Connecting with Our Galaxy Heart

embracing collective individuation as an antidote for despair

In my previous article, On Finding Our Others, I shared how I have formed a meta-team with five trusted friends around cultivating wisdom through difficult yet compassionate conversations. In essence, we are practicing the art of serious play. To do so, we aim for collective individuation. Previously, I only glossed over this concept; however, it is central to who we are and how we are evolving, not only within ourselves and to each other but also what we are bringing to the world as a whole.

In a recent interview, Jonathan Rowson explains this concept well. To begin:

Individuation is relatively straightforward; it’s a Jungian notion about becoming who you're meant to be. It’s a stage of life where you free yourself from society’s influences and find your own voice, leading to some degree of soul integration; it’s about truly becoming a person, in the sense Carl Rogers described.

Collective individuation takes this process a step further. It insists on linking personal individuation, which involves psychological and spiritual work, to a cultural and sociological context. Jonathan goes on to point out:

I feel that what's called for today is not everyone doing their own thing in isolation, but finding out who you are and living the life you’re meant to live in response to our historical, ecological, and cultural context. This approach is quite different from the question, "Who am I?"

Instead, it becomes, "What am I called upon to be? What is my unique opportunity here? Given my background, talents, relationships, and opportunities, what can I do that helps?" This question leads toward individuation, but it’s collective in the sense that it responds to the milieu you're part of. That’s what I mean by collective individuation. I'm trying to get people to understand their role and the landscape they are in, then play a role according to their affordances.

Forming Wisdom Exchange is my answer to this question. While I am deeply grateful for the galaxy brains occupying this liminal space, I sense it is time to welcome our galaxy heart into her fullest expression.¹ This means bringing our hearts to the matter in question and exploring the barriers to intimacy that interfere with our ability to do so. We can only do this effectively in small groups since, with every new member, the number of relationships grows rapidly, and thus the degree of intimacy goes down.

To midwife the emergence of our galaxy heart, I will be exploring how to help establish other meta-teams and then work towards connecting them. This could mean including others in my Wisdom Exchange community. I will be sharing more about this stage of the project soon. In the meantime, feel free to contact me directly if you would like to join.

While fostering small, interconnected islands of coherence is my jam, I understand it may not be yours. This is why places like Substack can be useful. Here, we readers are offered an array of projects and ideas to choose from and explore. I invite you, in doing so, to ask yourself what calls you. More importantly, what holds your attention? Chances are that what you are interested in is exactly what your affordances are. The next question is, "Can you find the courage to take that leap of faith and engage with it?"

1. While "galaxy brain" often refers to those contributing to our understanding of the world’s complexity, I am using the notion of "galaxy heart" to highlight how our interconnectedness enhances our uniqueness, which is thereby transcended and included in an ever-evolving Whole, with each of us holding a piece of its inspiration.