Today,
thousands of groups all around the country are choosing
to meet in circles. This is new-just a few decades ago,
you would have found the same groups sitting in a classroom
format. Intuitively, people sense that the circle has
something to offer them. People often comment that the
circle helps them feel a sense of community, and that
it reminds them of the value of equality-in the circle,
nobody occupies a "special" position.
However,
most groups that gather in a circle are not practicing
Circlework™. While Circlework™
may include a wide range of elements such as emotional
healing work, discussion, physical exercise, and so on,
it is first and foremost a spiritual practice that begins
and ends with awareness of the center. This awareness
of, and reverence for, the center as a place of sacred
power is what distinguishes Circlework™ from
other types of circle gatherings.
Circlework™
begins and ends with the intention of listening to the
voice of the center, the voice of spirit-or, if you prefer,
to the voice of our own deepest wisdom, of which the center
is the universal symbol. Circlework™ deepens
our receptivity and strengthens our connection to spirit.
Like a giant ear, or like a satellite dish, the circle
helps us tune in to vast resources of healing, wisdom
and guidance. Many people have found Circlework™
to be a powerful agent of individual healing, transformation,
and growth.
My
own background is in dance, psychotherapy, Hindu mythology
and Buddhist meditation. Therefore, movement and dance
are important elements of my circles, as are meditation,
chanting, ritual, storytelling, and emotional healing.
I personally feel primarily called to lead women's circles,
and to train women in circle leadership. However, Circlework™
can take myriad forms. Today, circles are forming in schools
and hospitals, in businesses and in the corporate world.
Young and old, men and women are beginning to reclaim
the circle as a tool for healing themselves, their families
and communities.
Circlework™,
as we practice it today, is both ancient and brand new.
It's ancient in that humans have always gathered in circles
to pray, celebrate, and seek spiritual communion. Throughout
the ages, around the planet, the center of a circle has
been revered as symbol of the universal source. At the
same time, Circlework™ is new, because we
know, in a way our ancestors did not, that we live on
a small planet where all beings are interconnected. We
know that we cannot survive unless we evolve into planetary
citizens and agents of world peace. In addition, the increasing
complexity of the human psyche demands that we apply all
the insights and skills of modern psychology to the art
of Circlework™. In Circlework™,
we develop psychological and spiritual maturity simultaneously.
In
the twentieth century, the great psychologist C.G. Jung
was the first to acknowledge the power of the circle as
an archetype of wholeness and integration. As he pointed
out, the center of a circle is an ancient and universally
understood symbol of God, Spirit, the Source, the One.
He described the circle archetype as a much-needed medicine
for the modern illness of psychological and social disintegration.
Jung himself painted circular images called mandalas,
and used mandala art in his work with patients. Circlework™
builds on Jung's insights, but takes them one step further
by reclaiming the circle as a vessel for groups to experience
healing and wholeness, not just individuals.
Each
human being is both a unique, separate individual and
a social creature. Therefore, we need both solitary and
communal forms of spiritual practice. Because our society
has for the last few centuries worshipped at the altar
of individualism, we have gathered a great wealth of spiritual
practices that can be done without a community. Meditation,
prayer, visualization, and yoga are just a few examples.
However, we're impoverished in the arena of communal practice.
Most communal forms of spiritual practice reflect specific
religious doctrines. Thus, Catholics participate in the
Mass, and Moslems in communal prayer. While these are
rich, beautiful practices, they don't support spiritual
communion between people of diverse religious faiths.
Moreover, growing numbers of people no longer feel aligned
with institutional religion. More and more people feel
spiritually alone and disconnected. They yearn for spiritual
community, but all too often don't know where to find
it, or how to create it.
Circlework™
is a spiritual rather than a religious practice, and is
not based on any particular creed. Therefore, it has the
power to unite people who hold widely divergent religious
and spiritual beliefs, or who have no particular beliefs
at all. The only prerequisite for Circlework™
- the foundation that all members of a circle must share
- is respect for life in all its forms, and a commitment
to individual, social, and planetary wholeness.
Circlework™
represents a powerful tool for planetary as well as personal
healing. As a form of relationship practice, it teaches
us the ways of peaceful co-existence, skillful communication,
and compassionate love of self and others. At the same
time, Circlework™ hones our receptivity to
spirit-something we urgently need to cultivate at this
time in history. Our brains, miraculous though they are,
are incapable of meeting the challenges we now face. If
we continue to rely on them alone for guidance, we will
no doubt go the way of the dinosaurs, taking thousands
of other species with us. Circlework™ offers
a non-religious way for people to gather in sacred space,
and to access vast resources of creativity and compassion-resources
that can help accomplish what none of our politicians
have been able to do, namely to secure a livable planet
for our children and our children's children.
Jalaja
Bonheim
