Community: My Peter Pan Adventures

My Peter Pan Adventures: Rescuing Natural Impulses and Our True Nature from Addictive Tendencies and Other Forms of Domination, Including the End of the World

By Karma Jampa Lhundup-Zebo, FKA, Craig Rodgers

IN THE EIGHTEEN years since leaving what was then the Cornerstone community, and now the Watershed community, I have undergone a transformative journey. I renamed myself about seven years ago, after what I could only call a spiritual rebirth. This is an attempt to share, with my dear friends at Watershed, something about what has happened with me over all these years, to let them know that I love them and miss them, and if they are open, to turn them on to Process Work, an innovative approach to dealing with disturbances of all kinds, that has allowed me to grow beyond my wildest dreams.

I am now in Seattle, with my wife, Rebecca, and 22-month-old daughter, Olivia. My ten-year-old son, Jeronemo, lives in Oregon with his mother, and visits every summer for several weeks. I am practicing acupuncture and Process Work, and running my business with Rebecca called Seven Turtles Medicine: Seven Innovative, Natural Therapies blending the Best of East and West to Resolve Your Pain and Symptoms, and to Help Your Dreams Come True.

Following a natural impulse the other day, I picked up the phone, and called Arthur Paul Patterson. It was pretty late at night and his son answered. I remembered his name, Sean, and we exchanged some words. I found out that he is 22 years old; that blew me away! I attained old age right then and there – I remembered Sean when he was two or three. When Arthur Paul called me back a couple days later we had a great talk, catching each other up on the big events for us in the intervening years. It has been truly rewarding to hold you all in my thoughts this last week, since that phone call. I feel like you are part of my spiritual family, my tribe, and it’s good to get in touch with you again after such a long time. I hope we can meet in person soon.

I hope that we can stay in touch. As an offering for starters, here is a little essay on my musings around the Peter Pan story, which I am using to describe my psychological and spiritual journey over the last many years:

The Peter Pan story is probably best know in psychological circles for its reference to a person’s refusal to grow up. However, in my own personal journey I have discovered another, quite different interpretation of this wonderful childhood story. In this reading, Peter Pan is the god Pan, the half human, half goat god of Nature. The story is about reclaiming Nature, our true nature and the legacy of indigenous cultures, in the face of the onslaught of Western civilization and the overwhelming environmental devastation that is occurring as a result. It is the story of discovering your dignity, and standing up for your feelings and for your dreams.

[1] 2 Next