An insight to help me visualize “Spiral Paths of Learning"

In early December, I had a couple of experiences that led to a vivid insight that helped me visualize the non-linear learning journey within the Conscious Leader Program. I captured these experiences in my personal journal on Dec 4:

I had a middle-of-the-night email conversation that led to an amazing clarity about how to hold and communicate the spirals of learning within the Conscious Leader Program. Nithya from India has enrolled in the Winter Cohort to take Course 4. Her assumption was that since Course 1 is being taught in the Winter Cohort, then Course 4 must be happening some months into the future. She assumed that the program involved Course 1 being taught, then Course 2, etc.  Which is, in fact, the way that most programs work.  But not the Conscious Leader Program. I have been hesitant to use words like “Course” or “Program” — especially the numbering of courses, e.g. Course 1, Course 2 — because of the implications and baggage of those terms. But I hadn’t come up with anything better, except to talk about “spirals of learning.” In Nithya’s example, somehow the words I used within the cohort description and on the web site were either not read or not understood in the way I had intended. Another prior event was likely also a factor in this new insight. Yesterday during the Opening Session of the Winter Cohort, I described that we would have Course 1 and Course 4 happening concurrently, meeting together as much as feasible, but also moving into separate break out rooms when necessary. The intention of the multi-level learning is that it supports the learning for everyone involved to be in the space where it is all happening together. Liz, who is doing another spiral of Course 1, asked if she could also get Course 4 so that she would better understand what was going on.  That stimulated an “ah-ha” for me, and I committed to sharing both Course 1 and Course 4 with all participants of the Winter Cohort. And I was struck by a “YES!” That is it, let’s swim in a space where the participants have full access to the learning that is going on around them.  This is what started the shift. After I interacted with Nithya last night, my body began to rotate in a counter-clockwise direction as I was sitting up in bed. As I “let come” what was emerging in me, I realized it was a vortex of consciousness that starts as a single point that begins to swirl around that point with whatever one is focused on and engaging with. Consciousness expands both through the infinite “orbits” within a single spherical shell and through the expansion of the sphere into an infinite set of spheres each having an infinite set of “orbits.” In the Conscious Leader journey, the expanding sphere reflects the expanding consciousness of needs, from the “I” ... to the multitudes of “YOU”s ... to the multitude of “WE”s. The expanding orbits within a sphere reflect the CONCEPTS, SOMATIC EXPERIENCES, PRACTICE, and COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT within that sphere. All of this expansion represents the intended SPIRALS of LEARNING. Then what emerged in me was a flow that resembled the sign for infinity: a counter-clockwise flow in a circle on the left flowing into a clockwise flow in the circle on the right. I realized that these two circles are the yin/yang of reality. In the Conscious Leader journey, I sensed them as FIERCE connectedness in the COUNTER-CLOCKWISE CIRCLE on the left, and GENTLE connectedness in the CLOCKWISE CIRCLE on the right. Sometimes spiraling within a circle and sometimes spiraling between circles. But always a dynamic, living flow. And the metaphor expanded from circles to spheres.  The way into this pool of consciousness is through CONNECTION. Connection to NEEDS of Life. NEEDS of human beings. Connection to the needs of the “I”, the multitude of “YOU”s and the multitude of “WE”s. Connection to our somatic experience, which is where NEEDS live, along with FEELINGS and BODY SENSATIONS. Connection to the SYSTEMIC NATURE of Life. Holding Life as Whole.  A conscious leader thrives in uncertainty, entering the space through CONNECTION. In the fullness of connection, there is an EMERGENT CLARITY that was not visible to anyone before the connection. And in that clarity is the way forward. The “work” is in creating the depth of connection. The way forward simply emerges.