IF WE MOVE BEYOND THE REALM OF THOUGHT FORMS AND CONDITIONING,
INTO A MODE OF MORE DIRECT PERCEPTION,
WHAT CALLS FOR OUR ATTENTION?
Orienting the next call on the arc of the journey so far:
The pattern of opening a portal to practice Collective Alchemy twice monthly is interweaving a two-stranded dual path together, like the double helix of DNA.
Since 8 May we have been alternating between 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. (exploring transpersonal, Integral consciousness) and 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. (burning off the personal dross that blocks access to it). On the Via Negativa, we have been in the alchemical phase of Calcination: eradicating the false roots that distract us from living life as who we really are.
On 3 July our portal day took a different form: an invitation into ceremonial space for the full day, exploring how our inner and outer perceptions are changing in this time of Era Shift.
On 17 July our steps will return to the Via Positiva as we continue to explore what is possible in the realms of transpersonal consciousness, in particular the phenomenon of ‘direct perception’.
Framing the calling question:
IF WE MOVE BEYOND THE REALM OF THOUGHT FORMS AND CONDITIONING,
INTO A MODE OF MORE DIRECT PERCEPTION,
WHAT CALLS FOR OUR ATTENTION?
IF WE MOVE BEYOND THE REALM OF THOUGHT FORMS AND CONDITIONING,
INTO A MODE OF MORE DIRECT PERCEPTION,
WHAT CALLS FOR OUR ATTENTION?
Part of the promise of Integral consciousness, as it emerges ever more strongly within humanity, will be regaining access to the living potency of earlier structures of consciousness, that were not yet saturated in rational thought.
The emergence of mental-rational consciousness brought with it a gradual move away from direct engagement with the phenomenal world and into the realm of the mind, peopled with thought forms. Over the millennia, this realm has become quite toxic, full of insidious memes used by the few to control the many. We need look no further than the notion that for millennia it has been considered both noble and worthy (especially for men) to die for an idea(l). The realm of thought forms has become a battle ground infested with ‘malware‘, where the prize is our attention, that other forces are seeking to manipulate for their own (egoic) ends. More and more, we humans live in our heads, and our minds are full of warring opinions and invisible conditioning that corrals our behaviour; in a post-truth world, there are no clear solutions to be found in the sphere of ideas…
Arising from our contemplation of our inner and outer perceptions during and since the last Portal Day — the contemplation of the core team and those fellow alchemists who have shared your experience with us since — we notice a tell-tale transparency. Particularly, we seem to be seeing through the thought forms that provide the scaffolding for our shared experience of ‘consensus reality’ (sometimes called the ‘noosphere‘), and sensing in — through the body and the heart-field — to other, deeper and more ancient modes of knowing.
In particular, we are following the clues offered us by feelings of greater aliveness, vibrancy, resonance. Here, we are using a holistic/intuitive/depth mode of cognition that speaks through the body, receiving and communicating through our subtle sensing. In the words of Stephen Harrod Buhner: “Everything has a hidden face. Hidden not in the sense that it is intentionally concealed, but in that it can only be seen with different eyes than the physical. A different mode of perception must be used. The hidden face of Nature can only be seen with the heart.”
To practice “direct perception” is to enter into direct relationship—observing, sensing, being present—with the phenomena of life, rather than approaching them indirectly through what we already think we know about them from having read books, been to school, listened to experts, etc. To quote Buhner again: “We live in a world, not of sensory objects, but of meanings. And those meanings are inherent in the things themselves.” Indeed, material objects are ‘condensations of meaning’, that are always perceivable by humans, even as babies who have not yet learned to speak or think discursively—indeed, babies are the masters of direct perception. It is our capacity for perceiving meaning which is primary, not language. Each phenomenon that we experience is its own language, and it speaks whether or not we are listening. The key to direct perception lies in the sensitive organ of the heart.
Our core question for this portal day is intended to help us shift our core locus of cognition and meaning-making from the head to the heart:
IF WE MOVE BEYOND THE REALM OF THOUGHT FORMS AND CONDITIONING,
INTO A MODE OF MORE DIRECT PERCEPTION,
WHAT CALLS FOR OUR ATTENTION?
INTO A MODE OF MORE DIRECT PERCEPTION,
WHAT CALLS FOR OUR ATTENTION?
Read the harvests from our previous portal days:
Via Positiva:
Via Negativa:
For more about direct perception and heart intelligence:
The Secret Teachings of Plants—The intelligence of the heart in the direct perception of nature, by Stephen Harrod Buhner (2004)
