Stage 1 in Tulum
1st – 7th March 2026. Tulum, Mexico
Stage 1 – the Initiation
The Awaken as Love Initiation is a journey open to everyone – it begins with a choice to go on an adventure that will expand you beyond the boundaries of your current existence. What will it bring to you? More awareness, more love, more inclusion, more juice to your life and more depth if you allow it.
This first stage is called “Initiation” because if you choose this then all your experiences up til now have led you to this point and you are obviously ready to step into a wider reality – in doing so you enter fresh and new, open to discovering more.
As you step into this journey you will encounter maps that help you understand the larger world and your place in it (this is beyond your imagination), tools which help you to play more fully in this world, embodied experiences which help you to anchor a new reality and finally ongoing resources which help to integrate and incorporate this into your life.
What is this Training?
Your Instructors
During this course you have the rare opportunity to be held by 4 of the Awaken as Love LEAD FACULTY, plus the founder – so this is a very powerful training! (and a full team of assistants) – they each come from different backgrounds but all are inspired to facilitate the evolution of humanity.
James Stevenson
Founder & Lead Instructor
James’s passion is to help call forth our human potential and our soul. His weave brings together more than 20 years of experience in techniques, practices, and information from the cutting edge of Neuroscience, Tantra, Biodanza, Shamanic & Energy Work, Integral theory, and Taoist practices to create a spirituality that is rooted in the body. His evolutionary approach is to work on all lines, levels, states, and parts of ourselves in bringing forth our fullest potential.
His work in meditation and tantra work draws on many different traditions and paths he has studied from Kashmir Shaivism, Baul mysticism, Advaita Vedanta, Vajrayana Buddhism, Integral systems, and Neo-tantra. His shamanic work includes being Vision Quest rites of passage guide, holding Sweatlodge Ceremonies as well as Sacred Cacao Rituals. He has been dancing Biodanza since 2003 and now works as a teacher and a didactic teacher (qualified to teach other teachers in Biodanza Schools). www.jamesstevenson.life
Taina Ixchel Jorda-Cid
Lead Instructor
Taína Ixchel is a powerful catalyst for transformation, a Shamanic and Tantric Power Priestess who awakens authenticity and limitless possibility in every soul she meets. An International Teacher, Holistic Coach, and Awaken As Love Facilitator (awakenaslove.com), Taína is devoted to guiding individuals on profound journeys of self-discovery, inspiring them to deepen connections with themselves and others and live lives thriving with purpose and potential.
With a Master’s degree and over 18 years of practicing Tantra, Taína is guided by her experience as an International Tantra Teacher and certified Energetic Relationship Practitioner, Holistic Health and Wellness Coach, and Theta Healing Practitioner. Her initiation into esoteric teachings by an Enlightened Master affirmed her destiny: to “teach this Love.” In addition to teaching and mentoring around the world, Taína offers transformational life coaching virtually, fostering deep healing and empowering clients to claim their fullest selves.
Monique Darling
Lead Instructor
Monique Darling, Awaken as Love Lead: Author of ‘Beyond Cuddle Party’ and workshop facilitator extraordinaire has led over 3000 workshops in the past 13 years. She is the founder of Everyday Tantra an organization dedicated to empowering people who are questioning the assumptions of how their life should be and to offering tools for self expression that create trust, inner knowing and wisdom to enjoy the life they have.
Monique has taught at colleges across the US including Yale. She has been featured on TLC and The Dr’s as well as various radio shows, podcasts and magazines across the globe. She specializes in helping others reclaim their power and natural sensuality by transmuting fear and repression into courage, self-love and freedom. Her primary purpose is helping folks bring out their vulnerability, energetic embodiment and fearless relating.
Learn more about Monique: www.Everydaytantra.com
Peter Petersen
Lead Instructor
Peter Petersen has been teaching for 19 years and has been a certified Sheng Zhen Qigong teacher for the last 17 years, where he has been teaching in health clubs, hospitals, retirement villas, and several different wellness/spa resorts in Mexico and the United States, such as Rancho La Puerta, Mayacamas Ranch, and Present Moment Retreat.
Peter has traveled with Monique for over the last 3 years teaching Tantra all over North America, the EU, Asia, and Australia. Peter is also a personal wellness coach. This Qigong practice helps people ground themselves into their “now” to increase their present moment awareness of their behaviors, and find solutions to problematic habits such as: eating, moving, negative thinking, and sleeping. The result of this tool box of healthy information is that clients become their own health advocate and regain a sense of stability, peace, and well-being into their everyday lives
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein
In fact it is not the next level of consciousness but the one after that which integrates the previous ones which will facilitate real change.
What will I get from this training?
This certificated course will give you practical tools, maps and experiences to be able to embody a deeper understanding of reality, and how to that to engage more fully and live more of your potential.
Supporting this are presence and insights from international facilitators during the week long process, sharing groups to help you connect and express your experience and a 60-page guidebook that help with your continued unfolding.
Tantra Techniques
How can the energy of the raw animal self be raised into higher consciousness, and how can this consciousness descend into the body and manifest world? Really this is a deep intimacy with yourself, with a partner and even throughout a group.
Embodiment practices
It’s one thing to understand with the mind, and something completely different to have a knowing that comes from a deep experiencing of wisdom through the body. Being able to manifest inate creativity into the reality is a skill.
System Reboot
We will be resetting the experiences and patterns in the nervous system of the body. These have framed your experience of this world since birth. Imagine how your life could be filled with more ease, clarity and pleasure!
Shamanic Initiations
We will be perfoming ceremonies that take you outside of the normal sequence of time and anchor in soul peices that have been waiting for this moment.
Integral Maps
As we learn these maps – the whole picture is revealed and we suddenly start to understand where pieces that you were partially aware of fit inside a larger picture of reality.
Wisdom Transmission
Through transmission we will be awakening our higher centres of knowing, expanding into a new operating system and accessing novelty from the cosmos.
How can this advance me working in these areas?
There are a few ways in which this training will support you in your journey as a guide, teacher or practitioner. It is an accredited course from Awaken As Love – you will recieve a certificate on completion and you can state that you have completed this training on your personal biographies.
You will also be eligible to attend the next levels – Deepening & Radicalization to eventually become an Awaken as Love Facilitator.
In addition you will be gaining direct tools that you can then use in your own workshops and practices as well as a deeper understanding about how to work with groups – and meeting a larger international network of practitioners and teachers to create and stay in on-going connection. We routinely give opportunities to Awaken as Love graduates to be part of the festivals we create.
Some of Areas Covered in this Training Are:
- Tantric Bodywork
- Individual Partnered Tantra Meditations
- Archetypal Group Rituals
- Inner Masculine & Inner Feminine Aspects
- Character armour.
- De-armouring
- Integral Maps
- The 4 Dimensions of Reality.
- States of Consciousness
- Stages of Consciousness
- Lines of Development
- Typological Mapping
- Experience of Theory U
- Shadow & Spiritual Bypassing
- Gifts of the Wound
- Difference between Ego and Identity
- Identity & Regression.
- Group Dynamics
- Teachings of the 4 Shields
- Shamanic Medicine Walk
- Mindfullness and Heartfullness
- Satori Experiences
Practical Information for Stage 1 – the Initiation
Dates: The training runs from the 1st – 7th March 2026.
Venue: Paledora Eco-Resort, Predio el Venado, MZ50, LT34 Chemuyil, Quintana Roo, 77774, Mexico
Super- Earlybird Training Fee: $1200. (total price is from $2000 including the food and accommodation below in triple room see options below).
Staying in between the Festival and Training: For those joining both the festival and training it is possible to stay at the eco-resort where the training is held for the days in between the festival and training – we’ve negotiated with Paledora to offer this for $100 per night, including 3 meals a day. Just mention you would like this in the notes when signing up and we will add you to the list ( payable directly with the venue on arrival or before).
Special Offer: Book both this Training and the Awaken as Love Tantra Festival together to get 10% discount off the training!
Accommodation
Choose your accommodation from the options below. These additionally include breakfast, Lunch & Dinner offered during the training times.
Bed in Triple Apartment – $2400 Sale: $2000 per person
Twin sized bed in a double room at the training – shared with 2 others of the same gender (or friends). With air-conditioning, Wifi, en-suite Bathroom. Plus shared kitchen, balcony and living space.
Bed in Double Apartment – $2600 Sale: $2200 per person.
Twin sized bed in a double room at the training – shared with 1 other of the same gender (or a friend). With air-conditioning, Wifi, en-suite Bathroom. Plus shared kitchen, balcony and living space.
Single Occupancy – $3200 Sale: $2800
King-Size bed in a single-occupancy room at the training. With air-conditioning, Wifi, En-suite Bathroom. Plus shared kitchen, balcony and living space.
2 Tickets in Double Room Occupancy – $4800 Sale: $4000
2 Tickets in a King-Size bed in a Double Room (or Twins for friends) at the training. With air-conditioning, Wifi, En-suite Bathroom. Plus shared kitchen, balcony and living space.
The Venue
The venue for the training is an Eco-Resort called Paladora in the jungle near Tulum, and is part of the same complex as the Tantra Festival beforehand.
It has magical indoor & outdoor spaces to gather that include many natural wonders, such as a private Cenote (natural spring pool) & Temazcal (sweatlodge).
The accommodations are blending luxury with jungle and outside you will find a beautiful swimming pool, a fire pit on the spacious terrace and a wood-fired hot tub and sauna (8 persons). The surrounding nature is part of the course here.
Meals
3 Meals a day are inclusive of the accommodation price and fully vegetarian although we do consume dairy products and eggs. We use organic vegetables, pulses/legumes, grains and oils as often as possible. If you have special dietary needs then please mention this in the additional information area of the booking form so we can accommodate your needs as best as possible. Coffees and teas area available throughout the day.
Accommodation
The apartments here are are stylish and rooms accommodate between 2-3 people. There are Private Bathrooms, AC & Fan in Every Bedroom.
It also includes Toiletries & Beach Essentials, Fully Stocked Kitchens for Casas, Weekly Housekeeping and Great Wifi Throughout the Property. 3 meals a day are included.
Ready to Jump?
Sometimes you have to treat yourself to an experience that will expand your word-view, transform your being and foster new friends and allies along the path.