Cracking the Collective Shell: The Possible Emergence of Our Collective Essence.

Dear Ones,

Last week we explored the image of the acorn—how the shell of personality and false personality, both based in what some call the egoic operating system, must crack so that the deeper seed of Essence (our World 24 self) can take root and grow into the oak of Real I or True Self (our World 12 self).

This same image can also be applied to humanity’s collective shell of personality and false personality—what some call the wegoic operating system. For the deeper collective “Real I,” or True Self, to take root, this shell must also crack open so that the collective Body of Christ may grow toward a fuller expression.

That we are in the midst of such a process seems evident in humanity’s current circumstances. The inner structures of our collective wegoic selfhood and our prevailing structure of consciousness—what Jean Gebser called the mental structure of consciousness—along with the outer systems that have maintained their stability, are breaking apart before our eyes. As they do, we are experiencing the destabilization, disorientation, and pain that accompany such a transition.

While this structure of selfhood and consciousness is cracking open, the seed of our collective Essence must go beneath the soil and establish deep roots that allow the oak tree to grow strong enough to bear the new integral structure of consciousness that is beginning to reveal itself.

Seen in this way, what we are experiencing begins to make sense intellectually, somatically, and emotionally. We see that our minds are attempting to wade through the constant flood of information and opinions about what is taking place as well as finding ourselves at times still entrenched in old ways of thinking and interpreting the world. Our bodies register the felt sense of familiar values, systems, and institutions unraveling—structures that once provided orientation, a sense of grounding, and stability. We experience the full spectrum of human emotion—from grief, fear, anger, despair and confusion to relief, anticipation, and hope—in the midst of the many crises emerging from this waning mental structure, what many now call the metacrisis.

Yet from the perspective of the Wisdom tradition, something more paradoxical is taking place. As the collective structures that once organized and reflected our shared little “I’s,” personalities, and false selves are shaken and broken apart, they become food for what has not yet emerged. They must decompose so that the seed of our collective Being can sprout, take root, and be brought forth—strong enough to bear the intensified perception required by the emerging integral consciousness.

Gebser has suggested that this integral structure carries a new integrating capacity—one able to hold all prior structures, time, and perspectives within a dynamic living simultaneity. And Cynthia Bourgeault notes that it is our imaginal selfhood that provides the inner organ capable of bearing this new way of perceiving.

In the midst of this collective dying, our shared taproot must grow downward through these dense conditions to find the living water table of the Christic realm (World 12)—the peace that surpasses understanding and the personal, substitutionary love of Christ. From this living water, the deeper roots of Being draw nourishment.

So not only are we the acorns, we are the acorn.

We consent to the cracking of the shell so that collective personality and mental structure of consciousness may become nourishment rather than prison. We allow the taproot of our collective Essence to grow deep enough to draw from living water. We entrust ourselves to a process far more intelligent than our collective surface identity.

With love,

Heather

You can now find these reflections on Substack.

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Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses

*All previous readings & reflections can be found here*

Monday, March 2nd

Reading: A Prayer for the World by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner

Let the sun come down and wash away the ancient grudges, the bitter hatreds held and nurtured over generations. Let the rain wash away the memory of the hurt, the neglect.

Then let the sun come out and fill the sky with rainbows.

Let the warmth of the sun heal us wherever we are broken.

Let it burn away the fog so that we can see each other clearly.

So that we can see beyond labels, beyond accents, gender or skin color.

Let the warmth and brightness of the sun melt our selfishness,

So that we can share the joys and feel the sorrows of our neighbors. And let the light of the sun be so strong that we will see all people as our neighbors. Let the earth nourished by rain, bring forth flowers to surround us with beauty. And let the mountains teach our hearts to reach upward to heaven.

Amen 

Chant: Inner Life of Being, bearing Christ within me, come 

— John Tavener, lyrics by Alan Krema and Darlene Franz

Tuesday, March 3rd with LeMel

Reading: Making Peace

A voice from the dark called out,

“The poets must give us

imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar

imagination of disaster. Peace, not only

the absence of war.”

But peace, like a poem,

is not there ahead of itself,

can’t be imagined before it is made,

can’t be known except

in the words of its making,

grammar of justice,

syntax of mutual aid.

A feeling towards it,

dimly sensing a rhythm, is all we have

until we begin to utter its metaphors,

learning them as we speak.

A line of peace might appear

if we restructured the sentence our lives are making,

revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power,

questioned our needs, allowed

long pauses. . . .

A cadence of peace might balance its weight

on that different fulcrum; peace, a presence,

an energy field more intense than war,

might pulse then,

stanza by stanza into the world,

each act of living

one of its words, each word

a vibration of light—facets

of the forming crystal.

— Denise Levertov

Chant:

May we find the cadence to

Restructure the sentence of our lives

Word by word

Each vibration crystalizing

Peace

— LeMel's Youtube and Substack (for daily readings and chants)

Wednesday, March 4th

Reading: Tending the Spark

By Heather Houston

And we will care for each other

As the world around us unravels

And we will tend to the spark

Of hope that lives within our grieving hearts

And we are here now, in this present moment

Lifting our voices and hearts

And we are here now, we have come together

We are tending the spark of hope

Oh may it grow

And we will care for each other

Chant: In the center of the center, there’s a light that never ends, shining from the center, a light that never ends (x2), shining shining, a light that never ends, shining from the center, a light that never ends (x2)  — Alexa Sunshine Rose

Thursday, March 5th

Reading: “No matter how devastating the short-range outcome, and for however long this next sleep may be, the one thing that is mine to contribute here and now to that “long arc of evolution” is the quality of that pixel of consciousness that I am temporarily privileged to steward. Even in this tiny space I presently occupy I can strive with all my heart to seed into the future my highest understanding of what it means to “be made in the image and likeness of God”; to hold the highest note I can hold as a human being. I can quietly commit my life to the inner work of catalyzing within myself those higher spiritual substances through which this world is ultimately transformed—love, joy, forbearance, kindness, gentleness, self-control; “the fruit of the spirit,” as St Paul called them. These are not organic substances; they do not come naturally to the human animal; they are produced only through the conscious alchemy of the human heart. That is what we humans are called to bring to the continuing evolution of our planet. And with our next mutation, I believe we will finally be able to deliver it. And then, at last, things will change.

To that hope, and the work entailed to bring it into reality, I will gladly dedicate the remaining years of my human life. It is the one thing I can do, and my heart tells me that it will not go for naught.”

— Cynthia Bourgeault, Substack “And the darkness has not vanquished it…” Becoming seed for the future 

Chant: Christ near to all, the Light in all, the Seed sown in the hearts of all

— Words of Robert Barclay put to chant by Paulette Meier

Friday, March 6th with Catherine

Reading: From “Only One Earth,” a United Nations Environment Programme publication for “Environmental Sabbath/Earth Rest Day,” June 1990; 

A Call to Prayer

We who have lost our sense and our senses – our touch, our smell, our vision of who we are; we who frantically force and press all things, without rest for body or spirit, hurting our earth and injuring ourselves: we call a halt.

We want to rest. We need to rest and allow the earth to rest.  We need to reflect and to rediscover the mystery that lives in us, that is the ground of every unique expression of life, the source of the fascination that calls all things to communion.

We declare a Sabbath, a space of quiet: for simple being and letting be; for recovering the great, forgotten truths; for learning how to live again.

Chant: Speak through the earthquake the wind and the fire, oh still small voice of love 

— Darlene Franz

Saturday, March 8th 

Reading: O God, who dwells beyond all our names for you,

we pray for the will to be at peace with one another.

We remember this day those who find themselves thrust into war;

We pray for light in the darkness, and hope amid despair.

We pray for peace in ourselves;

help us to breathe in peace, help us to breathe out love;

help us know and accept ourselves as your beloved.

We pray for peace in our families;

help us to speak the truth to one another in love;

help us to respect and value one another.

Let there be peace in our communities;

help us to create a peace born of justice and equity;

help us to honor and serve the common good.

Let there be peace in our nation;

sustain our hope; grant us wisdom;

empower us with courage.

Let there be peace in our world.

Help us to love the earth as our mother;

help us to see other nations as our neighbors;

help us to wage peace.

— From a Litany for Peace by the Reverend Kay Sylvester 

Rector, St. Paul’s, Tustin – Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles

Chant: Deep Peace 

Sunday, March 8th 

Reading: “A restructuring of consciousness is the fruit of a regular practice of Centering Prayer - transformed hearts and minds that flow out as service to a world in dire need of love.” — Contemplative Outreach

Chant: Love One Another, As I Loved You — Poor Clares

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