Elements of a Gnostic Retreat (233)

Introduction

This post is a follow of up of a previous post where it was promised that several points regarding a Gnostic retreat would be touched upon. This post expands upon the first point given in that previous post, namely: “Elements of a retreat”.

Basic Elements

A retreat consists of four basic elements. They are: attendees, goal, activities, leader/organizer and venue. The goal of the retreat really determines those who attend and also governs the activities that will be conducted in the retreat. The goal may even select the leader, because some leaders may or may not be able to guide attendees to achieve the retreat’s goal.

Retreat Goal

Fundamental Goal

Fundamentally the goal of a retreat is to create a special environment away from our normal busy and distracting life. Mind you our life may not be that busy or that full of distractions but a retreat usually consists in creating an environment that is free of many of life’s elements such as noise, impressions, media, computers, TV, family, friends, work, etc.

The goal is that with this special environment having been created, the people attending the retreat will be able to concentrate and focus on the activities of the retreat without distraction. Such an environment is conducive to learning and practicing, and very importantly, there in this special environment is freedom for a retreat attendee to be able to dedicate a larger than normal block of time to the retreat activities.

A retreat is also a subtraction from life, or a withdrawal from the occupations, distractions and impressions of life so to be able to dedicate more time to one’s spiritual practices or to other very specific practices.

People may even come to a retreat having their own goal, and that goal may blend with the goal of the retreat or it may be something very different. On the whole though, people attending a retreat understand that they come to a retreat to be isolated from their ordinary life so to be able to dedicate more time to their spiritual work.

Specific Goal

A retreat of course is usually organized due to the needs of the attendees, so a retreat may have a gaol that addresses the needs of the attendees. The common thing is that a retreat has as a goal a theme of study, very few retreats have as a goal some practical level of achievement.

Activities

The activities consist essentially of talks and practices that have been designed by the leader or organizer to take the attendees towards achieving the goal of the retreat.

Mind you some retreats may well have a very specific goal but the trend is it seems, that retreats don’t have a specific goal, only a promise to expand upon a specific theme. For the retreats that have a specific goal the activities will be very specific, so for example if the goal of the retreat is to go to the astral then the retreat’s activities will essentially be astral practices and talks related about that objective.

Some retreats may not have a goal and so naturally the activities involved are a selection of activities that may be related to one another, or may not be.

Leader/Organizer

A leader or at least an organizer is one that brings all the attendees together and is responsible for their well-being during the retreat. In the best case he or she may even be responsible for the retreat attendees’ progress during the retreat.

The most important aspect of the leader or organiser is that he or she has eh knowledge and force to drive the retreat attendees towards the retreat’s goal.

Usually the organizer leads a majority of the activities and is in charge of all the retreat’s logistics.

Venue

The venue must be carefully chosen so that it fits in with the goals of the retreat. It must be quiet, free of distractions and provide retreat attendees with the possibilities to fulfil all their immediate needs. The venue should also be clean and safe and have a positive atmosphere. A spiritual retreat is ideal, though it does not have to be one as such as long as it is quiet, peaceful, free of distractions and attendees are safe and generally feel well.

It must also not be too expensive affordable at least and have facilities that cater for the retreat’s activities.

Conclusion

So any retreat must have these four basic elements. If one of them is missing, just depending on which one is missing the retreat may lose its effectiveness.

End (233).