Thanks, River. I'm relatively new to Plotkin's work, but my partner incorporates many of his practices, all of which seem quite helpful. I'm with you in that there's quite a lot of discussion about living in a time between worlds, but effective strategies for movement building are comparatively sparse.
Marshall McLuhan liked to call his body of work 'applied Joyce.' Perhaps we need something like an applied integralism.
I think we need multiple frameworks - not in some kind of new, exhaustive meta synthesis of meta syntheses - but a constellation of practices. I'm presuming that you're being playfully serious about Plotkin, but I'll throw a few more suggestions into the mix.
I greatly appreciate AnaLouise Keating, who is bringing forward Gloria Anzaldua's work as a path for social transformation (see 'Transformation Now!'). Keating has an article about spiritual imagination and social transformation in the forthcoming Mutations anthology...
Daniel Christian Wahl's Designing Regenerative Cultures is necessary reading.
Nora Bateson's 'Warm Data' has been transformative for many of my students. I highly recommend ComBining, her latest work.
Debashish Banerji's Seven Quartets of Becoming is a brilliant Deleuzean take on Aurobindo's integral yoga.
adrienne marie brown's Emergent Strategy remains brilliant.
And to be self-indulgent, when I actually finish my next book, I'll also be able to suggest Fragments as a kind of 'applied Gebser.'
Appreciate your writing, River. Great to connect with you here.
I don’t disagree about proliferation of mini-truth bombs desensitizing us to the overwhelming soul loss position we are in right now. Plotkin’s Soul Initiation is not a finger pointing at the moon; it’s a full aerospace soul retrieval of our birthright.
But Plotkin’s game is a very long game. I don’t sense he has hope any of our current generations will even recognize the depth of the problem, to say nothing of making the change necessary to begin turn things around.
Bill Plotkin’s vision is a clear, long term plan. But requires a radical revisioning of conceptual frameworks. These are simple, yes. But very far from easy. & they require much more than podcasts, panels & courses. They require us to change our lives. Not many of us are ready for that. Perhaps we can continue to influence radical change agents who will not be conditioned by capital & attention, who will require us to become desert fathers & mothers to receive the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Until then, we all need to keep trying to change the lives of those who are resonating with our (& Plotkin’s) message.
So I agree that finding one systematic approach is eventually required to leverage the individual metabolic restructuring to begin to create the space necessary for a collective resonance that can shift the Field.
I can commit to Plotkin’s path, if you are. But what’s next?
And you two connecting here is a sign of sorts for me personally. It’s a sign or endowing of my own process of weaving together the longest standing waves in my ocean body with being a “thing”, so to speak.
What I mean is, I’ve been feeling an irresistible pull to extend my aliveness toward this vision marrying Plotkin, Gebser, and mythic/somatic/poetic wayfarers & bushwhackers like yourself, over the past few years.
The particular vertical I’ve been exploring around the notion of Soul-in-Relation — enSouling, ecoSoul individually, relationally, collectively, rooted in Plotkin’s work. And rhizomatically tied to Hillman, Ibn Arabi, others. But what I want to delve into Gebser’s views on Soul, (which you alluded to in the Integral reality weekend.)
I agree with the premise of this post, and liked the simplicity of these lines: “But time is short, and energy isn’t infinite. Energy doesn’t become power until it’s turned towards the Work.”
For what it’s worth that describes where Perspectiva is now after about seven years of gestation. Our antidebate methodology is one of the early fruits of that focus.
However, it’s curious that as someone in this space for some years I had never even heard of Bill Plotkin! It’s also curious that you felt it was so obvious to the reader who this was and what they thought that it didn’t seem necessary to spell it out. That’s not a random criticism. I share it because it’s indicative that ‘the space’, ‘the field’, may not be as cohesive as you imagine. That might mean we need to focus on one thing to cohere as you indicate, but I’m not sure; it might mean something else.
A couple of years ago I wrote a series of posts about this kind of challenge called “Now that you’ve found the others what are you going to do?”. No doubt it would have been written differently if I had read Bill Plotkin!
I plan to read Soulcraft now that I see the options, mostly because I like the title, but if there’s a better place to start please let me know?
I read Soulcraft back in the aughts and was impressed with how many different streams Plotkin was able to weave together in one coherent framework.
But your post left me wondering, *why* Plotkin, out of all the other authors and teachers out there? I take it that it wasn't the intent of this particular post to explain, but I'd be curious to read your thoughts in a future essay.
Loving the way this post feels like a finely distilled, crystal clear tincture drop.
Down for Team Plotkin. Might be worth telling people where to start with his work?
There's a need for people who can translate Plotkins work to the everyday human. This was a great piece to read!
Thanks, River. I'm relatively new to Plotkin's work, but my partner incorporates many of his practices, all of which seem quite helpful. I'm with you in that there's quite a lot of discussion about living in a time between worlds, but effective strategies for movement building are comparatively sparse.
Marshall McLuhan liked to call his body of work 'applied Joyce.' Perhaps we need something like an applied integralism.
I think we need multiple frameworks - not in some kind of new, exhaustive meta synthesis of meta syntheses - but a constellation of practices. I'm presuming that you're being playfully serious about Plotkin, but I'll throw a few more suggestions into the mix.
I greatly appreciate AnaLouise Keating, who is bringing forward Gloria Anzaldua's work as a path for social transformation (see 'Transformation Now!'). Keating has an article about spiritual imagination and social transformation in the forthcoming Mutations anthology...
Daniel Christian Wahl's Designing Regenerative Cultures is necessary reading.
Nora Bateson's 'Warm Data' has been transformative for many of my students. I highly recommend ComBining, her latest work.
Debashish Banerji's Seven Quartets of Becoming is a brilliant Deleuzean take on Aurobindo's integral yoga.
adrienne marie brown's Emergent Strategy remains brilliant.
And to be self-indulgent, when I actually finish my next book, I'll also be able to suggest Fragments as a kind of 'applied Gebser.'
Appreciate your writing, River. Great to connect with you here.
Hey, thanks for the suggestions man, I've had a couple of these on my shelf for awhile, I think I'll dive in
I don’t disagree about proliferation of mini-truth bombs desensitizing us to the overwhelming soul loss position we are in right now. Plotkin’s Soul Initiation is not a finger pointing at the moon; it’s a full aerospace soul retrieval of our birthright.
But Plotkin’s game is a very long game. I don’t sense he has hope any of our current generations will even recognize the depth of the problem, to say nothing of making the change necessary to begin turn things around.
Bill Plotkin’s vision is a clear, long term plan. But requires a radical revisioning of conceptual frameworks. These are simple, yes. But very far from easy. & they require much more than podcasts, panels & courses. They require us to change our lives. Not many of us are ready for that. Perhaps we can continue to influence radical change agents who will not be conditioned by capital & attention, who will require us to become desert fathers & mothers to receive the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Until then, we all need to keep trying to change the lives of those who are resonating with our (& Plotkin’s) message.
So I agree that finding one systematic approach is eventually required to leverage the individual metabolic restructuring to begin to create the space necessary for a collective resonance that can shift the Field.
I can commit to Plotkin’s path, if you are. But what’s next?
Down for Team Plotkin. Might be worth telling people where to start with his work?
Lovely to stumble upon this bit of thread...
River, I’ve been following your Substack.
And you two connecting here is a sign of sorts for me personally. It’s a sign or endowing of my own process of weaving together the longest standing waves in my ocean body with being a “thing”, so to speak.
What I mean is, I’ve been feeling an irresistible pull to extend my aliveness toward this vision marrying Plotkin, Gebser, and mythic/somatic/poetic wayfarers & bushwhackers like yourself, over the past few years.
The particular vertical I’ve been exploring around the notion of Soul-in-Relation — enSouling, ecoSoul individually, relationally, collectively, rooted in Plotkin’s work. And rhizomatically tied to Hillman, Ibn Arabi, others. But what I want to delve into Gebser’s views on Soul, (which you alluded to in the Integral reality weekend.)
I agree with the premise of this post, and liked the simplicity of these lines: “But time is short, and energy isn’t infinite. Energy doesn’t become power until it’s turned towards the Work.”
For what it’s worth that describes where Perspectiva is now after about seven years of gestation. Our antidebate methodology is one of the early fruits of that focus.
However, it’s curious that as someone in this space for some years I had never even heard of Bill Plotkin! It’s also curious that you felt it was so obvious to the reader who this was and what they thought that it didn’t seem necessary to spell it out. That’s not a random criticism. I share it because it’s indicative that ‘the space’, ‘the field’, may not be as cohesive as you imagine. That might mean we need to focus on one thing to cohere as you indicate, but I’m not sure; it might mean something else.
A couple of years ago I wrote a series of posts about this kind of challenge called “Now that you’ve found the others what are you going to do?”. No doubt it would have been written differently if I had read Bill Plotkin!
I plan to read Soulcraft now that I see the options, mostly because I like the title, but if there’s a better place to start please let me know?
I read Soulcraft back in the aughts and was impressed with how many different streams Plotkin was able to weave together in one coherent framework.
But your post left me wondering, *why* Plotkin, out of all the other authors and teachers out there? I take it that it wasn't the intent of this particular post to explain, but I'd be curious to read your thoughts in a future essay.
I love the clarity and quiet fierceness of this post. Yes, it is Plotkin. Thank you again for the reminder.