Alchemy & Activism: turn your wounds into something beautiful

Alchemy & Activism: turn your wounds into something beautiful

How lucky are we to be alive in the 21st Century?

We have access to all the greatest, most magical, potent spiritual practices and teachings from across time and space. And in the last century, we have had incredible knowledge literally pouring into every orifice from schools of Western psychology and the human sciences.

Our biggest challenge now is this:

How can we take this kaleidoscope of wisdom and knowledge, and use it in a practical, playful and grounded way to build a more beautiful future?

How can we alchemise our individual and collective wounds into the gold of compassionate action?

We feel this is a pretty important question in a world obsessed with SELF-help. We want to build a sturdy, inspiring bridge between ‘self’ and ‘other’.

We want to move from blame culture to empowered, creative, and hopeful action. We want to transform our grief and shame at the state of the world into a super-inspiring, practical vision.

We want to move beyond spiritual bypassing, narcissism, tourism and materialism – and instead really embody our values, starting with the community we find ourself in.

This is not easy work, it’s the road less travelled. If you are looking for escapism, this isn’t for you. We ain’t getting high. But we are showing up with rolled up sleeves and a sense of humour as we unlearn what we think we know and explore these questions together.

‘We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.’ (Hopi Elders)

We hosted a day long event in London about this topic, and also hosted a facebook live.

+ You can watch the facebook live conversation here.

We discussed the overlap between personal transformation and solving meaningful problems in the world.

Is it true that if enough people just meditate then we can all live in peace for ever more?

Is social media helping or hindering the shift to a more caring, peaceful way of being for us humans?

How can there be:

a) more people than ever before pursuing psychological and spiritual development and

b) Donald Trump and Teresa May?

What is spiritual bypass, and how to avoid it.

Why we can’t (and shouldn’t even try to) separate our inner worlds from what is going on around us.

How we can all find our own form of meaningful activism.

I will, even if

I will give everyone’s children encouragement

even if I am full of self-doubt

I will give

even if no-one knows

I will give into my heart

even if my head tell me not to

I will give to you

even if you are a stranger

I will give myself time to accept change as positive

even if it feels like a loss

I will give my full presence

even if there are a million and one bees buzzing in my phone

I will give more empathy to those injured

even if I think the injury is superficial

I will take on all which is thrust upon me

even if I am incapable, with guidance and the world before me

I will give my love

even if I cannot receive it in return

I will give solidarity

even if I disagree with the way it is asked for

I will give my voice to the people and causes that need it

even if I lose ‘likes’ and my life becomes less comfortable

I will give my focus to those in need

even if it means I don’t always get it right

I will give my smile to every person I see

even if they don’t look at me

I will give more time to understanding different voices and views

even if I find it difficult and uncomfortable

I will give careful creative thought to solving the issues in the world that move me

even if I follow many blind alleys

I will give

even if

A collective poem of sixteen voices written at the Alchemy and Activism retreat, (guided by Jon Sayers) 

Fitzrovia Chapel, Sunday 2nd September 2018.