Death Practice Group in 2023
The Next Phase
This video is/was the first session of the supplemental Death Practice Group that will be happening monthly. Registration is by donation and only available to people who have attended or bought a recording of a formal death practice group session. This is NOT a Marketing Video. I am putting this up publicly in order to mark a turning point, a phase shift. DPG #8 was on jan 25, 2023 and marked the end of the basic foundational framework for Death Practice. It is a great jumping on/off point and it is also a great place to return to the work and re-emphasize it in your life. I will be announcing and discussing 2023 plans and collaborations. Please refer to this substack post for further information, i will update this post as necessary.
It may be that this work (death practice) is not enticing enough to the zeitgeist to be “successful”. This is something i am realizing as i see the continuing cultish nonsense in so many other spaces. It also comes back to me that i am “50 steps ahead” of most people (not my words or ideas), which is just frankly disheartening and unfortunate in my opinion. I don’t know if i will live long enough to see a robust, mature group of people practicing the work in an honest and ethical way. So I am left pondering what could be good for both the work and my own incarnation and ticking clock. I am listening and throwing spaghetti at the wall.
I have set up a private reddit group for people who have decided to stick with DPG. If this is you, check the latest pdfs in the newest month’s folder to see how you can message me on reddit to request that i add you to the message board (subreddit).
Death Practice Sessions 1-8 constitute a good-enough basic outline of the concepts, pitfalls and priorities of the work itself. I will just be referring people to these sessions when they ask for basic explanation. Each episode is 3-4 hours long (or more) with copious supplementary notes, media and ephemera. It is probably equal to a 3+ year college class if a person started at no idea and wanted to completely move through a self-paced full-time learning project. The recordings combined of 1-8 will equal about 24 hours of audio/video. I feel pretty good about this being available before I die, as whatever comes next will build on this body of information, and if nothing comes next, this can be a quiet distillation of my entire life’s discovery.
I am trying to create a living will in 2023 to make sure that some of my work and digital collections of material will go to a collective resource.
If you have experience setting up a living will, please contact me.
Not everyone enjoys my style of teaching or the words I use to communicate. I am not trying to cater to everyone, I am attempting to put out my art and transform the collective karma I am carrying. It is not that much fun to be here in ‘samsara’ with all of what humans are choosing to do. Until I die (which will be a relief), I am intending to move towards more participatory nondual animist arts, more deathclown, and more live training that incorporates movement, voice, theater and acting modalities. There appears to be a severe limit to what many people can practice, understand and apply via online classes, and to my own joy and fulfillment teaching primarily online. I want to work towards a more hybrid model but that means that people will need to come to portland to train with us, or develop the resources to host us in another place.
Animist Arts will be announcing many more opportunities for in-person events in portland in 2023 starting in february & march, as well as new online opportunities (that are less direct and more gradual than my DPG style).
If you want to help create some creative, playful sanity and have the resources to help, we greatly appreciate it. Some links for donation and assistance are listed below, but we are also open to other forms of collaboration and support.
This being said, what will DPG look like for the rest of 2023?
In DPG #8 (available for purchase if you scroll to the bottom of this website) I talked a bit about what i might do. This is all still very much unknown.
As of this posting, There are no new events to sign up for currently, but this link is where they will be when the time is right.
There will be a LUNARIUM session in February, but there may not be a formal #9 session until March or after. I don’t know yet. My health symptoms and interpersonal struggles continue to be challenging even as some aspects of my life, relationships and inner sense of vitality and peace are growing stronger.
I pray that we all recognize that the world, body, and soul are all one place, even in death. Perhaps it is only in death that we actually can.
donations happily accepted at www.paypal.me/daresohei
The main animist arts website is animistarts.art and you can find out about other events and the patreon. Here is a rundown of the patreon events that Larissa is hosting. You can also see this stuff on the main calendar here.
February 2023 Patreon Live Events
Hey sweet burrowers
Here is the line up for February! Remember cut off to sign up to attend live is one hour before start time, zoom links sent out at about the same time. If you sign up to attend live and then can't make it please let me know.
All patron live event: (this is for any level of patron)
You Feeling Me Feeling You (L)
Tuesday Feb 14th <3 11am-12:15pmPST
Bring settling and coherence to yourself and your networks through the natural celebration of the relationship between things. A range of improv and creative expression is available here, but we source from the subtle/energetic. The subtle is a web of infinities. Being able to immediately access subtle infinities is not about egoic power but relaxing our need to freak out all the time, because we know we can enter this way of sensing and relating that brings us more options. It is an experience that undermines much of our overdoing fixations. This is a complete practice on its own, but also contributes to a well nourished baseline state that allows us to show up more fully for death clown methods, writing/drawing or really any creative expression, our work as facilitators and practitioners, and more.
Improvised and guided, not much cross talk/interaction until the end.
Playground Tier Events: (this is a $50/mo tier on our patreon)
What Play Be? Research and Intention Tinkering (L)
Monday Feb. 6th 5-6:45pmPST
A circle for playground participants to organize their interests and craft research questions or intentions related to play, perception, creative expression, and non dual liberation. We get the most out of things when we situate ourselves as artist/practitioner-researchers, in charge of our own way of gathering information and applying praxis. With enough participation this will become a monthly circle of accountability to get live feedback for how you are approaching your projects, healing practices, work, relationships, and more.
Bleeding Circle (L)
Friday Feb 10th 13th 1-3pmPST
A monthly circle for people who bleed (menstruate) or who have bled (gone through or currently going through menopause) to listen to the Spirit of Blood as a creative companion and teacher. Specifics beyond that emerge as needed, but the session will likely be a combination of creative and contemplative practices and dialogue that builds on itself over time. Opportunity for active participation.
Wiggle Warm Through and Lay the F*ck Down (L)
Thursday Feb 16th 3-4:15pmPST
A combination of a longer form wiggle warm up and Lay the F*ck Down (the skill of doing less, a contemplative movement practice emphasizing ground and gravity). We're gonna get circulated, vibrated, fluffed up, and then sail all the way down to the ground for restorative movement.
Improvised and guided, not much cross talk/interaction until the end.
Playing the Gaps Session 01 (Deathclown Methods) (L)
Monday Feb 27th 11am-12:30pmPST
Practice-research into creatively and sustainably integrating our system's perceptions of "gaps" in our experience, the sensations/thoughts/energies that seem to disrupt our sense of continuity, that are most likely entangled in cultural or personal taboos and preferences. A core skill for improvisation/play/deathclowning that is attuned to the real circumstances of your life. Emphasis this time around on melting our freeze/intense inhibition response and/or "over-responding". Part 1 of a 3 part series, it's recommended that you attend all or watch all the recordings as they will build on each other.