5 years ago, the Evolutionary Leaders published our first collaborative book, Our Moment of Choice. We are still in that moment, and it has gotten even more critical. The old systems are being disrupted. They are most likely irreparable.

While an assault on the values of democracy is underway, so is an even greater assault on the evolution of consciousness. That means our most formidable task of all is to become the leaders of the evolution of consciousness toward unity, oneness, and wholeness that we already are!

Our challenge in this moment is to ensure that the evolution of consciousness continues on toward unity, oneness, and wholeness. How might we better do this than by helping to facilitate an organic renewal process. This is a process that offers a clear course of action, follows natural laws, and assists an evolving process already in motion.

In The Way of Unity, coming out in July, I offer a vision for addressing the key challenges we face in manifesting our inherent wholeness in the world.

The first thing we need to do is observe and learn from the natural world around us. Organic renewal knows that all things are part of the same whole. If we understand the natural order, harmony, and wholeness of the universe, we can reflect that in all our endeavors. By remembering and reflecting the reality that all planets are in perfect alignment with each other, and that all cells and organs in the human body are created to be in perfect alignment with each other, we can bring that unity into the world. This deep connection and sense of belonging to all things arises from a unitive consciousness.

If our challenge is creating the world anew, isn’t that what happens in every cycle of nature? It’s happening right now, all around us, as spring unfolds and new life emerges from the old.

We’re the agents of change for this organic renewal of society. We need to assist the natural flow happening right now under our feet. There is an innate strategy to this renewal process. With a deliberate persistence, the tentacles of renewal, firmly rooted, are coming to life once again, in a cyclical reawakening, to replace decaying structures with fresh fibers of life-giving tenderness and beauty, to eventually bloom into their fullness.

Organic renewal chooses to move at its own pace, because it knows its outcome is assured. It doesn’t resist anything around it, because it is busy building towards its own innate potential of a future not yet stolen. It is focused solely on building its own networks of care, cooperation, and sharing, by safeguarding the common good.

Such organic renewal spreads invisibly, through networks that are self-sustaining, vastly scalable, and growth-producing through the strength of its own unity-in-diversity. This describes the mycelial networks that are always weaving their wholeness beneath the surface of the ground.

Whether we realize it or not, we are all part of such a mycelial network. Humanity is its own mycelium network, patiently, insistently weaving our own wholeness. We too are meant to endure whatever is happening above the surface. This is our time to emerge, to rise up in new growth with a fresh force to put forward.

The existence of such a process of organic renewal should provide us with hope, instead of despair, with conviction that can lead us onward. Organic renewal doesn’t fight against what assails us, it builds toward what inspires us, toward the vision we hold most dear.

So, what’s the equivalent of mycelium networks in the social world?  How do we translate the natural process of organic renewal to the social world we live in?

Could our best course of action be to recreate the entire infrastructure of social relationships upon a new foundation of universal harmony and unity achieved through an ongoing process of growth and transformation involving the full participation of the entire human family? Carrying out our mycelial functions in the social world could mean building out vibrant, resilient, inclusive, deeply connected, peaceful communities right where we are.

A couple essential components of this process would include, first, recognizing the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, where there is no “other” left to exclude from the human family – or from the web of life.

 

This would require adopting the central organizing principle of humanity is one family to guide our process from here on out. To achieve this, also required is that humanity live by a set of unitive principles that will create the conditions for maintaining unity on all levels.

As we enter the Unitive Age, this set of unitive principles includes the equality of women and men being fully realized, the elimination of the extremes of wealth and poverty being fully realized, freedom from all forms of prejudice being fully realized, harmony between science and spirituality being fully realized, and the protection of nature as a divine trust being fully realized. This is the way of unity, built upon universal love, that leads to the oneness of all life.

Our role is keeping our focus on the wholeness of all things. Living by unitive principles will enable us to undertake unified coordinated social action to build vibrant communities. When community members, irrespective of background or belief, are invited to gather together to share and better understand their social reality, devise appropriate responses to the challenges they face, empower each other, and create capacity building conditions, an inner potential is released, and the outcomes are profound and far-reaching.

With the common good as its focus, social action initiatives would apply unitive principles locally through a method of relationship-based activism embracing what we might call a collaborative learning process consisting of:

  • study of a chosen need, with relevant guidance;
  • consultation, following a process of defined steps;
  • social action, based on the will of the group; and,
  • reflection, adding resources, learning lessons, making modifications.

This repeatable process ensures sustainable growth and maintains a continuity of learning and action. Rather than being “top-down” or “bottom-up,” this approach built upon reciprocity and interconnectedness incorporates both and leads to transformation through a meeting-in-the-middle of the two approaches. Our role in initiating and carrying out this method in our own communities is vital to achieving the long-term, overall goal of global unity.

One component of this process is the art and practice of consultation, a primary, all-purpose tool for fostering unity and strengthening social coherence. As a group process for seeking truth, identifying relevant principles, exchanging a diversity of views and opinions in a respectful manner to build consensus, consultation achieves a common understanding for making unified decisions leading to unity-in-action. Our role is to help integrate the art of consultation into as many settings as we are in, whenever possible.

In this purposeful and intentional work, we experience the true nature of unity as a mycelial network carrying out the organic process of renewal needed in the world today. Underlying all this is love-in-action. We are the ones that can create a ripple effect of new energy moving outward toward its unifying attractor that will connect the human family. Love is the foundation, framework, and thread weaving all things toward lasting unity on this Earth.