the big room cic
  • the art of living
    • eldership in the community
    • authentic artist
    • screenings
  • about
    • beginnings
    • the space
      • enquire
    • ethos
    • funding
  • blog
  • gallery
  • the art of living
    • eldership in the community
    • authentic artist
    • screenings
  • about
    • beginnings
    • the space
      • enquire
    • ethos
    • funding
  • blog
  • gallery
Search

When Winning is Losing

4/2/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Written by: Hayley Stevens

Western European civilisation is built upon a win/lose game.  A game which has been exported around the world.  In truth it is the lose/lose game. In the long run we never win when we play this game – with our children, our partners, colleagues, friends, neighbours, community… and with the planet.  When one side wins, and the other loses… the winning is just the start of losing all over again. This is what history shows us.  This is what is playing out around the world right now.   


The history of humanity might fill us with pessimism and despair about our ability to change this game.   But there is evidence that it has not always been this way.  The values and beliefs that underpin this game are only 2,000-3,000 years old - a mere fraction of time that humanity has existed on this planet. That’s 26-39 generations* or 800+ generations dependent upon which calculation you use!


There is hope.


It was hope that I felt listening to Laura Shannon’s talk at a conference in Cheltenham in the summer.  It was this hope that lead me to invite her to ‘the big room' in Macclesfield.  

Picture
Laura Shannon and Kostantis Kourmardias leading the dance
​What Laura shared both in words and in her being were the guiding principles of an Indigenous European Spirituality which guided Neolithic communities of Old Europe. Principles which still survive in some communities today through sacred dance practices. These sacred dances sustain and nourish a vibrant sense of community: based on sustainability, equality, mutual support, shared leadership, creativity, love of art and peacefulness.
​
Following Laura and Kostantis’ visit, I woke with a dream about Pandora. I knew the myth. About the woman who opened a box and let all evil out into the world because of her curiosity (the parallels with the story of Eve are striking). 

​The Pandora story which has been handed down to us starts with Hesiod (circa 800BC) who tells us that Pandora was created by Zeus as a punishment for man for the deceit of Prometheus.  Zeus instructed the Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece to create a human woman with guile, beauty, charm and lies to bring all evil into the world.




Picture
Greek Vase Painting ca 475 - 425 B.C. Pandora and Epimetheus
Picturefire clay cucuteni figure c. 4050-3900 BC
But this is not the only story. Nor the earliest.  Searching further we find that Pandora literally means all-gifted and all-giving.  And that Pandora is probably Goddess Ge or Gaia which is to say Earth. 

​In Hesiod’s version this life giving deity honoured and revered for thousands of years becomes the downfall of mankind.  How and why did this change occur?  And what has been the impact?  

​Whilst these are questions which would take several volumes to address,  the impact on our communities and the planet which sustains life is bearing its bitter fruits. In playing the win/lose game with the planet…. we are discovering that we’ve really been playing the lose/lose game.
 ​


​

Notes:

  • Calculating generations: https://kk.org/thetechnium/13-generations/
  • Laura Shannon: https://laurashannon.net
  • Old Europe: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Goddesses-Marija-Gimbutas/dp/0520229150/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Marija+Gimbutas&qid=1580743549&sr=8-1
  • Hesiod: Pandora myth: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodWorksDays.html
  • Healing Pandora:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1556438397/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    These posts are written and curated by Hayley and Owen, founding members of the big room cic.

    Archives

    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    June 2020
    February 2020
    October 2019

    Categories

    All
    Anger
    Big Room
    Community Building
    Deep Democracy
    Eldership
    Eldership In The Community
    Emergence Foundation
    Followership
    Gaia
    Gary Reiss
    Goddess Ge
    Hannah Gadsby
    Immigration
    Ingrid Rose
    Launch Event
    Laura Shannon
    Leadership
    Letters
    LGBT
    Milan Bijelic
    Neurodiversity
    Opening Event
    Pandora
    Pilot Programme
    Post-war Reconciliation
    Process Oriented Psychology
    Processwork
    Rank And Power
    Seeing The Other In Us
    Sitting In The Fire

    RSS Feed

the big room cic | reg 12009089 | reg in england & wales | registered office:  wood street mill, 45 pickford street, macclesfield, cheshire, sk11 6hb
hello@thebigroom.org
designed by the big room cic © copyright  2019. all rights reserved.
privacy statement
map
  • the art of living
    • eldership in the community
    • authentic artist
    • screenings
  • about
    • beginnings
    • the space
      • enquire
    • ethos
    • funding
  • blog
  • gallery