Marilyn Hamilton's Blog, page 37

Meta-Findhorn 4+1 Voices Think Cosmically, Feel Globally, Act Locally

One of the “meta-challenges” of the cChallenge opportunity that attracted me was the opportunity to view the cChallenge in the context of a “meta-community”. I was curious if we would attract participation from what I call the 4+1 Voices of the Human Hive; namely, Citizens, Civic Managers, Business/Innovators and the Third Sector – plus other Human Hives. If we worked together could we Think Cosmically, Feel Globally, Act Locally?

Our Findhorn community includes people from the Findhorn Foundation, NFA, the eco-park organizations, the traditional Findhorn Village and the nearby neighbourhoods like Kinloss. For those following my cogitations (elsewhere) on this habitat, I have called the whole “Meta-Findhorn”. So, with this overview of our eco-peninsula, it is clear that we have in our experiment the +1 factor of the Voices.

“Meta-Findhorn” appears to be developing all the qualities and features of an emerging town (maybe even the “City of Light” that Eileen Caddy imagined). It is manifesting the level of complexity that I characterize in my writings as an Integral City or a Human Hive.

This “integral” or whole system approach to human habitats privileges consciousness and culture – something I call Placecaring. It embraces actions, objects and systems – often called the bricks and mortar and technologies of city Placemaking – but transcends and includes them to be visible partners with the invisible essences of consciousness and culture. In other words, in an Integral city, community or Human Hive – people’s individual and collective inner lives provide the core caring qualities of the thinking, feeling and acting.

While I have been influenced to see communities and cities as whole systems – evolutionary and interconnected that can even be mapped in an Integral City model – I have also been influenced by our sister species, the honey bee to view our habitats as living systems (a form of biomimicry). And those bees have figured out how to meet cChallenges by assigning roles within their hives that not only sustain the hive but also the whole eco-system that they pollinate. What is more, I suggest we can notice those 4 roles – or Voices as I have come to call them – operating in our ccc19 cChallenge. Here are the Voice patterns I notice that have emerged:

Citizen Voice – Most of us speak with this voice when we tell the stories of our individual experiences of cChange. This Voice is characterized by Susie and Kerstin caring for their families in ways that balance the change in diet to remove dairy or eat vegan, while expressing the shocks of cChange: “What no cheese on the pizza?!” Other expressive Citizen Voices came from Saille and her curiosities about the effectiveness of “Truth Paste” and Judith’s unhappy exclamation, “Oh my! the birds’ nut treats are sold in plastic!!!”.

Civic Manager Voice – In the city these Voices would be heard from city managers, education system, healthcare system, police, fire, emergency response – those Voices who manage the operation of the human hive. Their job is to allocate and manage resources. In the cChallenge we might nominate Eveline to this Voice because of the entirely new resource she created to enable composting in the eco-park. Berent is also demonstrating this voice by undertaking the measurement and allocation of plastic waste while striving to reduce or even eliminate it. Daniella was the first to remind us of the major impact that can come from saving energy through turning down the thermostat and realizing the electric kettle is such a big energy user. Also, Roger’s reporting in the Carbon Bites about the various endeavours to reduce carbon emissions is speaking from this CM Voice. Maria also contributed to this Voice by offering the Carbon Conversations as a major source of education on practical options that we can implement to activate “Drawdown”. All of us who elected to change our diets to plant-rich (or caffeine free) options are also demonstrating this Voice.

Business/Innovation Voice – An “accidental player” in our cChallenge has been the Phoenix Shop who has provided strong retail support for our changing buying habits, especially to reduce plastic packaging. The Phoenix has long required customers to supply their own bags, and offers only paper bags for vegetable, fruit and bulk purchases. It has been very receptive and supportive of our inquiries and/or requests for change. In like manner we could point to the nearby farm shops who started to receive more trade as people switched from Tesco or other large retailers. We could also point to the “social enterprises” that have emerged during our cChallenge – like Eveline’s Hot Composting Project (also mentioned above) – which took initiative and crowdfunding to implement. Innovation and artistic expression came through the YIP’s Zero Waste art project and Jane’s photographs.

Third Sector Voice – This Voice I consider to be what is the “Integrator” or “Hive Mind” Voice of the bee hive. It is the Voice that tells the bees whether they are achieving their objective of producing their 20 kg of honey per year in order to survive. In the Human Hive this Voice plays the role of conscience or civil society, reminding us of purpose, inspiration and the greatest good for all. In our cChallenge this Voice came through Jane’s poems about Nature; about her reflections on her walks in both our community and in Edinburgh. This Voice was also reflected by Emma when she shared her reasons for switching to a vegan diet, that connected her to animals’ consciousness and their right to life.

I think it is easy to see that our cChallenge has attracted a 4 Voice harmony that is already influencing the +1 Voices of other communities. Many of us have reported sharing our cChallenge with other members of the Meta-Findhorn community (as our announcements and gatherings have also been broadcast through the ccc19 conference preparation) as well as other places much further afield – from Edinburgh to Australia.

In returning to the premise that Karen O’Brien used to design the cChallenge, we can notice that the 3 Spheres of Influence she framed for cChange included Technologists, Politicians, People. It appears that our ccc19 cChallenge 4+1 Voices are a microcosm of those same spheres: Business/Innovators, Resource Allocators, Citizens and the Third Sector.  What is more, by working together as a community (and not just as isolated individuals) we are far more likely to achieve our intentions to accomplish meaningful cChange – just as the bees use their 4 roles to sustain the hive and pollinate their eco-region.

I have a friend who might call the beautiful integration and complexity that results when the 4+1 Voices sing together the big HUMMMMM. I think it is the sound of Thinking Kosmically, Feeling Globally and Acting Locally.

This blog series focuses on the ccc19 cChallenge experiment taking place in the Findhorn Community in 2019. It includes these titles:

How 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

How Do Organizations Enliven the City?

This article was published in  Enlivening Edge Magazine JANUARY 27, 2019 



By Marilyn Hamilton for Enlivening Edge MagazineMany people ask me what city or cities are Integral Cities? My usual response is that Integral City is a framework or a model or a paradigm for understanding “city.”I see the city as a human system – the most complex one that humans have yet created. The city is so complex, in fact, that in order to see and understand its patterns, I have developed 5 maps of the Integral City – each of which shows how individuals and groups relate to the city.

As a human system, the city is a fractal of the human condition that emerges from the holarchy (or hierarchy of wholes) of human systems in the trajectory of: individual, family/group/team, organization, sector, community, city (and world). (This is Map 2 in our Integral City set of maps.)

The city transcends and includes all these less complex scales and has a life of its own.

Within this nested holarchy, organizations play a critical role. It is important to note that they are potentially represented at every level of scale. An individual may operate a proprietorship; be a partner in a family firm; lead a hobby group; work at a business; teach at a school; be a professional in a health or hospital practise; volunteer for a community association; serve as a city bureaucrat or councillor; and represent the city at a global NGO.

To read complete article Click Here.

Note from Enlivening Edge Magazine:

EE is happy to be an affiliate partner of Integral City which is offering these three sequential courses at Findhorn International Centre for Sustainability, Scotland, this year:

Beyond Smart: Integral City Practices Tools & Maps April 27-28
Beyond Resilient: Integral City Inquiry, Action & Impact  April 30-May 3
Beyond Complexity: Integral City Care Context & Capacity Sept. 14-17

New Perspectives on Beauty, Goodness and Truth from ccc19 cChallenge

As I experience the postings from the participants in the cChallenge I am struck that they reveal all three perspectives from which we can view our intended changes.

Perspectives are so embedded in our language we usually don’t notice them. But they impart different experiences of the very realities of Beauty, Goodness and Truth as we live our changes.

Perspectives can be described briefly like this:

1st person perspective offers a subjective report. I express this with “I” language (a request that is often made when we are in sharing circles in the Findhorn community). It is a very personal perspective that only I can impart to the world – others won’t know about it until I express the experience.

2nd person perspective offers an intersubjective report. We express this with “We” or “You” language. This perspective occurs when we are “reading” each other, influencing others or being influenced by others

3rd person perspective offers an objective or interobjective report that is expressed through “it” or “its” language. This perspective depends on objects that we can point to as evidence or data, like counting our meals, plastics or trips.

This can sound very academic but in fact these perspectives are what give us Beauty, Goodness and Truth.

Beauty is emerging, in our cChallenge through the experience of 1st person artistic expression – like Jane’s poem Nature in the City (from Day 16).

Beauty has also emerged through interobjective 2nd person sharing, in the creation of the artwork by the YIPs (reported on Day 18). This co-creative experience brought us together for individual contributions of 1st person ideas that got transformed into 2nd person intersubjective co-generation of a painting symbolic of Zero Waste.

Goodness is emerging in very tangible ways out of the cChallenge experiment. A feeling of community is arising from our intentions to make changes that result in positive impacts for Climate Change. Eveline’s cChallenge to start up a community composting project has attracted people from across the Findhorn Park to participate in recycling food waste.

Goodness for Susie and Kerstin have both shared the “we space” of their cChallenges in how it has impacted their families. Susie’s generosity in sharing recipes has even created new meaning through the invention of “splodge” – adding humour and colourful language to our emerging culture.

Goodness for Emma and Judith relates to their fine sensitivity to the animal kingdom as rightful members of our “we” experience. They have explained how their deep sense of connection to farm animals (and removing them from their diets) and birds (feeding them nuts without purchasing plastic), has reminded them of the Goodness that emerges from noticing their relationship with the animal kingdom.

Truth is also a vital part of our cChallengers outcomes. Berent’s pursuit of a plastic free household has produced a wealth of 3rd person facts and figures – from weights, to frequency of use, to typologies (compostable, recyclable, non-compostable). Roger too, has reminded us of other facts that relate to our travels and carbon emissions. He remarks on Eveline’s composting project. And he is broadcasting his findings and offers through “Carbon Bites” in the Rainbow Bridge.

Truth is even reported on the ccc19cChallenge website in the form of the ripples we are creating, and the number of people inspired (628 on Day 19 at time of writing).

Although, we are only 2/3 of the way through our cChallenge it is easy to see that we can appreciate how the value of our personal reflections and self-awareness, our interactions as groups and our observations, actions and data are contributing to the emergence of Beauty, Goodness and Truth.

I don’t know about you – but this casts a whole new light for me on the power of changing together. I never expected the experiment to generate 3rd person fun factoids, 2nd person relationships or 1st person insights. Thanks to everyone for different perspectives on what makes a difference for cChange!

This blog series focuses on the ccc19 cChallenge experiment taking place in the Findhorn Community in 2019. It includes these titles:

How Do You and I Make Drawdown Personal?
cChallenge Draws On & Creates MetaCapitals
New Perspectives on Beauty, Goodness and Truth from ccc19 cChallenge

Integral City 2019 Calendar of Events & Training

Here is our 2019 Calendar of Events & Training for Integral City.

Click here to download pdf 2019 Events Calendar.

cChallenge Draws On & Creates MetaCapitals

I tend to be a big picture thinker. So, when I survey all the cChallenges that are underway with the ccc19cChallenge, I recognize that we are drawing on resources or capitals that arise from the larger community that I call Meta-Findhorn.

My colleague Sean Esborn-Hargens of MetaIntegral has identified 10 Capitals that most organizations and every village or city uses.

Financial, Manufactured, Natural
Cultural, Social,
Knowledge, Psychological, Spiritual,
Health and Human

(Click here for the full wisdom card deck.)

When us cChallengers start a project like ccc19cChallenge we think that our individual changes belong to the person who initiated the change/challenge. But very quickly we see from the postings in our cChallenge platform that we are learning together as a community. That expands our capacity for resources and grows our capitals. Using the MetaImpact Framework that looks like the graphic above, here are some of the ways I observe our experiment accessing MetaCapitals.

Financial, Manufactured, Natural

Everyone financing food purchases for change (Susie, Daniela, Judith, Marilyn, Mari) has noticed the costs of ordering, bagging, storing food without plastic is a challenge. It requires turning up at the butcher with your own containers and paying a bit more for farm-raised meats.
Daniela has been measuring her (manufactured/generated) energy needs and discovered the thermostat and kettle give her feedback that allows her to reduce energy consumption.
Marilyn has discovered that her (manufactured) wood stove design has a brick liner that requires care and attention. At the same time the wood stove enables her to use the same energy for heating, cooking and boiling water.
Berent has been measuring the (manufactured) weight of plastics consumed by his family from the start of the experiment to the completion. He has realized that the individual/family efforts are embedded in the social/cultural systems that determine how food/supplies are packaged and distributed.
Jane has been enjoying the benefits of being in Nature daily and/or noticing Nature’s resilience – even in the eavestroughs of Edinburgh rooftops.
Eveline created a community-wide project that involved all these capitals – Hot and Cold Composting – financing hot bins through crowdfunding, setting up (manufactured) bins, in a Natural setting to let Nature create compost from food waste.


Cultural, Social

As individuals report in on the cChallenge platform and/or on FB The Park Sustainable, they are connecting socially with others, creating the meta-currency of valued relationships. These relationships are in turn generating new ideas and influencing people’s choices; e.g. Reinhoud’s change to give up coffee, influenced Marilyn to give up caffeine for the 30 days; Daniela’s thermos usage suggested the woodstove water heating.
As the various postings accumulated the cultural capital of shared meaning making We seem to have become inspired to support one another in our successes and our little/big vulnerabilities (like, YIPs making their own oat milk; Susie inventing “splodge”; and Kerstin taking little bites of pizza and – thus giving permission to others to keep trying.)


Knowledge, Psychological, Spiritual

Berent and Kerstin both have a scientific mindset. And Eveline is both practical and operational. They are just a few of the examples of how their research and endeavours have shared understanding and Knowledge for all participants.
Various cChallengers have confessed that the challenges give them Psychological wellbeing challenges (and even behavioral/health challenges). It is a comfort to read the postings from someone who discovers their aspirations to go Vegan can extend to chocolate (that is Vegan) and the special joy that gives to realize that change isn’t always about giving up what one loves – but discovering new ways to enjoy life.
Jane’s posting of the birdsong brought both the capital of Nature into the experiment but also the Spiritual uplift that can come from Nature.


Health and Human

More than one person has noticed that improved Health (physical wellbeing) has been an unexpected consequence of participating in the experiment. Kerstin (who opted for eating vegan) has reported improved sleep, sense of bodily health and a “lightness of being”.
Finally, it seems to be a natural outcome of this experiment to find that we are all acquiring Human Capital (skills and capacity) that we didn’t have before and/or that we are re-membering. Like keeping a woodfire burning throughout the day

As a result of accessing these 10 MetaCapitals it appears to me that we are effectively generating MetaImpacts that are outlined in the graphic above like this:

High Impact: Transforming systems and environments
Wide Impact: Transforming relationships and culture
Deep Impact: Transforming individual’s hearts and minds
Clear Impact: Transforming individual’s behaviors and bodies

By experimenting with cChange through the gateway of our own cChallenge we are demonstrating the necessity of people to support systems that seem larger than us, but which we are realizing we can change precisely because they depend on our support. When I, you and we change, the systems will change too. And hopefully the Climate that they and we all co-create.

This blog series focuses on the ccc19 cChallenge experiment taking place in the Findhorn Community in 2019. It includes these titles:

How Do You and I Make Drawdown Personal?

How Do You and I Make Drawdown Personal?

This is the first of a series focusing on the ccc19 cChallenge experiment taking place in the Findhorn Community.

Each of us 30 people (for 30 days) who is registered for the cChallenge has chosen our own cChange. In many ways we are supported by the culture and eco-village society in which we live.

The Findhorn Community is a place where many of the Drawdown(1) emission reduction practices have been implemented in the last 55 years. Because so many of them have been activated they look like 3rd person objects we can appreciate. But in fact, they are only here because someone started a 1st person initiative and persuaded the 2nd person community to support what started out as an experiment.

So we are curious how, working together, now in 2019, as several groups of people who share a willingness to see how much further we can take the Findhorn Community’s lived experiences of Climate Change and Consciousness prior to the conference of the same name in April 2019.

We have 3 streams of experiments underway – the cChallenge, Zero Waste (a project sponsored by a group of Youth Initiative Program students), and Carbon Conversations, (a weekly kitchen conversation on carbon reduction at one of the barrel houses). The 4th experiment – the Global Ecovillage Network Online Summit will interview 30 world experts on Community and how it relates to Climate Change and consciousness, starting February 1, 2019.

For our currently running 3 experiments, much of what we have been inspired to try is mapped out in the book Drawdown. Because we can control choices from 3 of Drawdown’s categories many of the cChanges are related to Food (e.g.  plant-rich diets (vegan, vegetarian, reduce farm-raised meat), Energy and Materials (esp. plastic-use reduction/elimination).

Here are Drawdown’s key categories and some of the ways we have implemented them in the Findhorn community prior to our cChallenge experiment:

Energy – we have: 3 Wind Turbines; rooftop solar on most of our new buildings; a biomass boiler which heats the centrally located public-use buildings.

Food – the retreat centre serves a plant-rich diet, primarily vegetarian and vegan styles.

We reduce food waste by using as much as possible and recycling much of the rest as compost in our Cullerne Garden, Park Garden, Cluny Garden and as private household composters

We grow food on food-waste.

We teach permaculture and practise it in Cullerne Garden and in our permaculture gardens.

Some private permaculturists create and use biochar.

We have a Living Machine to process, clean and recycle waste water.

Women and Girls – we support a Steiner school in Drumduan, Forres (nearby community); Ecologia supports the education of girls and women in developing countries.

Building and Cities – our eco-village is essentially walkable and bikeable. We have Moray Carshare to reduce car numbers and share vehicle use. We have a number of green roofs and are retrofitting insulation on houses.

Land Use – we have both forest management, reforestation (for indigenous trees like Scotch pines). Hinterland Trust (a NFP) organizes volunteer work parties for forest and land maintenance, including bee hive management. We have several forest-based social enterprises including Trees for Life.

Transport – we have a social enterprise, Moray Carshare to reduce car ownership and share assets. MCS has introduced electric bikes along with expanding the number of electric cars. The local bus service stops outside the entrance to the eco-village.

Materials – every household and enterprise recycles its waste into bio, paper, recyclables, metal, plastic and non-recyclable waste bins, which are emptied on a weekly/monthly cycle by the recycling service offered by Moray Council. Industrial recycling is used where building materials require disposal.

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As we move beyond the implementation of the categories listed above, in the weeks ahead, we will continue to report on the progress we are making in both our subjective (I) and intersubjective (We/You) learning spaces. Stay tuned.

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(1) Drawdown is the book edited by Paul Hawken detailing the 100 most impactful ways to reduce carbon emissions. Each opportunity is categorized into the sectors listed above and rated as to both its current ranking and the potential for change through reducing carbon emissions by changing mindsets, behaviours/technologies and policies.

The Manifesto of New Sincerity

We are moved to start 2019 with the publication of  The Manifesto of New Sincerity, written by Oleg Lega.

In a year when so many commitments are being drafted, challenged and made, this Manifesto calls forth the qualities that our Book 3, Integral City 3.7 proposes are needed to reframe our complex challenges: Caring, Contexting and Capacity Building.

The Manifesto also speaks with the 4 Voices of the City (as Oleg wears the hats of Citizen, Business Developer, Resource Allocator and Integrator) to a core set of Intelligences of the Integral City:

Contexting Intelligences: Ecolosphere, Emergence, Integral, Living

Individual Intelligences: Inner and Outer Sincerity and Behaviour

Collective Intelligences: Particularly Corporate Structures and Cultures

Strategic Intelligences: Inquiry, Navigating

Evolutionary Intelligences.

If we listen deeply to Oleg’s call for Sincerity then it will be necessary also to engage Meshworking Intelligence to work together to co-create the world we wish our children to live in.

Altogether, Oleg speaks not just to the 7th generation from now (to which Integral City 3.7 is dedicated) but to all the generations alive today. Oleg is modelling what it means to live by the Master Code – Caring for Self, Others, Place, Planet.

The Manifesto of New Sincerity
A Platform for Transformation

by Oleg Lega

Whenever I come to pick up my son from school and see him running towards me my heart opens up and fills with the anticipation of tender joy and complete mutual trust. Our kids are such an amazing fact of our lives: biologically they fulfill our selfish need to pass down our set of genes; altruistically they give us a chance to express our parental love, one of the most sincere and responsible kinds of love ever. This strong love for our children inevitably makes us wonder: What kind of world will we leave for them?

Ours is a pretty badly polluted world already and our descendants are very likely to blame us for turning this planet into a huge dumpster the same way we blame our ancestors today for the atrocities of slavery.

It is general knowledge that natural resources are depleting. At the same time Russia alone produces 5 billion tons of waste a year, and the death rate from drinking polluted water in our country is higher than that from car accidents and murders. Paradoxically as our depleting resources become waste, both processes are skyrocketing simultaneously. Every day brings us new evidence that without environmental consciousness our descendants will not survive. So, do we really love our children? I would put a big question mark here.

How can my child be happy in the future dumpster-world with no resources? How can our kids really express themselves and be successful in such an environment? Which of the companies our children are going to work for will emerge as most creative and sustainable in the future world? Which ideas will turn out to be most attractive?

My hope is that the ideas, companies, and relations our kids are going to find most attractive in the future will be more honest than those that used to appeal to us. I do hope that our children will be more authentic and sincere in general, and the world around them will respond with more openness and sincerity as well. I believe that to a large extent it is already coming true today.

Have you ever had any colleagues, friends or family members going out of their way to look better or more impressive, but all their attempts end up in a professional or personal fiasco? Have you had similar experiences in your own life? This is certainly true about the author of this text. I (and my close friends) have experienced such failures more than once but still haven’t come up with all the answers to the arising questions.

This is quite understandable: until very recently such competitive mimicry was a way to achieve: Do not ask too many questions, be compliant and you’ll get extra perks. Be an obedient wife and you’ll save your marriage.

But today this kind of compliance is not enough: the world has become more transparent, more open, changing, accelerating and revealing. It gets much quicker with its feedback not only to businesses, but in communication and in relationships in general. To lie to oneself and to the world is not that easy anymore. Even such a corporate giant as Volkswagen gets immediately busted and its stock price falls in value dramatically when it tries to cheat on the emissions control tests. And whoever would have imagined the #metoo movement just a decade ago?

Such openness in today’s world encourages us not only to seem good but to be authentic. This challenge calls for a comprehensive transformation and may lead the human community to the next developmental level where there are no more gurus but a need for everyone to search for one’s own answers to the pressing questions. These questions arise every day and become more essential and urgent. They refer not only to ecology but to the issues of finding one’s way in life, our relationships with others, our personality in general. They seem to be asking each of us: are you just trying to look good, or are you really authentic in your expressions?

To read and download the full text of The Manifesto click here: Lega, Manifesto New Sincerity

The Knowing Field and Constellating for the Collective

by Diana Claire Douglas, Founder of Knowing Field Designs

Systemic Constellation Work is a philosophy, a body of teachings, and an experiential and embodied process used to explore questions or issues, to test propositions and to design with the emerging future. There is a new branch of Systemic Constellation Work emerging—an evolution of Family Constellation Work and Organizational Constellation Work. Facilitators from around the world are applying this powerful process to explore collective issues. These are called collective constellations, societal-issue constellations, social-justice constellations, community constellations, nature constellations, city constellations and more!

I call my facilitation of this process constellating for the collective.

The research and development of Constellating for the Collective was done primarily with Marilyn Hamilton and the core team of Integral City, and Anne-Marie Voorhoeve and the core team of THC-The Hague Center for Global Governance, Innovation and Emergence.

What is “the collective”? Collective has several meanings, for example: people who are in groups such as political and religious groups; a community; a city; and (patterns in) collective consciousness.

How do we enter the collective field through Systemic Constellation Work?

All Life is embedded in fields of information and energy. All Life is embedded in fields of consciousness. We humans access these fields, consciously and unconsciously. We are able to consciously enter the collective field through all branches of Systemic Constellation Work. In Family Constellation Work, individuals’ issues and concerns often take them into the trans-generational collective field (of traumas and resources). In Organizational Constellation Work, institutions and organizations move into the collective field through societal issues. In Constellations for the Collective, the intention is to begin in the collective field for the purpose of shifting patterns in consciousness.

Who participates: individuals ready to move beyond their own personal concerns to serving the collective; leaders of visionary organizations; organizations ready to evolve; social justice groups; citizens involved with community/city concerns; facilitators of systemic constellation work (expanding from family + organizational constellations)

Where Constellating for the Collective (C4C) is offered:

Monthly sessions in my home town, Ottawa; workshops and retreats in Canada and Europe; workshops at international conferences; on-line through Zoom.

The Process: C4C is an experiential, embodied, whole-person approach to accessing energy and information in the Knowing Field. The approach is creative, adaptable, and powerful, using human beings as the instrument of creativity.

There are several ways I work with a question or issue: using a structure and/or allowing the process to emerge and evolve as we go along in the process. The structured approach which I have developed when working with collective issues: the group finds their exact question; the group names all the elements in the field;  representatives are chosen; representatives move into the Field and form the first “image”; and we all look into the patterns of relationship that show up in this first image (of representative’ placement in the Field); movements of the representatives; messages of the representatives; and debrief.

Celebrate Creatively

Following is a list of constellations I have facilitated related to Climate Change and Consciousness. The topics are the questions posed to the knowing field. 

Climate change:

“What does the force we call climate change want humanity to know at this time?”
“Given the extreme events happening right now – wildfires in BC, earthquake in Mexico today rocking Mexico City, Hurricane Maria slamming Caribbean now…and the previous information from constellations that the rescuer (R) is blocking change, what is the relationship now between Global Healing, the rescuer and the force we call climate change?”
” What is the relationship between Mother Earth, the threats to existence, and humanity?”

Human impact on the environment:

“Testing whether our human-designed project on reconciliation (this could be any project) is in alignment with the Creator: walking the project back through all the orders of nature to the Creator.” Based on teachings as learned through Indigenous author Lynn Gehl, Claiming Anishinaabe, what can humanity learn when we listen our right place in the order of creation — we came last?
“Water is speaking, are we listening?” Constellating for the Collective gives an opportunity for all elements to give voice and for humanity to listen.
“How do we settlers — with Western mindsets — come to respect Indigenous Peoples?” Shifting Western mindsets to an Indigenous understanding that All Life is Sacred may awaken our capacity to respond to climate change.

What can we “do”?

Becoming Sacred Activists: Planting Love

“What does the Spirit of the Ottawa River Watershed wish us to know about its relationship with nuclear waste at the Chalk River Nuclear site?” The proposed nuclear dump site is an example of how the Western mindset is so out of alignment with the well-being of All-Life. The site of a now-closed , public nuclear facility, a private consortium has proposed to clean up the site by erecting a building above ground, on a fault line, 1 km from the Ottawa River — which is the human drinking water source for several million people. A group of social activists wondered what could we do? The process of the constellation showed the impact of bringing Love into the Field — shifting the awareness of the elements represented and shifting the consciousness of the participants. Activism is now sacred activism.

Exploring being Conscious Witnesses: The Conscious Witness Project A phenomenological research project whose intention is to access the Knowing Field through the process of Systemic Constellation Work in order to become aware of our impact when we are witnessing — whether in a small circle of participants in a workshop or local, national and global events. After many constellations the impact of the Conscious Witness is to initiate healing movements in the Field. Our experiments continue.


“What does Humanity need to be an Ally of Evolution?

A workshop held at the Integral European Conference, 2018, whose theme was “Allies of Evolution.”

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Diana Claire Douglas is the recipient of the award Meshworker of the Year 2018.

Integral City Meta Blog 2018

Here is the Integral City 2018 Meta Blog. It connects the 4 Voices of the Integral City to the Planet, People, Place and Power that energized us in 2018.

It follows the traditions of:

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 2018: Eco-Villages Human Hives & Gaia’s Reflective Organs
Integral City Reflective Organ – June 2018: Evolutionary Allies Placecare & Placemake the Human Hive
Integral City Reflective Organ – September 2018: Wholing Including Emerging Evolving
Integral City Reflective Organ – December 2018: Reframing Complex Challenges with the Power to Change 
2. City of the Year 2018: 6AIKA Finland’s Cities Collaborating

In 2018, 6AIKA – 6 Collaborating Cities in Finland replaced 2017’s 3 Living Cities from Russia as Cities of the Year 2018.

Read about the City of the Year award here.

3. Meshworker of the Year 2018: Diana Claire Douglas, Knowing Field Designs

As lead constellator, for Integral City and THC, in the last few years Diana Claire has been grounding Constellating for the Collective through “on-life” monthly gatherings, retreats, workshops and “on-line” meetings. She has developed a simple method of connecting people into systemic constellations so that the representatives and witnesses in the constellation can be co-located locally or anywhere around the world.

Diana Claire is responsible for much subtle impact with mega-constellations like the 400 people at Integral Europe Conference 2018, and intimate VUCA explorations like nuclear power station changes near Ottawa, Canada. Integral City is honoured to recognize Diana Claire and Knowing Field Designs as Meshworker of the Year 2018.

Read the full story of Meshworkers of the Year 2018 here.

4. 2018 Reframing Complex Challenges for Gaia’s Human Hives
Integral City 3.7 – **NEW BOOK 3 Integral City Series** Infographics from Urban Hub

Integral City Book 3 Emerges: Reframe Complex Challenges for Gaia’s Human Hives
Integral City Book 3 Holarchies: Caring, Contexting, Capacity Building
Spirituality in the Human Hive – Book 3 Adds Missing Chapter
Discover the Invisible City Emerging through Capacity Building, Caring, Contexting
7 Steps to Harness Diversity Generation for Creativity in Integral City 3.7

Interview with Marilyn Hamilton by Alain Gauthier

Sharing the Roots of Integral City (Interview Part 1)
Sustaining Improving Evolving Propagating Integral Cities (Interview Part 2)

Integral City Basics

Convening Integral City Communities of Practise
What is the Human Hive?
Deepening Care Expands Inner Journey of Life

Scale (cross reference from 2017 Meta Blog)

Confessions of a Science of Cities Junky
Comparing Integral City & Scale – Fractal Patterns
Holarchies and Scales in Science of Cities
Why the Science of Cities Must Include Subjective and Intersubjective Data Along With Objective and Interobjective Data
From Holons to Social Holons in a Science of Integral Cities

Climate Change (cross reference from 2017 Meta Blog)

Integral City, Climate Change Inquiry, Action & Impact

5. Integral City 4.0 Grads Making a Difference in their Cities

Integral City 4.0 Co-Creating the Future of Cities Now – An Update from Findhorn
Edmonton is Evolving
The All-Inclusive Neighborhood, Arnhem and Wageningen, Netherlands

6. Integral City Travels to Estonia, Global Ecovillage Network & Hungary

Estonia

Integral City Talks on IDA Radio, Tallinn Estonia
Tallinn’s Telliskivi “Creative City” Most Popular Uber Destination

Ecovillages

Ecovillage Youth & Elders Explore 6 Questions
Imagining Integral City Contributions to Designing Urban Ecovillages
Witnessing 4 Dimensions of an Ecovillage
TCOPS of Teal Organizations for Integral City Emergence

Integral Europe Conference (IEC) 2018: Allies of Evolution

Foo-Ling – The Face in the Fire?
The Shoes at the Door of Evolution
Integral City – Enemy or Ally of Evolution?
TCOPS of Teal Organizations for Integral City Emergence

7. The Colours of Change: Transition from Green to Yellow (by Leida Schuringa)

The Transition from Green to Yellow: How Can We Make It Happen?
Characteristics of the Integral/Yellow/Teal Perspective
How Can We See the Green to Yellow Transition Happening in Individuals & Groups?
Characteristics of an Integral (Yellow/Teal) Project
How Can We See the Green to Yellow Transition Happening in (parts of) Society?

8. Book Review – A New Republic of the Heart by Terry Patten
9. Dharma Reflections from Findhorn Foundation, Scotland

Integral City 4.0 Co-Creating the Future of Cities Now – An Update from Findhorn
4 Voices of Taizé: 4 Voices of Integral City
Allelujah Sanctuary!! From Alone with God to Together with God
Can Collective Intelligence Arise Without Collectiveness?
WAVES OF THE SPIRIT  by Auriol of Findhorn
Beyond Promoting Climate Change & Consciousness: Findhorn Foundation Lives the Change it Wants to See in the World

Blog series on Moving:

Be Moved
Moving: an AQAL Affair
Moving: a VUCA Adventure
Moving as Action LearningMoving Recalibrates Place Making & Place Caring
Blessed Move-ability
Right Move vs Next Move Overview

Integral Cities of the Year: 6 Cities Collaborating in Finland

6 cities in Finland have earned the award of Integral Cities of the Year 2018. They have developed a strategy for working together that they call 6AIKA.  The strategy for sustainable urban development brings together Finland’s six largest cities: Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere, Turku and Oulu. Together, they tackle the challenges of urbanisation and evolve towards ever smarter and inherently human-centric cities.

The 6AIKA cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Oulu and Turku – are home to some 30% of the population. As a result, their joint development projects are of national importance. Based on solution-oriented thematic collaboration rather than geographical region, this unique initiative is boosting city co-operation to go beyond rhetoric.

Integral City 4.0 graduate, Taina Ketola (who was the city of Tampere’s lead collaboration facilitator for this project for the last four years), invited Integral City Founder Marilyn Hamilton to bring ideas about Placecaring to the 6AIKA 2018 conference (held in Oulu). Taina and Marilyn could see the potential of joining  Placecaring approaches to the significant work in the Placemaking collaborations of technology and systems that the 6AIKA cities were implementing. Placecaring methodologies were welcomed as the natural next step for the cities to implement after completing their Agile Pilots and Smart City Prototypes. Civic managers were all curious to learn more ways  to open hearts, expand mindsets and connect community.

From an Integral City perspective, what stands out about this collaboration is, how the 4 Voices of the City have been embraced to work together. The 6AIKA website notes, that in this ever-changing world, cities need to adopt new roles. In the Six City Strategy the cities put customers, companies and citizens, first, understanding their needs better and meeting those needs in new ways. Universities and other research organisations were also included in their co-creation activities.  As a result, they are doing this in a way that benefits all: cities, citizens, companies, NGOs, and R&D&I organisations.

The strategy focuses on  projects like Agile piloting, – so that by helping businesses to experiment and discover new opportunities, everyone learns new skills to enable the cities to thrive. The 6AIKA group have also recognized the value of training workers and citizens and inviting them to other learning events. They have grasped how extensive and valuable is the vast trove of data and knowledge that exists in all their city organizations as resources for development.

In making those discoveries, the teams of civic managers working with business realized the value of developing open interfaces so that they could share access.The basis of the Six City Strategy was developed in three large-scale spearhead projects: Open Data and Interfaces, Open Participation and Customership, and Open Innovation Platforms. They  pushed forward the essential elements of the Finnish smart city model: customer-centered co-creation, opening and utilising data and developing services in real urban environments.

What the Placecaring practitioners of Integral City can admire is that the Six Cities Strategy has encouraged a new innovation culture to flourish and spread within and across Six Cities. This systemic collaboration between and amongst cities and companies affects the competitiveness of Finland. As a cross-sectoral multi-city model, the Six City Strategy represents a unique set-up of sustainable and smart city development. What is more with the training and cultural aspects of this strategy expanding the capacity of individual and collective collaborations, Integral City can see the evidence of empowering the 4 + 1 Voices rippling out across each city and the nation.

It is a unique situation and one that illustrates the power of combining Smart and Resilient City technology-based Placemaking strategies with people-based Placecaring strategies. We believe this is an example other regions and nations could follow to expand the capacities to thrive.

Integral City is delighted to have seen first hand,  how and why the 6AIKA city teams easily deserve the Cities of the Year 2018 award.

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For prior Integral City of the Year Awards see:

Russia’s 3 City Associations – City of the Year 2017
Fort McMurray – City of the Year 2016.
Paris – City of the Year 2015 .