Dhanurveda: The Hero’s Journey *For more info on Dhanurveda follow the link above*

Prashanti de Jager

Dhanurveda: The Hero’s Journey

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What to Bring

Again and again, people are requested to journal during this event. So bring supplies to manifest whatever that means for you:
✦Read before coming and Bring with you
Joseph Campbell’s:
“Hero with One Thousand Faces”
✦Someway to Journal like:
✦Notebooks and pens/pencils
✦Sketchbooks and Charcoal
✦Canvases and paintbrushes
✦Skin and Henna
✦Wood and carving knives
✦Thread, needles and cloth
✦Your own Bow & Arrows if possible

Holding Space: Return to Ancient Ways

I ask that as much as convenient, within reason, that anything you bring to the event can be something that you could have brought 400 years ago, pre industrial revolution.
This includes simple designs of clothing and footwear that implement natural fabrics.
Items that help you invoke the specific archetypes (warrior, hunter, elf, Amazon, etc) that you may feel impelled to embody are also most welcome.

Transformation

Feel free to come to the event with a kind and curious beginner’s mind eager to dive into your depths. Like the legend of Shambala, a synergistic cycle is quite possible as the deeper each individual dives the higher the collective ascends which then holds space for all-around full-power transformation.

ॐ भूर्भुवः॒ स्वः तत्स॑वितुर्वरे॑णियं भ॒र्गो॑ दे॒वस्य॑ धीमहि ियो॒ यो नः॑ प्रचो॒दया॑त्॥ ।

Embodying Mythos with Dhanurveda

Myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of the human life
Joseph Campbell
Myths are descriptions of transpersonal behavioral patterns that are often more real than the transience we are seduced to believe, and so to learn myths, and actually embody them, we can often see deeper into subconscious programs and experience that which mundane life precludes.
Dhanurveda also lends itself to the embodiment of myth and archetype, from warrior to Elf, from Amazon to Avatar, and the greatest myth of all, the mono-myth of the Hero, who emerges out of a profound rite of passage.

In mythology, the monomyth, also known as the hero's journey, is the common pattern of the tales of numerous cultures that describe a hero who goes on an adventure, encounters life-threatening crisis, is assisted by a wise or magic being, wins a victory, and returns home transformed. Amongst other things it represents the rite of passage.
Joseph Campbell studied thousands of myths from hundreds of cultures and found several astounding patterns. One of the most intriguing is that practically every culture across earth through the ages has some form of the mythos of the Hero, a person who experiences profound personal evolution via a journey that eventually leads to a homecoming that empowers all.
Historic examples of the Mono-myth include Rama, Jesus, Buddha, Moses; in Literature Odysseus, Don Quixote, Beowulf; and in Film there is Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and so many others.

Why The Hero’s Journey

By weaving the Hero mythos into this Dhanurveda Immersion we add many powerful ways to make more meaningful strides in our own personal mythos and evolution, but two especially stand out.
The Rite of Passage:
One of the fundamental weaknesses of present day society is that so few people now experience a strong rite of passage, a trial by fire which empowers them to stand strong and independent, and without which, one will tend to be needy and dependent.
Everyone can be a Hero:
WithIn this day and age, in this world of exponential changes, regardless whether you are a single Mother, a student, a gardener or an executive, simply living life can be a very arduous journey and to optimize this path we all need to be our own flavor of Hero to attain the heights of our personal potential.

Makeda, Hero & Queen of Sheba

“I am not a Woman, I am a World”

Twelve Steps of the Journey

‘Amazon Archer’ by Esteban Marato

About your Dhanurvedin

Prashanti de Jager is a born Dhanurvedin. Dhanu means ‘the arc’ and is a root name/mantra of Sagittarius and of the Sun. As a double Dhanu, with both moon and rising near the galactic center and trined with an exalted sun he is born with a strong blend of warrior-shaman-yogi vasanas/tendencies. It is no wonder that he shot a bow weekly if not daily from the ages of 5 to 20, most of that like an Yogi-Elf having countless profound spiritual experiences of merging with Nature herself while wandering the forests of Northern Michigan helping to put food on the table of a family of 'de Jagers,' 'the Hunters,' lead by braveheart parents involved as warriors of the Dutch Underground of WWII. After earning advanced degrees from the University of Michigan he has since immersed himself in Vedic Sciences including Ayurveda & Yoga for over a decade in India as the Herb/Ayurveda/Vedic aspect of Organic India’s original crew. Prashanti pours his experience, insights, love, knowledge and passion into all he does for the express purpose of empowering as many people, biotas and ecosystems as possible.

Prashanti teaching Dhanurveda in Bohemia

Invoking Archetypes Within

The image here of the Amazon is by Esteban Maroto and illustrates the deep timeless archetypes we humans have regarding the power possible via the study of Archery especially in the context of Dhanurveda.
Dhanurveda Immersion are an empowering game changer. There are forms of Tejasic Pranayama that you can only learn when Archery teaches you.
I hope to see you soon at the next Dhanurveda centric Prana Immersion.
Many are the facets of our personal mythos that are easiest known via dialogue with archetypes in the context of myths, and so we embody the archetype, we enter the myth, and we watch our story unfold in such profound ways that the outer mundane life becomes the apparent fictional you.

Katka in Bohemia

Kamila in Bohemia

Dhanurveda Immersion Bohemia 2013

Beautiful Dhanurveda Immersion Crew 2011

Children love & need to learn to shoot

Parents can co-create events for them

Prashanti walking to Flight Shots

Dhanurveda Increases One’s Courage & Focus

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage. — Maya Angelou