The Wounded hero - becoming Homo amor - with Dr. Marc Gafni
Unique Self 2.0 Year 2
Portal 1
Course Description: the paradox of the wound
Across three sessions, we focus on becoming homo amor and the path of the wound—the path of the wounded hero. We engage with ideas of value cosmic humanism and self-theory. We also work with the 10 vectors or 10 illuminations of wounding—principles and practices for transforming wounds into wonder, ruptures into raptures, breakdowns into breakthroughs—while concentrating on a few core approaches. Alongside these, we turn to sacred texts of the wounded hero, including Hagar, Jacob, Moses, and the Fisher King, each dramatizing different aspects of the wounded hero’s journey.
The course unfolds in three parts: one session on the wound or approach to the wound, another on the path of the Victor versus the path of defeat, and a final one on transforming the fate of the wound into the destiny of the hero. Here the wound is not necessarily holy—it can be the broken hallelujah. Through this exploration, we reflect on history as humanity’s collective approach to the wound, asking how devastation can become divinity, and how the wound itself can be the site of grace, healing, and transformation.
A major them is: evil comes in the wound, which stands at the heart of our inquiry. Another is the idolatry of being trauma-informed, approached through different lines and perspectives. We also take up the distinction between heartbreak and trauma—how these experiences differ and interact. Another theme is don’t cry more than it hurts, emphasizing the importance of acknowledgment and boundaries.
Our Schedule
3 Two-hour Zoom Classes/ 3 Digital Campfires
Begins Sunday, September 28th, 2025
Times: Sunday 11am PST (Los Angeles), 2pm EST (New York), 8pm CET (Paris)
Class 1: September 28• Role Mate
Class 2: October 5th• Soul Mate
Class 3: October 12 • Whole Mate
Campfires: Saturdays following the course (see below)
Price: €300€/150€ Tiers
The Path of the wounded Hero
Across three sessions, we focus on becoming homo amor and the path of the wound—the path of the wounded hero. We engage with ideas of value cosmic humanism and self-theory. We also work with the 10 vectors or 10 illuminations of wounding—principles and practices for transforming wounds into wonder, ruptures into raptures, breakdowns into breakthroughs—while concentrating on a few core approaches. Alongside these, we turn to sacred texts of the wounded hero, including Hagar, Jacob, Moses, and the Fisher King, each dramatizing different aspects of the wounded hero’s journey.
The course unfolds in three parts: one session on the wound or approach to the wound, another on the path of the Victor versus the path of defeat, and a final one on transforming the fate of the wound into the destiny of the hero. Here the wound is not necessarily holy—it can be the broken hallelujah. Through this exploration, we reflect on history as humanity’s collective approach to the wound, asking how devastation can become divinity, and how the wound itself can be the site of grace, healing, and transformation.
A major them is: evil comes in the wound, which stands at the heart of our inquiry. Another is the idolatry of being trauma-informed, approached through different lines and perspectives. We also take up the distinction between heartbreak and trauma—how these experiences differ and interact. Another theme is don’t cry more than it hurts, emphasizing the importance of acknowledgment and boundaries.
- Dr. Marc Gafni
COURSE CONTENT
Class I: Hagar
Lecture and Q&A: Sunday, September 28, 11 am PST (Los Angeles), 2 pm EST (New York), 8 pm CET (Paris)
Digital Campfire: Saturday, October 4, 11 am PST (Los Angeles), 2 pm EST (New York), 8 pm CET (Paris)
Description:
Role Mate is the foundation of relational identity, where we connect through social functions, responsibilities, and expected roles—necessary, structured, and often overlooked in its subtle depth.
Key Themes:
Understanding Role Mates and their function in relationships and culture
Exploring how these underlying and traditional roles function in the fabric of our lives
How to transcend and include the Role Mate function
Practices:
Inquiry into our inherited roles
Inquiry into how to include and transcend them
Campfire discussions
Class II: Moses
Lecture and Q&A: Sunday, October 5, 11 am PST (Los Angeles), 2 pm EST (New York), 8 pm CET (Paris)
Digital Campfire: Saturday, October 11, 11 am PST (Los Angeles), 2 pm EST (New York), 8 pm CET (Paris)
Description:
Soul Mate is the passionate, intimate connection of shared depth and resonance, but when it is idolized as the final destination, it cannot take us home.
Key Themes:
Understanding Soul Mates and their function in relationships and culture
Exploring the possibilities and limitations of Soul Mates
How to transcend and include the Soul Mate function
Practices:
Inquiry into the myth of the Soul Mate
Inquiry into how we transcend and include Soul Mates
Campfire discussions
Class III – Jacob
Lecture and Q&A: Sunday, October 12, 11 am PST (Los Angeles), 2 pm EST (New York), 8 pm CET (Paris)
Digital Campfire: Saturday, October 18, 11 am PST (Los Angeles), 2 pm EST (New York), 8 pm CET (Paris)
Description:
Whole Mate is the post-tragic evolution of love, integrating both role and soul into a higher, fuller structure of intimacy that responds to the personal and planetary metacrisis.
Key Themes:
Understanding the participatory universe and the Infinite Intimate
Connecting personal transformation to global challenges
Embodying Homo Amor as a response to existential risk
Practices:
Inquiry into the highest possibility of our unique story
Inquiry into our unique role in addressing existential risk
Campfire discussions
About your Teacher
Dr. Marc Gafni
Dr. Marc Gafni is a visionary thinker, social activist, and passionate philosopher. He is known for his ‘source code teachings,’ including Unique Self theory, the Five Selves, the Amorous Cosmos, A Politics of Evolutionary Love, A Return to Eros and Digital Intimacy. He is author of over twenty-five books, including the award-winning Your Unique Self: The Radical Path to Personal Enlightenment. He holds a doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University, as well as Orthodox rabbinic ordination.
He teaches on the cutting edge of philosophy and spirit in the West, with the aim of participating in the articulation of what Dr. Gafni, together with Dr. Zak Stein and colleagues, are calling CosmoErotic Humanism. At the core of CosmoErotic Humanism is what Dr. Gafni and Dr. Stein are calling ‘First Principles and First Values,’ ‘Anthro-Ontology,’ and a ‘Universal Grammar of Value.’ This shared story rooted in First Principles and First Values can then serve as the matrix for a global ethos for a global civilization.
Dr. Gafni is the Co-Founder and Co-President of the Office for the Future, the Center for World Religion and Philosophy and the Foundation for Conscious Evolution. At the core of their shared missions is the articulation and delivery into culture of a Great Library - in multiple forms - which participates in evolving the source code of consciousness and culture in response to the Meta Crisis.