“People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls.”
(Allow yourself to Feel into this situation). You are a teenage boy in a Rite of Passage Circle, sitting around a camp fire with 45 other boys. The facilitator asks you to answer the simple question “How are you actually going? Would you prefer to be hunting a lion on the Savannah?!?” … How do you respond?
Based on first hand practical experience with this group work, Andrew’s talk will propose ‘The Feeling Body as the organ of Initiation’. He will explore essential questions of our time: “How can we offer modern boys and men of all ages impeccably held Rites, that are able to move them meaningfully beyond performance and disconnection?”
What is possible when young boys and men are supported to powerfully inhabit their feeling body? From a larger perspective, how can we support men into becoming agents of meaningful change, and invite them to step up to the huge challenges facing us in this chaotic (individual and collective) moment?
The world is calling out for our “lost” boys and men to do so, begging them to step up to the lion, to offer themselves back.
Andrew Levitas-Cameron holds a Batchelor of Health & Exercise Science from UNSW, as well as a Batchelor of Paramedicine from UTAS Rozelle. His first “huge” personal initiation occurred in Mexico in 2009 and launched him on his current path...drawing him through 15 years exploring Initiatory Rites the world over.
This extensive background places him at a unique axis to offer wisdom on this nuanced and contentious space, in a way few others can. During the last four years, he has facilitated more than 140 Rites of Passage coming into deep contact with nearly 5,000 teenagers!
Andrew is well positioned for this vocational work, regarding emotional truth-telling as the modern “ordeal” and “gateway to authentic adulthood.” He is passionate about nestling individuals into a relational system that allows for meaningful thresholds of transformation…at any and all stages of life!