Maybe it's the coffee, but this has my knees shaking. Especially this: "But personally, I don’t think the right language form has been born yet..." and then Ben Okri and... we're off! I need to sit with this for a long bit.
I want to add a note about CB's book, The Law of Three. While her book translates and applies Gurdjieff's law of Three- where the 3rd element, called the resolving force, transforms the two initial polarized forces into a 4th new force that then becomes the new 1st force in a new trio (whew...)- to the Christian Trinity, where her thinking really starts to overlap with yours is in the series of blog posts she did on Gebser and later on The Common Good. Here is a link to one of those: https://www.cynthiabourgeault.org/blog/2021/02/05/horse-carriage-driver.
And not that I only read Christian mystics, but her colleague Richard Rohr imagines the Trinity as one of those fidget spinners that were everywhere a few years ago: "...when it spins we lose sight of the distinct wings and simply see unbroken movement or flow...God is a verb...God is a flow..." I offer that as reinforcement to your affinity for thinking in threes. Three creates movement.
Thanks Jack. That’s useful perspective on CB and RR. I do know her blogs on Gebser. She came back to mind recently because apparently she really liked Katie Teague’s video about the metacrisis, which I found flattering.
I agree with everything you say here, Jack! Cynthia's "Horse, Carriage, Driver" essay is excellent; and we should name Richard Rohr's book on the Trinity: "The Divine Dance."
I love the idea of a flip. Coming of age in the era of New Atheism seems to have left me (and surely many of us) operating with a kind of reflexive materialism - reaching always for physical causes, or evolution-made-me-do-it explanations. Against that backdrop, even just holding open the possibility that matter is an aspect of Mind or the divine is exhilarating - love, hope, desire and plenty else besides start to feel like invitations rather than limited ideals.
I know what you mean. For a while, and around the time we met, I was much more circumspect about how I spoke of these things, but now I do feel the flip might be a matter of time.
...and hard to believe it was nearly 10 years ago, at the RSA! Given that this is a day of gratitude, I’m thinking how lucky I was to encounter so many great people through your project - Iain McGilchrist, Liz Oldfield, Mark Vernon, your good self. Quite a crew! 😁
Hmmm. Prefigurative culture and prefigurative politics would seem to be mutually reinforcing, especially within a "community schooling" sort of environment. I desperately don't want to leave behind even one young person — and yet I increasingly see the insanity of believing that our schooling systems in the US will change from within; and without that belief it feels like wasted effort to work in public schools, even if we are trying to affect them directly from the outside. In "independent" community educational contexts, without the defining quality of state economic/workforce development goals, that culture and politics you describe can arise and flow over into and around what currently exists, with new thought/consciousness and feeling/relational patterns working on the old systems, naturally transforming them. But this in itself is a somewhat Utilitarian perspective...yes?
As someone who has flipped and is actively forming and having fun, I appreciate the framing very much. Thanks Jonathan!
Nov 25, 2023·edited Nov 25, 2023Liked by Jonathan Rowson
Hi Jonathan. My name is Sally and this comes from you from the Southern tip of Vancouver Island on the Canadian West Coast! I discovered "Living in the Metacrisis" six days ago... I watched the film twice and then have listened to it maybe five times since, as if a meditation.
I'm so grateful to Katie Teague for her incredible artistry and execution of this film. And I bow down to your gift of continuously providing a new source of language that guides a deepening dive into self-inquiry while expanding our capacity to be in conversation with others about who we are, where we are and where we are going—how's that for a trinity!
I have always been a writer and artist but am finally beginning to grow this expression more fully following a rare and lifesaving abdominal neurosurgery that occurred on the US East Coast in June. This intervention has been an almost-cure for 30 years of a life lived in chronic, tormenting, non-alleviable neuropathic stomach and head pain. Practising to uncover my True Nature while facing moment-to-moment unrelenting and unbearable physical suffering was the hardest work in this world, which is now finally and blessedly bearing fruit. As you so candidly express, I see my work going forward as "finding ways to tell the truth that brings people with us."
I'm sending you a link to my newest short story. I hope it brings you a good laugh, and I believe you will love reading about sudden synchronicities that I have no reason to explain away and every reason to trust and follow... There are a few trinities in there you will appreciate too. On my Substack account I have also posted a few poems that are a different style than the story; they're more sublime and devotional. Here in addition I send you a link to an 8-minute short film I created as a response to the horrific events of October 7th, called "May Dignity Prevail." May you be touched and inspired!
Great Jonathan! Last night I was on your website and read the eulogy for your brother. So moving and beautiful. In my own journey, on top of severe depression and anxiety I had a few touches into the kind of world Mark was living in because of the way cannabis affected my sensitive brain. Though cannabis never was able to provide any kind of temporary reprieve from the physical pain, it was one of my only escapes from its accompanying mental anguish.
I also lost a brother, six years ago when he was 37.
The song I dance to in the video is a Leonard Cohen song...
It's always nice to see people come with solutions and systems of how to make the world and humanity better. In my opinion it is really a matter of consciousness and mindfulness. The more people living consciously the better will be this place. And also for me, it doesn't matter what you call something if it works properly.
Great piece, I've been on a similar trinitarian journey, I don't think you're crazy... I will check out Flip and Law of Three books. Definitely agree on the return to virtue ethics as a focus- I think we have to talk about moral foundation in a way that speaks to traditional religion, new age, and atheistic perspectives.
"Thursday 23 November: Leading from Confusion with Jonathan Rowson (4pm UK / 5pm CET / 11am EST)
In these one-hour sessions Jonathan Rowson builds a conversation with the Perspectiva community using a current source of confusion as the starting point for a collective inquiry. "
.... but I failed to locate a working zoom link or room. Mea culpa, ceteris paribus.
I hope there was a recording?
Referring/relating to work by Tim Jackson & Peter Victor at slide #24
Maybe it's the coffee, but this has my knees shaking. Especially this: "But personally, I don’t think the right language form has been born yet..." and then Ben Okri and... we're off! I need to sit with this for a long bit.
I want to add a note about CB's book, The Law of Three. While her book translates and applies Gurdjieff's law of Three- where the 3rd element, called the resolving force, transforms the two initial polarized forces into a 4th new force that then becomes the new 1st force in a new trio (whew...)- to the Christian Trinity, where her thinking really starts to overlap with yours is in the series of blog posts she did on Gebser and later on The Common Good. Here is a link to one of those: https://www.cynthiabourgeault.org/blog/2021/02/05/horse-carriage-driver.
And not that I only read Christian mystics, but her colleague Richard Rohr imagines the Trinity as one of those fidget spinners that were everywhere a few years ago: "...when it spins we lose sight of the distinct wings and simply see unbroken movement or flow...God is a verb...God is a flow..." I offer that as reinforcement to your affinity for thinking in threes. Three creates movement.
Thanks Jack. That’s useful perspective on CB and RR. I do know her blogs on Gebser. She came back to mind recently because apparently she really liked Katie Teague’s video about the metacrisis, which I found flattering.
I agree with everything you say here, Jack! Cynthia's "Horse, Carriage, Driver" essay is excellent; and we should name Richard Rohr's book on the Trinity: "The Divine Dance."
https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Dance-Trinity-Your-Transformation/dp/0281078157
I love the idea of a flip. Coming of age in the era of New Atheism seems to have left me (and surely many of us) operating with a kind of reflexive materialism - reaching always for physical causes, or evolution-made-me-do-it explanations. Against that backdrop, even just holding open the possibility that matter is an aspect of Mind or the divine is exhilarating - love, hope, desire and plenty else besides start to feel like invitations rather than limited ideals.
I know what you mean. For a while, and around the time we met, I was much more circumspect about how I spoke of these things, but now I do feel the flip might be a matter of time.
...and hard to believe it was nearly 10 years ago, at the RSA! Given that this is a day of gratitude, I’m thinking how lucky I was to encounter so many great people through your project - Iain McGilchrist, Liz Oldfield, Mark Vernon, your good self. Quite a crew! 😁
Will follow with interest.
Hmmm. Prefigurative culture and prefigurative politics would seem to be mutually reinforcing, especially within a "community schooling" sort of environment. I desperately don't want to leave behind even one young person — and yet I increasingly see the insanity of believing that our schooling systems in the US will change from within; and without that belief it feels like wasted effort to work in public schools, even if we are trying to affect them directly from the outside. In "independent" community educational contexts, without the defining quality of state economic/workforce development goals, that culture and politics you describe can arise and flow over into and around what currently exists, with new thought/consciousness and feeling/relational patterns working on the old systems, naturally transforming them. But this in itself is a somewhat Utilitarian perspective...yes?
As someone who has flipped and is actively forming and having fun, I appreciate the framing very much. Thanks Jonathan!
Hi Jonathan. My name is Sally and this comes from you from the Southern tip of Vancouver Island on the Canadian West Coast! I discovered "Living in the Metacrisis" six days ago... I watched the film twice and then have listened to it maybe five times since, as if a meditation.
I'm so grateful to Katie Teague for her incredible artistry and execution of this film. And I bow down to your gift of continuously providing a new source of language that guides a deepening dive into self-inquiry while expanding our capacity to be in conversation with others about who we are, where we are and where we are going—how's that for a trinity!
I have always been a writer and artist but am finally beginning to grow this expression more fully following a rare and lifesaving abdominal neurosurgery that occurred on the US East Coast in June. This intervention has been an almost-cure for 30 years of a life lived in chronic, tormenting, non-alleviable neuropathic stomach and head pain. Practising to uncover my True Nature while facing moment-to-moment unrelenting and unbearable physical suffering was the hardest work in this world, which is now finally and blessedly bearing fruit. As you so candidly express, I see my work going forward as "finding ways to tell the truth that brings people with us."
I'm sending you a link to my newest short story. I hope it brings you a good laugh, and I believe you will love reading about sudden synchronicities that I have no reason to explain away and every reason to trust and follow... There are a few trinities in there you will appreciate too. On my Substack account I have also posted a few poems that are a different style than the story; they're more sublime and devotional. Here in addition I send you a link to an 8-minute short film I created as a response to the horrific events of October 7th, called "May Dignity Prevail." May you be touched and inspired!
Sending much love & gratitude your way!
Thanks for sharing Sally, and I’m grateful for your encouragement and support. I’ll check out your links shortly. J+
Great Jonathan! Last night I was on your website and read the eulogy for your brother. So moving and beautiful. In my own journey, on top of severe depression and anxiety I had a few touches into the kind of world Mark was living in because of the way cannabis affected my sensitive brain. Though cannabis never was able to provide any kind of temporary reprieve from the physical pain, it was one of my only escapes from its accompanying mental anguish.
I also lost a brother, six years ago when he was 37.
The song I dance to in the video is a Leonard Cohen song...
https://youtu.be/soUeIzlWZyU
https://sallyross.substack.com/p/so-west-coast
It's always nice to see people come with solutions and systems of how to make the world and humanity better. In my opinion it is really a matter of consciousness and mindfulness. The more people living consciously the better will be this place. And also for me, it doesn't matter what you call something if it works properly.
Great piece, I've been on a similar trinitarian journey, I don't think you're crazy... I will check out Flip and Law of Three books. Definitely agree on the return to virtue ethics as a focus- I think we have to talk about moral foundation in a way that speaks to traditional religion, new age, and atheistic perspectives.
Another fantastic article!
Thanks! And thanks for sharing it on LinkedIn too.
So there we are, it’s lunchtime, and I have to go take a break and prepare to lead from confusion this afternoon.
Broken link?
It works for me!
https://perspecteeva.substack.com/p/leading-from-confusion worked, but then I got lost in circles of some sort. I did find a link on https://perspecteeva.substack.com/p/the-alchemy-of-crisis-november-at that referred to
"Thursday 23 November: Leading from Confusion with Jonathan Rowson (4pm UK / 5pm CET / 11am EST)
In these one-hour sessions Jonathan Rowson builds a conversation with the Perspectiva community using a current source of confusion as the starting point for a collective inquiry. "
.... but I failed to locate a working zoom link or room. Mea culpa, ceteris paribus.
I hope there was a recording?
Referring/relating to work by Tim Jackson & Peter Victor at slide #24
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ak_RWP1mIyszxPXSp9DCSYH405BGsdFzWst_k9hBNjw