Tom Atlee wrote:

Dear friends,

About seven years ago I discovered (for myself) the importance of Story. Being who I am, I philosophized about it, through the lens of co-intelligence and social transformation. Some of those thoughts are on my site in outline form at http://www.co-intelligence.org/I-powerofstory.html . The main thing I realized was the extent to which the structure of Story is the structure of our lives. We live in a sea of stories, from our daily schedules, to our personalities, all the way up to our cosmologies.

About 18 months ago I wrote to people on my list about a "new story" that was being born – a story of our universe that is consistent with both the most modern sciences (from evolution to quantum physics) and the perennial philosphy at the heart of most major spiritual traditions. This story, it turns out, has profound implications for every moment of our existence. I told folks on my list of an ex-preacher environmentalist named Michael Dowd who tells that story in an accessible and passionate way (I'd seen him live at a conference in June 1999; he was mesmerizing).

Now I hear that Michael is expanding beyond the telling of this story, to helping people live it. I thought you'd like to know what he's doing, and that some of you might like to participate in some way.

Coheartedly,
Tom

_ _ _ _ _ _

"For peoples, generally, their story of the universe and the human role within the universe is their primary source of intelligibility and value. Only through this story of how the universe came to be in the beginning and how it came to be as it is does a person come to appreciate the meaning of life or to derive the psychic energy needed to deal effectively with those crisis moments that occur in the life of the individual and in the life of the society. Such a story... communicates the most sacred of mysteries... and not only interprets the past, it also guides and inspires our shaping of the future". – Thomas Berry

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Many people report that the scientific story of the Universe, told as a sacred story, moves and inspires them as deeply as any religious or cultural story they've ever heard. Some also believe that this cosmology, because it is the story of all people and all creatures, has potential for uniting humanity around a vision of our common destiny and empowering each of us to fulfill our unique role in The Great Work of ensuring a viable world for future generations.

A challenge for many people, however, is that they have not yet found this cosmology, this Great Story, particularly accessible. Even though it has been brilliantly presented by Thomas Berry (The Dream of the Earth, The Universe Story, The Great Work), Brian Swimme (The Universe is a Green Dragon, Canticle to the Cosmos, The Universe Story, The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos, and Earth's Imagination), and others such as Miriam MacGillis, Joanna Macy, John Seed, Albert LaChance, Loyal Rue, Connie Barlow, and Ursula Goodenough, STILL there seems to be a very real need for it to be told in simple, straightforward, accessible ways for the masses - through easy-to-understand language, diagrams, metaphors, stories and analogies, and through ritual, dance, drama, music, and the visual arts.

Michael's Dowd's own great article on this subject – The Big Picture – can be read at http://www.resilientcommunities.org/Articles/TheBigPicture.htm

We need to give special attention to exploring how to assist people in FEELING and DEEPLY EXPERIENCING this story, rather than merely thinking about it.
)))))))))))))))))))


Michael Dowd

Thomas Berry's Twelve Principles For Understanding The Universe and the Role of the Human in the Universe Process

1) The universe (including the Earth) in itself and in its evolutionary emergence constitutes for the human community the primary revelation of that Ultimate Mystery whence all things emerge into being.

2) The universe is a unity, an interacting and genetically related community of beings which is in constant communion with itself at all levels of being. The unity of the planet Earth is especially clear, with everything being interrelated and interdependant.

3) From its beginning the universe is a psychic/spiritual as well as physical/material reality.

4) The 3 basic laws of the universe at all levels of reality are differentiation, subjectivity (or interiority), and communion. These laws identify the reality, meaning, and direction in which the universe is going.

5) The universe, as well as having a harmonious, constructive aspect, has a conflictual, chaotic, destructive, and sometimes violent aspect; but it is consistantly creative in the larger arc of its development.

6) The human is that being in which the universe appreciates itself in conscious self-awareness.

7) The Earth, within the solar system, is a self-emergent, self-propagating, self-nourishing, self-educating, self-governing, self-healing, and self-fulfilling community. Thus, all Earth-born lifeforms in their being, nourishment, education, governing, healing, and fulfillment must integrate their functioning within this larger living context.

8) The genetic coding process is the way by which the world of the living evolves, educates, and rules itself.

9) At the human level, genetic coding mandates a further trans-genetic cultural coding by which specifically human qualities find expression. Cultural coding is carried on by educational processes.

10) The emergent process of the universe (non-life to life, life to consciousness, earlier to later forms of culture, etc.) is irreversible and non-repeatable in the existing world order.

11) The historical sequence of cultural periods can be identified as the tribal-shamanic period, the neolithic village period, the classic civilizational period of the great religious cultures, the scientific-technological period, and the emerging ecological period.

12) The main task of the immediate future is to assist in activating the intercommunion of all living and non-living beings in what could be called the emerging ecological age. What is most needed is the great art of intimacy and distance - the capacity of beings to be totally present to each other while further affirming and enhancing the differences and identities of each.

)))))))))))))))))))

THE GREAT STORY PROJECT

VISION:
To further a meta-religious/spiritual movement grounded in the Epic of evolution*

SHORT TERM GOAL:
By October 1, 2001, to produce the first draft of a book, tentatively entitled, "Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws: The Transforming Power of The Great Story,"** and other support materials designed to do the following:

PURPOSE:
1) To offer a wide variety of inspiring and empowering ways for people to experience The Great Story as their story and their story as The Great Story.

2) To assist individuals and groups in keeping the significant events, values and revelatory insights of the Epic of evolution in their awareness on a daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal and yearly basis and provide tools to support them in creating their own spiritual practices, empowering habits and rituals or ceremonies based on the Epic.

3) To inspire and support self-organizing, self-replicating empowerment groups and circles formed around the idea of assisting members in sharing their hopes, their fears, and their stories, while supporting one another to grow inwardly and to engage helpfully with the world.

4) To assist people in interpreting and telling their own personal life story as a heroic story: an important and meaningful chapter in The Great Story, and that impels them toward discovering and fulfilling their own paths of Great Work.

5) To be a resource for teachers, storytellers, workshop facilitators, religious leaders, activists, and anyone committed to individual, social, regional or global transformation by providing course and presentation outlines, experiential practices, faith-specific liturgies, quotes, stories, meditations, poems, songs, humor, etc..

6) To touch, move, and inspire people of diverse religious and philosophical backgrounds to fall more deeply in love with Life and to excitedly and committedly participate in the full breadth of The Great Work of ensuring a vibrant, diverse and healthy world for future generations.

*When we say that our vision is "to further a meta-religious/spiritual movement grounded in the Epic of evolution", what we mean is that our intention is to tell The Great Story - the story of everyone and everything - in such a way that ALL people find awe inspiring and faith building. One of the goals of this project, as stated above, is to touch, move and inspire people of diverse religious and philosophical backgrounds to fall more deeply in love with Life and to empower them to work together to ensure a vibrant, diverse and healthy world for future generations. The Epic of evolution, rightly told, is a comprehensive context that embraces all religious and spiritual traditions, elucidates their deeper (time-developmental) insights, and shows how each one's gifts, revelations, and shortcomings play an important role in the evolution of planet Earth and the Universe as a whole. Also, in the same way that there already exists rituals, celebrations and holy days (holidays) that honor the significant events in the story of our respective religious traditions and nations, we plan to offer rituals, celebrations, and holy days that honor the significant events in the story of every nation and religious tradition, and every creature.

** All proceeds from the sale of the book and other materials will be donated to non profit organizations committed to The Great Work.

If you have questions or feel moved to join us by contributing some of your time and energy to this project, please contact one of us:

Michael Dowd: (845) 634-3380 - MBDowd@bigplanet.com
Amber Llyn Peabody: (845) 679-6355 - kokopellyn@earthlink.net
Connie Barlow: cbtanager@aol.com
Carol Deangelo: (914) 693-5983 or (845) 358-5399 - caroloikos@aol.com

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MICHAEL DOWD, MDiv., DMN
Veteran community organizer, life storyteller and author, Michael Dowd, is campaign manager of the Rockland County Sustainable Lifestyle Campaign: a county and state funded program that helps neighbors get to know each other better and live more Earth-friendly lifestyles. Before recently moving back to the Hudson River Valley (he grew up in Poughkeepsie, NY) Michael lived in the Pacific Northwest for four years and managed Global Action Plan's EcoTeam program for the city of Portland, Oregon. Prior to that, he worked with Jewish, Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical leaders across the country as Religious Organizer for the Washington D.C. based National Environmental Trust, and pastored churches in Massachusetts, Ohio and Michigan. A well known popularizer of the work of cultural historian Thomas Berry, cosmologist Brian Swimme, and deep ecologists Joanna Macy and John Seed, his book, Earthspirit, published in 1991, is in its third printing. His new book, The Great Story, is a work in progress.

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