"What are we gonna do now?" ~ The Clash

The Next Step

Many small groups are hard at work to bring a better world, to fight injustice and heal the wounds of the people and the land.  But a critical mass clearly hasn't been reached to tip the balance away from the dominant system of violence.  What's lacking is a sufficient number of people whose consciousness has been transformed
 enough to free them from fear and impel them into action. 

How can consciousness be transformed?
  We need to learn so much more, but there are some things we know:  people need to learn new ideas, knowledge and skills, which can 
happen in classes, study groups, via the web, etc. 
We also need to reach and change the deeper levels of our psyches, which can happen in one-to-one relationships, in small spiritual communities, and in public ritual performances.  

Since having read Tom Driver's book on ritual (you did look at the Books that change everything page, didn't you? J), my eyes have been opened to the wide scope of what is to be understood as 
ritual performance. 
 Our society depends on it, and so does changing that society. 

Ritual creates order out of chaos, forges bonds of community, and also transforms the ordering of things.  I'd like to quote his entire chapter on transformation, but here are a few sentences to chew on.  He cites one definition of ritual,

  "planned or improvised performance 
that effects a transition
 from everyday life 
to an alternative framework 
within which 
the everyday is transformed."

And Driver says this:
 " . . . In Alabama in 1965, the everyday was racial segregation. 
In South Africa in 1987, it was the apparently insuperable force of government by apartheid.  
The Selma march and the cross-bearing procession in Lesotho were the deliberate enactment of something different. 
 They were magical acts. 

Without such ritualization, 
the Civil Rights Movement in the United States could not have occurred, 
nor can any other liberation movement in the world.  
It was the genius of Martin Luther King, Jr., 
inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus, and others, to recognize this.  
At certain stages of their struggle, 
ritual magic is the principal technique available to oppressed peoples for the transformation of their historical situation."

Hmm . . . got that?  Hope your curiosity is at least aroused.  What it means is that not only do we have to find ways of sharing ideas, but also learn how to artfully and effectively enact our alternative visions.  There isn't any one school where one can go to learn all this, where it's taught in an integrated way - yet.

But in the meantime, Luchnos can begin to serve as a clearinghouse, shining its light on what you can learn from whom, where & when, as we seek to illuminate the connections, the wider viewpoint, and how one teaching supports another. 

  Please participate, and be a part of this!  Send us information on any worthwhile projects, events, courses, organizations or networks, websites, mailing lists, newsletters, or what have you, that you know about & see as related to this purpose.   And let's think about what new (or revived) kinds of learning opportunities we want to create.

Email: luchnaia@luchnos.com

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