)i( Vision Statement & Being States
The imaginalCollective is guided by our vision statement and a core set of high-levelstates of being.
These also inform the imaginalCollective Community Agreement, which needs to be read and agreed by anyone wishing to be included in our community directories and the imaginal map. Through embracing these concepts we trust that imaginalCollective members will do their best to foster a mindset of: non-judgement | inclusivity & diversity | self-authority | self-responsibility when connecting and interacting with others.
iC vision statement
…to create a beautifulfuturetoday for all the children’stomorrows
iC ‘Being’ States
(click on the words for more information)
The five being states (Unity, Love, Joy, Peace & Beauty) describe a high state of being that is informed by two guiding principles: the importance of raising human Consciousness and our relationship with Mother Earth. This is a state of being from which we can be the change.
All sounds too wifty wafty? Imagine just for a moment though, if everyone’s thoughts words and actions were informed by this state of being…? The ramifications for humanity would be too great to list here but let us just say that the health and vitality of both self and society (including the interactions that take place within them) would be profoundly transformed. Our intention is for the imaginalCollective web platform, and the conversations that take place here, to reflect this state of being to the best of our collective ability.
To attain, and then maintain, such a high state of being takes courage, practice, constant vigilance and a range of other qualities and concepts. To support this we’ve developed a teaching tool, called the imaginalCompass, that offers practical guidance regarding the embodiment of these concepts. The compass is divided into eight key areas, or perspectives, where each reflects a wealth of information, concepts and practices. However, for our membership agreement we are focussing on the following…
non-judgement | inclusivity & diversity | self-authority | self-responsibility
create
This speaks of taking conscious, decisive action (and walking our talk) towards realising a beautiful future – both as individuals and in collaboration with the wider community.
future
From the indigenous understanding of considering the next seven generations to come: a generation is 30 years so this statement covers a future of around 200 years. Anything you are creating should consider the ramifications for the next 7 generations. With this idea, arguably, the petrol engine may have never been invented!
today
This is a statement of the “now”. Working towards a better future right now almost automatically makes today beautiful
all
An inclusivity statement. All have to benefit, not only across humankind’s diversity but across the complete diversity of Gaia’s lifeforms.
all the children’s
Your children, my children, everyone’s children – including the children of all living things.
tomorrows
Following from the indigenous understanding of considering the next seven generations, this statement covers the tomorrows of around 200 years. It is specifically calling for a greater understanding and wisdom around the impacts of our creativity.
Create.
There are millions of people who feel that they want to take part in this change, to make a difference and even more who already see a different way forward, one more in alignment with nature.non-judgement
It is far healthier to suspend judgement and become more objective with our experiences
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The imaginalCollective is dreaming in a peaceful future in which the diversity of the human race is a able to thrive in a co-creative manner – non-judgement is an essential foundation from which this can emerge.
By judgement we refer to the subjective notion of right and wrong which is then applied to, and projected onto, another being, object or event. This comes from a place of fear and separation which only creates more of the same. It’s also highly unscientific!
From our perspective, it’s far healthier to suspend judgement and become more objective with our experiences.
Also, a good practice is to start evaluating life’s experiences using a different set of measures – perhaps to ask, “is this event/this behaviour/that person’s actions etc supporting life, or diminishing life?” …and to do this from a place of love and compassion.
Remember, judgement demands punishment (at least on some level), and is not the iC way!
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inclusivity & diversity
Wholeness is expressed through diversity and the IC seeks a deep level of inclusion where all beings are welcome – from both the human and non-human worlds.
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We understand that the systemic abuse of power through colonialism and inter generational patriarchal systems, has led to suffering for all beings. Dynamics of race, gender, class, health, sexuality and age, plus the destruction of bio diversity has led to many instances of marginalization, loss and extinction.
In the IC we seek to be aware of any unconscious biases within ourselves and invite all into the fullness of their beauty power.
“Wholeness is only experienced through diversity” – RainbowHawk & WindEagle.
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self authority
to recognise that you are the author of your life
self responsibility
to own one’s inner landscape of thought and emotion.
show more…is another concept of self-empowerment that is extremely important to embrace, especially in this time of increased separation, political correctness and the polarisation of viewpoints.
In each moment we have a choice to either react to life (often aggressively) from the mindset of the victim, or to respond to life from a more measured and peaceful state of being. Responsibility then, on one level, is the ‘ability to respond’ to one’s life experiences.
Part of this process is to take responsibility (as in ownership / authorship rather than our usual interpretations of responsibility – blame and culpability) of one’s inner landscape of thought and emotion.
For example: someone doesn’t hold the same viewpoint as you in a discussion and they begin to judge you for thinking differently – which you then perceive as an attack…
One of the crucial steps to being able to respond in this situation, assuming you are now aware that you’re emotions are rising, is the ability to take ownership of your feelings – only you can make you feel the way you do! The alternative is that we unconsciously slip into the blame game and project our discomfort back out onto the other person, or situation …and so it escalates.
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unity (consciousness)
A high state of being able to see beyond the conditioned limitations we self-identify with (our names, nationalities, genders, race, viewpoints…) . A condition that recognises difference as a unifying force – informing, empowering and completing the whole.
“Wholeness is only experienced through diversity” – RainbowHawk & WindEagle
love
This state of being refers to unconditional love, not the special love that we have for a single person or thing: it’s an urge to extend one’s Self and embrace life with care and compassion whilst experiencing an underlying sense of belonging, togetherness, acceptance and Unity.
joy
Approaching life with a sense of fun and light-heartedness that is evoked and supported by holding the other four being states. This state laughs with life, carrying with it a sense of freedom and all possibilities.
peace
The still centre, free from attachments and the triggers of our daily dramas: a state of calmness, stillness and awareness. From this state we can perceive objectively and respond to life’s challenges in a beautiful, life-affirming manner.
As with our other being states, peace is hard won through practice and constant vigilence.
“Peace is not the absence of war, it is vigilance”
beauty
Beauty is recognising or creating perfection amongst the chaos…
True beauty is a state of authenticity that transcends fear, separation and judgement, recognising the oneness and perfection in all things.
When our thoughts, words and actions reflect this it can be said that we are walking the Beauty Way – a widely used Native American expression of this.
How we view the manifestation of this being state…
beautiful
In our understanding and use of this (highly subjective) word we would hope to be referring to ‘beautiful’ as the results of implementing our core being states.
You can also read our definition for beauty here.
The manifestation of this would be wide-reaching and include…
- A thriving, abundant natural world where humans live in harmony with Mother Earth and with one another.
- A world where individuals, and all beings, are no longer valued in monetary units but by their true authentic nature.
- An end to racial, sexual and financial inequality – to poverty of all kinds.
- True democracy
- …
Mother Earth
Mother Earth is one of the guiding principles for our being states. As our host and provider of all our needs it’s surely fitting that all our actions should honour and nurture Her. At the very least we should do Her no harm.
We use the term ‘Mother’ as it inspires a more familial relationship than the objectifying term, planet Earth – a relationship more conducive to evoking care, respect and a sense of symbiotic relationship.
The imaginalCollective was intially dreamed in in response to climate change but seeks to address all forms of Earth Changes such as habitat loss, water and soil degradation, and, species extiinction – including ours!
consciousness
Consciousness is one of the guiding principles for our being states.
The need to develop conscious awareness, of both our inner and outer landscapes as human beings, in each and every moment, is absolutely vital in order for us to BE the change, and to ripple this change out into the world we live in.
As the imaginalCollective was intially dreamed in in response to the gamut of Earth Changes, and the associated challenges that humanity now faces, the above statement is a critical component and requires everyone to self reflect and practice a new way of being with both Mother Earth and one another. Read more about the current crisis of consciousness that humanity is now facing…
a crisis of consciousness
Our Western cultures focus almost exclusively on the external; on all those ‘things’ which seem to be ‘outside’ of ourselves – we rarely focus on our internal states of being. The result is that we believe our internal upsets to be the fault of these external ‘things’ (people, circumstances etc) with no consideration as to how our internal processes have responded with the emotion of being upset.
There is a real need to understand that the discord we see around us is merely a reflection of the discord we all hold within ourselves. The ‘outer’ crisis’s we are facing are simply the projections of our own inner Crisis of Consciousness. Societal unrest is a product of our internal unrest and cognitive dissonance. The collapse of our ecosystems and weather patterns are the inevitable symptoms of our own greed for more: born of our inner lack of fulfilment and the loss of connection we feel within ourselves, the natural world and with one another.
This crisis is a lack of self-awareness of what truly motivates our behaviors: is our desire for new, more fashionable clothes, fast cars and the latest upgrade actually because we really crave love and affection?
As Ghandi often spoke, we each need to BE the change, and this change begins with a dedication to self-inquiry and to taking responsibility for our thoughts, emotions, words and actions.
