What is a Transition?
What I’m referring to when I speak of transition are inner psycho-spiritual shifts of consciousness. These give rise to an authentic life, a commitment to meaningful work and contribution in the world, and the possibility of a co-created new culture which serves life. Each of us experiences transitions in our own unique way and no two transitions are ever the same. In that sense we are always beginners. However, there is a common ground and the possibility for a common language. This is what Tribe in Transition seeks to facilitate and serve by exploring the whole spectrum of transition, from inner shifts through to the making of a new culture. We offer stimulus materials to inspire exploration and inquiry; programmes focusing on skills and practices; and community circles where we can come together for deep discovery conversations.
You Experience a Growing Desire for “Something More”
A transition often makes itself felt through disruption, disillusionment or discontent. You no longer fit into the life you have been living, the identity you have inhabited, your relationships, or the structures of the work you have been doing. You may feel restless, constrained, isolated and full of longing for “something more”. The Saturn Return around the age of 28, and the mid-life crisis which typically occurs around the age of 40, are common examples of life transitions which disrupt the established order to make space for the authentic self to emerge. For many people at this time this desire for something more is activated by the deteriorating conditions in the world.
The Awakening of Consciousness can arise spontaneously, through spiritual practice, through unexpected events like a death or a natural disaster, in moments of great beauty in nature, or breakthroughs in creative work. The veils of normality are ripped apart to reveal a bigger perspective, accompanied by feelings of love, inspiration and belonging. The longing for “something more” now becomes a vision of something more. Such experiences often take time to integrate and understand and, in the short term, may lead to disillusionment and disruption. The old lifestyle now feels unbearably constricting or based upon false premises and comes apart to make way for the new.
You Set Out on the Quest
Your longing and vision now become a quest. Painfully aware of the gap between where you are and where you long to be, you set out to find the skills, resources, people and answers that will end your suffering. The work of transformation begins with healing and deconstruction. As you empty yourself of everything which no longer serves your higher vision and desire, you gradually learn to live in the unknown without your familiar habits and attachments.
The Soul Journey Calls
Over time, you are called to enter your Soul Journey and to make a deeper and more sustained commitment to the realisation of wholeness and self-liberation. This courageous adventure to discover authentic being is a healing journey which takes you into the depths of self, with all its mystery and shadows. By now there is an understanding that you have a wise guide within – the soul or the authentic self – as well as a unique direction and purpose – and you become willing to do whatever it takes to align your everyday self with the soul’s purpose. Rather than being focused only on achieving goals and outcomes in the world, the journey and the process of learning become the primary focus and source of meaning; and the journey itself becomes the goal.
You Discover Your Soul Work
While the Soul Journey is the process of becoming all of who we are, our Soul Work is the vehicle to carry us forward. Our Soul Work is the deepest contract we have made with life in order to fulfil our unique destiny as a healthy cell in the body of humanity, Earth and Cosmos. The form of our soul work and our understanding of what we are called to do evolve over time. As we engage consciously with healing, creativity and relationship we develop our transformational skills.
You Sit with Death and Choose Life
Death can come in the form of losing someone you love, facing your own mortality, or letting go of a layer of the old identity which you have outgrown and no longer serves life. As you develop the essential skills of being in the unknown, and coming to completion and integration, you mov towards mastery of the process of transition and transformation .
You Commit to Creative Empowerment
As we develop our meaning, purpose and direction, we withdraw our energy from what is not working in our lives, and in the world, and instead focus wholeheartedly on what we choose to create, in alignment with our authentic values. In this way we become pro-active and empowered. As we become more focused on creation, we become more fulfilled and experience more deeply the interconnected web of consciousness, energy and intelligence that runs through all life. The synchronicities of life reveal an intrinsic harmony which in turn may lead to a deepening curiosity and trust in the creative process.
We Take Responsibility for Evolving Co-Creative Culture
As we realise our own essential wholeness, we come to know that life is one seamless interconnected and evolving field of energy and intelligence. Each of us is a cell in the body of humanity, in the body of the Earth and the Cosmos, and we each have a unique part to play in the evolution of the greater wholes of which we are part. With this realisation we naturally make the shift from self interest to serving others and uplifting the culture; from “me” to “we”. Recognising the power of grassroots change, and the necessity for us all to learn to live together and share planetary resources, opportunities arise for accelerated creativity and learning, mutual support, conscious relationship and sharing resources. We accept the responsibility to refine our gifts and skills, to bring forth new attitudes, s and creative solutions to humanity’s problems.
We Expand into Universal Consciousness
We come to know that, not only are we each a cell in the body of humanity, but we are living cells in the interconnected energetic web of a finely balanced and limitless Universal Intelligence. We are called to be co-creators within that: learning how to receive, flow with, express, embody and bring Universal Intelligence into form.