Co-Creation
I was told by one of my healers that the spider is my spirit totem and guide. I was not surprised since I’ve always been fascinated by this delicate insect and the intricate designs it creates. Perhaps that’s why I’ve never been afraid of spiders and there’s an empty container in our cupboard for taking them out of the house. Now, if I could only make the cobwebs magically disappear!
According to Animal Speak by Ted Andrews, the spider’s keynote is creativity and the weaving of fate. “It is a symbol of creative power, reflected in its ability to spin a silken web. Spider teaches you that everything you now do is weaving what you will encounter in the future.” This mystic wisdom guides me as I weave with the alchemical threads of wonder, beauty and co-creation for a new earth.
If wonder and beauty are the sacred sight for perceiving a world that works for all, then co-creation is the action of making it so. And Love is the very fabric that these threads are made of and woven into. Love is the loom that allows wonder to dissolve the old, beauty to restore the true, and co-creation to claim the new. We can’t continue to create from the old, distorted knots, loops and gaps of separation any longer. We need to change ‘you OR me’ to ‘you AND me’. This is fundamental to the weaving of our new earth tapestry.
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Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
~ Chief Seattle, leader of the Duwamish and Suquamish peoples
It is such a precious time that we are living in right now and a true turning point for how we will evolve. It’s hard to wrap our minds around the chaos and calamities occurring in all corners of the world. This may be a good thing because it is not our minds, but our hearts that know the answers. And from our hearts, the transformative threads of wonder and beauty can expand our window of tolerance when we encounter difficult conversations, challenging situations, overwhelming emotions and any disappointments along the way. Abiding in loving awareness allows each encounter and experience to become like drops of diamond dew along the web of life, reflecting back to us how we are relating to each other. And again, from our hearts, as loving co-creators, we respect creatorship in all forms even if we don’t agree with it. This is how we weave. (By the way, I didn’t say it was easy!)
There now flows a constant stream of tenderness, a stream in which all petty desires seem to have been extinguished. All that matters now is to be kind to each other with all the goodness that is in us.
~ Etty Hillisum
In weaving the new earth, it is important to listen to what Mother Earth is asking of us. I can hear her whispering, “How do you want to co-create with me?” I can feel her guiding us to tap into our resilience and blossom into beauty, harmony, balance and wellbeing. I can sense her longing for the sweet fragrance of our offered gifts of responsibility, reverence and reciprocity… our giving, instead of taking, taking, taking. Perhaps these winds of change are the earth’s way of compelling us to return to right relationship and shed the systems and structures that do not honor beauty, harmony, balance and wellbeing. Those ways of dominating that have been braided with the distorted threads of fear, greed, control and injustice. Untangling, unwinding and unattaching from these conditioned knots of separation is a challenging yet vital part of weaving from our hearts.
“It’s impossible,” said pride.
“It’s risky,” stated experience.
“It’s pointless,” declared reason.
“Give it a try,” whispered the heart.
~ Unknown
I am involved with two organizations that have helped shape how I co-create with others. I have been a Rotarian since 2011, when I joined the club my father co-founded. It is an international organization and its motto is: Service Above Self. It has been with great pleasure and gratitude that I’ve been able to collaborate on community and international projects that have changed peoples’ lives and made the world a better place. And there’s no doubt, these opportunities have changed me for the better too. One of our guiding principles as Rotarians is the four-way test and I consider it an alchemical tool for being and for co-creating.
The Rotary Four-Way Test
Of the things we think, say, or do:
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
The second organization is the Pachamama Alliance. I volunteer for them, and I have taken several of their courses and trainings to help bring forth a thriving, just and sustainable human presence on earth. This is a core part of their mission.
To empower indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest to preserve their lands and culture and, using insights gained from that work, to educate and inspire individuals everywhere to bring forth a thriving, just, and sustainable world.
~ Mission Statement of the Pachamama Alliance
Over three decades ago, co-founders Bill and Lynne Twist were invited by Achuar leaders to come to their home deep in the Amazon rainforest. The Achuar people knew that they needed help from the outside world to preserve their land and culture and that these trusted partners could help change the dream of the modern world that was threatening their existence. Both in the Amazon and around the globe, Pachamama Alliance has been committed to transforming human systems and structures that separate us, and to transforming our relationships with ourselves, with one another, and with the natural world. They are an 'island of coherence' as we navigate these choppy, chaotic seas, leading the way on how we need to be with Mother Earth (Pachamama) and each other. My wish is that we all join them in weaving a new dream for humanity and earth.
Co-creation is anchored in presence and being with the knowing that every choice and action we make now is weaving what we will encounter in the future. Above, below, beside, between—from our hearts and with the alchemical threads of wonder and beauty—we weave the new earth before us. Co-creation is trusting and allowing higher consciousness to take form through how we choose to relate and live together. It is the devoted weaving of blessing instead of damning with all our thoughts, words and deeds. It is remembering all is sacred—every person, every creature, every element is a precious piece of the whole. Co-creation is weaving this new earth with the unshakeable knowing that we are all connected and Love is the intertwining filament of Light that co-creates the very fabric of our existence.
(Artwork below is a section of the Maidu Creation Story by Harry Fonseca (1946-2006) on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.)
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