Marilyn Hamilton's Blog, page 17

From Manifesto to Mistaken Identity: How Care Brings the War Close to Me

The Economist headlines. Guardian bulletins. BBC News Flashes. Tweets quoting Zelensky to the UN. Angry videos. Toxic propaganda.

I feel bombarded by the day-to-day, often hour-to-hour and sometimes minute-to-minute experiences of the Russian-Ukraine war.

But the geography has seemed far away from my Scottish ecovillage. Until last week, when it got very close as I ventured out (for the first time since the pandemic began) to Brussels and Amsterdam.

There I encountered the war, face to face, with my Russian friends who had relocated to Amsterdam to give their young son opportunities that Russian education could not provide (concepts of equality between pupil and teacher for example). Ironically at the beginning of 2019 we had stood on the steps of De Ceuvel in Amsterdam, during the We Make the City Festival and declared 2 Manifestos. (Manifesto for New Sincerity for Future Generations and Manifesto for Climate Change for Organizations.)

This couple had invested time, money and effort to start a new restaurant – an entrepreneurial venture which had to be closed during the pandemic lockdown (which of course they had not forseen).

Much harder was the loss of both the husband’s parents to covid in the last year – back in Russia where it was difficult to get accurate reporting of covid deaths.

But then the “military conflict” – that could not be identified as “war” brought unexpected insult to this immigrant family in their new city – because as soon as people found out their Russian identity (by passport or other identification processes) they were identified with the whole ignominy of the Russian war machine.

How many people knew that this couple had taken steps of Care to demonstrate their opposition to the war by extending tangible help to Ukranians fleeing the war? That they had hosted several fund raising dinners. That the tips in the restaurant were all donated to the Ukraine? That the proceeds from a special offer all went to Ukrainian refugees? And the owner himself volunteered time and resources at a refugee centre?

I wondered at the swift judgments that my friends felt they were subject to – until I was being processed at the passport desk on re-entering Scotland. Did I have another passport besides my Canadian one? No??? I pointed to my Visa – but all the immigration officer could see was the several Russian Visas that I had in my passport – for trips several years past. He looked very suspiciously at me. Did I have a Residence Card? Oh Yes – I did – but I had forgotten because it had been so long since I had travelled.

But I thank the immigration officer for his accusatory look of suspicion – it made me realize what it feels like to be condemned for associations of birth, heritage, relationships and culture that I have both inherited and chosen. Now through a chimera of dark imagination they can become politically reinterpreted as incorrect and add constraints to my life that were not visible before.

Those experiences shared by my Russian friends and the immigration challenges to my own identity gave me deeper appreciation of the value of Care. When we live the Master Code of Care for Planet, Place and People, then we are called to give ourselves and others the benefit of the doubt – not to accuse others of the unfair assumptions that arise from contracting into othering, fear, projection and condemnation.

It turns out that the war is as close as the inside of me. And that Care, Kindness and Curiosity are virtuous weapons that are necessary for me to practise, to combat the assumptions that war mongering can too easily foster in words, reactions and responses.

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Published on April 10, 2022 07:54

Brain Gain – How Ukrainian & Russian Brain Drain Will Change Europe

I am a Canadian of a certain age who remembers clearly what it was like to live in Toronto in the era of Vietnam Draft Dodgers.

In the 1960’s and 70’s young men of draft age beat a steady path to Canada to preserve lives, education and future opportunities. Estimates of about 125,000 men came into Canada and made changes to Canadian culture that echo to this day. Canada was clearly the beneficiary of this substantial cohort of well educated, energized and ethical young adults.

Now that I am a Canadian migrant (returned to Scotland, land of my ancestors) I watch with fascination the war-caused Brain Drain out of the Ukraine into Europe – landing in eastern, central and western Europe in numbers never before seen. Last week’s estimates were 4 million people – that is an enormous influx of people who are well educated, skilled and encultured to high living standards.

It seems to me that Mr. Putin has badly judged the expected ease and style of his military campaign to invade and capture Ukraine. He has single handedly re-energized an unexpectedly strong response from NATO and the EU. But more than these reactions, he may have inspired the fastest, most highly qualified Brain Drain from Russia as well as Ukraine.

Because the young people of Russia, who are also well educated, skilled and world travellers know well that the “military operation” is war. Where they can do so, they are departing their country quickly. Like the former Vietnam Draft Dodgers they want to save lives, education and future prospects.

Russia, with its declining population before the war, cannot afford to lose the conscripts in its military – but more critically they cannot afford to lose the hearts, minds and bodies of their young adults who were the centre of their newly thriving middle class. In less than 2 months Russia has lost 2 decades – a whole generation – of investment in its social and cultural capital.

These Russian immigrant/refugees may not be as quickly or warmly received in Europe as their Ukranian cousins – but their brains and hearts offer significant assets to whatever cities and nations will offer them opportunities.

It seems to me that there will be many unintended consequences of Russia’s war. Unfortunately for Russia, when it comes time to rebuild, it will have lost the best heads, most open hearts and most qualified hands. They will be rebuilding other places – who seek solutions to climate change, pandemic resilience and how to guarantee peace in our time.

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Published on April 08, 2022 04:16

Reflective Organ Newsletter March Equinox 2022: Fact, Fake, Fantasy

This newsletter is published quarterly using a cycle of perspectives on the Integral City viewed from: Planet, People, Place and Power. The theme of this issue is Planet.

When we take the perspective of Caring for Planet, we gain the Overview of a Living System Cosmology that embraces all of the Cares into ONE planet. We discern the deep connections of Planetary Care in VUCA times – using Climate Change as an example that calls on the collaboration of individuals and collectives wearing the hats of the Practical, Political and Personal. We appreciate the power of Spirituality to bring optimism alive and optimization to empower our practices. We learn how a Salutogenic sense of Wellbeing creates the conditions for a Planet of Cities interconnected through science and spirit. We gain insights through the powers of ECOintention to change whole systems through sensing the energies of person, peoples, place and planet.

Hamilton, M., Accelerating City Change in a VUCA World, Urban Hub 20, 2021, Integral Mentors

Scroll to end of newsletter to access Free Resources.

Fact, Fake or Fantasy?

When I am connected to people with zero degrees of separation it is difficult not to care about events as they impact those people. It is the inverse algorithm I use for Islands of Calm – find calm in myself so I can impact up to 1000 other people (thank you David Spangler). But detecting or reflecting turbulence in others can also impact up to 1000 other people – including me.

It turns out I am connected directly to several communities of Russians. And I lived in Canada with an extensive community of Mennonites – many of whom had direct ties to the Ukraine. In addition, in the international community of Findhorn, where I now live, waves of news wash through, flooding our minds, hearts and souls like the deluges that are destroying lives of friends in Australia (as I write) and in the last year damaged lives in Germany and Canada.

Having direct contact with friends in times of distress brings home the facts of their situations because of the direct relationship and trust I have with the source of the news. My friends and colleagues send me photos of damage and destruction. They measure the depth of the flood. They report on the state of the weather. They use all their senses and sense to paint a picture whose truth I feel I can depend on.

By contrast, when I listen to broadcast or syndicated news, I am receiving news curated by others I do not know. Often, curators have expertise and technology that can expand awareness of the context of many situations. But they also have biases (cultural), vested interests (advertiser influence) and political influence (both elected and adversarial) that remove me from the facts of the situation.

Moreover, those biases, vested interests and political influences can turn factual news into fake news. This can happen at every scale from micro to meso to macro – especially where political interests benefit from a “twisted rendition”. With the help of social media technology these fake stories can be spun back upon themselves so that the feedback loops amplify emotional “hooks” and multiply the effects of the fake news – spreading like a tsunami of anxiety around the globe. …

As an individual impacted by the facts and the fakes in the world, I ask myself, “Is there anything else I can do?” …

I had set for Integral City Meshworks the intention in 2022 to catalyse City/Bioregion Regeneration Hubs. How can we do that, while the world is at war, squandering our non-renewable fuels and ignoring the actions we should be taking to respond to climate change?

It turns out the impulse to discover what could emerge if I created a world of fantasy, was so strong that I took fingers to keyboard and experimented with 4 Novellas.

The Novellas emerge from an ancient myth that arose from a wisdom school located in the heart of a long-disputed territory in the Hindu Kush. But this place and these wisdom keepers were ignored because they apparently contributed nothing to the worlds of fact or fake.

My fantasy is that this mystery school of Sarmouni – the honey makers – now transplanted to Scotland – has the wisdom to teach and equip young emissaries to catalyse Regeneration Hubs in city/bioregions with the mysteries from science, spirit and soul. The Sarmouni are dispatched into the world of 4 cities – in the global north, south, east and west – to learn for themselves the power of impacting the 4 Voices of those cities. …

And so, at this March 2022 Equinox we take the courage to step into the world – out beyond fact and fake – to explore the possibilities of regenerative fantasy. You can open the door to the Mystery School of Sarmouni below … and step across the threshold into one of the adventures that it introduces.

We hope that readers will find the weaving of these fantasy realms will give them an option to facts and fakes. You might even discover a new buoyancy as we navigate the turbulence of daily life and reveal the possibilities of a thriving future.

Read the full editorial here.

Tales of the CROFT Regenerators

Many eons ago in the Hindu Kush, a secret School served Earth. It was called “Sarmoun Darq,” which translates as “The Beehive” or the “Collectors of Honey.” The purpose of this human school hive was to collect human knowledge in the eras when knowledge became incoherent and unconnected and store it for future seasons when it could nurture Earth again. The Constellators who integrated the collection and learning, were alert to the times when Earth people faced unexpected difficulties, diseases, strife, conflict and even war. These Constellators knew, collecting this honey was vital to the capacity of Earth to renew and regenerate her greatest aliveness.

Some time ago this School of Sarmouns was transported to a location in the north of Scotland, we call the CROFT.

The Sarmoun Darq – or Sarmoun CROFT now – collects special knowledge like bees collect nectar and pollen from flowers and then transform it into honey. Like a beehive, the School appreciates and stores a constellation of essential knowledge from all regions of the globe. The Sarmoun Constellators learn to master and teach the practices of collecting and concentrating nectar and pollen and transforming the essences, aromas and elements into honey without equal. They then store this honey in unique vessels. When the Universe calls, the Croft School releases the honey into specially prepared vessels that the Croft sends out to the world wherever it is needed….

When Earth makes known to the Constellators its needs, the vessels are prepared to journey to the regions of the world where they are needed.

Click here to access the Infographic and enter the Centre for Regeneration, ONEness, Freedom, Truth.

I Need a New Language

I need a new language to describe what I see going on in the world. …

I need a new language that goes beyond war, rumours of war and reportings of war.

I seek something that makes sense from the overview I discern from a cosmo-local perspective. If I think cosmically, feel globally and act locally, what are the words that describe my expressions from head, heart, hara, hands?

I go back to words that I have used before in editorials, articles and chapters. Where I have explored the dilemmas of power – over, with, as. “Power As” seems to have regressed or even disappeared from accepting that humans are Gaia’s Reflective Organs. Even on a clear day we don’t seem to be able anymore to sense as one global organism – even honouring our organs (I call those cities) and organelles (I see them as organizations) and cells (I look at our individual contributions).

Our “Power With” reaches out impulsively as nations to align with one another to punish this act of war with economic sanctions that hurt the sanctioners as much as the sanctioned. The ultimate result may be that we all decline or even die together. Because we haven’t the words to communicate not just what we disagree with – but what all sides are blind to.

As blind people striking out against so many threats, we are all now experiencing the “Power Over” that has held our species in thrall for thousands of years. In our traumatized states, we seem to be frozen and speechless, fleeing and denying our response-ability or fighting with bodies and weapons that can destroy our beloved planet as we know it. …

I need a new language that borrows not just the metaphor of the living mycelium in the soil that reveals the fundamental interconnectivity of all life but that radiates meaning from the very codes of life itself.

I need a new language that enables me to let go of the mylenated connections in my brain that no longer serve a scaffold of learning that served a world that no longer exists.

I need a new language that lets me un-learn as fast as I can ex-change my perspectives, widen my relationships and deepen my commitments. …

I need a new language that infects the speaker and listener with Love. I need a new language that spreads Peace. I need a new language that potentiates Unity.

I need a new language to pattern a new language for the next unfolding of a truly regenerative Life – alive with Beauty, Truth and Goodness.

Click here to read the full article.

Mighty Network: Transformation to City Makers

Integral City Leader, Beth Sanders is launching the City Makers community. She has given new life to the Mighty Network that we co-created several years ago. The City Makers is where you’ll learn to:

Convene communities in ways that amplify their wisdom and enable actionNavigate conflicting ideas and valuesWork effectively with people who usually fight with each other (citizens, governments, community organizations, and businesses)Implement awesome projects with unusual partners—and get unusual (and awesome!) resultsBeth affirms that, “City makers do no work alone. They have a community around them who serve as resources, thinking partners, cheerleaders, and sounding boards. They have a community that examines what works and what does not work—either way it’s a celebration.”

Upcoming Integral City & Constellation Events with Planet Purpose

Integral City and Constellation are offering a range of course in 2022. Marilyn will be teaching through Ubiquity University and Beth will be teaching in the new City Makers Mighty Network.

(Note: Registration for courses at Ubiquity University is through Ubiquity University. Registration for Mighty Network courses is through “Courses” in the Mighty Network. Links are provided below.)

Cities Rising for a Regenerative World (Ubiquity University)

With its roots in the Humanity Rising 2021 Cities Rising for a Regenerative World, this micro-course focuses on human systems at the scale of the city. We define “city” as the human habitat (or “human hive”) at scales from village to megalopolis, embracing the ecoregion in which the city is located. The inquiry embedded in Cities Rising complements other courses in the BRA/MRA, by highlighting the context–cities–in which most humans live, and the contribution cities can make to a Regenerative World.

This is a 6-hour micro course offered through Ubiquity University. Course details and registration can be found on the course page at Ubiquity University. This is an asynchronous, self-directed course you can take at any time.

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Beyond Smart (Ubiquity University)

Beyond Smart introduces “practitioners” to just the basics of the Integral City model. You will learn the framework of practices, tools and maps that reveal the common patterns that impact the lives of individuals, organizations and communities within your city. This short course explores three powerful images animating Integral City systems – the integral map, the meshwork and the human hive. You will learn from your own situations (and other student sharings in the Ubiverse Group) how the toolkit guides you beyond models for Urban Ecovillages and Traditional, Smart and Resilient Cities.

Beyond Smart is a 12-hour micro course offered through Ubiquity University. Course details and registration can be found on the course page at Ubiquity University. This is an asynchronous, self-directed course you can take at any time.

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Beyond Resilient (Ubiquity University)

Beyond Resilient enables Practitioners, Catalysts and Meshworkers to build capacitating scaffolds so that cities work for everyone. Participants grow their leadership to serve the city to thrive within the Master Code of Care: Caring for Self, Others, Place, Planet.

This course explores the city as the Human Hive and co-creates the conditions for you to catalyze and explore all the Voices who inhabit your spheres of influence – including family, neighbourhood, workplaces, recreation zones, communities, city, and eco-regions.

Beyond Resilient is a 12-week macro course offered for credit through Ubiquity University. Course details and registration can be found on the course page at Ubiquity University. There are two options to take this course:

Asynchronously, in a self-directed fashion, any time you like OR“Live” with Marilyn Hamilton, Beth Sanders and wonderful classmates. (Recommended–so you have the live experience of community. Next live offering will be September to December 2022.)

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Islands of Calm for Global Cities – Monthly Zoom City Subtle Activism Meditation (lead by Marilyn Hamilton on 4th Saturday of Month. March 26, April 23 , May 28, June 25). Time for these 4 months will be 930am GMT. Click here to register on Eventbrite.

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The City Nestmaking Series (City Makers Mighty Network)Engaging Inquiry (starts on March 30, 2022 in our Mighty Network)

4-week course hosted by Beth Sanders on Wednesdays from noon to 1:30 pm Mountain Time.

Cultivate your capacity (and your city’s) to foster adaptation, resilience and transition. We’ll explore how inquiry is a means to ensure vital feedback loops that inform city making. To register, “Buy” the course in the City Makers Mighty Network.

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Join Beth Sanders/City Makers monthly for free zoom Street Corner Visiting – – 8pm BST – 4th Tuesday of the Month.

Climate, Cities & People

Curated by Paul Van Schaik, Integral Mentors

“The pandemic recalibrated the relationship of humans to all life on Earth. As humans locked down and quieted, new Voices could be heard. In response to the pandemic, cities and nations stopped 80% of air travel; limited local transportation; restricted gatherings; and simplified options for daily living. People learned that human behaviour could change in shorter time than the scientists predicted was needed to avoid climate disaster (in 2020 it was calculated as 10 years).
• It turns out that we awakened not simply to a Century of the City – but awakened the City and its Region to a Century of crystal clarity about the holographic, fractal elegance of Evolutionary Care. The Century of clarity revealed that humans have a common language of Care – care that manifests at fractal scales (just like a diamond refracts light) in service to Gaia – care for Self, Others, Places, Planet.
• With a power like the mystery of sacred crystals, we discovered the Master Code of Care revealed how Care for Self manifests Beauty; Care for Others manifests Goodness; Care for Place manifests Truth; and Care for Planet manifests Gaia’s Reflective Organ system.” Quotation from contribution by Marilyn Hamilton

Through action we will move forward – through only ongoing talk we will stagnate and fail. These curations are to be dipped into – explored and used to generate ideas and discussion. A catalyst for collaboration and action. And most importantly grown, modified in a generative form.
Click here to order this book – and see links to earlier books in this Thrivable World series.

Book ReLaunch: Love Money, Money Loves You

by Sarah McCrum

Sarah McCrum has opened up a completely new way of thinking about and interacting with money with #MoneyLovesYouBook. This latest edition gives us all a glimpse into what the future of value and currency could look like on our planet – it’s very hopeful and exciting!

Many of us have built a bad relationship with money, and it’s holding us back from true abundance and financial success. But luckily, Sarah McCrum has written the perfect book to help repair that broken relationship with #MoneyLovesYouBook. Through a unique narrative, it’ll help you better understand money and attract more of it.

Sarah McCrum has a fresh and rare perspective on money, unlike anyone else. In #MoneyLovesYouBook, she will show you that perspective to help reduce the stress and anxiety you feel around money and ultimately attract more of it into your life.

You will never think about money the same way again after reading #MoneyLovesYouBook by Sarah McCrum! It’s full of wonderful insights and practical exercises to help you shift your money mindset to one of positivity and abundance.

Click here for all the details.

Celebrating Our Planet of Cities in 2022

“Everyone I have spoken with about working with the Russians in space exploration believes that the United States has learned a great deal from Russia and that Russia has learned a great deal from the United States – and that the entire international space partnership is much better because of it.”
― Ron Garan, The Orbital Perspective: Lessons in Seeing the Big Picture from a Journey of 71 Million Miles

March 21 marks the start of what Integral City calls the Planet Quarter (from March 21 to June 20 ). As difficult as was the year 2021, 2022 has replaced the isolation of the pandemic with the misery of global war – fought on the face of the Planet we should be blessing with care and regeneration. If we have learned nothing else, we have learned that the war for the mind through sanctions on bio-psycho-cultural-social trade can be implemented with lightning speed. While the pandemic prepared us for defence against a virus, it also gave the world neural-networks of interconnectivity that enabled responses to Russia’s aggression with alacrity not before seen. Perhaps this is the evidence we need to see that physical Power Over has been replaced by Mind-Power-Over, Heart-Power-With and Soul-Power-As?

What actions, imaginations, cultures or systems have given you hope this quarter? What stories, fantasies and dreams do you seek for an inspiring future? Visit us on our Integral City Website and Blog or post a comment about your city interests on our sister City Makers Mighty Network.

Meshful Blessings of this Interstitial Season Celebrating our Planet of Cities …Marilyn Hamilton and the Integral City Constellation Corps TeamPS Here are some FREE resources for uplifting our Planet of Integral Cities:I Want to Be a Ukranian (Meg Wheatley)

The War in Ukraine & the Future of the World – Yuval Noah Harari & Timothy Snyder

Cities are Regional Tipping Points and Global Trigger Points – Integral City 3.7 Download Chapter 4 herePlanet A is Open – Explore the Alternative Planet in this Prezi – Click HereVideo: Jonathan Gustin & Charles Eisenstein: Climate Change as Spiritual Activism

Putin and the Power of Collective Action from Shared Awareness — Part 2: The Social Grammar of Creation by Otto Scharmer

Integral City Blogs

Beauty, Truth, Goodness: Food for Regenerative City-Bioregion Life

Manifesto of Peace for Gaia’s Reflective Organs

I Need a New Language

Fact, Fake, Fantasy

Centre for Regeneration, ONEness, Freedom, Truth

Climate Change: COP 26The EARTHSHOT to Cool our Planet COP 26: Forests Saving our Planet Humanity Rising COP 26 Grand Finale People’s Declaration COP 26 COP 26 Days 3-7 Humanity Rising Global Panels COP 26 Day 2: Soil Our Future Beneath our Feet Cities are Gaia’s Regeneration Hubs – Infographic COP 26 Day 1 Humanity Rising Day 351(2) Inside/Outside COP COP 26 Day 1 Humanity Rising Day 351: Code Red for Humanity A COP26 Message from the Subtle Realms, via David Spangler COP 26 – Cities are Gaia’s Regeneration Hubs COP 26 – Preparing the Ground – Code Red on Humanity Rising Day 3507. Newsletters Past Issues 2021 Integral City Reflective Organ – December Solstice 2021: Rejoice, Research, Regenerate Integral City Reflective Organ – September Equinox 2021: Code Red for Regenerative Action Integral City Reflective Organ – June Solstice 2021 -Unity, CAN’s, Competition, Coalitions, Collaborations Integral City Reflective Organ – March Equinox 2021 – Translate Care for Gaia with Impact, Training, Story

8. Integral City MetaBlog 2021 – A Synthesis and index of all Integral City Blogs from 2021

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Published on March 16, 2022 14:19

Centre for Regeneration ONEness Freedom Truth

Introducing the Novella Series:Tales of the CROFT Regenerators

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Published on March 14, 2022 02:21

Fact, Fake or Fantasy?

For most of the last 3 months I stopped listening or watching news and only scanned headlines. I stopped being a news junkie. But I have started again. Why? Because of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

When I am connected to people with zero degrees of separation it is difficult not to care about events as they impact them. It is the inverse algorithm I use for Islands of Calm – find calm in myself so I can impact up to 1000 other people (thank you David Spangler). But detect turbulence in others and they can also impact up to 1000 other people – including me.

It turns out I am connected directly to several communities of Russians. And I lived in Canada with an extensive community of Mennonites – many of whom had direct ties to the Ukraine. In addition, in the international community of Findhorn, where I now live, waves of news wash through, flooding our minds, hearts and souls like the deluges that are destroying lives of friends in Australia (as I write) and in the last year damaged lives in Germany and Canada.

Having direct contact with friends in times of distress brings home the facts of their situations because of the direct relationship and trust I have with the source of the news. My friends and colleagues send me photos. They measure the depth of the flood. They report on the state of the weather. They use all their senses and sense to paint a picture whose truth I feel I can depend on.

By contrast, when I listen to broadcast or syndicated news, I am receiving news curated by others I do not know. Often, they have expertise and technology that can expand awareness of the context of many situations. But they also have biases (cultural), vested interests (advertiser influence) and political influence (both elected and adversarial) that remove me from the facts of the situation.

Moreover, those biases, vested interests and political influences can turn factual news into fake news. This can happen at every scale from micro to meso to macro – especially where political interests benefit from a “twisted rendition”. With the help of social media technology these fake stories can be spun back upon themselves so that the feedback loops amplify emotional “hooks” and multiply the effects of the fake news – spreading like a tsunami of anxiety around the globe.

Perhaps the saving grace of this angry amplitude is that many parts of the world are so interconnected that the facts and the fakes can be checked out with persons I know on the ground? But not everyone can do this – nor is willing to be disabused of the fake news that corroborates their view of the world.

As an individual impacted by the facts and the fakes in the world, I ask myself, “Is there anything else I can do?” I am so frustrated by the limitations of arguing between facts and fakes – it robs me of energy and depresses my soul.

One morning I woke up with the impulse to step outside the bounds of both fact and fake and explore the world of fantasy. Not just the possibility that I escape from the conflict of fake and fact. But that I discover and share through my imagination the possibilities that the future holds.

I had set for Integral City Meshworks the intention in 2022 to catalyse City/Bioregion Regeneration Hubs. How can we do that, while the world is at war, squandering our non-renewable fuels and ignoring the actions we should be taking to respond to climate change?

It turns out the impulse to discover what could emerge if I created a world of fantasy, was so strong that I took fingers to keyboard and experimented with 4 Novellas.

The Novellas emerge from an ancient myth that arose from a wisdom school located in the heart of a long-disputed territory in the Hindu Kush. But this place and these wisdom keepers were ignored because they apparently contributed nothing to the worlds of fact or fake.

My fantasy is that this mystery school of Sarmouni – the honey makers – now transplanted to Scotland – has the wisdom to teach and equip young emissaries to catalyse Regeneration Hubs in city/bioregions with the mysteries from science, spirit and soul. The Sarmouni are dispatched into the world of 4 cities – from the four directions – to learn for themselves the power of impacting the 4 Voices of those cities.

When I stepped into the world of fantasy, other realms and allies made themselves available to enable the success of these ventures. The storytelling process took on a life of its own.

And so, at this March 2022 Equinox we take the courage to step into the world – out beyond fact and fake – to explore the possibilities of regenerative fantasy. You can read the Introduction to the Mystery School of Sarmouni below … and step across the threshold into one of the adventures that it introduces.

We hope that readers will find the weaving of these fantasy realms will give them an option to facts and fakes. You might even experience a boost to your spirit and find buoyancy as we navigate the turbulence of daily life and reveal the possibilities of a thriving future.

View more on Marilyn Hamilton's website »

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Published on March 12, 2022 05:20

I Need a New Language

I need a new language to describe what I see going on in the world.

Russia is making so-called “non-war” on Ukraine. Ukraine is defending itself from physical military attack and at the same time it is being accused of acting as the instigator of genocide and aggressive action (a fake story from the Russians).

The rest of the world, stands by, runs by, screams by, stunned by confusion – frozen, fleeing, or fighting back.

What are the weapons being used? Real ones that destroy lives as innocent as children in a hospital and bomb nuclear installations that get the attention of all who witness in horror.

Psychological ones that play with truths, known, unknown and hidden like Johari windows that shutter and open.

Sanctions that cut off the economic flow of revenues to Russia as well as put a tourniquet on the flow of Russian energy to Europe and America.

I need a new language that goes beyond war, rumours of war and reportings of war.

I seek something that makes sense from the overview I discern from a cosmo-local perspective. If I think cosmically, feel globally and act locally, what are the words that describe my expressions from head, heart, hara, hands?

I go back to words that I have used before in editorials, articles and chapters. Where I have explored the dilemmas of power – over, with, as. “Power As” seems to have regressed or even disappeared from accepting that humans are Gaia’s Reflective Organs. Even on a clear day we don’t seem to be able anymore to sense as one global organism – even honouring our organs (I call those cities) and organelles (I see them as organizations) and cells (I look at our individual contributions).

Our “Power With” reaches out impulsively as nations to align with one another to punish this act of war with economic sanctions that hurt the sanctioners as much as the sanctioned. The ultimate result may be that we all decline or even die together. Because we haven’t the words to communicate not just what we disagree with – but what we are all sides are blind to.

As blind people striking out against so many threats, we are all now experiencing the “Power Over” that has held our species in thrall for thousands of years. In our traumatized states, we seem to be frozen and speechless, fleeing and denying our response-ability or fighting with bodies and weapons that can destroy our beloved planet as we know it.

I need a new language to express my outrage that these predicaments seem to have been intentionally timed just as the covid pandemic was moving into late stages and just after the Olympics concluded. Moreover the headlines that language so many readers’ reactions displace the real threat that we are called to stand up to – framed by the frustrations of inaction at COP26 and the March 2022 IPCC report that ought to be directing us to restore and regenerate the climate damage that is a greater threat to human life than any war (of which approximately 251 are being fought at this time on Earth).

I need a new language to describe the cycles of human development embedded in our evolutionary path. It used to be that the language of our parents and our ancestors was sufficient to the landscape in which we lived. But so many of those languages are now supplanted by the global languages of commerce, social media, science and diplomacy – usually in English. This language that is so often not aware of embedded injustices, prejudices, biases and colonizations.

I need a new language that reflects my agency, creativity, connectivity, love of life.

I need a new language that honours our cultures, ancestors, foods, oneness with all life.

I need a new language that borrows not just the metaphor of the living mycelium in the soil that reveals the fundamental interconnectivity of all life but that radiates meaning from the very codes of life itself.

I need a new language that enables me to let go of the mylenated connections in my brain that no longer serve a scaffold of learning that served a world that no longer exists.

I need a new language that lets me un-learn as fast as I can ex-change my perspectives, widen my relationships and deepen my commitments.

I need a new language that gives me the comfort of unfolding in cycles of never-ending quests. I need a new language that lets me communicate with others in the same stages of birth, maturity, letting go and reforming into new patterns.

I need a new language that gives me courage to be with others in the not-knowing. I need a new language that sparks through my blindness so I can see a glimmer of light. I need a new language that invites others to share their doubts, their (un)certainties, their willingness to be together as everything is breaking apart.

I need a new language that isn’t confused by the seasons of life. But glories in the awe of the nurturing of seeds, caring of mothers, coaching of fathers, guiding of elders, embracing of community and connecting of ecosystems.

I need a new language that infects the speaker and listener with Love. I need a new language that spreads Peace. I need a new language that potentiates Unity.

I need a new language to pattern a new language for the next unfolding of a truly regenerative Life – alive with Beauty, Truth and Goodness.

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Published on March 12, 2022 05:20

Manifesto of Peace: for Gaia’s Reflective Organs

As we celebrate March Equinox 2022, let us be grateful for the values evolved by Gaia – for, through and as – her Reflective Organs. May this Manifesto of Peace honour the universal values of All Life @ *PPPP= Person, People, Place, Planet.

In Gratitude may we Celebrate the Master Code of Care as we fulfil our Commitments:

to protect our individual needs for physical and spiritual safety and survival; and prevent harm to all individuals so that we may serve all of *PPPP.to honour the traditions and heritage of the elders and each group of persons so long as they do not threaten the health of *PPPP. to defend the freedom of each individual to express their agency, development and creativity without infringing on the freedom of others to express their agency, development and creativity so that we may serve all of *PPPP. to respect the value of order without imposing restrictions that harm individuals or groups; and honour the need for order that serves the entire system of *PPPP. to promote the success of persons; to publicly recognize the origination/originator of ideas, products and services; to be accountable for the integral and fair exchange of products, services and ideas as long as resources do not accumulate for the benefit of a few interests, organizations and/or levels of development, at the expense of (or while depriving resources to) *PPPP. to accept the dignity of groups; to ensure fair opportunity for all persons to pursue happiness as long as no individual or group is prevented from doing likewise; to not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, gender, creed and not to favour any group at the expense of another group as long as such action ensures the health of *PPPP. to facilitate the integral flex and flow of energy across all aspects of the Gaia’s ecosystems; to unblock the barriers to the emergence of new ways of thinking, doing, being as long as they respect the health of all life; to mesh the elegance of natural patterns, processes and structures across *PPPP. to value the geo/bio/noetic capacities of the planet; to respect the integral ecology of *PPPP; to co-emerge the evolutionary intelligence of Life inherent in *PPPP.

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Published on March 09, 2022 03:14

Beauty, Truth, Goodness: Food for Regenerative City-Bioregion Life

As I write the Russians are invading Ukraine.

With friends and colleagues on both sides of this war, my heart feels constricted. So, the Integral City karma yoga practice of Caring for Self, Others, Place, Planet is challenging – but vital for city and planetary wellbeing. Vital also for our aspirations that cities can be Gaia’s Regeneration Hubs.

Between news reports, this morning, I experienced a generative dialogue with Sarah McCrum about Cities and Money.

We started with Sarah’s observation that Gaia had spoken through her about the capacity for humans to create Beauty. Every person can do that in some small (or large) way.

We noticed that as I explore the human system of the city as an Integral City, one of the definitions of “integral” is the manifestation of Beauty, Truth and Goodness. This is a holistic pattern that reflects how life evolves through us as individuals and collectives at all scales.

This pattern may even be a key set of indicators that reflect Gaia’s wellbeing.

Sarah was surprised to hear my proposition that James Lovelock had called humans “Gaia’s Reflective Organs.” She was inspired to reimagine cities as Gaia’s organs, organizations as organelles and individual as cells in the city.

We both agreed that human systems are living systems that are fractal and nested. And these systems are related to one another within the larger body of Gaia herself.

The power of relationship is how we humans relate at every scale within the city and to every living system outside the city into the bioregion that embraces it embedded in the body of Gaia. Relationships are not only the core of the consciousness and culture expressed in the city, but our traditional cities are intimately related to the first culture – namely “agri-culture.”

This observation became our bridge to recognize the important flow of agriculture’s primary contribution to the city’s wellbeing system; namely, as the source of its food systems. Farmers are the stewards of food production. But how often do we recognize this food as the invaluable source of our personal renewable energy? Food is not merely commodities delivered to manufacturers and distributors to stock city food shelves but traditionally a source of our renewable energy.

Sarah shared her newest ideas and activities reframing the value produced by farmers producing food regeneratively. She proposes that they add value to regenerative farms not only through food production but by increasing the value of soil, water and air precisely because they farm regeneratively. Sarah explains:

LOVE TO Be Bright Green [new financial organization] has reimagined the way we value nature, so we could create products that work for the financial markets.

We started by realising that people are the key to protecting and regenerating nature. We’re working with some of the best regenerative farmers in the world who’ve already developed systems that have been proven to improve ecology and increase food production and water security.We bring together large numbers of regenerative farmers and land managers into a Mutual company. We apply a standardised valuation methodology to account for the ecological improvement they’ve produced and turn the aggregated value into an asset, providing them with scalability, auditability and gold standard governance so they meet the requirements of institutional and retail investors.We’ve created a financial product that is an equity, produces a yield, can be traded on a stock market and is aligned with genuine ecological improvement and food and water security. It’s called a LivingShare. We’ve also created LivingOptions to allow global international trade between institutions.

Sarah Asks Why Value Regeneration?

We have to do it right this time. We must regenerate and protect nature as well as our food and water supply, in order to protect life on this planet. It must be the real deal, not greenwashing. And we must invest in the most effective, proven approaches, by putting financial resources in the hands of the people who know how to do it most successfully. They are the safest hands to do the right thing with the money.

I can resonate strongly with Sarah’s vision – it seems to embody Regenerativity as Beauty (Earth’s bounty), Truth (financial solutions that value Life) and Goodness (farmers and investors in relationship weaving value for life).

I look forward to continuing the conversation with Sarah and exploring how her vision for LoveTo has the power not only to regenerate a living food chain for and with the city – but how the city itself can learn from these ideas to revalue the life-giving human systems within it. After all, if cities are Gaia’s organs, our organizations and cells are called into symbiotic relationship for our planet’s wellbeing at every scale.

That is the key to keeping my heart open to practise the karma yoga of Care for Self, Others, Place and Planet.

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Published on March 02, 2022 03:16

Integral City Meta Blog 2019

Here is the Integral City 2019 Meta Blog. It has been re-published in 2021 because it was temporarily lost. It is now properly linked to the Metablogs for 2020 and 2021. Apologies for any confusion.

It connects the 4 Voices of the Integral City to the Planet, People, Place and Power that energized us in 2019.

It follows the traditions of:

Integral City Meta Blog 2018 Integral City Meta Blog 2017 Integral City Meta Blog 2016 Integral City Meta Blog 2015 Integral City Meta Blog 2014 Integral City Meta Blog 2013 1. Equinox/Solstice Newsletters – Integral City Reflective Organ

Integral City Reflective Organ – March 2019: Are Cities Evolving as Gaia’s Reflective Organs?

Integral City Reflective Organ – June 2019: 4 Voices Imagine the Human Hive

Integral City Reflective Organ – September 2019: Strike the City vs City on Strike

Integral City Reflective Organ – December 2019: Power Over – Power With – Power As

2. City of the Year 2019: Amsterdam

Read about the City of the Year award here.

3. Meshworker of the Year 2019: Anne-Marie Voorhoeve, The Hague Centre for Global Governance, Innovation and Peace

Read the full story of Meshworker of the Year 2019 here.

4. 2019 Edition 2 of Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive

Foreword by Elisabet Sahtouris, Evolution Biologist

5. BlogsConference Papers, Lectures, NotesIntegral City in Amsterdam: WeMakethe.City Better for All of Us Living Cities Russia Discovers “Habits for Changing Cities”City, Psychology and Place Summit Generates Rich Inquiry Co-Creating Europe: What Have Cities Got to do With It? From Findhorn Beehive to Vancouver Human Hive: How Evo & Eco Evolve Gaia’s Reflective Organ, Keynote Address Ecocity World Summit, October 8, 2019 Refocusing Human Sensitivity in a Digital World Through Caring, Contexting, Capacity Building Professing a Spiritual AQtivation Biomimicry Lessons from the Beehive for Hindustan U Architecture Class Gaia’s Reflective Organ: Marilyn’s Spiritual AQtivism JourneyManifestos for New City in New SocietyThe Manifesto of New Sincerity New Sincerity Manifesto – an Update Manifesto for Integral City Climate Change Agenda for OrganizationsCity as Living SystemComparing Integral City Intelligences with Charles Eisenstein Living Earth Interview for Living Cities – Part 1 Interview for Living Cities – Part 2Are Cities Evolving?Are Cities Evolving as Gaia’s Reflective Organs?Thought Experiments – Listening & Learning from Bees Integral City Maps, Intelligences, Emergent Practices for Gaia Evidence for Big Bite & Hope for Gaia?Enlivening Organizations for Teal/Yellow DevelopmentHow Do Organizations Enliven the City?Are you a Member of the 10%Manifesto for Integral City Climate Change Agenda for Organizations Imagine Your City as a Thriving Innovation Ecosystem Citizen & Civil Society Organizations Evolve with Lessons from the Honey Bee The Power of the Pebble Climate ChangeHow Do You and I Make Drawdown Personal?cChallenge Draws On & Creates MetaCapitals New Perspectives on Beauty, Goodness and Truth from ccc19 cChallenge Meta-Findhorn 4+1 Voices Think Cosmically, Feel Globally, Act Locally Welcome to the Restaurant at the end of ccc19 cChallenge Integral City Consciousness at Climate Change ConferenceOn the Road With Integral City Voice4 Voices of City Visit Amsterdam, Moscow, London Hope from the Heroine’s Journey Integral City Stories for Our Times A Journey of a 1000 Miles Begins with a Single StoryFindhorn & Global Ecovillage Network (GEN)Appreciating Meta-Findhorn 2019 Transformational Path Global Ecovillage Network EU 2019 Conference in 4 Graphics Integral City Prepares for Ecology Panel at GEN EU 2019 Conference Global Ecovillage Network Europe 2019 Ecology PanelUrban Hub 15: Dancing With the Future – Integral City DanceImagine Waking Up the Human Hive: A Dance in 3 Acts Imagine Waking Up the Human Hive: Dance Prelude Imagine Waking Up the Human Hive: Act 1 Deep Inner Listening Waking Up the Human Hive: Act 2 Work is Love in Action Waking Up the Human Hive: Act 3 Choreographing With Nature6. Guest BlogsThe Knowing Field and Constellating for the Collective (Diana Claire Douglas)When Does a City Have Heart? (Govert Van Ginkel)7. VideosBeyond Smart, Beyond Resilient, Beyond Complexity: Are Cities Evolving as Gaia’s Reflective Organs? (password: H3UniHamilton)

This collection of videos features Integral City founder Marilyn Hamilton speaking about various aspects of the Integral City.

Dr. Tom Henfrey Interviews Dr. Marilyn Hamilton for UrbanA ResearchDr. Sheeba Chander Interviews Dr. Marilyn Hamilton re Ecocity World Summit plansWatch 2 Green Manifestos delivered by Oleg Lega and Marilyn Hamilton at Amsterdam’s 2019 WeMakethe.City Festival

Password for all video’s: WeMakeTheCity1!

After movie: https://vimeo.com/344647596

Oleg: https://vimeo.com/344652468

Marilyn: https://vimeo.com/344653330

Discussion: https://vimeo.com/344653036

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Published on December 20, 2021 09:03

Reflective Organ Newsletter December Solstice 2021: ReJoice, ReSearch, ReGenerate

This newsletter is published quarterly using a cycle of perspectives on the Integral City viewed from: Planet, People, Place and Power. The theme of this issue is Power.

On a never-ending quest within an ecology of Integral influences, I consider spirituality to be a universal life force that cycles through existence as an involutionary and evolutionary impulse. The first stage of the cycle, called involution, originates at the non-dual “source” that lies at the center of existence where it descends from the invisible to the visible; from the immanent to that which is presenced; from the unmanifest to the manifest. The second stage of the cycle, called evolution, attracts all creation back to source so that it ascends from the manifest to the source; from the visible to the invisible; from gross physical bodies to subtle energetic bodies to causal energetic bodies to non-dual source. Spirituality is not outside of city creation but embedded in it as the source, field and resource of its core.

Hamilton, M. (2018). Integral City 3.7: Reframing Complex Challenges for Gaia’s Human Hives. Minneapolis, MN: Amaranth Press,LLC p. 10; Map 5

Scroll to end of newsletter to access Free Resources.

Integral City Ecosystem:10 Years Incubating Gaia’s Human Hives

10 years ago, Integral City sponsored our first major outreach project after the publication of the Book 1 in the Integral City book series (2008, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive).

We called our online initiative Integral City 2.0 Online Conference or ELab 2012 for short. Before Zoom was ubiquitous, we used the Meeting Maestro platform to design and deliver a 30-day online lab. Each of 4 weeks featured 3 of the Intelligences explored in Book 1, interviewing Thought Leaders, Designers and Practitioners related to each Intelligence.

You can find the details of the conference proceedings in these (free downloadable) publications of A Radically Optimistic Inquiry into Operating System 2.0.

Executive Summary (85 pages) Interviews Appendices A1-12 (659 pages) Harvest Weeks 1-4 / Days 1-12 / Appendix A13 (32 Pages)

We remember with affection and appreciation (and not a little awe at our hutzpah) the doors that we opened at that time, introducing the world to the Thought Leaders, Designers and Practitioners of Integral City’s 12 Intelligences.

We could never have succeeded with this endeavour without the team that gathered to co-create this conference.

It is heart-warming to report that the majority of that team has remained together as Gaia’s Human Hive Integrators – affectionately shortened to DG’s – the Divine Gaians and our invaluable Constellation Team. We have convened monthly for more than 10 years holding the space for Integral City to incubate and mature our various callings to be shared, supported, nurtured and appreciated.

At the end of 2021 when the post COP26 world is still gasping and grasping for ways to respond and reverse Code Red, our DG’s have good reason to celebrate a growing lineage of Care, Complexity and Capacity for Gaia’s Human Hives. So many manifestations have come from our relationships to Integral City and one another. This powerful team has founded organizations and websites, authored books, blogs and videos, created games and spawned their own communities of practice. (Not surprisingly, 4 of these talented co-creators have been honoured as Integral City Meshworkers of the Year – Beth Sanders, Diana Claire Douglas, Ellen van Dongen, Anne-Marie Voorhoev.) As a result, it appears that we have co-created the conditions for an Ecosystem of Integral City Practice.

(For the full editorial and description of the work of our Constellation Team click here.)

In this sacred season it is a wonderful time to rejoice in the dance of integration and differentiation that flows through our Integral City DG’s and the ecosystem that is emerging.

The inspiring mystery of how we DGs continue to flow and impact each other and the world, augurs well for our intention to create Integral Cities as Gaia’s City Regeneration Hubs (the next stage arising from our Schooling for a Planet of Integral Cities).

I can sense the Overlighting Evolutionary Impulse (that lies at the centre of our Integral City GPS) calling us together into a global garden seeded by many co-creative expressions of local and trans-global manifestations. We are incubating a whole seedbed of organs (Gaia’s Reflective Organs!) reading and willing to collaborate with other regenerative ecosystems.

We invite you to celebrate the Integral City breakthroughs from 2021 – click on the links in the full editorial. Appreciate the many ways we have lived into our Master Code of Care in the Meta Blog 2021. Then follow us down the many paths to the future we are tracking on all the Integral City Maps as we walk, run, fly and attune to the wellbeing of Gaia’s Human Hives.

Join us at our gateways into 2022. As Human Hive incubators, we are co-creating regeneration energies over the next 9 years, for Integral City to change the climate colour of Gaia’s Human Hives from Code Red into Code Green.

Out Beyond the Smart City, Out Beyond the Resilient City … lies the Integral City … there is a Knowing Field … we will meet you there.

Science & Consciousness – What? So What? Now What?

What?

What happens when you accept the invitation to join the Science and Consciousness Conference, November 14-18, 2021, convened by Ubiquity University’s Chief Innovation Officer, Peter Merry and hosted at Broughton Hall Estate, the home for 1000 years (yes one thousand) of the family of Roger Tempest?

…So What?

I share the details of our amazing 4 day experience so readers can appreciate the fullness and variety of our experience. (For Gina Lazenby’s sharing of her experience check her blog here.)

And now that I am literally one month into the future beyond that time together, I have paused long enough to glean what this might mean to the understanding of the Human Hive Mind in the Integral City?

Certainly the processes that we experienced at the conference were Integral in their design – tapping into the 4 quadrants of I/We/It/Its. Shifting through the complexities of Ego/Ethno/World/Cosmas. Exploring the roles of Giving and Receiving. Dancing in a meshwork of self-organizing creativity and structuring patterns. Living, working, playing, relating simply and mindfully.I ask, “If we can control consciousness how can we map it with the Integral City 5 Maps. How do we improve our capacity for leading the 4 Voices of the City?”As I practise the Islands of Calm Meditation with Subtle Activism every Saturday morning at Findhorn – how could I literally track with the REG the influence each of us might be having on 1000 others?And for Findhorn who would like to track the change in Consciousness that arises from guests studying in situ or at distance (online) how can we borrow what the REGs teach us and have been adapted by Institue of Noetic Sciences (IONS) to measure the impact of their programs? Or by Heartmath Institute to invite in the global practice of attuning our frequencies to the Earth’s own frequency?How will becoming conscious of our frequency show humans how we impact, influence and improve the Earth that we recognize as our Mother? How can attunement become something more than wishful hope but be recognized (like Mindfulness is now) as a practise of coherence and wellbeing?I think that organizations like Integral City and Findhorn Foundation could use these metrics generated by REG to provide the evidence of our impact on people, place and planet -giving us feedback as we live the Master Code of Care. All these scales of life are impacted by collective consciousness – that is WYRD and Wonderful.I also think this opens us up to a whole new taxonomy of epistemologies and invites us to research into other ways of knowing like Systemic Constellation Work – (and The Hague Centres’ Institute for Field Research into the Knowing Field – represented at the conference by Drs. Anne-Marie Voorhoeve.)Click here to read the full blog and find out the direction Integral City will take in pursuit of Now What?

Integral City Region of Year 2021: Urban Arena EuropeUrbanA 4 Key Sets Unlock 17 Sustainable and Just City Intelligences

Urban Arena Europe believes that sustainability and justice go hand in hand. Their initiative over the last 3 years collected news and resources on how to create cities that are both sustainable and just. They aimed to support and provide tools for decision-makers, administrators, activists, and other city-makers in their work towards an equal, inclusive, and sustainable future.

They created a platform based on the work done by the EU-funded UrbanA project. UrbanA is a community of individuals and organizations committed to transformative change across Europe.

Resonating with Integral City’s Master Code of Care and 5 Maps and 12 Intelligences, that disclose the shape-shifting nature of a city as a living complex adaptive whole system, UrbanA discovered sustainable just cities are:

HonestCaringRegenerative (Robust)Informed

The 17 keys to #SustainableJustCities are grouped under these 4 “sets” on the sustainablejustcities.eu platform. The keys are 17 elements (or intelligences) which have the potential to unlock sustainable and just cities.

Integral City Meshworker of Year 2021: Jim Garrison

Jim Garrison is the Founder and President of Ubiquity University and producer of Humanity Rising. His passion and the purpose of Humanity Rising is to create a historical gathering of great minds and hearts responding to the pandemic “as a crisis not to be wasted”.

Jim listens to the Evolutonary Impulse that flows strongly through his being. With Humanity Rising, he has cross-pollinated a whole year of deep insights, intricate interconnections and new relationships across the globe. The energy of these discoveries has attracted the Beauty, Truth and Goodness that Jim natrually amplifies in the fields around him. Jim is a real lifeforce of the Human Hive who cannot deny the Evolutionary Impulse he is called to serve. Gaia is a planet better able to nurture her cities as Gaia’s Reflective Organs because of Jim Garrison.

For personal, professional, intelligent investment in Humanity Rising’s initiatives we are proud to award Jim Garrison, Meshworker of Year, 2021.

Click here for Details.

Book Preview: Whole Systems Design: Inquiries in the Knowing Field

Diana Claire Douglas writes in Chapter 6, Doorways into the Collective of her forthcoming book:

One of the key differences between Constellating for the Collective and the other branches is that Family and Organizational Constellation Work each work with a client, whereas in Constellating for the Collective, no one person is representing the individual or organization as a client. For example, Humanity may be the client, or Society may be the client.

…

Integral City is reinventing how cities work. We say, “Out beyond the traditional city, driven by transactional exchanges of the basics of life; out beyond the Smart City, driven by technology and industry; out beyond the Resilient City, driven by ecological and eco-regional inter-dependence; lives the Integral City, driven by the flex and flow of cultures, consciousness, and care.”6An integral city is a whole living system which Marilyn calls the “Human Hive.” As the beehive is for honeybees, the integral city is the collective habitat for the human species.
I have been part of this core team, which has been called a Community of Practice (ICCOP), since 2012. We meet monthly, if not more often, and as a group, we did many Constellations each year until 2017. We now do Constellations irregularly. Through workshops and trainings, the Community of Practice has grown and expanded to be a system of influence in a variety of locations.
As Marilyn said, “Systemic Constellation Work offers an energetically empowering technology that embraces the non-linear, ambiguous, invisible complexity of the Knowing Field for all those in service to the evolution of the city and the Planet of Cities.”7
And another quotation from Marilyn, “Through inviting in the Knowing Field, this situates the Integral City work in the realm of consciousness. We have found this vital in making accessible the energetic qualities of the city at all scales of human systems . . . the Knowing Field gives insights into the invisible aspects of a city that we believe are continually impacting it through energy, habits, lineages, traumas, and wisdom.”8

To connect to more of the book and download the Chapter 6 Click Here.

Upcoming Integral City & Constellation Events with Power PurposeLearning Line Up (early 2022)Integral City and City Nestworks are offering a range of courses in 2022. Marilyn will be teaching through Ubiquity University and Beth will be teaching in our Mighty Network.

(Note: Registration for courses at Ubiquity University is through Ubiquity University. Registration for Mighty Network courses is through “Courses” in the Mighty Network. Links are provided below.)

Cities Rising for a Regenerative World (Ubiquity University)

With its roots in the Humanity Rising 2021 Cities Rising for a Regenerative World, this micro-course focuses on human systems at the scale of the city. We define “city” as the human habitat (or “human hive”) at scales from village to megalopolis, embracing the ecoregion in which the city is located. The inquiry embedded in Cities Rising complements other courses in the BRA/MRA, by highlighting the context–cities–in which most humans live, and the contribution cities can make to a Regenerative World.

This is a 6-hour micro course offered through Ubiquity University. Course details and registration can be found on the course page at Ubiquity University. This is an asynchronous, self-directed course you can take at any time.

Beyond Smart (Ubiquity University)

Beyond Smart introduces “practitioners” to just the basics of the Integral City model. You will learn the framework of practices, tools and maps that reveal the common patterns that impact the lives of individuals, organizations and communities within your city. This short course explores three powerful images animating Integral City systems – the integral map, the meshwork and the human hive. You will learn from your own situations (and other student sharings in the Ubiverse Group) how the toolkit guides you beyond models for Urban Ecovillages and Traditional, Smart and Resilient Cities.

Beyond Smart is a 12-hour micro course offered through Ubiquity University. Course details and registration can be found on the course page at Ubiquity University. This is an asynchronous, self-directed course you can take at any time.

Beyond Resilient (Ubiquity University)

Beyond Resilient enables Practitioners, Catalysts and Meshworkers to build capacitating scaffolds so that cities work for everyone. Participants grow their leadership to serve the city to thrive within the Master Code of Care: Caring for Self, Others, Place, Planet.

This course explores the city as the Human Hive and co-creates the conditions for you to catalyze and explore all the Voices who inhabit your spheres of influence – including family, neighbourhood, workplaces, recreation zones, communities, city, and eco-regions.

Beyond Resilient is a 12-week macro course offered for credit through Ubiquity University. Course details and registration can be found on the course page at Ubiquity University. There are two options to take this course:

Asynchronously, in a self-directed fashion, any time you like OR“Live” with Marilyn Hamilton, Beth Sanders and wonderful classmates. (Recommended–so you have the live experience of community. Next live offering will be September to December 2022.)Islands of Calm for Global Cities – Monthly City Subtle Activism Meditation (lead by Marilyn Hamilton on 3rd Saturday of Month on a rota of different timezones. Check the Mighty Network for the schedule.The City Nestmaking Series (Mighty Network)

Three 4-week courses that you can take individually or bundle them together.

All courses are four weeks in duration. All course calls are hosted by Beth Sanders on Wednesdays from noon to 1:30 pm Mountain Time.

#1 City Making (starts January 26, 2022 in our Mighty Network)

We do the work we do, whether paid or unpaid, to improve our cities. To make that work count, it is vital to understand that “city building” looks at only half the equation of “city making.”

To register, “Buy” the course in the Mighty Network.

#2 Working with Tension (starts March 2, 2022 in our Mighty Network)

City life puts us on edge, asking us to learn about ourselves and others and our conflicting values in the city. What if we are not supposed to have the same values?

To register, “Buy” the course in the Mighty Network.

#3 Engaging Inquiry (starts on March 30, 2022 in our Mighty Network)

Cultivate your capacity (and your city’s) to foster adaptation, resilience and transition. We’ll explore how inquiry is a means to ensure vital feedback loops that inform city making.

To register, “Buy” the course in the Mighty Network.

Community of Civic Practice (Mighty Network)

The Community of Civic Practice. is a small group coaching experience hosted by Beth Sanders. This is dedicated time for self-awareness, to explore as individuals and as a small group, the people and civic practitioners we are becoming. We will gather to explore the challenges and opportunities we face while receiving and offering support to each other so we can offer our best selves to our communities and cities, whether our work is paid or unpaid.

The course calls are hosted by Beth Sanders on Wednesdays (March 2, 9, 16 and 23, 2022) from 2:00 to 3:30 Mountain Time.

To register, “Buy” the course in the Mighty Network.

Join Marilyn Hamilton/Integral City for periodic zoom interviews Interviews from the Balcony

Join Beth Sanders/Nest City monthly for free zoom Street Corner Visiting – – 8pm BST – 4th Tuesday of the Month.

Adventures in Reinventing Work was inspired by the 2021 Teal Around the World festival, a self-organized group of volunteers including 11 writers and 14 storytellers came together and worked for many months conducting interviews, writing, and co-creating, to bring this book of stories to you and to the benefit of our collective purpose – to create a sustainable, prosperous future that empowers and uplifts everyone.

This book explores the personal journeys of ordinary people who are choosing to create our future. They have no easy models to follow from our past. They are trying to fix the unfixable. They are paving new paths for us to create a sustainable, prosperous, future that empowers and uplifts all of humanity.

This is a book about real personal struggles for answers, explorers who are knee deep in muddy terrains, navigating their way, falling down all the time, and never failing to rise back up. It is a book of hope. It provides guideposts to help us navigate our journey and gives us inspiration to be as brave and bold as we need to be, to reinvent our future.

Ordering information available at: https://www.tealaroundtheworld.com/book

Celebrating Our Cities as Places of Regenerative Power in 2021-22

Gaia – as our life giving mother, has profound wisdom for all of us.

She only uses the energy needed for all she achieves.

She fits form to function with underlying simplicity, exquisite beauty and intricate precision.

She recycles everything and with no waste.

She shares and in-forms her skills locally and globally.

She embodies collaboration throughout her biosphere; appreciating healthy competition and encouraging holarchic cooperation.

She exults in diversity and knows it to imbue resilience and collective genius.

She exists, evolves and thrives within the wholistic limits and emergent opportunities of her planetary gaiasphere.

– And she’s been doing so for more than four billion years”.

Jude Currivan, 2021

December 21 marks the start of what Integral City calls the Power Quarter (from December 21 to March 20 ). This has been a difficult year where we might often have felt power-LESS instead of power-FULL. Covid has returned with a new fast-spreading variant. COP26 seemed a disappointment. Wild weather seems to augur every climate disaster scenario imaginable. Yet, people have come together through Compassionate Cities, Community Action Networks, Kindness Corners and Positively Empowering Kids. What signs of optimism, capacity building and evolutionary adaptation have you noticed in your community? your city? your bioregion? What new opportunities have surprised you in your work, your play, your recreation? Where have keys to cooperation and collaboration that have been hidden now become visible because we are daring to live the change we want to be and see? Visit us on our Integral City Website and Blog or post a comment about your city interests on our Mighty Network.