Sacred Science Circle Newsletter # 9
October 2021

The Sacred Science Circle http://www.sacredsciencecircle.org gathers a sacred circle of individuals and groups that honor the “fires” of transformation implicit in all scientific, scholarly, and artistic endeavors. Our mission is to further that profound route to wisdom that the confluence of science and the Sacred can bring to us and our modern world. In pursuing sacred science, the Sacred Science Circle and our partner institution, the Alef Trust, aspire to transform both ourselves and the world.

In service to the Sacred,
Rosemarie Anderson & Les Lancaster, Sacred Science Circle, Co-Directors

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

Articles by

• Norbert Koppensteiner: The Self as (Re)Source in Peace Research and Facilitation
• Kathrin Fox: Reclaiming the Fierce Feminine WithinBook Review of Being Ram Dass by Stephen J. Hendlin

Upcoming Conferences:

• Athena Wisdom Online Summit 2021
• Integral European Conference Online 2022
• Climate Change & the Philosophy Organism 2022
• Eurotas Transpersonal Symposium, February 2022, Mallorca
• Eurotas Global Conference, September 2022, South France
  

Transpersonal Initiatives

• The Lilith Institute
• PageMill Press

ARTICLES

 

The Self as (Re)Source in Peace Research and Facilitation  

by Norbert Koppensteiner

Peace is a topic that is omnipresent in life, yet elusive to research. Peace is as common and vital as fresh air and is equally tricky to grasp and define. Researching and working with peace in practice often mean experiencing how porous the boundaries of the ‘self’ really are, how mutually implicated we are in each other and in our world. Community, society, nature but also that larger sphere of spirit are not categorically separate entities from the human being and there is no peace inside that is independent from the world. As above, so below; as outside so inside.

For many years I have searched for an approach that is able to express this deeply transpersonal understanding and give it grounding in an ontology, epistemology, ethics and methods for peace research. Transforming Self and Others Through Research by Rosemarie Anderson and William Braud (SUNY, 2011) and Toward a Spiritual Research Paradigm edited by Jing Lin, Rebecca L. Oxford, and Tom Culham (Informative Age Publishing, 2016) have paved the way on this journey. The results of this quest have just been published in a book entitled Transrational Peace Research and Elicitive Facilitation: The Self as (Re)Source (Palgrave, 2020

Therein, I seek a comprehensive form of research that engages the researcher as full human being in sensing, feeling, thinking, intuiting and witnessing or, expressed differently, through the faculties of body, heart, mind, soul and spirit. Following neuroscientific findings presented by Antonio Damasio in Descartes Error (Vintage, 2006) this type of research understands that there is no pure thought, but that all thinking arises from one’s embodied constitution and is entwined with feelings. Such research makes use of the resources of sensing and feeling and seeks those moments of integrity and intuition when soul speaks. It understands witnessing as the art of opening the personal self to its transpersonal embeddedness, to inner wisdom or spirit. Knowing is conceived as relational act, con-scientia. I look for antecedents for such comprehensive research not just in modern and postmodern academia, but also in the many indigenous and wisdom traditions around the world that engage in systematic and rigorous inquiries into what it means to live peace, yet have often been spurned inside the ivory towers of academic research. The time is ripe to change that and to walk that fine and precarious line that marks a respectful engagement with those traditions; yet avoids the pitfall of cultural appropriation.

The second part of the book focuses on how to facilitate learning processes in such a manner that takes the transpersonal self as both source for all unfolding and resource in the process of learning. In Peace Studies the term ‘elicitive’ (used first by John Paul Lederach in Preparing for Peace (Syracuse Univ. Press, 1996) denotes a type of facilitation that works with the latent (human) potentials that are always already there in situ. Elicitive implies a way of working that sees the facilitator as a catalyst and enabler, an assistant seeking to intelligently cooperate with the inner wisdom of each participant, rather than an expert who prescribes techniques for better living.

Such an approach is humanistic and is optimistic, fostering the drive towards unfolding that is assumed to be inherent to all human beings. It understands violence as the tragic expression that occurs when that human need for unfolding is stifled, twisted and can find no other way to manifest.

Ultimately, both research and this type of facilitation are two sides of the same coin, different modes that both seek to bring more aliveness, vitality and a deeper understanding of our human condition into the world. At the most profound level such attempts are buoyed by that field which our sciences cannot pinpoint but only gesture towards with insufficient yet important names: the larger whole, spirit, god(dess) or, simply, love.

Bio.
Norbert Koppensteiner, PhD is a peace researcher and independent facilitator. He currently is a visiting research fellow at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, USA. Contact: norbert.koppensteiner@wissweb.at

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Reclaiming the Fierce Feminine Within  

by Kathrin Fox

Drawing on both intellect and intuition, Kathrin Fox conducted an intuitive inquiry as part of her MSc program with Alef Trust into the journey of women in reclaiming and living the Fierce Feminine. The study aimed to answer the following questions: 1) What is the nature of the Fierce Feminine? 2) What does it take to reclaim the Fierce Feminine? 3) What are the effects and consequences of living the Fierce Feminine today?

Fox’s preliminary understanding of the Fierce Feminine entailed the lived expressions of the Dark Goddess archetype concerned with divination, magic, healing, sacred sexuality, compassionate wrath, nature, the nonphysical dimensions of being, and the mysteries of birth, death, and regeneration. These are the aspects of the feminine wholeness that have been trivialized and demonized for millennia, leading women to fear and suppress these innate qualities within themselves. By interviewing women, who confidently embody some or all of these aspects, the author gained a deeper understanding of the essence of the Fierce Feminine, which expressed itself in the embodiment of four distinct archetypes:

1. The Seer, a woman deeply connected to her intuition. She channels, predicts, sees. A conduit between the seen and the unseen, she is always walking on the edge, dancing between the worlds. Seeking the hidden stories and listening to the songs of things, she brings forward what needs to be seen and heard. Her art is a source of wisdom, healing and creativity.

2. The Warrior, a woman deeply rooted in truth. Aligned with her power, sacred rage and clarity, she knows how to set boundaries, cut through the bullshit and be discerning. She does not pretend nor please. Calm and focused, she does what needs to be done. An advocate for justice and truth, she leads the way, deeply attuned to a higher purpose and with the common good in mind.

3. The Sexual Priestess, a woman anchored in her womb. Fully at home in her body, in communication with her desires and wants. A queen, magnetic and sensual, she deliberately draws attention to herself. Her sexuality is hers and hers alone. She knows how to receive, magnetize, embody. Honoring her cyclical being, she lives accordingly.

4. The Mystic, a woman dedicated to service. She sits in silence, prays, and bows to the great mystery of life. In deep communion with nature, a vessel for the voice of Gaia, she lives in accordance with the seasons and powers of Mother Earth. Ritual and ceremony are part her daily life and magic is what she creates. A conduit between the sacred and the mundane, she honors her ancestors, her roots and her inner life.

The women’s stories of the journey to reclaim the Fierce Feminine within themselves revealed an inner developmental process reminiscent of the archetypal hero’s journey as depicted by Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Pantheon Books,1949). However, instead of going out into the world to slay the dragon, the women moved inward and downward, descending into the darkness and shedding the layers of their upper- world, good-girl persona that they had assumed in order to exist in the world and prove themselves worthy.

As painful and excruciating as this encounter with the Dark Goddess can be, redemption does not come in the form of an external savior or ally, but through embracing their inner wholeness and surrendering to her own messiness, brokenness and imperfection. Only then could they rise, remain rooted in their bodies and anchored in their wombs. They sought help, healed wounds, ancestral and present. Eventually in letting go of their need to belong, to please others, did they reclaim their truth and reincorporate their inner Fierce Feminine. Indeed, living the Fierce Feminine brought both blessings and challenges to everyday life. Blessings include genuine self-love, creative flow, magnetic power and a sense of aliveness and fulfillment; for the world, the potential for transformation. On the other hand, challenges include the loss of belonging and social approval, as well as periods of depression and loneliness.

Bio.
Kathrin Fox, MSc. is a transpersonal psychologist, transformational facilitator and holistic life & business coach with training in various coaching and healing modalities. As founder and CEO of WOMENRISING, she helps women entrepreneurs enhance their lives and leadership capacities through high-level masterminds, group programs and 1:1 mentoring. www.womenrising.co.

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BOOK REVIEW

Ram Dass/AKA Richard Alpert (2021). Being Ram Dass. Boulder, CO, USA. Sounds True.

• ·Book Review by Stephen J. Hendlin is available @

https://societyforpsychotherapy.org/remembering-ram-dass-those-were-the-daze-561/

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CONFERENCES
ATHENA WISDOM ONLINE SUMMIT

OCTOBER 4-7. 2021

The Athena Wisdom Online Summit 2021 is a response to the current crisis where we, as a society – and we as leaders – have separated consciousness from the way we do business and have forgotten the ancient ways of taking care of our physical, mental and social health. You will leave this Summit inspired and empowered to become authentic and inspiring change agents and leaders. You will learn to champion sustainable change and make a lasting difference in the things that matter.

Speakers include Deepak Bansal, Jessica Bockler, Simone Junod, and Bear Saorin.

Visit website @ https://athena-courses.com/online-summit/.

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CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE PHILOSOPHY ORGANISM

Friday-Sunday, May 20-22, 2022

Hemmingson Center, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA

Visit website @ https://www.gonzaga.edu/center-for-climate-society-environment/events/climate-conference.

Gonzaga University’s Center for Climate, Society and the Environment invites scholars from any field of study to submit proposals for presentations or panels that connect Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophy of organism with climate change, the most significant challenge of our age.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to, bringing Whitehead’s work into conversation with any aspect of the following topics (both diagnoses and alternatives): marine aquaculture, agriculture, animals, diet and food insecurity, carbon emissions/footprint, deforestation, habitat loss, sea-level rise, weather, fossil fuels, environmental justice, climate justice, environmental ethics, anthropogenic causality, geoengineering, or any of the following terms as they relate to climate: nature, animals, plants, future, Gaia, and ecology. Additionally, we invite papers exploring Whitehead’s ideas as they apply to climate-related art, philosophy, ethics, and community-building. This may include experiments in the arts, social ecology, economics and/or incentives, global cooperation, urban/rural planning, cross-disciplinary collaborations, theology of nature, the role of religious communities, multi-disciplinary coalitions, intergenerational partnerships, native problem-solving, indigeneity, activism/advocacy, multi-species ethics, the role of personal exposure, emotions such as joy or grief, repentance, ritual, legal policy, and/or teaching.

Proposals Due: Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Presentation length: 20-25 minutes

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   INTEGRAL EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ONLINE 2022

A Global Gathering

     

May 24-29, 2022,
plus, pre- and post-conference events and courses

Details available @ https://integraleuropeanconference.com/iec-2022-details/

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EUROTAS GLOBAL CONFERENCE
February 2022
Mallorca

EUROTAS GLOBAL CONFERENCE

SEPTEMBER 2022

South France

Details available soon @ https://eurotas.org/

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 TRANSPERSONAL INITIATIVES

 The Lilith Institute 

 

   The Lilith Institute, a center for learning and ceremony which transmits many types of knowledge—oral, written, iconographic, spiritual, emotional, and embodied. Our passion and our work: to help women find voice, as they connect with each other and to the power within.
The Institute’s Goals:

• Continue planting seeds for spiritual change, social action and greater cross-cultural understanding;
• Critically examine existing patterns of thought, behavior and language through new, non-patriarchal lenses, acting as a catalyst for personal and cultural transformation;
• Facilitate an ongoing exchange of ideas across diverse spiritual traditions, and
• Encourage women to recognize their potential to be change agents in their own lives, and so in their communities and the world.

Visit website @ http://www.lilithinstitute.com/lilithwp/

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PageMill Press
Transpersonal Books for Spiritual Renewal

PageMill Press is a San Francisco Bay Area based publishing house which has been launched to serve the mental health, psychotherapy, psychological research, spirituality, and spirituality of psychology communities. The mission of the press is a multi-disciplinary pursuit of transpersonal studies through research and the use of various psychological and spiritual perspectives. The Press aims to tackle the most challenging contemporary issues of modern living and global concerns by encouraging qualified scholars and writers to produce thoughtful and inspiring books. The initiative is directed by Roy M Carlisle and Robert Frager.
Visit website @ https://www.pagemillpressbooks.com/

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