(Section 18)
We have talked before about how the student should make the apprenticeship and the teacher’s way her own. But the apprenticeship is a focused symbol of a way of living in life, every person is surrounded by all possibilities. She shapes her own reality and the reality surrounding her by what possibilities she takes on as her own. Possibilities of doubts and fear and other “negatives” are, and will forever be, existing around her, just as “positives” such as ability, freedom, and power. These possibilities exist equally within this dimension. Fear, doubt, limitation will not disappear or go away within the web of all possibilities. They will always be there for the choosing, for possible focusing points. But so are the possibilities of strength, freedom, and power. All of these possible focusing points exist in every event, every situation in life.
Most people feel the possibility of fear and doubt within an event or situation and believe it is them fearing and doubting. By doing so, they take the fear and doubt onto themselves, making the fear and doubt their own. This transforms, transmutes, the event or situation from just life into a terrible monster of which the person is a victim. Left unchecked, this fear or doubt will leak into the person’s whole personal reality, making parts of herself victims and other parts monsters. But this is not the end of it. Other people become monsters or victims as fear and doubt leaks out from the personal reality into the general reality of the cultural frame. By taking on fear and doubt, by making it her own, the person is taking on the responsibility of the universal doubt and fear. This is because she becomes a transmitter of doubt and fear. She amplifies the doubt and fear in the world. The more she believes doubt and fear is himself, the louder and the wider the broadcast.
Fortunately, this entire process is also true when a person operates from, sees, chooses, and uses the positive, the strength, the power, the freedom in a situation or an event. The student should understand that every situation in life has the potential of both fear and strength, of both doubt and power, of both desire and freedom. This background of potential is always there within life. The choice is always there. In the western modern culture, doubt, fear, and desire are actively promoted because victims are easier to control and manipulate than free humans.
For this reason we will always feel doubt, fear, and desire around us in this society. But we are not responsible for doubt, fear, desire unless we choose to take them on as our own, as us. But once we choose to take these negatives on as our own, to think and act upon them, then we are taking on the guilty responsibility for them not only in our lives, but in the world in general.
But if we brush past the fears, the doubts, and the desires to lustfully take on life as our own, make it our own with all of its strength, power, and freedom, then we assume the responsibility (in all of the senses of that word) for life, strength, power, and freedom. We do this not only for ourselves, but for everyone. The more life, freedom, strength, and power is chosen, the more available these are for everyone.
This has been called the way of the warrior. It is the way of the shaman. But it is also the way of living happily. We have to always push past the ever-present doubt and fear to lustfully join with life, lustfully work with life, working with everything life gives us, including what would look to victims as hardships and sufferings. By doing this, we crack over time the shell of “hardships”, finding these life experiences transformed into deep living blessings.
The victim sees things being done to her by life, by other people, and especially by herself or parts of herself. These things do not meet her approval. But she thinks she is powerless to do anything about it. So she endures life, or hopelessly rejects life. She just says “no” to life. She always has a headache. She eats candy, then feels guilty about eating candy. She gets into a relationship that is guaranteed not to last. And when it does not last, she uses it as proof that she cannot have a lasting relationship, that the other person turned into a monster, that life is fucked. The victim would read the above paragraph about the warrior’s way and would either think she is not ready for it now, or turn it into a way to say “no” just one more time. The basic quality of the victim is that she is cut off from the lusty principle of erour.
The word “lusty” is usually linked to sex, as erour is usually called and thought of as sex appeal or sexual power. We have said erour is the vulnerable strength. This vulnerable strength comes from lustfully taking life as your own, lustfully working with life, having the sense of lusty responsibility for your colorful reality. This is erour. When you have erour, you shape reality by using everything, then projecting it both outwardly and inwardly. This attracts open people to you, thus attracting opportunities as well.
In the Chero Apprenticeship, erour is developed by arousing chero by eroplaying in certain ways. Eroplaying in everyday life is very important. This kind of eroplay should not be glamorized by outer trappings of rituals. Another kind of eroplay is in healing, in which the chero is balanced within the bodies. In these kinds of play, it is not necessary that both people have more than a basic understanding of what eroplay is and is not. In the case of healing, just one of the people is required to have a deep experiential understanding of eroplay.
But within the Cave of Lila, the teacher and the student may do special intense eroplay rituals together to arouse chero to go into the ontonse state. One of the reasons for these rituals is to develop a well-defined and lusty erour within the student. Because there is no physical/sexual intercourse nor orgasm in eroplay, it is possible to create arcs of chero between the centers of one body to the other. This is done by rocking together, turning the centers on, and making sounds. These arcs of chero act like bridges between the two bodies through which much more intense energies can flow. Chero can be moved up and down both bodies by working on one of the bodies. In this way, the student gains, not learns, finer control of erour.
For more information about or to purchase the paperback visit the Cherotic Magic website.