In June of 2006 I read David Korten’s book The Great Turning, from Empire to Earth Community. I got it as a gift for being a supporter of the Positive Futures Network.
Human development does not proceed in a linear, hierarchical fashion, but through multiple self-organizing centers that connect. The same image governs the metamorphosis of caterpillar into butterfly. David Korten and Elisabet Sahtouris offer this as an image of how we humans are performing the Great Turning, which is a term coined by Joanna Macy: “The Great Turning is a name for the essential adventure of our time: the shift from the Industrial Growth Society to a life sustaining civilization.”
Circle Dancing last night was really good. People kept coming until we had a huge group. Maybe 17? I wanted to do some dances for air/Gemini, also Sunrise and Danza Solar to encourage the sun to come out, we did Maize and These Are the Days to encourage summer. I told them something about “The Great Turning” and Empire vs. Earth Community. We did Dandelion and We Shall Overcome to express the crumbling of Empire, and Community Dance to celebrate Earth Community and then we went on to do “O Brother” — a dance with attitude! It felt wonderful, it felt like we had done a good piece of work in service to the growth of Earth Community.