M.A. Philosophy, Cosmology, Consciousness
B.A. International Affairs in Political Science
San Francisco Clown Conservatory
On this blog you're invited to share in the many different facets of my work, which is my Self- as a... teacher, as an artist, as a philosopher and a political thinker, as an ecopsychological explorer, as a spiritual warrior, as an eternal wanderer... Yes, I sometimes struggle with compartmentalizing. I have never accepted to fit in a box (while of course wanting so much to belong) and in the end this is exactly my point; we are ALL made of a multitude of facets.
So this is my ''professional'' website and it's also my ''confessions'', because my cause is the increasing awareness, acceptation, and - ultimately- integration of all that we are, inside and outside.
My hope, is that we can grow in compassion by realizing that we are, after all, One.
Why Fool of Love?
Clowning as a spiritual practice
If clowns have made people feel ambivalent, it is because they are ambiguous. For clowns (from the ol'Englis 'clods'), exist at the crossroads.
While the fool stands as a romantic anti-hero in a lot of western representations, several mythologies and traditions worldwide actually recognize clowns as sacred figures. Trickster is also one of Carl Jung's main deep-psychological archetypes.
Tricksters and clowns challenge consensus reality. They blow up walls and draw bridges between possibilities. The fool will take up those impossible tasks we'd be too proud or too afraid to take up for fear of failing. Clowns show no fear, only creativity and love.
Clowns, tricksters and fools will break rules, defy norms, and even steal from the gods (or whatever value we might collectively hold as sacred) just for the kick of emancipating potentiality. They act as catalysts but have no control over the outcomes. They are but messengers of a greater Creative force.
Clowns will be seen balancing precariously between extremes, rolling with catastrophes and juggling possibilities. They will hit walls, drop balls, though always giving of themselves for the sake of carrying on and opening up.
To become Fool of love means nurturing the courage (from the French ''coeur'') it takes to share all the love I feel for the world. It means holding both sides of all things, and committing to fearlessness in the face of seemingly constricting situations.
It means maturing towards greater innocence. It means learning we are already whole and holy. And yes it means sacrifice too, though not in the sense of self-denial as much as in the sense of making something (actions, words) sacred by offering it to something greater.
It means following bliss, and so having to learn how to recognize it in the first place. It means getting out of my head and into my heart and belly.
A teacher once said:
''Clowning is about humiliating the ego with compassion.''
I liked it.
Playing in the spaces between
Darkness and Light,
Body and Spirit,
Gravity and Grace.
Dancing at the crossroads
of Responsibility and Freedom,
of Struggle, and Surrender
