Wisdom Keepers and Seekers: A Working DefinitionFor centuries, Native American and indigenous cultures have identified the elders and teachers in their communities as Wisdom Keepers. Wisdom Keepers have been revered and trusted not only for their sharp minds, but their compassionate hearts and strong spirits. Able to embody and impart sacred, holistic teachings, and to nurture a humble-yet-potent relationship with the Great Mystery, Wisdom Keepers have helped their communities through hard times for generations. Both spiritually and practically, they’ve served their communities by bringing everyone in the tribe closer together, as well as closer to the earth, and the cosmos.
Many people in today’s world are Wisdom Seekers. We long for the healing and empowering guidance Wisdom Keepers have traditionally provided in the past, but we have lost touch with the ways of our ancestors. Very few of us still live in indigenous or traditional communities where elders are respected and responsible for passing down ancient, experientially-tested wisdom to the younger generations. Because of this, many of us turn to modern-day professional Wisdom Keepers for support and inspiration. Professional Wisdom Keepers are today’s therapists, healers, coaches, psychologists, bodyworkers, astrologers, psychics, spiritual counselors, yoga teachers, inspirational speakers, workshop leaders, meditation facilitators, metaphysical mediums, urban shamans, and more. With the #MeToo and Times Up Movements gaining steam, and powerful documentaries like ‘Wild Wild Country’ gaining attention, the themes addressed in this book have never been more relevant. |
More About the Book
As professional Wisdom Keepers, sharing knowledge and techniques is only half of our task. Discovering how to share, with whom, when, how much, why, and where make up the other portion. Walking a Fine Line speaks to the wisdom, skill, art and balance we all need to live and serve with integrity.
If you are a professional Wisdom Keeper, 'Walking a Fine Line' will inspire, support and stretch you. It’s a warm invitation into an ongoing, nuanced and collective exploration of professional integrity. If you are a seasoned Wisdom Seeker, this book will help you cultivate healthy boundaries and a discerning mind, so that you can successfully engage with professional Wisdom Keepers that best suit your needs. If you’re just getting started on your Wisdom Seeking journey, this book will help you know what to look for, and what to look out for! It can help you assess your needs, clarify your wants and enable you to find the quality support you deserve. Whether you live, work or learn in a spiritual or alternative learning environment, together—through a shared and honest inquiry—we can raise the quality of our collective service and grow as a planetary family of creative, caring individuals. |
This book is dedicated to the modern-day Wisdom Keepers of the world,
and to the Wisdom Seekers they aim to serve."
Enjoy quotes from Walking a Fine Line
Walking a Fine Line is now available on Amazon!
Please help to spread the word in whichever way feels most right!
We are being asked as a collective – and as members of healing arts communities – to better understand the emotional, psychological and socio-political forces that contribute to abuses of power and systemic inequality. ‘Walking a Fine Line’ speaks to the wisdom, skill, art and balance we all need to live, learn and serve with integrity.
Help Rosy extend a warm invitation to those you know who are either seeking wisdom or sharing it in professional contexts. Let's all enter an ongoing, nuanced and collective exploration of spiritual congruity, professional integrity and the healthy use of power... together!
Help Rosy extend a warm invitation to those you know who are either seeking wisdom or sharing it in professional contexts. Let's all enter an ongoing, nuanced and collective exploration of spiritual congruity, professional integrity and the healthy use of power... together!
A personal sharing from one of the first readers
and contributors to this book
"I read a draft of Walking a Fine Line at a particularly difficult time for me, while in a situation where wisdom keepers who had previously inspired a lot of healing in my life were in a period of shadow that they were inflicting outward.
Rosy's book was incredibly helpful for clarifying and reframing what I was experiencing, so that I could understand that this was something they were going through, rather than something I had done wrong or had to fix.
I could easily have been set back by their betrayal and misuse of power, but instead it ended up being a remarkably transformative experience, because for the first time I was able to see I was being treated wrongly and respond accordingly, instead of blaming myself, going into repressive shadow, and losing trust in the world.
It was a major turning point in my life, and that would not have happened without this book, and without Rosy herself, in all of her wisdom, gentleness, and piercing intuition.
I am so grateful I was able to give a little bit back to Rosy and help with the editing of Walking a Fine Line. I feel it it is incredibly valuable for wisdom keepers and seekers alike (and most everyone plays each part at different stages in their lives...) and should be read by EVERYONE in a helping profession or role.
I can see over the years some of the abuses I have witnessed, experienced, and colluded in with wisdom keepers who were not in integrity, and some of the ways that I have fallen into many of the traps Rosy has described, which I could not perceive at the time.
I feel this is much less likely to happen again, because I am so much more aware and mindful now of the pitfalls and the human realities of being a wisdom keeper. Interestingly, it has also made me feel more confident about stepping into a wisdom keeper role myself, through the guidance and clarity it provides, and from the well illustrated reality that no one is perfect, we're all doing our best, and we can all make mistakes. The critical piece is continually ensuring we learn and grow and develop, and that we monitor our impact on others, particularly those who put their faith and trust in us.
Please read this book, and more importantly, heed its messages, even when they are painful. As a wisdom seeker it is empowering and provides valuable insight into when a difficult time in our seeking is a helpful challenge, or something potentially destructive and part of another's shadow.
As a wisdom keeper, it is all of our intentions to improve the lives of the wisdom seekers we meet, and this book can help us to do that even better - to bring more love, healing, and grace into the world, and to provide community and support and loving accountability to each other while we do it."
~ Shandi Petersen, MSSc, friend, contributing editor and Wisdom Keeper
What you'll find in Walking a Fine Line
Some of the common traps Walking a Fine Line addresses with humor, compassion and lots of real-life stories:
- The Self-Absorption Trap
- The Peaceful-Loving-Kindness Trap
- The Martyr Trap
- The Money Trap
- The Love, Attention and Approval Trap
- The Charisma Trap
- The Forgiveness Trap
- The Perfection Trap
Other themes richly explored in this book are:
- Quality Control, Supervision & Mentorship
- The Ego Gets a Bum Rap
- The Shadow's Role in the Healing Arts
- Truth, Honesty & the Inner Child
- The Art of Non-Attachment & Moving Beyond Principles
- Creating a Safe Space for Conflict & Anger
- Grief & Suffering: Resisting the Temptation to Explain it Away
- Managing Transitions & Timing
- Guilt, Blame, Resistance & Positive Thinking
- Boundaries, Roles (Including Cross-cultural & Social Boundaries)
- Learning, Working & Role Juggling in Wisdom Keeping Communities
- The Hazards of Hierarchy (The Popularity Contest)
- An Invitation to Speak Out against Community Injustice
- The Teacher's Special Role in Letting Go
Copyright © 2017, Roselyn Ann Aronson. All rights reserved.
If you'd like to use one of Rosy's images, please Contact her for permission.
The Human Design System, Mandala and Rave Bodygraph are registered trademarks of Jovian Archive, Inc.
Key words and concepts related to The Spectrum of Consciousness by Richard Rudd’s The Gene Keys, Gene Keys Publishing © 2009
If you'd like to use one of Rosy's images, please Contact her for permission.
The Human Design System, Mandala and Rave Bodygraph are registered trademarks of Jovian Archive, Inc.
Key words and concepts related to The Spectrum of Consciousness by Richard Rudd’s The Gene Keys, Gene Keys Publishing © 2009
Disclaimer: Rosy is an ordained minister of Designed to Blossom of AIWP and provide something more akin to spiritual counseling than psychotherapy. The work I do is with highly functional people, for whom ‘spirit’ plays a central role in their life. I do not give diagnoses, work with pathology, or claim to be an expert offering a treatment or cure.