The Big Picture
Synopsis from The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and the World
The Essential Guide to Women’s Circles
by Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.
“When a critical number of people change how they think and behave, the culture does also, and a new era begins…”
“For human culture to change – for there to be a hundredth monkey (See “The Hundredth Monkey” story) there has to be a human equivalent…For patriarchy to become balanced by the discerning wisdom and compassion that are associated with the feminine aspects of humanity, and by the indigenous wisdom and relatedness to all living things and to the planet, that shift will come in this hundredth monkey way. I believe that this will happen when there are a critical number of women’s circles: for patriarchy to change there has to be a millionth circle.”
No one knows how close we are to that millionth circle…
“Women’s circles can be appreciated as a revolutionary-evolutionary movement… The circle is an archetypal form that feels familiar to the psyches of most women. It’s personal and egalitarian. When the circle is taken into the workplace or community by women… it enhances collaborative undertakings and brings people who work together emotionally closer and in a less hierarchal relationship to one another…
I believe that many women yearn to belong to a woman’s circle. If you are inspired to form a circle…You will also be contributing to an evolutionary change in human culture…based upon theoretical biologist Rupert Sheldrake’s Morphic Field Theory: namely, that a change in the behaviour of a species occurs when a critical mass- the exact number needed- is reached. When that happens, the behaviour or habits of the entire species changes...
Women’s circles form one at a time. Each circle expands the experience of being in one to more women. Each woman who is changed by it takes this experience into her world of relationships. Until, on one fine day, new circle will form, and it will be the millionth circle – the one that tips the scales – and brings us into the post-patriarchal human era.”
Will YOU be part of the Millionth Circle that changes the world?
“The Hundredth Monkey” Story
Wikipedia: The hundredth-monkey effect is a supposed phenomenon in which a learned behavior spreads instantaneously from one group of monkeys to all related monkeys once a critical number is reached. By generalization, it means there can be an instantaneous, paranormal spreading of an idea or ability to the remainder of a population once a certain portion of that population has heard of the new idea or learned the new ability.
The Story:
The monkeys referred to in this Hundredth Monkey effect are Japanese macaques, which live in wild troops on several islands in Japan. They have been under observation by primatologists for years. During 1952 and 1953 the researchers began "provisioning" the troops - providing them with such foods as sweet potatoes and wheat. The food was left in open areas, often on beaches. As a result of this new economy, the monkeys developed several innovative forms of behavior. Of particular interest was the behaviour of an 18-month-old female that the observers named "Imo." Imo was a member of the troop on Koshima island. She discovered that sand and grit could be removed from the sweet potatoes by washing them in a stream or in the ocean. Imo's playmates and her mother learned this trick from Imo, and it soon spread to other members of the troop. (Unlike most food customs, this innovation was learned by older monkeys from younger ones. In most other matters the children learn from their parents.) The potato-washing habit spread gradually throughout the monkey troops on Koshima Island. One day this previously learned behavior spontaneously appeared in ALL monkeys - not only on Koshima, but on all the nearby islands... without the monkeys on separate islands ever being in physical contact with another.
A sort of group consciousness had developed among the monkeys, as a result of one last monkey's learning – the hundredth monkey. This event formed the basis of the "Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon."
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness, concerning all acts of initiative (and creation). The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too.
A whole stream of events issues from the decision.
Whatever you can do or dream you can, Begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin now.” - W.H. Murray, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition
Commit to participating in a Power Hour Circle… it just might be the Millionth Circle…. Our version of the Hundredth Monkey.
|
