The Armoured Heart

25th September – 6th October, 2023

Fireflies Intercultural Centre, Bangalore

“Once in the far-off dawning of the elder time, there was the man Tead, who had left his home in despair. Tead lived in a time of great strife, all about the land men and women were caught in battles about this and that. They had fought for so long they had forgotten the reasons for the wars, only that to fight the war was the right thing to do. This one man had lost all his family to the wars and his grief and anger had brought him to a place of nothing, a place of paralysis, a place of hopelessness. Tead saw the world as a dark place, a joyless place and place without purpose. For him the purpose of being right and valiant, strong, and courageous had been lost.

And so, like a ghost of the shadows Tead wandered the land avoiding all contact and when he did, he fell into the soulless routine of battle and destruction.

But the ghosts followed him and sang to him and reached out to gather him in their dance of despair….”

From the story of The song of The Otter

To put on armour is to protect ourselves from the assailment of the weapons of the world.

We place the armour about our body to keep us from harm, a harm that we, in some way, have come to expect!

The armour prevents us from being close to others, engaging with the possibilities and potential of creation around us; in keeping others out it traps us within. Like an intrusion the armour controls and manipulates our life and suppresses our destined journey. The armour becomes the ghost that haunts us.

As with all ghosts, truth is hidden, reality is masked, dreams disappear, the soul gets lost on a forlorn journey of forgetfulness.

The Armoured Heart Retreat, was an intrepid adventure of heroes and heroines, seeking out the ghosts of armouring, and the armour of love and choice, and finding the path back to the spirit of our heart’s true nature.

“Hidden deep inside the heart of everyone and thing is the passionate fire of creation. This fire sings the song of life, of wonder, of union with all the flames of all the songs. The flames of this fire dance in response to all the song, inviting others to sing and dance. Such is the passionate heart. It is the armour of fear that oppresses this passionate flame.”

“…And Tead returns home, without his bloodied armour and sword, rather with a song he thought he had forgotten.”