The Invitation

I extend to you an invitation to take part in a heart-based reformation of the Greater World, both here and beyond.

This heart-based reformation is a community improvement movement, a renovation of our governing structure, a refinement of our social engagement practices and a proper honoring of the land we call home through kind and conscious stewardship.

The invitation is to take part in a grand experiment, a bit like the one that brought us here. This grand experiment is based on creative collaboration, positive reciprocity and mutual respect. It is a collective effort intended to transform our entire community and all sincere participants for the better.

The intention for transformation includes considerations for the land and its many inhabitants (plants, animals and incorporeal beings), our governing policies and procedures along with our styles of constructive social interface. It is about improving upon how we communicate, collaborate and engage in mindful action for the betterment of the whole while practicing and demonstrating a higher level of personal accountability among all involved.

To whatever degree our experiment in reformation proves a success is the degree to which others beyond our community might also benefit thus making it a truly Greater World endeavor.

This is Community Alchemy, an adventure in metamorphosis.

Just as all things must die to their lower states of being in order to realize a more transcendent self so too must we release old and outmoded institutions and ways of being to realize a world far greater.

What we have here in the GW community is clearly unique and visionary at its core. Possibilities abound for how we can build upon the best of what’s been established as well as transmute the “dung” we’ve inherited into precious compost for building a more thriving and vibrant collective, a “community garden” as it were. It is the spirit of experimentation, group effort, faith in a vision, innovative responses to unsustainable ways of being… that dreamed and built our community into being and it's that very spirit that can lift us out of the challenges we’ve been mired in for too long.

Let’s take a closer look at the caterpillar in our garden. Her life as a larvae is based on consumption as preparation. Munching endlessly, she seems to be on a terminal path of destruction. All at once, Caterpillar ceases her unfettered consumption to begin a new journey. Having retreated into the resurrection chamber of her own body, the process of total breakdown and disorder begins. Enzymes within her digest nearly all parts other body into a soupy goo. Within her liquid body “imaginal discs” begin to form. It is their job to guide the reformation process, turning the prior form and substance of her being into something far more beautiful, elegant and transcendent. The larval immune system, still active, reacts against the imaginal discs identifying them as a threat. Emerging imaginal discs are destroyed as they arise though, as the discs divide with increasing speed, they eventually overwhelm the caterpillar response using the soup itself as the raw materials for the structures they are becoming. It took a long time for biologists to understand the reason for the immune system attack on the incipient butterfly cells, but eventually they discovered that the butterfly has its own unique genome, carried by the caterpillar, inherited from long ago in evolution, yet not part of it as such (Margulis & Sagan, Acquiring Genomes 2002.)

What can this process of metamorphosis tell us about ourselves? Through viewing our communities as a form of human ecology playing out a natural process of evolution and transformation, we can appreciate the necessity for breakdown and dissolution; we can see the staunch and often aggressive resistance to the few forging the process of transformation as a defensive reaction of the former structure trying to preserve what it once knew. On one side of the amorphous soup, the body is that of a larvae and still defending itself as such. On the other side is a knowing of something far greater and more transcendent. The awakened genome of the destined butterfly is determined to prevail and it does because that is the will of the divine order, the impetus written within its coding. So, what exactly is this astounding drama conveying to us about ourselves as a humanity? When enough of us imaginal cells join together, multiply and stay true to our purpose, the process of reformation into the form of what we are divinely meant to be can ultimately take hold.

Showing up for The Great Turning

The vision of collaborative small community reformation is both a rare and timely opportunity. It is one that none of us will encounter again in quite this way. And it’s not just about us. We, as the Greater World community, represent a microcosm of the greater world beyond. We are but one piece of the living fractal universe in a perpetual process of becoming, simultaneously informing while being informed by the whole. This, along with all the other delightfully apt symbolism and metaphor so amusingly present in our GW story, is what makes this opportunity all the more fun and pregnant with potential for not only ourselves but many others beyond our little GW bubble.

The time of The Great Turning—this momentous global transition we cannot escape from nor reverse—is now upon us, pressing nearer and nearer to all our immediate experiences. To weather the great changes ahead, we must prepare ourselves to midwife a new earth into being. The vision I’ve chosen to commit myself to is one in which we work together in creative collaboration to facilitate positive change for both our collective and ourselves as individuals, all inter-informative parts of a fuller, grander and more complete story. This vision and path is the one I am inviting you to join me on now. There is another path though. It is one in which we surrender our sovereign selves in favor of more comfort and less responsibility. Those who offer to unburden you from the responsibility of being truly, fully, wildly and authentically human expect something in return, of course—your autonomy. If you choose the path of surrendering your autonomy for more superficial ease, close this page now and enjoy your escapism. If you choose the winding road less traveled, the hike that is more challenging though more rewarding, the path of no guarantees and no return, then read on.

Sovereign selves build sovereign communities.

As we travel into the great unknown, we will necessarily be invited if not forced to redefine the roles and perceptions of leadership. Hierarchical linear forms of authoritarian power will be exchanged for more egalitarian and inclusive forms of governance in which multiple groups are working for a greater good in a collaborative way.

Through supporting the evolution of sovereign-minded individuals connected to their own deeper truth and wisdom, we can build a community fit for autonomous governance. Each participating element, each true human of that autonomous collective governance represents a wealth of insights, skills and creative ideas in their own right. Our true humanness is built upon the nature of who we are as unique beings along with years of lived experience, specialized skills, education and explorations. As a collective, this is our true “human resource” that makes our community—and all communities we choose to be a part of in this spirit—a veritable goldmine right under our very feet!

Confronting our Shadow.

As every myth of finding great treasure has told us, our riches are always found in the dark and hidden (sometimes hidden in plain sight) places—a cave, a box the blind beggar is sitting on or in the innermost bowels of the earth. We must be willing to surrender our resistances and fears of the dark places, we must be curious enough to set out on adventures of discovery and we must be courageous enough to go to those places in order to find the hidden treasure. Diving into the Black Sea of the Shadow (in Jungian terms) and slay the many headed Behemoth of our own personal and collective psyche in order to extract the great gifts guarded and held within.

The journey does not end here. Upon conquering the great beast of the inner psyche and attaining the treasure, there is a return voyage. There are tests yet ahead and, though arriving to the familiar place of before, things are not the same because the hero has changed. The hero has become more than before. Stripped of weaknesses and fears that previously kept our hero small, the brave adventurer is now filled with a new sense of self that is truer and more authentic than the one before. Arriving home, the treasure is brought back to the place of origin to share with the community and the hero takes on the mantle of sovereign ruler of their domain.

Still, the true leader is not content to be a leader of others, but a leader among others. The path is not linear and concrete but circular and fluid. It must be navigated through feeling not by map or template. As we gain higher and higher levels of our own evolution, we can utilize our own progress toward greater levels of sovereignty to raise other to higher levels of their own sovereignty, a process of mutual upliftment that further raises the collective evolution. While beautifully utopian, it does take a dose of sobering reality to know that such a vision is innately fraught with challenges. Our greatest challenge being how we

Community as symphony: fostering harmony over unity

We tend to think in simplistic and idealistic terms when it comes to getting along in such a wholistic way and that idealism will undermine all good efforts. The idea of a sustainable unified collective within a world founded in duality and polarity is simply unrealistic. Any effort or movement seeking cohesiveness through idealized notions of unification is bound to become corrupt at some point and in some form or another. Perfect unity is, in effect, unnatural to this world. Wherever there is the threat of unity, anti-unity is sure to follow. This is the nature of the game here. Only when we fully transcend the game can we know ultimate unity. While we’re here though, in this weird and fantastic game, it’s important to embrace the genius hiding within our differences. It will always surprise us, perhaps frustrate us though always delight us when we accept the invitation to discover something new and more transcendent within not beyond the tension. Music and song is created through tension. A beautiful harmony cannot exist without differences engaged in a creative dance of differences. The beauty in contrast of light and shadow, the play of opposites and seeming contradictions, the tension of particular colors in a work of art… This is why fostering harmony rather than expecting unity is a far better ideal to court. On a mental level, the courtship of harmony presupposes the never-ending dance of differences as life-giving and accepts it as good. Personally, I find peace in embracing this dance of differences while I find anxiety in the idea of trying to maintain unity and perfect cohesion.

Let's not forget the little rascals though

While it is most healthy and beneficial to embrace differences, we should not be so naïve as to accept all things, namely all intentions, as good. This I call “the myth of inclusivity”. If the hens are cool with allowing a fox in the henhouse, it's because they’re highly confident in their Aikido skills. Otherwise, allowing much less actually inviting or electing lower levels of consciousness to any higher level of power within the place you call home is self-destructive. Why be complicit in our own subjugation when there is a sovereign self within just waiting to be drawn forth? This sovereign self is not seeking to bolster a sense of superiority nor is it seeking control and feels no competitiveness towards any other. The sovereign self is content unto itself though enjoys collaboration with others on a similar path and benefits from the exchange of new ideas. This is the strength of a community and a humanity built on sovereign selfhood. We not only fortify the spirit of goodness within one another, we actually fortify ourselves against potential threats as a kind of immunity response to parasites and pathogens of all kinds.

It is worth acknowledging that these psycho-spiritual parasites and pathogens operating through people are very real threats to community harmony. Just as the rabies virus can cause a dog to turn on people or a parasite like toxoplasma gondii causes a rat to be lustfully in love with cats, what I call "agents of discord” activity and covertly sow disharmony among groups of people. They are prone to fantasies of superiority and seek to control the minds and perceptions of others through disinformation (ie gossip and other social propaganda) or presenting particular narratives as “truth” to serve their own self-serving ends. They are those who twist, pervert, distort and appropriate truth to serve their ego agendas; they create drama and distractions through intrigue; they sow seeds of hate and mistrust between people and people groups through subtle manipulation of their perceptions; they keep their victims buttered up so they may don their skin suits and parade about as those whom they envy most. These are the forked-tongued ones that like to slither into opportune situations at opportune times and deposit their poisons into the unguarded ears of those not yet sovereign in their own thinking. Yes, this must be acknowledged because it is a manifestation of what we call “evil”. The maestro of menace, the conductor of discord is none other than Monsieur De Ville himself. When you see his work, please don’t mistake it for innocent misunderstandings or rash moments or temporary lapses in judgement and please do not lower your defenses out of pity. The hand behind these acts is terminally selfish and willfully malicious. Allowing oneself to get hooked by Monsieur De Ville’s seductions turns Smeagols into Gollums. Drawn into servitude through their own weaknesses, they become tests to anyone on the path toward sovereignty. So, what to do about them?

Fortifications without and within

All genocides begin with lies and are carried out by poisoned minds. Many wars are genocide in disguise. The worst atrocities are those of families and communities becoming rabid against themselves. In the aftermath of conflict, many will wonder what overcame them. They may have assumed themselves to be fundamentally good, their cause righteous, their thinking clear and informed… but they look upon the scorched earth either during or in the aftermath of war finally realizing that what got them there was not good and right after all. This is a harsh truth of the larger world we live in. The hope is in our ability to actually recognize it and, once recognized, actually fortify ourselves against such a breach

What we often fail to see though is how this distorted perception can turn into unfounded judgement, alienation and “othering"; it can escalate to unreasonable, impulsive and even frenzied acts of sub-group aggression against innocent others among and right in front of us. It’s as if something malicious, something malevolent, some kind of stealthy malware breaches our firewall, hooks into our emotional center, plays upon our deepest held values and weaponizes the best of our humanity against others if not also ourselves.

Propaganda is a subtle art form of manipulation. At its finest, it makes us believe we came to our own conclusions about a product or, in war, a situation that compels us to commit ourselves to a particular action (buy or sign up for the thing being sold). Propaganda, in general terms, is a kind of hypnosis, a way of firmly steering our behaviors through very effective subliminal suggestion. It is so reliably effective because we generally share a blindspot, a weakness in our capacity for discernment.

So, how to we fortify ourselves against corruption? In short, we fortify our connection with Spirit. There is a transcendent part of ourselves that has access to higher level information, a view from above. It is imperative that we create for ourselves many opportunities to dial into mission control for regular checkins. This can be done through losing ourselves in states of flow engaging in purely creative pursuits, connecting with nature, meditation and prayer.

I call this inability to properly perceive what should be so immediate to our awareness “proximal blindness”. This is why most people report seeing ghostly apparitions in their periphery or the hero can only approach the beast it intends to slay by monitoring it through its reflection in his shield. This is why myth, poetry, song and art is so necessary. It is within metaphor that truth is tucked like a secret scroll for our unraveling. Truths must be coded within story, song, art and dance to deliver a message past those senses that actually guard our minds against it. The right hemisphere of the brain being the seat of creativity has been hijacked by left-hemisphere thinking. When the emissary has seized the role and influence of the master, all sense perceptions are also hijacked to see only the prison of illusion the delusional false self projects. Placing more emphasis on right brain activities, perceptions and ways of relating within our communities puts the emissary back in its right place, gets to the work of cleaning up the mess and reassumes it’s proper sovereign role.

We cannot control what others do but what we can do is seek out our ilk and form supportive groups of resonate minds.

We can prioritize our commitment to the tribes and fortify our efforts in these spaces while keeping the invitation open for those willing to stand in their own authenticity, demonstrate accountability and play nicely to join when they’re ready and willing. Through shifting our collective mindset from linear to circular, from concrete to creative, from competition to collaboration… I do believe we can make a dramatic shift toward a unified collective built on reciprocity, mutual respect and creative collaboration.

Manifesto for a Greater World "Renovation":

This is a Velvet Revolution, a Coup de Coeur. Heads will roll so hearts may lead. We are not storming the castle; we have no use for crumbling structures built on corrupt foundations. We are building our own Greater World on the firm foundation of personal integrity and higher purpose. Our credo is Truth, Beauty and Goodness in all its forms. Our aims are nothing less than to change our world and ourselves for the better. Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno.