Incarnational Spirituality in Partnership with the Powers of the ...

© All Rights reserved Ann Amberg 1

INCARNATIONAL SPIRITUALITY IN PARTNERSHIP

WITH THE POWERS OF THE UNIVERSE

Thesis written by Ann Amberg

Master’s Degree in Contemporary Spirituality

Lorian Center for Incarnational Spirituality • March 2011



TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction Page 4

Section I The Ten Powers of the Universe Page 7

Section II Incarnational Spirituality Page 41

Section III Incarnational Practice & the Powers of the Universe Page 57

Conclusion Page 82

Works Cited Page 84

Appendix Page 88


THERE IS A QUALITY OF HOLISTIC CONSCIOUSNESS emerging as an evolutionary dimension of

ecological depth perception in individuals and small groups in response to the current critical

needs of the Earth. It is a capacity to perceive, know and love oneself in terms of a planetary

consciousness: as a sacred expression of a divine Earth and the Universe. It is a commitment

to engage responsibly in relationship with the whole community of life. In 1996 the Dalai

Lama and evolutionary researcher Ervin Laszlo drafted the “Manifesto on Planetary

Consciousness”. In an excerpt from that initiative Laszlo comments on how we might

navigate our way forward:

Our responsibility is to encourage comprehension and appreciation for the excellence of the

human spirit in all its manifestations, and for inspiring awe and wonder for a cosmos that

brought forth life and consciousness and holds out the possibility of its continued evolution

toward ever higher levels of insight, understanding, love, and compassion. The evolution of

planetary consciousness is the basic imperative of human survival on this planet (109).

Woven into this new quality of consciousness is a recognition (cognitively,

emotionally and spiritually) of the spiritual significance of recent findings in quantum physics

and our scientific cosmological story, “The Universe Story” as told by Dr. Brian Swimme,

Thomas Berry, Sr. Miriam McGillis, Ervin Laszlo, Duane Elgin and others. The emerging

story of the Universe offers a sense of foundation and meaning to our expanding identity and

role as planetary citizens. Orienting ourselves in a whole, universal context can engender a

sense of wonder, belonging, and interconnectedness. The new scientific story of life’s


emergence, in all its beauty and complexity, helps to ground us in purpose and a recognition

of our magnificent 13.7 billion year heritage.

Cosmologist Brian Swimme shows how the Universe Story lives in us through primal

cosmic and Earth energies in the DVD series Powers of the Universe (2004). The aim of our

learning about these primary energies is to gradually apply them in a grounded way in our

lives; to become aware of them, and to embody them. As we begin to comprehend them and

partner with them we can become conscious participants with the Powers of the Universe and

respond creatively in service to real-life ecological and global challenges.

Incarnational Spirituality is a field of ideas and practices that make possible a

coherent, attentive, and loving participation with the Powers of the Universe. In this thesis I

offer the premise that Incarnational principles and practices offer a successful vehicle to

ground and apply the Powers of the Universe in our lives. In grounding these primal life

energies through Incarnational spiritual practices, we can activate our ecological depth

perception and begin to cultivate a mutually enhancing partnership with the Earth and the

cosmos.

In Section I of this thesis, I will introduce and describe each of the ten Powers of the

Universe, providing examples of their functions in evolution and in everyday life. As outlined

by Dr. Swimme, these powers are:

Centration

Allurement


Emergence

Homeostasis

Cataclysm

Synergy

Transmutation

Transformation

Interrelationship

Radiance

In Section II, I will introduce Incarnational Spirituality and describe five foundational

Incarnational principles:

Sovereignty

Engagement

Generativity

Emergence

Blessing

In Section III, I will explore aspects of my personal experience with specific

Incarnational exercises that enable a grounded, attentive, and loving participation with the

Powers of the Universe. These exercises are adapted from those given by David Spangler such

as “Self-Light”, Grail Space”, “Generativity”, “Emergence”, and others (Foundational

Incarnational Exercises). For each of the five Incarnational principles above, I will briefly

describe how they engender awareness of relevant Powers of the Universe.


Section I: The Ten Powers of the Universe

“The human community is on a path of development that is aligned with the self-organizing

direction of the Universe”(Elgin 124).

THE NEW SCIENTIFIC STORY OF THE UNIVERSE serves to expand our human understanding of

who we are as manifestations of both biological, planetary life and spiritual presence. In this

stage of our evolutionary and spiritual journey, what is our emerging role as human beings?

How does a living connection with the sacred inform our emerging role? We are awakening to

the need for a significant inner and outer transformation—one that will enable us to work

cooperatively towards a future that is self-sustaining and enhances the ability of all life to

flourish.

Cosmologist Brian Swimme asks, “Is there something deeper that we're involved

with? And can we find our way into that by paying attention to what the universe is doing?”

(“Centration”). In the field of science, cosmology and consciousness, The Powers of the

Universe, a ten-part DVD lecture series by Dr. Swimme, is a framework that provides a

foundation for understanding what the Universe is doing—how these primary energies work

through us, in our everyday lives. In The Universe Story, co-authored in 1992 by Brian

Swimme and Thomas Berry, Swimme comments on the nature of the Powers of the Universe:

“They're numinous. They're not things that we can regard as just physical. They're vast. They

gave birth to us. If they gave birth to us, maybe they have some contours, or a shape that

might help us understand who we are in the midst of all this” (Berry and Swimme 41).


With the work of Swimme, cultural geologian Thomas Berry, evolutionary biologist

Elisabet Sahtouris and others, we are now beginning to hear the scientific story presented in

common, accessible language that serves to engage our sense of the mystery of our larger

collective story: one of wonder, beauty, communion, loss, emergence, intimacy, change, and

reciprocity. The Powers of the Universe are primary principles that science has traditionally

identified such as gravity, or functions of life systems such as self-creation, and evolutionary

dynamics such as natural selection. Although they are described as separate individual

processes, each quality or Power is in moment-to-moment relationship with all the other

Powers, in a timeless, dynamic improvisational dance, in every system at every scale of

beingness.

In this section I will offer a brief summary of the basic processes and functions of each

of these ten principles. For ease of learning I will review them separately, in order from one to

ten. I believe the order and numbering of the Powers has a significance. Each Power is

increasingly complex, building on the deepening of the previous one. For example the first is

Centration, the simple yet powerful act of an incarnation, and the tenth Power is Radiance, the

activation of depth perception in response to the wonder and awe of our world—both are

capacities we are beginning to evolve in partnership with life. In between the first and last

power are multi-layered and interwoven processes of bonding, emergence, stability,

destruction, synergy, healing, transformation, and care. These are the forces that created the

cosmos, and are perpetually regenerative. The Powers of the Universe are continually flowing

and informing all fields of consciousness, from the tiniest particle to the infinite structure of


the Universe. These forces are not something we create, they simply are, and we are formed

from their processes. As we become conscious of how the Powers are working through us, we

can become participants in this dance.

These interwoven Powers are evolving, and each of us in our uniqueness has a role to

play in their evolution. This role is informed and shaped by our inner spiritual journey. As we

begin to sense our core belongingness and wholeness as sacred beings arising from a sacred

Earth, we sense our responsibility to the ongoing story of life. We can then begin to receive

ourselves and each other as living expressions of all the cosmological principles.

1. The first Power of the Universe: Centration

“Centration" is a way of describing how the Universe centers on itself in each manifestation of

its incarnation. In our 13.7 billion-year history, the Universe centers upon itself in every place

in the Universe again and again to bring forth new, increasingly complex forms. As human

consciousness expands to become planetary, there is a deepening of self that leads to a

centering within the larger Self and the recognition of the inherent right-to-be of every being.

A simple example of Centration is the appearance, around 12 billion years ago, of

galaxies. The expanding, billowing clouds of atoms that existed as a result of the original

fireball (commonly known as the “big bang’) did not remain as nebulous regions of atoms,

but, after hundreds of millions of years, influenced by the delicate balance of the rate of

expansion, and the increasing gravitational potential energy, manifested into a multiplicity of

centers: galaxies. Within galaxies, activity is taking place that leads to new centers, and each


of these centers becomes a star. Specifically, the spiral shape of galaxies enables new stars to

be born. These stars become new centers of activity, eventually holding planetary systems

within their gravitational embrace (“Centration”).

Swimme refers to the dynamics of the Universe as “leaning in a particular

direction”…the Universe wants to center on itself”. He states,

“…it was inevitable that the universe would end up as galaxies. We modern, industrial humans

are not familiar with the idea that the whole has its own intrinsic directions. We're the culture

that believes intensely in individuals. It's harder for us to get a sense of the whole as being

real, and having its own direction. The system itself moves towards centers. When I say

‘center upon’ I mean the universe is aiming to bring forth another form of life that will carry

life forward”(“Centration”).

In the story of the early Earth, we can see centers of activity forming in the ocean

around four billion years ago. As chemical elements interacted with one another in the chaos

of the ancient oceans, the interactions became more intense and complex. The elements

gradually became specific, centrated entities by utilizing a boundary—the semi-permeable

membrane. Additionally, at about his time, catalyst molecules arrived that helped to preserve

this intense, boundaried creativity by accelerating the process of life’s emergence and

ensuring stability (“Centration”). Here, too, the Universe was aiming to center on itself to

bring new forms into being that would help nurture life: cells became the locus of dynamic,

creative activity leading to increasingly complex organisms.


In each successive domain of emergence: atoms, galaxies, stars, planets, cells,

multicelled organisms, plants, animals, and humans, life centered on itself to bring about a

quality of beingness, of potentiality and consciousness, that experienced its complexity and

allowed it to become more than the sum of its parts. We come from a long lineage of wholes

centered within wholes, or holons, that support creativity to be maintained through time.

There are layers of historical ecologies within our bodies, all of which continually

inform and shape our individual incarnations. We have atoms that were created at the birth of

the Universe. We have carbon molecules that were birthed at the death of a supernova star.

Human eyesight is the result of evolutionary experimentation that began with clear calcite

stones in trilobites 540 million years ago, and continued to evolve in fish. I have gratitude to

sponges for my digestive system. We can have gratitude for early eukaryotic cells who

initiated the internal relationship with mitochondria to make energy, and invented sexual

reproduction. Thank you to reptiles, for developing the first brain. These centers of activity

and the works they’ve created function synergistically in us to form a larger self-creating

center, our selves.

Increasingly complex qualities of consciousness have also developed over time in

response to Centration as a Power of the Universe. We have four layers of animal evolution in

our brain: the reptilian brainstem, the paleo-mammalian brain, the neocortex or later

mammalian brain, and the recently developed prefrontal lobe. When we act from different

parts of our brain, we can get a feel for how that era of life centered on itself. For example,

when we crave sugar or fatty foods, we are experiencing the needs of our paleo-mammalian


brain. When we think from the new prefrontal cortex, we use a level of consciousness that

goes beyond personal needs to use self-discipline and consider the welfare of others and of the

whole (Barlow). With our recently evolved pre-frontal lobe, we begin to use our free will to

make choices and determine what is right and wrong. So the question arises: how is the

Universe now centering upon the human, and will that be qualitatively different than how it

centers upon other life forms?

With the human, a self-reflective consciousness emerges. We are aware that we are

aware, and we can look back at ourselves as witnesses to our thoughts and actions. In the

human, the Universe centers on the self, and at a deeper, matured level, on the process of self-

empowerment centered within a “higher” Self. The depth psychologist Carl Jung called this

process individuation (122); another way to describe the process of human Centration. In the

20th

century, Jung also introduced the idea of synchronicity. Swimme observes:

“Synchronicity is [Jung’s] way of saying the universe organizes itself so that our experiences

in the universe are filled with personal meaning. The universe is organizing itself so that we

might find our way into the depths of our individuation” (“Centration”). The Universe centers

upon itself through personal meaning and through our individual actions and choices. In

partnership with our self-reflective consciousness, we can choose how we might become

empowered in our wholeness and channel our energies to benefit a healing, collective

individuation within all life.

Author Duane Elgin comments that the sense of self-awareness we experience arising

in each moment “is rooted in the originating activity of the Universe. We are all of us arising


together at the center of the cosmos” (93). We are the Universe in human form, and we could

say that the Universe is now “folding back” upon itself, and creating another layer of

complexity and dimensionality. For example, with the scientific discovery of the beginning

events of the cosmos, the Universe is learning about its own story through us. The Universe is

experiencing itself through the intensity of our joy, fear, and love, and the complexity of our

thoughts and communication. The Universe is inviting us into a shaping of itself.

As with all open systems in the Universe, we are a self-organizing system that

“requires a center around and through which life energy can flow” (Elgin 122). As individuals

we can reconnect with the powerful, catalytic energies of Earth systems, such as weather and

thunderstorms, to awaken the ancient centering capacity within us. We can utilize discerning

boundaries to learn to partner with, channel and shape the energies of Centration. Centration

maintains and nurtures the 13.7 billion year development of ever-deepening life, to give birth

to uniquely individuated beings, and to center on the wholeness-making of each of its

manifestations. Centration’s task unfolds through us.

2. The second Power of the Universe: Allurement

Allurement brings two centers of creativity together; it is the primal attractive force in the

cosmos. Scientifically, it is described as the gravitational and nuclear interactions that hold the

Universe together. There is a deep and powerful attractive energy that pervades all life,

matter, space and time. As we follow our own allurement, we are shaped by the beauty that

beckons us (“Allurement”). Allurement is that which draws clouds of hydrogen atoms

together to form a star. In the very early Universe, gravitational potential energy helped


determine the rate of the expansion of the Universe, which enabled (through Centration)

centers of creativity, such as galaxies, to emerge. Brian Swimme describes the basic nature of

Allurement: “It’s primordial. There’s nothing... beneath it. There’s nothing deeper that you

can use to explain gravity. It is, primal. In that sense it is revelatory of the nature of the

universe, just as it is” (“Allurement”). Anne Hillman writes in her book Awakening the

Energies of Love, “Allurement expresses the deep need of life for life” (192).

Over 4 billion years ago, the Earth and the Sun, and later the Earth and the Moon,

entered into deep and enduring bonds, the result of powerful fields of gravity. These intimate

relationships lead to an ever-deepening capacity for self-creating life. The attraction of the

Earth to the Sun brought forth the chlorophyll molecule, which enabled photosynthesis, an

extremely complex relational process that scientists still do not fully understand. Brian

Swimme reflects:

We’re talking about a really advanced form of creativity in the invention of the chlorophyll

molecule. And it was carried out by individual beings that didn’t have brains. I think it’s

important to remember that. They didn’t have brains. And yet they had the capacity to bring

forth that which would deepen the intimacy. This I think is the essence of allurement

(“Allurement”).

300 million years ago, vertebrate sexuality was invented, and it deepened the process

of sexual reproduction through the development of genitalia. This is Allurement at work: the

Universe is dedicated to deepening intimacy in all centers of life. Swimme comments that this

increasing capacity through time for arousal, bondedness and even ecstasy is a process that is

central to life and what it means to be human, and that capacity is coded into our genes. We


might reflect on the blessing of the “…unbelievable privilege of being a place where

Allurement is now focused as a human body. The Universe houses sexual energies within us

only because of a 14 billion year process” (“Allurement”).

As humans, we also experience the Power of Allurement every time we are attracted to

that which we find alluring, beautiful or fascinating. A person or an idea might possess a kind

of gravitas, a foundational allurement that draws others to it. We might be awestruck by the

beauty of an image or a form. Collectively, we can be drawn into social or religious

movements. As we follow our fascinations, they become a part of us, and influence the

essence of our shape—energetically and physically— and our incarnational process.

We are called to explore our desires, and we are drawn in. We are shaped by that

which we love, and the form of who we are begins to reflect that relationship. As humans, we

can become aware of the ever-present energies of Allurement, and allow them to work

through us, in a field of self-conscious awareness. We can reconnect ourselves to the Earth,

and to our role as planetary humans, by opening ourselves to the beauty of what is wild: to the

natural world. Thomas Berry invites us to re-enter into an “entrancement” evoked by the

wonder and awe of Gaia’s creation:

As we recover our awareness of the Universe as a communion of subjects, a new interior

experience awakens within the human. The barriers disappear. An enlargement of soul takes

place. The excitement evoked by natural phenomena is renewed. Dawn and sunset are once

again transforming experiences (Evening Thoughts 13).


In The Call, David Spangler illustrates the nature of our summons to a larger mode of

sacred being: “...there is a background call...to respond to the love that created us by being

lovers of all that is created” (23).

Allurement, the very real and pervasive attractive energy that animates all forms of life

and is at the root of what shapes us, is responsible for bringing together galaxies, planetary

bodies, bees and nectar, and lovers. From within the center of the union of two individuated

beings comes the possibility of new creativity: emergent qualities and capacities that did not

exist previously.

3. The third Power of the Universe: Emergence

The power of Emergence is the power of creativity. The scientific story of the Universe

encompasses a single, dramatic, 13.7 billion-year series of events in which new levels of

complexity are continually arising. Our bodies are composed of a dynamic, self-regulating

community of cells, which evolved over 4 billion years from ancient single-celled forms to

complex multi-celled organisms. In Homo sapiens, a new capacity has emerged: self-

reflective consciousness. All living systems are dynamic and have the power to create

themselves. Each system in the Universe develops and evolves through its power to bring

forth new forms that did not previously exist.

Emergence is a property of complexity: complex forms evolve to produce new forms

and qualities that are different and qualitatively greater than the sum of its parts. At all levels

of consciousness— cosmic, planetary, communities, individual organisms, cells, and in the


subatomic realm— the Universe is involved with self-assembly and self-organization; it is

involved in continually creating itself anew. According to evolutionary biologist Elisabet

Sahtouris, “…the entire universe at all its fractal levels is alive by the biological definition of

life as autopoiesis, literally self-creation” (2).

Physicist and writer Fritjof Capra reflects on the nature of living systems: “The

generation of new forms is a key property of all living systems. Out of a chaotic state, at

critical instabilities, new forms of order emerge out of the system’s collective creativity”

(Capra). The Universe creates new forms at the threshold of extreme states. These thresholds

are described by Brian Swimme as “domains of emergence” (“Emergence”).The early

Universe arrived at an important domain of Emergence when an ancestor of our Sun—a

supernova star— brought forth the creation of new elementary particles. As the supernova star

burned helium in its center, the temperature reached 100 million degrees, and the star

imploded. Helium nuclei fused together to create an atom that did not exist previously: the

carbon atom, an essential building block for life. The Universe is organized so that creativity

emerges from these extreme states.

In the time-developmental story of evolution, the Universe seems to have an innate

sense of timing. According to Swimme, “Creativity knows when its moment is, when the

domain of emergence has appeared. There is a sensitivity to timing and readiness, to ripeness.

Life on Earth could only be created from a particular set of conditions at a particular time; [the

domain of Emergence that created life] will never happen again” (“Emergence”). Human

beings embody and act from the same power of Emergence, and so we also intuitively sense


the appropriate timing for our own creativity. To be aware of Emergence as a Power of the

Universe is to be aware of “what time it is” from within a deep-time, deep-story context.

Domains of Emergence can be found as new forms and processes emerge out of the

resolution of tension. This process of creative Emergence involves ambiguity, and there can

be a prolonged period of uncertainty until a creative resolution is achieved. Approximately

two billion years ago, life in the form of single-celled organisms was threatened by large

amounts of oxygen building up in the atmosphere. After a period of many millions of years, in

which life did not know how to proceed, a resolution was found when cells combined to form

eukaryotes (multi-celled organisms), a biological form which developed a capacity to engage

with the oxygen, using it to enhance and intensify evolution. Swimme observes: “…potential

energy being pumped into the atmosphere in the form of oxygen created this enormous

gradient of energy, and in that gap, in that gradient, is where the creativity took place at the

level of the cell” (“Emergence”). Creativity is inherent in the resolution of tension.

In our time, the Earth is approaching a transformative domain of Emergence. Due to

our actions and presence on the planet, we are witnessing degradation of all major ecosystems

and the close of one era—the Cenozoic—and the emergence of a new era, which Thomas

Berry has called the “Ecozoic”. What new ideas—what kinds of systems, art, communication,

processes and communities—will we create to resolve the tensions that are compromising the

Earth’s ecological balance and intensifying economic strife?

Creativity has been operating throughout the history of the Universe, and is operating

through us. All the Powers of the Universe weave together in each moment, in every place, to


form the great unfolding tapestry of being and becoming. We respond to the call of

Allurement when we come together to create new forms that are greater than the sum of their

parts: that which will lead to a more sustainable and vibrant Earth community. As the human

form of Emergence, we are developing a capacity to embrace ambiguity, and dwell in the

mystery that lies in the space between where we are now and what will be created as a result

of our conscious engagement with creativity as a universal power. To maintain the creative

conditions of the Earth, we need to recognize the beauty in the chaos of change and invite the

power of Emergence to work through us.

4. The fourth Power of the Universe: Homeostasis

The world acts as a whole and within each of its systems to protect what it has created.

Through the Power of Homeostasis, the Universe works to maintain its major achievements,

such as the conditions that enable the Earth to continually re-create itself. Although we tend to

think of cherishing what we value in human terms, Brian Swimme asks the question, “What

does the Universe itself value” (“Homeostasis”)? The question could be answered by taking a

look at what life puts energy into preserving. At each level of beingness, from the

microcosmic to the cosmos, the Power of Homeostasis functions continually to hold the

proper conditions for conserving the forms and processes that are most valued.

At the cosmic level, scientists have found that the rate of the expansion of the

Universe perfectly balances the force of gravitational attraction, allowing centers of life

(through the function of Centration) to emerge and evolve to ever-increasing complexity.

Galaxies organize themselves so they can maintain their spiral structure, which enables the


birth of new stars. At the planetary level, the complex mechanisms of Gaia theory

demonstrate Homeostasis at work. In the early 1970s James Lovelock proposed Gaia theory in

which he presented evidence showing how the Earth has co-evolved with life to maintain its

temperature for billions of years, despite an increasing rise in the Suns’ heat. Tectonic plate

movement, granite landforms, marine organisms and clouds work together to stabilize

atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide; a process integral to the Earth’s ability to maintain

periodic warming and cooling cycles. Through the Power of Homeostasis, Gaia maintains its

biospheric integrity within certain parameters conducive to the flourishing of life (Harding

55).

Among various species in the Earth’s different ecosystems, a fluctuating and self-

correcting population balance is held within the dynamics of the community interactions

themselves through the action of Homeostasis (“Homeostasis”). If one part of the system is

damaged or eliminated, it can affect the whole, and the entire system could collapse. In the

human body, the maintenance of overall temperature and functional blood pH level is an

example of the complex operations required to hold chemical stability within a certain set of

values. At the molecular level, numbers of protons in the bloodstream increase and decrease

with the action of negative feedback loops. For example, when there are less protons present,

certain cellular relationships in the blood are affected. When this happens, a gradient is

formed which allows the protons to increase in number within a certain range. This increase

influences other processes which then encourage a subsequent decrease in the number of

protons in the blood (“Homeostasis”). These molecular cycles function with an aim towards

preserving the overall integrity and health of the whole organism. Feedback loops are also


operating in Gaia and at all levels of life to maintain an optimal energy balance crucial to

supporting continued creativity, resonance and energetic vitality.

Swimme has named the parameters in which the delicate balance of self-renewal is

valued as “the sacred parameters of life”. Homeostasis is an energy that serves to protect and

maintain the beauty and vitality of life. Through trial and error over millions of years, systems

at all levels gradually evolve to come into resonance with the surrounding community. This is

where the Universe focuses its energy: it values “that which enables life to bloom”. This

alignment and coherence is remembered in the DNA, and its capacity for self-renewal is

carried forward. (The DNA molecule in a living cell has even has its own self-correcting

mechanism) (“Homeostasis”). The sacred parameters of life are remembered and carried

forward within all parts of the Universe.

Now, we are becoming aware that Homeostasis has an opportunity to evolve through

human actions and intentions. We are filling up the atmosphere with dangerous levels of

carbon dioxide and this is compromising the ability of the Earth to maintain its temperature.

We are directly affecting a rapid global climate change. What kinds of choices can we make

to ensure the continued beauty and integrity of the biosphere and all of the Earth’s

communities? The Endangered Species Act is an example of the recognition and honoring of

individual specie’s inherent rights to exist and thrive in a healthy and diverse natural habitat.

In recent decades there is a movement to educate people about the importance of legalizing

the rights of Earth’s resources, including watersheds, fresh water, trees, soil, and other

fundamental life-giving properties of the Earth (Cullinan). To call these gifts “resources”


indicates our consumer-driven perception that the Earth can be used and disposed of as we

wish, and does not recognize the sacredness of the whole. The Universe, and the Earth, has an

inclination and direction of its own, regulated and held in a delicate balance by the dynamics

of Homeostasis. This balance is held within the sacred parameters of life. We can begin to

recognize the direction of Gaia as a whole, integral system involved in the care of its

stupendous achievements. We can choose to partner with the power of Homeostasis at all

levels, to help maintain the energetic alignment required to enable the Earth to create itself

anew in each moment.

5. The fifth Power of the Universe: Cataclysm

The power of Cataclysm is that which destroys what the Universe has built. To give birth to

new forms through the Power of Emergence, old forms fall apart; things come to an end;

forms must break down and be regenerated.

Energy for life is obtained by breaking down complex molecules into simple ones. In

scientific language, Cataclysm is aligned with the process that breaks down molecules called

catabolism, and the law that governs entropy—the second law of thermodynamics. Gardeners

know the value of rich compost—the product of the decomposition of organic matter—to

provide fertile soil for new plant growth. At all scales of the Universe—cosmic, Gaian,

bioregional, human, cellular and subatomic—a constant flow-through of energy is required to

live, and creativity depends on the action of destruction. In the center of the supernova star,

increasingly intense heat is produced as hydrogen, helium, carbon and oxygen are burned in a

10 million-year sequence. At the end of the process, the star implodes and all the star’s atoms


are completely destroyed within a few seconds (Berry and Swimme 48). Seemingly nothing

remains…however, amazingly, from the center of the “nothingness” tiny neutrinos explode

out into space, followed by all the primary elements (hydrogen, helium, carbon, oxygen, etc.)

that become the creative structures forming a solar system.

Every 100 million years or so, the balance of life on Earth is directly affected by mass

extinctions, such as the event 250 million years ago at the end of the Paleozoic era in which

90% of the marine species and over 70% of land animals disappeared (“Cataclysm”).

Currently, we are experiencing another major extinction crisis, this time caused by human

activity, in which 90% of all big ocean fish have been destroyed, and half of all plant and

animal species face extinction within our lifetime (Ulansey 1). The cataclysm that is taking

place is global; all human communities are affected by climate change, millions are suffering

from starvation, lack of fresh water, natural disasters, violence, stress, and economic

impoverishment.

We are aware of the losses and the impending sense of being under pressure—not

unlike the pressure at the center of the collapsing supernova—at a personal level. Brian

Swimme reflects: “…the difficult and destructive aspects that we’re experiencing are aligned

with the way in which the Earth is reconfiguring itself to leave the Cenozoic era”

(“Cataclysm”). Swimme asserts that aspects of our modern industrial lifestyles that are

maladaptive—such as rampant material consumerism—can be allowed to fall away; to break

down, so that new, more sustainable forms of human presence can begin to flourish

(Swimme).


Cataclysm works with Emergence to enable life to continue; it embodies the process of

death and rebirth. With each loss, there is an opportunity for something new to arise. When a

space becomes empty, the potential for something new becomes available. Can we become

conscious, active participants with the power of Cataclysm in our world, perhaps even honor

its dynamic force, working with it instead of against it? A recognition of the profound value of

Cataclysm in our lives can strengthen our capacity to work together to create new forms in the

wake of the old ones, and to encourage the proliferation of mutually enhancing relationships.

6. The sixth Power of the Universe: Synergy

Synergy describes the power in the Universe that encourages cooperative interactions which

strengthen the vitality of the whole system. Synergy enables mutually enhancing relationships

that are essential for ensuring diversity and resilience in all living systems. Fritjof Capra

observes: “The exchanges of energy and resources in a system are sustained by pervasive

cooperation. Life did not take over the planet by combat but by cooperation, partnership, and

networking” (The Hidden Connections 231).

Collaborative relationships can be seen at the cellular, human, community, Gaian, and

cosmic level. Synergy is created when members of a system are functioning cooperatively in

partnerships as in human collaboratives, in the intimacy coevolved between flowering plants

and their pollinators, or in the symbiotic exchanges of multi-celled bacteria. Synergy builds on

the combined actions of the previous Powers of the Universe: the unique contribution of the

individual is celebrated in the Power of Centration, the action of Allurement brings two


entities together (as in plant and animal sexuality); their combined energies can lead to new

emergent forms. The Earth has co-evolved synergistically with life to maintain its capacity for

self-renewal through the dynamic of Homeostasis; and breakdown of old forms make way for

the building of new, healthier interconnected communities.

Swimme reminds us that Synergy is also a quality that emerges from the intimacy of

relationships in human and ecological communities: “[through Synergy] life seeks to meet the

challenge of obtaining energy and producing offspring. …it’s the complexification of the

relationships that enables the acquisition of free energy, and the rate of creativity expands”

(“Synergy’). Life on Earth blossomed exponentially 3.9 billion years ago with the discovery,

by single-celled algae, of photosynthesis. Swimme describes this pivotal event in terms of

“…a deepening relationship between the Earth and the Sun. [Photosynthesis] became so

prevalent that at the present time, if you weigh all the life on this planet, …99% of that will be

photosynthetic organisms. Photosynthesis is synergy that built a way of life that’s everywhere

now” (“Synergy”).

Other significant events of the early Earth created a cellular symbiosis that is

foundational for the evolution of all multi-celled organisms. Evolutionary biologist Lynn

Margulis offers the endosymbiotic hypothesis: bacteria who could not produce their own food

engulfed other bacteria species who were photosynthesizers. The “green” bacteria survived

inside the predator bacteria and eventually became chloroplasts that now exist in all green

plants. The energy-producing mitochondria inside each of our cells also once existed as an

independent entity, and still have their own DNA (Benyus 259). These symbiotic cells created


important synergistic co-evolutionary arrangements that led to large communities of cells

working in unison as organisms—towards the deepening of complexity and consciousness.

In human cultures, a significant partnership formed over 10,000 years ago between

human beings and plant and animal ecologies. Swimme notes that when humans settled in one

place and began experimenting with horticulture and the domestication of animals, a

complexification of relationships occurred, enabling increased acquisition of free energy and

expanding our rate of creativity and productivity (“Synergy”).

Now, we are becoming aware that we are the human form of Synergy as a force in the

Universe. Through our globally networked communication systems we are finding that we can

revision ourselves to become planetary humans, and form alliances to address the unintended

but serious and damaging effects of our modern industrial culture. Taking our cues from bees

and flowers, and the dynamics of living cells, we can enable effective and joyful mutually

enhancing relationships that enliven the health of our human and natural systems. We can

connect with a great diversity of partners, human and non-human, to work together creatively,

seeking whole-community healing through the development of more sustainable and just

lifestyles. To do this, we must heal ourselves and work within the limits of the larger context

of our home, bioregionally and globally.

7. The seventh Power of the Universe: Transmutation

Transmutation describes processes of deep change at work in individual people and organisms

in response to the requirements of the whole community. It is the way in which an individual


element is formed and shaped by their context, whether that is a particular ecosystem (in the

case of animals and plants), or the Earth and the Universe, the ultimate context for humans

and for all beings. Transmutation is the re-formation that is asked of us as we meet the

boundaries of others in relationship with our world. How we respond to the encounter will

determine if we are able to successfully ‘fit in”, or belong.

An example of Transmutation at work is seen at the cellular level. Early single-celled

prokaryotes re-shaped themselves in response to the oxygen they released into the

atmosphere: it was poisoning them and they could not process it. They found a way to engage

with that which was destroying them by joining with another cell to become a eukaryote (the

first multi-celled being). In this way they were able to take in the oxygen to create energy.

This creative response in relation to opposing forces was a pivotal event in a crucial moment

that led to the proliferation of life (“Transmutation”).

Scientifically, the dynamic of Transmutation is known as natural selection. More than

just “survival of the fittest”, natural selection over time leverages characteristics that are

strong in an individual based on how well the organism “fits”, or relates with, its environment.

A classic example is a population of birds that are new to a habitat; after hundreds of

generations, the bird’s beak will have changed to fit perfectly the type of bark found on the

trees, enabling the bird to find food, adapt and thrive in that ecosystem. The bird allows itself

to be transmuted, reshaped in relationship with another being. In predator-prey relationships,

such as that of the fox and the mouse, the beauty of the form of each depends on the quickness

and excellence of the other. Brian Swimme observes that these relationships are a kind of


intimacy. Over long periods of intense engagement with oppositional forces, the fox, the

mouse and the bird are changed, and strengthened, by the constraints imposed by the other.

The creativity and “judgment” that ensures the deepening of intimacy is not just in one being

or one part of the community, it is spread out over the whole of every system as species arise

and evolve together (“Transmutation”).

We as humans are also changed through the constraints of engagement with the other,

although we may not be completely aware of the how the whole is asking us to change. Like

the power of Centration, Transmutation works with boundaries. Rather than focusing on an

individual’s personal story, Transmutation works through the collective unconscious to

encourage the individual’s deeper incarnation into a greatly expanded context. Like the fox

and mouse, we as humans are shaped through the constraints of engagement with oppositional

forces. How we approach and respond to these encounters has meaning not just for our

personal sense of self, but for the entire Earth community.

As with all the other powers, Transmutation has been working and evolving

continually for almost 14 billion years, and is now evolving through us. Our larger “family” is

Gaia and the entire living Universe. To enter into the next phase of its development, Gaia is

asking us to change. The bird in its ecosystem depends on the limitations imposed by its local

habitat. Our modern industrial systems have cleverly superceded our own habitat’s

constraints. Individually and collectively, we must take responsibility for creating limitations

to our own behavior, and seek to reshape ourselves—our technologies, our communication


networks, our laws, education, economic institutions, etc.— with the healing and flourishing

of the whole in mind.

We are collectively creating and being created by what writer Gregory Bateson

described as the ecosystemic mind: the entirety of Earth’s biological community

(“Transmutation”). Enfolded in this larger mind is what Jung called the collective

unconscious: the basic archetypal images that form our common memory. Jung put forth the

idea that the collective unconscious contains the whole spiritual heritage of mankind’s

evolution (Jung 45). Planetary healing will depend upon humanity approaching the Earth’s

collective unconscious. We could experience a feeling of “not fitting in”—spiritually and

physically—until we surrender parts of our species’ behavior that are maladaptive to the long-

term integrity of the whole. Swimme asserts that the modern industrial worldview, along with

unexamined assumptions such as the (generally unconscious) idea that we are separate, are

parts of ourselves that need to be reshaped as we enter into an intensifying intimacy with the

Gaiasphere.

Thomas Berry observed, “This psychic world of no attachment, no intimacy, is also

the world of no fulfillment. There is effectively no feeling of intimacy with our place. While

we expect our place to give itself to us, we have no sense of giving ourselves to our place”

(The Great Work 94). To offer the best of who we are to the Earth, we must be willing to

change. To contribute to the revitalization of the whole, we can give of ourselves, and become

available to the intimacy that is being offered. We have an opportunity to engage creatively

with the forces that oppose us, acting as the human power of Transmutation, working through


Gaia’s vision—reshaping ourselves to reveal our strength and light in an alchemical process

of relational learning. In this process, a new kind of empowerment arises: as individuals we

can become sources of generativity and healing, and begin to positively shape and transform

the whole.

8. The eighth Power of the Universe: Transformation

Transformation is the power of an individual to transform the whole. It is related to

Transmutation, however instead of individual adaptation in response to the pressures of

community, the entire system changes in response to the actions of one person. This dynamic

energy in the Universe is evolving rapidly, in new ways, entering a qualitatively new realm of

complexity with expanded potential for co-evolution in partnership with human choices and

actions. Transformation is more than building reciprocal relationships, more than healing and

self-renewal: it contains the capacity to enable permanent multi-dimensional, deep-systemic

change at the planetary, cultural and genetic level.

Since the birth of the cosmos, structures in the Universe have been building upon

themselves, increasingly enabling their ability to transform. The early stabilization of protons

and neutrons led to the formation of atoms, the organization of atoms led to stars, galaxies

formed, then solar systems and planets; and 9 billion years after the Big Bang, life

miraculously emerged. In each stage of Transformation, the previous structures were

“remembered” and carried forward. Swimme notes that transformation in plant and animal

populations is reflected in genetic mutations— the new coding is remembered in the species’

DNA and a kind of “learning” occurs that leads to a new form of community vitality, enabling

the species to thrive (“Transformation”). As the Earth complexifies, and sexual reproduction


carries more of the past forward into the present, the potential for Transformation deepens.

With human consciousness, and symbolic language, the territory of Transformation expands

exponentially.

In the human, Swimme observes that “Language is our cultural DNA; it brings into

our moment experiences from the past and visions of the future that are not physically there

but symbolically present. [This is] an enormous increase; [and creates] a higher level of

complexity and possibilities for sexual reproduction” (“Transformation”). In human

communities, we enter into a form of cultural sexual reproduction when we begin to

collectively pay attention to, talk about, and participate in a new idea introduced by an

individual. Eventually, if the idea coheres with society’s needs and desires, the benefits of the

idea will be recognized and the leadership will begin to change its criteria for the whole

system. This is how new values are adopted, and when the entire cultural DNA shifts, the

physical DNA will eventually change to reflect the new set of values. Mahatma Gandhi put

forth his initiative of non-violence in 20th

century India, and changed his country’s values

politically and spiritually. From the seed of his actions, and from many other visionary world

leaders, a global transformation towards empathy, compassion, peace and tolerance continues

to take root, its influences sprouting in many dimensions of society.

The success of Transformation at each stage is marked by the level of coherence in all

parts of the system with other Powers. In Gandhi’s India, practical, applied action was a

successful vehicle for putting forth the vision of non-violence. At every level of society, the

new idea “caught on” and was practiced and deepened. The idea became popular through the


draw of Allurement, it involved a wisdom as to the ripeness of timing—a domain of

Emergence was present—and the non-violent actions created important synergistic

relationships. Transformation works through engaging each of the ten powers of the Universe;

all are actively involved in layers of community alignment, creating interconnected and

mutually enhancing relationships.

The power of an individual’s creative voice, seeded through global social media via

the transmission of story and image, offers infinite possibilities for new visions and ideas to

influence our cultural DNA. This is a completely new capacity in terms of the action of

Transformation as a universal Power. Ultimately, with the scope of planetary influence human

beings possess, a change in human cultural coding will lead to a change in the planet’s coding

(“Transformation”). It is up to us to discern, plant and cultivate the seeds that will help ensure

the beauty and continuity of life.

Swimme interprets the implications of the power of Transformation in terms of four

dimensions: the three dimensions of space, and the fourth dimension of time. “The Universe is

attempting to become involved in a four-dimensional way at every place in the Universe, so

that it might more effectively activate communion, community, and intimacy”

(“Transformation”). In the human imagination, the past, present and future is present here in

this moment. We are the new form of the Power of Transformation, and our dreams of an

environmentally balanced, peaceful and sustainable world are realizable through the way we

put forth our ideas. With proper care, attention and love, we can move forward in a way that is

coherent with our planetary community and offers the possibility of system-wide change,


leading to mutual reciprocity and collective commitment. The way we hold and nurture this

process is expressed in the next power of the Universe: Interrelationship or Care.

9. The ninth Power of the Universe: Interrelationship

Interrelationship, the action of nurturing relationship that leads to a deepening of bondedness

and life, has been in operation throughout space and time since the Universe began. With

Allurement as its foundation, the power of Interrelationship evokes a new quality: there is a

direction, instinct or decision to protect and nurture a process or another being that leads to

greater intimacy and communion. Another word for the ninth power of the Universe could be

“Care”. New forms of Care or nurturance have emerged over time, and are evolving rapidly

and significantly through human actions.

Interrelationship can be witnessed as an evolving cosmic process at all levels of

consciousness. Brian Swimme asks the question, “Given the elegance of Mozart’s

symphonies, what is the nature and dynamics of the Universe that could have led to such

structures? Given the care with which a mother lark will nurture and protect her young, what

is the Universe made of?” (Berry and Swimme 23). The rate at which the early Universe

expanded was delicately fine-tuned to manifest structures such as protons, atoms, and stars,

leading to the birth of galaxies over 11 billion years ago, and to the birth of life 4 billion years

ago. If the rate of spatiation had been a trillionth of a second faster, the elements of the

Universe would have been too widely spaced for significant systems to form. If it had been a


trillionth of a second slower, the Universe would have collapsed (Berry and Swimme18).

When scientists perceived the implications of this discovery, they proposed the anthropic

principle, which recognizes the order and laws of the Universe (such as the gravitational

interactions) as developing with a direction towards increased differentiation and complexity.

Reflecting on the anthropic principle, biologist and theologist Mary Coelho states in her book

Awakening Universe, Emerging Personhood “…the emergence of some form of intelligent

reflection of the Universe on itself was implicit in the Universe from the beginning” (44).

To see the rate of expansion as the Universe acting with a primal form of care for life

is a perception that arises within us as the Power of Interrelationship expresses itself through

our hearts and minds. Modern industrial worldviews would have us believe otherwise: that the

Universe and its processes are meaningless, mechanistic, and exist for the purposes of

providing resources and manufacturing products. Does the Universe “care” about nurturing

and protecting life? When we offer compassion to other beings we act upon our wisdom that

intuits that caring, blessing, and loving is more than simply giving meaning to what the

Universe does: caring and protecting what we love has value, because it leads to the

flourishing, beauty and integrity of healthy people and vital, self-creating systems.

Examples of the principle of Interrelationship in the animal world echo the instinct

towards protection and care. For hundreds of millions of years, female cichlids and other fish

have been protecting their young by attacking intruders intent on eating the hatchlings.

Observing reptiles, we see that mothers will stand by and care for their eggs and their young,

protecting them from males. As birds raise their chicks, both parents will work to find food


and protect them from predators until the young can fly and become independent

(“Interrelationship”)

In mammals, the power of Care increases; mammals stay with their young, raising

them and nurturing them until sexual maturity, or sometimes throughout their life. Female

mammals determine the desirability of prospective mates: males are chosen based on their

ability to protect and nurture the family and pass on genes that ensure survival and vitality. In

this way, life is choosing, through natural selection, to pass on stronger forms of Care with

each successive generation. Research by primatologist Barb Smuts, Ph.D. shows that female

baboons will choose mates who display an increased capacity for tenderness. This means that

“tenderness” is folded into the baboon DNA and increases with each generation

(“Interrelationship”).

Ultimately it is we as humans who choose the direction in which all the Powers of the

Universe develop. We have the ability to co-create new forms of Care as a profoundly

powerful universal principle; one that perpetuates stronger connectivity, nurturing deeper

inner and outer forms of care, blessing and love. As Interrelationship evolves through us, and

we feel our connection with and influence upon every part of the Earth community, we can

turn our attention to developing increased for empathy for all beings, even those that are not

part of our family, community, or species. The Endangered Species Act and the Earth Charter

are two powerful examples of this initiative in the world. The capacity to care is being coded

into our cultural and genetic DNA. Brian Swimme reflects, “It’s possible that “Care” is

seeking to expand out into a comprehensive role on this planet, and that the space in which


this will take place is with the human” (“Interrelationship”). In this way the Universe

transforms, and new standards and worldviews emerge. Life enters a new phase of its

development through the expansiveness of its heart.

Care as a universal principle is evoked by the love a mother has for her child, and by

the reverence and care we have for the Earth and all its varied expressions of life. Care as a

Power comes alive in its sacredness in the human imagination and in each act of blessing and

compassion. Theologian Matthew Fox asks in Natural Grace , “What is our Divinization? Its

our creativity and our capacity for using this creativity for compassion” (31). The sacred

qualities of Interrelationship emerge when we accept humility as part of our caring and

acknowledge the I-Thou nature in every relationship. The recognition of the numinous nature

of every thing in the Universe is at the foundation of the final Power of the Universe:

Radiance.

10. The tenth Power of the Universe: Radiance

The way we participate in feeling the Universe —and the way the Universe communicates its

beauty to us—embodies the ever-present force called Radiance. In the depths of the

interrelationship of all things is the openness to respond to the other and deepen the feeling of

intimacy, resonance, and communion. The light generated by any being, whether it’s the Sun,

a stone, or another person, is its Radiance; its magnificence (“Radiance”). An attentive

reception is required by another to contain Radiance. This energy—in the form of a felt

sense— is received by another at both a surface and a depth level of perception.


The Earth receives the light of the Sun and Moon both at its surface and at its core. In

both instances, there is a relational exchange that takes place to evoke qualities of Radiance.

Quantum physics reveal that light from the Sun and Moon comes to us as a wave and only in

the interaction with the Earth’s surface electrons does it become a photon. At a deeper level,

the Earth is bonded with the Sun and Moon through a different form of Radiance: the Sun

releases minute, weightless gravitational particles (gravitons) that reach into the Earth, pulling

it toward the Sun through gravitational attraction. The Moon also is showering the Earth with

gravitons that cause the movement of the tides and the seasons. The “pull” is the action of

Allurement as a power of the Universe, and the gravitons are the subtle means of

communication—the Radiance—taking place at the core of the relationship (“Radiance”).

To experience the wonder and awe of Radiance, and to consciously generate our own

light, we must develop the capacity to experience the world as subjects. Thomas Berry often

wrote that the Universe is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects (Evening

Thoughts 17). The difference is important for understanding what he and others, such as Brian

Swimme, teachers David Spangler, Thich Nhat Hanh, Satish Kumar and philosopher Alfred

North Whitehead have described as the sacredness inherent in the I-Thou relationship: an

experience where each being is a subject to be honored in its depths and received by another.

If we are regarding any being, (whether perceived as “inanimate” or “alive”), as an object,

without acknowledging or perceiving its consciousness and subjectivity, then we are not

seeing its Radiance. An aspect of our wholeness is lost, along with the opportunity for the

Universe as that being to come alive in us. At the heart of the Power of Radiance is our

acceptance of the authentic beauty we receive by opening to the depth of another’s light: we


recognize that “You are, therefore I am” (Kumar 10).

Alfred North Whitehead wrote, “Subjects radiate out and become components of other

experiencing subjects”. Swimme commented that Whitehead’s basic metaphysical ontology

was that reality consists of pulsating events—“throbbing” energy. “This energy has a ‘within’.

It is an energy of experience” (Swimme, Santa Sabina). Swimme observes “Everything gives

off its own light, at all times” (Swimme, Schumacher College). When I am moved by the

numinosity of a person or a work of art that I love, I become the power of Radiance

reverberating within me. This primal, wordless communication changes me at a cellular level,

and can influence the course of my life. An early formative event in Thomas Berry’s life was

the beholding of a wildflower meadow radiant with the generativity of its own light, and this

experience moved him profoundly. In The Universe Story Berry & Swimme write:

Poetry and the depths of soul emerge from the human world because the inner form of the

mountains and the numinous quality of the sky have activated these depths in the human.

Such profound feelings, such emotions that are even tinged with personal significance and

with hints of destiny, are the mutual evocation of mountain, animal, world. Depth

communication of primordial existence is the reality of the foundation of all being (Berry and

Swimme 41).

Radiance is a Power that is at the basis of how everything communicates deeply:

electrons and protons at the subatomic level, the Sun and the Earth, a mother and her child,

our excitement watching a summer electrical storm: all are involved in interpenetrating each

other through the depths of their being. In The Dream of the Earth Thomas Berry writes,

“What we need, what we are ultimately groping toward, is the sensitivity required to


understand and respond to the psychic energies deep in the very structure of reality itself”

(48). This sensitivity allows us to practice an “I-Thou” orientation to life and develop more

subtle qualities of ecological depth perception, in which we know ourselves as the human

form of Radiance.

I agree with scientists and spiritual teachers who believe at this juncture in the story of

life we are becoming planetary in our identity as a species. I believe that as we witness, honor

and evoke the magnificent Powers of Centration, Allurement, Emergence, Homeostasis,

Cataclysm, Synergy, Transmutation, Transformation, Care, and Radiance, the Universe

reveals—through us— more dimensions of its complexity and potential for creativity and

intimacy.

Dr. Brian Swimme has researched and lectured about the Powers of the Universe using

scientific findings, such as the fusion of the supernova to illustrate Cataclysm, and

photosynthesis to illustrate Synergy. He has also linked the Powers to specific expressions and

tendencies in human consciousness. For example, a person who thrives on creative tension

would be someone who strongly expresses the power of Emergence in human form. Dr.

Swimme and other scientists such as evolutionary biologist Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D.,

physicist Ervin Laszlo, Ph.D., ecologist Dr. Stephan Harding, Ph.D. and evolutionary writers

Thomas Berry, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Joanna Macy and Duane Elgin have demonstrated a

growing bridge between ecological, scientific knowing and human consciousness. They

advocate the urgency of strengthening human spiritual capacities such as empathy, blessing,

the ability to be self-renewing and a generative source in a new spiritual activism that can


creatively address the need for local and global transformation.

In their work, some of these scientists and writers present accessible holistic practices

to illustrate how we might embody our role as a means in which the dynamics of the Universe

are evolving. Dr. Harding, in his 2007 book Animate Earth, is the first scientist to take the

scientific findings of James Lovelock on Gaia Theory and translate them to simple guided

visualizations, such as the “journey of a carbon molecule” meditation. Practices like these use

all the parts of one’s psyche: thinking, feeling, intuiting and sensing (121). These guided

meditations have been immensely helpful to me in embodying and grounding the teachings of

Gaia theory; the processes influencing climate change become a living experience.

According to Swimme, the Powers of the Universe are organizing principles

underlying the structure of all self-organizing systems. They are real, and as Dr. Swimme has

demonstrated in his films, multimedia and live lectures, these Powers are expressed at all

levels of being: in the cosmos, in nature, in our cells, and every day in our individual

personalities and actions. He and other holistic scientists suggest that these universal

dynamics are evolving in our collective consciousness through our individual choices and the

quality of our relationships. In his book The Living Universe Duane Elgin writes,

If the Universe is busy nurturing the development of self-organizing systems at every scale,

then how does our journey of awakening align with nature’s evolutionary intentions?...If we

cooperate with the cosmos, we are serving our deepest potentials and our journey will be one

of satisfaction and learning. Although we might not have been aware of it, the human

community is on a path of development that is aligned with the self-organizing direction of the

Universe (123-124).


I have discovered that a creative relationship with the Powers of the Universe can arise

from cultivating a conscious awareness of my sacred sense of self. As a sacred sense of self

takes shape within me, so does a trust and inner feeling that I belong to the circle of all life.

When I feel separate from the circle of belonging, I do not have the will to align my intentions

with those of the cosmos. As Elgin mentioned, alignment between the intentions of self and

the self-organizing direction of the Universe is a choice we can make. Swimme and others

including Thomas Berry and Pierre Teillard de Chardin affirm that this emergent “I-Thou”

relationship is occurring as part of the aim of the unfolding story of the Universe.

Incarnational Spirituality, described in the following section, is a spiritual path that has helped

me become aware of the relationship between my sacred sense of self and the Powers, and

begin to align my choices with them.

Section II: Incarnational Spirituality

“We have an innate spiritual resource to tap that is completely natural and indigenous to us

as citizens of the Earth. And when we tap it, we can become the blessing from which a better

history, a better future, can emerge” (Spangler, David’s Desk 2)

INCARNATIONAL SPIRITUALITY IS A LIVING, EVOLVING FIELD OF IDEAS and practices developed

in the last 40 years by teacher David Spangler and the Lorian community of practice. It is a

new form of emergent spirituality that is not related to any existing faith tradition but honors

the roots of all spiritual traditions. “Emergent” indicates that it grows and changes as new

dimensions are uncovered in research and practice; and it recognizes the need to evolve in


response to the evolution of human understanding. It provides a sacred container for a

generative, heartful and creative relationship between self and other—and between human

community and the Earth—that can center us in the here and now and deepen our capacity to

respond to real and complex challenges of our time. In this section I will offer an outline of

Incarnational Spirituality and describe five primary Incarnational principles, which I have

found can work in tandem with the Powers of the Universe to align my intentions and actions

toward a new ecological consciousness.

I have found that the core principles and practices of Incarnational Spirituality invite

me to engage in an empowering way with my own incarnational path and create a space of

equanimity and care in my relations with others. The practices have enabled me to find safety,

balance, self-love, a maturing sense of wholeness, and a reconnection with my passion for

service to the life of humanity and the Earth. As I engage Incarnational practices, participating

authentically in the learning process of Incarnational Spirituality leads me to explore my

intention and commitment to being alive on this planet at this time in human evolution. I find

there is a power in the emphasis of Incarnational Spirituality on the beauty inherent in the

specificity of the self—an honoring of my unique incarnation—which evokes my particular

gifts in this world to be seen and developed. In this process I have placed my attentions on

evolving a dimension of planetary or Gaian consciousness within my self—and have realized

those seeds have been with me my entire life.

Incarnational Spirituality is defined by a comprehensive cosmology and theory. David

Spangler has evolved a system or mandala of Incarnational cosmology which shows the


relationship of an individual soul to the larger sacred generative mystery or “ground of being”

from which it emerged. Incarnational cosmology celebrates the journey toward wholeness as

our souls manifest physically, expressing our integrated divinity and uniqueness in the world

through our personal engagement with life on Earth.

Spangler describes incarnation as “the art and process of creating wholeness”. He calls

that process holopoiesis (wholeness-producing):

Incarnation is… an intentional act of connection and engagement with a particular

environment in order to create or sustain wholeness. Wholeness in turn is defined as the set of

healthy, coherent and collaborative relationships both within and between living systems that

allow for optimal expression, the fulfillment of potentials, evolution and the emergence of new

possibilities. Thus, the human soul incarnates into the physical world so that through a body it

may connect to this world in ways that promote and further wholeness and evolution (Lorian

Association website 1).

A spiritual practice that enables holopoiesis can evoke a deeper dimension of

biospiritual consciousness that is keenly aware of our core relationship to all life. A basic

premise of ecopsychology, deep ecology and holistic science asserts that the fullness of

human development is possible only to the extent that all life communities are honored and

supported in their wholeness. This quality of inclusiveness and reverence emerges in a context

of interconnectedness in which all parts of an individual organism, of a culture, a bioregion, of

Gaia, or of the Universe are engaged in a kind of communion held in a creative web of

generative, reciprocal relationships.


The Incarnational cosmology emerges from several core ideas:

1. The Generative Mystery is the sacred, primal creative ground of the

cosmos from which the act of incarnation emerges

2. Individual acts of incarnation are a holon—or fractal, self-similar

expression—of this primal sacred act

3. The act of incarnation generates creative energy

4. The essence of Self is a generative source: our sacred individuality or

sovereignty

5. We can inhabit all levels of our Self with love and care as a way of opening

into our true nature and Presence in coherent relationship with the world

6. Incarnation is an act of resonance between the individual and the universal

(Spangler, Incarnational Spirituality 3).

Incarnational Theory, as researched and presented by David Spangler, encompasses a

new holistic spiritual cosmology that explores our relationship with multidimensional life.

This cosmology includes humanity, plants and animals, and unseen beings. Incarnational

practice can cultivate intentional alliances with what Spangler terms a “Second Ecology”: the

multi-layered domain of diverse non-physical or inner beings that is part of the wholeness of a

larger, unitary consciousness intimately linked with the physical domain

(http://lorian.org/anewspirit.html#gpm1_4). Non-physical beings are described by Spangler in

his book Subtle Worlds as interrelated, non-material environments comprised of subtle energy,


life and consciousness (6). Non-physical beings have an expanded energetic perception of the

complex dynamics of the web of life and, in my experience, have supported me to engage

more fully, lovingly and intelligently with cosmic and Earth powers.

In this section, I will introduce five foundational Incarnational principles—

sovereignty, engagement, generativity, emergence, and blessing— in the context of

Incarnational Spirituality. These five principles offer a specific shape and focus to the practice

of the core ideas of Incarnational cosmology.

1. The first Incarnational principle: Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the expression of our sacred individuality. Sovereignty is a way of describing

how we inhabit the total space of our true nature, of our deepest inner freedom, will-to-be, and

selfhood, inclusive of our personality. It is the primary Incarnational principle that informs our

sense of inner authority. When we are standing in the light—in the center—of our true Selves,

this sovereign container, with its boundaries intact, holds spaciousness and forms the basis

and ground out of which whole relationships can emerge.

Wikipedia, an online dictionary, partially defines sovereignty as “territorial

integrity”…“Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a

territory” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereignty/). In the context of Incarnational

spirituality, we can see how the idea of territorial integrity is taken to a deeper, personal level.

Our personal “territory” is inclusive of our body, mind, soul, identity, personality and Self.

This territory is contained by a boundary. Physically, this boundary is our skin, and


energetically, there is a malleable boundary we define that differentiates us from the rest of

the cosmos. Energetically and spiritually, our sovereignty is who we are as a particular

presence. Sovereignty is a quality of how we inhabit our wholeness: the space that is our

specific, unique incarnation.

Sovereignty implies a connection with, and responsibility to, the whole of the Earth

and Universe. David Spangler comments in Incarnational Spirituality: “Sovereignty describes

a relationship between the sacred and us. [Sovereignty] confers power but it’s a power that’s a

gift from a larger wholeness and ultimately needs to be used in service or contribution to that

larger wholeness” (48). When we inhabit our boundaried, incarnational space in a way that

holds both the honoring of our personality and reflects the love and generative light of the

Universe, we are resonating as sacred beings. In this sacred context, the quality of sovereignty

is at the heart of who we are and who we are becoming.

2. The second Incarnational principle: Engagement

Incarnation, by its very nature, is the act of engaging with life. Engagement as an

Incarnational principle refers to a quality of connection and relational presence with others.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, to engage is to participate or become involved with

something or someone

(http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_us1244150#m_en_us1244150). I experience

engagement as my capacity to choose to participate, to involve myself in relationship with the

world: choosing to shift from a limited focus on "me” to the spaciousness and inclusiveness of

“we”. When I am able to make that shift I experience a stronger, more confident sense of my


self-light and my potential. When I open in this way through engagement with the world, I

begin to see how I am a unique part of a larger diversity of being.

The Incarnational principle of engagement is at the core of cultivating a connection

that strengthens the uniqueness and wholeness of all participants. In mindfully engaging with

another or with my environment, I do not simply release myself into the other, but relate from

a place of valuing and honoring myself and our differences. A practice of engagement in

Incarnational Spirituality asks us to hold our difference, our sovereignty, while inviting

openness and intimacy with another; to practice “the art of being different and one at the same

time” (Spangler, Crafting Relationship 78).

Engagement in nature celebrates the relationship of the part and the whole—diversity

and unity. Engagement is what life does. In his book Hidden Connections, systems scientist

Fritjof Capra describes how networks act as a primary ecological principle:

At all scales of nature, we find living systems nested within other living systems. Their

boundaries are not boundaries of separation but boundaries of identity. All living systems

communicate with one another and share resources across their boundaries (231).

I engage with the world at my boundaries; at the edges of my sovereignty.

“Boundaries” as presented in this context indicates the energetic and subtle sense of the limits

and edges of my self, not only my physical skin but my emotional and energy bodies and the

personal space that meaningfully contains my self in its expression of sacred identity or

“territorial integrity”. I engage with the world at the edges of my sovereignty, which embraces

my unique sacredness. At this edge, new possibility and the potential for new growth arise. In


nature, one can see the increase in diversity, interdependency and richness at the edge of a

meadow where it meets the forest. Where the forest becomes involved with the meadow,

butterflies dance in the play of sunlight and shadow, and fruit-bearing trees thrive in the open

space and rich soil, providing homes for birds and mammals. Edges are places of increased

engagement as beings interact; as differences are explored and celebrated.

As an emergent, holistic spirituality, Incarnational Spirituality invites collaboration

and engagement with the multiplicity of all life, seen and unseen. To engage with another

being as an intentional act of incarnation is to honor the other; to affirm their inherent right to

exist. As I have entered into levels of engagement as a spiritual practice I have created a

container of respect and love, actively allowing the other to be present in its sacredness. In

this way I can invite authentic, loving engagements and collaborations that serve to enhance

the depth and vitality of myself and the great diversity of beings that share this world.

3. The third Incarnational principle: Generativity

A core understanding in the field of Incarnational Spirituality is that our sacred

individuality—our sovereignty—is in fact a generative source. Generativity refers to our

capacity to know our selves as an original source of our own light, and to actively offer our

radiant presence in engagement with the world.

Physically and spiritually we are self-creating. Evolutionary biologists including Dr.

Elisabet Sahtouris have shown that life on Earth and in the cosmos is self-generating, or

autopoietic (After Darwin, Pt. I). As I practice the Incarnational exercises, I have found that I


generate a unique and original light energy from the center of my self. In our engagement with

the world we each radiate energy and elements that inspire others, in much the same way as

the internal heat and pressure at the center of the supernova star radiates light as it transforms

hydrogen and helium into carbon, an essential gift for the creation of a solar system and the

Earth.

Like the supernova, the capacity to transmute heavy states into lighter energies is

central to our human ability to be a source of generativity and generosity. When I maintain a

healthy “energy hygiene”—a maintenance of my self-boundaries and an open flow of

engagement and receptivity—I have the capacity to turn one kind of energy into another. I

become a caring “recycling agent”, holding whatever “stuck” energy I might be experiencing,

and reconnecting it to the sacred.(Spangler, Energy Hygiene). Ultimately, as a generative

source I can enable the flow of love between myself and the world. Although my radiating

presence demands nothing of those around me, my generativity can produce an increased

availability, centered in wholeness, which can help create a safe and joyful space for inspired

engagement.

To be generative is a form of generosity. In Merriam Webster’s online dictionary, one

of the definitions given for the word generous is “characterized by a noble or forbearing

spirit” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/generous). In many traditional

indigenous cultures, respected and beloved leaders are those who keep the vitality of the entire

life community in mind at all times. Their incarnational presence cultivates a deep well of

heartful generativity in themselves and in their community. I have experienced this quality


many times in the presence of indigenous elders from different cultures. These leaders and

healers experience their sacred belongingness to the larger creation, and are able to hold,

inspire and empower an entire lineage.

Human beings are made up of simultaneously contained substance/matter and

expansive spaciousness. Standing in the noble spirit of my individual sovereignty, I am an

original source of generosity born of connection and expansiveness. In each moment, I can

choose to engage with the world as a source of radiant light, as a generative source.

4. The fourth Incarnational principle: Emergence

Emergence as an Incarnational principle refers to the appearance of a new insight, possibility,

quality of relationship, or presence of being. This new quality can be a product of co-creation,

arising from an act of engagement in which the participants are standing firmly in the center

of their own sovereignty. As with Emergence as a Power of the Universe, incarnational

emergence is inherently creative; what unfolds is new, and it is qualitatively different in that it

is more than the sum of its parts.

Each loving act of engagement contains seeds for the potential to create; to make

space for a different kind of form or process that did not exist previously. Emergence can help

re-pattern our habits and transcend old worldviews or ways of thinking, and infuse each

moment with newness and revitalization (Spangler, Foundational Incarnational Exercises

24). When these new pathways emerge, they can allow a more full expression of the sacred to

occupy self and other and evoke a conscious, generative relationship.


I have found that trusting my incarnational process enough to enable emergence

involves both holding and letting go. The Oxford dictionary describes the Latin root of

emergence as emergere: 'bring to light'

(http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_us1243816#m_en_us1243816). To bring

something new to light—to be seen and received—I hold the fullness of myself and my

authenticity as sacred; while letting go to the mystery and creativity of intimate engagement

with another. In this way my incarnational journey opens me to an improvisational dance, a

co-creative experience in which something new can come to light moment-by-moment.

Emergence can be a product of a fruitful partnership. Partnership is a choice and is

grounded in presence and availability to the other. When two or more beings are attentively

listening and engaging with one another, and appreciating their difference and oneness

simultaneously, their partnership holds the possibility of creativity or emergence. This new

emergent field will have an integrity and self-sustaining quality of its own, and will in turn

enhance the entire ecology or wholeness of each individual. It can be felt as a newness of

Presence within each partner, generated through love (Spangler, Incarnational Spirituality

Intensive).

Emergence as a process is an entry into unknown territory. The new entity, space or

energy that emerges may be unfamiliar, different and more complex than the elements of the

relationship that created it. This is true for emergence in living systems, and is the vehicle

which powers evolution and deepens human consciousness. Duane Elgin writes in The Living


Universe: “We cannot predict what creative configurations will emerge as self-organizing

systems grow to higher levels of connection and synergy. There is an extraordinary jump in

aliveness at each level that could not have been anticipated by the properties of the previous

level” (123).

Creating space for the unexpected in relationship brings its own gifts of aliveness. To

incarnate is to engage with the world. To participate with other members of the life

community in a spirit of intention, respect and love is to open the door to emergence in the

form of mutually beneficial relationships, and new ways of viewing our relatedness to the

world. In the depth and integrity of balanced intimacy, from the cellular to the cosmic level, a

sacred Presence can emerge. In partnership, this field of Presence can be gently and strongly

held, creating a new quality of love and possibility that can be a source of blessing to the

incarnation of all participants.

5. The fifth Incarnational principle: Blessing

A capacity and willingness to offer a blessing is a primary practice of Incarnational

Spirituality. Blessing refers to an intentional, focused holding and offering of goodwill and

love within our hearts for the benefit of another being. In the context of Incarnational

Spirituality, a blessing is not given with an agenda to change the other being, nor is a blessing

a prayer. To give a blessing is an intentional, centered act of incarnational presence, it occurs

within an interconnected, shared field and comes from the truth and authenticity of our heart.


The basis of blessing is “Holding”, an important capacity of the skill set of

Incarnational Spirituality. David Spangler describes Holding as our fundamental power to

create a space or portal for spirit to enter; to activate the conditions for giving and receiving

blessing. When we intentionally hold energy from a place of inner stillness, or hold someone

in our hearts, we are giving a shape and boundary to a space of receptivity and sacredness.

When we give shape to this loving field, we are inviting sacredness to be co-creators with us

in our sphere of blessing (Spangler, Deepening into Self).

The offering of a blessing connects us with others, and is a beautiful way in which we

can offer our selves as a generative light. Blessing enhances wholeness: the connectedness

between all parts of life. Blessing is a powerful and simple form of energy activism. Energy

activism is the application of the practices of Incarnational Spirituality in service to humanity

and the Earth; helping to co-create holopoiesis coherent with the needs of the local and global

community. A blessing is practical; it can be simple and immediate, and can be offered

anytime and anywhere with positive results. It is an act of grace. Receiving the depth of a

blessing from another, with love, is also an act of grace and can enhance the recipient’s

belonging and connection to their core sacredness and sovereignty.

The impulse to offer a blessing flows from our heart: from our desire to care, to heal,

to offer compassion and encouragement to others. I can give a blessing to another, and they

can give a blessing back to me. It is not required that we have training as an ordained priest or

a spiritual guide. In his book Blessing, David Spangler writes: “…a blessing is not the

function of a particular role. It is the natural expression of the fiery love and inclusiveness of


our inner spirit. It is the manifestation of a soulfire, and each of us can be its hearth” (5). The

capacity to bless is within in all of us.

The offering of a blessing can connect us with humanity, the soul of the Earth, and the

living Universe. Blessing and holding are powerful and effective forms of energy activism. A

blessing, however simple or complex, is an incarnational act of graciousness in which we can

offer our sacred selves as radiance. A blessing is the active expression of love in engagement

with the immediacy of life.

Poet John O’Donohue offers these words from a poem called A Blessing for Beauty:

May the beauty of your life become more visible to you that you may glimpse your

wild divinity.

May the wonders of the Earth call you forth from all your small secret prisons and set

your feet free in the pastures of possibility.

May you find enough stillness and silence to savor the kiss of God on your soul and

delight in the eternity that shaped you, that holds you and calls you, that you may

know that despite confusion, anxiety, and emptiness your name is written in heaven

(1-2, 12).

Incarnational Spirituality provides a subtle vehicle—a sacred context—for holding of

a space for our unique selves, and offering that spaciousness to the world through our

generative spirit. Incarnational Spirituality is a set of principles and practices that hold the

both the cosmology of Incarnation and the essential living processes of wholeness-making on

the individual and collective levels, throughout the Universe.


Incarnational Practices, such as guided meditations and simple relational exercises,

have deepened my embodied knowledge of the Incarnational principles of sovereignty,

engagement, generativity, emergence, and blessing. This delightful discovery of how these

principles live within me forms a bridge between my everyday self and my sense of inclusive,

spacious divinity: my higher Self. Cultivating the capacities of Incarnational Spirituality

creates sacred space in everyday reality so that my actions may become more purposeful,

heartful and coherent with the particular needs of our world today.

To fully occupy, or “inhabit” deeper levels of Self, I practice Incarnational exercises

that cultivate familiarity and connection with the embodiment, or felt sense of my sacred

individuality and layers of engagement with the world. In Section III of this paper I will refer

to my felt sense in the experience of a practice. A felt sense is a way to describe one’s

embodied knowing; a felt sense encompasses qualities of inner energies which arise as a

presence, a sense of self-sacredness, that informs my wholeness. In the practices of

Incarnational Spirituality, that awareness of a shift in one’s inner vibrational quality carries a

flavor, tone or resonance that can be felt energetically and sometimes emotionally, mentally

and physically. It might be sensed as a feeling of inner spaciousness and sacred presence; as a

unified consciousness, joy, peace, love, connection and profound belongingness. By

“checking in” with the felt sense in my body/mind at any moment, I receive information that

affirms I am opening to the presence of sacredness. I recognize this deeper connection as a

particular felt sense, one that changes and grows as I engage in inner and outer relationships

and offer my gifts to life.


My sense of sacred individuality has also been empowered by engaging with inner,

unseen beings. Through active partnerships with beings of the Second Ecology—involving

communication, relationship and collaboration as equals—I have begun to experience the

beginning of a personal, particularized Gaian consciousness. This felt sense embodies layers

of community from the cells in my body, to my sense of identity as someone who is a relative

of plants, animals, soil, sky and water, to my interactions with people and nature, and out to

larger realms of bioregional and planetary awareness.

In Section III, I will describe how Incarnational practices correlate with and provide

experiential portals for particular Powers of the Universe, and enable the emergence of an

individual holistic ecological consciousness in accord with the holopoiesis of a living,

evolving planet and cosmos. I will occasionally refer to aspects of the Incarnational practices

that have served to ignite an emergent relationship with inner alliances and which deepen my

perception of my role in promoting ecological well-being. The mandala below offers an initial

container, or shape, illustrating the unfolding of the five Incarnational principles in context

with the Earth and the Powers of the Universe.


Section III: Incarnational Practice & the Powers of the Universe

“What’s the good of having a nice house without a decent planet to put it on?”

—Henry David Thoreau

IN THIS THESIS I PROPOSE THAT INCARNATIONAL SPIRITUALITY is a spiritual practice that can

help us to embody a new eco-spiritual consciousness that connects with the Powers of the

Universe, and applies them in active engagement with others and in service to life. Opening

into communion with an animate, conscious Earth embodies a particular level of ecological

perception which I describe as a biospiritual consciousness. This new dimension of ecological

consciousness can evolve through active partnership with the Powers of the Universe; I can


affirm that this is in fact my experience. The more I become infused with the essence of the

Incarnational exercises, the greater my ability to deliberately align my intentionality, actions

and desires with the natural dynamics of life, and with my responsibility as a planetary citizen.

As I embody practices of Incarnational Spirituality, I am discovering how particular Powers

of the Universe are working through me and “locating” me in the center of an emerging,

expanded field of personal and collective eco-spiritual consciousness.

As a practice, Incarnational Spirituality can express an active relationship—a living

connection—with the powers of the Universe. It does so on the following levels:

• Knowledge: learning that takes place on an intellectual level.

• Felt sense: an inner shift that takes place on a physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and

energetic level.

• Relationship: connection that takes place at the level of interpersonal engagement.

In the context of the three kinds of learning listed above, my intellectual knowledge

of the functions of each of the Powers allows me to recognize them initially in my practice.

Utilizing this knowledge as a supporting structure enables interactive learning to take place

on a felt sense and relationship level as I engage, for example, in exercises that unfold my

sense of sovereignty.

In my experience, the Incarnational exercises embody and evolve the Powers

through intentional, heart-centered connection with them, and through the subtle emergence

of key realizations about the nature of the Powers and how they are being experienced in my


body/mind, heart and actions. For me, the heart-centered aspect of the Incarnational

practices adds a personal, numinous, intimate dimension to the movement and manifestation

of the Powers. The learning is integrated over time through an intentional focus on my

personal transformation in harmony with layers of connected relationships. It is an

incarnational, holistic process that creates wholeness for myself and others. It is holopoiesis:

the art and process of creating wholeness.

The mandala below is a further articulation of the unfolding relationship between the

Incarnational principles and the Powers of the Universe. The illustration links sovereignty,

engagement, generativity, emergence and blessing each with two specific Powers. As I

describe my experience with the five Incarnational principles and associated Incarnational

exercises1, I will summarize the relationships that emerge with these particular Powers of the

Universe. For the sake of clarity I will focus on my experience of two (primary and

secondary) Powers I have found to be in accord with each Incarnational principle. However,

as the mandala shows, I believe all the powers of the Universe are imminent in the presence

of each of the Incarnational principles, creating a kind of multi-dimensional container of

relatedness and reciprocity.

1 Incarnational Exercises: “Standing”, “Self-Light”, “Grail Space”, “Spheres of Contact”, “Generativity”, “Emergence”, “Holding”, “Self-Lap”,

and the “Four-Fold Blessing” are included in the Appendix.


Sovereignty and the Powers of Centration & Homeostasis

The Incarnational principle of sovereignty —our expression of individual sacredness in

engagement with the world —can be embodied energetically through the “Standing” and

“Self-Light” exercises, and enables identification and participation with Centration and

Homeostasis. These two powers in particular can deepen and express my embodiment of


sovereignty: the power of Centration is a force that affirms a person’s will-to-be and their

Incarnational centeredness in their whole Self. And the Power of Homeostasis works through

me to help revitalize me and maintain my energy balance, and asks for my whole-hearted

commitment to my incarnation.

As we’ve seen in Part I, the power of Centration maintains and nurtures the 13.7

billion year development of life, gives birth to uniquely individuated beings, and centers on

the wholeness-making of each of its manifestations. Centration is a universal incarnating

force. I am a center of focused life-force. When I experience my core spiritual strength and

locality in the Standing and the Self-Light exercises, I recognize—both intellectually and as a

body sense—the Universe experiencing itself through me as a sacred Center. Through my

experience of the practices of sovereignty, I have found that my Incarnational Light is a

centering force; it is a dynamic of Centration as incarnation.

The practices of sovereignty embody Centration in the way in which they help me to

“locate” myself. As my attention is activated by the Standing exercise, my feet are in strong

contact with the Earth, and energy is activated in my spine. There arises a force that is me, and

I am here. I perceive this mentally and as a whole body experience: in my heart, and as a

warmth inhabiting all parts of my body. I re-collect myself to this moment in the present. The

step-by-step process of the Self-Light exercise allows me to locate different feeling-tones of

my beingness: the cellular (physical light), the personal (Self-light) and the spiritual (Soul-

light). Energetically, I sense the fractal quality and “centeredness” of these three light-spheres


that I embody. Each is centered in itself, each centered in sacredness, each centered as me.

Physically, I feel my heart as the focus of these merging light-spheres.

As I breathe into these three locations, and simultaneously hold all three levels of light

in my sphere, a feeling of curiosity, joy and amazement emerge. I distinctly feel that

something ‘wants’ to be. I have gratitude for the vitality of the energies that channel

themselves in this moment into my particularity. I am able to retain a felt sense of myself as a

centered being held by my boundaries; I sense myself as an increasingly “located” person,

inclusive of the entire lineage that went before me in the great story of the Universe.

Simultaneously, I am able to recognize other people’s boundaries and unique, interesting

shapes as centers of creative power. Centration as a Power of the Universe recognizes and

celebrates the capacity to maintain a shape that enables new life to blossom, at every place in

the Universe. I find that the more I practice the Self-Light meditation, the more I am able to

focus my sovereignty as a center of life in its mystery and beauty.

I often listen to the recorded Standing and Self-Light exercises as I walk outdoors. In

this way sovereignty can be literally grounded in the world as a walking, eyes-open

meditation. Walking, I am already standing. I witness my Self-Light as the unique emergent

light that radiates from my heart as I engage in relationship with the world on my walk. I

recognize and engage with everyone and everything as a sacred Center, all fractals of divine

incarnation. In this way, the Standing and Self-Light practices enable a new dimension of

ecological depth perception. The Sacred is reconnected to life; focused through my center as I

walk. I feel a profound sense of belonging to my own incarnation. I recognize that this is


Centration’s way of doing things; cultivating a self-validation of my right and everyone’s

right to be here and to be seen, to make the most of our unique “shapes” in the world.

Centration utilizes boundaries, such as semi-permeable membranes, to focus its power

and contain and protect an organism. I can choose to shape the space formed by the container

of my boundaries, whether they are physical, spiritual, or energetic. Drawing on my inner

authority—my sovereignty —I can choose to partner with Centration as it flows through me,

emanating as my Self-Light.

The Power of Homeostasis is the Universe’s way of protecting what it values.

Homeostasis serves to help organisms, ecosystems, and the planet to stay in balance and

maintain its capacities for self-organizing and self-creating. Through the practices of

sovereignty, I acknowledge the reality and value of the self-organizing community that is my

body, mind and spirit. The Self-Light exercise reminds me that as I use my energy wisely to

hold an energetic balance and alignment with the Sacred I am working intentionally with

Homeostasis. I notice a distinct felt sense of my unique Incarnational Light that is born of this

balance moment by moment. The objective of energy hygiene—to maintain a space of

sovereignty which is clear, present and available for engagement, generativity and

emergence—is a perfect example of the Power of Homeostasis in action.

As an aspect of my sacred presence in Standing and Self-Light, I feel that the power of

Homeostasis asks for a commitment to my incarnation. I sense there is a larger “me” that is

devoted to protecting my incarnation, my body, and the integrity of my self as a self-creating


system. This could be described as my soul, as well as the ongoing sense of Self that

manifests from and returns to the ultimate Generative Mystery.

Through all stages of my development, my soul is centering upon my incarnation and

involved in protecting what it values: my incarnational journey. A deepening of my personal

commitment to my incarnation has encouraged me to undertake a deeper level of soul work

recently utilizing experiential, nature-based frameworks such as Bill Plotkin’s “Map of the

Psyche”, that draw on our experiential relationships in nature with the forces of the Universe

(Belanger and Hayden). This process is a form of holopoiesis, and adds maturity and integrity

to my work as a teacher of science and spirituality. In nature, as in personal individuality, a

commitment to the health of one aspect of the ecosystem is linked to the well-being of the

collective. The more I stand in my sovereignty and commitment to my life, the more I allow

Homeostasis to work through me for the good of myself and all in my community.

The core Incarnational practices of Standing and Self-Light are empowering vehicles

that evolve the action of Centration and Homeostasis in my everyday world. My growth

toward wholeness is nurtured and empowered from within a centeredness in my sovereignty;

and from within my Sacred Self, my Incarnational Light. In experiencing Centration’s way of

locating my self and the integrity of my boundaries, I deepen in my commitment to the health

and balance of wholeness-making. Centration and Homeostasis are constantly expressing

themselves through me, and my awareness of how they revitalize me compels me to join with

them in affirming a tangible dimension of myself as a biospiritual, planetary being.


Engagement and the Powers of Allurement & Synergy

The Incarnational principle of engagement—a quality of connection and relational presence

with others—can be embodied energetically through the “Grail Space” and “Spheres of

Contact” exercises, and enables participation with the cosmic powers of Allurement and

Synergy. These two Powers reveal new gifts and further articulations of engagement.

Allurement is a primal movement that draws one to engage with another and honor the other’s

sacred nature, and Synergy builds on a spirit of equanimity in relationships to enable the co-

creation of mutually enhancing relationships at all levels of interaction.

As we’ve seen in the description of Allurement as a Power of the Universe in Part I,

Allurement brings two incarnational centers together; it is a primal underlying force in the

cosmos. Allurement embraces the potential for two beings to make contact and become

intimately involved with each other; for example, as the Earth has evolved in intimate

relationship with the Sun. When I experience my “Incarnational Light Presence” in the Grail

Space and the Spheres of Contact exercises, I recognize—both intellectually and as a body

sense—the Universe experiencing itself through me as a sacred source of gravity. I feel a

subtle attraction to the objects and beings I am honoring in the Grail Space exercise; I notice

their increasing animate, individuated nature and notice their interest in engaging with me. In

both Grail Space and in Spheres of Contact, as my Incarnational Light “gains spiritual mass”

in the exercises; my judging mind is released. I become a loving witness to myself, and my

heart is activated and radiant. I become lighter and simultaneously more substantial, as I

contain more spiritual gravitas, not unlike a star that draws celestial bodies to its orbit. I am

aware of myself as a source of Allurement through my intellectual knowledge of it, through


my immediate felt sense, and through an emerging relational presence between myself and

other beings in my vicinity.

Anne Hillman writes in her book Awakening the Energies of Love, “Allurement

expresses the deep need of life for life” (192). Particularly in the Grail Space experience, this

mutual attraction allows a flavor of friendliness to grow: a kind of intimacy born of respect

and love. Beginning with acknowledging and honoring self and other, the practices of

engagement focus and reshape the orientation of all participants. I am able to see and

acknowledge the unique, inherent will-to-be of each object and being in my room. I no longer

treat them as inanimate objects existing only for my use—they now present themselves as

individuated, subjective beings that are my equal. As I honor their sovereignty, I let go of my

“stories” attached to them and to myself and I attain a measure of humility and a loving

attentiveness. I feel a quality of sacred presence in the space between us, and healing takes

place. In this process, an I-Thou relationship can now take root.

This cultivation of the I-Thou relationship—in Thomas Berry’s words, treating all

beings as subjects instead of objects (The Great Work x-xi)—is an aspect of Allurement as

subjectivity and, I believe, an essential attitude towards healing the fragmentation between

humanity and nature. For many years I have had a sacred relationship with an ancient oak tree

in Devon, England. When I am with it, I fully see the tree, and it does actually acknowledge

me in return, of its own accord. My experience with the tree has been one of mutual

engagement, respect, and love. As long as the values of modern industrial consciousness treat

nature as a mere resource, we will continue to be disrespectful and destroy nature’s beauty for


our short-term gain. The Grail Space as a practice of deep engagement offers a profound

method for awakening to the receptive, sacred nature of all the beings inhabiting the animate

Earth.

In my practice, the Grail Space and the Sphere of Contact exercises create equanimity.

Two or more fellow beings, each contained by the generative power of their incarnational

light, are drawn together. They choose to engage with one another. In this shared field of

inclusiveness, kindness, care, and love, collaboration as equals is possible. Both exercises

create a space of engagement in which our mutual relational presence can be felt almost

tangibly; with my relationship with my tree, I often experience the felt sense of a joyful love

strongly in my heart.

I have found this synergistic presence can be co-created with both seen and unseen

beings, particularly in the resonant field of the Spheres of Contact exercise. Through personal

inner alliances with non-physical spiritual beings, I have been able to see myself through their

“eyes”—with love, care, compassion and respect—and transmute old self-limiting habits.

Gradually I sense that energy becoming available to me and I can choose to channel it into a

self that acts from an increasingly inner equanimity. When I inhabit that consciousness, my

energy is no longer wasted on distracting activities, I stay focused, and use my energy more

wisely.

Oscar Ichazo, the Bolivian mystic who introduced the Enneagram as a framework of

human consciousness, says of equanimity: “It is balance. A whole being lives in complete


harmony with his environment. His motives are economical and always appropriate to his

circumstances. He is not emotionally affected by external stimuli but responds to them exactly

as much as is necessary” (Maitri 147). Ichazo is describing the optimal, economical mode of

being and relating that supports healthy, self-sustaining, mutually enhancing exchanges. This

is precisely the role of Synergy as a Power of the Universe. When a being can live in harmony

and active engagement with their inner environment, they are able to respond to the call to

work together in cooperation in their outer environment.

The field of equanimity that emerges in the Incarnational practices of engagement

forms fertile ground for catalyzing healthy, synergistic relationships. These self-renewing

relationships between humans and nature are at the core of systems approaches to ecological

design such as permaculture (“permanent culture”). Permaculture offers a sustainable, low-

impact food-growing method that draws on subtle engaged communication with the natural

world. Educator Andres Edwards, in The Sustainability Revolution, writes about permaculture

principles: “Its focus on the relationship among species, natural forces and human habitation

reveals the subtle nuances that characterize viable life-support systems” (121). Permaculture is

an excellent example of the dynamic of Synergy working to build intimacy between humans

and nature. Holistic practices of engagement demonstrate how we can co-create intentional,

honoring relationships with all levels of being, such as those in permaculture, revealing and

enhancing the function of Synergy in our immediate surroundings.

The Incarnational practices of engagement incarnate my experience of Allurement and

Synergy in a shared space of equanimity and natural honoring. The practices have


strengthened my integrity to “step up to the plate” as it were; to choose to participate with the

beings in my world and nurture precious, sacred, “I-Thou” relationships. A famous passage by

the 12th

century Sufi mystic Rumi states: “Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are

hundreds ways to kneel and kiss the ground” (Moyne and Barks 82). For me, the intimate

relationships that emerge in my practice of engagement express a myriad of faces of beauty in

its wholeness. To engage from an authentic, spiritual ecological perspective is to honor myself

and all beings in their beauty, radiance and mystery.

Generativity and the Powers of Radiance & Transformation

The Incarnational principle of generativity—our ability to create our Self-Light and shine as a

radiant, transformational presence in engagement with our surroundings—can be embodied

energetically through the “Generativity” exercise, and enables participation with Radiance and

Transformation. Both of these Powers encompass profound manifestations of generativity.

The energy of Radiance shining through me activates a resonant depth perception in my

communication with the world, enhanced by the beauty of each being’s Self-Light. The Power

of Transformation channels my service to life in a way that draws on my skills as a generative

source. Transformation works through my generativity in alignment with the desire of the

larger community for change—with an aim towards creating mutually enhancing, sustainable

ways of life.

The Earth communicates the depth of its beauty to us through the endlessly diverse

qualities of light generated by all the things in the cosmos: this is Radiance as a Power of the

Universe. Brian Swimme observes, “All the things of the universe are radiating. We’re


reverberating at the very center of our being with that energy” (“Radiance”). I often listen to

the “Generativity” exercise while walking outdoors in nature. Through this natural process I

feel seen and welcomed by other lives around me. A gentle wonder fills me as I notice the

magnificence of their quality of light. At sunset, I revel in the illuminated magenta clouds

reflected in the water’s surface. I feel enlivened watching the fleeting fiery light illuminating

the tips of the tall grasses along the trail. As I allow my Self-Light to expand, releasing the

weight of the mind, a felt sense of an inner spaciousness emerges. The meditation allows me

to begin to ‘empty out’. Energetically, I become lightened. My unencumbered incarnational

Light is increasingly available to the world around me.

With the Generativity exercise, there is a way in which I am preparing myself to

receive the light of all the beings around me—to open a space within myself that can resonate

with their spirit—and to offer a gift of my sacred Light in return. To the degree I allow my

radiance to expand, is the degree I notice all the lives around me are also radiant, they are

showing themselves in their full presence and beauty. This capacity of melting into the depth

of one another’s incarnational light is at the core of my readiness to know myself as the heart

and love of the Earth. My practice of being a generative source of Radiance develops my

ability to contain the I-Thou relationship and deepens my biospiritual perception.

In this generativity practice, I notice the inherent generosity of nature. It is prolific in

its majestic display of beauty, holding nothing back. This boldness encourages me to hold

nothing back of myself. My light becomes unsensored, and I see more clearly how I

sometimes diminish my self light. This limiting behavior can drain my energy as it is in


opposition to what the Universe does. The Sun is the ultimate embodiment of Radiance. Its

cosmic body is endlessly generous, emitting four million tons of its proton mass as energy

each second. Half of a billionth of that radiant energy is intercepted by Earth (Uhl 17). All the

biomass of the Earth is created from this tiny fraction of the Sun’s energy. The Generativity

exercise asks something of me, and the surrounding, animate beings in my environment are

asking something of me. I believe they are asking me to be myself fully—as the Sun, the trees

and grasses do—to trust in the cosmic impulse that asks me to step into my essential Light or

“visibility”. I am the power of Radiance expressing itself as me: the Light I generate is both

mysterious and sacred in its origin.

In the emptying out that I experience through my generativity practice, I find that there

is an “inner fertile ground” within me that holds great creative potential. The Generativity

exercise offers me a vehicle to focus my intention on the inner source of my generativity,

while allowing it to dialogue with the Sacred in Nature. In deepening the generativity

practices, I have found empowering nature-based methods, such as the SoulCraft process

developed by ecopsychologist Bill Plotkin, which build my capacity to trust myself as a

generative source. In his book Nature and the Human Soul, Plotkin suggests that “Generative

images must be retrieved from the depths of the individual psyche and of Earth’s own

dream….And then, as a grand network of cooperating communities, we must come together to

build a new world from those images” (27). His statement echoes my soul’s re-generation

process in which the natural world has grandly affirmed who I am as a unique, radiant source

of light. In a spirit of gratitude, I have begun to see how I am working directly in partnership


with unseen beings arising out of the “Earth’s own dream”, and they encourage me to inquire

how I might begin to offer my abilities as a transformative agent of healing and change.

I apply my capacity for generativity in a practical way through alignment with

Transformation as a Power of the Universe. Transformation is the way one individual can

affect an evolutionary change in the whole collective. The ability to be a leader in catalyzing

effective change first asks that I have done a fair amount of work towards defining who I am

in my sovereignty and wholeness. This work allows the spaciousness created by the

“emptying out” process in the Generativity practice to enable a clarity or discernment to

emerge as to how I might serve life through the offering of my particular gifts.

According to Brian Swimme’s articulation of the role of Transformation, a gift of this

Power is the skill to discern how our actions and choices in engagement with the world cohere

with the current paradigms already in place, with an aim towards shifting those paradigms

toward new perceptions that are healing and that can sustain the vitality of the whole. I can

draw on my power as a source of generativity and utilize this knowledge of how

Transformation works through its holistic approach as an agent of large-scale change. Brian

Swimme:

Our task is to reinvent the major forms of human presence, in conscious self awareness of our

partnership with the cosmic impulse....Our quest here is understanding the cosmological

unconscious...and expanding our identity to embrace larger Earth community while building our

individual capacity to be sources of generativity (Schumacher Lectures).


As I described in Section II, a core aspect of generativity in me as an Incarnational

principle is the ability to transmute heavier energies to lighter energies through a kind of

personal, inner alchemical process. This work can be done in active partnership with the

“cosmological unconscious”. Recently, I experienced in my relations with nature a shift in my

inner emotional light toward wholeness and radiance. I awoke the following morning with a

felt sense of a hole in the middle of my third eye into which I was meant to insert a daisy. This

appeared to be a new part of my body and identity, and later I painted a large white daisy on

my forehead. In group retreat that day, people remarked that I was “radiant” and that it felt

like the flower had really been there all along; they could not imagine me without it. Drawn

by my radiance, they asked me to offer a teaching session on how my art illustrated

Allurement as a Power of the Universe. This created an enthusiastic response that instigated

the seeds of a year-long ecospiritual study group. Eventually, this learning group will

influence others to cultivate I-Thou relationships with the Earth community. This is a direct

example of how claiming and sharing the simple truth of oneself as a generative light can

serve as a transformational agent for the whole.

The Incarnational practice of generativity activates both Radiance and Transformation

in my life in delightful ways. I have found that it forms a loving inner and outer container for

me to intentionally become Radiance as a dynamic energy, enabling me to enter into a sacred

resonance in myself and with my environment. In engagement with the world, the practice of

generativity provides a stable inner heart structure from which I can act and make choices. As

a generative source, I can help inspire connections in my community that invite others to

become more ecologically and spiritually responsive. I have the sense that Radiance and


Transformation are co-evolving with me through my choices, and both Powers create the

possibility for something new to emerge.

Emergence and the Powers of Emergence & Transmutation

The Incarnational principle of emergence—our capacity to create a space for something new

to arise—can be embodied energetically through the “Emergence” exercise, and enables

participation with Emergence and Transmutation as universal Powers. The Power of

Emergence realigns me with my inner sense of “right timing”, where I can receive the

potentiality available in each moment for something new to appear. The Power of

Transmutation creates an openness and willingness to being changed in engagement with my

environment.

The simple Incarnational practice of emergence has transformational effects for me in

my everyday life. It reveals a world of creativity and connection that is new and unexpected; a

realm of serendipity. I often listen to the guided exercise called “Emergence” when I am out

walking in my community. Through my Self-Light and my intention to be available to what

wants to be created with me and through me, I experience a subtle but important re-alignment

with time. I seem to reconnect with my own innate sense of timing, and rather than feeling

unbalanced and rushed, or distracted in the mind and disconnected, I come into an inner

spaciousness and harmony with my self and with the present moment as it arises. This inner

reconnection nurtures new and unexpected connections with aspects of my expanded self and

my community.


As I was listening to the Emergence meditation this morning on my walk in town, it

happened that I was in the right place at the right time to reconnect with a good friend. At that

moment she was singing and performing for a group of mutual friends, and a loving relational

space had already emerged in me that allowed one heartful connection to lead to another. As

described in Section I, creativity arises when the time is right, in certain windows or domains

of Emergence. I recognized Emergence as a Power operating in the field of my relationships

that day. As Brian Swimme observed, “Creativity knows when its moment is” (“Emergence”).

In the incarnational field of the emergence practice, I crossed an invisible threshold into a very

satisfying realignment with the creative imagination of the Universe.

In my outer world today, many unexpected connections arose, and in my inner world,

a sustained deepening of my capacity to be freshly available in each moment appeared. Who I

was in my interactions was new; I was relaxed, energized and malleable. I experienced an

inner freedom. I was strong in my incarnational identity and also flexible and open to change

simultaneously. Significantly, I shifted into a loving and detached “self-witnessing” stance,

which gave me great articulation to allow creativity to emerge in my engagement with others.

I have since discovered I can enter that fertile place of emergence anytime I wish by returning

to the Incarnational emergence exercise.

I recognize the beauty of Emergence—both the Incarnational principle and the

Power—as a fluid process, not something that is static. Margaret Wheatley comments in

Leadership and the New Science: “All life lives off-balance in a world that is open to change.

Stasis, balance, equilibrium, these are temporary states. What endures is process—dynamic,


adaptive, creative” (89). On our planet, complexity and new forms arise from Gaia’s

constantly fluid, in-between state of dynamic disequilibrium: this is the Power of Emergence

in action. I am an incarnation of Gaia, and I can locate myself intentionally to dwell in the

improvisational space between where I am now and what will be created through my

participation with my larger community.

As Brian Swimme described, creativity on a cosmic and planetary scale also emerges

when the time is right, in certain windows or domains of emergence. Scientists, educators and

visionaries including Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, Duane Elgin, Bruce Lipton, Barbara

Marx Hubbard, Ervin Laszlo, Elisabet Sahtouris and Pierre Teillard de Chardin have stated

that humanity is entering a domain of emergence where we will shift into a higher frequency

of holistic consciousness and capacity to engender a collective, sacred identity as planetary

humans.

I believe we are making room in ourselves individually and collectively for a new,

loving, biospiritual perception, and the shift is occurring in a field of woven reciprocal

relationships. Satish Kumar, in his book You Are Therefore I Am: A Declaration of

Dependence observes: “There can be no individual person without the context of community,

environment, tradition and culture. Individuality and universality are complementary. Nothing

can really be understood without its context and its relatedness to other things…we rise and

fall together” (177-178). The idea of life as “co-dependent arising”, which originated in

Buddhist philosophy, forms the basis for how I can work with the power of Transmutation in

the incarnational field of emergence.


As we have seen in Section I, Transmutation is the way in which the individual is

formed and shaped by their context. In my incarnational practice of emergence I experience a

receptivity to being changed in engagement with my environment, and this allows me to

begin to transmute and transcend old, limiting stories and mental habits. A new curiosity and

readiness to give and receive emerges. Obstacles and challenges in my inner and outer

environment present boundaries that I come up against, and in that “arising together” a new

presence of possibility emerges. David Spangler writes: “Presence is what emerges when two

or more are gathered together, even if it’s just two or more of our own ‘selves’ or parts”

(Spangler, Glossary). In this meeting with the “other”, I allow my self to be changed.

When I purposefully work in alignment with Transmutation in the context of the field

of incarnational emergence, I increase my ability to integrate polarities, and I am better able to

place limits on my thoughts and behavior. Most importantly for me, I experience a change of

heart and mind from separateness to belonging. I agree with writers such as Gregory Bateson

who observe we are collectively creating and being created by the ecosystemic mind: the

entirety of Earth’s biological community (Swimme, “Transmutation”). To offer the best of

who we are to the Earth, we must be willing to release parts of ourselves and our systems that

are maladaptive. A benefit of the Emergence exercise is my recognition that I have the ability

to take responsibility for reshaping myself. I can re-align my integrity and actions with the

creativity of the Universe in response to my community, my watershed, social systems,

education, the local economy, and the Earth—with the healing and flourishing of the whole in

mind.


In his book Creativity theologian Matthew Fox observes, “Everything has within itself

the power of creativity, the power of giving birth, the power of surprising us” (170). In my

experience, the Powers of Emergence and Transmutation inform and embody the

Incarnational practice of emergence in important and unexpected ways. Through felt sense

and relationship with the world, the field of emergence strengthens my availability, my inner

sense of time, and my witnessing power. I can see more of the tapestry as it is being woven,

respond to the beauty and mystery appearing in each moment, and locate myself in a way that

best serves what wants to be created. The cosmic dynamics of Emergence and Transmutation

help re-shape and re-create a more spiritually mature version of my self, where new qualities

of love and care can manifest as a source of blessing.

Blessing and the Powers of Interrelationship & Cataclysm

The Incarnational principle of blessing—an intentional, focused holding and offering of care

and love within our hearts for the benefit of another being—can be activated through the

“Holding”, “Self-Lap” and the “Four Fold Blessing” exercises, and becomes embodied in the

world through Interrelationship and Cataclysm as universal Powers. The Power of

Interrelationship, which I will also refer to here as “Care”, reveals a connective tissue of

bondedness in my relationships that supports my commitment to cultivate compassion and

love. I believe that creating and holding a loving field of blessing can also make room for the

immense power of Cataclysm to be a great gift in the face of personal and collective change.


The Holding and Self-Lap exercises are invaluable for embodying the energetic sense

of how a being or a thought can be held in an intentionally-defined space of love, care,

belonging, healing and spaciousness. Holding my self in my Self-Lap, I gather the parts of my

psyche together in a safe sanctuary. I have a felt sense—an expanding warmth and deep

rootedness in my heart—that I am the Power of Care acting through the coherence of my

attentive heart with a potent, life-giving spirit of blessing. The holding cup I form in my lap

feels almost tangible, and I sense in my heart that I am re-membering that I am a place of

safety and blessing, because I carry my lap with me wherever I go! The mind aspect of the lap

exercise is especially valuable in reminding me that I define boundaries in my mind; I am

actively holding the thoughts, they do not retain power over me. I know that the Power of

Interrelationship connects humanity and the Earth community through bonding and love, and I

am appreciative of the immense value the act of holding has to nurture Interrelationship in my

inner and outer world and form healing connections.

The Self-Lap and Four-Fold Blessing practices help activate a self-generated

“intentionality sphere” where love is nurtured and my capacity to give and to receive blessing

grows. In this sphere, I feel Interrelationship as a power of the Universe taking shape,

particularly in the way in which these practices create inner alliances with unseen beings of

the Second Ecology. The more I do the practices, the more I feel the presence of inner beings

interested in my welfare. With great love, care and compassion they are holding me within an

encompassing grace. The Holding exercises invite me to be carried safely in a protective boat

or inner coracle, to borrow an ancient Celtic metaphor. As my capacity to hold myself grows,

I am available to mentor and hold others appropriately in the level of engagement that best

serves their real needs.


Recently, a friend held me in a transformative space of blessing while rooted in her

sovereignty. It was such an intentional, generative act that it released energy in a spiritual

revelatory event in which I authentically claimed myself as a source of blessing and

generativity. This was a blessing event that evoked an ongoing, working partnership with the

Power of Interrelationship; one that has opened me more profoundly to embrace the joy of

giving. In witnessing my inherent generous, radiant nature, a desire emerged to make a

commitment to giving away a portion of the money and abundance that I receive from this

point forward. This nurturing, self-sustaining cycle of mutual Care is what Brian Swimme

described as an evolving, collective “comprehensive compassion”. To strengthen the power of

this event to increasingly bless my process of manifesting collaboration and prosperity, I have

worked with the Four Fold Blessing meditation every day. The effect has been a sense of

inner freedom and capacity to be self-renewing while fully present in the world. I can trust

that the Power of Care is working with love and through unseen beings on my behalf and on

the behalf of all those in my circle of engagement, through many daily acts of blessing.

In his book Field Notes on the Compassionate Life, Marc Ian Barasch comments: “The

emotion we feel toward those we love—wonderment toward their uniqueness, desire to foster

their complete unfolding, appreciation not for their uses and benefits but their inviolate

worthiness—might be the only force potent enough, tender enough, to save the world” (309).

Here, Marc is referring to love we feel for all of the Earth’s diverse inhabitants, seen and

unseen. I have immense gratitude for the Incarnational blessing practices as they enliven the

power of Care by revealing the sacred nature of all the beings in my community.

I have found that the Four Fold Blessing practice gets energy moving, and


simultaneously forms a loving container for a change. I have been working with blessing and

with the Power of Cataclysm to enable change to occur, and to strengthen the integrity of my

inner sanctuary. As Brian Swimme described, the Power of Cataclysm is involved in enabling

the collapse of old patterns and ways of being that no longer serve our wholeness. David

Spangler writes: “A blessing urges us to be something, which for most of us means changing

in some way. A blessing lets loose a spiritual presence that can promote and foster change, a

power of rearrangement in our domain” (Blessing 113). Last year, I experienced an acute

mental anxiety—like the supernova star, I felt under pressure—and when the constrained

energy was released I felt deep gratitude and a sacred presence of blessing. This changed my

body pattern; I was able to breathe deeply, and was released into a place of trust. My

incarnational energy then had a place to go—to be applied towards creating balance and self-

care, acting as a generative source, and nurturing caring relationships.

In the intensive process of deep change, I am choosing to partner with the Power of

Cataclysm. In my choice to release fear and allow the energy of blessing to hold me,

Cataclysm has helped bring about the conditions that made a spiritual breakthrough possible.

The blessing and holding practices root and shape new, heartful inner and outer connections. I

have since practiced the Four Fold Blessing with friends face to face, which enhances our

mutual bond of Interrelationship.

The Incarnational blessing practices show me how I evoke my capacity to be and to

transmit Care as a universal energy: to hold a space of comfort, care, and belonging— to be a

source of blessing. They form an inner integrity that allows me to embrace powerful,


cataclysmic shifts in my life. Collectively, the world is experiencing a death of major

ecological and economic systems. The collapse of outmoded worldviews such as the idea of

nature as a commodity, or attachment to a consumer cosmology, must take place to create a

space for more life-sustaining systems and processes to take root.

To work with Cataclysm as it intensifies, we can cultivate effective interwoven fields

of blessing, locally and globally, using our technologies of Interrelationship such as the

Internet. In fact, as we have increasingly experienced in my circle of community, we can

develop subtle, non-local practices of sending and receiving blessing on the ‘inner-net”. The

bondedness that arises from Care as a Power in our world is a key to forming mutual support

systems to attend to transformation, loss and irrevocable change in our environment.

As I engage with the vital energies of Interrelationship and Cataclysm, and indeed all

the Powers, they will continue to express their gifts in infinite manifestations. As I draw on

the power of their transformative, generative relationship with the Incarnational principles and

practices, I claim a whole sense of who I am in partnership with the world.

Conclusion

Incarnational spirituality is an emergent, holistic practice that embodies our connection to

humanity and the life of the Earth. I agree with Thomas Berry’s observation that the

community of the natural world is the primary locus for the meeting of the divine and the

human (Evening Thoughts 48). The Incarnational principles and their practices —sovereignty,

engagement, generativity, emergence and blessing—powerfully shape my path toward


incarnated wholeness and evoke a sense of belonging to the world. Each of the Incarnational

Principles provide a revealing, solid application of the Powers of the Universe in everyday

reality. As they work within me, the Powers align my intentions and enhance a flowing, co-

creative engagement between my self, the Earth, and the living Universe.

The weaving of Incarnational practices with the ten universal dynamics of life focuses

my world, enabling the beauty of my true nature to flourish. In conscious partnership with

these Powers, I witness an increased capacity to generate a rich, multivalent depth perception

in my everyday relations. All of the mutually-empowering Incarnational practices shape a

space for a new, personal dimension of ecospiritual consciousness to emerge, one that is

crafted impeccably to navigate my journey toward wholeness in a way that beautifully serves

my community and our irreplacable planet.


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Publishers, 2006. Wikipedia Online. Sovereignty. ‹http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereignty/›.


APPENDIX: Incarnational Exercises

All exercises excerpted from Foundational Incarnational Exercises

by David Spangler © 2008.

The Standing Exercise

Physical: The physical action of this exercise is simple. From a sitting position, you simply

stand up. Be aware of the physical sensation and felt sense of standing. Feel the work of your

body, the power of balance that keeps you upright. If you are already standing, become aware

that you are standing and be mindful of the felt sense of standing. If you are physically unable

to stand, you can still assume an inner attitude of standing, perhaps simply by straightening

your spine as much as possible.

Emotional: Feel the power of being upright. Feel the strength of rising up against the gravity

of the Earth. Feel how standing singles you out and expresses your individuality. You stand

for what you believe you stand up to be counted. Standing proclaims that you are here. Feel

the strength and presence of your identity and sovereignty.

Mental: Celebrate your humanness. You are an upright being. You emerge from the mass of

nature, from the vegetative and animal states into a realm of thinking and imagining. In

standing, you hands are released from providing locomotion. Feel the freedom of your hands

that don’t have to support you but can now be used to create, manipulate, touch, and express

your thoughts and imagination.


Magical: When you stand, your spine becomes a magical staff, the axis mundi (center) of your

personal world, generating the field that embraces you. The spine is the traditional wizard’s

staff along which dragon power flows and the centers of energy sing in resonance with the

cosmos.

Spiritual: Standing, you are the incarnate link between heaven and Earth. Your energy rises

into the sky and descends into the Earth. Light descends and ascends, swirling along your

spine in a marriage of matter and spirit. This energy is both personal and transpersonal, giving

birth to something new, something human, individual and unique. In doing this exercise of

Standing, you physically stand if you are able. If you are not able to do so, then be as upright

as you can be in your physical situation and “stand” mentally and emotionally. As you do so,

work through these levels of sensation, feeling, thought, energy, and spirit,

Appreciating the power, the freedom, the sovereignty, and the presence emerging from the

simple act of standing.

Self-Light Exercise

There is a spiritual presence and radiance that is generated by the act of being a unique self, an

individuation of sacredness. It is a Light that is born from the love and will behind your intent

to manifest as an individual upon the Earth, an intent that whatever its other specific

characteristics may be reflects and expresses the primal will-to-be of the Generative Mystery.

I call this your “Self-Light.” Discovering and coming to know your Self-Light—your own

unique embodiment and radiance of spirit—is a life-long process, one that can bring great joy,

wholeness, and peace. There are many ways this can be done. Here is one simple exercise:


Let your attention and consciousness move into what you experience as the center of your

body. This might be your heart, it might be some other area. Feel yourself surrounded by the

millions and millions of cells whose individual lives make up your life. Feel the power and

wonder of those lives all blending and connecting to support your own. You are immersed in a

community of life.

Feel the force and light of a presence that pervades this community, drawing it into unity,

giving it one identity. This presence is you. It is the presence of your Self. It makes you one

being, one identity. Its light fills all your cells and all the activities that unite them.

Let your attention and consciousness move more deeply into this presence, moving into a

sphere of Light that radiates the energy which forms into your physical body. Just rest in this

Light of your unique body and the Self that forms it. What does it feel like?

When you are ready, let your attention move more deeply into this Light, as if you are moving

towards the source of this Self-Light. As you do so, you become aware of a deeper Light and

presence that holds and empowers your Self-Light. This in the Light and radiance of the Will-

to-Be emanating from the presence of Sacred, the Generative Mystery, a Light that fosters all

incarnation. Through this Light of incarnation you are part of the community of the cosmos,

the community of all incarnation, part of all that is. It is the root of who you are, but it does

not consume you. It supports the principles of identity, boundaries, engagement, relationship,

and emergence that allow you to be your unique self. You are an emergent form of this greater

incarnational Light, bringing into the universe the creative potential of your unique self and


the discoveries and learning it can experience. Expressed through your individuality, this

universal Light becomes your Self-Light.

When you are ready, let your awareness and attention move back from this deep Light into the

radiance of your Self-Light. Feel the wonder and magic of being who you are, manifesting a

unique and powerful will-to-be. Feel your lineage with the Light that runs through all creation

and the way you individuate it. Let your Self-Light flow into your boundaries, supporting

their integrity and power and nourishing the space they create that holds and protects your

unique identity. Let your awareness return to your body.

Feel your Self-Light permeating and uniting the presence of all your cells. Feel the wonder of

your physical incarnation, of your mind and heart, your ability to think, feel, and to make

choices. Feel the wonder of your spirit. Let yourself be surrounded by this Self-Light forming

around you your personal aura of grace and blessing. Standing in this Self-Light, go forth to

meet your day.

Generativity Exercise

Step One: Enter into a felt sense of your own Self-Light.

Step Two: Imagine this Light, radiating throughout your body, focusing into a single radiant

source, like a star, within you. You can center this wherever you like in your body.

Step Three: Imagine yourself entering in to this Star within you and feeling its power, its


Light, its energy. Just take a moment to be in this inner Star within your body.

Step Four: Now imagine this Star expanding and radiating, sending out a clear, pure Light into

your immediate surrounding. See this Light touching and engaging your walls, your floor,

your ceiling, the things in your room, whatever is around you. What is the felt sense of this?

Do you sense any reaction or response from your environment as you do this? This Light from

you does not impose. It simply is, like sunlight from the sun. The world can bathe in it, absorb

it, be empowered by it, or it can ignore it. Radiance does not insist on any results or outcomes,

it simply shines.

Within the world around you, similar stars burn within all the people, animals, plants, even the

minerals and stones. All existence has this radiance within it, the radiance of an Incarnational

Light. You live not only in a galaxy of physical stars in space but in a galaxy of stars of life

and light in the world around you.

Step Five: As you radiate, feel your radiance meeting and engaging a radiance within the

things around you in your immediate environment. Your Light radiates to support their Light

and vice versa.

Step Six. If you wish, imagine your star-like radiance encompassing your loved ones, your

family, your friends, your neighborhood, your town, your city, your nation, the world. See it

encompassing your enemies, strangers, those who are different, those who may make you

afraid, those who are in lands far from your own. Place no boundaries on your radiance. Just


let it shine into the galaxy of incarnation.

When you feel complete, tired, or restless, let your awareness return to the star within your

body, carrying with it whatever blessings you may have felt or received in communion with

the light of creation. Then let this star relax and melt, its radiance filling all your body, all

your cells, merging and blessing with the light of your body, the light of your incarnation, the

light of your soul, the light of your self. Light-filled, go forth to meet your day.

Grail Space Exercise

Take a moment to survey your immediate environment, taking note of all the things that are in

it. Do so as a witness in a non-judgmental way, as if seeing these things for the first time with

beginner’s mind. Everything in your immediate environment is an expression of the

Generative Mystery. Everything manifests the original Will-to-be of that primal Source as

well as its own individual will-to-be. Everything holds and expresses Incarnational Light, the

Light of the primal act of incarnation out of the Generative Mystery.

With this in mind, honor everything you see that is about you. You don’t have to like it or

want it, but you can honor it for the sacredness that is at its core and for its own act of coming

into existence, its incarnational act. If in your mind and heart you can move from honor to

love in the process of this exercise, then do so. If not, then remember that honoring is the

simplest form of love and is very effective in its own right in calling forth the deeper energies

of that which you are honoring.

• Honor all the objects that you see, the things that humans have created.


• Honor all the minerals that you see, the rocks and stones, bricks and mortar that are in your

environment.

• Honor any plants that are present.

• Honor any animals or insects that may be present.

• Honor any people that may be present.

• Honor yourself.

Now, drawing on the practices of attuning to your Self-Light, enter your own personal Grail

Space. Fill yourself with the felt sense of being a source of spiritual power and love. Fill

yourself with the felt sense of your Incarnational Field. Feel the resonance that your acts and

process of incarnation has with the incarnational act of the Sacred that brings creation into

being.

From this inner space, acknowledge that everything and everyone about you is a Grail Space

as well, and together we all participate in the Grail Space of the cosmos. From the felt sense

of this place of acknowledgement and insight, once again honor everything and everyone

around you.

As you feel this honoring, now take it a step further if you can and feel the love that proceeds

from the heart of the Generative Mystery. This same love embraces and fills you and your

personal Grail Space. It is the energy that underlies your Incarnational Field. You are a source

of that love. Acknowledging your identity as a source of love, radiate love as a sun radiates

light to everything around you. Acknowledging your identity as a source of an incarnational

Light, radiate this Light to everything around you as a star radiates its presence into the


galaxy. You are not projecting or imposing any kind of energy upon anything or anyone. You

are acknowledging them as fellow stars, sources of incarnational Light in their own right.

In your mind’s eye, see everything around you enveloped in its own unique Grail Space, like

an aura surrounding them. Imagine your own Grail Space as a sphere of encouraging and

supporting Light surrounding you, the loving light of your Incarnational Field.

Acknowledging your own boundaries and keeping them intact as an expression of your

sovereignty and integrity, let this sphere silently expand out from you to fill your immediate

environment. See it embracing and connecting with the individual Grail Spaces of everything

around you. It does not impose anything upon these other Grail Spaces, but it invites them to

join with you in co-creating a mutual Grail Space within your shared environment. This larger

Grail Space resonates with the Grail Space that is the cosmos itself and with the sacredness

within all of you.

It is a source of blessing, encouragement, empowerment, and support for you and everything

and everyone else in your environment. Feel your Grail Space and that of everything around

you melt into a shared space of loving sacredness, the larger Grail Space that holds you all.

Let your own Grail Space participate in and hold this larger Grail Space. Let your own Grail

Space in turn receive energy, blessing, and support from this larger Grail Space. Let it hold

you as well. Experience the felt sense of this shared Grail Space and the blessings it brings

you and everything around you in your environment.

When you feel complete, let your own Grail Space withdraw into your own boundaries and


integrity, melting into your sovereignty. Honor and give thanks to the environment around

you and everything in it, acknowledging them as your inner Grail partners in this exercise.

Then carry on with your life, knowing that your Incarnational Field is always a Grail Space,

carrying sacredness in your own unique way.

NOTE: This sample exercise is meant to be done in silence as an inward act; nothing need be

said to anyone else in your environment. You are not doing anything to them other than

creating an environment that can be supportive and nurturing for them.

Emergence Exercise

Step One: Begin with Standing. Step into the felt sense of your Sovereignty. Take a moment

to honor yourself as a unique, embodied expression of sacredness.

Step Two: As you stand, be aware of yourself as a space opening to life the way a flower

opens to the sun. Feel spaciousness fill you. However full your thoughts and feelings may

have been, in this moment let them fall away and just feel yourself emptying out, becoming an

open space within which your life, your mind, your heart, your soul can unfold in new ways.

What is this like? What do you sense?

Step Three: Imagine your skin turning into energy, into Light so that you are within a field of

life rather than within a body. Imagine this living incarnational field expanding around you,

touching those objects immediately around you in your environment. As you touch their

energy, their presence, a new space opens up between you and around you. What can emerge

in this space? What newness can your relationship with your immediate environment bring


into being? Any relationship, even with something inanimate, can be a source of emergence, a

portal into newness and the unexpected. It can be a portal through which the ever-renewing

spirit of sacredness may manifest. Appreciate the power of your environment to open you to

newness and emergence.

Step Four: Think of people with whom you are in relationship or with whom you work.

Imagine your incarnational field expanding to touch their fields wherever they may be. What

opens up between you? What new field emerges? What possibilities may unfold that were not

there before? How might your mutual sacredness manifest through your relationship?

Appreciate the power of others to open you to newness and emergence.

Step Five: Let your incarnational field become your body again. You carry the potential of

emergence with you at all times wherever you go, wherever you are, whomever you’re with.

Feel the power of this within yourself. You are a mobile space of emergence through which

sacredness can make all things new and renewed. Take into yourself the essence of

the statement, “I make all things new.” What does this feel like? You are a gift of emergence

to the world. It is a gift of emergence to you. Breathe in the power of this and bring this

exercise to a close by stepping forth to be and to bring your gift into the world.

Holding Exercise

Like the first exercise on Standing, this is also a physical exercise. But this time it involves an

equally familiar and simple procedure: sitting down and forming a lap. A lap is a physical

form of holding. It is the form of a cup, a bowl, a cauldron, or a grail. Imagine kids climbing


into a lap: it is a place of love, comfort, healing, and transformation. In this exercise, simply

sit down and form a lap. Go through the following elements as you do so, exploring the felt

sense of each. Inherent in the lap is your power of holding which is at the heart of blessing.

Also, be aware that when you create a lap, you are also manifesting boundaries, which are the

extent of your lap. Your physical lap is not infinite, though your love may be!

Physical: The physical action of this exercise is simplicity itself and the opposite of the

Standing exercise. From a standing position, you simply sit down, allowing your legs to form

a lap. Be aware of the physical sensation and felt sense of being a lap. Feel the relaxation of

sitting but at the same time the power and receptivity of forming a lap. Explore the felt sense

of the space that is created in front of you, around you, and within you when you sit and form

a lap.

Emotional: Feel the power of being a space of holding. In your sovereignty, you are forming a

space of comfort, a space of healing, a space of encouragement and upliftment. In this space,

negativity can be received and transformed as you hold a presence of peace, of love, and of

strength.

Mental: Your mind is also a lap. It is a cup that holds your thoughts. As you sit, let your mind

go beyond the contents of any thoughts you may be holding. Let it simply appreciate the space

within it. Let your mind fill with that space. If thoughts come within it, simply welcome them

and let them sit in your mind-lap for a time, then move on. Remember, you are holding them,

they are not holding you. You create and own the space they occupy. Sit in that space, be at


peace, and feel the power of your mind to be a lap.

Magical: The cup is the oldest of magical images. It is the grail of the sacred, the cauldron of

magic and wisdom, and the cooking pot that creates nourishment, the womb of life, the space

that holds the cosmos. Your lap is this space, this grail, this cauldron, this womb, and this cup.

When you sit and a lap is formed, you are in resonance with the place where transformation

can take place and new life is born.

Spiritual: Sitting, your lap is the presence of the sacred. It is a place of love, a place to receive

and comfort pain and suffering, a place of healing. In the space of your lap you are in

resonance with the primal space that holds all things and allows them to be. God is a lap! In

doing this exercise, you sit and as you do so, work through these levels of sensation, feeling,

thought, energy, and spirit, appreciating the power, the freedom, the sovereignty, and the

presence emerging from the simple act of forming a lap.

The Self-Lap Exercise

Step One: Repeat the Lap Exercise, creating a lap both physically and inwardly as a state of

mind and being. Let yourself enter a condition of holding.

Step Two: Place your self in your “lap.” Hold yourself. Gather all the parts of you that you

can think of, including those parts that you may not like so much or feel cause you problems.

You are not doing anything to these parts or selves; you are just holding. In so doing, gain a

felt sense of the will that holds you together, so to speak. There is in each of us that which is


willing to be incarnate, willing to have parts, willing to have a personality, willing to have a

body, willing to create a space and allow and hold all that makes us up. How do you

experience that?

What is the felt sense of it to you? Just let yourself be held and honored by yourself, by the

will that holds, by your own inner lap. When you feel this is complete, just stand up and let

your lap dissolve. But remember that you continue to hold yourself. As you go through your

day, encountering things in your environment that would snag and pull you apart or things in

yourself that would divide you and pull you apart, remember the will that holds. Remember

your lap. Remember to hold yourself again.

The Four-Fold Blessing

• Bless this place in which I am, with honor and gratitude for its

presence and its gifts of space.

• Bless my self, with honor and gratitude for the uniqueness of spirit,

life, insight, and creativity which I bring to the world.

• Bless others around me, seen and unseen, with honor and gratitude

for the gifts we bring to each other, for the creativity and energy that can

emerge from our collaboration.

• Bless the activity I undertake, that it may prosper and be a blessing

to all my world.

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