"An earthy, dense, and archaic feminine space" – some thoughts on THE HOUSE OF NEUROTIC WOMXN…
…by one of the participants, recorded on audio.
Winter has traditionally always been the time to contemplate the shadows. A time for demons, ghosts, and the un/dead. Winter within. It’s a good time for retreats and rituals. We wanted to create a ritualistic space for transitioning between the years, too—to end it with something profound. A space to encounter the impact of that which is yet unthought but also always known.
And we did.
But we had to tackle one that addresses the layers of frustration underlying our pedagogical approach to facilitating workshops—frustration with superficial talk about feminine and masculine energies in workshops, where femininity is defined by maternal, sensual, and goddess-like qualities, and masculinity by archaic warrior imagery.
We wanted to explore the more interesting, bizarre counterparts of those qualities:
Since being a woman in our society means having to go crazy—we built the HOUSE OF NEUROTIC WOMXN, where we paid tribute to just how much subversion lies in that as well.
And being a man comes with a fear: the fear of being the CREEPY OLD MXN. So we created a space to explore the complexities of those uncanny feelings of creepiness.
Small steps toward a fuller understanding of what it means to be female and male in this cruel world.
The workshops are not gender-specific. There is a creep and a hysteric in each and every one of us. They're sort of like archetypes (ooh, "dark-etypes!" 😈 )
It can all sound scary, but when approached with tenderness, friendliness, and love—using slow somatic practices drawn from dance and performance art, along with creativity and lots of playful fun—the scary becomes bearable. Even if only for a few moments. And to give you a sense of what this might look like in practice, here are some reflections from one of our participants:
