I believe that living, ecological systems and spiritual journeys share a fundamental pattern in common:
They are both about seeking wholeness.
This is probably no surprise, to people who know that the words "whole" and "holy" share the same etymological origins.
There's plenty to say about what constitutes "holiness"—a massive conversation. I don't want to engage in either speculative or substantive religious philosophical arguments here, so let's focus our attention on the simple truth and beauty of Life's observable behavior.
What makes Life (capitalized "Life" meaning "life-as-a-pattern") so consistently concerned with creating wholeness?
Your body heals when it is wounded. Your body has a sense of wholeness. Some would claim this sense of wholeness resides in the organism's DNA. However it knows, it clearly knows how to, and knows that to, repair itself. This intrinsic capacity is often properly referred to as regenerative.
Spiritual leaders / healers / shamans emerge naturally in every human society, no matter the size of society, the locale, or the time. How does a human society know that it must generate shamans for itself? Perhaps this is a basic function of a healthy human ecosystem.
Even mind has a healing, integrating, capacity. There is a part of our psyche capable of integrating information and learning or sensemaking from our experiences. It is that part of our body-minds capable of processing inputs from all different ways of knowing (sensory, rational, emotional, ancestral, etc.), and arriving at a holistic insight. I call this part intuition, and define it as, the mind's capacity to integrate. (More to come in future editions on how tapping into our intuition is akin to becoming more "whole" and aligned with life in our moment-to-moment, day-to-day living praxis.)
How does a forest ecosystem know how to, and that to, reach towards its climax state? How does the forest system "know" what wholeness looks like? I don't know if there are any cognitive explanations behind this capacity of a forest to seemingly know... nevertheless, we can see a predictable pattern: Ecosystems will reach toward attaining greater complexity, which, as far as Life is concerned, might be pretty close to wholeness.
When I first learned about systems thinking by studying sustainability in 2008, I quickly encountered this term: holism. It is a core concept that systems must be taken as wholes: that they cannot be reduced to the sum of their parts. To act holistically is to act with the whole in mind. Of course, systems thinking is highly relevant to the fields of life/ecology studies... and the fields of healing... and to the fields of culture and sociology...
What meaningful connections might arise from associating the terms holism, holiness, and wholeness?
Negentropy and the Pursuit of Wholeness
I'd like to introduce a premise from The Bones of Life, my upcoming introductory tract on the core premises underpinning Fractal Praxis. I first learned about this elegant premise through either Buckminster Fuller (he called it syntropy) or Robert Anton Wilson in his book Prometheus Rising who calls it "negentropy."
Negentropy is a defining property of life in the universe. It is a distinguishing feature, making life different from all other phenomena in the universe. Significantly: Life moves in the opposite direction of entropy (thus "negative entropy" or negentropy). That is, life seeks to organize available information and energy into forms of higher order, whereas entropy is the incontrovertible process, governed by universal laws of physics, through which materials lose energy and information over time.
This means Life's identity and directive (to which all our lives and their meanings are subordinate) can be found in its cooperating, coordinating, co-organizing behavior to create higher forms of order. This core behavior manifests as complex organisms, ecosystems, and societies... and, by some organisms' advanced nervous systems, brains.
Brains can organize an immense amount of information in an astonishingly compact space. Human brains are so complex, we are like little worlds unto ourselves. Because the meanings and memes each of us map onto our experiences in the world differ, and diversify. There are so many things that can be different about us! What wonders we are!
But if you're reading carefully, you may notice that I don't seem to be talking about life creating wholeness, but rather, life creating complexity. Life creates more highly ordered structures, and life diversifies—but that is not necessarily the same thing as wholeness. Is it? We often experience complexity in relationships and society as inner strain and fragmentation—it might feel like the opposite of being whole!
Life's supposedly all-encompassing pursuit of wholeness may feel quite distant as we witness in horror the increasing decay and disorder of so many institutions in society. As we grow more nihilistic and despairing and insecure and terrified, it may feel like entropy is winning.
Consider, though, that these systems and institutions may lack the capacity to deliver us to wholeness. Therefore, maybe it is time for a meaningful disruption, a stirring up of the status quo, that is capable of allowing a more whole form of living society to emerge—composting "what's ready to die" in our society and turning it into new food for "what's ready to live." (CPE).
I will expand more on how Life desires and benefits from complexity in future publications.
What does wholeness mean for me in the second half of my life?
I am reflecting deeply on this question at this time. And what is coming up for me is: following through on the gifts and the callings I've received.
I've garnered many spiritual empowerments over the years. I've accumulated earnest thinking into mountains of memos, years deep. To bring all of this bounty to bear beauty in the world, in the same spirit in which it was created, is my ultimate task before I, ultimately, pass.
In the thick of ceremony recently, seeing a clear path for my life's work took an astonishing twist.
Ministry...
In the faith of the lines that open this newsletter, and, in creation's perfect trickster humor and awe—it is looking like ministry might be the path for me.
After all... I am working on forming a church. In collaboration with an inspired team of local social permaculture designers. The unnamed space at 29th and Julian in Denver is a venue and an amplifier for my calling to get its footing.
This space is a result of my dreaming and calling-in, and, it is beyond my wildest dreams. It is a place that will combine my 10 years of experience as a cooperative organizations and business designer AND my monastic-like devotion to pursuing intuition/spirit and being of service to others. I cannot wait to share more about this project with you in newsletters very soon!
... and Services
I am trying to get organized enough to produce Fractal Praxis writings in a systematic way. There are many challenges to this, a primary one being that I do not get paid to do Fractal Praxis yet, and I do not have the privilege to simply not earn money. Also, I lack any institutional supports around me, like a university.
However, a new medium for teaching and guiding Fractal Praxis opened up for me during the Independence Day/Reversal Medicine trip that I shared about in my last newsletter. The new medium is sermons.
The more I deepen into the idea of forming cooperative churches and leading community resilience building ministries, the less strange it seems to acknowledge that I want to preach Fractal Praxis. I want to orate these teachings, in my "channel mode," with people, practicing presence, and very live. I want to embody it, as well as to "logic" it out. I want to express and unfurl it in intimate community ceremonial spaces, augmented by music and prayer/trance, as much as I want to publish and distribute these ideas worldwide.
I've known for a while that how I do Fractal Praxis must always have an embodied element, not just an intellectual one. Until now I've interpreted that as: facilitating ritual spaces, providing education, and providing coaching. But now I see a medium that ties all of this together into a magical little package: crafting original spirit-empowering, mind-altering services containing sermons.
I hope to share much more on these emerging opportunities in future newsletters! Thank you all for hopping onboard this ultimate ride of emergence with me.
My Ask
Beloved community, I know you are watching and listening to see what becomes of this bold path called Fractal Praxis.
There are about 30 people on my subscribers list, and about 20 of you have opened every single one of these newsletters so far. I am so grateful and humbled for that.
So: I yearn and need to hear from you. What do you want to see more of from Fractal Praxis? What are your top interests and callings in this realm?
I ask that you please fill out this five-minute survey to help me learn more of what would fill your cup. 🍵🙏
My Gift
Here is a sample from my song-poetic-preach mode from my most recent ceremony. This was recorded in the chapel room of the unnamed 29th space—a reverberating testimony to beauty, amplified by the magical acoustics of that space. It is an emergent song-prayer dedicated to the Goddess and to her reminder to us in these distressing times, that "even more beauty is possible."
Listen to "Beauty" on SoundCloud
The track has been uploaded to my soundcloud, which I call an audio altar. I treat my soundcloud page as an audio altar because I upload ritual song snippets on there as an offering, just like you'd put food into an offering bowl on your physical altar. Please feel free to explore past offerings or bookmark that page to find out about new posts.
Next Celtic Wheel of the Year ritual space: Lughnasadh/Lammas
I am pleased to announce that the next Celtic WotY ritual space is:
🌻🌽🌟Lughnasadh/Lammas🌟🌽🌻
Sunday July 31st, 7pm, at the 29th space! (3401 W 29th Ave, Denver, CO, 80211).
For this space I am collaborating with local permaculturist and healer woman Linda Zizlavski of Body Centered Wisdom. Among many talents and skills, she is known for convening community gatherings of permaculturists on the equinoxes and solstices, through the now-defunct Denver Permaculture Guild. Making this a very natural collaboration, indeed! 🗓️🐚
We are still crafting the exact program for this ritual space. It is going to be intense and intensive, dealing with themes of heat, waiting/uncertainty, grief, sacrifice, and moving from our fears into our hopes.
So far, these Celtic WotY community ritual spaces have been gifted, and that is still true. However, for the remaining four spaces of the year, I am putting the ask upfront: Please donate in order to reserve your spot in the ritual space.
It costs us energy, money and years of training to put on these sacred, special events. This time, I am asking for your donations upfront and directly, instead of passively. To RSVP, simply select a donation amount that feels authentic and good to you, and get your tickets!
As always you can keep up with upcoming events from my new website, on the events calendar.
In closing,
I am eager for your feedback so I can keep growing. Your feedback will help the parts of me live that need to live, and die that need to die. I am eternally grateful for your witnessing.
Love and reverence,
C.
