… and What I Teach
Hi. I’m Mark. I am a dating shaman. I know. It’s a weird thing to call oneself. But I decided nothing else really fits. I help people find love, sex, and/ or companionship. Our society doesn’t have a coherent view of how to attract a sex partner, a love partner, or a life partner. We h
ave myths about romantic love, but that’s kind of the problem. Myths tell you what to do without telling you much about why you’re doing it. And if the myth isn’t fitting you, if you’re a little bit unusual or you are in a group that the myth doesn’t take into account, the myth won’t help you much. It will probably just frustrate you as it funnels you into repeated failure. And oftentimes no one around you can help because the myth worked out alright for them and they were spared from thinking about it. So in this case, a shaman just might be what you need. I’m all about rewriting your myths to get you the love life you were meant to have.
I’m 48 years old, as of this writing. I’ve been single, married, and single again, and these are my happiest years to date. I used to be frustrated, especially during the first twenty years of that first single period, childhood through the first half of college. I had disasters where I harmed myself and others. I had to sit down with myself and figure out why the myths were not treating me right. I searched for knowledge. I went out and learned everything I could about the craft of love, sex, and companionship. A few years ago, I was sitting with two of my sweeties*, and they were complaining about not meeting enough quality partners. They said they were looking for more people something like me, and suggested that I start teaching. And so here I am. I want to ask you something simple but powerful. What do you want? Love, sex, companionship? All three? Two of them but not so much the other? I am open to advising people of all genders, identities, orientations, kinks, and relationship configurations. I’m always learning. I tend to assume I’m still wrong about something. Every day I attempt to learn something and make myself less wrong. There’s a myth to live by. Free sample, yea!
I conduct myth-busting/myth-building sessions at coffee shops in the Seattle, WA area and online. <link yo>. Said sessions can be anything from taking a good listen to your experiences and helping you contextualize them, to helping write a bio for a dating app or snapping a few well-composed pictures, to getting inside your thinking about what you deserve and how you should budget your energy. I can’t spare you the work of improving yourself, but I can save you a lot of unnecessary effort by keeping you away from the pitfalls. There’s a person you want to be. They are spiritually strong. They aren’t perfect, just focused and growing. You can become them. That’s shamanism.
*Buzzwords! I practice sex positive, body positive, porn positive, consensual non-monogamy. Informed, enthusiastic, mutual, ongoing consent is my only ruler.