Envisioning 5WCW in India, Indra’s Net & Labyrinths
Upcoming Events 2013 - 2014, Atalanta: the Indomitable Spirit of Aartemis
Dear People,
Since writing Musings: India as 5WCW Site in my last newsletter, a further insight: a UN global women’s conference (5WCW) in India could have strong spiritual underpinnings. I thought how connections or one degree of separation, or participation as a speaker, gives me a sense of kinship with the Brahma Kumeris, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans in Dharmasala, Amma, Gurumayi, Sai Baba followers, Mother Meera, and with spiritually based organizations: United Religious Initiative (URI), Council for a Parliament of the World Religions (CPWR), Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW) and the Leadership Council of Women Religious (LCWR). Many of these connections began with Elinore Detiger, whose invitation to come to Europe to experience spiritual sources, arrived in the midst of my midlife transition along with a vesica piscis pendant (as told in Crossing to Avalon). India is the largest democracy in the world and is an English-speaking developing country. Feminist awareness of the need for women’s empowerment and equality is a growing edge of consciousness, recently galvanized by rapes.
Indra's Net Activism
"Imagine a multidimensional spider's web in the early morning covered with dew drops. And every dew drop contains the reflection of all the other dew drops. And, in each reflected dew drop, the reflections of all the other dew drops in that reflection. And so ad infinitum. That is the Buddhist conception of the universe in an image." -–Alan Watts
At Jung in the Heartland conference in September 5 -8, I spoke of Indra’s net as the metaphor for grassroots activism. Each of us is a jewel that reflects every other jewel in the net. Once consciousness and choice leads us to act, the change in us is reflected in the jewels in our web of relationships. When a critical number of people change how we think, feel and act, a tipping point is reached. This is how geometric progression or morphic field activation changes the collective consciousness. Equality and empowerment of women will be accelerated by a UN 5th World Conference on Women in India. Every women’s circle is helping reach the metaphoric “millionth circle.” Every feminist man and woman is changing consciousness on the web and contributing to the end of the patriarchal era.
Ambassador Chowdhury on Peace,
Sustainability and Women
“I believe with all my conviction that when women’s equality is not established in all sphere of human activity... the human right to peace is not possible. Without peace, development is impossible, and without women, neither peace nor development is possible." UN High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace, September 6, 2013.
For the full text at the 5wcw website click here.
Labyrinth as Means to Inner Wisdom: the UN should have one!
I keynoted the 13th international conference of The Labyrinth Society, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, September 19-21, 2013. The proliferation of them has me thinking that labyrinths have gone mainstream. I remember when Lauren Artress took on introducing the labyrinth as her assignment at Grace Cathedral in the mid-1980s, bringing the heavy portable canvas labyrinth to many conferences. To walk a labyrinth is to do an open eyed walking meditation during which we are out of ordinary time. It opens us to be receptive to our own intuitive wisdom and to the Jungian archetype of the Self, to Spirit, God/Goddess, higher power, the Universe and the Tao. We walk with “soft eyes” as we pass each other and feel connected without saying a word. In the labyrinth we can sense that we all are spiritual beings on a human path. From insights gained in the labyrinth, clarity may come, a change in attitude or a resolve to take action may result. Labyrinths are proliferating, just as circles with a sacred center also are. The feminist path is labyrinthine, full of U-turns. As with a labyrinth, we don’t know how close we are to our goals until suddenly we are there.
Books
Crones Don’t Whine
"There is a medieval sound to the word “crone” and a mischievous note to the suggestion that a woman would aspire to be one.... To be a crone is about inner development, not outer appearance. A crone is a woman who has wisdom, compassion, humor, courage, and vitality.... She does not avert her eyes or numb her mind from reality.... She has learned to trust herself to know what she knows. Whining is conduct unbecoming a crone.... The crone is an archetype we can grow into being. Exceptional men can be crones. Crones together can change the world." Crones Don’t Whine: Concentrated Wisdom for Juicy Women. Conari Press, 2003.
ATALANTA: The Indomitable Spirit of Artemis — my new book
I finished the final draft and it’s now at Conari Press. Next step—copyeditor, then back to me. In fiction, Atalanta resembles Katniss from The Hunger Games and Jo from Little Women. In non-fiction and real life: Eve Ensler, Gloria Steinem and Cheryl Strayed are examples. Atalanta was a remarkable mortal in Greek mythology who embodied the archetype of Artemis the Goddess of the Hunt and Moon. “Indomitable” means untamed, unsubdued: descriptive of women who are survivors, feminists, and spiritually motivated activists. Artemis is related to Hecate and Hestia, whose qualities usually develop later in life. Atalanta will be published in late summer/early fall 2014.
Click here for a complete list of books by Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD
To Order any of Jean's Books visit Amazon.com
Upcoming Events 2013
For more details, click here for Jean's full schedule
The C. G. Jung Society of Colorado Springs
October 4 – 5, 2013 - Colorado Springs, CO
Lecture: Catching Fire: Imagination and Activism
Workshop: Path with Soul/Path with Heart: the Inner Compass
http://csjung.org/next-program
San Francisco Writing for Change Conference
October 12, 2013 - San Francisco, CA
Keynote 9:00 a.m. Writing for Change: in the Psyche and in the World
http://sfwritingforchange.org/
The Sophia Institute: Women of Wisdom IV:
Transforming Our Lives, Transforming the World
November 1-2 - Charleston, SC
Workshop: Emergence of the Empowered Feminine
www.TheSophiaInstitute.org
Scheduled Events 2014
San Antonio, TX. Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM)
March 28 – 30, 2014
Helena, MT. Feathered Pipe Ranch with Barbara McAfee.
June 21 – 28, 2014
Carpinteria, CA. Pacifica Graduate Institute,
July 11 – 13, 2014
Stockbridge, MA. Kripalu Center,
July 25 – 27, 2014
Rhinebeck, NY. Omega Institute,
September 7 –12, 2014
Big Sur, CA. Esalen Institute,
November 14 –21, 2014
"Women Rise!" a Song for 5WCW
© Barbara McAffee
Chorus:
When women wake, mountains move.
When women wake, mountains move.
When women rise, the world rises with us.
So women wake, women wake
Women rise, women rise, women rise....
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With love, hope, perseverance and optimism,
Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD
www.5wcw.org
and the archival site www.5wwc.org
www.millionthcircle.org
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