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“Occupy Jenny”?

Posted on October 31, 2011 by jenny

In a bodywork session in January 2008 I had an experience that, in retrospect, sounds an awful lot like what Eve Ensler described for Occupy Wall Street: “I had the fortune to spend the night with a group of about 30 occupiers – the talk could have gone on through the early morning. The depth of the conversation, the intensity of the seeking, the complexity of ideas were startling. But, what moved me even more was the respect, the way people listened to each other and honored and appreciated each other.” It was posted on February 20, 2010. Now I wonder: does this represent the “Occupy Jenny” movement? Am I going to turn into a butterfly?

Paying attention to the tight place in my belly, to when it loosens, flaps, bubbles up with my breathing, and when it tightens. This is my dowsing rod, my guide, helping me to identify which of the multitudes of voices inside are speaking at any time: the indigenous ones who trust the wisdom of the body, the ones who know what I need for healing, the white male oppressors who complain this is not “scientific”, and all the little traumatized children who are afraid of the process. The multitudes grew into a huge crowd with placards and banners. I had a sense of parts of me disintegrating, a sensation familiar from Somatic Experiencing, which I used to find scary, but now welcome as an indication of healing. Old frozen patterns are breaking up like ice in spring. In the crowd, people began talking to each other: arguing, discussing, negotiating, communicating. I became curious about the ones who were on the side of the disbelievers, the oppressors. After a long moment, two figures shuffled forward. Shriveled versions of Mom & Dad. I understood that all the oppressive voices were frightened children desperate for security. I found myself saying: I disagree with you, but I keep a space open for you because you are part of the whole. I could feel my acceptance of all the dark rigid pieces inside me and I became whole. I am the planet — there are elephants in my bloodstream. Kevin asked “what does that feel like in your body?” A sense of wholeness, really filling out my skin, denseness and texture inside. Not heavier, but more alive.

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The World-wide Sacred Civilization

Posted on October 28, 2011 by jenny

“Imagine for a moment a world-wide sacred civilization. Imagine people living in harmony and goodwill with their neighbors, and in a state of material prosperity. Imagine people having satisfying work to do, and having time for artistic pursuits or games or sports or just interesting visits with each other. Imagine being able to travel anywhere on the planet, without passports and without fear, not because a homogeneous civilization has been imposed by a planetary state, but because people are in touch with their universal kinship. Imagine that when you went to different parts of the world you found people and clothing and food and music that were different from what you had at home. And imagine that all of this was founded on a sense of reverence and joy in living on the earth and sharing the cycles of the seasons. If this description touches a chord within you, if you find yourself saying “Yes, this is the way it’s supposed to be,” then you can attest to the archetype of the planetary sacred civilization as part of your own heritage.”
The Feminine of History is Mystery, p 122.
(That was written before 1984. If I were writing it now, I would add “and dances” to the list of things we’d find in different places, and I would add “being in nature” to the list of what we’d have time for.)

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Occupy Planet Earth

Posted on October 27, 2011 by jenny

“Occupy together” is not just about banks, or finances, it is people angry and upset about “injustice and inequity and poverty and Wall Street corruption and soaring college debt and unemployment and homelessness, institutionalized racism and violence against women, the murdering of the earth, fracking and the keystone pipeline and the wars that the US has waged on other countries that have destroyed them and bankrupted us here.” (Eve Ensler)

What excites me about the Occupy Movement is that it doesn’t have a goal, or a vision, it’s not a protest, it’s a whole new thing. It’s a community BEING the change they want to see in the world. It can’t be bought, can’t be co-opted by the special interests that have bought our government….

A while back some people wrote about what government meant, what it should do, where its legitimate power comes from. They said that all human beings are created equal, and have certain basic rights, the right to life, to freedom, and to pursue the dream that most satisfies their hearts. They said that governments are created to make sure that these rights do not get watered down or ignored, and that government is given its power by THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED. They went on to say that if any government becomes DESTRUCTIVE OF THESE ENDS, it is the RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO ALTER OR ABOLISH IT.

Do these words sound familiar? They ought to, especially the words in capitals, which are a direct quote from The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

For the last 5 years or so, when I’m feeling hopeless, I go to the video of Paul Hawken addressing the Bioneers Conference in 2006. I just visited it again to confirm my suspicion, that he’s describing the Occupy Movement, and got goosebumps. He talks about an “unnamed movement” — “the very word ‘movement’ is too small to describe it.” “It is non-violent…grassroots.. a male vertebrate is not in charge” “No one started it, no one is in charge of it, there is no orthodoxy..” “global, classless, unquenchable, tireless…” “It is a civil rights movement, a human rights movement, a democracy movement — it is the coming world.”

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Hope for the Future

Posted on October 24, 2011 by jenny

I’ve been reading a book called “The Better Angels of Our Nature; why violence has declined.” His argument is based on statistics from the 1400’s to the present, and his argument is impressive. I’m a little over a third of the way through it, in a chapter called “The Long Peace”. This book gives me more hope than I’ve ever had.

I’ve also been made hopeful by the “Occupy” movement. Some kind of self-organization is happening and it’s creating a new kind of organism, just as long ago hydrocarbon molecules self-organized into living cells. This is not just a protest, or maybe not even a protest, it’s a new way of being together.

Without a microphone, how do you communicate?

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Imaginal Cells

Posted on October 19, 2011 by jenny

How does the caterpillar become a butterfly? The actual process is not as simple as I once imagined it: sort of like those computer techniques that can morph a woman into a lion and then a bird just by lengthening some lines and shrinking others. Once the caterpillar is safe in its cocoon, its body melts down into total chaos. In the chaos are found “imaginal cells” which are like the “seeds” of the butterfly. They begin to grow into specific butterfly parts which begin to connect, finally forming the body and wings of the butterfly.
I don’t remember where I first heard of this. When I tried to look it up on the internet, I found either extremely scientific articles that I could barely understand, or people who were already using this process as a metaphor for what’s happening on the planet.

This comes from Anodea Judith’s website:
“Within the chrysalis a miracle occurs. Tiny cells, that biologists actually call “imaginal cells,” begin to appear. These cells are wholly different from caterpillar cells, carrying different information, vibrating to a different frequency–the frequency of the emerging butterfly. At first, the caterpillar’s immune system perceives these new cells as enemies, and attacks them, much as new ideas in science, medicine, politics, and social behavior are viciously denounced by the powers now considered mainstream. But the imaginal cells are not deterred. They continue to appear, in even greater numbers, recognizing each other, bonding together, until the new cells are numerous enough to organize into clumps. When enough cells have formed to make structures along the new organizational lines, the caterpillar’s immune system is overwhelmed. The caterpillar body then become a nutritious soup for the growth of the butterfly.”

This one comes from the website of Skye Thomas
“After a caterpillar buries itself inside its cocoon, it waits to morph into a butterfly. The caterpillar does not simply shrink a bit and sprout wings. Instead, it sort of disintegrates into a puddle of ooze within the cocoon. If we were to open the cocoon halfway through the process, we would not find a half-caterpillar half-butterfly type creature, but a blob of goop. The goop is made up of a bunch of individual cells that are all basically the same type of oozy cells. For whatever reason, after the caterpillar has turned into ooze, a new type of cells start appearing. The original ooze cells are NOT changing into these new cells, but rather the new cells seem to come out of nowhere. They just appear out of thin air so to speak.”

You can check this out yourself: just search for “imaginal cells”

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Occupy Oakland

Posted on October 18, 2011 by jenny

This is an article by Miki Kashtan of Bay Area NVC. NVC stands for NonViolent Communication as developed by Marshall Rosenberg. The article is well worth reading.

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Occupy Boston with Dance

Posted on October 18, 2011 by jenny

Occupy Boston with American Prayer

Keep watching & you will get to see them dance.

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“A Gorgeous, Mischievous Moment…”

Posted on October 14, 2011 by jenny

I’m on an e-list of people who have taken Jalaja Bonheim’s Circlework Training. Jalaja has been doing work in Israel, for years, with circles of women, containing both Israeli and Palestinian Women.

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 1:41 PM, Joan Kiley wrote:
This article is so beautiful, written from the heart, about the heart, in support of the “movement.” It’s by Eve Ensler. I hope you’ll check it out.
Love,
Joan

Quotes from Eve Ensler – Reader Supported News
“I have been watching and listening to all kinds of views and takes on Occupy Wall Street. Some say it’s backed by the Democratic Party. …. Some say its Communist, some say it’s class warfare. Some say it will burn out and add up to nothing. Some say it’s just a bunch of crazy hippies who may get violent.
“I have been spending time down at Zucotti Park and I am here to offer a much more terrifying view. What is happening cannot be defined. It is happening. It is a happening. It is a response to injustice and inequity and poverty and Wall Street corruption and soaring college debt and unemployment and homelessness, institutionalized racism and violence against women, the murdering of the earth, fracking and the keystone pipeline and the wars that the US has waged on other countries that have destroyed them and bankrupted us here.
“It is a cry against what appears to be scarcity and what Naomi Klein calls a distribution problem and, I would add, a priority problem. It is a spontaneous uprising that has been building for years in our collective unconscious. It is a gorgeous, mischievous moment that has arrived and is spreading. It is a speaking out, coming out, dancing out. It is an experiment and a disruption.
“We all know things are terribly wrong in this country. From the death of our rivers, to the bankruptcy of our schools to our failed health care system, something at the center does not hold.”

On 10/11/11 11:32 PM, Aura Hammer wrote:
Thanks Joan. I don’t know if you women know about what’s going on here in Israel, but we’ve been doing this all summer and it’s been the most exciting summer (since the summer of 67…). What Eve Ensler wrote has been going on in other places for months now, and it’s very exciting to feel it spreading to America as well. Jalaja, you have been speaking for a few years now about the spread of circle work as expressed by Paul Hawken in the book you gave me (Blessed Unrest) (it’s just about my bible!) – and THIS IS IT – the world is awakening, circles are everywhere. As part of the Israeli protests, we had one Saturday night where 1000 circles happened everywhere in the country at once, connected by internet, but people with people – old, young, all walks of life, came to speak their hearts, their concerns, their wishes, at the same time. The energy was so incredible that it still continues!. Even tho most of our tents have come down, people are still talking – in circles – and not in circles… people are expressing, being heard, a new/old kind of democracy or, as i see it, the beginning of something even newer and older – matriarchy. what’s also wonderful for me is that this is being created by young people, but – as opposed to the ’60’s – it’s not against the older generation – the older generation is fully part of it, the young people listen to their elders and the elders listen to the wisdom of the young….i’m so glad to be alive, and to feel the connections being woken!
hug
aura

On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 5:57 PM, Joan Kiley wrote:
Hello Aura,
Thank you so much for sharing about this exciting movement in Israel! I love to read about the young and old together, generations feeling their connections. Last night I listened to a man who talked about the same thing happening at Occupy Wall Street, the questioning, the listening, the respectfulness between generations, truly trying to understand one another.
Yes, I can’t imagine a more exciting time to be living. And when I view photos of the OWS gathering and discussion groups, so often it is of circles.
Love,
Joan

From Aura
one important detail i forgot to mention: it was started by a young woman(!), a film student named Dafni Liff (Scroll down to her speech). When we had a huge demonstration in Tel Aviv, of 450,000 people, she spoke and told the reason why she began this: she said that she had a friend who committed suicide, no specified reason, but her reaction to this was the amazing decision to work to stop despair. so she gathered some friends, put up a tent, and the rest is history. so this is not just about social and economic justice, not just about changing democracy, this is about treating society as a whole, this is about healing the world…

See Paul Hawken: “It’s the earth, talkin back, wakin up… It is global, classless, unquenchable, tireless….”

See my post on Dancing in the Streets

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Gratitude

Posted on October 12, 2011 by jenny

(Written in May 2011)
Lately I’ve had blowing through me an enormous rush of gratitude for depression and PTSD, because it kept me from falling into the numerous pitfalls that are available in our culture. I’m not sure where this has come from. Maybe from Ram Dass, Still Here, where he recounts all his attachments to roles. This was a surprise to me, I thought he’d done more spiritual work than that. Also Byron Katie — the beliefs that people need to work their way through, that I’ve already dropped. Maybe it’s Ram Dass talking about the difficulties of aging, especially the loss of roles like “productive worker”, the attempts to hang on to youth through exercise, surgery, hair dye, etc. And I think I’ve really been lucky. I remember my first grey hairs at age 28, and feeling proud of them. “I’ve earned them.” I’ve had some difficulties with the waning of my energy, but then that’s been an issue for so long and I’ve been working on letting go of the pushpushpush. Even the waning of my sexual energy — that’s been such a relief. O yes, listening to David Whyte on the trip to Holderness, he’s talking about the ‘pitfalls’, Robert Bly’s black bag which holds all the rejected parts of you — I don’t have any rejected parts any more. Maybe that’s why the full acceptance of the traumatized baby and the angry 5 yr-old has brought me to this sense of coming to a threshold. I’m all here now. Good work Jenny!

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Somatic Experiencing

Posted on October 11, 2011 by jenny

(Written in December 2009)
Went down to Caryn. Felt scared on the way down — not sure why — maybe because seeing her hadn’t helped on Monday. At one point she asked me to look at the me of Monday from outside, and I felt a great wave of compassion — she’s going full speed ahead and full speed reverse at the same time. When I first got in there & sat in my in my corner I felt a little quiver of fear in my stomach. As I surrendered to it my body drooped more and more, and it faded. Then I asked for a cushion/barrier. It surprises me how I’m able to relax when part of me is hidden. Caryn sat next to me and I leaned over against her shoulder and put my arm over the barrier to hold her hand. Then I began to slide down. She suggested she make a space between her legs and I could sit there and lean against her chest like I do with Karen. I felt a tiny little bit hesitant but then I wanted to do it. She had to put a cushion between us “because I’m so bony.” It was very comfortable and I just relaxed more and more, and slid down until she was supporting my head. I did some tremendous yawns, it surprises me how many muscles I can feel in my jaw. I felt a lot better when I left and I feel better now after writing about it. I notice how exquisitely sensitive I am to what people do or say, how easily I can be triggered into fear or depression. At least I am also beginning to self-regulate.

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