The Eros of The Stoa
Hey beautiful people,
Starting this weekend I will be hosting exclusive patron-only event sessions, as a gift to those who have been generously gifting me via The Stoa’s Patreon page. I’ll aim to do at least one per week, and they will be experimental in nature. The first two are:
Collective Presencing: The Eros of The Stoa w/ Peter Limberg, Ria Baeck, and Bonnitta Roy. January 24th @ 12:00 PM ET. Patreon event.
Byung-Chul Han Club: The Agony of Eros w/ Peter Limberg. January 31st @ 12:00 PM ET. Patreon event.
We will also be getting our eros on at The Stoa. In the build-up towards Valentine's Day, we have launched a 3-part event series featuring Jote Lamar and Lara Catone. They are:
Collective Eros w/ Jote Lamar and Lara Catone. February 4th @ 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here. 90 mins.
Idea Sex w/ Jote Lamar and Peter Limberg. February 8th @ 3:00 PM ET. RSVP here. 90 mins.
Collective Eros: Idea Sex Party w/ Jote Lamar, Lara Catone, and Peter Limberg. February 14th @ 3:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
And in case you missed yesterday’s announcement, we launched our brand new “Coaches in Resonance” series. Most of my available spots have already been booked for the rest of January, but there are spots left for February. You can book here: www.thestoa.ca/coaches
Tomorrow’s events:
Stoic Breath w/ Steve Beattie. Every Wednesday @ 7:00 AM ET. RSVP here.
Existential Kink w/ Carolyn Elliott. January 20th @ 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
***
January 19th, 2021
I was reflecting on what would be a beautiful life, and it would be this: being a family man, living in a small town, while stewarding a digital campfire—or running a philosophical coffee shop—while writing short books. I have been reading all of Byung-Chul Han’s books, and I’d like to write books like that. They are short and pack a philosophical punch.
I am offering new exclusive sessions for those offering ongoing monetary gifts via Patreon, as a gift to the gifters, and one of them is going to be on Han’s book called The Agony of Eros. Another one will be a Collective Presencing session with Ria Baeck and Bonnitta Roy, called The Eros of The Stoa, which will be about getting senseful about The Stoa, which I hope will help me sense into its potential.
There is a “Maybe the End of The Stoa Party” on March 21st, which is the one year anniversary of The Stoa. My credence level was floating around 60% that this place would indeed end on that date, now it is around 40% but with a sense it could shoot back up to a higher percentage at any moment. There is something artistically beautiful about this place going out like a “sand mandala” on its birthday, but there is an adjacent sense that can be translated to this: the stealing has just begun.
If it does not end on its birthday, I may throw a “Maybe the End” party every three months, partly as a ritual, partly as an inside joke, but partly as a way to give myself an option to go. I want to hold this place in such a way that I can let go when party time rolls around. I sense that will remove any expectations I have—and others may have—towards this place. This place is a gift, and like everything else, it will not last forever, so let’s appreciate it while it is here.
My preference is not to rely on The Stoa, or any daemonic project for that matter, to support my livelihood. There are financial opportunities outside The Stoa that are emerging, thanks to the success of The Stoa, and this feels like a wise move: keep The Stoa pure, in the spirit of Smedley, yet not be shy if my netplaying leads to business opportunities that can be enjoyed outside of the digital colonnade.
I am hoping these Patreon events will be more on the experimental side, and will be more intimate. I feel “on top of things” now, administratively speaking. Out of all of the skills that I am improving on with this project, the one I did not expect would be my admin game. I was always hyper-organized, but the chaotic nature of this daemonic project is serving as a forcing function to become even more so.
The creative juices are flowing now thanks to this, the daemon is here, and my thumos feels like it is ready to fucking explode. This place does feel like a directionless place at the moment—beyond spiritual battle cries such as "steal the culture"—yet it feels thick with potential. It could go in so many directions. It feels like the right move now, to sink into the collective wisdom, in a deeper way, and it feels like the right move to do that with people who have “a gift in the game.”
Lots of people who know what they are doing on the internet tell me that having over 230 patrons is an incredible thing for a project that is not even one year old. I have had some people recommend me to have a tier system with offerings, because they said that would attract more people. I am very resistant to the tiered system though. In my opinion this goes against what patronage is really about.
The Patreon page is pretty plain because of this. It defaults to a $5 gift, but people are gifting anywhere from $1 to $200, and that is fine with me. It actually does feel pretty badass not relying on gimmicky offerings to inspire people to become patrons.
The Stoa was explicitly framed as operating in the gift economy during the start of this place, and I did pivot away from that framing, because I do not know what operating in a gift economy even means. I do think it is fair to say that this place still lives in “the spirit of the gift economy,” or maybe it is more accurate to say it simply lives in “the spirit of the gift.”
Given this, I have been avoiding any market economy framing and offerings. I am not opposed to them, and people are begging for me to sell The Stoa mug I keep annoyingly showing off during sessions, but I have been dragging my feet on that, probably because it does not feel fully aligned yet.
What is feeling aligned is being with eros, which has been a theme these days. I sense it is wise to become more aware of it. If anyone has been paying attention, it is an energy that is flowing through me often, and through The Stoa. As Han writes in The Agony of Eros:
Eros is a relationship to the Other situated beyond achievement, performance, and ability.
He also writes: Porn profanes the erotic.
Our pornified anti-culture encourages us to be fuck bodies, that have reduced our flesh solely to get fucked, and be fucked over. The obvious life, in its profane functionality, has no animating force. There is no mystery there, and with no mystery there is no life. Fuck the obvious. Give me mystery, sex me up with eros, and let’s steal this culture like we mean it.
The Stoa has been my gift to you and I want to give it while being giddy with eros.
***
Support stealing the culture: patreon.com/the_stoa
Receive coaching from Peter and other facilitators at The Stoa: thestoa.ca/coaches