Aspects of the Goddess

Another workshop in Byron Bay over the weekend, this time with William (The Mykonos in Wild Nights by David Deida) and Sophia (Deida's ex-partner). I'd expected the workshop to be similar to that of the Satyen Raja one in January on Sex, Passion and Enlightenment, and I was disappointed. The focus was the body as prayer, and consisted of many "sit and listen at the feet of the master" lectures by William, and "hold this yoga position until your body hurts, then keep holding it whilst I offer you shame that you can take on if you lose the position" from Sophia.

To be fair, William very rightly said that spirituality was a core component to any relationship and that relationship itself was a spiritual practice. William also helped me by pointing out that the mind I cherish so much spends most of it's time thinking about Food, Money and Sex (and I'd add Nicotine to that list). Whilst those things are important, they don't necessarily deserve that much attention from me. However, the incessant meditation and humming didn't really help me through.

William's teachings on unconditional love; observing, suffering and then declining to play the script game each of us bring to our relationship; and above all feeling from the heart, were valuable lessons I didn't need to do the course to get.

William and Sophia, in line with their teacher Adi Da Samraj, proclaim the need to discipline the mind and body in the name of spirit. I'm all for discipline: Discipline that allows me to focus, direct and nurture my child-centred vitality and libido, not replace it. When I looked at them, I certainly didn't see the child in them, and that terrified me. Sophia's yoga honed body was a lifeless corpse.

I stayed with a very good friend of mine in Byron Bay. He and his partner are also fans of William and Sophia, and I think his partner put it well when she commented that shaming the child with spiritual idealism isn't the way to go.

There were some beautiful, radiant women on the course (N perhaps the greatest amongst them), and I was very pleased to note that I found myself attracted to the women that most reminded me most of RCG.

At one stage Sophia was talking, and I was looking at the gorgeous woods on the other side of the picturesque valley the course was held at. She told me off for that, remarking that I was not respecting the scared and was not "arriving". It took all my discipline not to reply "Divine and radiant as you are, I find more enlightenment in the breeze that blows through the tops of the trees." I think she sensed that as I gazed at her, and started speaking gobbledygook (literally).

I'm pleased that despite my bored little boy, I didn't smoke. Instead I got spent time with friends from Byron Bay:

I gave N a lift to the course. I'm seeing now how much her sharp mind contains the naughty, playful, and rebellious girl which I delight in and encourage; and perhaps how that wasn't the best for her or me. She was all ablaze as she described how her new partner had kicked her out of the house when she was being a brat. It seems to me like she's playing a script to get discipline from her lover, and it's a game of high stakes. Friendship is so much a better way for us to go.

At breaks I spent time with V, an apprentice of Deida, a good man and an ex-actuary of all things!

One morning, I had breakfast with "Hestia", an older, wonderful and wise woman who I met on the Satyen course in January and have kept up an email friendship with. She loves the Deida work and does it with the same compassion and tenderness that she practices as a psychotherapist. She's having an intense time being in her feminine, and what a blessing that was.

I had a two hour massage from my friend in Byron which was truly the closest I came to spiritual ecstasy all weekend.