Café Session on the Beach
Invitation to meet ~ each other and ourselves ~ for some sand talk
Writers begin with a grain of sand and create a beach.
〰 Robert Black (1829-1915) 〰
Welcome to the Silver Coast of Portugal.
In his inspiring book Sand Talk, Tyson Yunkaporta introduces readers to indigenous thinking and communal pondering. Sand Talk includes a lot of yarning.
Sand Talk is complex and non-linear. Although Yunkaporta doesn’t use the word, I would say, the indigenous ways are symbiocentric by nature. In this café session on the beach I’d love to try some sand talking and yarning with you.
This week we’re celebrating the completion of the manuscript of Synchronosophy: A Rough Guide to the Feral Side of Life ~ the first book I’ve written live on substack ~ in a format new to me.
Surfing a new tide of writing, this book ~ written in a small village in the foothills of the Serra da Estrela (= mountain-range of the stars) ~ called in readers from far and away. Chapter by chapter, along the horizons, you appeared on the path, fellow travellers, sharing your thoughts, comments, questions, poems, stories, and this has made all the difference.
Thank you so much for being here and accompanying me on this outer journey of writing, as well as the inner journey through life, which we share through the mysterious zhangi zhingi (= entanglement) of collective human Consciousness.
A surge of gratitude to all fellow writers, readers, commentators, restackers, recommenders, pledgers(🙏 💕), literary movers, poietic shakers, and symbiocentric thinkers:
, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,, ,, , and the whole constellation of writers on parallel orbits, as well as every subscriber, reader and follower, weathered and brandnew, silent and outspoken 💗🙏This book has grown into being, under your eagle eyes and kindred attention, or ~ unbeknown to you ~ in the slipstream of your creative genius who whispers to mine.
To celebrate the completion of Synchronosophy, I am inviting you for a walk along the shimmering beach of words, which we inadvertently create together ~ through waves of curiosity, questing and prolific dreaming, grinding our words into sparkling grains of sand strewn through chapters, essays, and notes ~ for a communal pondering from a view through seagull’s eyes.
In the waves of change we can find our true direction.
〰 anonymous 〰
Before we dive into the sand talking, I need to pick up a topic which has cropped up. It appeared only small and superficial at first, but turned out to be essential. The topic was raised by a fellow researcher and writer on substack, I want to clarify this right here, because similar thoughts and associations may be flitting through other readers’ minds too.
In response to the penultimate chapter I had a brief conversation with
referring to the two final steps in the first part of a session with the ‘circle of inner elders’ (aka Concilium of Inner Wisdom) introduced in chapter 24:::The 5th clue ~ identifying the wild belief hidden within an adverse event,
and the 6th clue ~ transforming the wild belief by discovering its dormant potential or natural habitat.
For Joe, these two steps brought up an association with a modality called Core Transformation Process (CTP) ~ a method I’d never heard of. Having familiarised myself with CTP, I realised that an important clarification was necessary. Thank you, Joe, for raising this crucial topic.
Appearances are often deceiving.
〰 Aesop 〰
Appearances can be deceptive. Significant differences are not necessarily visible in the outer form of single exercises. Profound differences, however, may lie hidden in the inner soil from which an exercise sprouts, and the intention with which it is performed.
Maybe y’all know other modalities for ‘personal transformation’ and are wondering…, is Synchronosophy similar to this…? Or how is Synchronosophy different…?
What looks like a minor variance in definition, can mark a major fork in the road. One track breaks new ground as a symbiocentric field of knowledge. The other follows the route of innovation within the framework of the anthropocentric mindset.
A basic exploration can clarify this easily and effectively by asking two simple questions:
FIRST ~ What is the mindset behind the fundamental approach? Or more specifically: Is it anthropocentric? Or is it symbiocentric?
SECOND ~ What do I mean by acceptance or/ accepting?
THIRD ~ What is the purpose of the exercise?
FIRST :::Symbiocentric Theory and Practice:::
(A) Synchronosophy is a symbiocentric theory. It is a new field of knowledge, based on the Noctarine, a map of human Consciousness as a living organism with 8 vital organs. The discipline has its roots in classical homœopathic philosophy. This means, we view symptoms not as a trouble to be fought against, defeated, and eliminated, but as the organism’s best effort to heal itself.
symptoms are a living organism’s best effort to heal herself
Another implication (and difference to other modalities) is that we never refer to any internal phenomenon as a ‘part’. As soon as we talk and think about emotions or beliefs as ‘parts’, it is far too easy to slip into the mechanistic (anthropocentric) mindset. Parts can be thought of as faulty or outdated and in need of replacement (e.g. ‘reprogramming the mind’).
In Synchronosophy every offspring of every vital Faculty is a living inner creature. If an inner creature is ‘giving me a hard time’ ~ we understand it as an immature inner creature trapped in the inner permafrost or lost in the inner wilderness. It needs compassionate attention rather than a covert strategy to annihilate it.
negative emotions and wild beliefs are immature inner creatures
(B) Kairotrophy is a symbiocentric practice. It gives impulses to inherent self-healing forces and natural evolutionary processes of the organism, in accordance with homœopathic principles. We approach any immature inner creature (expressing itself through adverse events and negative subjective experiences) with the mindset and attitude of a compassionate, supportive, loving parent.
Since all immature inner creatures are related to unprocessed trauma ~ and because they each have their own unique dormant potential ~ the kairotrophic practice offers a perfect opportunity not only to release and transform unprocessed trauma, but also to awaken, unravel and activate personal gifts buried beneath the trauma.
By ensuring that every immature inner creature matures through the five evolutionary vibrations of human Consciousness ~ embryonic, infantile, juvenile, adult, elder ~ every kairotrophic workout (e.g. a session in the Concilium of Inner Wisdom) stimulates the natural organic maturing of the whole organism of individual human Consciousness.
Synchronosophy and its kairotrophic practice stimulate the self-healing forces,
while awakening dormant potential and promoting its actualisation,
which fosters the natural maturing process of the organism
SECOND :::Symbiocentric Accepting:::
With this fuller picture in mind, let’s take a closer look at the invitation to ‘accept a wild belief’.
In Synchronosophy, accepting a wild belief translates into wholehearted unconditional acceptance, which includes a commitment to nurture, protect, and support the immature creatures along their journey into maturity and full integration within the inner world.
In anthropocentric modalities, by contrast, based on the concept of an assumed hierarchical structure of human consciousness ~ with the explicit goal to reach a preconceived desired destination (e.g. a higher state of inner harmony) ~ inner workouts may include a strategy to ‘accept negative parts’, elicit useful information, and replace them with ‘better positive parts’ (according to the hierarchy of experiencer).
In this case, acceptance of a negative part translates into a ‘temporary favourable reception’ with the ulterior motive to get rid of the irritating thing as swiftly as possible.
in symbiocentric theory and practice, accepting is wholehearted and unconditional,
acceptance is free from hidden agendas to get rid of any unwanted ‘parts’
Another significant point is the timing of the acceptance. Anthropocentric practices may launch straight into an exercise ‘accepting a negative part’.
In my subjective experience it is impossible to genuinely accept an inner creature which has caused significant trouble my whole life, which I have rejected and tried to ‘overcome’ until now. Such an ‘acceptance’ could only be a rational effort, coming from the head rather than the heart.
In Synchronosophy accepting is a practice associated with the internal maturing process. Chapter 25 mentions that accepting | acceptance is associated with the vibration of adult Consciousness (= the mental structure in Jean Gebser’s philosophy). In kairotrophic Concilium sessions, accepting is a challenging task and should not be attempted before the previous steps.
THIRD :::Symbiocentric Purpose:::
Anthropocentric modalities have a clear goal; exercises are always structured to achieve that goal. For example, in any practice based on ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ or ‘The 7 Secrets of Success’ the practitioner will focus on a predetermined destination ~ becoming more effective, or more successful in their own life or work.
In Synchronosophy and the kairotrophic practice we don’t have such a narrow measurable goal. As a symbiocentric practice, the purpose is always focused on the wellbeing of the whole organism and its entire ecosystem. Instead of aiming for a known destination, the work of the practitioner is concerned with the journey itself, WITHOUT KNOWING the outcome.
Every single session with the Concilium of Inner Wisdom is choreographed around the needs of an immature inner being. The purpose is always to nurture, protect and promote this inner creature into maturity and actualise its dormant potential, which co-incidentally also heals unprocessed personal or ancestral trauma. The precise results of a symbiocentric practice are per definition always a surprise.
in the symbiocentric practice the journey is the destination
No-one can claim their power, if they feel unworthy of it.
〰 Théun Mares 〰
For our sand talking and yarning, I have reserved a little beach café for us. While we wait for food and drinks to be served, I’d love to hear some of your questions, thoughts, wonderings, or ponderings.
Anything you’d like to share around Synchronosophy, the Concilium of Inner Wisdom, the kairotrophic practice, the Noctarine, what’s come up in life ~ in synchrony ~ while reading the chapters written and published on this substack channel between January 2024 and now.
Whether you’ve read the book or not doesn’t matter ~ the differentiation explained above clarifies that Synchronosophy is not quite like other familiar modalities, developed to transform experience, mindset and life. It is a new philosophy rooted in symbiocentric thinking, distinct from and opposite to anthropocentric thinking in countless ways.
This is not just a different ball game on the same beach, it’s a whole other beach…
I chose the quote by Théun Mares because it reminds me how much Synchronosophy has helped me claim my power. ‘Feeling unworthy’ ~ that used to be me! Therefore, the statement, we can’t claim our power if we feel unworthy of it, hit me like an arrow straight into the heart.
I also used to think it was just me, and it felt terrible. Now I’ve come to believe that most people are familiar with feeling unworthy. It’s part of our Western culture, an essential ingredient sprinkled into our collective paradigm, courtesy of the Christian gospel of ‘being born in sin’.
Feeling unworthy may express itself in various ways. In my subjective experience it came up as feeling inadequate or not good enough.
I’m curious ~ how does or did feeling unworthy come up in your subjective experience? What does or did it feel like to you?
Maybe a sip of Portuguese wine first? Saude!
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
It's always our self we find in the sea.
〰 E.E. Cummings 〰
Veronika: As in previous Café Sessions, I’ll copy and paste your threads of yarning, commenting and pondering, grains of knowing, questioning and thinking, grit of doubting, and pearls of wisdom into this post, so we can do some real sand talking.
Thank you so much in advance for joining me on this virtual beach 🐚˖𓍢ִִ໋🌊🦈˚˖𓍢ִ✧˚🐚
Perry: Thank you, Veronika. Speaking of feelings of unworthiness, this is undoutedly learned in our culture, in our society. I doubt that anyone born has instant feelings of unworthiness, of diminished self-worth, of self-denial and self-hatred.
No, this is instilled into us, starting at a young age, but certainly by age 5 or 6, by parents, by guardians, by teachers, by religious leaders, by "friends," by colleagues, by critics and by society in general. It leads to all kinds of neuroses and odd behaviours, including physical illnesses. (The academic process of peer review is one notable example of such misuse of friendly encouragement. Academics can be quite nasty and hostile.)
This is all a great and terrible misapprehension of what is required to be a healthy human in harmony with self and with Nature.
Humans are the only species I know of who suffer this unhealthy way of thinking. It is true that, for example, dogs who are raised by abusive humans do display such unhealthy tendencies, but again it emanates from human society. There is something that we humans can do. Observe Nature. The truth can be found there, which is within us. We are, after all, a species who resides within Nature.
Veronika: I would have thought so too, Perry. My earliest memories of 'being unworthy' go as far back as the age of 3. Anything before that I cannot remember...
Although more recent research into pre- and perinatal trauma has revealed that infants who have been rejected by their mothers did indeed have such feelings at birth. A terrible and devastating thought...
Perry: Yes it is.
Eric: If this is true, and I believe it is… imagine the shock and confusion and ultimately traumatic betrayal many males in the western world face at a cellular level as infants when they are taken away from their mother soon after birth and strapped in a gurney to have the most sensitive part of their bodies removed, often without local anesthetic. No judgment here - I fully understand the cultural and religious and medical customs in play - but an infant simply has no experiential framework for it.
Veronika: People used to believe that infants don’t feel any pain! “The belief that infants could not feel pain was widely accepted throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries, persisting until the 1980s” Therefore, infants were subjected to surgery without anesthetics! In the 1980s!!!
Rolando: Veronika, first of all I love that you're in Portugal, which is my country. I live near Espinho, in the north of Portugal.
I agree with what has already been said here. Feelings of worthlessness are the result of cultural patterns and are passed down through families and then internalized in each person's mind. From here, guilt and shame, which are also cultural, do the rest of the work.
Veronika: Wonderful! Bemvindo Rolando, and thank you so much for joining in 🩵🙏 🐚 isn't it astonishing that ~ as you say ~ this is passed down through families and internalized in the mind of pretty much everyone... with all the resulting guilt and shame... and yet it's such a taboo subject to talk about it.
Rolando: Obrigado Veronika
Jamie: Thanks Veronika for Synchronosophy: A Rough Guide to the Feral Side of Life! It was a privilege to savour it one bite at a time. Am still chewing. What a gift!
Am sand talking and yarning in pieces this weekend from the wildness of an outdoor adventure into the heart of a Canadian winter.
My first question: How did the Noctarine, come to have 8 vital organs?
Veronika: Hi Jamie, from snowshoeing in the Canadian winter to an almost summery day on the Portuguese Silver Coast (We did spend the day there today!)
Great question. How did the Noctarine, come to have 8 vital organs?
The answer is, this is how it came to me, via inspiration.
Maybe I should add that because of the way I received the information of the Noctarine, I have been very careful not to change anything, but instead to listen and lean into it and try to understand what it all meant... That's what a large part of my writing journey has revolved around over the past 25 years. And Synchronosophy is now the zenith of my current understanding.
I must say, I also love that the 8 Faculties (aka Keepers of Integrity) provide a great circle of inner elders.
Shelly: How delicious to be on the beach with such tasty food for thought and yarning. First, let's raise our glasses to toast your creative journey of 25 years and the past 14-ish months of Substacking your chapters! Congratulations on this point of completion! Your generous sharing of insights, of the Noctarine, the Faculties, and Synchronosophy, and the soulful sense of communal conversation has been such a gift. Thank you!!
I'm curious if/how your writing journey reflected your 3rd principle: "Instead of aiming for a known destination, the work of the practitioner is concerned with the journey itself, WITHOUT KNOWING the outcome." How did you support your inner beings with that?
Veronika: Thank you Shelly! And such an important question!! How do I support my inner beings without knowing the outcome?
The answer is surprisingly simple. Isn't that what we as parents do with out children? Of course we hope the very best for them. But ultimately we cannot know how their lives turn out. We don't want to (or shouldn't IMHO) push them towards specific results, but nourish them with unconditional love, trust, encouragement, confidence in their ability to face life and find their way, discover their potential and unfold it etc.
With the inner immature creatures it's pretty much the same. We can love them into becoming who they are born to be, no matter how obnoxious they can occasionally appear and how much they can irritate us in the early stages.
Elliot: I've been working on similar themes in my own writing and appreciate the organic nature of your approach. Human society is steeped in the lore/law of the herd mentality, with its never ending demands and expectations. There is little surprise that children grow up into disempowered adults always seeking to compensate for their condition of personal estrangement by substituting personal power with power over others. Worthiness isn't measured by the size of ones wallet but by the size of ones heart. To live a heart based existence in harmony with your personal truth requires an integrally authentic sense of self. Know thy self and to hell with the demands and expectations of others on just who and what one should be. This is precisely the opposite of looking for self actualisation from a cookie cutter society where the ability to think independently is strongly discouraged if not strictly prohibited. 🙏
Veronika: "Worthiness isn't measured by the size of ones wallet but by the size of ones heart." ~ YES! The 'cookie cutter society' and 'law of the herd mentality' you are describing sound to me like a natural outcome of the anthropocentric mindset and culture.
These are such important points in relation to the widespread sense of unworthiness... The craziest thing is that so many of us (including me in the past, I must confess) try so hard to fit in and gain approval from the system that upholds the disempowering lores and laws, measure ourselves in relation to that structure, and end up feeling 'unworthy' in reference to the rules and measures which set against us from the start.... Thank you for sharing your insights Elliot 💗🙏
Shelly: I love thinking about a home full of your 8 Faculties all working together on your book and will have to ponder for my own writing (blocks) which ones are "giving me trouble" and needing more unconditional nourishing.
This goes more into head territory, but I wanted to share that I've been reading Rollo May's 1972 book Power and Innocence. Like your "five evolutionary vibrations of human Consciousness ~ embryonic, infantile, juvenile, adult, elder" -- he writes about five kinds of power ~ "exploitive, manipulative, competitive, nutrient, and integrative." It seems similar the evolutionary scale from anthropocentric to Symbiocentric. Also reflects the kind of power struggles and violence in today's world -- 53 years after he wrote. He ties in powerlessness to lack of self worth (an individual sense of significance and belonging), like your quote by Mares. Love the synchronicity.
Veronika: Oh thank you for bringing that up. I haven't looked at Rollo May for ages and don't even remember his 'five kinds of power'. Better remind myself of his thoughts.
Any inner 'trouble maker', when given the opportunity, soften and thrive in the circle of the 8 Faculties. I've come to believe that all inner creatures just want to be heard and belong. They're all yearning to make their contribution to the microcosm in which they live. (as in the outer world so in the inner) 💗
Tara: Congratulations on the completion of this major manuscript! Have you and Renée Eli connected over Jean Gebser?
Veronika: Thank you so much Tara! Yes indeed, we have. Over Gebser and other ways of thinking too. I look forward to meeting Renée soon.
Tara: Oh good. The wonder of Substack is finding people who understand our daring ideas. Yours make perfect sense to me - as summed up so succinctly in this single post! Now that’s a feat.
Veronika: Wow! You've just totally made my day 💃 🙏 ♥️
Yes, this Substack-journey so far has been incredible. After more than 20 years writing 'in a vacuum' it makes a refreshing difference. I'm delighted to meet you here too.
Josh: Feeling unworthy seems to be a particularly Western thing, not surprising given the emphasis of the three Abrahamic religions. This seems to translate into all sorts of compensatory activities, not least technological prowess which, bizarrely, now judges humans as 'unworthy' in relation to the computational power of AI.
The hierarchical anthropocentric mind-set puts humans pretty low down - cannon-fodder, 'a pair of hands' on the production line, economic maximisers, poor through not working hard enough - and full of inadequacies that need to be overcome, illnesses that need to be eliminated, and harsh self-judgement of one's repeated failings.
By contrast I've found a symbiocentric mind-set compassionately elevates our true nobleness as humans - 'a little lower than the angels' - by accepting and embracing wholeheartedly the totality of us - and that via the less 'worthy' of our experiences, the painful ones we judge as negative. If ever there were qualities needed for this process, it's courage and humility - and we find as we embrace the despised aspects of ourselves, we encompass a more magnanimous version of ourselves. All of which points to Synchronosophy as a wondrous contribution to human and humane evolution.
And the sense of unworthiness? Where has it gone? Through unconditionally enwrapping and unwrapping the waters of emotionality, unworthiness has been transformed into fire in our bellies, wind in our back, and solid ground beneath our feet.
Veronika: Oh gosh! So much in there... humans unworthy in relation to AI ~ yes, that's the scary thing. That humans have reduced themselves to their own computational power, ignore the rest of their vital forces, and then compare themselves with AI.
Your illustration of how the anthropocentric mind views humans provides a plausible explanation for this widespread sense of unworthiness. Constantly having to prove ourselves, battling against impossibly high stakes.
The beauty of the symbiocentric mindset is that there is nothing to prove. We are who we are, worthy simply by being here. When we are able to extend this unconditional acceptance to our inner immature creatures, the transformative process not only heals the old trauma but also stimulates the actualisation of dormant potential. That's the power of the symbiocene, which I only discovered through that word! Thank you very much Glenn Albrecht for coining this important term!! 💗🙏
Food eaten at the beach just tastes so much better.
〰 Mackenzie Filson 〰
Simone: Hi Veronika, Firstly, thank you so much for all you have offered us. So pleased to be on any beach so thank you for inviting us to yours and if ever there was an animal to soothe my inner child and her wild creatures, it would be a seagull — for she is symbolic of freedom. I loved watching them as a child, and that child still does. And the beach, not sure I could ever live too far away from one — those that show me how to nurture the ‘immature inner creatures’ within me, how to accept what the tides have to offer and how to feel my body in hers. So much part of my recovery and so still so much to learn. Compassion is one of the gifts of that curiosity. So, what a gift it has been to come across Synchronosophy: A Rough Guide to the Feral Side of Life.
I have resisted prescribed, mainstream expectations of healing — mainly because of mandated ways or stages of how one should be. Harnessing the gifts in my grief of losing John, and our ongoing soul connection has somehow expanded into recovery of those ‘inner creatures trapped in the permafrost and lost in the inner wilderness.’ Those intergenerational and ancestral patterns that we inherit, learn and repeat. As you show, this acceptance is beyond the binds of time, ‘a challenging task’ with the gifts of ‘actualising potential’ to ‘heal unprocessed personal and ancestral trauma’.
Your work resonates deeply with how I am working with to harness the gifts of my interdimensional soul connections — how our soul’s expression in its human form is fuelled by the vibrational frequencies of unconditional love, realised in our earth experience through gratitude and compassion — acceptance of the emotional all of it. How ‘accepting my own inner being’, vibrationally reaches my ancestors — for it is a reciprocal collaboration where they too heal, it is an eternal and timeless soul journey.
Thank you for expanding my awareness around acceptance of our whole being with your work. Sending much love and gratitude. 🙏 💚🌊💫
Veronika: Thank you too, Simone, for your important work, your companionship on this journey, the resonance, the sharing of your unique and precious experiences with John and the ancestors.
I have experienced that too, that 'it is a reciprocal collaboration where they too heal' not in such elaborate ways as you have, but I remember clearly having conversations with both of my grandmothers (one died before I was born, the other I only met a couple of times, which were not memorable), when they both came to thank me for my work. You are the only one I know with similar experiences! That blew me away when first reading about it.
I received the Noctarine as a gift and tool for healing and maturing and always knew (somewhere) that I was supposed to share it, but didn't know how. It's taken me many years to figure out how to write about it... Synchronosophy is my third attempt, and it feels like having completed an important task on my soul journey. So thank you for the resonance and for contributing to this. It feels like we're each expanding our microcosms in reciprocal ways, which I believe is exactly how it should be in the new era of the symbiocene. 💗🙏
Simone: How brilliant, your two grandmothers coming to you.💜 What a journey you have had in compiling this and your own resilience to keep going with it. 🙏 Of course, what you have written is not a once read ... or twice, or thrice .... to be revisited at each point of need. So much more to explore each time. A new era indeed. Thank you.😊
Veronika: Yes. It is a reference work (in progress...)💗 Full disclosure:: I also have to keep rereading what I’ve written, because this is somehow writing itself through me.
Simone: Yes, what a powerful writing collaboration you are having. 💚
Veronika: Definitely. When I'm writing, 'it' takes on a life of its own. Writing is the 'love language' of my creative genius.
Joe: Congratulations, Veronika! So glad you're wrapping things up and feeling good about your new book. And I'm glad our exchange turned out to be fruitful to bring this key distinction to light.
One wrinkle I'd like to add to the conversation is this. You discuss how similar methods can be performed with very different intentions springing from different soil. Perhaps it is also true that any method can be transplanted to different soil, nourishing different intentions, changing the living essence of what is enacted.
In the case of the Core Transformation practice we talked about, I've taken the raw seed of the simple question, "What do you want," and applied it in the context of my own work. In doing so, it has been freed of the expectation to arrive at a handful of specific "core states," and where it leads becomes entirely an authentic expression of the energy it engages.
If this is the case that what we inhabit as we hold something is more important than the something itself or its origins, is anything fully "anthropocentric" or "symbiocentric"? Is everything human not to some extent both at the same time?
One one side, the thinking that gives rise to any given model comes from a human who has an extensive lived history, an extensive living network of social and other kinds of connections to other humans, and has lived more or less immersed in human influences since their time in the womb. The sharing of that thinking must come through language and other forms of expression that depend for their effectiveness on their alignment with other human experience. At the very least, our thinking is anthropo-shaped, even if not explicitly organized around humans at the center.
And on the other side, we humans are, all of us, more than human, are we not? Are we not, every one of us, fully embedded expressions of the natural world, symbiocentric in our most fundamental essence?
I offer this because I find myself somehow resisting the binary, and I'm curious about that. I know I have lived much of my life carrying an inner defiance against all things human, but I am becoming curious about what it might look like for me to actually find a way to embrace those holding what seems anthropocentric to me. I have a suspicion that the kind of generative enlivening we all long for can only happen if we find ways to hold all human forms and expressions with curiosity about what might be possible.
What are your thoughts?
Veronika: Thank you Joe! One book is ending, while the next one is already stirring 😉 Yes it does feel good. And as you know yourself, this work is never ending.... and while I am pleased to see how it has turned out, it also feels good as in 💭 Phew! Can I have a little break now?
Really interesting what you say about separating the Q 'what do I want' from the 'core states'. I fully agree! Of course, in the kairotrophic practice we can also ask this Q. It belongs into the sphere of influence of the Will (Inner Wizard). The anthropocentric mindset of CTP lies in the 'core states' (focusing on the goal rather than the journey).
Can humans live in anthropocentric and symbiocentric realms at the same time?
I would say, yes and no. It depends how you define these words. I use anthropocene and symbiocene in the sense defined by Glenn Albrecht (who coined the term symbiocene). In my understanding we are currently transitioning from the current anthropocene (the era where humans see themselves as the 'centre of the universe') to the symbiocene (the era where we re-cognise our place in a symbiogenic universe). During this transition it is perfectly natural to flit between anthropocentric and symbiocentric thinking. In other ways they are not necessarily compatible. It's not about being 'against human' but perhaps about discovering our true humanity and becoming more humane, which includes many human expressions and potential neglected for far too long.
Judith: Deep bow. Thank you so much for mentioning me. I am deeply grateful to you.
Veronika: Thank you Judith 💗🙏 deep bow back to you! You are such an inspiration ✨
Deborah: Congratulations on completing your book, Veronika! In response to your question about when feelings of unworthiness arose, while I no longer experience them with great intensity, I recall their presence throughout the first half of my life. Strangely, I can trace them back to the very beginning - being born prematurely and spending the first weeks of my life in an incubator. Beyond that, I remember feeling separated from what I can only describe as ‘the stars,’ living with a longing to return until midlife.
Thank you for sharing synchronicity with me, first through the 'stars,' and now through our first 'book.' Your reflections are beautifully insightful and deeply resonate. The idea of engaging in compassionate dialogue with the unseen, unpolished, untamed aspects of ourselves is truly inspiring - a metamorphic journey where the path itself holds profound meaning, beyond just the destination. Synchronosophy, with its evolving relationship with the unconscious, feels like a poetic dance of acceptance and transformation.
Veronika: Oh Deborah, thank you so much for sharing your experience of 'unworthiness'. (and the feeling of separation has a big influence in my journey too.) Separation from the stars. It generates such an intense yearning ~ a true de-sire in the most literal sense of de-siderare.
I also noticed some other parallels (scanning some of your substack posts), first writing, then therapist, then back to writing. And now our synchronous creations and publishings. Yes "a metamorphic journey where the path itself holds profound meaning, beyond just the destination" ~ a perfect pitch!
I look forward to learning more of your writing too. As the journey continues, I'm delighted to have 'found you' and excited to connect with you and watch what will be born from future symbiocentric exchanges 🙏 ✨
Jacqueline: Veronika, you are magical. It's a deep honour to be connected with you through the aether, my sister, as we each walk the path back to our Wholeness. I love your work because I believe your devoted attention to inner excavation is a machete clearing a path that leads us away from blinding distractions and towards the light of true gnosis. You embody to me one who understands that the way out is in....❤️
Regarding the question of unworthiness, I have nothing new to add to what's been said already (a product of societal/religious conditioning, inherited trauma, etc) except perhaps to highlight the role of the "voice in the head", which I do believe many mistakenly assume to be an extension of thinking, an outcropping of mind.
I perceive that we are in a game of sorts. A training program for soul warriors, if you will. And every game needs constraints and/or opponents to produce necessary contrast (binaries) to rub up against. Without contrast, there is nothing. No time or space in which to grow and to transform.
As Don Miguel Ruiz calls it, the Voice of Knowledge is one such adversary, a trickster. Steven Pressfield calls it the voice of resistance. The game afoot is to learn to observe the voice in our head and not to be governed by it. It is tuned to a frequency of fear and tells us we are 'different' or 'separate' or 'unworthy' or 'not safe'. It is the voice of judgement. It is the voice that convinces us to get in our own way, sabotaging our efforts at maturing into fully ripened humans, into the embodiment of sovereign souls with immense power to imagine and create.
The maya in this realm is strong and intoxicating, and is upheld by us collectively believing false things. My work has been to learn to listen, to notice that voice when it speaks nonsense- and in noticing it and not believing it, I am granted a new choice. Each time I act from KNOWING who I am, the spell loses more of its power. The illusion dissipates. And I become more whole and free!
Veronika: Thank you so much Jacqueline, for bringing yourself into this sand talk. A training of soul warriors. A spacetime for growing, transforming, and becoming the ones we have been waiting for...
You mention Don Miguel Ruiz.... In preparation for this session, I stumbled across a very different lineage of Toltec teachings by Théun Mares. Have you heard of him? (Return of the Warriors: the Toltec Teachings, Vol 1) you might be interested.
Thank you for adding your uniqueness, your vision, experience, your creative talents and skills to this peopling wave, while following the soul-call of the returning warriors 💙 🙏 ✨
Joe: Mmm, I'm seeing it a little differently now that you illuminate anthropocene and symbiocene as eras between which we are in transition. I think my mind was strong-armed by the "-centric" as relating the term anthropocentric to an attribution of something like narcissism, and what I see as a common tendency to use the term in service to a kind of shaming, in a way.
I am (as I think you are) advocating for us holding humanity as a whole in the same way that we hold an immature inner creature as being "trapped in the inner permafrost or lost in the inner wilderness," exhibiting signs of "the organism’s best effort to heal itself." I see our developmental journey as being exactly as it has had to be (while acknowledging my own impatience at its oh-too-slow pace relative to my very short life). Holding massive compassion for the planet as a whole as it is having to find its way through this transition.
As for completions -- yes! I do hope you give yourself a little break, for sure! Not sure how I'll handle my transition between first and second books, since they're really two parts of a single tome, and I'll feel compelled to continue to finish the second part. But tiny breaks here and there help as well. Nice that you got to spend some time at the beach, and it sounds like your home is plentifully nourishing as well. So important!
Veronika: Thank you again for the clarification, Joe. While language is our tool for communication, it can also be a great tool for misunderstandings... I guessed that perhaps you held different definitions for those words.
In my mind, anthropocentric (current definition) means 'the mindset that has created, and is sustaining the anthropocene,' i.e. the era governed by establishing humans as 'man over or against nature'. Anthropocentric means structured as a hierarchy with top down control. The anthropocene has done its best to cut humans off from their own nature, to destroy our natural environment, all in the name of human safety and protection...
Symbiocene, by contrast, is an era we (or many of us) are yearning for, a re-connection with our inner and outer nature, re-membering our true role and power in the great scheme of the universe and cosmic Consciousness (or something like that). Symbiocentric systems are governed by heterarchy and mutual respect, which benefits all living creatures (in the inner and the outer).
I am grateful for these conversations, which can help us both articulate more clearly, and sharpen our understanding and vision of this work.
This exchange itself is (in my understanding) symbiocentric. The differences are sometimes subtle, as Khalil Gibran captures in his timeless saying, "Say not, 'I have found the truth,' (anthropocentric) but rather, 'I have found a truth.' (symbiocentric)."
Best wishes for raising & juggling the parts of your book. I know the feeling, believe me! it's not easy, therefore it really helps to work in symbiogenic/ symbiocentric ways. xx
Joe: I love the way you've articulated how these terms live for you in these two beautifully concise paragraphs, especially in acknowledging the positive intent underlying the destructive means of the anthropocene.
<sigh> We have so much to learn about how to actually inhabit symbiocentric ways of being. Primary among the skills we need is how to connect with one another through channels more encompassing, subtle, interconnected and wise than language; how to shift language out of the center and place our lived experience of being back where it belongs. It is sometimes harder for me to do that when the primary medium of connection is digital words like we're doing here, and I appreciate your willingness and skill in reaching beyond and around the words to sense into what is real. Thank you!
Veronika: What a lovely response! Thank you Joe, again 🙏 ✨
I fully believe that everything humans do is with positive intent. The anthropocentric mind (in my understanding) developed from fear in the face of danger and a sense of inferiority. A natural response was to flip to the other pole of the spectrum and affirm human superiority. This turned out to be a logical fallacy based on an inability to understand the complexity of the world beyond human experience.
Josh, my husband, said to me the other day that I was born with a symbiocentric mindset. That's probably true for most of us. It's also true that symbiocentric thinking comes more naturally to me than its counterpart (I credit my unusual childhood with this skill).
As a linguist, I wouldn't blame language for the dilemma we're facing in our efforts to communicate (language is patient and versatile). Although it's true that our language and the meanings we attach to words have been shaped by anthropocentric thinking, we can change that ~ with a little effort. In fact this effort (which I am putting into my parallel substack 'Symbiopaedia') also helps me understand and develop symbiocentric thinking.
In the end, a fully integrated 'mindset' must express itself through all channels of communication, including language. Now I'm curious to know, where do you see the place of language when you say 'where it belongs'?
Joe: Thank you again, too. I feel a release in reading your generous way of holding language. I have tended to conflate language itself (at least the English version of it) with the way the western mind tends to hold it with such a desperately tight grip as the cleverly disguised proxy for reality. My partner @springcheng inhabits the Chinese language, which does a much better job as an interface with symbiocentricity. That plus my ongoing frustration with trying to put English words to my own work, and having those existing words so strongly attached to meanings that don't fit. But, OK, <deep breath> it's not the fault of the language, and I can see in what you say that language itself (even English!) can be used differently if we choose to make the effort.
So, yes, a fully integrated mindset can express itself through all channels including language! And. I do think it important to place language in a living relationship with these other channels. For example, Spring and I carry vibrant, ongoing practices in our community of things like Playback Theater, improvisational circle singing, and various other practices of embodied relation. So important in service to stepping outside of our rigid stories and concepts.
So, in answer to your question, I hold the felt experience of being at the center, and for me it seems important to place language in a position of service to that. Language and some of its corollaries including logic, analysis, rationality, meaning-making etc have their greatest value when held in service to the wholeness that is possible only through opening to the profound interconnection and aliveness that courses through our essential being.
In writing this, I sense that I still hold a hierarchy here, where to me, language should be beneath, or in the periphery, relative to what I believe it should serve. Not sure what to do with that. I must admit to myself that there's a part of me that sort of holds that it should be fully subservient -- ha! Well, OK, there's room for more opening, I suppose.
Veronika: The felt experience in the centre 😊 I wholeheartedly agree! How could I not?!
And "language itself (even English!) can be used differently" 😎 This makes me smile (in a friendly way). It is so interesting to me how you view the English language in comparison to ~ Chinese ~ and other languages.
Having grown up with three languages (German, Arabic and English), and studied the Roman language family (Latin, French, Spanish and Portuguese), my relationship with English is very different. I can see that if you have 'only one language' to think, express yourself and communicate in, it is easy to get the impression that 'language itself is limited'. You have also, as you say, blended the English language with the way it is used (in education, propaganda, advertising, media etc.) This is understandable, given that you are used to hearing all of these channels of expression in English.
From my perspective, as a multilingual third culture person (and a linguist) familiar with germanic, roman, and semitic languages, English is not even a ‘proper language’. A few years ago I spent some months researching the English language in response to the common lament that ‘English is taking over the world’. What I found was that there is no such thing as an ‘original English language’. What we call ‘English’ now is a hodgepodge coming mainly from Anglo-Saxon, Latin, French mixed with a lot of germanic and nordic roots, plus generous helpings of words from all over the world (Greek, Arabic, Japanese, Sanskrit, you name it…)
As naturalised British citizen I have chosen English as my main writing language, because I feel I can express myself freely in this idiom. When I miss a word, I feel free to create one, using the language sources which are already available in the English glossary of words, and with which I am familiar across the German, Roman, and Arabic speaking world and beyond. I don’t think of the language as ‘ruling me and my thinking’ or ‘limiting my ways of expression’ but rather as a living companion, eager to provide the services you mention.
I am also familiar with non-linguistic forms of expression. My daughter is a process worker, so we sometimes do practices like ‘translation of movement into drawing’ or ‘expressing a physical sensation through performance’ etc.
As a writer (of fiction and creative non-fiction), language is also my form of creative expression, where I experience my relationship with language in a whole other way. We dance together. But that’s another story.
As the ocean ‘waves’, the universe ‘peoples’.
Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature,
a unique action of the total universe.
〰 Alan Watts 〰
Kimberly: I’ve been sitting with this one for a bit. I don’t know if I would’ve called it “self-worth” as a child, because I didn’t have much of a “self” to identify. But at its root, yes, there was a pervasive sense of not belonging, and so I referenced myself through others. It wasn’t until I developed a stronger sense of self (in my adult years!) that I was able to see how worthiness was tangled up in this lack of belonging.
Thank you for this sacred gathering!
Veronika: A sense of not belonging! Yes, this sounds very familiar to me too. I am grateful that you are mentioning the lack of sense of a 'self' to identify with as a child. That may be true for many children? Unless that 'sense of self' is nurtured and its development supported by our adults and social environment, how do we develop it?
That's a whole other big topic. I'm glad you mention it because it also highlights the complexity of the entanglement with our sense of worthiness. We identify through belonging. So when there is some sense of not belonging... ?? We can spend decades of our life disentangle that, while trying to 'have a life'...
You are most welcome, Kimberly, I'm so grateful you are here 💗🙏
Susie: Dear Veronika, I will read this again, and other chapters that I have missed to more fully grasp how I can reply to your sand talk invitation for which I am deeply humbled to even be included, a huge and heartfelt thank you.
I cannot leave though, without adding bravo for finishing your book, for filling me with awe at you deep insights and for connecting dots I never even imagined existed... J'attends la suite avec impatience! 🙏🏼💚🌼🍃xx
Veronika: Thank you so very much, Susie for popping in to the sand talk 💗🙏
Please don't feel obliged to follow the dots I've been trying to connect .. 😅 .. with that proviso, if it speaks to you, je serais enchanté 💚🙏 🧚🏽 🪄 🍃 🪶
Eric: On the topic of unworthiness — I’ve found the Feeding Your Demons link you provided somewhere earlier in this series to be an invaluable practice. And I could readily translate the depth and meaning of the experiences I’ve had using terms and concepts you’ve so clearly articulated in these chapters. Synchronosophy not only offers a holistic framework and practical everyday steps, but a vocabulary to communicate it all.
Veronika: Thank you, Eric, that's so good to hear!! Truly wonderful and encouraging feedback 💙 🙏 ✨
Although I've developed plenty of exercises and practices of my own, I want to present Synchronosophy not as 'yet another method' but as a conceptually different way of understanding ourselves and our experiences. A new field of self-knowledge. So I'm always delighted to find existing practices which fit into that way of thinking and being. Feeding Your Demons is a brilliant one. I'm so glad it resonates with you.
And, as you say, the vocabulary... it's taken me a while, first to realise that a new way of thinking is impossible to communicate with words filled with old meaning... and then to create the new vocabulary. That's been a major part of the work. Fortuitously words are my creative medium 😊
Hi Veronika, Firstly, thank you so much for all you have offered us. So pleased to be on any beach so thank you for inviting us to yours and if ever there was an animal to soothe my inner child and her wild creatures, it would be a seagull — for she is symbolic of freedom. I loved watching them as a child, and that child still does. And the beach, not sure I could ever live too far away from one — those that show me how to nurture the ‘immature inner creatures’ within me, how to accept what the tides have to offer and how to feel my body in hers. So much part of my recovery and so still so much to learn. Compassion is one of the gifts of that curiosity. So, what a gift it has been to come across Synchronosophy: A Rough Guide to the Feral Side of Life.
I have resisted prescribed, mainstream expectations of healing — mainly because of mandated ways or stages of how one should be. Harnessing the gifts in my grief of losing John, and our ongoing soul connection has somehow expanded into recovery of those ‘inner creatures trapped in the permafrost and lost in the inner wilderness.’ Those intergenerational and ancestral patterns that we inherit, learn and repeat. As you show, this acceptance is beyond the binds of time, ‘a challenging task’ with the gifts of ‘actualising potential’ to ‘heal unprocessed personal and ancestral trauma’.
Your work resonates deeply with how I am working with to harness the gifts of my interdimensional soul connections — how our soul’s expression in its human form is fuelled by the vibrational frequencies of unconditional love, realised in our earth experience through gratitude and compassion — acceptance of the emotional all of it. How ‘accepting my own inner being’, vibrationally reaches my ancestors — for it is a reciprocal collaboration where they too heal, it is an eternal and timeless soul journey.
Thank you for expanding my awareness around acceptance of our whole being with your work. Sending much love and gratitude. 🙏 💚🌊💫
Thank you, Veronika. Speaking of feelings of unworthiness, this is undoutedly learned in our culture, in our society. I doubt that anyone born has instant feelings of unworthiness, of diminished self-worth, of self-denial and self-hatred.
No, this is instilled into us, starting at a young age, but certainly by age 5 or 6, by parents, by guardians, by teachers, by religious leaders, by "friends," by colleagues, by critics and by society in general. It leads to all kinds of neuroses and odd behaviours, including physical illnesses. (The academic process of peer review is one notable example of such misuse of friendly encouragement. Academics can be quite nasty and hostile.)
This is all a great and terrible misapprehension of what is required to be a healthy human in harmony with self and with Nature.
Humans are the only species I know of who suffer this unhealthy way of thinking. It is true that, for example, dogs who are raised by abusive humans do display such unhealthy tendencies, but again it emanates from human society. There is something that we humans can do. Observe Nature. The truth can be found there, which is within us. We are, after all, a species who resides within Nature.