I struggle with my ritual—or lack thereof—around publishing these newsletters.
My usual process looks like this:
I try to ride the wave, the "zeitgeist" of that moment in my life, and feel and think about all it has me feeling/thinking about. And when my cup feels full, I will sit down to capture it all in one heavy, autopoetic session in the newsletter editor, then hit "Send."
There's no backlog, and almost never pausing and coming back to edit it at a later time. I start by being in flow. When the newsletter creation is a part of my flow, then you receive these tributaries—a little segue, a little side creek, running in tandem with my big ol' river. In tribute-ary to our ineffable interbeing, I hope you sip and grow spirited.🚰🕯️✨
Of course, this reliance on flow (and abstinence from a backlog or other supports) results in variable results when it comes to this here newsletter. If I get knocked off kilter in one way or another, the ritual loop I was building up here goes splaying out the window!🪟
For a period of weeks, nay nearly 5! months (up until last week's post), I had not written any newsletter at all—breaking the previous normal rhythm in which I'd published at least once a month. I'm not sure the reason for this, but I can identify the change-causing event. As soon as I published that last piece on leading an emergence-based life, I started working for an inspiring client company at 20 hours a week or more.
20 hours a week is a manageable amount of hours for me to be doing contract work. It really shouldn't have had the "bottom falling out" effect on my ability to even draft a newsletter for all that time. But, upon reflection: it must have.
If I had to hypothesize as to why (⬅️ such is my way!), I would guess that it's because there's a way of using my sacred life energy that is called for in the consulting work mode that currently pays my bills, that is incompatible (or simply not simpatico) with the way of being I cultivate in Fractal Praxis. I'm using different parts of my brain, my personality, my purpose/spirit, my talents and training... and there's just not a lot of crossover. Thus, even in off hours, it is difficult to make the internal segue to a completely different way of seeing, orienting, feeling, and being.
This is why, oh dear reader, I am titillated to announce to you that: through a cultivated practice of feeling and being with what's more true for me, I am going to be transitioning—gently, calmly, but firmly—into more and more of my daily life-energy going towards Fractal Praxis. The feedback my body is witnessing is undeniable, irrefutable. I know where I've come from, how much I've transformed as a result of this way, and what an important medicine this way could be for so much of us, for all of us even! ...And I cannot deny my truth once I'm aware of it at mind and body levels. I simply will not deny it, having pruned off that behavioral pathway as an invalid response many years ago and for many years running, as it necessitates breaking a sacred relationship I have with all of Life, that now, to my system, feels like a dastardly dangerous bargain with the devil. So my truth wins out, and my will aligns, like water eroding a rock face—it simply must be.
So: may I Come True, more true. May my actions and behaviors match this growing belief that I must do Fractal Praxis... A belief which makes the truth and the world I inhabit even more workable. Beliefs and behaviors are meant to be adaptive to what we locate at, and in, the Truth. So I'm not returning to this space with authenticity, with love and hope and vigor, with anything less than knowledge. I am called to share Fractal Praxis, and I do this because it is best—because it is true—because I must. (El mismo.)
I appreciate you, dear reader, for sticking with me on this journey of ...sizable ups and downs. By circling me, I am shaped by you. Shaped each time you engage in conversation with me and draw closer to the flame at the center of Fractal Praxis.
As I was reading the following article which I felt compelled to share with you, I couldn't help but think of the faces, the hearts, the minds, of each one of you who has connected with me in such deep ways over RITUAL in the past few years. Jeri, Katherine, Myntha, Kacki, Paige, Em, Bobbie, Drew, Linda, Megan, Meagan, Jordan, Ioan, Naveed, and more unnamed... You know who you are. 💛
To simply say thank you for your faithful readership and embodid participation in this unfurling pathway, I want to take a moment to share this splendid article with you, Ritual Technology by Gordon Brander from Subconscious.
Click here to read Ritual Technology piece (5 minute read)
I am so curious what this piece stirs in you! Here's a few question prompts:
What are the rituals that serve you in your current lifestyle?
What dreams / feelings / thoughts / energies are you hungry to put into a ritual space?
Which of the seven comments on the nature of ritual most readily resonated with you and aligned with your existing orientation? Which ones stirred the most confusion/aliveness in you?
What rites of passage have you experienced being enhanced through a community ritual?
This article was sent to me by Marco V Morelli, the founder of Cosmos.coop, a platform cooperative for the liberation of creative people and potentials. Marco and I worked closely together in 2017-2019 to develop the conceptual foundations of Cosmos.coop. At first, this took place within my professional capacity as a freelance organizational developer specialized in cooperatives, and then later, I stayed engaged for the deeply satisfying design challenges and creative/intellectual stimulation involved.
We labored for hours in what seemed like Infinite Conversations (the name of Cosmos' discussion forum!), envisioning how we could enrich the work-life-art balance of society, and enhance the conditions for holistic, integral thriving of creatives and their communities. If you've never before visited Cosmos.coop, I encourage you to check out what they have to offer, and maybe sign up for a supporting membership once they launch official co-op membership in the coming weeks.
Marco is also a great creative curator and editor. Thanks Marco for your support and friendship all these years! Your influence is obvious in Fractal Praxis.
Soon (I call it in!), my friends, we will have a place to discuss such readings like this article as a community, where we would get to really witness one another, and be moved by what wisdom-yet-difference we find there, that much more richly. And golly, who knows... maybe the web of our interbeing will lead its way back to weaving through the Cosmos node...
One of my increasingly favorite modalities—beating out consultant/analyst these days—is that of network weaver. I LIVE FOR MAKING ADVANTAGEOUS CONNECTIONS BETWEEN PEOPLE AND IDEAS. It really brought me pleasure to shout out Marco & Cosmos in this post, along with some of you fellow dearest friends and fans by name (I couldn't help myself!!)
I want to continue weaving with you, and even more glorious, complex tapestries of sense-making. So please, I ask, link your prayers to me today: help pray the way clears for Fractal Praxis to be a full time endeavor for me. May these bits, beats, boons, and their berth grow plump and plenteous, so that all beings may chance to be touched through the deep fractal practice of some such devoted, holistic, life-enhancing practitioners.
(...That's us!)
Our greatest dreams are with us! May the path be cleared and cleared and cleared again.
In loving friendship,
C.
