The unitive narrative in the EARTHwise Constitution

The Unitive Narrative in the EARTHwise Constitution

Imagine how quickly our world could heal if we started to address our worsening sustainability crisis as a unitive narrative… A narrative that connects us to larger realities of ourselves and the Cosmos, by guiding us gently to our true evolutionary potential as future humans of an emerging planetary civilization. A ‘unitive’ narrative that speaks of our maturation as a species, as children of an evolutionary process that began long ago in the womb of the Cosmos.

I am most grateful to the SDG Thought Leaders Synergy Circle of the Evolutionary Leaders Circle, for crafting the unitive narrative for supporting the conscious evolution of humanity at this critical time. Supporting every child on Earth to know and inherently experience that we live in a Universe, which (as the unitive narrative suggests) “not only exists and evolves as an entirely unified and innately sentient entity, but meaningfully and purposefully, exists TO evolve—from simplicity to complexity and diversity, and toward ever greater levels of individuated and collective self-expression, self-awareness and conscious interdependence.”

On October 22, 2022, we launched our EARTHwise Constitution for a Planetary Civilization, for co-creating thrivable worlds and futures with the wisdom of living systems. Founded on the same cosmological underpinnings as the unitive narrative, the Constitution opens with “Our promise:”

“We, as future ancestors of a planetary civilization, commit to co-creating thrivable worlds and futures with the wisdom of living systems, in partnership with life and our Earth.”

The EARTHwise Constitution and the unitive narrative call us to stand united by joining forces for healing our divided worlds, regenerating our planet, and becoming the future humans of an emerging Planetary Civilization. The EARTHwise Constitution fully endorses the unitive narrative. Furthermore, it seeks to translate the unitive narrative principles into guidelines and shared agreements for how to address the root causes of our sustainability crisis, and act as future ancestors of an emerging planetary civilization.

Both initiatives empower hope by reminding us how we can co-create love-based, rather than separation-based, systems and cultures that are regenerative and thrivable as natural outcomes of a world that works for all people and our planetary home. Starting from the premise that consciousness is fundamental. As expressed in the unitive narrative, “mind and consciousness are not something we have but rather, what we and the whole world fundamentally are.” The EARTHwise Constitution expresses this profound truth as follows in article 6.1:

“Start from the premise that consciousness is primary and foundational. Consciousness is who we all are, and not something we have or own. Dispel the illusion of separation. Life is informationally unified at all levels and scales of existence.”

The unitive narrative further mentions, “Beginning 13.8 billion years ago, not in the old paradigm story of the implied chaos of a big bang, but as a beautifully ordered and incredibly fine-tuned first moment of an ongoing ‘big breath,’ a sentient Universe emerged. As space expands from its miniscule birth and time flows from past to present to future, life embodies a profound evolutionary impulse driven, not by random occurrences and mutations, but through resonant and harmonic interplays of forces and influences that are meaningfully and coherently in-formed and guided.”

In the EARTHwise Constitution this understanding is applied and expressed, among other places, in article 3, which offers three evolutionary life principles:

1. We acknowledge how our universe exists and evolves as a single unified entity, an undividable wholeness.

○ This evolutionary principle helps us understand life as a unified reality, whereby energy-matter and space-time are complementary informational expressions of consciousness.

2. We acknowledge how our universe evolves coherently and through increasing embodied complexity, making life possible precisely because of the relational dynamics it embodies and fosters.

○This evolutionary principle shows us how to embody complexity and foster evolutionarily coherence in ‘right relationship’ with life and each other.

3. We acknowledge how our universe actualizes its cosmological potentials by creating the systemic conditions for deepening self aware consciousness, and the capacities for exploring and actualizing our potential.

○This evolutionary principle reminds us how to develop our capacities as a self actualizing process of consciousness, through autonomy and balance, and by honoring the systemic conditions that enable this.

The unitive narrative completes with a potent reminder: “To paraphrase philosopher Teilhard de Chardin: Someday, we shall harness the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, humanity will have discovered fire. That someday is here and now. As we wake up to the radical reality of a unitive narrative, we will also discover as a species – and perhaps for the first time – who we really and truly are and who we can evolve to become.”

In the EARTHwise Constitution this is expressed in article 6.13, for becoming Earth wise, which means to become wise like Gaia:

“We are each born with the potential to grow and evolve. Our actions and behaviors make the difference as to whether we do, or not. When we realize how we too are nature, as living systems of the Earth, we discover the ways and keys for becoming the future humans of a planetary civilization. We then become Earth wise.

Dream the higher possibility of our future becoming. See yourself as a future human of our evolutionary next step; a planetary conscious and maturing species.

Explore how a sentient universe would express itself as a conscious and mature human species. How life would express itself as a human civilization in transformation.”

Finally, I’d like to complete this article by sharing an overview of the thirteen Living Systems Protocols of article 6 of the EARTHwise Constitution, which summarize in many ways the foundational principles that the unitive narrative is based on. To learn more about the EARTHwise Constitution, visit: https://www.earthwisecentre.org/constitution