As we navigate climate, environmental and global health crises, we recognize that they are one and the same, climate justice. Climate justice is the practice of taking care of the most vulnerable amongst us, and leaving no one behind. Our intention, for this Spiral offering, is to show up as fully as we can, in midst of climate chaos and the unraveling of the fabric of society that we continually witness on a daily basis. In order to do that we recognise the need to create communities of care for practitioners who are actively supporting their people in the many scenarios currently playing out around the globe in the Great Unraveling.
Join a community of Climate and Regenerative Practitioners as we journey through the Spiral of the Work That Reconnects. Based on the teaching of the new edition of Active Hope, by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone and the Shambhala Warrior Prophecy* as received by Joanna Macy. Together, we will immerse ourselves in some of the foundational practices to support you in your much-needed work in the world.
WHAT TO EXPECT:
🌊 We will be taking a deep dive into the new edition of Active Hope, by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone (please read the entirety of the book in advance of the series)
🌊 We will be following the teachings of the Shambhala Prophecy*
🌊 Deepen your experience as a climate-aware or regenerative practitioner of the foundational practices of the Work That Reconnects
🌊 Develop further tools and compassionate ways to guide you in dismantling systems of oppression
🌊 Build skills and confidence in presencing, deep listening, and offering these practices for your clients and groups
🌊 Clarify your path forward in contribution to the climate and ecological emergency
🌊 Gather with other practitioners who are holding their people in meeting this critical moment of climate, political, societal chaos, uncertainty and possibility through the Work that Reconnects global community
SERIES DETAILS:
This series meets once per week for six weeks at a time that is inclusive of the Americas, Oceania, and Asia. Please note where you align below.
🌎 Americas: Wednesdays 3 August – 7 September @ 4pm PDT / 7pm EDT / 8pm BRT
🌏 Oceania and Asia: Thursdays 4 August – 8 September @ 7am CST / 9am AEST / 10am NZST
FEES:
In order to make this series accessible to those with less access to financial resources and those on the front lines, we are offering this series at a sliding scale of $380 – $260. Please consider your needs and ours, note where you align and pay accordingly. Any amount given will support Frieda and Christie’s sustainability. Your contribution can be made via PayPal at paypal.me/FriedaNixdorf or via Venmo at Frieda-Nixdorf. If this payment presents a hardship to you and you feel strongly called to join this offering, please reach out and connect with us.
We are the ones who know wound work. We are wounded healers. We’ve been navigating this terrain for most of our lives and our people come to us because they recognize that we can stand in the midst of the unraveling of our own stories at the very same time that we are weaving new ones. This is the work we are called to do in the world. And we are being called even deeper. It is time to stand for and with the wounded and the oppressed, to lend our voices to spaces that uplift those who know the pain of the world and know the work of transmuting that pain into service for Gaia.
The Shambhala Prophecy, which forms the basis of this six-week series, is a teaching which was offered to Joanna Macy in 1980 by friend and teacher, Dugu Choegyal Rinpoche. The ancient Tibetan Buddhist prophecy tells of the rising of the people who wish to bring about great change and healing through the powers of compassion and insight. This teaching resonates with so many of us on the frontlines. We are feeling and grappling with the signs of collapse. The Prophecy brings hope for renewed strength and courage as we join in solidarity for the sake of life on earth. Please read on below for Joanna’s call of the prophecy below. We would like to thank Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown for including this teaching in the body of work of the Work That Reconnects and their book Coming Back to Life.
The Shambhala Prophecy (as told by Joanna Macy in Coming Back to Life):
There comes a time when all life on Earth is in danger. Great barbarian powers have arisen. Although these powers spend their wealth in preparations to annihilate each other, they have much in common: weapons of unfathomable devastation and technologies that lay waste our world. It is in this moment, when the future of all beings hangs by the frailest of threads, that the kingdom of Shambhala emerges.
You cannot go there, for it is not a place. It exists in the hearts and minds of the Shambhala warriors. And you can’t recognize a Shambhala warrior by looking at her or him, for they wear no uniform, no insignia, carry no banners. They have no barricades on which to climb to threaten the enemy or behind which they can rest to hide or regroup. They haven’t even any home turf. Always they must move across the terrain of the barbarians themselves.
Now the time comes when great courage – moral and physical courage – is required of the Shambhala warriors, for they must go into the heart of the barbarian powers, to dismantle weapons – weapons in every sense of the word. They must go where the armaments are made and deployed, and also into the corridors of power where decisions are made.
Now the Shambhala warriors know that these weapons can be dismantled. That is because they are manomaya (which means mind-made). Made by the human mind, they can be unmade by the human mind. The dangers threatening life on Earth are not visited upon us by any extraterrestrial power, or satanic deities, or preordained fate. They arise from our own choices, our relationships, our habits of thought and behavior.
So this is the time when the Shambhala warriors go into training. How do they train? They train in the use of two weapons. What are they?
One weapon is compassion; the other weapon is wisdom, or insight into the radical interdependence of all phenomena. Both are necessary. Compassion gives you fuel, the motive force, to go where you need to go, to do what you need to do. It means, essentially, to not be afraid of the pain of the world. When you are not afraid of the pain of the world, nothing can stop you.
But by itself, that weapon is not enough: it can burn you out. So you need the other, the knowledge of interbeing.
With that wisdom, you know that this is not a battle between good guys and bad guys; you know that the line between good and evil runs through the landscape of every human heart. You know that we are so interwoven in the fabric of life that even the smallest act with clear intention has repercussions beyond our capacity to measure or even see.
By itself, that insight seems abstract and cool, so to keep moving, we need the heat of compassion as well.
Frieda Nixdorf
The thread that underscores all Frieda’s work is the recognition of the healing and regenerative powers of nature and her commitment to serving the planet and growing the cultural shift of the Great Turning. In addition to mothering a young human who is on the brink of venturing out into the world, she offers her gifts as a soul aligned purpose guide and mentor, a group facilitator, teacher, a playful and connected weaver of dream world imagery and tender of earth consciousness. Frieda’s background is in psychology, education, art history, visual culture, expressive arts and the non-profit environmental field. She currently serves as adjunct faculty at John F. Kennedy University and staff mentor at Purpose Guides Institute.
You may connect with Frieda at: www.lifeintheconfluence.com.
Christie Wilson
Christie is a clinical psychotherapist, convergent facilitator, and climate activist, visioning regenerative futures by exploring the psycho-cultural experience of engaging with climate change and justice. She facilitates and presents for Psychology for a Safe Climate (PSC), holds lead coordination roles within Extinction Rebellion (XR) Global Support, and serves on the Boards of the Anthropocene Transition Network and the GreenLaw Network. Christie cherishes her role as mother and Aunty and is passionate about alpine Dingoes and wild natural spaces in Australia.
You can contact Christie here: https://xrb.link/h1v4AGk5QZ4