Personal Guidelines for the Great Turning

From www.joannamacy.net

To good not to pass on!

Come from Gratitude
To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe--to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it--is a wonder beyond words. Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art. Furthermore, it is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.

Don't be Afraid of the Dark
This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don't be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, for these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings. To suffer with is the literal meaning of compassion.

Dare to Vision
Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it's going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into our imagination. We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts.

Roll up your Sleeves
Many people don't get involved in the Great Turning because there are so many different issues, which seem to compete with each other. Shall I save the whales or help battered children? The truth is that all aspects of the current crisis reflect the same mistake, setting ourselves apart and using others for our gain. So to heal one aspect helps the others to heal as well. Just find what you love to work on and take joy in that. Never try to do it alone. Link up with others; you'll spark each others' ideas and sustain each others' energy.

Act your Age
Since every particle in your body goes back to the first flaring forth of space and time, you're really as old as the universe. So when you are lobbying at your congressperson's office, or visiting your local utility, or testifying at a hearing on nuclear waste, or standing up to protect an old grove of redwoods, you are doing that not out of some personal whim, but in the full authority of your 15 billions years.

A Circle of Friends

Recently, my family went through a crazy, stressful experience. We were having to make a very difficult decision in a very short time. By the end of a week of this, we no longer knew if we were thinking straight and whether or not we were capable of discerning the best way forward.

We called together a group of four couples, very close friends, and asked that they hear our story and feed back what they heard from their different perspectives. We were very open and honest with details that we certainly wouldn't share with just anyone. But there was a precious level of trust and safety in that gathering that moves me no measure.

This is circling at its best. The depth of both sharing and listening empowered everyone in that room to gain in wisdom, creativity, and solidarity. That's the magic of the circle - all participants benefit in ways that are most meaningful to them.

I encourage anyone who is going through a difficult or overwhelming situation to call a circle of trusted friends and open yourself up to asking for help out of those stuck places. And let me know what happens - send me your story.

Jan Phillips

I have the wonderful opportunity to bring Jan Phillips - an amazing visionary, author, artist, and teacher, to Ithaca, New York to lead a seminar during the weekend of October 23rd (Friday evening through Sunday noon.) This seminar is entitled "Facilitator Training - Turning Your Life into a Living" and is an intensive, hands-on small-group weekend seminar for people who are ready to harvest the wisdom of their life experiences and share what they have learned with others. It prepares you to become a facilitator of whatever kind of groups you care to facilitate, with a thorough exploration of content development, finding and reaching your audience, clarifying your mission and message, and using the media to promote your work. (While this seminar is full of practical tools, her approach is holistic and spiritually grounded. It's not just about marketing! Jan shows people how to access their wisdom, activate their creativity, and communicate with clarity and compassion.) She will empower us in:

• how to transform your knowledge and skills into a teachable format
• what to call your workshop/training
• how to describe it in 2-3 paragraphs
• what to say in your publicity so people know what’s in it for them
• how much you should charge
• how to find the people who are looking for you
• where, when, and how to advertise
• how to get free publicity and make the most of it

The cost would be around $525 depending on what food will be provided. You will also receive a couple of her books and a CD of head shots to use in your PR materials.
See her web site at www.janphillips.com
It should be a lot of fun. Space is limited to only SIX people and I'm one of them, so if you're interested let me know soon.

The Five Gifts of Uncertainty

Joanna Macy


At the next BeingChange Circle, on June 11th, I will be showing the short video of Joanna Macy's talk at the 2009 Bioneers conference. You can see it on the home page of her web site at www.joannamacy.net.

After viewing the film, we will call the circle and share what comes up for us around her topic: "The Five Gifts of Uncertainty." Perhaps you'd like to call your own circle and send me your responses to this moving and timely message. Here's a sneak preview of the five gifts:

The gift of the present moment
The gift of fresh recognition of the power of intention
The gift of befriending our pain
The gift of our solidarity with all our relations
The gift of an immensity of time

Joanna is truly a remarkable woman. Her compassion and energy are boundless. I hope you enjoy the video! An opportunity to be in her presence, even a virtual presence, is not to be missed.

What is "The Great Turning?"

....or the Great Work, The Shift, Conscious Evolution, Transition....I decided to post a few quotes to try to convey the essence of these concepts. I hope you will take it upon yourself to dig deeper. This is the essential spiritual path of our times:

David Korten: The term “The Great Turning” has come into widespread use to describe the awakening of a higher level of human consciousness and a human turn from an era of violence against people and nature to a new era of peace, justice and environmental restoration. Most people are not aware that this awakening is underway, because positive change rarely reaches the level of front page - or even back-page - news!

Joanna Macy: The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth is not that we are on the way to destroying the world-we've actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves and each other.

Bill Plotkin Will the twenty-first century turn out to be the Great Ending or the Great Turning? It’s up to us…you and me and all others who are waking up to the extraordinary challenge, opportunity, and imperative before us.

Thomas Berry: We might summarize our present human situation by the simple statement: that in the 20th century, the glory of the human has become the desolation of the Earth and now the desolation of the Earth is becoming the destiny of the human. From here on, the primary judgment of all human institutions, professions, programs and activities will be determined by the extent to which they inhibit, ignore, or foster a mutually enhancing human – Earth relationship.

Barbara Marx Hubbard: Those of us alive today are the first generation born with the choice of learning conscious, ethical evolution, or suffering devolution and the destruction of our life-support systems with unimaginably more tragedy than the world has yet experienced. We are the generation of the gap between “here”—a highly technological, over-populating, polluting, brilliant species on the brink of social and environmental chaos, and “there”—a compassionate, spiritually awakened humanity, capable of transcending the limits of our past human existence and moving toward the unknown. We do not have much time. Within the next 30 to 50 years, we must change our fundamental behavior to be more in alignment with our natural systems and our visions of a positive future. Never before has the human species had to change this quickly in order to survive.

Duane Elgin: The world is moving into a new era where the human community must work together if we are to realize a future of sustainable prosperity. This transition represents both a great challenge and an extraordinary opportunity. We are being called to make a shift toward green lifestyles, supported by a mature democracy, and guided by the collective wisdom of science and spirituality.

BeingChange: Not Just For Women

You may have noticed, if you've been visiting this blog, that I've recently dropped the word "women" from "Women Weaving the Great Turning Through Circles, Art, & Story." While there will continue to be women-only circles and events, and special emphasis on empowering women's vision and voice, it truly didn't make any sense to exclude the invaluable contributions of weaving men. So, men of heart and soul, and spirit; men who love our Mother Earth and who care about the future generations: Welcome! I look forward to hearing your stories.

The Great Turning as a Hero's Journey

In the film about these transition times entitled “What a Way to Go,” Derrick Jensen tells the following story. During times of war, the native dog soldiers of the southwest would plant a stake, called a picket pin, in the battlefield and tie themselves to it. They were making a visual and visceral statement that they were taking a stand, that retreat was not an option, and that they would give their all – even in the face of death.

The film also explores how, even as we are awakening to the challenge of our global situation, there are powerful forces attempting to lull us back to sleep.

In the book “Sacred Demise,” by Carolyn Baker, Peter Senge says: “The power of creative tension results from seeing clearly where we want to be, our vision, and telling the truth about where we are, our current reality.” I would add the tension of staying awake – even in the face of death, both real and metaphorical.

All of this adds up to what I see as a spectrum, a very loopy, non-linear spectrum. On one end we are asleep or being lulled back to sleep. On the other end we are consciously and courageously planting our picket pins by confronting fears and limitations, by taking stands, and by envisioning possibilities.

The creative tensions are our thresholds. Which way are we going to choose in any day, in any moment, in any situation?

Our navigation of this spectrum, of these tensions, is what I have compared to the archetypal “hero’s journey.” The hero’s journey is a perfect template for what the initiation of transition and of transformation requires of us. We hear a call and we either refuse the call – go back to sleep - or step over that threshold into the dark mucky-muck of the unknown and search for that Grail, planting our picket pins over and over along the way, and bringing back what we learn as a gift to our people.

What lulls you back to sleep? Where are you along the spectrum of the hero’s journey in the context of the Great Turning? What is calling you? What picket pin would represent your next best response to that call? What would the Grail look like? Who will you meet along the way?

If you have a story, song, poem, or what have you, that speaks to these questions, please send them to me. I may post them to the BeingChange web site and they may become a part of the future anthology.