A regular gathering for men, held around a fire. The circles run under the Orion Project, a men's community I founded in Amsterdam, and they're open to any man who feels called to sit in one.

Before the circle opens, each man names two things for himself: one thing he wants to walk away with, and one thing he's ready to leave behind. Then we gather, we settle in, and each man who wants to speak has the floor, uninterrupted and witnessed, before we close together around the same fire we opened with. The fire gives the circle a center, something to look at when a sentence is hard to say out loud, and the structure makes honesty easier than it usually is outside a room like this. Advice stays outside the circle unless a man asks for it. What you bring gets heard all the way through. What's said around the fire stays there.

There's research on this: watching a fire measurably lowers blood pressure and settles the nervous system. Men around fires knew it long before anyone measured it.

Handling things alone is the skill most men learned first. The circle rests on something simpler: being witnessed by other men changes what you're carrying, even before anything gets resolved.

A few times a year, a circle builds around a specific theme, something drawn from myth, men's psychology, or a question that surfaces in many men's lives at once. Same fire, same format, a sharper focus for the evening. Themed evenings are announced through Hipsy; follow the Orion Project there to hear when the next one opens.

If it's your first circle

You don't need experience with men's work, and you don't need to know what you'll say. The first ten minutes are arrival: we ground, each man sets his intention, and the circle opens from there. Speaking is never required. Some men sit through their first circle without saying much, and the evening does its work anyway.

Logistics

Circles run every two weeks in Amsterdam, in a private space; you'll get the address when you sign up. A circle holds six to eight men. An evening costs €15, and your first circle is free.

If you'd rather ask something first, write to me.