The Southern California chapter of Illuman International
A not-for-profit organization of men reclaiming their lives as authentic men
Illuman SoCal
Illluman SoCal is a nonprofit organization for men who are simply interested in becoming better, more authentic men. We welcome all men to our work without regard for your ethnicity, class, education, sexual orientation, religion or any other characteristic that might make you feel excluded. Our programs and offerings focus on providing men with an opportunity to do their ‘inner work’ in the company of other men. We use ritual, teaching and ways of communicating that allow men to create an environment where men can explore what matters to them most.
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Recent Blog Posts
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Twelve Steps for Twelve Months – Step 9: Made Amends
Step 9 exemplifies the 12 Steps’ focus on action as the complement to mostly contemplation (in the previous steps) and applies to all of us on the spiritual path, whether identifying specifically as addicts or just we humans who are more generally addicted to (the illusion of) control: “The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it.” (AA, p83) Continue reading
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Twelve Steps for Twelve Months – Step 8: Naming the Harmed
Step 8 moves us further into action by concretizing – in writing drawn from our 4th Step inventory – some of the harms to specific persons in our life that we have caused with our addiction(s) … as always, whether named or the more general human addiction to control. As Bill Wilson writes in the Twelve and Twelve: “[We] can make little headway in this new adventure of living until [we] first backtrack and … continue reading
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Twelve Steps for Twelve Months – Step 7: Humbly Ask
This 7th Step – synchronistically made up of seven simple words – really hinges on just the first two. Both of which are so hard for us addicts: being humble and asking for help. Because though 7’s gravitational double-star dance is with Step 6 (about becoming entirely ready), “it is not enough to be ready; it is not enough to hope. We have to ask, and we have to ask humbly.” (Recovery–The Sacred Art, p.102) Continue Reading
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Choosing Presence at Big Bear
I'm writing this from the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers, near Cairo, Illinois — about a day from home and four thousand miles into the drive that carried me from Dayton out to Big Bear Lake and back. I didn't want to fly. I chose the road because it's slower and that's what the weekend at Big Bear felt like too: an invitation to slow down and simply become more present… continue reading
