1) Everything that exists has consciousness, and is therefore a living being. All living beings are sovereign and intrinsically deserve respect.

• The land and all living beings have a voice and a right to live happily, and their well-being and desires must be considered in all decisions.

  Animism

• It is the responsibility of each individual to know their own needs and boundaries, and to advocate for those needs and boundaries as needed. This is a fundamental way that we express our sovereignty and personal power (“power-within”). It is the responsibility of everyone else to listen to this and respect the boundaries that are communicated, because this is how we respect the sovereignty of others.

  • Conflict arises when boundaries and needs clash and need to be negotiated to achieve a mutual agreement. Every instance where conflict remains unresolved creates a wedge that pushes the people involved apart. Successfully navigating conflict is essential for relationships and community to stay vibrant, and it is one of the biggest forces that causes them to grow deeper.

  • Part of our sovereignty over ourselves and our lives is our personal power (“power-within”) to choose how to act and shape our reality. We can either wield our power in a way that honors the power of others (“power-with”), or we can wield it in a way that denies the power of others by extending our power into areas that we do not have a right to (“power-over”).

    • We express “power-over” any time we choose not to honor the sovereignty of other beings to shape their own lives. Exercising “power-over” always causes harm, but as with harm itself it is sometimes necessary for life to continue and thrive. We do this every time we cut down a tree, pull a weed, or kill a plant or animal for food, which is why it should always be done consciously and never lightly, but only if we truly need to.

    • In order to express “power-with”, everyone sharing power with each other must be owning and expressing their own personal power, ideally to the fullest extent possible. This means that depending on the moment, everyone must be willing to both express leadership and step forward to take initiative, and also step back and follow the leadership of others. When some people refuse to own their power and hand it over to others (to at least some degree), leadership ends up being solely expressed by certain people and not others, inevitably creating an unequal (and “power-over”) power dynamic.

  • Showing respect for other beings doesn’t mean agreeing with everything they say or do. We can criticize an idea or behavior without criticizing or disrespecting the person themselves, because our ideas and actions are not an intrinsic part of us but can change moment to moment.

    • Another form of power is granted to us by others (often called status, or influence), and this can be either earned or unearned. Status determines how much other people listen to and respect our ideas and actions, and thus it determines how much influence we have on other people.

    • Unearned status is also called privilege (granted because of intrinsic things like skin color and gender), and while it isn’t something we choose to receive, it is important to recognize it because it creates a hierarchy of power based on things outside of people’s control. We diminish the influence of unearned status and make power dynamics more equal and fair by recognizing unearned status where it exists, and emphasizing earned status by granting people more respect and influence as a result of their actions.

      Power, Status, and Leadership

2) Everything is intrinsically connected, and everything affects everything.

• All living beings in nature are sustained by the lives of other living beings. All animals have the right to consume other living beings in order to survive, as that is in alignment with our true nature.

  • In order for the web of life to thrive, all taking of life for survival must be done in a way that minimizes suffering, and reciprocity must be maintained by giving back to the communities of living beings that are impacted by this.

• What happens to one being ultimately affects every other being in the world. In this way, all beings in the entire web of life are important for the web itself to thrive. This is why the welfare of all beings needs to be considered in every action we take.

  • Helping others also helps ourselves, and harming others also harms ourselves if it harms the whole (the greater web of life). However, sometimes harm to one being benefits the whole in a way that outweighs the harm done to the whole, because all beings eat other beings in order to survive. This consumption can either serve the greater web of life or harm it, which is why the greater good must be prioritized in every action we take, even as we also pay attention to the welfare of individuals.

The Myth of “Do No Harm”

• These connections exist across time as well as space, which is why the actions of people today have an impact on the ancestors as well as future generations. The past must be considered because of how it shapes the present, and the future must be considered because of how it is shaped by the present in turn.

  • Therefore the wider community of life includes our ancestors and our descendants (those yet to come). Because of this, their guidance and welfare must also be considered in all actions and decisions.

3) The true reality of the universe is complementary duality, which includes all things and creates the Oneness of existence. This is the Yin and Yang that makes up the Tao.

• The Oneness is not opposed to duality, but includes duality as it includes all things. The Oneness is not higher or better than duality, just as the world of spirit is not higher or better than the world of form.

  • The old paradigm is not the idea of duality itself, but rather the idea that duality is antagonistic, with the poles in opposition to each other because only one is “good”, while the other is “bad”. Rejecting duality as inherently wrong (or because it is an illusion) is itself an expression of this old paradigm.

• Stepping out of the old paradigm and living from an understanding of Oneness means accepting all polarities in duality as equally necessary and beneficial for life.

  • Any hierarchical scale (of high to low, with high being desirable and low being undesirable) is a false idea based on the old paradigm of antagonistic duality, and does not reflect the true nature of reality. Nothing that exists in nature is objectively good or bad, and nothing is inherently better or worse than anything else.

  • The only concept of better or worse that is objectively true - and not a human belief or preference - is how some things serve the thriving of life better in certain situations than others, determined solely by what is needed or not needed to serve life at any particular place and time.

4) We co-create reality as a shared experience as a collective, along with all of life. We are all in it together, and we are all impacted by everyone's creation, not just our own.

• Believing that we are the sole creator of our own reality is a comfortable belief because it makes us feel safe and all-powerful. But we fool ourselves if we insist that we have complete control over the reality we experience. That belief inevitably causes us to harm others by blaming them for their own misfortune, because that's the only way we can maintain the perception of being in control and feeling invulnerable.

  • The truth of reality is that we are never all-powerful, there are forces bigger than us in the world that we simply have to deal with, and other beings (and simply life itself) have the power to impact our lives in ways we don't get to choose. Wisdom lies in discerning what we can control, and surrendering to what we cannot.

  • The belief that we are all-powerful gods who control everything we experience is a trauma response, a coping strategy to avoid fear and helplessness. Running from our fear instead of learning to live with it is an expression of woundedness, not enlightenment. True empowerment comes from accepting our limitations, and honoring the limitations of others - not judging them or denying them.

• Believing that we are the sole creator of our own reality denies the power of others, and refuses to acknowledge how power is shared and wielded collectively. This shared wielding of power is how we maintain right relationship in co-creating reality with others, because it honors the power of others as equal to our own.

  • Believing that because we create our own reality, we have the right to impose our power on the world however we wish, causes us to deny the power of others and thus wield our power in a toxic way. We cannot share power with others if we do not accept that other people also have the power to shape the reality we collectively experience. Sharing power means having the trust and vulnerability to give other people shared decision-making authority over what we experience, acknowledging that the reality we experience is shared (to some degree) with everyone we are in relationship with.

5) There is a Divine Plan for each of us and for everything in the universe (also known as The Way), and as expressions of the Divine, our immortal souls, Authentic selves, and True Nature are in alignment with it. But because we have free will, we can choose in each moment to act in ways that align with it or turn away from it.

• This Divine Plan can be described as the desire of the Divine to know Itself in ever greater diversity and fullness of expression, and thus weaving of the web of life in a way that all beings grow and thrive. It is also seen in the expressions of archetypes (such as Mother, Child, Healer, etc) as they move through us and nature, ebbing and flowing in the appropriate time.

• This means that not everything that happens is “perfect”, or what was “meant to be”. While the Divine Plan weaves every choice we make into its ever-evolving tapestry, not every choice we make is itself in alignment with the Divine Plan. The Divine Plan responds to the reality we (all) co-create, showing us the path forward in each moment. But it doesn’t shape reality that unfolds - we do.

  • When we assume that everything created as a result of our choices is “perfect” or “meant to be”, we make it impossible for ourselves to learn, grow, and accept responsibility for how our actions shape the world. Because how can we learn from our mistakes if we refuse to admit that we made a mistake at all? How can we be held accountable for anything if we refuse to acknowledge that our actions can ever have hurtful or unacceptable consequences?

• We each have a unique destiny that is in alignment with the Divine Plan (and is an expression of it). But whether we choose to live that destiny is up to us. No one controls our actions, not even the Divine Source behind all of existence.

  • This means that while divinity has provided us with a blueprint of who we were meant to be (our Authentic self), and a unique soul’s purpose to fulfill, how much we express our authenticity or purpose is up to us. Not everything we do is authentic, and not every choice we make is in alignment with our purpose. This is why we need spirit’s help to guide us through life, to help us find The Way.

6) The soul of every person on earth chose to be here at this time, in this body, for a reason.

• Every person has a soul’s purpose to express in this life, on this earth, at this time. This soul’s purpose is meant to be our gift to the world, our contribution to divinity expressing itself ever more fully and creatively.

  • This purpose is not simply to suffer (and grow), and it is never simply to leave this earth (or the wheel of incarnation) as soon as possible. Transcendence is a goal that people can choose in their lives, but in itself it is not their soul’s purpose. We are not trapped here, or forced to be here. All souls have made a sovereign choice to be here, to serve a purpose greater than our own personal evolution and growth.

  • This does not mean that everything a person experiences in this lifetime is something they freely chose (before incarnating). While we do choose our life path and enter into agreements with other beings before birth, free will allows all beings to honor or break such agreements at any time. We all have things done to us that we do not choose, because we only have power over ourselves and our own actions.

• It is the responsibility of the wider community to recognize and honor each person’s unique gifts and purpose, and to assist each person in the living of their soul’s purpose and in offering their gifts to the world.

7) We know Truth by its resonance with our center channel, as long as we are fully aligned with the two cosmic sources of Truth: the Divine Source above and the Earth below.

• What we perceive, think, feel, and experience is our personal truth in that moment, but personal (or subjective) truth is not the same thing as cosmic (or objective) Truth.

  Personal Truth and Cosmic Truth

• Our ability to feel the Truth in any moment can be blocked by anything that keeps us from our wholeness and authenticity, such as past wounds, shadow, and ancestral patterns. We are also unable to feel the Truth accurately when we are ungrounded, because then our center channel won’t be calibrated to resonate with cosmic Truth.

  • These blocks are part of our personal truth in the moment, and therefore shouldn’t be denied but rather seen and worked with. However, the truth they present to us is not objective Truth, but rather a filter that skews our perception of that Truth (causing cosmic Truth and our personal truth to not be in alignment). Therefore the only way to feel Truth is to be fully present emotionally (not reliving the past), and connected to our authentic, divine nature.

  • Humans have three primary intuitive centers that allow us to perceive the Truth of things with our intuition, located in the head, the heart, and the belly. These connect us with our inner wisdom centers of the Mind, the Heart, and the Body, respectively. When we are ungrounded, these intuitive centers are no longer in alignment with the Earth and divinity (cosmic sources of Truth), causing our intuition to no longer reliably point us to the Truth.

• Only beliefs that are in alignment with cosmic Truth ultimately serve life, so it always serves life to discard beliefs and ideas that are not in this alignment, in favor of those that are.

  • Our beliefs shape reality because they dictate how we choose to act in the world, regardless of whether we are conscious of them or not. All beliefs lead to specific manifestations based on their internal logic, so if we want to manifest things that serve the web of life, we need to believe in things that will lead to that manifestation.

  • When two beliefs that we hold are in disagreement, the oldest belief will always win out when it comes to which we choose to act on, because it is more solidly entrenched. In order to truly reprogram our belief systems, we can’t just input new beliefs but also need to consciously dismantle and discard the old ones they are replacing.

8) Everything that is innate to being human, (such as our emotions, sexual drive, need to eat, etc) is part of our True Nature. And nothing that is part of our True Nature should ever be rejected if we are to be healthy and whole.

• Our True Nature is given to us by the Earth, who dreamt our species (and all species on this planet) into being. Our True Nature is every bit as essential to who we are meant to be as our Divinity and unique Authenticity.

• We are not innately sinful or flawed in any way. Any beliefs that cause us to reject parts of our True Nature (such as certain emotions that we physically evolved to feel) are ultimately unhealthy for us, and for all of life.

  • Any rejection of our essential True Nature (or Authenticity or Divinity) causes wounding within us, because this rejection is the process that creates shadow. And creating shadow not only harms us, but harms everyone because it causes us to manifest toxic shadow behaviors in the world - usually in ways we can’t even see (because of how shadow is by nature out of our conscious awareness).

  • Our True Nature limits us (as long as we are in a human body), but only in the sense that it helps define who we truly are. It is simply what it means to be human, and as long as we are in human form, is not something to be “transcended” or “overcome”.

9) Staying in right relationship with ourselves and other beings, the community, the land, and the spirit world, requires maintaining a balanced exchange of energy.

• If matter is energy, and energy is never lost in the Universe but just changes form, then it follows that the universe is a closed ecosystem of energy. This means that the supply of energy in the universe is not infinite, because energy is never truly gained or lost, but simply moves from one place to another.

  • The most obvious example of this is the ecosystem of this planet, where the amount of water and air are finite, and do not come in and out of existence but rather move around from one place to another.

• Because energy doesn’t come from nowhere, for a closed ecosystem to thrive, energy needs to be replaced when it is taken. In other words, energy cannot only flow in one direction, but needs to flow in a circle, where each point on the circle both receives energy and gives it away.

  • This implies that reciprocity is essential for life to thrive. Consumption always needs to be balanced by returning energy back to the ecosystem, so the cycle of life can continue indefinitely. Endless consumption is cancerous and inevitably kills everything.

  • Similarly in community, as with any particular energetic system, a balanced flow of energy between members, and between members and the overall community, is necessary for the community to thrive. In order to maintain a balanced flow of energy, community members must have an awareness of the flow of energy, and be willing to make adjustments in the flow of energetic resources as needed to maintain balance.

• Abundance is the inevitable result of a healthy and robust flow of energy throughout the universe. Anywhere that flow is stifled or blocked will see energy resources diminish, creating scarcity.

  • Believing that we live in an abundant universe doesn’t mean that energy and resources are infinite. Rather, this abundance mindset comes from trusting in the flow of energy throughout the system, and focusing on giving back (of our own energetic resources) at least as much as we focus on acquiring energy (adding to our stores of energetic resources).

    How We Create Abundance

• Energy takes many different forms, such as time, money, emotional support, etc, and people don't need to contribute energy to relationships in the same ways. The flow of energy can wax and wane, but over time a dynamic balance of energy between people needs to be maintained for those people to remain in right relationship with each other.

  • A dynamic balance of energy also needs to be maintained between people and the community, for those people to stay in right relationship with the community. However a person chooses to contribute, the contribution of energy needs to come equally (over time) from all people in a healthy community. And the flow of energy from the community to each individual needs to be equally distributed (over time) as well.

    Reciprocity and Equal Energy Exchange

10) Staying in right relationship with ourselves and others requires respecting our own sovereignty and boundaries, and the sovereignty and boundaries of others.

• Each person has free will, which is the power to choose the path of their own life, and the actions they take in each moment. Honoring our own sovereignty and the sovereignty of others means respecting each person’s power to choose, which includes the power to determine their own experience and react emotionally in their own way.

  • Sovereignty is intrinsically connected with ego (defined as our personal identity and sense of self), because the “I” of the ego is the sovereign that reigns over the life of each person. Fully expressing our own sovereignty requires a healthy (ie. balanced) ego, because only a healthy ego that fully steps into the role of sovereign can fully use our power to exercise our free will.

• Boundaries create lines in space, energy, and time, that define where our sovereignty ends and others’ begins. They also reflect each being’s free will and personal choice around the use of their own energy, time, and resources. Therefore, respecting boundaries means not crossing these lines. Honoring our own boundaries specifically means knowing where they are in each moment, speaking up for them as needed, and being willing to renegotiate or redefine them when they clash with the boundaries of others.

  • Anger is the emotion that lets us know where our boundaries are, and when they've been crossed. When we deny or repress our anger, we impair our ability to maintain and respect healthy boundaries, and we do the same to others when we deny their anger. Anger is an integral part of conflict resolution, but it needs to be expressed in a respectful way.

    Understanding Anger

  • Shame (also called guilt) is the emotion that motivates us to care about how we impact others, and to apologize and modify our behavior when we’ve crossed a boundary or created harm. When we’re unable to feel shame without rejecting it or spiraling into it, our ability to stay in right relationship with others will inevitably be impaired. The ability to flow with shame in a healthy way is necessary to maintain healthy relationships.

    Understanding shame

  • The dance of anger and shame within us is what shapes a healthy ego, and what balances self-interest with the needs of others. We all tend to prefer one emotion over the other, and we all have wounds that challenge our ability to flow with these emotions. This is natural, and also points to where we each need to grow to be healthy humans in the world.

    The Dance of Anger and Shame

11) Being a true adult means no longer living life just for oneself, but choosing to take shared responsibility for the welfare of the wider community of life.

• This means choosing to notice your impact (your wake), and doing what is necessary to stay in right relationship with all other beings.

  • Being in right relationship means caring about how others perceive one’s impact to be, and choosing to adjust one’s behavior and make up for any harm or violation caused by our actions (even unintentionally). What matters is the effect of our actions on the world, not the intentions behind our actions.

  • Freedom must always be balanced with responsibility, and with the understanding that there are always limits to our freedom. Our sovereignty and free will end where other people’s boundaries begin, and relating to others as equals means respecting their boundaries, even when they limit our own freedom.

    Balancing Freedom with Limitation

• This also means choosing to notice the flow of energy between people and throughout the community, and seeking to give back as much energy as you receive.

  • This means noticing and giving back without needing to be told to do so. Children naturally seek to take as much as they can and do as little work as possible, because that’s the logic of focusing solely on oneself. Adults choose to do work that is needed and only take what they need (and have a right to), because that is the logic of focusing on the greater good as well as oneself.

• Being a true adult in the world means living a life of service to humanity and all of life, and not living one's life solely for one's own enjoyment.

  • An essential part of being a spiritual adult is living one's life for something greater than oneself. In other words, being of service to the community, future generations, and the greater web of life. We live a life of service by finding a vision to manifest that offers our gifts to the world. This vision can be raising kids, or any of countless other visions to manifest that serve the greater good, and none are better than others. The point is that we are working toward a vision that is bigger than simply enjoying life. If having fun is the only thing we care about, then we are choosing to remain a child in the archetypal sense.

    • It is natural for children to focus only on what is fun and enjoyable. Only adults understand that work is equally as important as play, for life to unfold in the best way possible. Children exist solely in the moment, whereas adults know to also plan for the future. Understanding cause and effect, and how we need to do some not-fun things in order to enjoy life in the future, is a key part of what it means to be an adult. Focusing all our time and energy solely on what we want to be doing in the moment, rather than on what needs doing regardless of how we feel about it, is archetypally acting as a child.

    • Living a life of service includes taking good care of ourselves, our personal belongings, and the environment around us. This is an essential way of honoring the gifts we’ve been given, including the gift of our beautiful bodies. When we neglect basic cleanliness, hygiene, etc, we are disrespecting these gifts and taking them for granted, just like a child who would rather go out and play. Adults know that it is important to do the work of cleaning and maintenance, even though it isn’t always fun.

12) Healing one’s childhood wounds is necessary for a person to become a true adult, and being a true adult is necessary to live in community in a good way.

• Being a true adult means no longer living life as a child, feeling entitled to mothering and fathering from other people, and instead taking responsibility for ensuring that one’s needs are met, with the support of Mother Earth and Father Sky.

  • Humans at all stages of life need certain things from other people, such as emotional support, physical affection, and having one's gifts be seen and appreciated. The difference between children and adults is who is responsible for ensuring that these needs are met. Only children have a right to expect others to take responsibility for meeting their needs. We nurture ourselves by knowing what our needs are and doing what it takes to ensure they are met. We protect ourselves by knowing what our boundaries are and doing what it takes to ensure they are respected.

  • If we continuously feel that we aren't receiving enough love, attention, validation, and safety from other people, this is the expression of our wounded child. Meeting those needs within ourselves by providing those things for ourselves must always come first, because that is the only way we can heal our wounded child within.

• It is ultimately the responsibility of every adult to heal their wounds from childhood, so their wounded inner child is no longer dictating their responses to life.

  • Navigating life from a wounded place means that we will inevitably end up focusing on our own needs to the exclusion of everyone else. And when we relive childhood wounding, we are not responding accurately to the present moment, but projecting our unmet needs from childhood onto the current situation. This makes it impossible to be a healthy community member, and to be a true adult in the world.

  • Because we truly did not get our needs met when we were wounded in childhood, when those wounds are projected onto the present moment, we feel like a victim because we truly were victims when we were children (in the sense of not being responsible for what happened to us). So if we perpetually experience life through the lens of a wounded child, we constantly feel like a victim, and fail to recognize the power and agency that we truly have now that we are adults. The only way to truly step into our power is to heal our childhood wounds so that we no longer relive them over and over.

  • Childhood trauma inevitably creates unhealthy patterns of behavior, that helped us in the past to cope and survive, but also get in the way of our ability to express our authentic selves. As long as we continue to express our coping strategies from childhood, instead of doing the work of healing so that we can step out of those patterns, we are choosing to remain a child in the world. True adulthood requires recognizing that those coping strategies no longer serve us as adults, and choosing to let them go and engage with the painful wounds behind them.