Linked from Practice, Path, Goal

It is frequently stated that to solve the massive planetary crises we are facing will require a dramatic shift of consciousness. I made a one-year commitment to shed some light on what that might mean.  I identified the first step as brainstorming the possible elements involved.  Here is the first pass of my Ingredients Brainstorming document mentioned in the previous post.  There’s a lot to untangle even to get started.

For the last few years I have noticed a common theme in what I’m drawn to read: an impending major global culture shift.  I started a list of authors, with columns for the Before and After state as each author viewed it. With all the additional ideas I was coming up with in the brainstorming, the mass of material was becoming too diffuse and complex to write a blog post about. I decided to see what Joanna Macy had written about the consciousness shift specifically, since her book Active Hope initiated this whole project. On her web site, under the heading of “Living Systems” I found a link to an essay called The Holonic Shift .



She says there, “All living systems–be they organic like a cell or human body, or supra-organic like a society or ecosystem–are holons. That means they have a dual nature: As both systems and subsystems, they are wholes in themselves and, simultaneously, integral parts of larger wholes.”



She then describes the need for evolving a reflexive consciousness at the next level above the human individual, that is, at the level of the whole social system.



“It would seem that such a holonic shift is necessary for our survival. Since Earth’s carrying capacity is limited, and since the ecosystems supporting us are threatened with collapse, we must learn to think together in an integrated, synergistic fashion, rather than in fragmented and competitive ways. Present modes of collective decision-making, like the ballot-box or consensus circles, are simply too corruptible and too slow for the swift, responsive self-guidance that we as societies need now. In what ways can we help? How can we as individuals promote a holonic shift and take part in it?”



She then suggests an answer to her own question by providing a list of twelve guidelines for how to take part in it.



I looked on the Internet to see if anybody else uses this term “Holonic Shift”. There wasn’t much. But the one item I did find, an essay called “The Holonic Shift Will Not Be Televised” on a blog called “Wild Serenity” was like a flash of lightning on a dark night. On October 4, 2011 the author, identified as Riyana-Rebecca, was blogging about her experience in the Occupy Movement, then only two weeks old. I felt a shock of recognition at the words, “As my mentor Joanna Macy says, it is time for a new level of human consciousness on this planet: the holonic shift. To Joanna, who for many years studied Living Systems Theory and ecospirituality, the time is ripe for the next evolution of consciousness”.



Riyana-Rebecca listed Joanna’s guidelines, and went on to describe her view of how the Occupy movement is beautifully aligned with each guideline in turn. I was blown away by the level of insight, sometimes brilliant writing and how many of the pieces of my far-flung puzzle she connected. I read all the other postings on her blog and was impressed enough to subscribe.



I continued gathering books and articles, to feed “ingredients” into the brainstorming list. While reading in Nature and the Human Soul by Bill Plotkin, I came across a section (pages 27 and 8) called “A Portrait of the Coming Stage of Human Evolution”. This sounded like more of what I was looking for. He begins, “Thomas Berry refers to the great transformations in the evolution of the universe as ‘moments of grace’.” The footnote took me to an essay entitled “Moments of Grace” in Berry’s book The Great Work.

Berry says the moment in which we live is the latest in a long series of extraordinary turning points that also includes the birth of the solar system, the appearance on Earth of the first living cell, and the advent of humans. A major difference is this is the first such moment caused by the actions of a life form capable of conscious reflection on the systemic change–us. Placing our situation in this vast time horizon inspired me to use this perspective as a focal point to try to pull together my thoughts and produce a first update on my work in progress.

This decision seemed to trigger my own “moment of grace”.  On the first day of November I received an e-mail from Riyana-Rebecca with the bold headline:

Her timing was perfect, and her offer was generous. The assignment for the first day of the month-long challenge was:
Figure out what your Writer’s Mission is for today, and for the week, and for the month.  Just don’t spend three hours on it when you should be writing.