Historically, a Commons was usually a piece of land shared and used by a community, such as a meadow for grazing animals. No single person owned the land, and the community as a whole—or a group within it—took responsibility for its care. The well-being of the Commons benefitted everyone, while conversely, damage to or the destruction of the Commons lessened or injured everyone. In time, the term came to mean any resource shared by a group for the benefit of the whole rather than just for the benefit of an individual.
It has become increasingly evident that all our lives are affected by the health of the Earth, and that we prosper or suffer as it prospers or suffers. For this reason, the Earth itself is now seen as our planetary Commons. All of us are being called to attend to its welfare and well-being.
Some years ago, I had an experience of being contacted by a subtle being whose work, as far as I could understand it, involved tending to and supporting all the non-physical life and subtle forces within a localized energy field that included my neighborhood. This being had made itself known to me on other occasions, but only briefly, as if to just say hello. This time, our interaction together was much deeper and more involved than before. He (for it appeared to me as a young man) reached out and blended his consciousness and energy field with my own. The effect of this was to enable me to perceive through his eyes. Like most other subtle beings I’ve experienced over the years, he had a 360° perception, seeing in all directions around him, which was disconcerting at first to my mind accustomed only to a forward-facing field of vision. There was nothing in his immediate environment of which he was not aware.
As a consequence, I found my own consciousness flooded with impressions and information which at first, I couldn’t sort out. Too much was going on all at once! However, my subtle friend did something which reduced the amount of input I was receiving—in effect, turning down the visual volume—which made it easier to see what it was he wanted me to see. What then became clear were a large number of subtle beings, all of whom were working within the energy field of which he was a custodian. A few of them I recognized as nature spirits whom I had seen before, but the majority were unknown to me. I suppose the physical analogy would be as if I were seeing all the various microorganisms within a drop of lake water or a cubic inch of soil–a multitude of species. It was a complex community of subtle organisms, all embodying and working with Light and with currents of energy manifesting as different colors.
What stood out, though—and I quickly realized that this was what my visitor wanted me to see—were the relationships existing between all these subtle beings. In addition to whatever work they were doing with the fields of life and energy within and around the various physical elements of my neighborhood environment, there were lines of Light connecting all these beings in a dynamic web of love, mutual empowerment and support. I could see that each of these different subtle organisms was drawing upon and drawing out the Light, the sacredness, within each other, weaving and adding it to the other subtle forces with which they were working.
This experience didn’t last long. Frankly, while it was exhilarating and even ecstatic to feel all the love and Light being generated, it was also exhausting trying to hold in my mind and sort through all that was happening. Once he was clear that I had seen and understood what he was showing me, he withdrew his energy field, allowing me to return to my natural state of awareness and perception. Then, making certain I was OK, he gave a blessing and disappeared.
Reflecting on this experience and on the way that these different species of subtle life connected to each other and enhanced each other to maximize the Light that was being generated, I realized that the image and word that came to mind as best describing this phenomenon was a Commons. In effect, they were treating each other as a valuable resource: a shared source of sacredness. The loving and mutually supportive relationships they had together were themselves the substance of a subtle Commons.
It can take me some time to fully digest and assimilate experiences like this. Sometimes, upon further reflection, my initial interpretations turn out to be limited or even in error. But in this case, the impression of a living subtle Commons operating within the non-physical environment around me not only remained clear and unchanging but was even reinforced by subsequent perceptions when I deliberately sought to tune into this phenomenon.
One of the ubiquitous experiences I have had for my entire life when tuning into the subtle environment has been that of love. The presence of love is everywhere around us as a fundamental connecting, unifying, blessing, and holopoietic(“wholeness-creating”) force. But this perception of a subtle Commons gave even more substance to this presence. The love wasn’t just an abstract, mystical force descending upon the earth from some higher, Sacred realm. It was a force being actively generated as a resource by the way subtle beings related to each other. They were enabling each other to be sources for sacredness, sources of love and blessing. They were seeing and tending to each other as if collectively they were a Commons.
There is no question that creating this kind of “relational Commons” can come naturally to subtle beings with their capacity to form connections and to blend energy and consciousness with each other. If this were a phenomenon only possible in the non-physical dimensions of the Earth, then seeing and knowing it would add to our knowledge of how the subtle environment functions but would have little relevance to our incarnate lives here in the physical world. But the message of my visitor that day wasn’t to say, “Look! This is what we can do!” He was saying, “You have a subtle dimension as well as a physical one, therefore this subtle Commons is for you, too. It’s not just something we can do. It’s something you can do, too. It’s something Life does!”
This subtle Commons enfolds the incarnate, physical world. It is all around us. It’s something that we can participate in. What my visitor showed me simply expands upon the emerging idea of our world as a planetary Commons we all share, extending its “Common-ness” into the subtle realms as well, making it a “Gaian Commons.”
The ecological perspective of our world affirms how all life, including human life, is interconnected and interdependent. This is a reality of our physical life, one we have been ignoring to our peril and one which we must now rediscover and to which we must adhere if we are to survive, much less thrive. But we are more than just physical beings. We are energetic fields of life, subtle beings, as well. This makes the subtle Commons as much part of our home as the ecology of the physical world.
The main difference is that we cannot help being part of the physical ecology of Earth, but we can avoid (and have been avoiding) being part of the subtle ecology as well, part of the subtle Commons. Because the latter is based on loving relationships, we can choose not to enter into such relationships. We have the privilege of experiencing a private world—a laboratory—of separated individuality. There are valuable things we can learn and capacities we can develop in such a laboratory, otherwise the incarnate physical experience would not exist. We, with the help of many formative beings, including Gaia, the World Soul, itself, are creating this physical world—or at least the human aspects of it—in order to provide specialized conditions for growth and service. But the challenge of this experiment is that we can turn our “laboratories of privacy and individuality” into fortresses of separation and isolation. Rather than supporting and empowering each other, we can choose to actively diminish and disempower each other. We can choose attitudes and behaviors that destroy our Commons rather than cherishing and enhancing them. Those attitudes and behaviors are now bringing us to the brink of catastrophe.
Understanding that this subtle Commons, based on love and mutuality, exists can provide an emphasis on fostering in our physical world the same kind of relationships. We can extend the promise and power of the subtle Commons into our lives, making our world a true Gaian Commons. We know how to do this in our own way; as a species, we have just lacked the intention and vision to do so. Hopefully, the idea of the subtle Commons will inspire us to use our innate abilities to love, to connect, and to create wholeness to bring this Commons down to earth.
This is the theme of the upcoming 2021 Lorian online Summit, Friday, October 22, to Sunday, October 24: “Co-Creating a Gaian Commons in our Sacred World.” In it, we will explore how the presence of the subtle Commons is meaningful and relevant as we engage with the future that is unfolding. The idea of a planetary Commons can give us tools for shaping that future because the life and spirit of that Commons is already within us. We ARE the Commons, for we are part of this planet, part of Gaia. It’s now a matter of acknowledging that this is so and acting accordingly.
The message of the Commons is simple: we are each a source of sacredness, a resource of love that when tapped and expressed becomes a shared field of energy that can nourish us all. We can each become a “Commoner.” In so doing, we will be better able to find the skills, the tools, the will, and the love to bless each other and our world.
May it be so!