Time to step through “the third door”
Dear friends and fellow cosmic beings,
Throughout this journey, the dual path of the Via NegativaThe alchemical procedure is broken down into a variety of different phases, which differs according to which of the ancient alchemists you study. What all the different schools have in common is the process of burning away the impure, so that only what is pure will remain. This process of removal is what we are calling the Via Negativa. and the Via PositivaThe Via Positiva is the bridge of practice that we trust will carry us forward into an ever deeper and stronger capacity to live in Integral consciousness. This path takes the form of collective inquiry, mostly using the foundational practice of Collective Presencing, to lean into more transpersonal questions—matters of concern to the human collective, and eventually even beyond the personal level of the psyche, and beyond mundane worldly events. have been showing up relentlessly, while the third way, intuited as the Via Creativa, has remained tantalisingly out of reach. This manifested again in our last hangout, in the phrase “the third door”, which made it through to our co-sensing among the embers from the hangout. During most of our co-sensing journey, (with Louise, Madeline, Judy, Neha, Pieter, Sarah and Helen), the energy of tumult was present and that third door continued, frustratingly, to elude us.
The co-sensing over recent months has picked up a persistent disturbance in the field. The constant shifts and adjustments to the framing and pacing of our collective practice have been attempts to resolve this disturbance, to no avail. Finally an insight dawned through our co-sensing process: a field of potential opens when alchemy is redefined in a way that moves beyond the need-based desire for transformation and finding the gold – into that co-creative exuberance of what beauty and wonder is possible. This was not going to manifest as long as we held on to the old structures, definitions and processes.
What has now become clear, therefore, is that the time has come to close this phase and form of practice, begun in April 2020. A key aspect of this is Helen and Sarah deciding to relinquish their role as stewards. This is their version of moving through the third door.
The co-sensors recognise and honour that this phase of practice has offered much of great value to us all as practitioners and human beings, not least because of the bonds of affection that have sprung up between us. What happens from now on will be entirely in the hands of all who wish to continue in practice together in whatever form suggests itself. Our shared task, now, as practitioners, is to explore what comes next—for us as humans learning to inhabit and co-create a radically new world.
The invitation to come together for our Portal Day on Friday takes these developments into account. You are invited to gather in a circle of presence and silence, at our usual portal day times, so we can begin to absorb, digest and transmute what is changing, together. After that, we can lean into the simplest and most liberating of questions: What’s next?
