the dark side of circle practices -- and related themes

Winston Kinch kinch at rogers.com
Wed Aug 4 08:09:22 PDT 2004


Thanks for your response Therese.

The words "dark side" occur only in the (inherited) subject of the string,
I made no reference to them in my post. Nor did I have any intention
of imputing any "darkness" to the PeerSpirit Circle process. To the
contrary I see it as inspirited. I was responding primarily to Harrison's
question in his post of July 8: "... what is/are circle practices in the
West
or anywhere else????" and musing on the subject/question of facilitator
control and if it was germane to the string.

My post was based on my reading of the book "Calling the Circle".
I cite writings on pages 74 and 75 as an example.

On page 74, number five of six "generic circle agreements" states as
follows: "Anyone in the circle may call for silence, time out, or ritual to
reestablish focus, to recenter, or to remember the need for spiritual
guidance."

And from page 75, in the Section named "Guardian of the Circle" I excerpt
the sentence (already in italics in the text): "The Guardian has the
group's permission to interrupt and intercede in group process for the
purpose of calling the circle back to center, to task, or to respectful
practice, or suggesting a needed break." And on the same page: "The
guardian often serves as the one who carries out agreement five" and: "At
these moments, the guardian calls for silence by using the agreed-upon
signal. Everyone (in italics) falls silent, and waits for further
instruction."

I hope you will allow my interpretation of that as a potential source of
facilitator control...

Respectfully and with caring,

Winston


----- Original Message -----
From: "Therese Fitzpatrick" <theresefitz at hotmail.com>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2004 9:37 PM
Subject: Re: the dark side of circle practices -- and related themes

Regarding:  Christina Baldwin's circle methodology, Meg Wheatley's embrace
of Christina's approach and 'facilitator control'.

I participated in a From the Four Directions circle for two years.  Our
'facilitator' had been trained by Christina and Meg.  We all read both
Christina's and Meg's books.  Most of us were facilitators and OD types.

There was no facilitator control of any kind and I never got the impression
that the methodology had any intention in its design to have facilitator
control in its design.  The facilitator held space for our first meeting
and
then we quickly self managed for the next two years.  The facilitator
continued to feel responsible, I know, and she was in dialogue with
Christina.  But the facilitator exerted no control. The group actually
brought Christina to Michigan to do a circle practicum but that took place
after I had moved to Seattle.

There was no 'dark side' in any circle practice in our Four Directions
group
and I feel quite confident that we were closelyl aligned with both
Christina
and Meg.  Two of our members, Carol and Dave Schwinn are long time partners
with Meg. Carol still works for and with Meg.  I am a savvy gal and if
there
was a dark side to Christina or Meg's approach to circle, I would have
discerned it.




>From: WINSTON KINCH <kinch at rogers.com>
>Reply-To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
>To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>Subject: the dark side of circle practices -- and related themes
>Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2004 08:21:36 -0400
>
>Hi all.
>I know this is a somewhat extended string at this point (I just
returned
>from some time away and tuned in) but the "circle practices"
referred to
>early on in the discussion sound a lot like Christina Baldwin's
"Calling
>the Circle" which Meg Wheatley has supported in her recent work...
I recall
>having some concerns about the "facilitator control" aspects
of the process
>when I first read about it and wonder if that is not what is underlying
>what I have been reading in the string?
>Winston

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