Tensegrity Seminars

Santa Monica - April 1998 [ 1998 Index | Previous | Next ] To:   The Ixtlan Mailing List Date:   Mon, 13 Apr 1998 21:46:18 -0400 Saturday April 4th was a grey and drizzly day in Santa Monica. We arrived about 45 mins early and were greeted not by the uniformed security people waving their metal detecting wands, but by some work study folk ready to look up our badge numbers. No one even checked our bags. The sorcerer's weren't scheduled to speak at this workshop, but if I had held out any hopes that they would show up anyway, they were dashed when I noticed the absent security. After handing in my release form I was given a black badge made of heavy paper and a piece of yarn with which to wear it around my neck. I was then pointed to a table where I was to find a label with my name on it and attach it to the badge. This done, I entered the workshop area and quickly checked out the bookstore to see if Castaneda's new book The Wheel of Time was available (it wasn't) and found a nice spot near the far stage, away from the bulk of the crowd. The Spanish speaking woman (someday someone will tell me her name, but I will always remember her as "the Check, one, two, three; Check, uno, dos, tres woman" :-) got on stage and quickly rattled off in Spanish that they had decided not to use the translation devices for this seminar and that anyone needing translation should move over to where the translator was and gather around. I glanced over at the door that was behind the sound table and saw several of the gang walk in. There was Kylie and Bruce and Miles and lots of the rest of the Energy Trackers and Elements. There was also a woman that looked just like Taisha. Oh! It is Taisha! And there's Florinda! And oh! Carol too! I immediately thought that they had just dropped in just to watch and no sooner than this thought had crossed my mind, I see Florinda bound up to the stage to begin her talk. (So much for thinking, eh? :-) Florida introduced herself and said that she originally thought she was going to give her lecture only to people that had attended workshops before, but that she was just told that there were people here that had never been to a workshop before so she would give a brief overview of what Tensegrity is. True to her word, she gave the briefest explanation I've heard yet of what Tensegrity is and how it was discovered. She then went on to talk about a woman who she had known for several years. This woman was a practitioner and when Florinda had first met her, she was a typical middle aged woman. She had recently mentioned to Florinda how hard it was to make any progress without having them (the sorcerers) around. As an aside, Florinda said at this point that we are all whiners, its just that some of us whine more eloquently than others. :-) Florinda didn't think of it at the time, but she wished she had had a mirror to hold up for this woman to look into. She was now brimming with energy and looked much younger than she used to. Florinda said that all of the serious practitioners who practice Tensegrity and recapitulation have all made progress over the years. She said that the progress has been made, whether we see it or not. Florinda then said that we would be hearing more about The Wheel of Time later, but that she wanted to encourage us to attempt to execute the passes with as much precision as possible for shamans believed that executing the passes as perfectly as possible could bring perfection into our everyday lives. Brandon and Marcos then each took to one of the two stages. They began teaching the individual Westwood passes as presented in the book Magical Passes. As far as I know, this was Marcos' first time teaching from the stage and I thought he did a great job. He seemed to get some heat from both Brandon and Kylie about wasting time on detail, but I for one appreciated the details he gave. I've done this series at several workshops and practice it regularly, but his comments enabled me to execute the passes more precisely and they made the series much more powerful for me. Brandon even mentioned at one point that all the details could be found in the book, but I checked when I got home and found that some of them were not. I hope Marcos is up there leading again sometime soon, he's a wonderful addition to the teaching staff. At one point a woman in a purple shirt shouted out to Marcos from the other side of the room "could you repeat the question when you give an answer to someone?" Marcos did so and a moment later I saw the woman again, only she was now in a different part of the room. It was Kylie. She was moving around the participants helping them with the execution of the passes. First she was here, then there. She was bouncing around the crowd like a pinball. Then I saw Miles. He too was moving around, helping people out. They both seemed bouncy, light, happy, and very energetic. After we had been working non-stop for over an hour we got to the third group of passes, the ones for Dreaming. We must have all been getting tired because suddenly Kylie jumped up on Brandon's stage and said something about how we all seemed to be in Dreaming and proceeded to lead us in her impromtu version of Simon Says. Both Kylie and Miles have done this before at workshops, it involves bending the knees and crouching down a bit, then following her as she jumps to the left or the right very quickly, any number of times. Sometimes she'll try and fake us out, by making a motion to move, but not doing it. You never know what direction or how many times she will jump. Following her requires a great deal of attention and certainly does wake you up! Thus invigorated, we returned to finish up the individual passes and then very quickly learned the long form version of Westwood, and then performed it twice. After a short break, Nuri and Haley came out and sat on the stage that Brandon had used and Erin and Darien took to the other stage. Nuri began speaking about the Wheel of Time. She began by recounting the information on the subject that is in the end of the Eagles Gift and then went on to give a definition of space and time. She explained what scientists think of space and time differs from what shamans think of it. At this point in her lecture, which she was reading off of cards, it became very difficult to follow what she was saying and most of it went completely over my head. I got the distinct impression that she was reading Castaneda's words, and if so, this will all probably be in his new book on the subject. Juan's notes address how she said intent is identified with time, and space with infinity, but I couldn't for the life of me explain what she meant by that or anything else she covered from this point on. We then learned the first six leg passes from the Wheel of Time series and then broke for dinner. After the dinner break Grant came out and announced four new workshops to be held in Santa Monica, Mountain View, New York City and Los Angeles. He emphasized that the Los Angeles workshop which is the yearly intensive workshop would be very intense and all the series of magical passes would be shown in their long form versions. The four Energy Trackers then came out again and took the same stages as before. Haley gave the talk this time. She began by talking about her name. She said it was given to her by Nuri and that both her and Nuri's name were very ancient. She explained that she and Nuri are exactly the same in every respect except for one, Nuri has always known her name and Haley hasn't, but that doesn't matter at all because she couldn't now imagine being anyone besides Haley Alexander Van Austin. Haley talked a bit about don Juan's party of sorcerers and how they were impeccable and attributed this to the perfect performance of the passes. Haley then stressed that for us to benefit from the Wheel of Time passes we must execute them with as much precision as possible. We then performed the six passes for the arms using the foam wheel. These passes, like the ones for the legs, are performed sitting up. We closed out the night by doing Running Man. Each individual movement was shown and then we ended by doing the whole series to Vivaldi. At one point during the afternoon, I glanced over toward the sound table and saw Taisha. She was doing the passes! There she was forging the trunk of the energy body right along with us. Now she was slapping it, now spreading it. She appeared to stay and do the passes all afternoon right up to and including the long form (at least she was there each time I bothered to look over). I also noticed both Taisha and Carol at the end of the workshop emerge from the crowd which had just stood up near the bookstore tables and then walk out. They were both carrying mats, so I assume they had both joined us in the not doings. During this workshop Westwood became a more powerful series for me, and the Wheel of Time passes were very cool and produced an odd effect. The mood of the entire workshop was very informal and relaxed - no security, make your own badges, just gather around the translator, Kylie hugging people. I'm not sure why, but I find the fact that the sorcerers stayed and did the passes with us really neat too. In terms of mood, energy and effect, this was an enjoyable and magical workshop. [ 1998 Index | Previous | Next ]

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