Long time no see, my dear unknown friend. The summer and autumn schedules have just been posted if you are longing to see me.
I want to highlight two events that are specially designed to push the status quo and beg the question of what I do as a teacher and artist. And they take two very different directions.
Firstly, The Garden of the Serpent and the Rose, which is on June 16th outside Amsterdam, explores the combination of plant medicine and eros, which is a massive taboo for me and for everyone else, I guess. But we have an insane facilitator team of seven professionals, each offering space for two participants. So it’s on the border between a private session and a shared group experience.
You can read more about it here and contact me for details: https://andyburu.se/2025/02/24/the-garden-of-the-serpent-and-the-rose/
Secondly, A Ceremony of Death, which will be held on June 2nd in Vienna, takes the death ritual score outside the realm of the obvious eros. Which is also a small and private event.
Tread slowly
Follow the spiral
Remember you number
What is really important to you?
How some doctors learnt to deal with death. A ritualistic simulation, a celebration of life before it ends, and an experimental play space.
How does one prepare to die? And what is the difference between living and dying? Narcissistically, every generation claims that they are the ones living at the end of time. That they will be the last of us. But maybe, just maybe, it’s more true right now than ever. Dark, fraught waters lie ahead as empires and ecosystems crumble. There are political and practical things we can do—that we ought to do—in preparation and resistance, but how do we prepare spiritually when we can’t resist the inevitable?
Do we turn to nihilism when nothing matters anymore? Or hedonism and celebration to fall in love one last time? Or grief and nostalgia to honour what meant something? Or meditation and surrender to experience every second as if it were the last?
Human beings evolved by embracing technology and leaving monuments behind. We painted our reflections, recorded our voices, organised our thoughts outside our heads, and telegraphed our beliefs across the universe. We sang and danced in remembrance of those before us. But what matters most is not the monuments we carve in stone but the beliefs we leave behind in others. Maybe the most crucial technology ever invented was play. When we feel safe enough to be brave, we try something new—to prototype dying without such dire consequences—and therefore learn to live.
Welcome to this four-hour experience. You can spend it alone or in interaction with others. It’s a space of radical self-expression and not a safe space for any particular subgroup—therefore, we welcome all expressions of intimacy and vulnerability, and if you are triggered by another person, you must look the other way. Still, we don’t accept any sexism, racism, or homophobia. It’s also a primarily wordless and somatic space to temporarily slow down and disrupt everyday patterns of social interaction—hence, we will practice a nonverbal protocol to establish consent. And as the subject itself is dark and gloomy, it is recommended to attend only if you feel emotionally resourced to do so.
You can read more about it here and contact me for details: https://andyburu.se/book/ritual-of-death/