Overview

Hosted by the Land Peace Foundation

You deserve to be accepted. And you deserve to be held accountable for unacceptable behavior. Both of these statements are true and they are both expressions of love.

Unfortunately, knowing how to discern the difference between being accepted as a person and being responsible for unacceptable behavior is a skill that is not consciously taught. However, it's essential for a healthy sense of self and for the development of emotionally healthy relationships.

There is no shame in failing to know something that you have never been taught. Yet we have been negatively conditioned to feel shamed by a society that crucifies those who make make mistakes and those who demonstrate a lack of knowledge. As a result, men are often taught to fake-it-til-you-make it. This conditions us to perform knowing and prevents us from having the space to actually learn. And because the social programming to "perform knowing" has been so deeply embedded, shame often rises when something that we haven't learned is pointed out to us.

Learning how to stop the shame loop is one of the most beneficial skills you will ever learn. It allows you to remain present in your own growth and in the work needed to build trust, intimacy, and connection with those around you. One of the first steps in this process is seeing shame as a teacher rather than an enemy, to create space for curiosity to move around the thing that shame is attaching to, which helps create greater self-awareness and understanding. This gathering will provide tools for disrupting shame cycles and changing the narratives you tell yourself when shame rises, as well as providing tools for embodying this learning in tangible ways.

This year's gathering will also include a powerful opportunity to be guided through a woman-led ceremony that invites us to withdraw our consent from paradigms of harm and toxic archetypes. This ceremony allows participants to dismantle embedded codes of domination and conquest, and release social values that associate male worth with productivity and commodification.

There will also be a workshop on dismantling core elements of patriarchal training from the male instruction manual. This will involve learning key emotional development skills, while unlearning habits and social training around "men's work," in personal relationships and in relationship to the larger society.

Sessions will include large group projects on the land and small group talking circles. On Saturday night, there will be a men's ceremony around the fire in the arbor.

We are looking forward to welcoming both familiar and new faces this year. Each year, the gathering has expanded and participants have grown, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. This year feels like a catalyzing year, with critical opportunities for shifting our trajectory for the next phase of human growth and for walking out a more authentic expression of our shared humanity.

We would like to thank you for walking with us on this path of healing. We are grateful for you all.

Kci Woliwon

For ticket information please go to Men’s Gathering Eventbrite Page.