By Catherine G Lucas
We feel called to different things at various poignant moments of our lives. In my personal life journey, I initially felt drawn to an academic career, which I later left behind. Following a period of profound spiritual crisis, I stepped into my soul’s deeper calling. I felt called to set up the UK Spiritual Crisis Network.
A few years later, the calling was to write my first book. I tried to ignore these nudges for a while, but after I kept finding writing utensils, such as biros and pencils, in the most unlikely of places, I eventually gave in and began writing In Case of Spiritual Emergency: Moving Successfully Through Your Awakening.
When the pandemic broke out, I was all set to step back into teaching, this time online. I also had what seemed like an innocuous idea. Was it even mine? Who knows? As I explored the parallels between the process of awakening through crisis at the personal level with what was happening at the global level, I felt the pull. It occurred to me that we needed an open letter. Both to help bring the spiritual emergence(y) community together, to speak with one voice, and to help the wider public reframe the crisis as an opportunity for the awakening of consciousness.
I reached out to some senior colleagues and we gave it the title ‘The Rebirth of People and Planet in a Time of Global Emergency’. Did I know what I was doing? Absolutely not. I had no idea how four people could draft a document like this together, nor what we were going to do with it once we’d written it. That’s the beauty of our callings – we don’t need to know how we’re going to do something. We don’t need all the pieces in place. We just need to hear the call and heed the call. The universe then steps towards us to meet us half-way and before we know it we’re co-creating with Source.
This open letter has taken on a life of its own, and yet it’s hardly begun its journey in the world. We have an Italian translation, with Arabic and Portuguese on the way. We feel deeply honoured to have as signatories, so far, organisations like ACISTE, ISEN and the Shift Network along with individuals such as Caroline Myss, Andrew Harvey and Sting. Not everyone was happy to put their name to it and gave us very helpful feedback. We incorporated as much of that as we could, as felt right to our vision.
Along the way, we decided that an accompanying UN petition would support what we’re wanting to achieve. It would create a call to action. We’re encouraging people to sign the petition, calling on the UN to declare a state of planetary emergency. Not out of fear, but out of the understanding that it is through crisis that humanity can evolve and awaken. In emergency mode we are totally focused on solving the emergency, which of course goes beyond the current pandemic to the far deeper ecological crisis. We need 100,000 signatures to the petition to be able to send it to the UN. We’re not quite there yet…
You can read the open letter HERE. You’ll find the petition at the bottom.
And next time you hear the whisper of a calling, remember, our callings come in different sizes and packages. They can be big or small, short-lived or leave a legacy long after we have lived. Be sure to listen up.
Catherine G Lucas is the author of four books on harnessing the transformational power of crisis. Many OneSpirit ministers will remember ‘In Case of Spiritual Emergency: Moving Successfully Through Your Awakening’’ as part of essential reading for their interfaith ministry training. An international speaker and teacher, this year she launched Co-Creating Our Future, including the online group programme Emergency or Emergence? From Crisis to Calling. In early 2021 she will be offering The Quantum Leader in collaboration with Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking. Find out more about Catherine’s work HERE: