Café Session Kin + Ilk
Synchronosophy Coffee Break
Coffee is a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to your older self.
〰 Terry Pratchett 〰
Over the past six weeks I’ve been writing about the Rootstock of Synchronosophy. This has been necessary for both of us.
ME › I needed to remind myself of all the most essential influences of how this whole thing I now call Syn-chrono-sophy ~ wisdom gathered from synchrony in everyday life ~ came into being.
YOU › You need to know where I’m coming from, what I’m even talking about, when I eventually get to the point…
Sorry it’s taking me so long! I’ve also often wished I could’ve sorted myself out a little faster, sooner, better, whatever. But like all of us, I haven’t yet found a way of getting away from myself.
So this is what it is. It’s the best I can do. I’ve been writing about and experimenting with this creature for 25 years. This means, Synchronosophy and me, we’ve been travelling together for over 1/3 of my lifetime.
There have been times when I wanted to interrupt life’s journey because it was so intense and overwhelming.
Can I just have a break for a month, or a week, or at least a moment?
While it’s not possible to take a break from life, travelling on the inner journey with Synchronosophy we can. In fact, every ‘Syncing-Session’ is like taking a little break from the ordinary course of life. And that’s what we’re doing here right now.
I’m inviting you to join me in the Kin + Ilk. I’ve chosen this place because I love the name ~ because it’s so well suited to the work we’re doing ~ because Synchronosophy is in essence about being kind to yourself, coming into kinship with yourself, and recognising every aspect and expression of yourself as your own ilk.
I also love the philosophy of the founders of this company. I’m sure I’d love the coffee too, without having tasted it yet. Here’s the description:
In the cup, there's tasting notes of milk chocolate, red apple + pecan. ~ what’s not to love?
Synchronosophy is about being kind to yourself, coming into kinship with yourself, and recognising every aspect and expression of yourself as your own ilk.
Having given you a ‘download’ of the multiple streams of experience ~ kin+clan › history › cultures › religions › academic trainings/ career › personal life › intimate life › inner life ~ which have conspired to feeding into the rootstock of Synchronosophy, it’s time for our first Syncing-coffee-break ~ to exchange, perhaps, snippets of wisdom we’ve picked up from the tangled roots so far, or from life itself.
This week I’d love to meet you in a different setting ~ choose your favourite drink and snack ~ for a conversation about anything we’ve written/read in these 1st six chapters of Rootstock.
I know, it seems like I haven’t even started to introduce Synchronosophy itself yet. The material so far is only the backstory. But perhaps that doesn’t matter. We’re all here because we are intronauts (travellers through inner space) ~ I presume.
We all have our reasons for being here, thinking about life in a very different way than we’ve been taught at school or by our elders. Maybe this introductory part has brought up (or will bring up) thoughts, questions, associations, memories you’d like to share?
Don’t worry if you can’t think of anything right now. This Café Session will remain open for conversations amongst ourselves about the Rootstock of Synchronosophy.
Let’s make it a metalogue. That’s different from a dialogue, or discussion, or debate, where the goal might be to find common ground. In a metalogue the goal is to listen with curiosity and gain insights from different view points.
The word and concept of metalogue were introduced by Gregory Bateson in his book Ecology of Mind. I am introducing the concept here because metalogue plays an important role in the practice of Synchronosophy too, as we’ll discover later.
So what is this thing called ‘metalogue’?
While metaloging about a topic, no one tries to persuade anyone. Nobody claims to own ‘the truth’. All participants accept the fundamental truth that there is no ultimate truth, and even if there was one, no individual human would have a monopoly on it. We all have different perspectives, and the best way we can figure things out is together.
In a metalogue, participants listen to each other attentively. No one is thinking about what they are going to say next (which happens in normal dialogue all the time and distracts from listening).
Metalogue is a way of opening up towards each other’s perspectives, and gathering wisdom in the space between us. As a result of such a conversational exchange profound transformations can happen.
Let’s not make it a debate (deliberating the pros and cons, from French de = down + batre = batter) ~ ‘battering each other’ with arguments!
Now, listen very carefully: where's your coffee? You've got coffee, haven't you? C'mon, everyone's got coffee! Spill the beans!
〰 Terry Pratchett 〰
To all my Kin and Ilk,
You can join Synchronosophy Coffee Breaks any time, from anywhere in the world, simply by commenting in the section below this Café Session. I will add your comments, thoughts, questions, answers etc. as best I can (edited and curated) into »Café-Session-post« on an ongoing basis.
Look forward to seeing you at the Kin+Ilk 💕
Metalogue [from Greek meta = change + logos = word] is a sharing and exchange of words where no-one is right or wrong, all voices are heard, and everyone emerges changed, by leaning into the words spoken, and listening to the spaces in between.
Metalogue is a conversation among two or more people. All participants agree on a common focus. What the topic brings up for everyone is as diverse and unique as we are.
In this metalogue, the focus is The Rootstock of Synchronosophy (~ not the elements of my personal story, told as illustrations, to give Synchronosophy its context, but more precisely ~) the essence of this new discipline and practice. Here is a quick reminder of all the key phrases highlighted in the first six chapters so far:
Metalogue Rootstock of Synchronosophy
Veronika: Rereading the intro of Rootstock I mentioned the ‘gift’ I received in 1999. In case you’re wondering, we’ll start to unpack this gift in chapter 9.
I also noticed that I didn’t mention the ‘inner journey’ at all. This made me wonder why is anyone on this journey? Assuming all intronauts have a personal unique motivation. Maybe a life-changing event? Or an initiating question?
My initiating question was “Why am I here? What is my life’s purpose?”
I wonder what question (or event) kickstarted your inner journey…
E.T. Allen: I absolutely love when people share the core motivating events in their lives. Initiations are very personal, so when someone shares their experience it is rare and powerful and sacred.
My initiating question was: “What is the Truth?”
I think there are many truths and one Truth - both perspectives are true simultaneously.
Joshua Bond: Regarding 'T/truth', what are we after? My two-pennyworth is that we are after an experience of being authentic, which can then guide authentic action. We are all different but all connected; hence the wide scope for 'T/truth'.
I believe one place where capital-'T' Truth can be found is when dreaming. There we find the 'Truth' about our 'truth' because the choices 'made' in dream scenarios reveal where we are truly at, without ego or intellect or cultural shoulds-n'-oughts getting in the way.
Alicia Kwon: I have a strong aversion to Jung. It bothers me greatly when people I respect seem to either see nothing wrong with him or chalk it up to the times he was living in. I sometimes can't read your work when I see his quote at the top because it disturbs me.
Others I feel a great dislike to are John O Donahue, John Muir, Joseph Campbell, I have always had a viscerally off feeling about ever since I saw his books in my parents home as a child.
J.B.: When it comes to Jung, Campbell, O'Donohue, etc. I like quotes because they're short, and focus the mind on what's about to follow in the posting -- which I find helpful. (I'll add here that I've started to read all of them, but never finished any of their books. This just tells me that as a 'channel' of communication, their style/era/understanding is not really mine, despite my attempted stretch of comfort-zone).
Sychronosphy offers an inside-to-outside approach to growth in consciousness, as opposed to a top-down dance-hammering postive-thinking mind-over-matter finger-wagging might-is-right moralistic code beating us into submission. A flower doesn't grow by standing over it with a gun, giving it a motivational speech. It grows when the ground is rich in friable humus, and it receives gentle rain and sufficient exposure to sunlight.
V.B.: When looking for quotes, I don’t necessarily choose writers according to being perfectly attuned with their way of thinking, let alone their personal lives. I’m not looking for people, whose ‘truth’ I want to adopt, but with whom it would be interesting to engage in conversation, or whose views I would like to challenge.
Diversity of perspectives is good and stimulates ‘growth in consciousness.’ I’m always on the lookout for original thinkers, free spirits, pioneers who pushed the edges of the ruling paradigm in their era.
Having said that, it can be most intriguing to discover that thinkers from a different era, and with a clashing or outdated mindset, can arrive at very similar conclusions. Is that a signpost towards Truth ~ I wonder…?
Jamie Millard: I love quote as they invite me into the words. We can never trade mastery for mystery. I love how you use words to invite me deeper into the darkness. In the darkness, the shadow cannot exist. In that place the light is our own. I’ve personally not read too deep on Jung. The archetypes seem to simple, but I fully understand that he was living into the questions. We can only meet there.
That should read as we can’t trade mystery for mastery. With that said, we can definitely bring the unconscious more into our awareness. As Blake said in the world, there is the known and the unknown. Everything else in between is a door. For me Poetry is a door that helps me meet my authentic self.
V.B.: “Bringing the unconscious more into our awareness” ~ Opening doors to meet the authentic self. Synchronosphy offers a whole bunch of keys to open those doors.
J.M.: “Why am I here? What is my life’s purpose?” - this is one of those questions that has no right to go away. It definitely finds us and pulls us up a second curve or a second mountain in life. Ultimately, I believe the miracle of our lives is the journey from fear to love. I would believe that’s our shared purpose. This question comes out in a lot of the poetry that I write. Poetry is that conversation as I live into that very question. What truly resonates with me is that we are a body in a soul. That we are souls having a human experience. That lens allows me to be love.
V.B.: That is a beautiful and bright guiding star for the inner journey through life.
I have been wondering recently whether the question about purpose itself, whether the 'need to have a purpose' is born from the Christian message drummed into me that 'God has a purpose for me' and I better make myself useful...
J.M.: I definitely hear you on that conditioned message of doing. I’ve definitely lived it. I would say there’s something deeper underneath it that aches inside and beyond our bones. Daimon? It’s that soul piece. There is a call for a deeper awareness that pulls us up that second mountain. I can only refer to it as “being”. That’s what I feel is purpose. There are no words to describe it. It is ineffable yet I know it is there. That spirit or consciousness that dances me.
V.B.: Thank you for that! This is a profound insight and very well put. Being rather than doing. The spirit that dances me.
I am currently dancing with that in relation to this book "Synchronosophy" itself. It is so easy to get pulled into the 'doing' channel. I have to keep pulling myself back and ask "What is my true purpose here?"
The answer is certainly not 'getting as many followers as possible on substack...' 🤔💭
J.M.: Symbiopoiesis- this is my new favourite as it connects it all somehow for me.
This platform gives me some place to share that creativity . To connect. To create meaning. Yes, my ego likes to feel seen and to feel like I made a difference. To matter. To be missed. Your writing helps me lean into the poetry of awareness. Thank you.
V.B.: That's great to know. I'm all for the ego to be loved and seen and feel good etc. I've always been wary of attempts to 'overcome or detach from ego' by whatever clever technique, as if this was a nasty part of ourselves, an ugly skin we have to shed.
In Synchronosophy ~ and Symbiopoiesis (!) ~ ego plays an important role.
J.M.: Definitely! I always like to think of the ego as our friend. Just trying to protect us. It’s just healthier to not let it be driving all the time and to know when it is. It definitely not going anywhere. Great point!
V.B.: In Synchronosophy, 'Ego' is defined as 'ego-identification', which obviously changes as we go and grow through life. Identification is important to help us navigate our environment, culture, social network etc. With a 'detached ego' it's easy to get lost...
Thank you for doing this. Count me in as an avid participant. I am away this weekend. I will dive deeper come Monday. I love quote as they invite me into the words. We can never trade mastery for mystery. I love how you use words to invite me deeper into the darkness. In the darkness, the shadow cannot exist. In that place the light is our own. I’ve personally not read too deep on Jung. The archetypes seem to simple, but I fully understand that he was living into the questions. We can only meet there. Thank you so so much for what you’re writing, what you’re sharing, and all of the growth that comes from it in my own life. .
That should read as we can’t trade mystery for mastery. With that said, we can definitely bring the unconscious more into our awareness. As Blake said in the world, there is the known and the unknown. Everything else in between is a door. For me Poetry is a door that helps me meet my authentic self.