Cracking the collective shell

the possible emergence of our collective Essence

Dear Ones,

Last week we explored the image of the acorn—how the shell of personality and false personality, both based in what some call the egoic operating system, must crack so that the deeper seed of Essence (our World 24 self) can take root and grow into the oak of Real I or True Self (our World 12 self).

This same image can also be applied to humanity’s collective shell of personality and false personality—what some call the wegoic operating system. For the deeper collective “Real I,” or True Self, to take root, this shell must also crack open so that the collective Body of Christ may grow toward a fuller expression.

That we are in the midst of such a process seems evident in humanity’s current circumstances. The inner structures of our collective wegoic selfhood and our prevailing structure of consciousness—what Jean Gebser called the mental structure of consciousness—along with the outer systems that have maintained their stability, are breaking apart before our eyes. As they do, we are experiencing the destabilization, disorientation, and pain that accompany such a transition.

While this structure of selfhood and consciousness is cracking open, the seed of our collective Essence must go beneath the soil and establish deep roots that allow the oak tree to grow strong enough to bear the new integral structure of consciousness that is beginning to reveal itself.

Seen in this way, what we are experiencing begins to make sense intellectually, somatically, and emotionally. We see that our minds are attempting to wade through the constant flood of information and opinions about what is taking place as well as finding ourselves at times still entrenched in old ways of thinking and interpreting the world. Our bodies register the felt sense of familiar values, systems, and institutions unraveling—structures that once provided orientation, a sense of grounding, and stability. We experience the full spectrum of human emotion—from grief, fear, anger, despair and confusion to relief, anticipation, and hope—in the midst of the many crises emerging from this waning mental structure, what many now call the metacrisis.

Yet from the perspective of the Wisdom tradition, something more paradoxical is taking place. As the collective structures that once organized and reflected our shared little “I’s,” personalities, and false selves are shaken and broken apart, they become food for what has not yet emerged. They must decompose so that the seed of our collective Being can sprout, take root, and be brought forth—strong enough to bear the intensified perception required by the emerging integral consciousness.

Gebser has suggested that this integral structure carries a new integrating capacity—one able to hold all prior structures, time, and perspectives within a dynamic living simultaneity. And Cynthia Bourgeault notes that it is our imaginal selfhood that provides the inner organ capable of bearing this new way of perceiving.

In the midst of this collective dying, our shared taproot must grow downward through these dense conditions to find the living water table of the Christic realm (World 12)—the peace that surpasses understanding and the personal, substitutionary love of Christ. From this living water, the deeper roots of Being draw nourishment.

So not only are we the acorns, we are the acorn.

We consent to the cracking of the shell so that collective personality and mental structure of consciousness may become nourishment rather than prison. We allow the taproot of our collective Essence to grow deep enough to draw from living water. We entrust ourselves to a process far more intelligent than our collective surface identity.

With love,

Heather