Connecting the Metaphysical Dots: Cynthia Bourgeault & Jonathan Rowson
Across every major sector, changemakers are coming to realize we will need more than just action plans and policies to stabilize our home planet and enact a vision of the world we want to become. The x-factor steadily re-emerging in these circles is a deep curiosity about the role of spirituality. And yet, in a post-modern and increasingly post-religious landscape, to whom does an activist turn to begin bridging these disciplines?
Recently, the name Jonathan Rowson appeared on our radar screen through the introduction of Wisdom student, and professional cinematographer, Katie Teague. Jonathon is a philosopher (and former chess grand master), as well as the co-founder and executive director of the London-based PERSPECTIVA, an evolutionary think tank re-uniting skillful policy making with the perennial spiritual principles from which right action stems. He is among the brightest and best of this new generation of millennial thinkers.
Together, Katie and Jonathan recently produced a short film entitled, “Living in the Metacrisis.” Cynthia was so impressed and struck by its powerful congruence with her own way of thinking, that the video became the centerpiece for the inaugural “Holding our Planet” retreat at the Garrison Institute in fall 2023.
We invite you to watch their video here:
Little did we know that Cynthia's work was also on Jonathan’s radar screen. Over the last year, he has increasingly been studying her writings as a "credible and beautiful metaphysics that transcends and includes Christianity; offering a worldview that is not Christian in a conventional sense, but not not Christian either."
Jonathan recently posted an extensive review of Cynthia's teaching on his Substack, which he has graciously given us permission to share. His commentary offers the first extended metaphysical analysis of Cynthia's work articulating how the Gebser, Gurdjieff, and Christian contemplative pieces flow together to sketch the lineaments of an entirely different kind of metaphysical reality, on whose threshold the entire world now stands trembling. In trying to encapsulate her impact, Jonathan reflects, "the only comparable theorist I know—in terms of the visionary scope, intellectual rigor, audacity, intricacy, and vitality—is Sri Aurobindo.”
"the only comparable theorist I know—in terms of the visionary scope, intellectual rigor, audacity, intricacy, and vitality—is Sri Aurobindo.”
Jonathan Rowson on Cynthia Bourgeault
His essay is not short, but we find it well worth a read. Not only for its fluid synthesis of Cynthia's teachings, but for what it says about this new generation of Wisdom seers who will take their turn at the helm as we try collectively to turn this great ship Earth around. May we, as Wisdom students, meet them there to connect the metaphysical dots.
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