On April 1st I went to Volcano to meet with the 13 Grandmother's, hoping to make open hearted connections, to be inspired, and to consciously create the vision of an awakened humanity. I had a mixed experience, one which I feel we can all learn from.
I appreciated the efforts of the many elder women to create the gathering, and the energy that was required to hold that space and lead it through. I appreciated the prayers, and the intention to offer support and encouragement to the participants and to humanity. There were some women from the 13 Grandmother's who were truly humble and were in there own ways really offering us tools, or gathering them to take back to their communities in need.
I was disappointed by the way that some of the space was held, and by the manner in which some of the facilitator's communication occurred. It seemed to me that some of the grandmothers, were expressing their leadership in the form of the old paradigm, without realizing it. I wondered if they were mistakenly taking the role of being "one of The 13 Grandmother's" too seriously when they proceeded to alternately lecture and dazzle the people gathered there. The break out sessions that were, I thought, meant to create networking and initiate actions in our communities (local to global), ended up being mostly more of the same. In my experience of the group I was most passionate about, the Environment, we made a list of all the problems we were concerned about. But somehow the facilitator would not allow much in the way of moving forward with ideas, networking, resource sharing... I did not receive support when I tried several times to initiate doing these things, and told it was being done already. ?
I think there was a huge communication gap going on about the intention of the session. During the same group, another facilitator came over, interrupted me in the middle of my sharing, and started lecturing me in a way that was very critical and judgemental. She, I don't think, actually even heard what I was saying! It felt confused and hurt, because what I wanted to do was make a contribution and also to get more connected in community with others who feel the same concerns and who have similar inspirations.
I want to say that the caliber of the group of attendees was very high. Many were woman I know, and I would say most who made the effort to arrive that day, are people who are very dedicated and effective leaders in there own ways. The people who came to be with the 13 Grandmothers's did not need to be lectured, though I observed that many did seem to enjoy being dazzled.
My summary of the day was a feeling that SO MUCH MORE could have happened with the collective cooperation of the whole of us. In some subtle sense the the grandmother's, the ones who seemed to have the most authority within their own group, treated us like children, and we fell into those roles out of fear of that authority.
And habit. We look to others who we perceive as more powerful or wiser than ourselves, hoping they will save us. And the unfortunate grandmothers fell for our projection, perhaps happy for the long awaited recognition of their value.
The consciousness and love that was in that room had a lot of potential. But, in my view, it was kept sleeping by the old authority/hierarchy power plays that undercut our creativity and sever our deeper connections. Status quo maintained!
I know some people did not have this experience, and I am glad for them! But as a beautiful rock recently told me, my purpose is to see.
Sending my Love and Gratitude to all the Grandmothers, and All Our Relations!
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