Wild Genius
EARTH
Boundaries
&
Welcoming
MINERAL
Separation
&
Life Purpose
WATER
Grief Listening
&
Praise Talk
FIRE
Injured Lineage
&
Mythic Allies
NATURE
Reaction
&
Response
Explorers Free Course—Mineral—2 of 5
INTRODUCTION
Elements | Mineral | Introduction
Do you hear Destiny whispering?
That's a prescription for Trouble.
Jump up alive with the energy of your genius
If you turn away from the whispers you will be cursed to the half life of fate.
There are maps to help you survive, and they are to be found in the peculiarities of your unique life purpose. The Other World wants you to thrive. But first you have to survive. Initiation is shaped by the troubles of this world. And secretly guided by the wily wisdom of the wild genius.
A connection with your genius will separate your life path initially, but will return to a sense of focussed purpose, eventually bringing you around to a deep connection through the service of your own unique peculiarities and beauty.
Mineral Themes
Separation
Life Purpose
Initiation
Memory
Inner Wild Genius
Personal Benefits
Whether you are in a state of change, under attack, or striving under a condition of quest, your wild genius is willing to share a map of the situation if you can learn how to listen and interpret the guidance.
Facilitator Skills
In a time where there is little guidance from Elders or mentors, your ability to speak with and listen to genius can help clients reorient themselves in circumstances of challenge.
MINERAL WISDOM
Elements | Mineral | Wisdom
In this section:
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Fate of circumstance and destiny of purpose
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Redeeming the trouble of separation
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Releasing the wild voice with awareness
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This week's video
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This week's blessing
Just a note before starting
You are on module 2 of 5. There is a guide to this course that you should review before beginning. If you missed it, read it (link) at:
Fate of circumstance and destiny of purpose
In the indigenous imagination, a person's fate is written by circumstances of birth, but their destiny is the stamp of particular potentials, inclinations, and passions native to the individual. The troubles, challenges, and wounds you have experienced are a key to this life purpose. The healing process of becoming whole redeems the wounds of fate, transforming them into the street-wise savvy of the wild genius. Overcoming the circumstances of fate is only half of the work. The second half is undergoing the initiation of activating the mission and the destiny of life purpose.
The Dagara see the intricacy of the structured, faceted, aspect of life purpose as being similar to the Mineral Element. Structure is the scaffolding of memory, and life purpose is actually seen as an issue of memory, not as it is seen in the modern world as an issue of finding. Mineral people are organizers, and potentially storehouses and possibly carriers of story medicine. People more naturally aligned with the other Elements appreciate the insights that can be given by a well-educated Mineral person.
Redeeming the trouble of separation
In this sense, the care of life purpose is a charge of the Mineral element. Your voice is your own personal (and one of a kind) knowledge about the waters of life and the waters of death. That knowledge is a medicine that community needs. The trouble you’ve survived makes you a potential expert in dealing with that kind of trouble. By that process of redemption, you become a trustworthy, credible guide for others. The injured person can become a community specialist able to provide medicine to that kind of injury.
Your own redeemed trouble will have a grand idea to give a certain healing to the entire world. It is that generous. But this is not possible for one person. That longing inevitably gets tempered by the understanding that your "medicine" needs allies, even allies who do things differently than you. Different medicines, including the style they are delivered in, can help in other situations where you cannot.
Releasing the wild voice with awareness
The voice of the wild genius in a person may be silenced and hidden behind conditioning or trauma. Releasing this voice is of life and death importance from a Mineral perspective. Talking about it in this way, your "voice" is your medicine, what you create; what you particularly and uniquely bring to the perennial job of revitalizing culture. It can show up in diverse ways in a life, but also tends to be a unifying factor. Your own healing is pointing toward you becoming a healer.
The wild voice can be a revolutionary urge—it wants to create reform, it doesn't want to put up with the status quo. This can cause it to burst out in an explosive energy that can cause destruction. Seeing injustice, it can want to tear everything down and start anew. Dealing with this volatile energy, and bringing it to maturity, can be called the business of initiation, or initiatory work.
This week's video
Michael Meade speaks on genius and calling.
00:09:58
This week's blessing
May the stars and the night moon befriend the great orb of the sun to light your path at every moment and under every circumstance. Let the mountains themselves give you the blessings of great foundations, strong footings, and a vantage when you need one. Prosper in your own peculiar fashion, and keep going, your work is needed in the world.
Quotes
"Whether they are raised in indigenous or modern culture, there are two things that people crave: the full realization of their innate gifts, and to have these gifts approved, acknowledged, and confirmed. There are countless people in the West whose efforts are sadly wasted because they have no means of expressing their unique genius. In the psyches of such people there is an inner power and authority that fails to shine because the world around them is blind to it."
Dr. Malidoma Somé
Author, Initiated Elder and Diviner of the Dagara Tribe,
Burkina Fasso,
West Africa
“We may be closest to hearing the call when we feel most alone or in trouble, for genius hides behind the wound and one of the greatest wounds in life is to not know who we are intended to be or what we are supposed to serve in life.”
Dr. Michael MEade
The Genius Myth
ASSIGNMENT
Elements | Mineral | Assignment
In this section:
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An artist's date
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We all have an inner artist
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Mineral and Mineral prayer
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Extension
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Declaration and the support of benchmarking
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Radical ritual of Mineral medicine
An Artist's Date
Your assignment in week two for the Mineral module is for your inner artist. The concept of an artist's date comes from Julia Cameron's book "The Artist's Way." Here is how she describes it:
"The Artist Date is a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore something that interests you. The Artist Date need not be overtly “artistic” — think mischief more than mastery. Artist Dates fire up the imagination. They spark whimsy. They encourage play. Since art is about the play of ideas, they feed our creative work by replenishing our inner well of images and inspiration. When choosing an Artist Date, it is good to ask yourself, “what sounds fun?” — and then allow yourself to try it."
This connects with ritual because ritual always involves some of the human "making of beauty" that only we can do. Michael Meade has suggested that art is only the modern form of ritual. To go somewhere led by the authority of curiosity is to allow the possibly hidden aspects of the wild genius some room to stretch its legs.
Again, it is important to remember that even a little step can be valuable . . . just different enough from the normal routine to "make a difference." Even 15 minutes in a shop you have always been interested in visiting, or a short adventure of a couple of hours going somewhere.
Make sure that what you choose to do is only for your inner artist. For now, make the rule that it must not be anything practical. We all have enough and more than enough practical demands in life to attend to. This is a short session to recharge your batteries, emotionally, psychologically, intellectually, and spiritually.
We all have an inner artist
Some people feel comfortable with a self image that includes the definition "artist." For those who are not sure they are, I can reassure you that it is in our nature as primates to learn through play. We are wired for it. It may be true that personal historical experience has put a damper on the expression of that natural play, curiosity and creative exploration, but we all have the biological capacity for it.
You might be encountering some taboo areas of expression. What about going to a movie alone? Some people do it, you could too. The world won't fall apart if you step out of your comfort zone a bit. When we do extensions, it is natural to want to keep them small and safe at first. That is an intelligent way of learning and building skills and powers. Try something a little new, and when you do, congratulate yourself.
Mineral and Mineral prayer
Find a rock, or a crystal. Choose a small item as the plan will be for you to cary it all week long. First, you are going to give a gift to the mineral realm. Perhaps a bit of tobacco, or a spoonful of some food you have cooked, or a pouring of libation (alcohol) on the ground. Hold the mineral, and say (out loud):
"If there is any possible way you, stone person, can help me with your ancient wisdom about solidity, structure, and the complete ability to transform over a lifetime, I'm open to receiving it. Help me this week with my plan to support my inner artist, and help me notice any signs about how it is connected to my life purpose. I am just a human, so I don't mind the help."
Like last week in the Earth module, this doesn't require you to believe anything, just to say something which is honestly true. Again, saying it out loud is also activating your physical body (through your voice box) that makes you a participant in the life of the world. It countermands the modern sense that everything can be sorted out in the mind alone.
Extension
You are going to schedule that artist's date, and make it a strong priority to do. You might notice that there is a touch of what is called divination in the prayer. That is the aspect of noticing anything worth noticing about the experience you have. Typical results include either wanting to do more of the same kind of artist's date, or a different one in the future. You might have picked up that Julia Cameron recommends one artist's date per week.
Everyday, you will keep that rock in your pocket, purse, or backpack. A token like this is usually not shown to anyone in traditional indigenous practice. That idea of keeping it hidden is related to developing an awareness about the very real separation which is between the grand schemes of the wild genius to reorganize society and the very real idea that society has of never changing a bit, despite endless warnings about global warming and environmental destruction.
Get a piece of paper, make a quick daily note of how it went. Keep it posted on your wall. If you are a person who uses a journal regularly, that can be okay as well. The idea of posting a note like that on your wall is that it comes into your consciousness and supports you.
Declaration and the support of benchmarking
Get a small notebook to keep on your shrine, and make notes daily about how your task went. Practice bringing your awareness to your developing skills. And yes, you can also use your notebook as a scrapbook and place for art or poems.
Boast a little about your experience with the ritual task, or ask a question for ruminating on in the following day or week. Make your question specific and open ended.
Radical ritual of Mineral medicine
Mineral rituals can easily last a weekend. As Malidoma Somé says elsewhere on this page, there is a terrible need for recognition of unique purpose. Part of the Mineral ritual healing process is the idea of uncovering what has been covered over by society's expectations of behaviour, and to avoid "rocking the boat."
“In order to achieve escape velocity, we must learn to keep our own counsel, to move silently among doubters, to voice our plans only among our allies, and to name our allies accurately.”
Julia Cameron
The Artist's Way
"What is this?" asks Lyra in Phillip Pullman's trilogy
"His Dark Materials."
"It's an alethiometer.
It tells the truth.
You are meant to have it.
It is of the utmost importance
to yourself,
to all of us,
and perhaps to all creation."
Philip Pullman
His Dark Materials
(Trilogy)
MORE
Elements | Mineral | More
In this section:
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Gifts of the World
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The Soul's Code
Gifts of the World
Episode 2 from
"Medicine Without an Expiry Date:
Indigenous Remedy for Modern Trouble"
by Randy Jones.
Read for free in pdf through this link:
The Soul's Code:
In Search of Character and Calling
by James Hillman
James Hillman makes the argument for the old Greek idea of a guiding daimon, a spirit of purpose and genius that is born with a person, and makes the task of their destiny valid.
Buy through bookseller's everywhere:
INVITATIONS
Elements | Mineral | Invitations
In this section:
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Continue the course now
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Other programs
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