Conversations leading to WMtE in Cape Ann (MA - USA)

Women Moving the Edge - Cape Ann

Call Sept. 4, 2009

Ria, Barbara, Edveeje, Judy

 

Once again Edveeje was not able to make the sound on her computer work.  She was actively present on the chat.  The odd thing was at first we heard her and then she was gone.

 

As a beginning Judy offers:  Virgo - this is the actual time of the full moon of Virgo - right now!  This means that the sun is in Virgo.

From a higher perspective Virgo is about birthing and bringing Christ consciousness into form.   This capacity to hold is Virgo, she is the feminine - being the womb, that holds, that has the patience, that nourishes and brings the new into form.

From a quality perspective and how Virgo shows up in people: it is the one who is behind the scenes, is humble, steady, offers selfless service, always there, grounding and embodying.  In meditation the person who came up for me was Mother Theresa - never seeking recognition, bringing all she could, never stopping, always holding that, no matter what.  It is a really powerful, silent strength. Very much related with what we do with WMtE.

 

We move into silence now.

 

Check-in:

 

Barbara:  I am sitting outside... after our last conversation..; women holding grief and the pain, this dark side... a question that came: How is that we haven't moved through that? That we just offer space... It has something to do with how we hold it. Do we hold it and bear witness to it? Does it affect us? Do we manifest it again then? I have been kicking that around; no conclusions...

 

Judy:  To pick up on that - and there is so much around that for me - sensing into the holding... in different conversations, in emails; larger systems, individuals... I noticed in some groups that when we can truly hold that space collectively, or some portion of the group, there is web being woven - like an Open Heart - an incredible communion. Even in silence it can be very active, and it seems to have a calming and healing effect. It might be there, without us knowing it.

Each woman is carrying... they feel out of balance, trying to reach some kind of wholeness ... on this recent call the 3 women said they couldn't stay on the call and then they didn't leave when they planned to! It was a healing space for all of them.  I sense this is powerful and important. It seems we are asked to hold a lot, more and more, for each of us and for the greater whole.

 

Edveeje: On my desk is a statue of a woman whose legs become the trunk and roots of a tree and her arms become the branches. When I was doing my intuitive walk at the Essex Conference Center to see what the land was trying to say to us, this statue kept coming to mind. It begged the question of what is the connection between women, our grief, and our bodies ...  with the land, the trees and the grief of that particular part of Gaia. I don't know if this is related to our calling question, but it is something that is still humming for me days after the walk and our last call.

 

Ria: I find Barbara's question unexpected.  Do we hold and witness and manifest it again?  So that was ... hmmm?

I have with this question from Barbara and what Edveeje says here, and what I was sensing in the call for WMtE London; I have this sensing that we need to stretch ourselves.  Stretch so that we really can sense what the Earth, Gaia, is speaking to us and what is needed.  And also stretching in the way you said, Barbara, not just holding and bearing witness.  I do think women have done that for ages.

This new balance with masculine action - we need to find that.  In order to find that balance, the feminine has to be more conscious, stronger, so that it can really balance the masculine.  This is something new - can we manifest that?

It is not just holding and witnessing, but keep the holding and the witnessing alive in the actions we take.

 

Fine-tuning the concept of holding

Edveeje: I have been "witnessing and holding" (in the traditional "feminine way") a lot of things for my twin sister and my significant other for the last three months. During my sanctuary I found that my tolerance for simply holding and witnessing actually decreased in proportion to my sense of well-being. It was as if a volcano of action was erupting through me - a sense that the time for holding and witnessing was past and the time for action had come to fruition. I have been mirroring that to them the last few days and not always as elegantly as I would like to because I passed the point of my tolerance for holding without action. This connects to what Ria is saying about the feminine needing to find the balance between witnessing and taking action.

 

Barbara: Listening to what you say all; there is holding and witnessing - and then move it into action... How do we hold, how do we witness? (we as women) Holding in a sense of spaciousness, wrapping-arms-around; there is probably also a not-so-healthy holding... How are women with that holding and witnessing?

For me it is a place where there is opportunity to come to source; until they embrace the shadow they don't come to wholeness... the place of not-knowing takes practice; in terms of repetition and bringing the self to be in touch with that.

 

Judy: One thing that I am aware of while Edveeje was writing is that she wasn't being held! At least not in a way that we consciously knew.

The other part of holding is not about fixing, but being present, loving, witnessing; and... with these two groups and my experience of incredible heart opening ... I think that may be the precursor (the heart opening), the way to prepare to move back into the world. To move into action and source-as-we-go; continuous renewal. As we do this - being present to whatever action is next....

I felt that for Edveeje, she was present until the point of almost breaking; she even said she felt ‘brittle'... these circles are important for supporting what we all hold in our lives.

 

Ria: I want to pick up on this holding to become really clear.  As we hear in Edveeje's story, sometimes the holding is not the "right" thing to do.

Sometimes we just have to say to the other, "Do it!" or "Move on."  How sensitive are we to understand what to hold and when not to?  Reminds me of a constellation I was in - I was the subject, and I was in the constellation.  I had to do something I didn't dare to do.  The facilitator put someone next to me to support me and asked the group if I was becoming stronger or weaker.  I felt weaker, so he removed the person next to me.

There seems to be a difference between holding on the manifest level and holding the deeper spaces: the unconscious and the unmanifested. 

I think what I am saying with this example is that sometimes the holding is in the feminine way - present, embracing, and sometimes more masculine - now do it yourself.

It seems to be related to your question, Barbara - Are we just holding and things start all over again the same way?

I come back to balance.  Where do we find the right balance with the masculine action and the quality of holding and being present in the action?  From my example, what I had to do was come up with more of my own potential to do what I needed to do.  Having support would not challenge me to dig deeper in myself for my own power or strength.

 

Judy: This highlights the dance between the feminine and the masculine... and the evolving feminine... as we tune into the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle - What is needed in the moment; and when is it time to let go; like the mother releasing the child?

Sensing back to Cape Ann: this place is very connected to the sea; and the sea is incredibly powerful, a force of Nature.   It seems the masculine has been battling the sea for ever! The women have always been holding, waiting at home, caring for the children, holding the grief.  The masculine seems to have lost in this battle; and the pain is still held in the holding and the waiting.  The wounds are still there.

I don't know what this has to do with it, but there is something there... here holding  is not healing it... I don't know what it is... the feminine might need to integrate some of the masculine; I think that is what I hear here.

 

Barbara: Who does the holding serve?  Like the mom letting the child go into the world. For many people it is difficult to do that, still holding their child... Women hold space, hold grief; and many times it is not healing; maybe they do it for themselves, a deeper sense of comfort with the suffering, because that is all they know... how to move that into a healthier place?

 

Ria: If the feminine is integrating more of the masculine, what does it look like?  What are we saying, what could it mean for Cape Ann?

 

Edveeje: I am wondering about the connection between women, the womb, the sea, holding/witnessing and the grief of Cape Ann as a place. For centuries the men and women have made their living by the sea and I intuit that much of our community's grief is connected to this being a fishing community in which so many fathers and sons were lost. It was the women left behind to grieve. Is the land asking us to learn to grieve differently and to hold the pain and loss associated with place differently?

 

Ria: Sensing, listening to the land and the history doesn't seem to be enough.  What is it that makes it healing, conscious, (maybe that is the point) so that we know for sure it doesn't repeat itself.  Is holding the potential for the future enough so that the pain doesn't repeat?

 

Edveeje: If holding the potential for the future means that as an individual one has also altered and transformed one's energetic frequency so that one no longer holds the energy pattern of the past, then yes I think so.

 

Cape Ann - the fractal of personal - local place - Earth/Gaia

Barbara:  I have this visual of a circle including Cape Ann.

I have this visual image: a group of women standing, one of the women represents Cape Ann... How does this group of women support her pain, and how to move beyond her pain?  How can we stand with Cape Ann, and make her stronger?

How do we stand with Cape Ann and support her moving through her grief without being her grief?

 

Edveeje: Barbara, that is a gorgeous image... it feels right that Cape Ann would be personified just as the Earth, is personified as Gaia.

 

Judy: Yeah; to have her in the circle!

 

Edveeje: I keep sensing a woman-wild-Gaia connection. So that as we stand with Cape Ann as a woman and help her hold her pain, we would also be asking how we as women hold our own and how that translates to the global/planetary.

 

Judy: What Edveeje is saying, that those of us standing in the circle... we are just being present to the pain...

 

Barbara: We don't have to take the pain on. Just from a place of non-attachment.

Great idea, Edveeje!

 

Fine-tuning our question

Ria: I think that consciousness is needed, holding pain is one, but holding pain with consciousness makes it possible that the future is different.  And makes it possible we can look for the synergy of holding the past and the pain with the actions into the future.

 

We look back to our question from the previous conversation.

Our question was: How can we fully embody the collective feminine; which expands from the wounds of the past to the un-manifest of the future; all this in service of the regeneration of our local community? ... Do we need to change this with what we are saying?

 

Judy: Can we include how Cape Ann - or place - can be a participant?

 

Edveeje: What comes to mind on the fly is "How can we fully embody the emerging feminine principle in a collective way so that we are able to acknowledge and heal past wounds while holding the potential of the future? How would this capacity regenerate and restore women and particular places, such as Cape Ann? Not quite right, but you get the idea...

 

Ria: Next try: How can we fully embody the collective feminine; which expands from the wounds of the past to the unmanifest future; in service of ourselves, our local community and the global?

 

Edveeje: Ria ... gorgeous redraft. I would love to see if the 'presence of literal place' - meaning land and Earth - can be articulated more intimately than with the words "local community."

 

Ria: I agree with that!

 

Edveeje: Bioregion is so NOT a sexy or poetic word but it gets at the Earth component of community.

 

Edveeje: ... in service of ourselves, our communities, and the more-than-human-community? 

 

Ria: Wondering with 3 talking and one typing...  Can you, Judy and Edveeje, have an hour together to kind of get to 'the' question?

 

Edveeje: I'm game for distilling with Judy.

 

Ria: Yeah!!!

 

(smiles and dancing icons)

 

Edveeje: What is everyone smiling and dancing about?

 

Judy:  That you and I will meet to distill

 

Checkout

Ria:  This process of finding the real question and fine tuning it more and more - that is so valuable, so important!  That's where we move the edge.  We try to grasp and sense something, and we can't quite grab it with our mind yet.  It can be frustrating; it takes time.  Groping in the dark.  I like it a lot.  Really good question.  Thank You.

 

Barbara: This process today was really wonderful! I find myself really reflecting on what people were saying. Looking outside at a hill, the butterflies... nature doesn't seem to have a problem with holding... then I see the cars, etc... Thank you! It was a good call.

 

Judy: I am amazed when we can get to that edge - almost on to something - so much is right there, just beyond grasp - that is really the generative space! It is very seductive! It has a lot of juice. Because Edveeje is calling this 'in this place'; I notice 'place' more than before in my life - a lot of intuitive sparks. Something new is happening in me because of what we are doing.  Very appreciative of that.

 

Edveeje: I am curious in a cosmic wink kind of way as to why the universe wanted me to "not speak" directly in this process these last two times. I am wondering if the soul accessed something different through reading and writing than speaking. I trust that everything is as it should be ... fantastic call. Thanks!

 

(more smiley's)

 

Next call - Barbara will send an email with what is possible.

Judy: Lot of things moving! Life is really beautiful right now, the weather is glorious, the flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping. I walked this morning in a conservation area - all living creatures alive, active! Just the stillness in the place itself; the earth holding all of this life in her stillness. I notice that during these days - not having regular paid work - doing the things that nourish me: I wake up and say: I love life!!! Doing things like being on this call, and holding space for WMtE on Cape Ann.

Looking into the question today, and seeing what is the non-alignment... Still a little bit of uncertainty about how this will emerge and hold potentially some kind of focus for women of Cape Ann and Cape Ann itself while also being open to others. What kind of shape might that take? a little uncertainty there...

 

Barbara: In the past week or so I have been doing practical things to simplify – I decided to not buy a house. Realized it’s not what I want.  To consciously simplify - feels good, there’s freedom.  It opened up space for a deeper spiritual sense for me - meditation.  Putting learnings to practice in the world.  I was looking at notes from our first call – the notion of sacred space.  Part of that is simplification, consciously simplifying.  Sacred space is just where I am - if I am open to Source and the divine then it opens the doorway for others as well.  Space becomes sacred in that way of interacting with life.

 

Edveeje: I'm finding it interesting that the dates won't work at the conference center... I'm curious - in a good way - why? And what will come in its place? I was very confident that it would be at this center - and many conversations pointed me to: is it the right place? I'm holding space for similar WMtE gatherings each season... I feel now OK about it; it is a challenge, not an obstacle!

Also came up: how sensing into a particular place - how is it open for everyone? Yeah, that is what I choose. In the silence, I’m expecting some learning - if we can work creatively with this. I don't have answers but feel good about this; surprisingly we are on schedule! We don't need to hurry! If we take the space, more space will open down the road.

I think there is an opportunity to look into how WMtE can be used for local people to move ... so that women everywhere can open to source. How can that be facilitated? Supporting specific women in specific places - at some point in time it would need to become a grassroots thing...

 

Ria: At first there doesn’t seem to be a lot of words…. I hear the connection in what Barbara and Edveeje are saying - clearing some space so that something new can happen.  The hassle around the conference center is something similar - being able to drop the idea, although strong, and being able to sense what is right timing, right place. 

The connection between the local and the global - I don't see a difficulty there.  As I remember we were speaking about the dying of the old and the rebirth of the new and I connect this with the conference call with the core WMtE group - 2 of them had been to the launch of the State of the World Forum in Brazil and they were so touched emotionally - really seeing the state of the world – it triggered in them helplessness and sadness in not being able to help everyone.  The themes are so universal, global, they can apply for everyone. Of course, in different places it looks different; like fisherman in the history of Cape Ann.

 

Judy - I appreciate what you said, Ria.  It brings together a lot of the pieces sitting in the middle. When this thing happened with the Essex Conference Center, I noticed in me a potential attachment from an ego perspective in having to do something in a particular timeframe. Need to be able to leave it open. Noticing in myself this need to let it be what it will be.

At the Collective Presencing Lab in Cambridge this woman came who lives on Cape Ann (met her at Jean Houston's seminars). Have invited her to come to WMtE but she has never felt called to come. She came to the Collective Presencing Lab and was very present. Noticed the possibilities popping up - she lives in Magnolia in a big house in which she talks about wanting to have gatherings in her living room. Maybe that isn't the place, but it made me realize to be open to something like that and that there are other possibilities. We will need to be more creative around this. Will see her tomorrow and will drop a seed and see what happens.

Want to hold the space open for what might emerge and let go, as well so that we can really focus on what wants to happen on Cape Ann. What are the pieces of the puzzle we are weaving? Part of it is what Edveeje has said about grounding and anchoring the feminine and WMtE in that practice that enables the feminine to be part of how local women move. To do this in local communities.  I recall Ria's recent newsletter about embodiment. All of this is present for me as we open the space to explore this today.

 

Barbara: To me this is more about the calling question - the place and time not as much.  Seems the question we need to focus on is key, rather than where or who will come.  That will happen.  Notion of WMtE is that it is more about opening the space for women to step into source and who they are and take that into the world.  So it doesn't matter where they are from.  Some community of practice will most likely emerge from that.  Either from there or as they move back into their communities, in their own places.  Sounds like we are getting caught in attachment to where and who is coming.  Need to tend to what it will be.

 

Edveeje: ......... (bits and pieces are lost here).... is intention the same as attachment? Then I have to reframe that... I do have intention, on behalf of this place, on behalf of women who are here. If that is not possible in the context of WMtE then .... I see it as a dance between different threads that are all woven together. For me the question is grounded in place, if that is not 'right' that would be an important point of clarification.

 

Ria: Just before Barbara started to speak I wanted to add and speaks to what you say, Edveeje.  One of the practices of WMtE is staying in the ‘not knowing’.  The guiding question gives a boundary or membrane to what we are dealing with and so there is a high level of not knowing and seeing what emerges from Source.  Not just the not knowing of getting the information, but also about staying in the uncertainty until it all falls into place.  It is fine that you see it local and with local women.  The point I would add is the developmental lens - I am aware that WMtE, and how it is set up, speaks to women with a high level of consciousness.  If you do it with the local fisher women, I think it needs a different form.  The principles might be the same, but they will not be at ease in the same format.

Edveeje, you are the caller; that is always important.  If you would strip it from the form it will take, it would be really good to hear again what was your deepest layer of what you felt or sensed in reaching out to call a WMtE.  That would illuminate something about the question.

 

Edveeje: I want to reassure everyone. We are talking about people with high levels of consciousness. People who have had practices for many years; and they may be already sourcing. Local, but profoundly awake. If they would come together, they could definitely push the edge! They don't have the experience of doing it together, or for the local community.

What was catalyzed in me, for a series of WMtE’s on Cape-Ann, I believe deeply in the concept of transforming consciousness.  In this critical point in history I think it can only happen through sourcing. My personal calling is for women who are trying to innovate. Give them an experience to collectively source; it is a collective practice for the future. WMtE could be a modality. I think there are women here who are ready for this, who get this. They live within miles of each other. If that social network can be created, I think this place wants to host it.  Metaphysical partnership... exactly what it looks like, I don't know. I'm fine with that. If we could to this, it is planting a seed that would take off. Virtual communites .... face-to-face is much more powerful, and trackable, and measurable over time.

 

Ria: To me it sounds very powerful if you have a bunch of these women who are ready to do this.  I keep coming back to holding the dying of the old and the rebirth of the new.  You are referring to it too when you say these women would connect, collectively source, and take the community as their client, as the point of their attention together.  So I see it as holding space for the deep wounds of the past on one hand and the un-manifest potential of the future on the other hand.  And being able to hold it all together.  As I think the circle of grandmothers was in some tribes.  It is now related to this point in time where it is so needed.  It does feel very important.

 

Edveeje: What you said, Ria, as far as I know - what I hold for this place, it is completely aligned. The deep wounds of the past need to be included in the question: both the indigenous people and the fishing history, and the negation of the way of life built on fishing. Judy talked about a series of questions - I see also a kind of series here. This community is in deep transition, a question that surfaces the unmanifest potential of the future - maybe  sitting between those two may catalyze... For me there are two groups of women that call to me: women who are deep in their calling and very active and innovating, and have a high level of consciousness.  And then this council of elders - the grandmothers (has nothing to do with age), women who hold a profound place of being - should inform all activity. These are the real sourcers, putting the ego to the side and sourcing something deeper and wider then they are.

 

Barbara:  Have this sense that what is being said - the need, something deeper, an organic birthing, that the dying and the birthing are not distinct;  it is all one flow as there is much life in death; movement, a transition into another form.

Now I am thinking about something Holly said about disturbance (in the Edge of Collective Sourcing).  I feel that too.  Centers for me around this organic piece - feeling a lot of prescription about what WMtE will and won't do and who will and won’t come.  Maybe that is how that will be - I have some discomfort with that.  Also the prescription of doing 4 over 4 seasons.  I go back to emergence and the organic piece. I feel a disturbance in not touching that organic piece around emergence.

 

My comments are from curiosity, feeling of disturbance, and needing clarity - not judgment.

 

Ria: I want to speak about the question we came up with for London in October.  The 3 important pieces are - How can we more fully embody, and do more of that?  And the wholeness of the evolving feminine.  There is this notion of - speaks to how can we invite these women to do things together because that is how the feminine needs to evolve for this time.  3rd piece - in service to the regeneration of society - here it is maybe our local community(s).  It seems related as we see gatherings built on each other.  To me the question seems to be like:  How can we more fully embody the collective feminine, which expands from the wounds of the past to the unmanifest future and all this in service to the regeneration of our local community?

 

Judy - I've been quiet. I see key elements and see the relation to the question that emerged for the London gathering. I have been quiet because I am also feeling disturbance. Something is off, but I can't say what. And I am willing to just let it be there and see what else emerges. I like what you said, Ria, and what you gave voice to.

 

Ria:  Judy, question to you.  Is the disturbance similar to Barbara’s?

 

Judy - For some reason it isn't clear. Let me see what I wrote for Barbara. That it isn't organic. Part of it is trying to ... I appreciate Veeje's calling and vision. It feels like trying to make something happen as opposed to opening the space for sensing into what wants to happen. And I could be totally wrong about that, but something is sitting in me ... I know I am doubting myself. I have lived on Cape Ann for the last thirteen years and I have been on my own journey - an inner journey for much of it - and every now and then I put out some feelers for who is there and I haven't found much. I trust that Veeje knows these women because she has tapped into the community more than I and I trust her sensing in that way. Some of the dissonance is that when I have tried to activate these same women nothing has happened. Is it with me or something else? I fully acknowledge that my sensing may not be right about that, but I also feel the disturbance inside. Is it Ego or what is happening here? Can't really give an answer to that. And at the same time I hold a real positive and optimistic sense about what can happen here that has only just begun this past spring in Essex. I don't have a clue about how it might turn out and that is part of the beauty for me. That is all that is coming right now .....

 

Veeje: When ask for feedback and clarification, it is important to listen to it. And I am conscious of the time... I will filter the messages in my morning practice and meditation.

 

Barbara: My discomfort - I don't expect a response.  Just saying what is going on for me.  Something I am having to wend my way through.  Don’t need a response; but what I wanted was to throw it into the mix.  Things will shift, move, change, emerge.  When you said that, I had a sense of an us / them dynamic. That is not what I want to embody, and I have a need for clarity at some point.

 

Ria:  Yes, very important.  We put the information and the distraction into the middle, into the 'field'. The 'field' will somehow answer.  Not about any of us personally - and good to let it digest.  We leave with not full clarity. That is just fine.  I can really sense that we are going into the fire together - being in discomfort, not real clarity, although we touch on it, and then we end the conversation and not really clear. It will make us a strong team if we can hold the tension.  It is good collective practice.

 

Checkout

 

Ria:  I want to speak to both of you, Edveeje and Barbara. I can sense the depth of your sourcing, Edveeje. Even if the form takes much longer than expected, we will get there.  Thank you, Barbara, for sensing something about me and sending a message – you were so right.  Thank you for acting on your sensing and impulse.

 

Barbara:  I am noticing for myself this notion of simplicity is beginning to manifest.  Part of what you said about the note I sent to you, Ria.  My original response was no and then I went to the simple place.  Glad that I did.  In terms of this conversation - the simplicity - I often make things complicated and multi-layered - just a place to come from and be clear.  Conversations like this help me.  I have gratitude for all of you.

 

Veeje: I think today this call confirms what came out of a conversation with Judy... the need to declare a time of sanctuary for myself.  Things I need to become clear about… for me it is first language, and then embodiment. For other people it is reversed. During these two weeks it is my intention to wrap my answers around this collective sourcing: you can tell when it is happening, and when it is not. It affirms my intuition. I need to go into these two weeks. Thanks all of you. I'm on a learning curve...

 

Judy - I leave with mixed feelings and recognizing what Ria mentioned about being willing and able to go into the fire together. I also realize, for me to acknowledge the energetic disturbance in my body is a growing edge for me. To sit with that and to be a tuning fork and to learn more about that and stay with it when it’s quite uncomfortable. I am also aware that the local WMtE women have an opportunity to come together on the 24th ... very open to that and that could be a way to come together in an in-person environment in order to sense into this from a different perspective. Underneath it all is a deep sense that what we are doing is so important. To be grounding this in place and in women and humanity upon the Earth. In gratitude ... thank you.

WMtE Cape Ann Hosting Call

July 21, 2009

Edveeje, Barbara, Ria, Judy

Judy: Purpose of this call is to begin sensing into this next WMtE. We start with some silence, and go into sharing when someone is ready.

Silence

Check-in
Barbara: I have looked forward to this call.  It has felt like a desert. Coming together feels like water on my soul.  I look forward to these talks and bringing WMTE to Cape Ann.

Ria: I have a kind of Sunday here; it is Belgian national feast day.  This gave me time to finish a grant proposal from a Belgian foundation.  Big chunk of work I just finished.  Feels like .... done!!  
Regarding WMtE on Cape Ann.  I would like to hear a little of what has happened since WMtE.  What do I need to know to be in the loop? I am very curious about what will emerge and what is the meaning that is focused locally or on a local place?  Very curious about what will happen.

Edveeje: I'm very excited about grounding WMtE in place!  Particularly Cape Ann. This place, the ocean, the beaches, the cape itself, there is something magical going on, that draws particular people to this community. The idea of experiential exposure to collective sourcing, through WMtE, all these are critical pieces. Curious about what is coming out of our conversations as a hosting team; I try to be in the ‘in-between space’: what will emerge and having a sense of what wants to come.

Judy: In the silence, the rain is softly falling outside - really gentle sensing into the space - welcoming this space; there was a lot of activity - trip to the family and class reunion - finding my place here again is bringing my own system into alignment again, retuning to resonance. I too am curious; as if I and we hold some kind of emerging pattern. The noticing of patterns seems connected to the AoH conversation today on patterns. How is collective sourcing more accessible for women? Is this one now more directly linked with location and yet not totally closed?
I realize the power of what is in the middle - what each of us is holding - sense of purpose that is emerging. Connection from local to translocal to global... very excited about this possibility and what might come together.
Can you bring us more up to date, Veeje, about what has been happening on Cape Ann?

Where we have come locally since WMtE May '09

Veeje: I am excited about how excited Diane and Nancy are; it is ongoing, still after all these months! We have met three times since our gathering; there is energy there and excitement, which sort of surprises me. So it wants to happen from an organic place. Meeting locally, we want to meet once a month - it could inform our hosting team, like in symbiosis. I am looking at it, and taking one step at a time. This is a kind of blue collar community, and there might be a lot of learning on how to do this.
Judy: I would add, at a previous gathering here, there seemed to be a little bit of tension around purpose - between making something happen locally and the deepening of the practice. We acknowledged that it is about moving ourselves to our own edge; and to see what could emerge; as well as holding space for the local event to occur. Maybe a pattern of a local gathering and other things going on too.

The Question of Local or Open to More
Barbara:  I still have some questions about: is this focused on the place and the people there or more open and people come to the place?  Is it open to just women from Cape Ann or broader?
Judy: What is present for me is that there will be naturally a local focus, but my inclination would not be to limit it to participants of Cape Ann. There might be others that want to come. This might be another creative tension for us as a hosting team.
Edveeje: It should definitely be open; the answer is 'both and'. In the conversations I had with some people - easily 12 with local interest. Some of us are sensing, like Nancy is a major connector in the community, we could have several over the next year. It is possible to hold that creative tension I think.
Ria: If I look at WMtE, it is not just a program that you can replicate.  It is a process where one gathering builds on the previous ones.  This gathering - connected locally - seems like a next ongoing topic or point of integration into the WMtE process.  Maybe less local in London, but still local.  I sense a similar kind of local interest there, women in politics, region may be bigger, but seems more regional than our first 6 which were more international.  Yes to 'Both And'. Somehow it will be part of our calling question.
If I link it to London, the theme there has to do with ‘right timing’.  What is then the role of place, it this connection of time and space?  That's my sensing.
Judy: It seems that we are asked to hold the space and to continue to sense into: place, timing, the both-and. It is a kind of a creative tension, and an incredible opportunity to be really present to that.

WMtE, Collective Sourcing, Power of Place, the Earth, Women creating new ways of Being
Edveeje: One of the golden threads that I am holding very lightly is this connection between WMtE and collective sourcing, and how that connects to the power of place; and how women and place connect to the larger context of the Earth and women's role in creating these new ways of being. Articulating, identifying the innovations that are important for this time in history. For me collective sourcing is a means by which these innovations can emerge; if we can ground that in local leadership ... giving a wide exposure to these other ways of knowing, the implications could be big locally!

The Subtle Arts in how we relate to the Earth
Ria: Seems like different threads are trying to weave themselves together.  Women, feminine way of leadership, the practice of collective sourcing, meaning in place - has to do with these subtle connections that we need to reestablish between the people and the Earth.  Hosting is mostly around conversations and the subtle arts of good conversations.  Seems like we are spreading these subtle arts to how we are in relationship with the Earth.  Reminds me again of the Constellation in WMtE 5.  The representative of the State of the World - which became the Earth - was saying: just the act of noticing me, the Earth, is enough to amplify my resilience.  It’s not about saving the world.  Not any of the ego motivations.  Just noticing was enough.  If you say, Veeje, this is a magical place; then you notice something.  And more people probably notice that too.

What is Wholeness?  Remembering our Connection to Earth.  Sacred place holding grief and sorrow – Awakening to the Feminine, to the Earth, to Wholeness
Judy:  I noticed too that these themes have been building, this presence of the Earth was so powerful and really calling us! I don't remember the exact words of the guiding question for the last WMtE, but Earth was there... my question in meditation this morning was: What is wholeness? Part of it is we are remembering the earth and connecting back to her, it is part of this wholeness, this next level of wholeness.  
Cape Ann is a working class and fishing community, AND incredible people are drawn here: artists etc. It holds some kind of attraction, which I couldn't name. Sometimes people come here on a spiritual journey or to work through their stuff, and heal themselves. Then going back into the world with new vigor. How does place relate to the people?
Barbara:  What you say reminds me a couple of things - sacred space and place.  Reminding me we were talking about places that touched us deeply, some in England, where the veil is thin.  Places are like that because many have prayed there, or died there.  Cape Ann holds great sorrow and grief… then the notion of people coming there to follow their spiritual practice.  
The Earth and this question of wholeness; Remembering the Earth and our connection.  For me I am remembering who I am and the Earth is how I remember me.  We are the same.  And awakening and opening to that.  Like feminine ways, a letting in, an opening, awakening to who we are.
Recently a teacher said the whole universe is in this moment.  We just have to awaken to that.  And wholeness in myself, just awaken to it.  And then how do we put this into practice?  Commitment to change the culture.  Awakening to wholeness is key for me.
Edveeje: One of the things that hit me, in what you said, Barbara - I don't remember the name of the American Indian tribe that was here on Cape Ann before the Europeans came. They were very peaceful and welcomed the Europeans. At some point the whole tribe was decimated, probably hit by a disease. 'Great number of dead, lot of prayer makes a place magical’ - if a place holds memory, then the depth for the entire tribe needs to be held! I feel the whole community is holding a deep grief, so many men died as fishermen. Women and children waiting, and the man, the husband, the father didn't return. I think this grief causes a lot of drug and alcohol abuse too. I will find the documentary about this tribe.

Conscious Closure, Trauma as Gift, Emergent Community Identity
Ria:  Regarding this grief and loss, I am hearing and reading a lot about how change basically starts with letting the old die.  Vanessa, who is Canadian, is doing this conscious closure in an organization.  Just this morning I was reading about change management and the different steps in the mourning process (Elizabeth Kübler-Ross) - first denial and then in the end accepting.  The pain of Cape Ann is maybe also its gift.  Also you, Veeje and Tesa, closed your organization.  There might be something there, just as it is for individuals, the gift is in the trauma.  So where is found your deepest pain, there also holds your best gift to the world.  Might be the same for places and communities.  I see the picture coming together.
Edveeje: What you said, Ria, the trauma has a gift - and thinking about conscious closure, Cape Ann, and Gloucester in particular, is in great change - lots of change around the fishing industry, the old identity is dying, and what is the new that will emerge? If there is some way that WMtE can help move that edge of community identity and maybe help with this conscious closure... that might potentially be a huge gift to the place, to the land!

Microcosm of the larger Planetary Transition
Judy: It comes to me, this idea of conscious closure, and what is going on in Cape Ann, it is a microcosm of what is going on in the bigger picture. It is beyond a specific community, it is about understanding the larger transition of the Earth herself.  And the local can be the learning ground for the larger.  This picture we are creating is just magic!
Since I came here, I have been sitting by the sea, almost every day meditating.   It holds such power, the place and the sea - maybe those that have shown up here: something about holding, transmuting... I can feel an interactive 'work' that is done in connection with the rocks.
Ria:  Seems to be indeed a calling of using this collective sourcing to both looking back at what needs to be healed so that it can close in a peaceful way, and then use sourcing to see what comes next, or what is the next possible step.  I do feel a kind of - whoaaa!! – a big project that we are asked to look into and to support in this way.
Barbara:  We haven't used the word healing, but conscious closure.  I like that idea of consciously bringing something to a close.  Also sounds like a need for healing on Cape Ann.  Seems like the land - when I am there it is beautiful – I wonder if underneath, people are hurt, that land is hurt as well.  Need for collective healing between people and the land - and around the closure.  Notion of conscious closure speaks to me.  And then if closing, what is emerging there?

Feminine Principle and Leadership – Collective Sourcing (CS) Grounded in Place
EdVeeje: Another thread that I want to name, for me personally, is this deep belief that this women’s leadership is not the feminine principle leading. Current women’s leadership is ... a smoothing of the rough edges of the masculine leadership style. The connection between the anima, the feminine principle, and leadership is critical for bringing that together. Collective sourcing and what goes into it - sensing, subtle arts, intuition, may reveal the feminine principle and ... collective sourcing and this way of accessing this information is the feminine principle leading! And articulating that and grounding that in a place, has a big transformative power in the struggle with these big issues we struggle with as a species.
Judy: Very well articulated! I am very well aware that, through CS, and as we begin to articulate what is the feminine principle in leadership, then there is the new integration with the masculine principle in a new emerging form of leadership - we probably can't see that yet.
Barbara:  I agree and I also think there is coming into being a consciousness about how the current leadership hasn't worked.  We have a big mess.  Many people, both women and men, who see there needs to be a balance between the masculine and feminine.  We can't do to the masculine what we feel the masculine has done to us.  How do I as a woman open the possibility for other women, where I and other women can put our arms around it, embrace it?
EdVeeje: I like to clarify my terms, as this topic is going to weave through the hosting calls. When I speak of the feminine principle I don't mean 'women leading'; it can be held by both men and women. This is important to distinguish it from gender!
Ria:  I am amazed by what has come through us into the middle.  I have a sense of closure.  Don't know if there is something else?
Judy: One more thing around this last topic - we do have to be careful! – from what Barbara was saying: women and men are still hesitant to really own and be and name and claim the feminine. There is almost a healing process going on. Probably also on the men's side - at least in Western culture. This is a piece of this, and holding the space for the women that are going to come (to WMtE).
Edveeje: I am current... full, can’t wait to the next call!

Timing of calls and WMtE
Judy: What would be our rhythm of calls?
Barbara:  Every couple of weeks or so.  If we were to think of dates for WMtE, I would like to see something before winter – you know the weather in New England.
Veeje: I am with Barbara, every couple of weeks. I understand there is a balance between sensing, and not rushing and forcing - and I am also feeling a deep conviction to move it forward. We could easily do it right now with 12. I would intuitively like to see it happen late Fall - before winter.
Judy: Every couple of weeks seems good as we do energize it in this way! We need to develop a guiding/calling question, and invitation.  That is part of the process and calls to the ones meant to come.

Checkout
Ria:  I amazed about if we just put our pieces together, the image that starts to appear.  Keeps amazing me.  Late fall OK with me.  We are already in a good flow.
Barbara:  I have a feeling of rightness about this.  Being on the call I feel a sense of groundedness and rightness.  I look forward to the next one.
Edveeje: This is exactly what I was hoping for! You can't define what you are hoping for, but you feel it when your hope is fulfilled! Thanks to all!
Judy: I resonate so much to all being said. Somewhere in the call I began to see these pieces coming together... very appreciative of this. Isn’t this fun!??