Occupy and Art of Hosting

I was struck by the beautiful words - and the bigger picture - that Kathy pictured for us in reply to an email around the Occupy Movement and its relations with Art of Hosting. I want to harvest it here:

More than a decade ago a new movement was named, not as part of actually creating a new movement but in the making visible something that was already happening in the field, coming out of the work so many early adopters were doing with dialogic processes. The naming of it – Art of Hosting – invited the intentional inquiry into what was happening and why it was different, so that success could be replicated and grown and experimentation with processes, methodologies and frameworks could grow. It drew from World Café, Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space, Circle Practice and more.

Even before the first processes were discovered, named and articulated, and certainly before its own naming, the Art of Hosting was already in motion in the field. Over the last decade or so many people have been involved in AoH practices and the field has grown – not just the physical field of how many people have been to a training and how many are practitioners, but the energetic field which grows exponentially the more people contribute to it. We know there are a great many other routes to the same underlying patterns and the same energetic field that show up in the AoH.

All this to say, yes – those of us who can, let’s bring what we can to all the places where ordinary citizens like us are showing up because the moment has come to stand up for what we care about and are passionate about – as we realize that we are the ones we’ve been waiting for (Hopi Prophecy). AoH arose out of an energetic field, has fed and fueled the field with intentionality and practice and this field is also so much more than AoH. I feel it is this field that so many of the Occupy movements are tapping into – fed by so many sources, AoH, yoga, meditation and more – and also feeding the field. The energetic field is growing and expanding rapidly in this moment. The people may not know the processes, but in many places and spaces they are operating by them.

If we cannot bring as many practices in physical time and space as we might wish, we can, all of us, hold these movements from deep heart space, feeding the underlying energetic patterns. It is as important as the people who are able to physically show up. Strong intention. Love in the field. Preparing for what we do not yet know – what is wanting and ready to emerge in a world of greater consciousness.

There are times as I follow the Occupy movement that I almost want to hold my breath in curiosity, anticipation and even hesitation. Yet it is the collective deep breaths we all take that help fuel the field. It is an astonishing movement in its reach around the world. Who could have imagined what is happening now? What is the future that is being invited and how will we step into it? We’ve stepped off the edge and so far, the field is holding it. A deep bow to this movement in the world and all who make it possible,

Kathy

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Permalink Reply by Ria Baeck on December 14, 2011 at 8:43am

And some more practical comments on this topic:

Hi all,

The human microphone is a technique which has spread virally to every #occupy gathering in the world. There is no reason why some of AoH's more powerful patterns could not be introduced and spread too, provided they are simple enough.

There is much criticism - even scorn - from the mainstream press for the fact that the movement has no clear demands. For those of you who have not yet seen it, I strongly recommend Charle's Eisenstein's recent blog: #Occupy Wallstreet: no demand is big enough.

:-)

helen

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Good stirrings here -- thank you.

What is the simple to introduce and welcome spreading? I offer two thoughts.

First, when I think of this question, I often go to a checkin. When I'm trying to find a simple starting place that makes a difference. Just checkin. Just pause. Just have an opening circle (or whatever forms you choose). This is at the operational description. Underneath for me is that in so doing, the whole becomes more of a deliberate and felt entity. It becomes the self around which self-organization occurs. In Occupy, imagine circles of check-in -- where are you now? what is present for you this morning? The words / sharing would matter. It would also be deliberateness of activating intentional relation together.

Second, is to welcome and harvest the emergence. What is it you are seeing now? We are we seeing now? Because of our interaction and presence in "this self" what becomes seeable that wasn't there before? What becomes feelable that wasn't before? I think of this ability to notice as a core capacity of these times. To notice and share what has your attention (in the group) is to further give voice to that constellation of self. Make sense? I think of it as being in partnership with the wholeness of the world that uses intuition and impressions as language. In Occupy, imagine asking the question, what is clear for you now? This invites people leaving and working in their local needs. It also invites people staying to tend to the hearth that has become occupy.

The requirement for clear demands is a bit of a kind of question that comes from a different energy. Yup, good. Yup, helps move things along. AND, let's not forget that the gathering itself -- just to gather -- is fundamentally practical. I would say it reminds humans of that level of identity, of self. And it makes available added (exponential) learning grounded in self that is the whole.

Ah, amazing times, aren't they. Times in which viral "taking off" perhaps is expected.

To the center.

Tenneson

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One of the interesting new core practices that is emerging with the occupy movement is that of non-contradiction. This is a conversational analogue to non-violence, and I think it might be a lovely thing to build into AoH trainings. You can google that term for more, for there is a fair amount being written on it right now. The story with the German police officer is an example. (see below)

Chris

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This is a video from an Occupy Germany gathering in Berlin, in front of the Reichstag which I picked up yesterday. A police leader asks the group for their leader in order to talk to them and ask them to leave. They claim they are no congregation, just meeting accidentally and that they have no leader. They explain in a friendly manner why they repeat what he is saying, and invite him and his folks on a walk to another square and back. He then thanks for the friendly atmosphere, explains he has to consult with his colleagues for the next steps and was never seen again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCIdRiciMT8&feature=player_embedded #!

For me this is a great example of a shared purpose and shared principles of the "accidental" group, including respect for each other, trust in the process and solidarity.