Hi Friend,

"ReMember."

This is the word I use for a lot of what I do: the ReMembering and ReEnchanting Podcast; the ReMembering Course; the title of this newsletter. 

It's a word that has become increasingly popular in the last year or so - people using it with some of the similar mind-body-spirit-ecological-social dimensions that I was hoping it connotates when I first started using it. 

But what does that word evoke? And as times shift and change (as they do), what do the word and the practice mean now? For you? For us?

I think of "reMembering" as akin to an art form. A kind of praxis.  

What and how and with whom are we remembering?

That question is rich enough to be a topic you could run with, whether you are a facilitator or an educator or an investor. What is being remembered in this particular combination of actions/stories/images/financial flows?

As I prepare to open up the next ReMembering Course cohort, I'm thinking about the meanings and invitations that this word/symbol/invocation offers us a fair amount.  Especially in this political moment. There is a lot of noise, a lot of analysis, a lot of diagnoses of the problem.

What will enable us to go beneath the waves?

Everytime I look towards offering a new cohort, I ask myself: is this still relevant? The answer this time arose a month or two ago, when former students spontaneously texted me, telling me I'm so glad I took your course, it is helping me now so much.... and, This is so needed right now. I'm so glad you keep doing this.  So. We start again.  Several folks are interested. I'm offering an informational webinar this coming Thursday. To lightly mirror the course, it’s an interactive space - so I do encourage you to come and participate in person. That said, it is recorded.

As you may know, the first few people who sign up get the HUGE BONUS of choosing the date/time of our class sessions. In an era where scheduling is one of the hardest things to figure out, this is something I am really happy to be able to offer you. So if you already know this is tugging you: let me know ASAP!

To reMember often includes some form of paying tribute.

To whom and in what ways?

To reMember is to bring the body-mind-soul together again.

To resemble what kind of body, what kind of mind... in whose image are we seeking remembrance?

I started using the term reMembering in part because I realized that "re-storying" and "re-narrating" our origin stories (a process at once mythological, politicial, economic, ecological, spiritual, personal, and collective) just wasn't right. Yes we need "narrative change." We need to "change the story" we tell ourselves about who we are. But those phrases often miss  how much stories live in bodies and bodies live in ecologies and institutions (which also have bodies) and societies and dreams and prayers and songs (which have a different kind of energetic body).

I needed a word that could evoke the body. Not only the human body, but the ecological-human-spirit body, both differentiated and connected.

Spirit cannot be captured in anything - certainly not in paragraphs or theological texts. It moves. It moves with song and wailing and keening. With desire. Longing for the oneness. And the differentiation. For the possibility of life continuing. For encountering and dwelling with the Beloved.

When I first started teaching the ReMembering Course,  I came to understand (that's why we teach right? to keep learning) there are at least two kinds of ReMembering. I've since distinguished a few others, but I'll focus on these two.

1) The essential spiritual remembering that is at the heart of every faith tradition/spiritual tradition, though expressed in very different ways. Most of those different ways - chanting, bowing, prostation, trance, collective prayer, songs-that-lead-to-trance-like experiences, sitting in deep silence, watching ones breath, dances-that-lead-to-trance - most of these ways are now recognized as embodied practices that can help people move out of trauma. Different faith traditions say it in different ways, but it tends to be at the heart.

In Christianity, it is Jesus' command to his disciples: eat this bread, my body, in remembrance of me. drink this wine, my blood, in remembrance of me. Flesh. Food. Blood. Wine. Water.... elements of earth coming together to bring us towards divinity. One of the elements of Islam (and happy ramadan to all who are practicing it) is to pray five times a day, because Allah recognizes that humans are very forgetful, and in order to reMember his love for us, we need to interrupt our daily life and submit ourselves into prayer.

ReMember: you come from the stars. You come from the center of the earth. You come from Love. You are loved. You: Precious beyond measure (really, its ok if you stop measuring yourself to see how tiny or how great you might be in comparison to others!).

You: little drop of water in this great big ocean: reMember  yourself (so small) into yourSelf (so magnificent).

In this first dynamic, I felt most eco-spirituality/ecotheology/animistic (including a lot of people journeying with plants and vision quests and somatic-spiritual yoking practices) and many other teachings were finding ways of weaving ecology back into the human-god relationship, however that is constituted.

2) The remembrance of the wound. Of what happened to lead us to this place of dis-memberment. Of not just any separation, but this particular form of separation that is embedded in the domination code. The same code that has led to this particular elitism/narcissm that is quickly dismantling some of the critical elements of democracy.

Another way of saying this, in the Christian tradition, is the question of theodicy: or, "if god so loves the world to send his only begotten son to save it then why is there still evil/sin?" or, "If the world is good, then why do good people do bad/evil/mean things?" 

Here there is some serious disagreement. And, often, a lack of substantial engagement. People rely upon simplistic stories of "where we come from," and "what's gone wrong," and, "why are we in this mess".

Most of what I saw in the field of social justice, ecological justice, academia, non-profits and social enterprises led towards silo-ization and disconnection. Everyone said community and "coming together" was important. Meanwhile they pushed forward their own issues, whatever they were, and offered often felt like superficial and band-aid solutions. In general, the attempt to get to the root of the problems wasn't deep enough. So the wounds just kept festering. 

That continues.

Then, through conversations with people who were committed to indigenous sovereignty here in the United States, I realized that the story I had learned about climate change was really missing some of the most important parts of the story, namely colonization. I realized we needed to massively (across many disciplines and sectors and countries) re-narrate our origin stories. And not just about climate change. But about land, wilderness, property systems, governing systems, race, place, waters, foodways/eating, gender relations.... even the language around "rights". And it felt like I was being given a way of doing so that created narratives that enabled a more holistic interpretation of the nature of reality. Not just narratives - but ReMembering.  Intellectual and somatic. Emotional and practical. Heart based and soul-full. ReMembering our interbeing. 

I don't think I could have seen that had I not been in a cross-cultural, specifically settler-indigenous dialogue, and if I had not been subsequently invited to take up again the promise made between my ancestors and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy: the Silver Covenant Chain of Peace, Friendship, and Respect.  There's a whole story there that is not for this email, but let's just say that it entails both of these forms of ReMembering.  

Part of what we need to reMember is the origins of democracy has indigenous roots. We need to reconnect to those stories as part of the larger cycle of understanding and separating ourselves from and protecting ourselves from the Domination Code that is tearing further asunder what's been passing for democracy.

As I kept teaching, it quickly became clear that most people need to strengthen their own spirit-heart muscles, as well as their understanding of what actually happened. I don't want to say one more than the other because it's really particular for each person. Most of us tend to be weak on what we might think of as "inner peace", "self-forgiveness", and "compassion towards our own people."  

So it became clear that to remember the wound in a way that wasn't just some form of self-flagellation (thus making it worse) was to actively engage in the practice of cleaning it. That is both an individual and a collective act. 

To clean wounds, we need water.

And that water entails the kind of spiritual practices of ReMembrance that are often part of the first suggested dimension above. Music. Ritual. breathing. Community togetherness. Experiencing pain as shared, not just asan individual. 

So the ReMembering Course aims to facilitate both. It's quite imperfect. Even so, most participants say it is a high-value course. They do what anyone does when they find something really meaningful: they try to bring it to their friends/family/fellowship/students/colleagues. Most participants call the ReMembering Course "foundational" and sometimes "transformative." I love it when people text me years after the course about how something we talked about has come up again,  in a totally new context, and they are now in a place to address x,y, or z in their life/community/work.

This is one of those rare  courses that creates ripple effects in peoples' lives for years.

This course was never designed to be just another form of analysis and diagnosis. Yes, there is substantial intellectual engagement with our histories. Most participants love the reading. And the audio, visual, videos, music, rituals, and other array of items.  

For this season, I'm leaning more into strengthening the spiritual/emotional/creative pathways that are already part of the course, because I see how much people need that now.

Both of these forms of ReMembering are life-giving. They feed one another.

The first form of ReMembering is, on some level, the more important one. I think that is why all the spiritual traditions focus on it.

And truth-telling about our history is also critical, and part of what enables us to get to the power and potential of interbeing. The ReMembering Course is more focused on the second, but it is powerful and potent because it is also engaging in and coming from the first. 

I could go on here about this... how as educational systems unravel and health systems unravel and funding for all sorts of things that I think is important lessens or becomes increasingly uncertain.... in the midst of this, understanding these histories might help whatever emerges (the many things I think you are all going to help co-create!) come together in some potent ways. 

We engage with the past because it matters for the present. And for the future.   For our relationships with one another and with ourselves. here and now. Also for the future but really for right here and right now.

Do let me know if this cohort is one you would like to participate in. Or if you would like to recommend it to someone.

Blessings on all of the many forms of ReMembering that you are practicing.