Merlyn's Quest & The Siren Awakening:
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The Siren Awakening: A Living Waters Mystery School springs, of course, from my own personal quest.
I began my quest with a deep dive into the spiritual heritage of my ancestors. Leaving Canada in my late teens, I settled in Jerusalem's Old City, took on my Hebrew name Yakov, and became a student and teacher of the ancient Hebrew and Aramaic texts. After receiving ordination from Jerusalem's Chief Rabbi in the late 80's, I moved back to Canada as a newlywed to become Montreal's "Hillel Rabbi," serving as campus chaplain at McGill and Concordia Universities. After two years, we headed to Boston, MA to deepen my studies and build a family.
As a newly married rabbi in Jerusalem, I explored Kabbalah's esoteric teachings with private teachers, and through my own research and practices. In the mid-nineties, in Boston, I was maturing as a husband, father and teacher ... and as a scholar. Widening my lens with an historical approach to the spirituality of my ancestors, digging up lost manuscripts, I received a Ph.D. from Brandeis University for my dissertation - Kabbalistic Foundations of Jewish Spiritual Practice: Rabbi Ezra of Gerona on the Kabbalistic Meaning of the Mitzvot. This research uncovered the early esoteric teachings on the biblical commandments - as never before.
My father's passing in 1995 led to a deeper inquiry into life-after-death, and resulted in a major essay called Adorning the Souls of the Dead: Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav and Tikkun Neshamot, published in 2002. Writing about this strange - never before detailed, - practice redirected my personal quest in a more shamanic direction.
After my doctoral studies, we moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1999, where we raised our two children, now young adults. I served for many years in Cleveland as an innovative professor, launching several creative educational programs. My final project as teacher of Jewish spirituality was the development of a unique artist/activist spiritual community. The economic crash of 2008 put an end to that. My direction shifted and I returned to Canada - as Jacob - becoming a leader in Ontario's solar energy boom, founding Canada's leading training school Solar Academy International.
I began my quest with a deep dive into the spiritual heritage of my ancestors. Leaving Canada in my late teens, I settled in Jerusalem's Old City, took on my Hebrew name Yakov, and became a student and teacher of the ancient Hebrew and Aramaic texts. After receiving ordination from Jerusalem's Chief Rabbi in the late 80's, I moved back to Canada as a newlywed to become Montreal's "Hillel Rabbi," serving as campus chaplain at McGill and Concordia Universities. After two years, we headed to Boston, MA to deepen my studies and build a family.
As a newly married rabbi in Jerusalem, I explored Kabbalah's esoteric teachings with private teachers, and through my own research and practices. In the mid-nineties, in Boston, I was maturing as a husband, father and teacher ... and as a scholar. Widening my lens with an historical approach to the spirituality of my ancestors, digging up lost manuscripts, I received a Ph.D. from Brandeis University for my dissertation - Kabbalistic Foundations of Jewish Spiritual Practice: Rabbi Ezra of Gerona on the Kabbalistic Meaning of the Mitzvot. This research uncovered the early esoteric teachings on the biblical commandments - as never before.
My father's passing in 1995 led to a deeper inquiry into life-after-death, and resulted in a major essay called Adorning the Souls of the Dead: Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav and Tikkun Neshamot, published in 2002. Writing about this strange - never before detailed, - practice redirected my personal quest in a more shamanic direction.
After my doctoral studies, we moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1999, where we raised our two children, now young adults. I served for many years in Cleveland as an innovative professor, launching several creative educational programs. My final project as teacher of Jewish spirituality was the development of a unique artist/activist spiritual community. The economic crash of 2008 put an end to that. My direction shifted and I returned to Canada - as Jacob - becoming a leader in Ontario's solar energy boom, founding Canada's leading training school Solar Academy International.
Cleveland's Love Bus. Circa 2013
My beautiful 20+ year marriage now ending, my booming business now bust, my precious kids now precocious young adults, I began my quest all over again: a mid-life "process."
Now favoring a spiritual path grounded in the present and future - not the past, and with a focus on the heart, body and Earth - over a heady, bookish, scripture-based path, I became a nomad, living off of savings, driving for Uber, and doing a great deal of experimentation and unlearning.
No red sports car for me. In 2013, I bought a Skoolie - an old converted school bus - to live alone in the woods. But then I fell in love again and the old grey bus became Cleveland's Love Bus! Around this time - at age 50 - I began serious experimentation in non-ordinary states with cannabis and several other entheogens, some now being decriminalized and proving to be therapeutically powerful.
Through time alone in Forests, and by the Ocean, weaving in and around many leading-edge groups and gatherings, I was becoming more embodied, more right-brain oriented, more heart-centered, and more connected to the Gaian Flow.
Now favoring a spiritual path grounded in the present and future - not the past, and with a focus on the heart, body and Earth - over a heady, bookish, scripture-based path, I became a nomad, living off of savings, driving for Uber, and doing a great deal of experimentation and unlearning.
No red sports car for me. In 2013, I bought a Skoolie - an old converted school bus - to live alone in the woods. But then I fell in love again and the old grey bus became Cleveland's Love Bus! Around this time - at age 50 - I began serious experimentation in non-ordinary states with cannabis and several other entheogens, some now being decriminalized and proving to be therapeutically powerful.
Through time alone in Forests, and by the Ocean, weaving in and around many leading-edge groups and gatherings, I was becoming more embodied, more right-brain oriented, more heart-centered, and more connected to the Gaian Flow.
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Many of us were gravitating to the "Water Is Life!" movement, inspired by protests at Standing Rock. It was late 2016 and I was on a writing retreat near the wondrous Hudson River. At COSM: Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, I co-organized PURE FLOW: An Evening of Sacred Water Consciousness - with members of The Siren Sisterhood - to raise consciousness and funds for the Water Protectors.
I also helped them on the #Starbucks4StandingRock campaign - not authorized by the company. We were heading to Standing Rock just at the orders to evacuate came. |
Ocean Bliss Temple: Outdoor Meditation Station
I then moved near Santa Cruz, California with the intent to live simply, in the woods, by the Ocean. For close to a year, I camped in quiet grove of Ocean Pines, high up on a cliff and built Ocean Bliss Temple, driving Uber in the Bay Area for livelihood. While visiting mystical Mount Shasta, near the headwaters of the Sacramento River, I received the name Merlyn.
One of my goals in moving to California was to be at the epicenter of "recreational" cannabis legalization, which took effect Jan. 1, 2018. While by the Ocean, I went deeper into exploring non-ordinary consciousness with a very intentional use of Cannabis, developing a "method" for using the Sacred Herb of my ancestors, Kaneh Bosem (lit. Fragrant Cane), for spiritual purposes in our time: to relax, loosen and expand our body, heart and mind. I call the method The Five Portals of Conscious Cannabis.
When Canada fully legalized cannabis in 2018, I moved back. This time to wondrous Salt Spring Island, BC - in the Salish Sea, a two-hour ferry ride from Vancouver. On Salt Spring I launched SativaLife: Centre for Conscious Cannabis and began refining and teaching the Five Portals method. Living on the island, I became enamored with the Salish Sea bio-region and the majestic, matriarchal Orca Pod of 73 "killer" whales that've been living in those waters for thousands of years. They are now going extinct due to the Army Corps of Engineers' damning of the Snake River, long ago, cutting off their food supply of Chinook Salmon, as well as increasing pollution from chemicals and noise.
One of my goals in moving to California was to be at the epicenter of "recreational" cannabis legalization, which took effect Jan. 1, 2018. While by the Ocean, I went deeper into exploring non-ordinary consciousness with a very intentional use of Cannabis, developing a "method" for using the Sacred Herb of my ancestors, Kaneh Bosem (lit. Fragrant Cane), for spiritual purposes in our time: to relax, loosen and expand our body, heart and mind. I call the method The Five Portals of Conscious Cannabis.
When Canada fully legalized cannabis in 2018, I moved back. This time to wondrous Salt Spring Island, BC - in the Salish Sea, a two-hour ferry ride from Vancouver. On Salt Spring I launched SativaLife: Centre for Conscious Cannabis and began refining and teaching the Five Portals method. Living on the island, I became enamored with the Salish Sea bio-region and the majestic, matriarchal Orca Pod of 73 "killer" whales that've been living in those waters for thousands of years. They are now going extinct due to the Army Corps of Engineers' damning of the Snake River, long ago, cutting off their food supply of Chinook Salmon, as well as increasing pollution from chemicals and noise.
The Siren Awakening
The Siren Awakening was conceived in 2011. While attending a renewable energy conference in Puerto Rico, I was invited to drink Ayahuasca - the visionary brew - with a secret community in a pristine rainforest. This experience deepened my sensitivity to how our industrial-consumerist culture is devastating the waters, and thus all of life; it awakened a deep reverence for the Living Waters. Afterward, wanting to “ground” with something familiar, I went to the Starbucks in San Juan to write in my journal. Being that it was March 2011, Starbucks' 40th anniversary promotion introduced the new Siren logo, now green and freed from the company's bold wordmark.
The evolved Siren caught my attention immediately and I wondered: Millions of people will begin their daily ritual, drinking from her cup. No wordmark. No border ... Who is she?! What is her story?! What might it be?!
Becoming more than a little obsessed with The Siren logo, and Starbucks' circa 2008 Transformation Agenda mission - to inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup, one neighborhood at a time - I began to write and research, going down many "rabbit holes."
Becoming more than a little obsessed with The Siren logo, and Starbucks' circa 2008 Transformation Agenda mission - to inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup, one neighborhood at a time - I began to write and research, going down many "rabbit holes."
Merlyn & Virginia TenPenny: Starbucks HQ in Seattle
The Siren's story came to me as a sort-of revelation ... and led me on quite a journey. In 2015 and 2016, I attended Starbucks' Annual Meeting of Shareholders, initiating short conversations during the Q&A sessions with the visionary CEO, Howard Schultz, about the mission and Starbucks' potential as the global third place in contemporary culture.
At the 2016 meeting - as the political rhetoric in the USA grew increasingly toxic - Starbucks' role in providing a neutral space for civil discussion of societal issues became a focus. Howard invited me to meet with Virginia TenPenney, now Vice-President, Global Social Impact at Starbucks, and Executive Director of the Starbucks Foundation.
Exploring how Starbucks - then trending toward 30,000 cafes globally! - could be more deeply engaged in its grandiose mission, I concluded that the pressures of Wall Street would never allow the corporation to deeply execute on the mission.
But what if it had some outside assistance?
At the 2016 meeting - as the political rhetoric in the USA grew increasingly toxic - Starbucks' role in providing a neutral space for civil discussion of societal issues became a focus. Howard invited me to meet with Virginia TenPenney, now Vice-President, Global Social Impact at Starbucks, and Executive Director of the Starbucks Foundation.
Exploring how Starbucks - then trending toward 30,000 cafes globally! - could be more deeply engaged in its grandiose mission, I concluded that the pressures of Wall Street would never allow the corporation to deeply execute on the mission.
But what if it had some outside assistance?
I'm now focused on birthing The Siren Awakening: A Living Waters Mystery School. Although I have a special place in my heart for Salt Spring Island and Mount Shasta, my nomadic wanderings continue. Wherever I go, I enjoy visiting Starbucks cafes and imagining the possible ....
Thank you for your interest in my journey!
With gratitude and praise for the Living Waters ...
Blessings,
Merlyn
Thank you for your interest in my journey!
With gratitude and praise for the Living Waters ...
Blessings,
Merlyn