Inner King Training Experience mini-course:
Crowning Your Inner King
Lesson 3: Use The "Power Of Death" To Really Live Your Life Fully
When we first created the Inner King Training Experience, we had the instinct that if a man was to be a true King, he had to live with the power of death.
One evening the planning team imagined our own deaths, and then spoke the blessings we would give one another from the spirit realm.
It was transformational for us—and something we could never have done alone.
That same week we invited Doug Gillette, co–author with Robert Moore of King, Warrior, Magician, Lover, to join us for part of our planning time. The first words out of his mouth were, “Well, if you’re dealing with the king archetype, then facing death has to be a big part of it!”
You are, in a biological and soulful way, the product of the lives and deaths of your ancestors. Good Kings live with the immediacy and with the clarity that an empowering knowledge of death gives them.
But there are almost no places to explore death in an empowering way. While death is around us all the time—in the latest headlines, in the movies, and in our personal lives—how many times have we had the opportunity to speak about and death and dying in a really meaningful, healing fashion?
How often do you get the chance to explore the idea of death in a way that isn't morbid, disempowering, or depressing?
At the Inner King Training Experience you will have the opportunity to ritually experience your own death. You'll be able to safely explore the time leading up to it, through it, and even after it. You'll get to "bring home" the power of your own death, without actually having to die.
Try this visualization and exercise as a taste of how you can live with the power of death
1) Find a time and place where you will be undisturbed for a little while. If you have some favorite instrumental music that puts you in a meditative state, play it. It is also fine to do this in silence. Have a journal or notebook ready to use after the visualization.
2) Take a few nice big deep breaths and come to your centered place. Imagine you are in a theater, and you are going to watch the movie of your life. Just take 5 or 10 minutes (or even up to 20 minutes) to review your life from birth to the current moment. If you find yourself jumping around in time, that’s fine. The important thing is to allow yourself to see the movie of your life just as it is, with an open heart.
3) You may want to make mental notes along the way of the parts of the "movie of your life" that make you happy or sad, fearful or angry. As much as possible, just allow those feelings to be there along with the images. Also take note of any significant gaps in the movie and any parts that might be difficult to watch.
4) Now as the movie begins to come to the present moment, I invite you to see a figure in the distance standing before a wall. This figure and the wall will represent death.
Death beckons you closer and you hear death say, “I am here as a teacher and mentor, it is my job to keep you awake. You never know when I will come for you. What if you had only a year to live? How would you live your life differently?”
The wall and the figure of death then fade into a mist. I invite you to consider that possibility. What would you do if you had a year to live?
5) I invite you now to write down your thoughts about what you would do if you had only one year to live.
If you noticed any regrets, stuck places, or unfinished business as you watched the movie of your life, how might that figure in to your plans? You'll probably notice your life seems to "come into focus." It's easier to be present, and to see what's most important.
When you are complete for now, take a few moments to give yourself a blessing for your courageousness in doing this work.
At the Inner King Training Experience you'll have the opportunity to look at your relationship to death and your relationship to dying in ways that may surprise you by their intensity and soulfulness. We spend an entire day and a night on this issue, and the results are phenomenal.
That safety and power allows participants to explore death at a very deep level.
Men who have taken the Inner King Training Experience often report that the insights and take-aways from this portion of the workshop are transformational at many levels. Death truly becomes an ally that can guide and support living more courageously and fully.
If you can start, today, living with the knowledge of what you'd do if you had a year to live, you'll get a taste of the experience of living with the power of death.
In the next lesson you’ll learn how to experience the blessing of all the fathers who have gone before you…and how to use that blessing in your life.
Click here to go to lesson 4.
One evening the planning team imagined our own deaths, and then spoke the blessings we would give one another from the spirit realm.
It was transformational for us—and something we could never have done alone.
That same week we invited Doug Gillette, co–author with Robert Moore of King, Warrior, Magician, Lover, to join us for part of our planning time. The first words out of his mouth were, “Well, if you’re dealing with the king archetype, then facing death has to be a big part of it!”
You are, in a biological and soulful way, the product of the lives and deaths of your ancestors. Good Kings live with the immediacy and with the clarity that an empowering knowledge of death gives them.
But there are almost no places to explore death in an empowering way. While death is around us all the time—in the latest headlines, in the movies, and in our personal lives—how many times have we had the opportunity to speak about and death and dying in a really meaningful, healing fashion?
How often do you get the chance to explore the idea of death in a way that isn't morbid, disempowering, or depressing?
At the Inner King Training Experience you will have the opportunity to ritually experience your own death. You'll be able to safely explore the time leading up to it, through it, and even after it. You'll get to "bring home" the power of your own death, without actually having to die.
Try this visualization and exercise as a taste of how you can live with the power of death
1) Find a time and place where you will be undisturbed for a little while. If you have some favorite instrumental music that puts you in a meditative state, play it. It is also fine to do this in silence. Have a journal or notebook ready to use after the visualization.
2) Take a few nice big deep breaths and come to your centered place. Imagine you are in a theater, and you are going to watch the movie of your life. Just take 5 or 10 minutes (or even up to 20 minutes) to review your life from birth to the current moment. If you find yourself jumping around in time, that’s fine. The important thing is to allow yourself to see the movie of your life just as it is, with an open heart.
3) You may want to make mental notes along the way of the parts of the "movie of your life" that make you happy or sad, fearful or angry. As much as possible, just allow those feelings to be there along with the images. Also take note of any significant gaps in the movie and any parts that might be difficult to watch.
4) Now as the movie begins to come to the present moment, I invite you to see a figure in the distance standing before a wall. This figure and the wall will represent death.
Death beckons you closer and you hear death say, “I am here as a teacher and mentor, it is my job to keep you awake. You never know when I will come for you. What if you had only a year to live? How would you live your life differently?”
The wall and the figure of death then fade into a mist. I invite you to consider that possibility. What would you do if you had a year to live?
5) I invite you now to write down your thoughts about what you would do if you had only one year to live.
If you noticed any regrets, stuck places, or unfinished business as you watched the movie of your life, how might that figure in to your plans? You'll probably notice your life seems to "come into focus." It's easier to be present, and to see what's most important.
When you are complete for now, take a few moments to give yourself a blessing for your courageousness in doing this work.
At the Inner King Training Experience you'll have the opportunity to look at your relationship to death and your relationship to dying in ways that may surprise you by their intensity and soulfulness. We spend an entire day and a night on this issue, and the results are phenomenal.
That safety and power allows participants to explore death at a very deep level.
Men who have taken the Inner King Training Experience often report that the insights and take-aways from this portion of the workshop are transformational at many levels. Death truly becomes an ally that can guide and support living more courageously and fully.
If you can start, today, living with the knowledge of what you'd do if you had a year to live, you'll get a taste of the experience of living with the power of death.
In the next lesson you’ll learn how to experience the blessing of all the fathers who have gone before you…and how to use that blessing in your life.
Click here to go to lesson 4.