(Laurent, Ashtara (host), David, Richard, photo by Christine)
At about 8.15 am on December 10th, 2010, in Lower Beechmont, Queensland Australia, a new Constellation was born.
After a year of circling the perimeter, getting to know each other, discussing values and intentions, four unique individuals from around the world came together for the first time.
Richard Hames flew in from Bangkok on his way to Brazil. David Martin flew in from Mongolia en route to Papua New Guinea then to his home in Virginia, USA. Laurent Labourmene flew in from Melbourne. I drove from my home to my mothers home which was where we met for several days.
Our location had extraordinary views across hills and water, out towards the coast. We were joined on occasion, by colourful lorikeets. The sound of birds and life was ever present.
In this beautiful space we sat in dialogue, ate great food, joined for dinner with friends and shephered into existence The Constellation. It was an incredible birth. There was ease and grace, spaciousness, flow, open hearts, open minds and the willingness to let go of private and personal agenda’s, and to truly step into the unknown.
With David’s flight out of Mongolia being delayed for about 15 hours, Laurent and I made the trip to Brisbane airport to arrive at 11.30 pm. (Anyone who knows me well enough knows that this is way past my bed time, and with only a few hours sleep the night before, that ragged lack of sleep feeling was present.) On the trip home all of us, tipsy from lack of sleep, fell into telling stories that really made no sense, but at the time seemed incredibly funny. The sudden resurrection of saber toothed tigers that had a penchants to jump into convertible cars savaging the driver (Dave) who so happened to have a handy cam nearby to record the incident and then somehow manage to survive long enough to have said video posted on You tube to become an instant hit. As I said, you had to be there.
On Friday morning, after not enough sleep, Dave, Laurent and I went for a run. Here the guys learned my definition of a hill versus an undulation. Both decided that I had a screw loose around this topic. They are not alone in their opinion. Many of my fellow runners have accused me of having a distorted perception of a hill. “Oh its a pretty easy run, only a few undulations!” Yeh, right!
Given that this was the very first time we had all come together, the final gathering of the four, post run, three of us sweaty still, was very auspicious. Richard had managed a good sleep and was as fresh as the day was.
Our dialogue was deeply centred in a common quest to get to know each other at a different level. To build the foundation of an extraordinary relationship. We roamed from personal stories, to exploring opportunities, to elements of the mythical and mystical.
There was an agreement that our focus in our offering was a highly differentiated strategy from other players: to be animated by a deeper moral/ethical impulse related to all of our work, and to steward a non-fear, non-cold war approach to strategy. Primarily to hold the space for a way of being built around abundance in all things, using a model of integral accounting as a frame. Indeed, this frame was deeply embedded in all of our conversations and while not explicitly stated, was intrinsic. This includes stewarding the use and development of a broad range of ‘social technologies’ and initiatives where the impulse is not animated by fear (this could include a ‘decision theatre’ facility and/or a global leadership academy for example).
We explored opportunities where the ecosystem was pregnant with a willingness to step into this new narrative. There are several that might be ripe.
On Friday evening we had invited guests for dinner. Andrew Wilford, Simon Kalinowski, and Bronnie Fish. My mother and daughter joined. Natalie was supporting us over the few days with food prep and cleaning up duties, shopping for supplies etc. Both her contribution and my mothers was critical to the flow state, in multiple ways. The dinner conversation was animated, global and quite extraordinary.
Saturday Laurent and Dave and I went for a walk. Dave was still trying to extricate from his lungs the effects of his time in Mongolia, where the pollution is the worst of any place on earth. As we were completing this walk, Venus entered the conversation. I was telling a story about my relationship with Joseph, who I believed at one level was an angel trapped in an earthly existence that he struggled with every day of his short life.. He eventually let go. Dave mentioned his recent experience with a shaman in Peru who talked about meditating each night on the planet Venus. Simultaneously, Laurent was catapulted somewhere into another place of deep feeling and strong emotion.
Over breakfast my mother, Ashtara, a spiritual astrologer and guide, did the birth chart for The Constellation, based on the moment the day before that we all came together for the first time. Visually the chart told its own story, without needing to understand the symbols. All the planets are gathered in the 10, 11, 12, 1, 2nd house, (the upper left of the chart), with one planet on the opposite side. Ashtara explained that this planet was like a handle of the bucket. That unless we steeped all of our work into the elements of love, feeling, the feminine expressions, Venus….we would not succeed. That if we did do this, bring the feminine into all of our actions, then our work would be as extraordinary as we all sense. I do not think any of us were surprised by this. The chart and Ashtara’s interpretation just gave voice to a felt sense. We are very aware that we are like the ancient navigators, sailing on uncharted waters. There is no map. There is no successful strategy. There is no right way. There is only the heavens, the stars, our brother and sister Constellations to guide us. That in the darkness of the night, we have to look to the heavens, to the unfolding story of the Universe, and its reflection on our interiors, and stay true and present to the voice of intuition, feeling and love. We have to trust the truth we have inside, and the truth that is made manifest in our being a Constellation. To be willing to step moment by moment into the unknown. To bring all of us to the conversation, whole yet also broken. To be a stand for the whole, and the possibility that we see and feel. That we are the model. As within, as without. As we are feeling so it is, as we are broken, so it is. As we heal, so it does. As we work together, so does the Universe.
Laurent suggested, nearly 14 months ago, the name, The Constellation. Even as I write this, the eloquence of his choice is awe inspiring. Just as we appear to be an earth bound Constellation, we are not alone. Our reflection is in the heavens. As above, so below.
A few days before our gathering Ashtara had been out on her morning walk and had found a book on her path. The title of the book was Venus, and it was about the planet and the goddess. Again Venus made her appearance known.
Also known as Aphrodite, Venus is well known as the beautiful goddess who emerges naked in a half shell from the sea. Jean Shinoda Bolen, in her book “Goddess In Everywomen” describes her as an alchemical goddess. “a fitting designation for the magic process or power of transformation that she, alone, had.” (page 224) ..”she caused mortals and deities to fall in love and conceive new life. She inspired poetry and persuasive speech, and symbolises the transformative and creative power of love….Unlike the other goddesses, she was never victimised and did not suffer. In all of her relationships, the feelings of desire were mutual; she was never a victim of a man’s unwanted passion for her. She valued emotional experience with others more than either independence from others, or permanent bonds to others.
Indeed Venus/Aphrodite was present in the remaining conversations. Our work is about transformation, and of the alchemical nature. Our path of choice is through love and compassion as the viable and only alternative to narratives steeped in fear. There is no place for victimisation. We seek deep connection, mutuality and partnership and an invitation to a path that follows the natural contours as they unfold.
This was a meeting of a very unusual nature, bringing together four very different people. As an ardent Bucky Fuller student, that there is four of us is also very significant, as four is the minimum requirement for any system. Four makes a tetrahedron, the minimum system in Universe, and the building block of Universe.
The world needs a different response. I believe most people really do know this, if they go deep inside and hold stillness for long enough. We need to honour the feminine and the masculine, the ancient and the modern, the wisdom and the creative. Our current models of business, economics, relationship (both marriage and partnership), politics, spiritual practice, education, to name a few, are no longer viable. But to replace them with what, that is the question? While we do not profess to have the answers, we do intuitively know that when we gather the right people in the right environment asking the right questions and shepherded by people truly able to stand in service, holding the tension of unknowing, the answers needed for the next step will emerge.
As I write this December 23rd, with Christmas Carols playing in the background, I feel deeply grateful. Indeed, the evening after everyone had again gone to the corners of the earth, I got on my knees in gratitude.
The last two years have been a profound unraveling of my inner being. Old concepts have been challenged and broken, and I have stood in the realisation that the physical world and the laws of the physical world are but a small aspect of the possibility of humanity. All the teachings of the great mystics have been ‘focused on liberating the illusions that the physical world has more authority than your inner world. It would appear to our five senses that the physical world is the realm of power and given our need for immediate results and constant gratification, we crave this world like addicts.’ (Caroline Myss)
However we are entering (or re-entering) the world of the mystical laws, where time and space have different laws.
As my beloved Rumi said,
Out beyond the ideas of wrong doing and right doing
there is a field…
I’ll meet you there.
I’ll meet you there…blessings to you on your journey.
