Why we use circle in From the Four Directions

In From the Four Directions we have been supporting each other to become life-affirming leaders. Now more than ever, such leadership is needed world-wide. Millions of people see the precipice we are standing on, and also see the opportunity available in this moment to find another path for all humanity.

One of the founding tenets of From the Four Directions is to foster the rising of a global voice. We believe this voice emerges from intentional conversations engaged in by people everywhere leading the way. No matter what political figures are saying or doing: our conversations are equally essential. Only through hearing our voices a million strong can we discover the global voice and the global wisdom to lead ourselves into a sustainable future.

Since its beginnings, From the Four Directions has been using circle or council as a way to bring people into these conversations. You are invited to use the basic structures to start such a conversation. While every conversation has the potential to be helpful at this time, we know that conversation held in a council fashion helps elicit the depth of wisdom, insight, and mutual support most needed by participants.

A circle is not just a meeting with the chairs rearranged. It is a return to an original form of human community, as well as a leap forward to create a new form of community. Calling the circle is a declaration of readiness to link where we came from, where we are, and where we may go.

About 400,000 years ago, when humans captured the spark of fire and began to carry the embers along from site to site, a new way of being together came into their experience. They began to face each other as they made a circle around the flame. Coming together at dusk, they found shelter for the night and brought the safety of the light with them. The fire warded off predatory animals and allowed them to cook the meat and roast the roots and nuts which were the staples of their diets. With the flame, they could sustain more people, provide more food and extend the offer of safety. Something magic happened then, something dawned in the human mind: our ancestors took a great leap in building community and consciousness through conversation.

It is this leap which circle still offers us: community and consciousness through conversation. To form a circle is the choice to remove oneself from the middle, and to place something else there around which we all can gather. Every circle, from the first campfire to the United Nations, asks for this commitment: to put at the center the group’s highest purpose, and to sit on the rim focused on that purpose. Humans started here– literally facing the fire and tending the needs of the community– and here is where we return–using circle to face the burning questions of our times and tending to their solutions.

In From the Four Directions, the conversation is focused on leadership. In circle, people can explore deeply their intentions and actions as life-affirming leaders. The circle develops over time as a community of practice, a place where people can reflect, support one another, and develop both clarity and courage to be a leader who knows how to supports nourish people’s innate capacities. Our circles are intentionally diverse; we believe that leaders, men and women, from all types of organizations, of all ages, benefit greatly from thinking and learning together. When the circle is diverse, new solutions and new friendships are possible. Without such diversity, we cannot hope to heal the broken bonds that divide people everywhere.

Around the world, in their local communities, people are remembering how to have meaningful conversations with each other, to listen with respect and curiosity, and to focus their collective hearts and minds on those leadership issues that challenge and inspire them. By using this basic and very simple process, people everywhere are able to go deeply into the dilemmas and hopes of these times, and create the conditions that support them to be clear and courageous leaders on behalf of life.