Letting it show itself

World founding recognises that we are always already in experience and the way to open ourselves to the nature of that experience is to ask questions. We’re asking, “what is it like?” and “how does it get to be that way?”

What shows itself, when we ask, are the rich possibilities woven into our being together. That weaving, it turns out, is the very essence of the worlds we create.

What has been woven together, by the generations before us, is passed down as our unseen inheritance. Mostly, we just accept the worlds we are born into, as they are presented to us. The unseen inheritance acts as a kind of filter for our encounters. It shapes, even constrains, the range of possibilities available at each moment. In this way, the inheritance provides a kind of conformity to an otherwise potentially erratic existence. However, every now and then, there are moments that disrupt the inherited forms and throw the world into question. Concealed in these moments is the immense wellspring that gives rise to creating whole civilisations.

For the most part, we might say, “We don’t want the whole world thrown into question. It’s quite nice to keep things stable and predictable.” That may be true, but if you are anything like us, you would have noticed a deep sense of disquiet with the status quo. If you’re anything like us, you may have tried to do something about it and found yourself meeting resistance, from all quarters, as well. A lot of people have done a lot of thinking about what underpins the resistance (holds it in place, if you like). We’ve noticed a pattern playing out which has its roots in some of the very original world founding work done by humanity. It’s part of the already woven together inheritance. Take a look below; perhaps you have seen it, too?

Of course, if the hero myth has hold of our collective imaginations, in ways so subtle and pervasive that we never question it, that myth creates our reality. It’s how we interpret what happens, compose ourselves in relation to events, cast the characters in our day to day existence and decide on what action to take moment to moment. And, if our reality is being created for us, it feels out of our control, beyond intervention. In a very tangible sense, it self replicates. It may not be immediately clear, but we think we’ve seen how this pattern multiplies itself. The hero story, playing out this way, reinforces a kind of individualism; a focus on one’s self and one’s own. It doesn’t take too long for this focus to imprison us completely.

But let’s not fool ourselves, the narcissist myth are does not simply apply to the personal realm. We see it playing out in ideological narratives across the globe. It is the seat of nationalism, tribalism and indeed, colonialism. It is the product of an insufferable constraining of the possibilities that are available to humankind when we admit the Promethean fire.  What are you doing, in this interpretation, is showing where Zeus’s chains have hold of us. If you find yourself frustrated, angry, or even outraged, this is the heat of the Promethean fire as it illuminates not only what is possible, but also what holds us where we are. The hero template, in its most perfectly crystallised form, reproduces a mode of narcissistic leadership that, from where we are sitting, has almost entirely taken hold.

But, how can we be released from the torment of this hydra-headed beast? How do we escape the prisons that hold our imagination and open ourselves to a fuller experience of being? Being together? Being-together-in-the-world? How do we break out the energy of those moments that move us so deeply the world is unutterably changed? And then, begin the weaving of something original? That is the work of world founding and in this short video, we’ve given some clues as how to get started.

Foresight is just one of the four modes through which the unseen becomes seen. The Prometheus story allows us to become intimately acquainted with the nature of this mode. Perhaps you know the feeling of release, freedom and the light on the horizon. Maybe, you know the anger of realising how you have been chained by conventional wisdom, when you discover you have been fooled. If so, congratulations! So it is with originary moments.

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