WHOLE LEADERSHIP: Mentorship Circle 2024-2025
WHOLE LEADERSHIP: Mentorship Circle 2024-2025
THE 2024-2025 Circle is closed/full.
Feel free to reach out to me at workwithorion@gmail.com to open a conversation about future circles.
“I don’t want a seat at the table. I want to set the table on fire and let the ashes feed the soil underneath to give rise to a different set of relationships based on care of the earth and care of the entire web of life, to which we belong” -Dr. Rupa Marya
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MENTORSHIP CIRCLE 2024-2025
For Culture Shapers & Space Holders
(including artists, healers, facilitators and spiritual leaders)
Dedicated To Our Collective Liberation
Oct 2024 through Dec 2025, on Zoom
This Mentorship Circle actively centers Trans and Queer people, and is by invitation only.
Everything we do here is dedicated to our mutual wholeness and collective liberation.
If this sparks you, I would love to talk further and see if we both feel like it is a good fit. Please reach out to me at workwithorion@gmail.com so we can schedule a 30 minute discernment call.
I am open to 6-10 participants. Priority will be given to those with whom I am already in community, and to those who have worked with me before, although I am open to folx who are new to me - feel free to reach out!
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WHO AND HOW ARE WE CALLED TO BE,
AS LEADERS DEDICATED TO OUR COLLECTIVE LIBERATION,
IN THIS (wild, tumultuous, fecund, sometimes terrifying, transformational) MOMENT IN THE WORLD?
I don’t know the “right” answer to that question, and I am suspicious of anyone who thinks they do. And also, I know I am dedicated to any ongoing dance with that question in community. I know that we need each other, especially now, and that more becomes possible when we come together with wholehearted intention.
Many people have asked me about some form of mentorship over the years, and I am continually listening for what the right-sized offerings are around that.
I have always known that the work I do is is far bigger than me, and after over 20 years of community ministry experience, I feel equipped to create and share a “training”.
But my heart doesn’t feel fully in a “training” model because my aim is not to train anyone to do what I do, but rather to support you in what YOU do, and to hold transformational space to collectively meet the moment we inhabit.
So this is an ongoing experiment in me holding a circle that is also actively holding itself, an adaptable and emergent 15-month community, a combination of 2-on-1 sessions with me, guided co-mentorship sessions with other participants, and monthly summits with everybody together (shaped by what everyone is most desiring and what is arising in the two-on-one sessions).
This is the third time I will be offering this circle, and the 2024-2025 Circle will have even more depth, more frequency, and slightly more structure than previous circles, inspired by feedback from past participants.
Although this particular circle is 15 months long, I pray that the relationships and learnings that blossom here may be lifelong.
At this link, you can find the community guidelines + practices for the 2022 circle.
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“Do not pray exclusively to the ancestors of the land. Make room also for the spirits of the fault lines, the new gods screaming through the cracks with musical notes of the world to come.” -Bayo Akomolafe
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COMPONENTS OF THE CIRCLE:
Approximately 8-10 hours per month, or more if you want to!
First Sundays (Required) (4 hrs per month) - the first of these is 5 hours, the rest are 4 hours, each with an hourlong break in the middle, led by Orion
Third Thursdays (Optional/Encouraged) (1 hour per month) - a flexible connection space, held by members of the circle
Coaching Calls with Orion + Your Buddy (1 hour per month, Mon/Tues/Thurs afternoons, flexible) - each cycle, you will be match-made with a different buddy
Co-Mentorship with Your Buddy (2 hrs per month, flexible)
WhatsApp Circle (30 minutes per month, flexible) - asynchronous flow of connection, sometimes with specific prompts to respond to
Additional study/practice/connection (however much you want)
CYCLES / FLOW / KEY DATES:
SOIL CYCLE: October-December 2024
What is the world you know in your bones is possible? What needs to compost or be tended in the soil of your life in order to create the conditions for your most liberatory seeds to flourish?
October 20th, 2024: 4-9pm ET (for an example of what our summits will hold, you can learn more at this link)
November 3rd, 2024: 5-9pm ET
December 1st, 2024: 5-9pm ET
SEED CYCLE: January-April 2025
Who are you at your core, from the inside out? What makes you come alive? How do you recognize when you are aligned and feeling the You-ness of you?
January 5th, 2025: 5-9pm ET
February 2nd, 2025: 5-9pm ET
March 2nd, 2025: 5-9pm ET
April 6th, 2025: 5-9pm ET
ROOT CYCLE: May-August 2025
What roots and lineages do you come from? How do you honor those roots and lineages in your leadership, and what becomes possible because of the ways you are connected and supported beyond you?
May 4th, 2025: 5-9pm ET
June 1st, 2025: 5-9pm ET
July 6th, 2025: 5-9pm ET
(August is a month off)
FRUIT CYCLE: September-December 2025
What is blossoming from what you have been tending across this year and beyond?
September 7th, 2025: 5-9pm ET
October 5th, 2025: 5-9pm ET
November 2nd, 2025: 5-9pm ET
December 7th, 2025: 5-9pm ET
OPTIONAL CIRCLE CYCLE (EXTENSION): January-June 2026
(no extra cost for this, entirely led by the circle (supported by Orion, as needed), with the option of organizing an in-person gathering in early summer 2026).
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“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” - Howard Thurman
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ABOUT THE FACILITATOR:
My name is Orion Johnstone (he/they), and I am a Trans Faggot and ever-in-process abolitionist, T4T and Tree4Tree and in the mood to compost empire with you. I am always learning as I go, and also I am now grounded in over 20 years of experience as a community minister and theatermaker. I was a founding member of Alt*Div (an alternative divinity school for soulful community builders); I studied justice ministries through Auburn Seminary, movement chaplaincy with the Faith Matters Network, and theater at NYU. I am rooted in knowing that transformation is possible and is happening and that we are always already whole; the branches of my coaching/mentorship practice are Whole Leadership, Whole Voice, and Whole Sex. My highly collaborative theater work (primarily as a director and composer) is an extension of my ministry, and along with my beloved friend Nehemiah Luckett, I am catalyzing the Slow Theater Movement.
And I am who I am and am able to offer what I offer because of the communities and wisdoms that have shaped me. Please seemy Roots and Lineages page.
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FEES:
I have poured a lot of love and intention into finding the sweet spot that allows this circle to overflow with resources and support in a way that is as financially accessible for participants as possible, while honoring what is sustainable for me as well.
This mentorship circle is $200/month for 15 months.
If finances are a barrier, please still feel free to reach out and let’s have a conversation about if this is a fit and if so, how we might honor us both.
If more than $200/month is doable for you, please let me know, as that could make it possible for me to welcome more folx with less financial access.
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TESTIMONIALS:
“Orion holds incredible space that includes intentionality, ritual, and magic that allows for big possibility. When Mentorship Circle started, I was tied to a full-time job that had become really unfulfilling and didn't feel aligned with my integrity. After our final session of MC, I quit that job and started an independent facilitation project, teaching workshops and offering creative coaching sessions. This is something I had dreamed of for so long and MC was an incredible container that made it possible for me to move through blocks and take that leap. I was also able to really look closely at and grow in my relationship to time management, power, and participation. I felt deep connection and support with the other participants and will forever celebrate and champion them and their offerings. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to expand their facilitation practice and/or deepen into integrity in their artistic/community leadership.” -Amanda Madden
“I thought that I just needed some strategies as a facilitator - like how to gently interrupt someone who was derailing a conversation. But through the gentle spaciousness of the Mentorship Circle, I discovered that what I really needed was to go to the root of things, to lovingly interrogate my boundaries and feelings of worthiness. The work was transformational and I can't recommend it highly enough.” - Jack MacCarthy
“The Mentorship Circle was a key resource for me in my practices as an artist whose creations are rooted in community connection. It gave me the confidence to trust my own voice, the opportunity to practice facilitation, and the experience of witnessing other powerful facilitators take risks. I became aware of many different ways of holding space with integrity and creating containers that can hold a range of human experiences. It challenged me while nurturing and supporting me with deep care. I recommend this program to people who want to expand the possibilities of their creative leadership skills and hone their unique space-holder magic, in a supportive environment.” -Kelindah Schuster
“The Mentorship Circle was an absolutely transformational experience for me. As a teacher and facilitator, it is so important to me - but also unfortunately somewhat rare - that I feel securely supported in a container held by another. It was just such a relief to feel so seen, so met, so supported, and so held by Orion and the rest of the group. The Mentorship Circle container offers spaciousness, levels upon levels upon levels of acceptance, and the opportunity for profound growth. It just so happened that the year I participated was one of some extreme events in my life, and Orion models that which I've known in my head and now know more deeply in my bones:Meeting myself exactly as I am is a path to freedom. I am so grateful for the experience and would recommend it to anyone feeling called.” -Elissa Maas Weinzimmer