The Passion of the Western Mind

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Homework from Chris Reynolds - teacher, musician, and traditional healer - in this collection of his favorite books connecting the power of creativity and the power of one's ties to the land, both integral to the economic and cultural renewal of regions.

…so I would like to introduce you to a thinker named, Richard Tarnas, and in particular, his book, “Passion of the Western Mind” which is followed by “Cosmos and Psyche”. For Tarnas, the falling apart that we’re doing right now is the end of a twenty-five hundred year arch. And for him, the passion of the Western Mind, what he calls the ‘Western Development’ has been predominately masculine, predominately male.

And the proof he uses for it, is the names of the human being in all languages in the West are, ‘man’, ‘lum’, ‘wom’ – it’s all, when we talk about a human being we say, ‘man’. For him, at this time in history, we are going through the end of man.

That doesn’t mean the end of human beings; it means the end of a way of life. And for him, the future looks like a completing of the masculine in the feminine or a sacred marriage where there is a balance between the two.

And I like to think of what we’re going through now in those terms. If you look through our culture through that lens, you will see all the qualities that were cultivated over the last twenty-five hundred years have reached a point where they no longer work. There’s this old way that’s dying around our feet and at the same this new way is rising up.

So, I would like to say again, the way it looks regionally is, where the new ground is breaking through, through what’s falling apart, is these healing centers, these places where the people who fell apart and who are coming back together. So, it’s right in our midst. The important thing for us as leaders is to be able to allow what wants to die, to die. And that which is being born, that’s where we would place our interest.

Learn more from Chris about the relationship of creativity, traditional rites of passage, and the cosmos to mindfullness, passion, and meaningful civic engagement at his page on I-Open.

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Copyright 2010 Betsey Merkel http://www.betseymerkel.extendr.com/ and I-Open http://i-open-2.strategy-nets.net Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works. Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) 4415 Euclid Ave 3rd Fl Cleveland, Ohio 44103 USA

The Renewal of Culture - Christopher Reynolds, M.Ed., Teacher, Musician, and Traditional Healer

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Chris is passionate about "waging creativity" - as he does this in all his work - to nurture that which is growing forth from the land, to help things to be born, instead of destroying things. His art movement, "urrealism", teaches others how to bring forth what's best in people. 

Chris describes our shared challenge is "to be able to respond to what has not been seen before. The energy needed to do this in the classroom is the same energy that is needed to renew a region's culture.

Creativity is not just making things, it is in how you perceive what is before you. Each of us holds a receptive mirror, a unique way of seeing things, and when you are able to use the mirror, that quality is 'presence' - the capacity to reflect back and see the creativity, to see what is coming forth. Teachers in touch with their 'mirror' can reflect back and show the future it's own face, responding in such a way to strengthen what is coming forth.

When the future is carried in - in the classroom - it's carried in with shaky legs, it's weak, it's unsure, and you don't know where it came from. This is the kind of presence someone will bring."

Learn from the wisdom of civic leaders across these I-Open communities:

Copyright 2011 Betsey Merkel and I-Open. Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works. Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) 2563 Kingston Road Cleveland OH 44118 Phone: 216-220-0172 Web: http://i-open.posterous.com/