Workshop Guiding Principles
- The workshops are primarily "gay-centered," with a strong gay consciousness. The overriding goal being training for service to the broader gay village. The guiding focus is to nurture gay soul making (going in and down, dark and moist) and gay spirit (going up and out, laminated and expansive).
- The workshops are inexpensive to produce, financially self-supporting, preferring the use of homes or offices rather than rented facilities, with no one turned away for inability to pay.
- Facilitators volunteer their time and energy and may be drawn from throughout the community. Facilitators do not have to be members of the Gay Men's Medicine Circle, but must demonstrate and express a consciousness compatible with Shamanic process.
- An older facilitator will be paired with a younger facilitator when ever possible.
- The Gay Men's Medicine Circle is in charge of all administrative detail -- conceiving, developing, enrolling, facilitating, etc. Non-GMMC members may be involved, but ultimate authority rests with the Keeper of the Workshops and the Keeper of the Circle.
- All workshops are subject to review and revision and must meet the standards as set by the Keeper of the Circle and the Keeper of the Workshops.
- The GMMC and workshop facilitators are encouraged to screen all applicants to assure their readiness for the objectives of each workshop.
- The GMMC expressly urges that all workshops have a strong experiential component, and seek to generate the foundations of skills and consciousness that will lead the participants to a continuing process of personal growth and community service.
