myself and feeling into the statements of the participants. In that time of 90 minutes I went round my own world of feelings so many times.
The ritual ends on an interesting note. The Magic Pot is not outside us, but inside us. We can invoke it whenever we get restless and offer those negativities and await its gifts in return.
This morning our process lab ended with the ritual of the Magic Pot. The lab spread over 5 days with four sessions of small group work, each session of 90 minutes. We spent time talking of our experiences and then exploring them with the underlying choices and meanings that we hold. We also talked of our feelings of here and now. We were two facilitators with 14 participants.
The ritual of the Magic Pot is very powerful indeed. It needs to be held very firmly and delicately. Participants come to the pot and announce what they would like to leave behind, as they prepare to depart. This morning the pot received so many things: numbness, overaggression, diffidence, impatience, procrastination, dread of losing parents and so on. Every time the pot - consisting of five people sitting in a circle - receives something, it gives back to the participant something or the other.
The pot does not give reassurances and guarantees nor does it offer compensations for the negativities. Instead, it looks at the whole experience surrounding the socalled negativity and the experiencer and offers that part which the participant is not in a position to look at and own. It is extremely interesting, rewarding, humanising and demanding to explore the universe surrounding the negativity.
As I write this, I am with the offering of Numbness. To me, it has meant suffering, helplessness and also protection against incapacity. Too much suffering can render me incapacitated. Instead I become numb and carry on. But I don't want to continue benumbed. Then I have to work with my suffering. I have to face it and unfreeze myself so that I can move. I need to offer some warmth to myself. Where do I discover it? When it gets too cold, I rub my palms and feel warm. I can't wish away pain and suffering. I can bring my hands together. So as the person offers numbness, let the person recover the need to protect oneself from incapacity and discover inner resources that offer warmth to oneself and if necessary, feel free to ask for warmth from others. That's what the pot offers back.
As I took my place in the pot, I started working with myself and feeling into the statements of the participants. In that time of 90 minutes I went round my own world of feelings so many times.
The ritual ends on an interesting note. The Magic Pot is not outside us, but inside us. We can invoke it whenever we get restless and offer those negativities and await its gifts in return.
# posted by Bhupatkar @ 5:55 AM 
