Circle Practice #5 - 22nd November

Session Notes by Rona:

Host Bill, Guardian Iain, with Betty , Anneruth, Rona and joined by John (an AL guest) for part of time..

Bill read out bits of chapter 2: Ownership and the Gifts of the Earth.

 In the chapter Louis described an inner experience he had in 1987.

We discussed the similar ideas in other cultures such as native American and Gaelic culture. i.e. Not possible to own a hill or the sky.

The group generally agreed with the idea we are only stewards of the earth  and should be  looking after it for future generations.

Bill described his experience of living with people who had nothing but were the most generous he had come across.

We agreed that material things are not what makes us happy, we were fooled and  conned into massive consumerism time after time

(well some of us ) The need to possess

Bill felt he was the least spiritual in the group and was at odds with the idea that" this surge of love rising up from below,which I experienced as the love of mother earth" (page 9)

We then looked at The Four Actions Louis outlined to move to an economy that was fair sustainable and caring.

We felt that there were some inspirational examples of  how things have been changing that way already.

.Iain is investigating St Germaine Prosperity fund .

other samples included:

Pollock Free State and the Galgael (Govan)

Rudolph Steiner Schools and Camphill (world wide)

The Common Good land. 

We agreed that cultures which had remained closer to the natural world were the ones that seemed  to care and share for each other. 

It was difficult to see  though how this could change the financial sector as it seemed too huge. 

Next time, 6th December:  Chapter 3 -hosted by Iain and Rona hosting Ch#4

Other homework:

Over the next two weeks we would also think about the option to have weekly study circle, partly to make better headway with the book, partly also because the benefit of weekly Circle Council practice was missed. Additional consideration were that if one misses a session in a weekly cycle one can get back quicker, rather than a month's gap.

Implications on childcare need to be thought through and all voices heard.

Study Circle now weekly with Creche!

Flyer updated as of 6th December: join us now next week, 13th

Great Opportunity! Our Study Circle now with Crèche! 

Beat the economic blues by educating yourself about REAL economy!

6 sessions with crèche have been scheduled

and can be continued if there is demand

starts this Tomorrow

2 December sessions (6th and 13th)

will recommence beginning of January

for 4 more Thursday sessions

(dates to be confirmed)

SEIZE THE DAY

TODAY

and book your place!

and: PASS THE WORD!!

The Four Horsemen film this Thursday

Free showing of the Four Horseman Film
This Thursday, 6th December, 6.30pm - 9pm
at ALP 

by the Welcoming Cinema Club

Cinema, the art that welcomes all! The Welcoming Cinema Club is part of the Welcoming Project and the Tollcross Community Centre on 117 Fountainbridge. Every Thursday from 6:30 to 9 come along and watch a movie from different communities for free. Edinburgh EH3 9QG

come along and educate yourself!

click here

for more selected clips of film click here

   
SEED will revisit the film next year again, with the view of kick starting more dialogue on its themes and 27 principles Ross Ashcroft and team have identified.

You can read the 27 principles here
http://www.renegadeeconomist.com/fourhorsemenfilm/the-27-principles.html

"The .... list is neither definitive nor exhaustive, but it summarizes the main points of Four Horsemen: The Survival Manual and is provided here as a starting point for further discussion.

Creating a set of principles on which to base a successful process of global political and economic change has to be a collaborative project. To this end everyone is welcome to comment or make suggestions for their improvement."

or you can get the book  here 

Please stay in touch and join in the dialogue now : A better world IS possible!
It depends on us making and sustaining the whole-picture connection TOGETHER.

Circle Council Practice #4 - 8th November

This time we forgot to agree on a scribe, so, today, on the eve of session #5, we have nothing written up of our 4th session!

Well, lets make a valiant effort to remember what was two weeks ago.

Present were Anneruth, Betty, Bill, Charlie, Dazey, Rona and Sue, with apologies from Evie (who urgently needs childcare!) and Iain.

Setting the centre:
Bill brought a Mayan frog (well, one made out of metal!) to honour what had value to them and his connection with Nicaragua. Charlie brought a crystal he uses to cleanse water. Rona brought fruits of the earth, Sue a little tiny booklet called the name of which I have forgotten, but it's one sentence sayings referred to simplicity and small is beautiful, and I brought a handmade glass pendant I got given in Germany that week - and as I have a picture of that I add it here

As celebratory opening of Circle we went round reading each one reading one page/sentence of the pearls of simplicity of Sues little book.
To welcome Charlie back and Betty anew, we went slowly over the agreements.

As Dazey had not managed to prepare his reading and as Iain had not managed to come in this time, I had to step in and take us through the two 'host-less' sections, second part of the intro which was still outstanding and Ch. 1. I did not find it easy hosting because a) I was not fully prepared to do the hosting and b) our chosen method of studying is different from last term (where we read aloud page by page of the chosen texts) and most folks had not read the chapters yet in depth.
To get more hard copy texts was an issue identified, and action is being taken.

Intro core points:

• To welcome the very personal nature of the book, esp the beginning of it. Louis shared his personal journey, and his unique way of seeing, finding and relating to universal truths underpinning a sane economy.
• moving from fear to love in our relationship with money. For Louis those 2 are fundamental 'rightful' forces of human nature influencing our choices in life and in economy - fear disables, love enables caring for everything. That outcome was felt to make sense, but the notion of the two being 'rightful' was being questioned: "How can it be 'rightful' to have fear?" (what does he mean, really?)
• Louis Plan of Action: the wish to start a platform of conversation on Dare to Care and people working together: question arose where was the 'platform' - how active is it, and how does it work to join in if one is not online sort of person? 

Ch #1 Core points:

quote from p3:

MY INTENTION

I am writing this bookwith the intention for all humanityto see and dream a visionof a new economic foundationand be able to implement it.I believe that our need for vision is deepand I want to make my contribution toward itby sharing insights and revelations I received over the yearsin my search for an answer to the question: How we can resolve our financial and economic issues andestablish peace on Earth?

• introducing the notion of stage 1, the 'Garden' section of the book: we are curious to learn over the weeks to come why Louis introduces this notion, dream or vision. Are we to 'revert' to a paradisaical state? But we are living in cities now,  most of mankind? 
• stage 2: 'a love based economy', an intellectual and emotional inner structure as foundation for new culture. Good idea. But how could that be realised when glitz and glamour tempts people at every corner and traps them, what ever their money supply (eg also the so-called poor)? The hugeness of the brainwash all societies are living in was felt ... 
• part 3: "A Care First World"  a portal stage/phase where Care-First as a measure opens the gate to the Garden made manifest? Sounds easy, but as not knowing what the balanced wellbeing of each being (hnman or non human) intrinsically means - how can we make choices, alone and together?

All in all, the reflections on the readings so far was mainly critical and curious as what Louis sees the way forward is for a complex and rather fundamental process of structural transformation of society!

It was decided to ask Louis to come at a later session (not the next one on the 22nd as original thought) so we have had more time to read and reflect on his book before he comes.

Homework:

reading the next 3 chapters

Bill to host Ch #2

Charlie & Iain Ch  #3

Rona & Dazey Ch # 4

and we see how far we get on with it all in 2 weeks on the 22nd of November

Rona and Sue will via ALP further investigate child care possibilities for Evie

Circle council practise number 3 Thurs 25th October.

Write up by Sue - from memory:

Well, our start time was a little earlier than last time so we are moving in the right direction !  It was good to welcome Rona to the group and Evie’s son was a welcome visitor. We appreciated that Bill came despite little sleep.

We reviewed the agreements in the circle and all noted them to increase our ownership of them.

Ruth again prepared for the centre, so it would still be good if the rest of us put thought into bringing something to it.

I read my poem ‘It’s Criminal’ and felt the circle was an appropriate and  sufficiently supportive group to read it to for the first time. I appreciate the comments that people made.

We all talked about our recollections of the previous discussion of the book.

The Introduction (pt 1)

Ruth invited us to talk about our own personal relationship to money, which we did. Louis is highlighting concepts which are not new. There was a general agreement that it is the intention behind the use of money that is important.  

There was discussion about companies that use sustainability as a marketing ploy and fail to live up to the principles of a love economy.

The personal journey

Gave opinions about whether the love economy principles are likely to ripple out from a local to a global institutional level. Heart –warming examples were given on a local level and there was discussion about how doubting the ripple  effect can feed into creating failure/self-fulfilling prophecies.

There was discussion about the language in which the book is written, and the personal spiritual experience which informed the direction of his theories. We agreed that we could read for the content regardless of feelings which the language may evoke, and talked about what->

Next

We agreed to continue discussion of our reading next week.  Louis will come to the  following meeting and we thought that we may want to invite him back again later when we are further through the book.

When hosting a chapter we agreed to invite people to think about .

1.     What facts have you learned?
2.    What are your feelings about this chapter?
3.   What action might you take as a result?

Hosts for next session on the 8^th of November – as far as we remember right now – were to be:

Intro revisited            Iain or Ruth?

Chapter 1                  Christopher

Ch. 2                          Bill

Ch. 3                          Evie

Ch. 4                          Rona

In general: we wish to progress a bit faster now through the chapters, to get ready for Louis!

Session notes from CCP 11th October

Here is Evie's write from our second session. 

Third session is this Thursday 9.30 - 11.30.

Newcomers welcome. The sessions are free of monetary charge, but are highly charged with the power of transformation. You have been warned! :-)

A democratic learning community. 

CCP 2 (Circle Council Practise #2 autumn 2012)

Well I think its fair to say we got off to a rather late start yet that seemed to have a very powerful learning experience for the group, and we did appear to develop a greater understanding of our own needs and the needs of others through it. It would be interesting to hear others account of this process and unravel what the actual learning was? I sense some have a need to go slow and others have a need to be on course. The question we need to now ask is how can we move forward in a way that promotes equality between both needs?

A Circle Learning Journey has begun.

Our preparation for the Centre was created by Ruth who seems to be a sole contributor to the centre setting therefore I'd like to urge the others and including myself to take some ownership for our centre, and bring what feels important to our overall higher intent.

Bill took the opportunity to do our agreements:

• Honour time keeping
• Clockwise movement
• Value agreements made
• Collate possible action points
• Honour living words
• Honour ripple space
• Incorporate lightness
• Listen with curiosity and compassion
• Honour wholeness of talking stick
• Only when everyone's needs are met are everyone's needs met

Setting our Intent for the session
It was noted that this is ordinarily done prior to our meeting however it seemed to be a nice process to go through it face to face and I enjoyed hearing it being formulated 'live'.

The Intent:
To learn and study the book, gathering the essence of its meaning and thus learning how we can switch from a fear based economy to a love based economy, one that enhances and protects people and our environment.

Does that resonate with people?

Evie read the first words aloud and brought us into Circle. We followed this by reading the foreword.

Check in raised issues around time and Sue feeling slightly ill

Foreword:
On reading the foreword it stimulated an open round discussion on the content. It was raised that their was a great amount of time spent on understanding the network of people who were involved in the process of this book coming into being. Anneruth was able to bring the foreword to life with her well researched understanding of the different organisations that are working towards a love based economy.

The discussion that took place seemed to open up to the heart of the economic trouble, and seemed to tap into very relevant concepts that the group are trying to understand. In this way, the book seems to stimulate thinking along the right lines and offers an opportunity for us to change the kind of debates we are having, albeit with a rather small group of people.

We agreed on a format for our next sessions

Next Session:
Getting in for 9.30am with a prompt start @ 10.00am
Therefore all coffee and social chatting to be done and ready to move into circle time thereafter.

Host for the next sessions as follows

Ruth:                     Preface and Introduction
Sue:                      My Story
Christopher:            Chapter 1
Bill:                        Chapter 2
Evie:                      Chapter 3

Check out
3 words to sum up feelings :D

Peas Love and Bumble Bees

Evie

We have started! (27th Sept 2012)

1st Circle Council Practise session at ALP

(A democratic learning community. Adult Learning Project, Tollcross Community Centre, 117 Fountainbridge, Edinburgh EH3 9QG)

 following our plans from here:

present: Bill, Chris (for second half), Evie, Ruth, Sue

apologies: Barbara, (Rona)           

Centre setting:

Handmade round rug (spun yarn crocheted) with felted symbol (tripple spiral in yellow and 3 orcas; symbol of many things such tripple ripple, mother ocean, northern hemnisphere,  community nurturing, respecting); green alabaster candle holder from Egypt, holding rose nightlight; Sequioa  pinecone, largest plant organism on earth, tiniest seed that needs maturing in forest fires and then grows into fire-resistant barked tree tower, red wood; this pinecone comes from Dawyck, Merlindale in the Borders; original Redwood from eastern USA. These objects were brought by one person today (Ruth as first part host). (Please everyone bring something next time;-) )

Intent setting:

To find the best foundation for this block of sessions.

Evie lit candle and took on guardian role.

Tune-in text:

??? (a nice one, but Ruth cant remember !!)

Check in:

everyone glad to be here; hoping to be find best steps for foundation for sessions

Part 1: intro to Circle Way, for Sue and as refresher for all

Host had written up Circle Way basics and we went through point up point. Very satisfactory free conversation style bringing elements together to remember, share and celebrate the principles and practises of Circle.

Brief conversation as to whether in future this in depth Circle intro is needed for new folks or not. Decision made: if it is only one - this person to be briefed by one member of Circle in advance. If more folks come: to devote beginning of main Circle Session to it.

Part 2: recruitment

Chris  joins in

Host: Evie; Guardian: Bill

circle way sharing of what we thought of time/place of sessions so far:

good place; time manageable; we better stay here; the two weekly cycle makes it more attractive;

 not enough people here; how can we reach out to more: library (Bill), word of mouth (all)

Barbara and Ronan will join us later in October

add other things to next flyer: declare that is community action (it is in fact, and it might attract more peeps)

present big double sided flyer: maybe the notion of two much choice kept peeps away ?

Chris will be here at 9am to set up kettle and circle

Starting to have read the agreed choice of our book would be best

part 3: choosing book to study

Bill: host; Ruth: Guardian

the 6 books laid out in circle

round robin for each to say pros and cons they are aware of for themselves. and to list two books as their best choice, and to say why

Evie: +: Counter Power CP / 4 Horsemen (comprehensive manual)

Chris:. no to CP (to easy to read), yes to D2C (start change with us) and the 4HM (in depth packed)

Sue: D2C (hasn't looked into others) and see advantages in it having e-copies and author can be invited

Ruth: not CP, D2C, Agenda for new economy, then 4 horsemen (looks for both help in understanding current system and been given nutshell compact set of points looking at everything that needs to change)

Bill: not CP; the 4 horse men, D2C

choice: Dare to Care to start with; then the 4HM

Ruth to get in touch with Louis to see how to get hold of e-copy

check out:

everybody amazed as to how easy choosing was; reflecting on the power of deep listening and visible intent setting; consensus on wanting to study a book that gave them tools to help change system

round off: Bill's song ;-)

coffee in the new Forest Cafe! (at Toll Cross)

Next session planning:

still to be done:

                determine host and guardian

                create oaablog platform for both private team space (plan sessions)
Homework: Reading the first Part of Dare to Care (up to page 46)
                     and bring something along that can contribute to the Centre Piece to represent our intent:
Intent:  to practise Circle Council  by studying Dare to Care