Summary
According to Carl Jung, each of us contains a reservoir of creative possibilities waiting to be discovered. He called this the Golden Shadow, that ‘waiting zone’ where we sometimes conceal original ideas, unusual gifts, and extraordinary potentials that are enlivening – and hope-inspiring – but also bring resistance. Why do we fear our creative potential and shut down our important ideas? How does shame deepen the Golden Shadow, and how can shame become a teacher? What would you like to create in your life, emotionally, artistically, spiritually, and practically? In this month’s edition of The Seekers Forum, we open the doors on the Golden Shadow, and see where the brightness leads.
SEEKERS SESSION RECORDING
GUIDED WRITING SESSIONS
Tuesdays @ 5 pm Eastern
4 pm Central, 3 pm Mountain, 2 pm Pacific, 22:00 London, 9 am +1 Sydney
In these live weekly Zoom sessions, Mark guides you through a series of writing prompts designed to spur insight and self-development. Using his Writing to Awaken method, these hour-long sessions provide a space to explore the program theme, share questions and epiphanies, and engage in dialogue with fellow members. They lively sessions can help you develop an ongoing writing practice, and offer an opportunity to interact with Mark, who offers additional personalized writing prompts. Each session is recorded and links to the video and audio playback are posted to the website. Members can also share any work or thoughts in the easy to use forum.
More information on Guided Writing Sessions.
GUEST INTERVIEW WITH SOPHIE STRAND
About Sophie Strand
Sophie Strand is a writer based in the Hudson Valley who focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. But it would probably be more authentic to call her a neo-troubadour animist with a propensity to spin yarns that inevitably turn into love stories. Give her a salamander and a stone and she’ll write you a love story. Sophie was raised by house cats, puff balls, possums, raccoons, and an opinionated, crippled goose. In every neighborhood she’s ever lived in she has been known as “the walker”. She believes strongly that all thinking happens interstitially – between beings, ideas, differences, mythical gradients.
Her first book of essays The Flowering Wand: Lunar Kings, Lichenized Lovers, Transpecies Magicians, and Rhizomatic Harpists Heal the Masculine is forthcoming in 2022 from Inner Traditions. Her eco-feminist historical fiction reimagining of the gospels The Madonna Secret will also be published by Inner Traditions. Her books of poetry include Love Song to a Blue God (Oread Press) and Those Other Flowers to Come (Dancing Girl Press) and The Approach (The Swan). Her poems and essays have been published by Art PAPERS, The Dark Mountain Project, Poetry.org, Unearthed, Braided Way, Creatrix, Your Impossible Voice, The Doris, Persephone’s Daughters, and Entropy. She has recently finished a work of historical fiction, The Madonna Secret, that offers an eco-feminist revision of the gospels. She is currently researching her next epic, a mythopoetic exploration of ecology and queerness in the medieval legend of Tristan and Isolde.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Mark’s recommendation of a video, podcast, article, book, or teaching, that offers further insight into the program theme. The Recommended Resource is posted on the third Sunday of each month.
PROGRAM REFLECTION
Mark offers final thoughts and takeaways from the monthly program. The Program Reflection closes each program and is posted on the fourth Sunday of each month.
ABOUT MARK AND THE SEEKERS FORUM
Mark Matousek is a bestselling author, teacher, and speaker whose work focuses on personal awakening and creative excellence through transformational writing and self-inquiry. He brings over three decades of experience as a memoirist, editor, interviewer, survivor, activist, and spiritual seeker to his penetrating and thought-provoking work with students. His workshops, classes, and mentoring have inspired thousands of people around the world to reach their artistic and spiritual goals.
The Seekers Forum is Mark’s online community dedicated to the cultivation of self-awareness and spiritual awakening through dialogue, writing, and self-inquiry. It is an online refuge and wellspring of wisdom for those seeking personal knowledge and the chance to connect with seekers from around the world, in an atmosphere of camaraderie, inclusion, and encouragement. Mark modeled The Seekers Forum after the Sufi notion of sohbet, “the spiritual talk of friends.” He wanted to create a non-sectarian, open-minded fellowship where no faith is required, and like-minded people from all traditions can come together to talk about the things that concern us all. What is the purpose of our lives? How does spiritual practice change us? How can we live in uncertain, often frightening, times as conscious, compassionate human beings? How can we balance the mind, body, and spirit, wake up to the truth of who we are, and deepen our connection to this astounding creation?
As Shakespeare wrote, “There’s more between heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our philosophy.” This is what interests us in The Seekers Forum. We hope you will join us!