Tent Sensei

Setting up Dens

After the women go through Customs, they meet the Tent Sensei, who instructs them to find their home and set up their den.

“Here is your next set of instructions:
You are going to set up your cave, your den, your nest, your space.”

• Tell the participant where to set up tent and invite them to do it with focus and intention.
• You will provide the first teaching about the predator/prey dynamic. It is important to do this clearly, to ensure that the women start to track the voices inside their heads:
• ‘During this initiation you will be exploring how and why you give away your power – so that you can reclaim it from some of the forgotten and abandoned places in which you have hidden it.
• We invite you start tracking the voices that stalk you as you put up your tent and set up your den.
• Predator – these voices in their unhealthy form can be cruel, mean, annihilating, separating and critical. They often take the form of the Inner Critic, telling you what you’re doing wrong, how you’ve failed, what’s wrong with you…
• Prey – these voices are likely to be the target for the predator voice. They take the form of the victim: powerless, afraid, weak in some way. They speak on behalf of the parts of us that feel not good enough, lost, abandoned, unwanted, irredeemably bad…
• We want you to track these thoughts, these voices. TRACKING is a predator skill.
• Go and tell the mocking birds what you are thinking as soon as you notice anything these voices are saying, and then let it go, and go back to your task.
  My expectation is that you will be honest with yourself, nothing is too small to notice and tell the mocking birds.
• When you have done that come back and I will give you your next set of instructions.’
• When the woman comes back, check that she has done what was required of her. If she has not spoken to the Mocking Birds, send her back to do that.
  Then instruct the woman to visit the Hunger Sensei. Show her where to go.
• Be aware that, as time progresses, the Point Person may move to speed things up in order to keep the initiation on track. (For example, she may send cos to help an initiate to put up her tent)
• Stay aware and work with the Point Person and the rest of the team to keep this crucial first stage of the initiation moving.