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 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. 💗🙏
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.😊
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.
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.
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...
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.
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!!!
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 magnaminous version of ourselves. All of which points to Synchronosophy as a wondrous contribution to human and humane evolution.
And the sense of unworthyness? Where has it gone? Through unconditionally enwrapping and unwrapping the waters of emotionality, unworthyness has been transformed into fire in our bellies, wind in our back, and solid ground beneath our feet.
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! So thank you very much Glenn Albrecht for coining this important term!! 💗🙏
Thank you Veronika. 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. 🙏
"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 💗🙏
Dear Veronika, thank you so much for mentioning me in this amazing group of people. I am humbled and - if I am honest - a little perplexed that you would include me. Mostly, however, I am intrigued and curious. I have enjoyed connecting with you in my Substack's comments' section but I think it's time I check your writing too ;)
So, for now, I congratulate you on finishing your book. It seems you have also succeeded in creating an amazing community around you! Muitos parabéns!
Obrigada Sara, I invited you as one of my few 'Portuguese substack friends' because I thought you'd enjoy popping over to a Café Session on the Silver coast, if only virtually. beijinhos 💕🙏
This is a rich and insightful Veronika, I came back to it several times to grasp its depth. I beleive that you have captured the essence of the nature of personal transformation, the distinction between anthropocentric and symbiocentric approaches, and the pervasive issue of feeling unworthy. This is my understanding and some key points I've carried with me:
Key Points I wrote down in order to understand:
Superficial similarities in exercises can mask profound differences in their underlying philosophy and intention, hence the "inner soil" (mindset and intention) from which an exercise originates is crucial.
Anthropocentric is Human-centered, hierarchical, goal-oriented, often seeking to "fix" or "replace" parts of oneself, whereas Symbiocentric is ecosystem-centered, holistic, process-oriented, emphasizing nurturing and maturation of inner "creatures."
When you say acceptance, you mean anthropocentric acceptance is a temporary strategy to eliminate unwanted parts? However, symbiocentric acceptance is wholehearted, unconditional acceptance, nurturing inner creatures towards maturity?
Anthropocentric purpose is clear with predetermined goals. On the other hand, symbiocentric purpose is focusing on the journey, nurturing inner beings, with outcomes that are inherently unpredictable?
Unworthiness is a BIG point. It is a learned behavior, often instilled by cultural and societal influences (e.g., religious doctrines, societal expectations). It can manifest in various ways, including feelings of inadequacy, not belonging, and separation. If I am right, then the symbiocentric view allows for the transformation of this feeling by the compassionate acceptance of the immature inner beings that hold the feeling.
The Noctarine is a map of human consciousness as a living organism with 8 vital organs, received via inspiration. Synchronosophy is a symbiocentric theory, Kairotrophy is a symbiocentric practice (I still need to understand this).
I admire deeply how you express the importance of language in shaping and reflecting our understanding of the world. Am I right in ascertaining that you consider the English language to be very adaptable, and can be used in a symbiocentric way?
Your core message, is something I agree with entirely, true personal transformation goes beyond surface-level techniques. It requires a fundamental shift in mindset from a human-centered, control-oriented approach to an ecosystem-centered, nurturing approach. Your
discussion about "unworthiness" highlights how deeply ingrained this feeling is in our culture, and how a symbiocentric approach can offer a path to healing.. Are we always walking that path?
My father was a deeply unhappy person, I believe it was because he failed to live up to his own expectations of himself. He therefore felt deep unworthiness, he had much potential but failed, through addictions, to lead a life of purpose and fulfilment. Your essay spoke to me of his way of being and how I have sought to live my life purposefully, yet still know there is much to do. Thank you, your essay has caused deep reflection.
Oh, thank you so much for engaging so deeply with my work! I feel deeply moved by your response, your willingness to read and reflect and offer feedback is profoundly encouraging!!
Having spent years (2.5 decades to be precise) trying to articulate this stuff, I am delighted about your response, your resonance, confirming that I am finally succeeding to convey these insights.
Quick answers to your questions:
Acceptance? Yes.
Unpredictable outcomes? Yes.
Noctarine/ Synchronosophy/ Kairotrophy .... this is work in progress and will (hopefully) all become clear in the end
English language? Absolutely. I have chosen to write in English and find the language infinitely suitable to what I want to express. Having said that, I have written one earlier version of my books in German too, and it wasn't a problem either. I believe any language can be used in symbiocentric ways.
Yes, it seems that withe the 'unworthiness' I tapped into something ... some 'trauma aquifer' that affects us all.
I like to believe that we are always walking that path, simply because any living organism is by nature driven by its innate life force and regenerative powers. So I assume that this living organism of IHC is on that trajectory, even if the human individual is not aware of it and aligned with anthropocentric thinking. As soon as the individual becomes aware and switches into symbiocentric thinking/being/ feeling etc. they would be automatically supporting their own organism while the organism is supporting the individual. I have and am continuously experiencing this to be the case.
I can relate to the sadness about your father. Mine died with a deep sense of guilt... having been a social activist and pacifist most of his adult life.
I have just finished writing my introduction to the book Synchronosophy, to be posted tomorrow. Looking forward to hear what you make of it.
With immense heartfelt gratitude for this conversation 💗🙏
Veronika, Congratulations on the completion of Synchronosophy here on Substack. You, your ways of being and understanding, of revealing and reiterating in refined wording, your beautiful ways of gently ushering us from anthropocentric to synchronosophic ways of being, are a blessing to each of us called into this circle and the world. May the tide this book go far out into the sea of humanity! Thank you for including me at this gathering in the sand. Muito obrigata. Saúde.
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.
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 😊
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
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 💚🙏 🧚🏽 🪄 🍃 🪶
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.
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 💗🙏
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!
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 💙 🙏 ✨
I have not heard of him! And I am very interested! I have loved Toltec wisdom and the shamanic worldview ever since first diving into Carlos Castenada books in my early 20's and receiving glimmers of the world beneath the world....thank you for providing me with some more enticing breadcrumbs to follow, Veronika. ❤️
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.
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 🙏 ✨
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.
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.
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!
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
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!
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'?
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.
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 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. 💗🙏
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.😊
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.
Yes, what a powerful writing collaboration you are having. 💚
Definitely. When I'm writing, 'it' takes on a life of its own. Writing is the 'love language' of my creative genius.
🙏🏼😊💜
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.
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...
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.
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!!!
https://time.com/3827167/this-is-a-babys-brain-on-pain/
Yes, it is.
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 magnaminous version of ourselves. All of which points to Synchronosophy as a wondrous contribution to human and humane evolution.
And the sense of unworthyness? Where has it gone? Through unconditionally enwrapping and unwrapping the waters of emotionality, unworthyness has been transformed into fire in our bellies, wind in our back, and solid ground beneath our feet.
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! So thank you very much Glenn Albrecht for coining this important term!! 💗🙏
Thank you Veronika. 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. 🙏
"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 💗🙏
A pleasure. Congratulations on the quality of your work 🙏
Dear Veronika, thank you so much for mentioning me in this amazing group of people. I am humbled and - if I am honest - a little perplexed that you would include me. Mostly, however, I am intrigued and curious. I have enjoyed connecting with you in my Substack's comments' section but I think it's time I check your writing too ;)
So, for now, I congratulate you on finishing your book. It seems you have also succeeded in creating an amazing community around you! Muitos parabéns!
Obrigada Sara, I invited you as one of my few 'Portuguese substack friends' because I thought you'd enjoy popping over to a Café Session on the Silver coast, if only virtually. beijinhos 💕🙏
This is a rich and insightful Veronika, I came back to it several times to grasp its depth. I beleive that you have captured the essence of the nature of personal transformation, the distinction between anthropocentric and symbiocentric approaches, and the pervasive issue of feeling unworthy. This is my understanding and some key points I've carried with me:
Key Points I wrote down in order to understand:
Superficial similarities in exercises can mask profound differences in their underlying philosophy and intention, hence the "inner soil" (mindset and intention) from which an exercise originates is crucial.
Anthropocentric is Human-centered, hierarchical, goal-oriented, often seeking to "fix" or "replace" parts of oneself, whereas Symbiocentric is ecosystem-centered, holistic, process-oriented, emphasizing nurturing and maturation of inner "creatures."
When you say acceptance, you mean anthropocentric acceptance is a temporary strategy to eliminate unwanted parts? However, symbiocentric acceptance is wholehearted, unconditional acceptance, nurturing inner creatures towards maturity?
Anthropocentric purpose is clear with predetermined goals. On the other hand, symbiocentric purpose is focusing on the journey, nurturing inner beings, with outcomes that are inherently unpredictable?
Unworthiness is a BIG point. It is a learned behavior, often instilled by cultural and societal influences (e.g., religious doctrines, societal expectations). It can manifest in various ways, including feelings of inadequacy, not belonging, and separation. If I am right, then the symbiocentric view allows for the transformation of this feeling by the compassionate acceptance of the immature inner beings that hold the feeling.
The Noctarine is a map of human consciousness as a living organism with 8 vital organs, received via inspiration. Synchronosophy is a symbiocentric theory, Kairotrophy is a symbiocentric practice (I still need to understand this).
I admire deeply how you express the importance of language in shaping and reflecting our understanding of the world. Am I right in ascertaining that you consider the English language to be very adaptable, and can be used in a symbiocentric way?
Your core message, is something I agree with entirely, true personal transformation goes beyond surface-level techniques. It requires a fundamental shift in mindset from a human-centered, control-oriented approach to an ecosystem-centered, nurturing approach. Your
discussion about "unworthiness" highlights how deeply ingrained this feeling is in our culture, and how a symbiocentric approach can offer a path to healing.. Are we always walking that path?
My father was a deeply unhappy person, I believe it was because he failed to live up to his own expectations of himself. He therefore felt deep unworthiness, he had much potential but failed, through addictions, to lead a life of purpose and fulfilment. Your essay spoke to me of his way of being and how I have sought to live my life purposefully, yet still know there is much to do. Thank you, your essay has caused deep reflection.
Oh, thank you so much for engaging so deeply with my work! I feel deeply moved by your response, your willingness to read and reflect and offer feedback is profoundly encouraging!!
Having spent years (2.5 decades to be precise) trying to articulate this stuff, I am delighted about your response, your resonance, confirming that I am finally succeeding to convey these insights.
Quick answers to your questions:
Acceptance? Yes.
Unpredictable outcomes? Yes.
Noctarine/ Synchronosophy/ Kairotrophy .... this is work in progress and will (hopefully) all become clear in the end
English language? Absolutely. I have chosen to write in English and find the language infinitely suitable to what I want to express. Having said that, I have written one earlier version of my books in German too, and it wasn't a problem either. I believe any language can be used in symbiocentric ways.
Yes, it seems that withe the 'unworthiness' I tapped into something ... some 'trauma aquifer' that affects us all.
I like to believe that we are always walking that path, simply because any living organism is by nature driven by its innate life force and regenerative powers. So I assume that this living organism of IHC is on that trajectory, even if the human individual is not aware of it and aligned with anthropocentric thinking. As soon as the individual becomes aware and switches into symbiocentric thinking/being/ feeling etc. they would be automatically supporting their own organism while the organism is supporting the individual. I have and am continuously experiencing this to be the case.
I can relate to the sadness about your father. Mine died with a deep sense of guilt... having been a social activist and pacifist most of his adult life.
I have just finished writing my introduction to the book Synchronosophy, to be posted tomorrow. Looking forward to hear what you make of it.
With immense heartfelt gratitude for this conversation 💗🙏
Veronika, Congratulations on the completion of Synchronosophy here on Substack. You, your ways of being and understanding, of revealing and reiterating in refined wording, your beautiful ways of gently ushering us from anthropocentric to synchronosophic ways of being, are a blessing to each of us called into this circle and the world. May the tide this book go far out into the sea of humanity! Thank you for including me at this gathering in the sand. Muito obrigata. Saúde.
Thank you for being here Renée. Look forward to seeing you on these shores soon xx
What a remarkable collaboration! 💜
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.
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 😊
I applaud the enormity of what you have undertaken — as you say, fortunately you are the exact right person for the task 🙏
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
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 💚🙏 🧚🏽 🪄 🍃 🪶
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!
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 💗🙏
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!
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 💙 🙏 ✨
I have not heard of him! And I am very interested! I have loved Toltec wisdom and the shamanic worldview ever since first diving into Carlos Castenada books in my early 20's and receiving glimmers of the world beneath the world....thank you for providing me with some more enticing breadcrumbs to follow, Veronika. ❤️
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.
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 🙏 ✨
Deep bow.
Thank you Judith 💗🙏 deep bow back to you!
You are such an inspiration ✨
Thank you so much for mentioning me. I am deeply grateful to you.
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?
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.
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!
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
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!
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'?
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.