Heartpolitix
These are perilous times. What if we step out of "the usual" to bring our insights, skills and uncertainties together, holding our glimpses of what is seeking to emerge lightly?
What does a heartfelt, reflective, supportive, empowering, transcontextual inquiry and community look like? And how do you feel when you're taking new shape?
Hpx North America
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Gathering 2024 - "It Is Time Now"
Walker Creek, Petaluma, CA: Fri 16 - 20 August
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YOU'RE INVITED
Why might this gathering be helpful?
Its about presence, Open Space, Warm Data, Böhmian dialogue, regenerative culture and place. Strengthening connection and community, reimagining social change ...
what does heart politics mean?
Perhaps, its easiest to share a story.
There's a couple of monks walking by a river.
Suddenly one monk sees someone swept along and struggling in the flow. He dives in and saves them. This happens again. And again.
When yet another person is swept by he jumps in as before. Swimming them to safety he sees his fellow monk throw off her shoes and start running back, upstream.
Where are you going, he yells.
I’m going to do what I can to stop them from falling in, she calls back.
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It seems we are pretty good at offering ways out of the water (although not all bring us to safety), but what really got us into it has yet to be made really clear and fully engaged with.
Of course we must keep dragging people out when they shout, but until we go upstream to tackle some unexamined foundations of the dominant paradigm more and more of us will be left drifting: ungrounded, terrified, confused and disillusioned.
——
What does it mean to head upstream at this time?
How might our work/approach/life/world be changed through the various reflections such a question poses?
What shoes might we need to throw off if we are to head upstream swiftly?
What is making it's presence felt?
What support do we have to offer?
And what support might we need?
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Walker Creek Ranch is a 1700 acre site, on unceded lands of the Coastal Miwok people in what is now Marin County. As well as being a beautiful place with a very welcoming team, it is ideal for this North American gathering because it is a homecoming of sorts. Fran Peavey, local Bay Area author, comedian and activist, generously gifted the name of her book, Heart Politics, when HPx Gatherings began in Aotearoa/New Zealand in 1989. Heartpolitix reflects and celebrates what it might mean to restore "heart" to a leading position in all our relationships. For example -
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What is it that these times require of us that we can’t yet know?
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What if everything we have been doing is somewhat useful and somewhat captured by the old?
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What does our work/life/approach/world look like when we put down our most familiar lenses?
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What is ours to tend? And how are we tended?
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How do we best strengthen an emerging ecology of insight without becoming trapped again…and again?
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How do we return heart to front and centre in all our relationships, including politics, when hearts are aching and politics is divisive?
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How should we track and support ourselves and our communities when "the familiar is dying”?
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What does this mean for “vision”, “healing” and “activism”
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What is “radical hope” in such times?
These questions change with contexts and do not have 'fixed" answers. However, as we reflect upon them and share our personal and professional experiences of them, currents and qualities may emerge that are key notes to what may be emerging. It helps to have some good listeners ...
Keynote Listeners - Summer 2024
Keynote Listeners are usually no strangers to keynote speaking. So we invite them to enjoy some different time, checking in with the group and each other, listening to where whispers in the collective aether of the Gathering meld with other, wider, perhaps even wilder communications. We will invite them to share their noticings during the weekend, and - of course - they may choose to offer something of their work during Open Space.... or not!
Ojo de la tormenta
Cuando se derriten los glaciares,
incendios surgen, tormentas azotan
y los ríos se desbordan,
y guerra inflige sufrimiento y muerte,
¿donde en nosotros encontraremos
el ojo de la tormenta, la quietud viva
de donde estar y actuar?
Desgarrado que esté el corazón,
un punto de calma se debe asegurar.
Algunos le llaman fe o amor o ambos.
El ave de la paz anida allí,
en el pecho de la Gran Madre,
calentada por el sol,
acunada por el arco iris
que une todo en su armonía,
la alegría en las adujas de la calamidad.
Esa es nuestra ancla,
nuestra mantra, nuestra yantra
para fijar la consciencia cuando la mente,
en una vorágine, amenaza con la locura.
Eye of the Storm
When glaciers melt,
wildfires rage, storms whip,
and rivers flood,
and war wreaks suffering and death,
where in ourselves will we find
the eye of the storm, the live stillness
from which to be, from which to act?
Torn though the heart be,
a point of calm must be secured.
Some call it faith, or love, or both.
The bird of peace nests there,
on the breast of the Great Mother,
warmed by the sun,
cradled by the rainbow
that unites all in its harmony,
joy in the fakes of calamity.
That is our anchor,
our mantra, our yantra
to fix awareness when the mind,
in a maelstrom, threatens madness.
© Rafael Jesús González 2024
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Gracias de corazón, Rafael Jesús González
Get Inspired
Maybe the Keynote Listeners have inspired you. Maybe you're wondering what you could ask to learn at such a Gathering. Maybe you have something to share - a workshop, activity, conversation, inquiry or process - that may be useful to others. Maybe you want to lead a nature trail, birdwatch, or simply read poems in the long grass. Maybe you have some instruments or art or craft materials. Or something else entirely.
We're looking forward to sharing possibilities and creating together with you... see you at the Ranch!
Deep Ecologist, John Seed; probably about to sing
The Universe Song,
HPx Kauaeranga Valley,Aotearoa
Hosting 2024
The 2024 HPx Gathering was generated from conversations between members of of the Climate Psychology Alliance, MBMS Constellation and the somewhat obscure and very informal Happy Hour at the Bates Motel group. We soon discovered a shared desire to move beyond the all-too-familiar vehicle of online meeting.
We look forward to greeting you at Walker Creek! In the meantime, reach out with any questions.
The day will come when, after harnessing the ether, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness the energies of Love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire.
Teilhard du Chardin
The sort of renegade who is willing to hold the door open for the next system must be brave enough to dissatisfy the hungry ghost of linear strategy. The things we are looking for look nothing like the things we think we are looking for.
Nora Bateson
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Registration Information
Comfortable and affordable accomodation, ranging from RV and tent sites through to shared and private rooms private, and superb onsite catering will make the Gathering memorable for all attenders.
Gathering cost, including accomodation and all meals, ranges from: $500 to $1050.
For details on scholarships and a breakdown on costs - click here.
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