Building the new culture for a whole new world

Woods Elliott: A Planetary Culture of Presence
I see The Growing Edge blog as a huge empty creative canvas upon which we can write our social art and commentary, have it displayed, and invite reaction and further elaboration of the collective process. Ideas arise, people express themselves in relation to those ideas. New ideas germinate from the transactions and interactions. The makings for a whole new world are identified, agreed upon, values are rearranged and priorities are reconstructed accordingly.

As we approach the launch of A Whole New World in January, Rose and I have begun to look at what culture-building could be: are there key elements that alchemize in the fields of collective consciousness; how is collective consensus arrived at; is a new master list of cultural priorities conceivable; and how would new accords and agreements be implemented and enforced even if miraculously arrived at, lol? The future is co-created when we can consciously envision and manifest it out of the latency of what is in the present moment. How do we manifest what happens? How can we evolve more by knowing we evolve and directly influence the evolutionary process?

We see the monthly teleconferences we will be starting in February as part of New Moon Magic as an exciting opportunity to interface with one another as human planetarians for deepened relationships, cooperativeness, interdependence, and to feel human unity.

It was not fortuitous that Rosy and I linked up from opposite sides of the planet. Perhaps we are transcultural, transreligious, transnational enough to contribute to the seeding work of social reconstruction. Here's a few foundational ideas for a whole new world for this week:

1 We'd like to help build a whole new world by envisioning what it might look like, what its primary facets are, how it will be different from the current culture we have, and inviting evolutionary people from around the globe to join us in building the new. People are, in certain ways, trapped and limited by their isness and daily membership in their society. Becoming more transcultural means going beyond the boundaries of one's culture of origin. There will be resistance to this because, in seeking a more inclusive identification with all people, many people will feel disloyal to their own nations. In a sense, participation in our monthly New Moon Magic calls and The Growing Edge will be a first transcultural step for some.

2 We'd like to provide self declared global citizens with a means by which we can make a shift to more international identity, not by moving somewhere else, but by redefining who we are, in which important ways we're One with all life, and to embody that shift locally and globally on the web altogether. To participate in AWNW is to be open to new cultural viewpoints and allegiances, to learn about becoming a world citizen, and feel new infusions of hope from an expanded sense of personal identity.

3 So this website could be looked upon as a collective experiment for this whole new world in the making. Can we be the stem cells the body of humanity needs? Can we continue to go to work during the day, but in the evenings, secure in front of our communicative computers, can we take the rite of passage and quietly get the new world off the ground? This is one of our centermost beliefs: that a whole new world can be and is already being designed and quietly built beside the dying old one, and people can make their major transitions to the new one, in their own time, and when it feels right for them. Major transitions can still be gradual and not traumatic.

4 What we see as critical if we are to navigate major changes, is to stay calm, sane, and not panic. This is key to survival. We need to stay cool, relaxed, and go with the flow. Eckhart Tolle's teachings about achieving "presence" can be very helpful in combating stress. He exudes "presence" from his pores. He's a living spiritual tranquilizer and his teachings are so relevant. Collective human madness is unmistakably all around us, but that madness is not us. It's the "pain body", it's unconsciousness. We need to awaken more. Spreading the collective awakening is a primary goal for Rose and me. Awakening people need to find each other and join up together. Humanity does need to shift from mind to awareness. AWNW will be committed, no, devoted to augmenting this query on how awareness differs from mind?

5 Another important focus at AWNW is about all of us learning how to provide for each other what we most need to get through these major transitions, and be stronger than ever on the other side. There are now mammoth paradigm shifts in the making. Our old familiar, taken for granted, same old-same old, declining world is coming apart. We know this because we see the thieves and bandits out there making a big killing, while we watch on helplessly, bailing out the thieves. A primary goal for AWNW is to create a giant Heart Circle for sharing our experiences and a safe haven where people can look to each other in new ways, make new choices, and cope with the hardships.

6 The good news in all the societal collapse underway, is afterwards, we'll be a more interdependent, community-centered species, freed from the increasing economic entrapment, serfdom, and penal colony-like lifestyles of the old empire, and freed to co-create a whole different way of living far more sustainably, responsibly, cooperatively, brilliantly, and healthfully.

7 So AWNW is about the new paradigm, "The Shift", the new consciousness, time to "upgrade" the old system and help people into lifeboats, setting up survival arks for the human spirit, encourage development of local mutual aid communities to spearhead survival on a local level, and increasingly, nonlocal, less national, and more global communities on the web, like we're doing here. People's lives will begin to revolve more around their immediate neighborhoods and their virtual web communities where they will meet, form new work and play relationships, barter, innovate, be highly creative, and enter collective forms of intelligence which will kick evolution into high gear.

My regrets to those readers who had difficulty signing on to the blog and posting comments from last week. Yikes, is this like asking people to knock, but not letting them in! Remember people in a whole new world need to be very patient and present (I couldn't resist). I swear we'll figure out how to answer your knock.
Much love and peace, Woods

Rose Diamond: From Grit to Beauty


Woods and I were having a conversation last week about how a new culture is created. If a whole new world is to be made it will arise out of a new culture, the way the culture of the pearl transforms grit into beauty. One of the dictionary definitions of grit is: firmness of mind or spirit; unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger. Like the process of alchemy the new culture will grow and develop as we transform what isn’t working in our lives into something special, by becoming more conscious.

The new culture exists and is growing alongside the old. Many people I know who are part of this new culture call themselves spiritual warriors, or peaceful warriors. The warrior is someone who does battle with the darkness within the self. I’m holding a vision for a world free of war, a totally new world. This is such a radical departure from the world we currently inhabit, it’s almost impossible to conceive or envision. Yet I can envision it, can you?

To me it seems the old outgoing culture of the Piscean Age, is based on duality, war, the industry of war which lines the pockets of the mega wealthy, and the politics of domination and control, including the domination of nature. Isn’t it these values that are morally and actually bankrupting the western world and bringing the global crisis to a head? In contrast, the values of the new culture are peace, cooperation and co-creation, respect for differences and a higher, more inclusive consciousness which respects the sacredness of all life.

Even amongst the people of like mind who are weaving the new culture from their state of being it isn’t always easy to find a common ground and we all have a lot more work to do, especially in communication and finding ways to work together so we can all really fly. As we learn to drop our ego attachments, it becomes easier to co-operate in the creation of a bigger vision for the larger whole of which we are all part. I see this as a path of service and I’m learning to walk this path with all the daily challenges it brings. I certainly don’t always get it right and at times it stretches me to my limits, yet I have no doubts this is what I’m here to do. I’ve learned about culture building through being a group leader all my life and through participating in many different learning communities. I like the idea of a learning community: a group of people coming together to learn. That is how we see A Whole New World: people connecting from all around the world to share our experiences, develop skills, and support each other.

All the learning communities I’ve been involved with have focused on sharing and exploring our inner, subjective worlds and creating a space in which we can let go of the old conditioning that keeps us bound to the old culture of war, domination, and bankruptcy and instead develop more enlightened ways of thinking, being, doing and living together.

Through participating in these circles and pursuing my own passionate interest in the process of transformation, I identified 8 Pillars of Transformation, or sets of skills, attitudes, values, goals and practices, we need to attend to and explore in order to create the whole new world. These are:
1. Our relationship with Nature (and this includes our understanding of human nature.)
I put this one first because unless we redress the balance in our relationship with Nature, and stop wantonly destroying our natural habitat and killing other species, what remains of life on Earth will be stripped of sacredness and life supporting qualities, so our very survival depends upon it.
2. Inner work: raising consciousness, becoming authentic and being the change we want to see.
3. The creative process: understanding how to create and bring more awareness into the process so that we can be conscious creators of our lives rather than victims of circumstances.
4. Living our passion: following our true calling, being of service, and prospering through it.
5. Conscious relationship: seeing relationships as mirrors through which we can learn about ourselves, release dysfunctional patterns, and develop more compassionate, loving communication.
6. Co-creative community: recognizing solutions to our collective problems can only be solved if we learn how to work together and create something better than any of us can do alone.
7. Global responsibility: knowing we are global citizens, part of One Global Family, and that the parts can only truly prosper when we act local and think global.
8. Our relationship with Cosmos: remembering the bigger picture and the mystery of who we are, where we come from, and why we are here.
All of these together create Unity, or the realization that all life is interconnected and the only sane choice is to be in service to this interconnection.

Forgive me if this all sounds a little abstract. I’m presenting the skeleton or structure around which the work of A Whole New World will develop. Over the coming year we’ll be bringing these concepts to life on the blog by sharing our own experiences of each pillar, and what we’ve learned, and by encouraging you to inquire, reflect, share and participate in dialogue with us, as we build our global learning community.

To find out more about the 8 Pillars of Transformation go to: http://livingyourpassion.info and download the free e-book. The longer e-book will be part of our first pre-launch publication for New Moon Magic on December 27th, free to you when you become a Founding Member of A Whole New World: http://livingyourpassion.info/nmm/

We’ve heard some people had trouble posting comments to last week’s blog entries. Please bear with us while we evolve a simpler system. We really want to hear from you and make this blog a participatory event. If you’d like to post something but you can’t work out how, please send your thoughts to rose@awholenewworld.net or woods@awholenewworld.net and we’ll post them for you. Include a photo of yourself , your environment or whatever, if you like.

Namaste,
Rose