BY FERANANDA IBARRA
RADICAL PARTNERSHIP A Relationship with Self, Culture and Nature THE FIRST SPIRAL OF QUESTIONS: Diversity asks, “who is at the table?” “Who is not at the table, and what barriers do they face in order to get there?”, equality replies. Inclusion wants to know, “Has everyone’s ideas been heard?” – while justice provides – “Are ideas that are not part of the majority taken seriously?” Decolonization is curious, “who built the table and why was it built? Can we deconstruct it?”
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invite you to an “all inclusive circle”; one that honors all yet heightens those who have been disenfranchised, neglected into the shadows of society. Think of those on the edge—the indigenous, the women, the minorities. I invite you to find larger meaning and connection here. To explore radical partnership in an “Ancient Futures Café”—to co-create a new partnership for us all. You are focused, present to the room, to others, connected through the heart. Women from different walks of life and the Indigenous Grandmothers are here. They hold a container filled with their wisdom and the knowledge of ancient social technologies. Intentions have been blown in spirals into the wind, permissions have been granted, and the spirits have been called forth with their native names. The water prayer is being sung by the High Priestess, as she guides you into the river, opens the emotional space within you—and you feel united in the waters of the Great Womb of life. Men hold the sacred space from the riverbank, moving the energy
inwards and outwards to allow for the feminine to dance in all its glory. Clearing and purification take place. Your heart beats to the rhythm of the collective body of Spirit and you feel your self-presence and inner listening growing. Then it comes, the second spiral of questions: How are you perpetuating patriarchy or privilege? Where are you enacting or enabling extractive behaviors? Suddenly you are asked to get naked. To reveal your hidden behaviors and conditioning. Are you willing to dismantle the self-constructs you diligently learned? Patriarchy has stopped the free-flowing nutrients women provide. It has blocked the sacred purpose of half the population and mutilated cultures out of existence for thousands of years. Yet, perhaps the greatest damage of all is that it has prevented healthy partnerships nourished through the field of love.
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