Dearest Community,
Spiral Circle has been a consciousness raising bookstore for nearly fifty years. One of the central questions folks come in here looking to answer is "Who am I?" We all have multiple identities: gender, class, race, age, ability that make us who we are, this is referred to as intersectionality. However, those identities are shaped by the culture in which we are living in and the histories that our ancestors or caregivers went through. After looking at your personal matrix of identities the next level of conscious awareness is to consider the identities of the people around you. This usually starts with our friends, family & partners and extend out in wider & wider circles of awareness.
This post going to be a longer letter than usual, but I do hope you will read through to the end, because the sentiment is a critically important one right now as we watch what is unfolding in our nation.
One of the core values that Spiral Circle has adopted in our internal culture is what we call Conscious Context. On a community level, the exploration of context is this struggle between war and peace. Why is our society so divided? Where have I oppressed myself and others? Where have I or others been oppressed? How can we come up with creative solutions to integrate more peace into our lives? How can we work together for restorative and transformative justice and bring healing to such a traumatized society?
Allow me to quote from our Conscious Culture Values Framework for a moment:
"Contextual awareness is our most critical and central touchstone value, one that goes unnamed and ignored in a society which has demanded linear, one size fits all, black or white type orientation. This 2D approach, however, doesn't reveal the whole story and leads to ignorance, confusion and less than optimal outcomes. In contrast, operating in context is a cyclical, adaptive and multi-dimensional paradigm that leads to awareness and clarity with the potential to optimize outcomes in a proactive way.
When we talk about context, we are referencing a changeable confluence of elements. A composition of players (people or stakeholders), place (positionality or physical location), the climate itself (mood or actual environment) and timing (cyclical and opportunistic) are all considered. A master at contextual awareness is one part social scientist, one part social intuitive, and one part social artist who is able synthesize multiple data streams, infuse the information with their practical knowledge and then apply their intuition to be able to predict & plan for what is possible with the capacity available at a given moment.
These sage observers & navigators are able to spot & seize opportunities in perfect timing that others are simply unaware of because the are actively engaged and have the ability to proactively plan and strategize to mitigate risks and seize opportunities. They know where someone or some some situation is coming from, where they are at in a cycle and where they are likely headed next. At the same time, they know when to have patience, when to act and when to rest."
I share this with you now because I have been struck with recent whirlwind turn of events in our nation's politics that context is a central talking point of Vice President Kamala Harris. Witnessing history rapidly unfolding & what has emerged in the past 36 hours, I cannot help but notice that our VP has achieved mastery in the area of context, strategy & timing.
"You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you." – Kamala Harris
Regardless of whether you like her or agree with her politics, it's undeniable that she's mobilized a grassroots movement overnight with a strong coalition of social change activist organizations that have been on the ground doing the work for decades and have the capacity to meet this moments need. It needs to be said that this organizing is led by women, particularly black women, who have the most at stake in this election. Watching democracy loving, equality oriented people from across the spectrum seize this window of opportunity and put their all into the work of saving our democracy is a priviledge, but I know many of our patrons are not interested in watching from the sidelines.
I am proud to say that our curation at the store has intentionally been focused on books & tools that help understand identity, context, and peaceful activism in earnest and we invite you to browse our 300+ items dedicated to supporting our community through these transformative and tumultuous times if you want to take your awareness and engagement to the next level.
A Conscious Community – one with intersectional & contextual awareness – doesn't just "happen" by chance – it's worked on, together, with intention. Chonteau McElvin is our Director of Conscious Culture at Spiral Circle, and our work conspiring together with our entire team under her sage guidance to bring you a store full of products that celebrate & reflect the diversity of people in our community has been a deliberate & sometimes uncomfortable (and certainly imperfect) process as we discover our blindspots and bias along the way.
The work is worth every liberating second, though, and certainly the very least we can do as we support the evolution of our community on their own personal journey to collective liberation & joy. I'm hopeful that the beautiful world our hearts know is possible will be made manifest with all of your compassionate hearts engaged in whatever way you are called to contribute to make this a reality.
Hugs & Gratitude,
Julie Wilder
