Photo from https://labyrinthsociety.org
Emergence, liminality, embodiment, complexity, non-linearity, fractals, harmonics, attractors, morphic fields, autopoiesis, living systems thinking, quantum biology, biomimicry, regeneration, cycles of life and death, evolution... it’s all there, if anyone wants to learn about these dynamics, they might just as easily choose to immerse themselves in understanding healing as a property of all living systems…
Entering Autumn, days steadily shortening after the Equinox, a time to harvest the learnings from the flushes of growth in Spring and Summer.
It’s not always the case that our work patterns synch with seasonal cycles, but right now I’m feeling both a sense of a pause, and the lightness that comes when entering a time of release as the month of October begins.
I’m also experiencing gratitude - it’s almost exactly a year since I decided to host what was to be a a short series of just 3 online spaces to explore healing, in all its different manifestations, whether personal, physical, spiritual, ecological, societal. I had been running a course ‘Wisdom of Self-Healing Systems’ earlier in 2022, which introduced participants to 5 key principles of healing that can be applied at any level of scale and system. A key insight for myself in designing and delivering the course was that I really wanted to apply these principles in a wider community setting, and so offering these circles seemed like a good place to start.
I really wasn’t quite sure what to expect from them , especially with an open, free to attend group format. How would we manage to co-create and hold safety with a constellation of people that might never meet again within the short space of an hour? What if it started to feel unsafe - for me or for a participant? What if it was a waste of time? What if, what if…
It’s now been a year since those first sessions launched, and they’ve been offered monthly ever since. We’ve covered a lot of ground - themes have included:
The format tends to be fairly simple, there’ll be a theme which has emerged from my own sensing into what is arising for me and which seems mirrored elsewhere in the ecosystem, and whether there is a feeling of resonance and timeliness. I’ll then write a short piece for Linkedin to share, and wait to see who turns up!
On arrival, we begin with a welcome to the session, some people know each other, some are strangers. I always feel a sense of gratitude and anticipation - the qualities that each person is bringing will flower into what wants to emerge from each gathering. I’m conscious that each constellation is unique, and that no matter the size of the group, we are somehow enabling shifts for the wider world, in our little unknowable, homeopathic way.
I’ll set a few simple ‘rules of engagement’ about only sharing what each feels comfortable with in a group of strangers, to respect the confidentiality of that, and to make sure that each has someone they can talk to afterwards if something arises that they don’t feel able to deal with. I offer myself if there is no-one else to talk to. It’s important that people feel held.
Then I’ll introduce the theme for that session, sharing some key ideas with a few examples and even personal experiences so that people can individually relate these to their own situation. It’s not a presentation, at most I might share a couple of images on slides, or some music. The important thing is that we can each engage with the energetic qualities of whichever themes and principle(s) we are focusing on.
We’ll then engage in some quiet meditation, or some form of embodiment practice to sense more deeply into what is emerging for each of us. It’s pretty light touch and not especially ‘woo’. Yet more often than not, there’s a feeling of an expanded sense of time and place, a non-local experiencing that happens when we begin resonating together around a shared inquiry. Like the patterns revealed in cymatics when liquids or particles are exposed to different sound frequencies, healing reveals itself in simple and complex forms, dancing elegantly within the solfeggios of sacred geometry, the Schumann resonances of Earth, all these mysterious and powerful energetic languages that harmonise time and space in a constantly unfolding mandala of possibilities.
Dia-gnosis
When people share insights that are coming up, sometimes they can be deeply personal, but equally they relate to work, community, organisational and environmental dynamics, or just a sense of a deeper appreciation or trust for how healing is already happening in different contexts. There’s often a strong synchronicity in what is shared, a sense of collective weaving and heart-felt gratitude for this experience of being graced. We are in a state of gnosis, direct experiencing that has its own ways of carrying forward. It’s own life-forward movement.
It is interesting to consider that the original meaning of dia-gnosis was literally, gaining understanding through gnosis, an immanent form of knowledge which is accompanied by a felt sense. This is what I sense is happening - through tuning into a particular dimension of healing, which carries its own energetic frequency, and through attunement and resonance in dialogue - dia-logos the flow of meaning - accessing different brainwave states through meditation, inviting in the wisdom of our bodies through embodiment practice as an experiential form of gnosis.
And now, entering a second year, I wonder what this next cycle may bring? My dream is to support a deepening sense of trust in healing as a living, participatory process to equip people from across the world to apply in all spheres of life. To integrate whilst also evolve beyond trauma-informed approaches. We have collectively ended up with a cautious and fearful approach to healing, a diminished view of healing that is prodded and probed under metaphorical and real microscopes and challenged to prove itself in the face of all sorts of expensive cures and fixes based around the linear logics of doing to and power over - when in reality Healing requires its very own observatory with a vista into the whole cosmos.
Part of my journey is to keep offering these circle spaces, where I get to learn so much, as well as to teach and offer retreats that help people to integrate healing principles into all of life, and through writing. And I’ve also been enriched through all sorts of regenerative relationships and happenings and possibilities that appear when I find myself with others in receptive flow around healing. integration, renewal, the dance of regeneration and degeneration… In the I Ching, the hexagram of K’un, the Receptive, is a state of yielding and trust that is likened to following a mare, gentle in disposition, yet wild and adventurous as she explores the vast expanses of the plains. Following the mare of healing invites both our full receptivity and courage as she leads us to an ever deeper appreciation and understanding of this living energy, a deep evolutionary memory, a wisdom like no other.
If you would like to join future sessions, they are free to attend and now run in 2 time-zones. The next dates, times and registration links for joining are:
October 13th, 8.00-9.00am BST/UTC+1 and 17.00-18.00 BST/UTC+1
November 14th, 8.00-9.00am UTC and 17.00-18.00 UTC
December 12th, 8.00-9.00am UTC and 17.00-18.00 UTC
January 11th, 8.00-9.00am UTC and 17.00-18.00 UTC
Or, see my website for ongoing healing circles, courses and online community.
www.evolutionhealing.com