Why I Wrote The Millionth Circle

From what I have heard and observed, I believe that many women yearn to belong to a women’s circle.

During many years of being either a member or a leader of women’s circles, I thought about circles and how they worked. The Jungian analyst-psychiatrist in me saw both psychological depth and growth, and how circles got in trouble and what kept them trustworthy. The part of me that appreciates how beauty and truth are linked saw how ritual and ceremony tapped into the imagination and were a medium for creativity and spirituality.

I wrote The Millionth Circle to inspire women to form women’s circles, and for women whose current participation in them will now be seen in this larger context. It is my contribution to accelerating a process and a movement that has already begun. It depends upon a simple hypothesis, whose mechanism has been proposed and observed, and is one that can be intuitively and immediately grasped: When a critical number of people change how they think and behave, the culture does also, and a new era begins.

If you are inspired to form a circle or deepen one, then this little book will be a boon to you, and to the circle that is formed or influenced by you. You will also be contributing to an evolutionary change in human culture- because your circle will be one more circle on the way toward “the millionth circle.”

Siegfried the Lonely Hero and Self-Made Man

A Psychological and Symbolic Understanding of Siegfried

The Ring Cycle tells of authoritarian fathers obsessed with acquiring power and the effect for three generations on sons and daughters. Adult children raised to be extensions of a parent's ambitions or needs find themselves--like Siegfried, asking "who am I?"

With his innate strength, lack of empathy and fearlessness, Siegfried personifies the lonely hero who becomes a self-made man. He awakens Brunnhilde whose punishment for disobeying Wotan was to be made helpless and unconscious.

The opera is rich with symbols and symbolic figures: the woodbird, Fafner the dragon, the dwarves Mime and his brother Alberich, the Wanderer.

Lessons from Wild Geese

It was fun for me to compare wild geese flying in "V” formation to women's circles in my book Urgent Message from Mother. Except for the shape, a circle functions as geese do. They rotate leadership -When the lead goose tires, another takes the lead position. By flying in formation, they fly 71 percent further together than one goose could fly alone. As each goose flaps its wings it creates an uplift that supports the goose flying behind it. The support of the others makes it easier to go where they want to go. They honk while in flight to encourage the lead goose to keep up the speed.

The lessons are applicable-we do go further with support of others; their thoughts, ideas, and prayers add an uplift, and our "honking" does need to be encouraging. I've ended some workshop circles where I talked about Lessons from Wild Geese in a lighthearted, playful way -I had participants be pretend geese, flapping arms as wings and honking. It's also been a delight when, from time to time, I get an email that ends with "Honk! Honk! Honk!"

Page 73-74 of Moving Toward the Millionth Circle 5WCW Energizing the Global Women's Movement