Allurement  

Reflections on the First Gathering of Becoming Eco-mystics

First-timers are welcome at every session. 

Thirty-seven of the 70 people who registered came to the first gathering of Becoming Eco-mystics. They were from as far away as Bolivia, many from the United States, and the rest from Canada. As the registration numbers grew, my question became, “Who are these people, and why are they signing up? By what are they allured to this series? 

It was not exactly the plan, but once we got started, I could not resist inviting everyone to introduce themselves, which they did briefly and graciously, naming the watershed within which they resided, and their Indigenous neighbours. 

I was allured and curious: 

  • Who was here? 
  • Why were they here?
  • What was it about becoming eco-mystics that caught their attention enough to make this a priority?  
  • What did they bring to this exploration? 
  • What are we going to discover, create and enjoy together about becoming eco-mystics?

And, of course, these questions are where we are going to go! 

The focus of our session was allurement: the attraction that we feel to people, things and possibilities. My introduction to the concept of allurement has been through Brian Swimme, professor of Evolutionary Cosmology. He describes how the universe is based on relationships, on things being attracted to each other and thereby making something new; whether oxygen and hydrogen creating water, bees attracted to flowers and pollinating, the attractions we feel to others that result in intimacy, community and creativity. 

Brian suggests that allurement is the way the future makes itself known in the present. Hmm, simmer in that for a moment or two… 

By what were you allured to Becoming Eco-mystics

We used a triad structure of sharing, with boundaries of three minutes of uninterrupted sharing. Where there is no crosstalk, no riffing, no relating, no fixing, each person has three minutes of space/time to speak from what is most alive in them in response to a particular prompt. The two people in the triad who are not sharing form the container through their full, open, and silent presence. 

My experience of this structure is that it can make space for authentic, emerging expressions that feel full of energy, are sometimes surprising and can look like joy, newness, grief, possibilities, statements of desire, or commitment. This triad space can feel sacred and can feel ordinary — like life!?

So the prompt was: “By what were you allured to Becoming Eco-mystics?

At the end of the session, we gave ourselves the gift of a waterfall: everyone writing in the chat what they had appreciated or received from our time together. We all pushed send at the same time and: whoosh…
a flow of of C words: connection, community, common, compassion, 
sprinkled with 
mysticism is playful,
eco- spiritual community
tender and loving hearts… 
I’m home
…Among others. 
And this poem 
Like a drop of dew wakes up the grass it touches, I am refreshed.

There comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness…that time is now.

Wangari Maathai

So let us enjoy the allurement we feel. Let us rest in it, reach in it, play in it, become in it, and discover what is the possibility seeded in the invitation to become an eco-mystic.  

Perhaps it is a new way of being in the Earth, of the Earth and with the Earth. 

I am looking forward to this journey with you.

Sarah 

Suggestions for Earth Work
  • Enjoy this short video with Brian Swimme about allurement. 
  • Experiment with “Chapter 5: Breathing with Nature” from Mark Coleman’s book, A Field Guide to Nature Meditation. Each week we will use one of the meditations from this book as a guide  to develop a practice of meditating outside.