Invitation - Councils for Peace
Hi, we’re Mike and Patricia Bell and we are part of an international group that is planning the launch of the World Foundation for the Discipline of Peace. The founders of the Foundation, WindEagle and RainbowHawk, are Elders and Keepers of a body of timeless wisdom tools and practices that have their roots in the Mayan and pre-Mayan cultures, and that teach us how to live in peace and harmony with ourselves and with each other.
We see that the opposite of war is not peace but vigilance, and that it takes more intention and energy to create peace than it does to wage war. We understand, as reflected in other spiritual traditions, the need for inner peace before we can achieve world peace.
The key aims of the Foundation are twofold: firstly to facilitate connecting the myriad individuals, groups and small organisations who are committed to making this planet a better place to live. It is hoped that this will lead to more co-creative and collaborative opportunities to make a difference. Secondly, to design and teach a curriculum based on this ancient wisdom that has a particular focus on living in peace, directed at youth and their teachers.
We have studied and taught with WindEagle and RainbowHawk for over 10 years in US, UK and Europe. One of the tools we teach and have used successfully with individuals, communities and organisations is called the Wisdom Council. This is a way of looking into a challenging issue or question from eight distinct perspectives that make up a sequence of wholeness. It is an old form of participative democracy that ensures all the voices are heard, new insights are revealed, the collective wisdom is released and breakthrough recommendations for action come forward.
We see the power of the Wisdom Council, reframed as a Council for Peace, as a way of connecting individuals, groups and organisations to enable the communal genius to emerge and to deepen the shared understanding of what’s needed for peace.
We have a dream of hundreds of Councils for Peace taking place across the country with as few as eight and as many as 500+ participants, leading to a national Council for Peace comprising representatives of the local Councils for Peace. We imagine a website that gathers and reports the recommendations of every Council, and videos on YouTube and elsewhere demonstrating the power and dedication of people’s words.
We invite you, your group or organisation to be part of a Council for Peace and to contribute to this dream. To find out more please contact us.