Let me introduce you to the new teleseminar series of interviews I have just started at A Whole New World.  It’s a series about being a new culture maker, co-creating a new culture which reflects the Whole New Humans we’re becoming.

A Whole New World is a resource for the transition to a more peaceful, sustainable soulful world and part of a movement for conscious evolution emerging around the planet. Our mission is to be a catalyst within this movement, growing a community of common understanding and a common language, by providing maps, practices, forums for conversation and models of new culture making.

Even while the old systems, like the banking system and unsustainable agriculture, are in a cycle of decline and destruction, there is a new culture emerging all around the world.  As the old culture cracks and strains apart, little green shoots of inspired innovation are shooting towards the light and activating a new vision for humanity.

At A Whole New World, we know from experience that being a new culture maker isn’t always easy. It’s a creative process which uses every bit of who we are, challenges us every step of the way to let go of what is inauthentic and outworn, and to step into the unknown, the only place from which transformation is possible.

The intention behind this TRUE WEALTH series is to inform, inspire and encourage you to actively participate in new culture making. We’re providing a forum where together we can pursue an inquiry and identify some of the questions which may help us to move forward into a more resilient new culture.

Here are four of the ingredients we need as new culture makers at this time:

Information: in this time of transition from the old world to the new, we need to know what is really going on so that we can respond consciously and appropriately.

Inspiring role models who have experience, wisdom and skills to share help us to move through doubt, fear, confusion and inertia and move into our highest visions of what is possible.

Encouragement is so welcome, whoever we are and wherever we are on the path, because being awake and becoming a change agent or new culture maker takes courage, commitment and stamina.

Curiosity and an experimental mindset is very helpful because creating a new culture  can be a slow process of experimentation, trial and error, working against the odds, feeling you’re a lone voice crying in the wilderness. When we stay open and curious and experimental we transform what can seem like a heavy, dark situation into a light, playful and exciting experience.

As the title TRUE WEALTH suggests, having a strong and focused purpose grows you as you engage it, and  a purposeful, inspired, creative life which  brings you into community with like minded others, is a very rich and fulfilling path.  It’s a huge privilege and an exciting adventure to evolve beyond our limitations and contribute to the forward and upward movement of our human community or culture in a way that is life giving and life renewing and which serves the essential interconnectedness of life.  It’s about getting beyond our own little self concern to serve that something bigger which is the source of inspiration and life renewing energy itself.

The speakers in this series have been working in their chosen field over many years, or over a lifetime, and they have a rich treasure trove of wisdom and skills to share. They are creating down-to-earth and life renewing ways of living together which help to build community, empower individuals and stimulate the flow of prosperity. These include alternatives to the mainstream economy in the form of complementary money systems; Transition Towns; permaculture, or the conscious design of ecosystems for sustainable food growing in harmony with nature; ecovillages, holistic education, and a host of other initiatives, all springing from the same fertile ground of positive change .

To find out more and to subscribe go here:

http://www.awholenewworld.net/true-wealth.html

Rose Diamond, February 10, 2012

“It’s been raining for four days here in New Zealand and with Christmas coming up and the economy bleak, there must be millions and millions of people in the world, suffering and afraid. It’s easy to get pulled down into negative thinking, limitation and a spiral of disempowerment. As an evolutionary and new culture maker, I know that no matter how precarious my own life situation appears to be, I am still one of the most privileged people in the world, and one of the most vital services I can offer is to keep holding open the space of possibility and trust. I can choose where I put my attention and intention.”

I would add to that now, that the space of possibility has to be held from a place of clear open eyed and awake seeing of the dangers we are all in. We need to deeply and courageously know the gravity of our global crisis so that we can respond appropriately. There is no place for denial or complacency.
I’m holding together this need for the shedding of illusion with a deepening insight into the interconnectedness, and abundance of the universe. Even though the universe may appear to be an impersonal force, I had strong sense of being take care of in a personal way throughout the disaster. In a way that is quite difficult to put into words I experienced the place where the personal I and the universe intersect and influence each other. A friend referred to this recently as mystical physics. A movement arises from this meeting of little mind and Big Mind. Any sense of separation I had before the flood has been replaced by a knowing that I am interwoven with all of life. And so are you.

I know I am not separate from nature. This was not something nature did to us, rather nature is responding to the imbalances caused by the unsustainable practices of humans, so human and nature are one movement of cause and effect. Similarly I don’t see myself as separate from the generosity of people and the universe, I understand that I am creating my reality each and every moment by the thoughts and intentions I choose to have and the actions I take. I know now I am much stronger and have more resources to draw on than I thought and that reality is more mysterious than I knew. You could say that my connection with life has deepened.

I am still in the midair of transition. I know everything has changed but I’m not sure what that means in terms of actions I will take. Being homeless is “inconvenient”, it upsets one’s plans, illusions, certainties and sense of being in control. Yet it offers amazing lessons in being in the flow of an ever changing reality, in holding the complexities of life in both hands and learning how to keep finding an ever deepening truth to align with within the paradoxes. I am learning how to stand on my surfboard and ride the slipstream. Wanna join me?

For all of us living here in Aotearoa – New Zealand life took one of those irreversible shifts last Tuesday when we heard about the quake in Christchurch.

Those who have lost loved ones or whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed, it is too soon to talk about the opportunities loss brings. Grief and mourning are a sacred process which unfolds over time and can’t be hurried. Likewise shock and trauma need time to heal.

Those of us who have been shaken, but not physically affected, are going through our own process each in our own way. The first question on most people’s lips is, “Do you have family and friends in Christchurch?” then, “How can I help?” and then “What does this mean for Christchurch and for the country as a whole? And inevitably, “Will there be another quake?”

At some fundamental level our sense of security is shaken and I venture to suggest that although this is grave, grievous and scary, we can choose to see it as an opportunity.

Papatuanuku, our Earth Mother, is shaking us awake and touching our hearts. She is speaking to us and through us. She is showing up in all our interactions. What do you hear her saying?

These are some of the things I am hearing:

1. We are all connected and we are all in this together.

In so many practical ways this crisis reveals the infrastructure we depend upon and take for granted: power, water, sewage, telephone, workplaces, schools, food transportation and storage, protection for crime, the regular rhythm of our day which keeps the economy and the country running. When these services are interrupted we have an opportunity to step back and see how many people we depend upon, just how interconnected we all are and how blessed we are.

2. The most important thing is to love and take care of each other.

When we are made vulnerable by loss and disaster the heart opens and we are more aware of our own feelings and more available to each other. This is a wonderful opportunity to let go of old hurts, judgments and resentments that have been keeping us separated from each other and to see each other anew. Have you been noticing these opportunities arising in your daily life? Are you feeling called to take more risks with friends and family in a gentle way? To break free of old habits which have kept you captive? Are you expressing more appreciation and gratitude of those you love?

3. We need to stay awake and alert and follow our own heart and truth.

The animals know when danger is coming and they run for cover. We humans have our own psychic radar that tells us where we need to be and what we need to do in any moment. At the time of the quake on Tuesday I was at Pupu Springs, the sacred waters of Golden Bay, with an overseas visitor who had flown up from Christchurch the day before. It seems this is a time when we all need to stay very attuned to what is right for us, not to be ruled by should and ought tos but to be moved by the heart. It seems important also to stay open to joy and to acknowledge all the gifts life is constantly showering upon us, in whatever form they come wrapped in.

4. We are One Global Family.

Our interconnectedness starts here at home and spreads out to encompass the whole world. The Earth Mother is erupting everywhere. The small community of Cockermouth in the Lake District was devastated by flood in 2009,  floods came too to the people of Pakistan, Queensland, Europe, Bolivia; the people in the Gulf of Mexico suffered the most horrendous oil disaster; in Haiti a terrible quake took many lives; in Western Australia and California, fires raged; in Indonesia an awful volcanic eruption. The world is in chaos and sometimes there is just too much to respond to; we switch off, we go a little numb, we busy ourselves with what we can do. Yet right now is a moment to remember that we are all One Family. Despite all our different languages, cultures, ethnicities, colours of skin, religions, we are all more alike than different. As his Holiness the Dalai Lama has said, “All human beings have two things in common: we all long to be happy and we all suffer.” What would it really mean to live as one human family?   How would you live that on a daily basis?

5. This is an opportunity to rebuild in a new more humane and sustainable way.

One of my teachers, Joanna Macy, calls this the time of the Great Turning, others have called it the Great Awakening, or the Great Compassion. If we want a more humane world in which each one of us is honoured for who we are, living a whole and holy life together, it is up to each one of us to create that. It starts in the heart and we live it through all our relationships.

Namaste,

Rose Diamond.

P.S. If you are a woman living at the top of the SouthIsland of New Zealand, or indeed if you would like to come up from Christchurch, my one day Soul Sisters Retreats provide space for processing, connecting, deepening, community building and renewal. We will be meeting In Cable Bay, near Nelson on Sunday 13^th March and in Tukurua, Golden Bay on Sunday March 20^th. Genuine inquiries please leave a comment and your email address and I will contact you.

March 1st 2011

For quite a few years now I’ve been keenly interested in the potential of co-creative groups and how to facilitate them. Any group requires some kind of “container” for its healthy development. The container may be as simple as “this is when we meet, and this is who we are, and this is what we focus on together”.

Now, with the beginning of the Soul Weaving mentoring program, with its focus on creativity, co-creativity, leadership and new culture building, I’m asking questions about what needs to be put in place to support its full flowering. This is a process of experimentation and discovery because these skills are really at the leading edge, and all over the world people are engaged in a similar inquiry about how we move into the new.  I’d like to share some of my early musings with you.

I can’t think of anything that’s created that doesn’t have some form of container. A seed is a container which holds the blueprint for the plant until the life force builds enough to shoot out beyond the boundary; a bud is a container from which the flower unfolds when its time has come and it has been warmed enough by the sun; the womb is a container for the growing infant, puppy, or lamb. So, if we take these examples from nature, the container holds and protects the new life during its gestation period until it has grown enough to experience this protection as a limitation and gathered enough momentum to destroy its containment. The process of growth involves a creative tension and the tension enables a breakthrough into the next stage of life.

Personal growth works that way too. We build an idea of who we are, an identity, and this supports us to be in the world and fulfill the roles and tasks we’ve committed to, for example, as a parent or as a teacher, or as an entrepreneur. Then gradually as we grow and mature we start to feel there are parts of us being excluded from that identity, parts of us that need to live and find expression. And if we are courageous and decide to follow our authentic calling, eventually we have to breakthrough the limitations of old beliefs, old ideas, old stories, and create a bigger more inclusive identity. For example, many people at the moment are growing out of the identity of “me alone, me for me” to a knowing of interconnectedness and being part of One Global Family.

As creative beings we are continually growing beyond what we know and creating into the unknown. This requires much trust in ourselves and in the process of life. Because there are times when we appear to be suspended in the void, in the unknown, and not knowing who or where we are or where we’re going. We learn to trust that the solutions are inside us, or will come through us when we are open, or lie between us in community.

In any creative act, I propose there has to be some form of container and some kind of creative tension created by the container. Take writing a book for example. In the early stages of writing we are completely free;  inspiration flows, words spill out onto the page, we get high on our own creative genius. Then there comes a point where there are pages littered all over the floor and overwhelm sets in and we need to find a form,  a way to bring out the essential meaning. The form is what creates the beauty and harmony of any work of art and the artist’s job is to find the intrinsic harmony within the stream of words, or within the lump of stone or from among the colored threads and beads.

I think the success of any venture depends on how we handle the creative tension which is essential for the transformational breakthrough into a higher order. If there is insufficient tension, for example no clear focus or motivation, we may have fun for a while, then get bored and move on; if there is too much tension, for example, too rigid an agenda, then we equally get frustrated and give up. There’s a balance required between having a clear, strong motivation and desire to create and yet not being attached to the outcome, being able to surrender to what comes. We have a container yet hold it lightly and it is always subject to revision and adjustment.

Does this make sense to you? What do you think?

In terms of building a container for a learning community, or any relationship focused on creativity, co-creativity and new culture making, my understanding is that the container must be transparent, flexible, strong; the focus of ongoing dialogue and adjustment, and inclusive of all voices. My ideal for this is that when everyone in a group feels free to express their authentic self, there will be differences, and there may be conflicts of interest at times, but just as there is a higher level of integration available within the self and within the form of the art work, there is also a higher level of integration available to the group, a state of expansion which includes all of each person and goes beyond the individual into a higher level of harmony and creativity, and into higher levels of consciousness, understanding and knowing.   This is quite some “work”; the alchemy of a co-creative group.

Watch this space, there will be further musings.

Photo: The Alchemical Garden, Courtesy of the Database of Alchemical Symbols at www.alchemywebsite.com:
‘An ouroborous serpent, or dragon seizing its own tail, is set in a round vessel. From its belly a plant with three flowers grows up out of the vessel. On the earth below a Moon, Sun and star are seen.’