During the month of February I had planned on posting a substantial Instagram campaign all about the establishing ideas of Fractal Praxis. The memes you "need to know" to begin working with Fractal Praxis.
For reasons unforeseen, this project has been temporarily shelved. But that doesn't mean that you, 📖beloved subscribers📖, should have to miss out on it!
Fractal Praxis' Foundations
Here's the thing. The philosophy I've developed as Fractal Praxis' foundation is quite simple. Deceptively elegant, peculiarly enlightening, and yet also, profoundly defensible (from an academic/philosophical argument perspective).
Dear readers, I'll give you a condensed preview now. (And please do follow me on Instagram so when the campaign comes out one day, you can help spread it far and wide!)
- We are Life.
- Each and every living being represents a fractal of the core patterning found in Life. By "Life" I mean, life as a whole, or life as a system.
- Life functions to create more conditions for itself (its various life forms) to thrive.
- This is a core principle and behavior in life-as-a-system's design. It is true across all variety/diversity of life forms. Basically: Life is inherently structured in such a way as to try to produce more aliveness, more conditions for life, across everything life comes into contact with.
- Complexity, in general, increases the conditions for life to thrive. So, Life produces and prefers complexity.
- Life achieves this agenda through a process of being, which is, simultaneously and intrinsically, a process of learning, sense-making, and meaning-making.
- The Santiago School Theory of Cognition states that the process of Being and the process of Cognition are inseparable, one and the same. Specifically: "Living systems are cognitive systems, and living as a process is a process of cognition. This statement is valid for all organisms, with or without a nervous system."
- Cognition here is a process of learning-and-adaptation. This takes place at the scale of bodies (genetic mutation, evolutionary niche definition, gene activation, specialization, etc.), and also, at the scale of minds (what we typically think of as "cognitive" structures).
- Learning, sense-making, and meaning-making are all related and similar processes, which I will lump together here to orient us toward what it is I'm claiming we "must" do.
- Check out the article, "What Is Fractal Praxis?" for more on this perspective.
- We are this! This core patterning—the very foundation of our common existence as living beings in living systems—signifies the most unifying reality conceivable. In a world of increasing discombobulation and disarray, this orientation holds immense power to reorganize who and what we understand ourselves to be, and as a result, how we must act.
- When we start acting like who/what we TRULY are at our core, we unleash a multiplier effect on our power to meaningfully BENEFIT our lives and our fellow beings across all systems in holistic ways.
- We can act in ways that tangibly reduce separation and improve right relationship, through a commitment to understanding and acting from the "interbeing" and awareness of the shared intelligence-making process that defines our ongoing existences.
- We will become sustainably energized and motivated to engage in reparative, restorative, and regenerative work, throughout our lives and at every scale of our existences. This means developing skillful interventions at every scale of influence we have available to us—from our personal worldviews and spirituality, to our interpersonal social realities, to our patterns of community interaction and material consumption, all the way up to our collective impact in global systems of governance, economics, and policy.
- We will forge ourselves into warriors on behalf of Life's complexity, devoting to tasks like defending wild lands and oceans, preserving species diversity, restoring lands, protecting indigenous cultures, fighting for the integrity of information with which our populace and governments make substantial decisions, and more... While also avidly seeking out and leveraging the diverse knowledges we come across to continually refine, strengthen, and sharpen our own particular worldview, causing us to become ever-more effective, adaptive and esteemed leaders/models within our communities.
- Best of all: We will unleash the cooperative power of the ecosystems we co-exist within, for a "tailwind"/"wind in the sails" effect on our efforts! There is no more satisfying experience on Earth than that of a reunifying "flow state" in which we sense we are working WITH "what wants to happen" in mysterious collaboration with our fellow beings/kin/ecosystems. It's a path of very little cognitive dissonance when you're moving in line with what life seems to want for and from you. This is a subtle magic, and one that is highly satisfying, worth cultivating!
- By acting more like life, we abstain from indulging in false stories of self and acting on our cynical, nihilistic parts. Instead we, ultimately and significantly, reduce cognitive dissonance throughout the world, and improve the harmony/"fit" of all parts of the world.
- The bottom line? When we choose to "amplify" this pattern at the center of who/what we are, by "conditioning" (purposely training) ourselves to better embody the truths and behaviors required, we therefore become REGENERATIVE PRESENCES in every one of our relations, across all scales. Or, if you prefer this language, we become AGENTS OF LIFE, capable of increasing the "life" or aliveness factors in every single one of the systems we touch.
The One True Way? And Not.
Now, as passionately anti-dogmatic as I am, I will come outright and admit that there is a claim of "the one way" in Fractal Praxis. The "one way" would be to embrace learning and evolution holistically and devote ourselves to increasing the life factor in every system that constitutes us.
If there's a "one way," it's because I believe Life models to us this universal, invariable PATTERN, giving all of life's diversity a core identity in the cosmos. And that this elegant yet widely-used pattern holds the key to improving everything—or, everything that makes "life worth living."
So yes, there is "one true way." And in saying that, I acknowledge that this claim is the basis of any religion. And I acknowledge that claiming there's one true Way, inherently, can be dangerous.
And: In Fractal Praxis there is NOT one true way.
Because each being, awakened to their own natures, must PRACTICE this, and must strive to BRING their truer selves TO BEAR in this world, and this process is never finished. In reality. It is a praxis, not a dogma. Each being must increase, expand, enhance, and engage vigorously in their sense-making and meaning-making activities. However that looks will only function to diversify this world, and enrich its complexity—even as we may also experience a kind of unifying "synthesis" effect of aligning ourselves with Life/each other on principle and praxis.
There is NOT one true way because nothing about this way suggests uniformity in the practice OR its outcomes. Rather, you becoming even more you means that you will highly individuate... AND, you will become highly more harmonious and "fit" to your environments.
So, no, you do not need to ascribe to the tenets of Fractal Praxis to be a fractal practitioner. In fact, a fractal practitioner would vigorously and critically examine and engage with these claims—to try to suss out how and whether these ideas contribute to their greater survival/thriving factor. Yum! Let's get into it! Conversation is one of the very BEST means to sense-making. 😄
And on that note: Get comfortable with paradox and irreconcilable, co-existing truths! It's one on of the core skill sets necessary to dive deeper and deeper into the TRUTH of all kinds of things in life!
Ready To Dive Deeper? Join the first-ever Fractal Praxis Embodiers Circle!
If you appreciate the worldview shared here, and are feeling called to join me and others in a deeper practice and study of what this means to our lives, ✨✨a new opportunity to do so is emerging. ✨✨
I am preparing to launch The Embodiers Circle, a curated membership program featuring mutual witness-and-support meet-ups for fractal practitioners, hosted and guided by yours truly. Learn more about the Embodiers Circle here.
The Circle is formulated to unlock a depth of witness, study, and practice for fractal "practitioners." Circle members will not only be the first to test out new teachings/trainings/workshops on various methods within Fractal Praxis. But also, and perhaps even more importantly, the Circle will be emergently and responsively designed for the unique needs, efforts, pursuits, struggles, and yearnings of the group's individual participants. In other words: the container is ALIVE and we CO-CREATE it.
Yes, I do believe we are powerful enough to empower ourselves and act as our own skillful filters. I believe this and this is modeled in the designs of my offerings.
By gathering in small groups, where each can be seen and heard, we center the power of dialogue to actually transform the meanings of what's unfolding in each person's life.
We foster a space of wonder, of witness, and of encounter, where crucial clarity can spontaneously "synthesize" through us like a lightning bolt.
A circle where our belonging to all of nature is found within us, around us, and also through exactly what arises (and doesn't), what gets spoken (and doesn't), what gets known/heard (and doesn't).
The (literally magical) modes of dialogue and conversation make this possible.
You bring your aliveness—what's "alive" for you. We ENGAGE it. And we shape change—our own, and one another's. This way, we go far DEEPER than any one individual or leader could make possible. We give up prescriptive structure in favor of responsive, emergent, living, co-created results. Community wisdom is often the greatest wisdom, if facilitated properly—this I know-in-my-bones from over a decade of experience working with cooperatives and other community-led organizations. I want us to harness our "collective genius" into a coven-like cauldron of transformative witness, intensified learning, and palpable growth.
This is why, for just $26 per month, the Embodier membership represents one of the best values in any/all of Fractal Praxis' offerings. Plus, I'm thrilled to report that this past week a second brave soul has stepped up to be Embodier Member #2. And we're looking to grow!
I have a goal of signing up ✨13 more✨ Embodier Members by March 26th. Will you become one of them?
Click here to sign up for the Embodiers Membership now by choosing the Embodiers Membership button on this page.
Not sure if this is for you, or have any questions? Send me a message and I'd be happy to discuss any and all thoughts/feelings/qualms with you!
After March 26th, the first iteration (the first formal Circle within the Embodiers Circle membership) will close. So make sure you join now if you want to be a part of the first brave excursion of Embodiers!
And if there is someone else you know popping into your mind, trust that impulse and please take two minutes to forward this message with a personal note to someone you know who you think maybe IS ready to become an inaugural member of the Fractal Praxis Embodiers Circle.
As always, thank you for blessing me with your witness. There is so much more to come together. And to come... Together.
Love,
C.