Ceremonial Consciousness & the Assault on Being
A conversation with rapper & men's work leader Jacob Kishere
Sometimes a turn of phrase wakes you up because it gives fresh emphasis to an idea that calls more of your body into engagement. This happened for me in my recent dialogue with Jacob Kishere - a dialogue largely about dialogue - when we were considering the widespread disconnection in modern human culture.
I had just mentioned being on elevators where people stare at their shoes or phones rather than interacting. Jacob had a story about tourists in a beautiful chapel in Oaxaca, Mexico, where he lives, quickly snapping photos of the altar rather than deeply breathing in the scene at soul-level.
Jacob commented:
“There is an assault on being occurring right now and it’s been going on for the last 10 or 15 years at least. I see it a lot and it pains me. I still struggle to find ways to land and articulate the reality that I’m seeing around me. It’s kind of a madness…
We’ve all become tourists and it’s destroying the sense of the present moment - everywhere, all the time. If I had levers of power, my first priority would be rolling that back.”
The “assault on being” - that phrase stuck with me because of its specificity and the way it points unflinchingly at what we are really dealing with in the world these days. This kind of pointer helps me find the posture I need to meet the moment.
Jacob co-leads the Resonant Man men’s initiative along with Matthew Green, an online community which I have participated in since late last year. I also got to meet him in person for the first time at the group’s recent Summer Soulstice Retreat at Pitchcott Farm near Aylesbury in the UK.
During weekly online meetings as well as at their live events, practicing presence in dialogue space is the heart of what the Resonant Man does. While different themes are introduced each month and guest presenters often join, every gathering is built on the belief that shared space of presence and the effort to articulate what is most real - with the support of a collective field of deep listening - will surface what we most need to see and feel to take the next steps on our path.
Jacob’s own journey as an English immigrant living in Oaxaca, Mexico, participating in dozens of indigenous plant medicine ceremonies in the last several years, and evolving the Resonant Man reflects the mirror practice of men’s work - taking what one learns in the company of brothers back out into the world and testing one’s knowledge and capacities in brand new territory.
During the conversation, I asked Jacob what ceremony means for him.
He said, in part:
“Ceremony, for me, is like its own quality of consciousness that is different from every other element of life and in some ways feels inclusive of or beyond the rest of life.
There’s definitely a distinct sense of a return. So it has this combination of coming back to something that feels very familiar, like this sense of ‘we know how to do this’… and yet every single time there’s that element of the unknown. I don’t know what’s going to happen.
So ceremony is also requiring courage…
That’s kind of where the the deeper training comes in, and that’s where elements like faith really come into practice. You are to some degree surrendering yourself to a larger process,
to a larger wisdom. It’s a space also of encounter…
I feel ceremony to be the essential space of learning. Ceremony is like the classroom of life, classroom of the universe, maybe. And yet it doesn’t make everything that happens outside of ceremony less important. It makes it more important. It makes it more real.”
At the time of our dialogue, Jacob was preparing to travel to the Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual in Peru where he will be spending four months working as a translator and facilitator at medicine ceremonies led by maestros from the Shipibo lineage.
When you listen to the dialogue, if you feel moved by what Jacob is articulating, you can support his mission here.
If you are a man interested in being part of an ongoing circle of co-creation through the practice of presence, you can apply to join the Resonant Man for one free month while considering whether to make a longer term commitment.
“We have a lot of bread and butter and also spices to work with…
There is a a general flow and the foundation of that is presence attunement, checking in with where we are coming from, what’s alive, what’s happening in each of our lives as men
and giving the space to really bring that out.
To be witnessed in that is huge, huge medicine, hugely valuable and that also informs what then unfolds. We’re holding a very dynamically responsive space…
From the very outset, I had this sense that this was also an educational process,
pioneering into a new form of education.”
- Jacob Kishere
Looking back on my first conversation with Jacob and Matthew two years ago when the Resonant Man was just launching, it’s amazing how much has changed (including getting past my own initial resistance to men’s work)!
For those curious, here’s a memory from 2024:
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