"There's more that we could do here but I'm afraid we have to speed it up a bit, because the women are coming over soon and we still haven't talked about the last part of today's workshop. We wanna be ready for them!"
And we cheered.
But as Simon kept on talking I thought for a second that I may have gone on a little bit more than a microdose that day. The tent was still closed off on the sides but I swore the moment he started talking about "the women coming over" I could hear women singing.
Wow, what reality did I just tap into I wondered as I turned my head to listen with focus. But as others started to drop their attention for Simon and made similar movements it gripped me as the voices became louder.
DUDE, THERE ARE WOMEN SINGING OUT THERE, I'M TELLIN' YA!!
It came over me like an avalanche, and the others noticed too. Simon stopped talking. "Wow! They're here!"
I felt like I was in a dream. It sounded beautiful, like those ancient mythologies where sailors would be enthralled by the singing voices of ladies on a forbidden island resulting in the ships crashing on the treacherous shore. Only without the pain. This felt like genuine love. The women needed us in their lives as much as we needed them, and we all saw it unmistakably. All of it came to me in that moment through listening to their voices singing powerfully and yet gently into our direction.
As their voices grew louder I could make out part of what they were singing.
"I am a strong woman. I am a wise woman. I am a healer and my soul will never die."
It sounded beautiful. It was forceful, female, open, receptive, life-affirming, mighty, ancient in some way. It spoke down to my core and called me. I almost felt a sense of deja-vue though this admittedly had not happened ever in my life before. At least not in this one anyway ;)
It was a moment I will never forget.
As the singing got louder and more pronounced it became a really cosmic experience.
Simon stopped talking and looked towards the tent wall with a smile. "They're here! Let's greet them like men!"
He tore away the tent-wall in one mighty move, letting the sun shine in and the majestic voices of at least a good hundred women singing their power mantra with huge smiles into the tent where we were sitting. Had been sitting - we were freakin' pumped and jumped up to greet them, like men preparing to drive the freakin' grizzly out of the village with fire! Able! Like tapping into an ancient energy vein buried inside of us, brought to life by female chants.
Simon did his best to relay the lyrics of the mantra to us as we sung for the ladies (and ultimately for ourselves), but that was the moment when his microphone stopped working altogether. The PA system crackled and we couldn't make out the lyrics of the mantra, but we sung regardless, doing our best to decipher the ominous lyrics as we chanted. The lack of lyrics made our chant less forceful and bundled and eventually we tumbled into an eerily ancient HOO HOO HOO like you have heard at football games. We're men making a point here, we won't be stopped by silly technical problems.
The ladies dug it and we felt awesome as the energy pinned down by the lyrics-inaudibility-debacle could finally be vented in some simple but effective way, the HOO HOO HOO does have its place for sure. Eventually we figured out the exact words, as we would go back and forth between the women's group and the men's group singing our proclamations of self-love to one another and Simon had managed to substitute the broken mic for a megaphone to help us out.
"I am a strong man. I am a wise man. I am a healer and my soul will never die."
Goosebumps in the air as the women were cheering us on and we them. There was another part of the mantra that I don't recall right now, probably because it was so inaudible at the time. But we didn't care, this was about a statement. About the energy even moreso than about the words.
Dara and Simon moved between the two groups like conductors, throwing us the ball and then back to the women as the energy increased further and further.
Smiles everywhere and we couldn't resist. We felt drawn to them and they felt drawn to us. Like the opposing fronts in an ancient battle, only for the realization that we belong together and that we want to be together. Because we are men and women. We can't do it without the other.
As we quieted down after a few minutes one dude remarked towards the microphone: "It broke. Too much energy in the air." And we all laughed, it seemed like the most likely explanation and it was some kind of cosmic wink by the universe <3
"Alright my beautiful friends, now that we are together let us finish this amazing day with the last exercise here. I'll explain quickly."
And we listened as we grinned at the army of women across the small chasm between us. So, here we all were... I wondered where this would go. And how this experience would change me, I could tell it already had shifted something to an unexpected degree inside of me...
Time to work with the ladies now.
To be continued...
Read up on other parts of this series:
Pt 1 - Piercing Through The Mindfucks
Pt 2 - Eye Contact Tension Breakthroughs
Pt 3 - Communicating Preferences & Honoring Boundaries
Pt 4 - Obliterating Shame & Owning Your Body
Pt 5 - Vulnerability Among Men
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Thanks for stopping by <3