February 2, 2002, Candlemas

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THIS PAGE WILL BE A REGULAR SPACE FOR UPDATES ON THE PROGRESS OF THE MILLIONTH CIRCLE INITIATIVE

Today you will find:

 

 

 

 

"Circles encourage connection and cooperation among their members and inspire compassionate solutions to individual, community and world problems. We believe that circles support each member to find her or his own voice and to live more courageously. Therefore, we intend to seed and nurture circles, wherever possible, in order to cultivate equality, sustainable livelihoods, preservation of the the earth and peace for all. Our aim is to celebrate the millionth circle as the metaphor of an idea whose time has come."

--Millionth Circle 2005

 

 

Millionth Circle -- coming to an NGO near you!

by Stephanie Hiller

"A proliferation of circles has the potential to become a force for social justice by bringing feminine values of relationship and interdependency into a culture of hierarchy and dominance through power." -- Jean Shinoda Bolen

In 1999, Jean Shinoda Bolen published a small book about circles -- how to hold one, why to hold one, and why forming circles might change the world.

Alluding to the phenomenon of the hundredth monkey, in which a change in behavior within a colony of monkeys suddenly leaps to another community and becomes established behavior, Bolen shared her feeling that circles -- particularly women's circles -- might one day become the norm for group communication in an evolved human community.

Now it seems that that evolutionary leap is about to occur! At the World Parliament of Religion in South Africa in 1999, Peggy Sebrera and Ronita Johnson gave a Chakra Circle presentation, where they met Elly Pradervand and Elinore Detiger. Together they agreed to bring circle work to the NGO gathering at the UN Special Session on the Eradication of Poverty in Geneva. There they decided to introduce circles into the planning and organization of the forthcoming 5th UN Conference on Women, scheduled for 2005 -- and the work has begun!

And so, as synchronistically and spontaneously as Bolen had imagined it, the Millionth Circle Initiative came into being. An organization is forming, conferences are being held, a web site is under construction, and a database is being created in which we may all register our circles and learn how to get in touch with one another.

There are a few basic guidelines for holding a circle, but beyond that, there is no dogma or rules, and with luck, that is the way it will stay. For the circle is not a political party or a religion, nor even a new idea; people have gathered in circles long before parliaments were convened in rows. Circles are fundamental, indigenous, and generative. They are completely egalitarian, and often leaderless. Circles are a way to invoke and celebrate the sacred.

Any circle will do; medicine circles, wiccan circles, prayer circles, meditation circles all adhere to the same principle: that communication between people undertaken in sacred space will be witnessed and guided by the divine in each of us.

May it be so!

We include a short essay from Jean Bolen's website, as well as further details about the progress of the Initiative. We will maintain and update this page as a regular and staple feature of Awakened Woman from now on, recording and sharing the progress of this exciting movement.

Circles as Vessels of Healing and Transformation

by Jean Shinoda Bolen

On September 13, 2001, I wrote "Circle Invocation" as an email. The subject line read "Form Circles -- A Prescription from Jean Shinoda Bolen, M. D.," with the following suggestions:

Dear Friends:

I know that circles are vehicles for healing and change. I wrote this email to get the word out. Spread the message to others. Wherever you are today, tomorrow, next week -- bring people (include the children) together to form circles. if you are in a group, transform it into a circle, if you are already in a circle, get together. In response to the destruction of buildings, families, lives and everyone's sense of security, this is something you can do to help. A circle is a healing and connecting prescription accessible to everyone. Every family, any group of people anywhere can form one. Love, Jean

I followed my own prescription and brought the poem and the intention to the monthly dinner meeting of analysts on September 14. Since the horrifying events on September 11, this had been the focus or the beginning topic of almost every analytic session. Midway through dinner, I read "Circle Invocation", and invited every rectangular dinner table of six to become a circle. I think that the reaction of one member was possibly true for most: "After an initial resistance, I found that the experience was quite wonderful." Circles may appear un-Jungian on the surface, but Jungians more than anyone may actually appreciate the form that a circle can be, once it is seen as an enactment that constellates the Self in the center of each person and in the center of the circle -- and therefore why it can be quite wonderful.

Holding hands to form a circle immediately connects us, one to another. Touch comforts, the clasp of hands forms an unbroken circle--a nonverbal statement that we are together. When silence for reflection, meditation or prayer is added, it is also an experiential introduction to the archetye of the circle with a spiritual center, which I have been seeding as an idea through lectures, workshops and my most recent books, The Millionth Circle and Goddesses in Older Women. When I describe how to form and maintain circles, the analytic vessel and Jungian concepts of the psyche provide the structure and spirit through which a circle can become a vessel of healing and transformation. Further, if the collective unconscious and the morphic field are actually the same, circles become vessels for the transformation of culture as well. An alchemy or reciprocal effect that changes both, occurs between the individual circle and the archetype of the circle. (In essence, this is an application of theoretical biologist Rupert Sheldrake's thinking to Jungian psychology; humanity's morphic field is Jung's collective unconscious.)

A proliferation of circles has the potential to become a force for social justice by bringing feminine values of relationship and interdependency into a culture of hierarchy and dominance through power. Women as a gender use conversation to bond which makes the circle a natural medium and form. Women in small groups became the Women's Suffragette's movement, gaining women the right to vote in 1920. Women in small consciousness-raising groups led to the Women's movement of the 1970s. As a result, what was once unthinkable for women to do became usual and incorporated into cultural values. If women's circles with a spiritual center became the source of a third wave of feminism, the effect in Jungian terms would be to bring feminine and masculine principles into balance within collective consciousness. According to Sheldrake, when a critical number of a species changes how it perceives or behaves, this becomes normal behavior, which often is then attributed to instinct or natural law and really is a new habit.

In preparation for the 5th UN Conference on Women and the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children, the Millionth Circle 2005 planning commitee (which began at the World Parliament of Religion in South Africa) wrote this statement of intention: "Circles encourage connection and cooperation among their members and inspire compassionate solutions to individual, community and world problems. We believe that circles support each member to find her or his own voice and to live more courageously. Therefore, we intend to seed and nurture circles, wherever possible, in order to cultivate equality, sustainable livelihoods, preservation of the the earth and peace for all. Our aim is to celebrate the millionth circle as the metaphor of an idea whose time has come." "The millionth circle" was taken from my book with the same title; it is the circle whose formation tips the scales and brings change. I was in turn, inspired by the story of "the hundredth monkey" that had sustained activists in the 1970-80s to continue on in the face of conventional wisdom that said that nothing (certainly not ordinary people) could not deter the nuclear arms race between the superpowers. Since then, the Berlin wall came down, antinuclear proliferation treaties were signed, and Russia is an ally.

© 1999-2001 Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.

Originally published in San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, Vol. 20, No, 3, 2001.

CIRCLE GUIDELINES

 

To Participate in a circle, all you need is the desire, the willingness to

attend the gatherings and to agree to follow circle principles. Each group

determines their own guidelines. Here are some agreements that have helped

circles to function more successfully for all participants.

 

 

 

For more information, visit Jean's website at http://www.jeanshinodabolen.com