Sponsorship

The mentoring line of the Game — how the one who passes the flame walks beside the one who receives it.

The flame and the sponsor are two lines, not one. The one who first passed you the flame is written once on your Player card and never changes — the permanent lineage of the Game. The sponsor who walks beside you begins as that same person, but the sponsor line is living: it may shift, as below. The flame is history; the sponsor is companionship.

The role. When you share The Invitation and someone says yes, you become their sponsor. A sponsor is a door, never a gatekeeper; a companion and guide, never an authority. The role is simple and real: walk them to their orientation; be reachable through their first gathering and their first ninety days; help guide them through Blue Belt in The LIØNSBERG Belt System (~3 years); help them find the instruments and the doors when the way is unclear; and model the Way by keeping your own commitments and growing your mastery of The Game.

The term. Sponsorship runs primarily through the sponsee's first season — the first gathering and the first ninety days; secondarily through Blue Belt. Then it completes, with gratitude: by then the sponsee stands inside their own Circle, held by many hands, and is likely becoming a sponsor themselves. A shift of sponsorship may occur — or be requested by either party — at any time, for any reason or none, without stigma. Freedom and Ongoing Mutual Consent in this is not a weakness of the bond; it is what keeps the bond clean.

The mutual accountability. The flame passes with obligations flowing in both directions:

• The sponsor is accountable to the sponsee — to show up as promised; to walk beside, never above; to hold what is shared in confidence; to open doors, never close them.
• The sponsee is accountable to the sponsor — to speak honestly of where they are; to keep, or openly renegotiate, the commitments they make; to say when the way is unclear rather than quietly drifting.

Say what you will do; do what you said; learn from the difference — in both directions. That is the whole discipline, and it is the same discipline as the rest of the Game.

The guardrails. Mentoring lines have been abused in other houses, and we build with that memory:

• A sponsor holds no authority over the sponsee's choices, beliefs, resources, or relationships. Sovereignty first, always.
• A sponsor is never anyone's only door: Reaching Us stays open to every Player at every moment.
• Ongoing Mutual Consent governs every step; either party may step back at any time.
• Any concern about any sponsorship is welcome through any door on Reaching Us, and is received with care.

Lived in Play — Pass the Flame · visible in the lineage on The Gameboard · walked along The Arc of Play.