Our Commitments

Our Commitment to You

Our aim is to make all the events from Awaken as Love as integrative and inclusive as possible so you can have the best experience for you. Here are some of the ways we are committed to doing that. 

Sharing Groups & Emotional Support – These are held most mornings in small groups of 5-6 people, they offers a change to individually listen and share what in arising in us. This group will be your “tribe” during the events, which gives you a chance to have mutual support as well as a safe harbour of people you know. Your group will be there to listen to your sharing without feedback or advice. It can be very touching and vulnerable at times, and a gift to hear others as they move through the same human emotions, hopes, fears and dreams. There will also be a number of people available for emotional support throughout the festival or trainings – where you can share a cup of tea, talk about what is moving for you and maybe just get a hug when needed.

Respect for all Relationship Styles and Choices – The events will offer spaces to support all the relationship styles and choices you make. Workshops and structures will allow couples to pair up for more intimate exercises and the choice to stay with their own partner if that is what they decide – facilitators announce this to the group so they are aware when to make this choice. It’s also possible for individuals (and couples) to experience many different partners in exercises – seeing how it is to practice with a variety of people. Most importantly there will be no emphasis or pressure that one relating style is better than another and we encourage everyone to be really aware in their choices and to communicate as much as possible.

Inclusivity & Representation

All sexual orientations, ethnicities, gender identifications are welcome, included and celebrated. We have a strict non-tolerance of any form of discrimination. We do our best at festivals to invite a mix of facilitators and staff who represent different ethnicities and orientations. Our faculty is a diverse bunch of people that already includes multiple ethnicities, orientations, relationship styles and identifications – and we want to proactively encourage more of this, realising how important it is to feel represented. Polarity is also included and welcomed, and in festivals that offer the opportunity to explore same sex workshops we also offer a gender neutral workshop at the same time.

Creating a safe space

It’s important for us that you feel safe, this helps us all to open up and deepen. As well as all the above, we will be encouraging you to be aware of your boundaries, and give specific tools for this. There will be no pressure to do anything that doesn’t feel right for you and the best tantric practice is being able to honour your truths. As well as focusing strongly on this at the start of events, we aim to keep reminding and empowering people to choose that throughout the course of events – knowing that honouring, and recognizing boundaries is actually advanced Tantra, not beginner stuff to be ignored later on…

Trauma/Emotional Dysregulation

Awaken as Love Festivals and Events are already designed from an understanding of Trauma, no-body is pushed beyond their limits and they are free to leave the room at any point. In an Integrally informed trauma course is being created that will be a requirement for all faculty members to complete, this is in addition to their previous knowledge and wisdom on the subject.

Student/Staff Interactions

In Awaken as Love festivals and Trainings, facilitators and assistants agree not to have sexual interactions with students during the events. They are encouraged to enjoy hugs, cuddle puddles, sexy dancing and light interaction in temple spaces (massage etc), but they will not form relationships, or engage in sexual intercourse outside of any previous existing relationships. 

This has been a controversial topic of late and it is important to state why we hold this position. The first reason is that facilitators are paid to be present and support the whole group – not to be distracted by a few select individuals – this is very important in terms of the group dynamics created.

The 2nd reason concerns power dynamics – Awaken as Love is an Integral Mystery School which means it aims to look at issues from an integral stage of consciousness at the minimum. Experiments in the previous stage of consciousness – post-modernism, attempted to flatten out any notion of hierarchy, because it quite rightly rejected what it saw as oppressive hierarchies that we’re detrimental. However, it also rejected anything that looked or smelled like hierarchy – including natural forms of order within the universe (e.g. organs contain cells, cells contain molecules, molecules contain atoms, it is natural that there are higher degrees of organization and novelty at different stages that contain smaller whole parts).

These experiments while however well intentioned (or not), created a lot of mess. It doesn’t work to deny the power relationship between teacher and student by simply declaring that everyone is “sovereign”. It also doesn’t make sense when individuals are exploring earlier childlike states of consciousness or when they are exhibiting trauma responses to just tell them that they are “sovereign” – adults need to be holding the space, free from their own ulterior motives and agendas, when exploring earlier stages of consciousness – especially when in a position a role of power during that time.

Meditation

We sign up to the Tantra Alliance and Safe Mediation as neutral 3rd parties to address any concerns that might arise about faculty members or situations in trainings, so you can feel safe to be heard and supported if any issues occur that need deeper holding.

These are our commitments and aims to support you, and we are always open to feedback and new ideas as this field continues to evolve and refine – if you have something you would like to share with us then you are most welcome to contact us.