The vital role of true community in personal growth (transcript)

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Episode Transcript:

Lian (00:00)

You've probably heard of the iconic words of Timothy Leary when he talks about finding the others. Well, in this episode, Be Mythical co -founder Jonathan Wilkinson and I dive deep into exploring what was meant by the others. What's the role of the others or what we might describe as true community for those of us on the path of the soul?

in service of our own individuation and union. How can we find the others? How will we know our role in relationship with the others? These are all questions that we journeyed deep with and did what we could in the time that we had to answer in this episode. And I'll say now that if you are feeling any call into a true community of the others,

You will love our community, our academy, our mystery school, UNIO. You can find out all about it at bemythical.com/UNIO now. So I'm dropping that in so you can come back to it when you finish listening to this episode and you are ready to find the others. Let's dive in.

Lian (01:17)

Hello, Jonathan. Welcome back once again to the show.

Jonathan Wilkinson (01:23)

Why hello there, Lian. It is wonderful to be back once again.

Lian (01:29)

Yes, and we are now, I think this is our third show together in 2024, I believe. And so they are, as we keep saying, we're going to start doing this more regularly. And I believe we are keeping our word. We are indeed doing them much more regularly.

Jonathan Wilkinson (01:46)

We are indeed. Yes.

Lian (01:50)

So we were just talking about this beautiful topic of community, kinship, finding the others, as Timothy Leary said. And for me, it brought to mind that very quote that find the others is taken from. And it feels to me like that's a really beautiful place. If we start with those words.

and see what they evoke. Because I think there's a lot in them, a lot of depth, a lot of invitation into relating to ourselves that aligns with, I believe, what we're going to talk about today. So, shall I begin there?

Jonathan Wilkinson (02:33)

Let's do it.

Lian (02:36)

Okay.

Admit it, you aren't like them. You're not even close. You may occasionally dress yourself up as one of them, watch the same mindless television shows as they do, maybe even eat the same fast food sometimes. But it seems that the more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider watching the normal people as they go about their automatic existences. For every time you say club passwords like, have a nice day and...

Weather's awful today, huh? You yearn inside to say forbidden things like, tell me something that makes you cry. What do you think deja vu is for? Face it, you even want to talk to that girl in the elevator. But what if that girl in the elevator and the boarding man who walks past your cubicle at work are thinking the same thing? Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on a conversation with a stranger? Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle.

Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others.

And again, that's a very evocative quote by Timothy Leary. What does that, what's that saying to you? What does that, what's that bring up for you?

Jonathan Wilkinson (04:05)

says a lot. What I was feeling was...

the I was just feeling that the how that's been the case pretty much since the dawn of time for us humans who are relational beings and it has been a challenge for for us in many ways since the dawn of time but then we're just really appreciating the context of particularly when it's talking to someone walking past in the office in the cubicle and asking those questions and just really again being brought to how alien.

this whole experience of life we currently have in this new world. And when Timothy Leary wrote that, that was some years ago, you know, things have only really, let's face it, got more intense, got even more sped up, even more disconnected, even more confusion that is there. And so I just was really struck by this very ancient rite of passage.

which is to find our kin, to find our soul family, to find ourselves, to find our way in this life and to come together in community, in this beautiful alchemical mix that is what so much of what we've come here for has been birthed from. And yeah, again, in this new world, what we are so...

we can be so cut off from. And so, yeah, those were certainly the feelings that it evoked for me. What about yourself?

Lian (05:50)

Can I just ask, at the beginning there you said something like, this is me paraphrasing, almost like this is the age old challenge or problem you said, something along those lines at the beginning. And I was curious because I think it could be seen that this is only a modern day problem.

As in, you know, when we look at much more ancient ways of life or ancient ways of being in community, to a large extent we were born, you know, we look back in those times, you're like, my goodness, to be born in a true community, you know, where you never need to go looking, your community's right there. And yet...

I would love to know what was coming up for you and you're saying like, this is an age old problem. Like, why is it if we were up until, you know, very modern times, really, we were born into a community? What did you mean by that?

Jonathan Wilkinson (06:46)

I think there's a few layers for that, but probably the most prominent one was that even within, let's say an indigenous life way, an indigenous tribe, even within that tribe, as beautiful as synergistic, as symbiotic, as much of that would represent a true synarchy of a community, there are still, we're still in relationship to people within that. We're still trying to find those

that are, let's say, more deeply aligned with us from moment to moment. It was more just appreciating, let's say, the times of war, the one thing, you know, which we know is virtually always been present. There's been war, there's been conflict, even within the tribes, outside of the tribes, there's been just so many unfoldings that we are called to try and find ourself or discern between what's aligned for us. And it's that level of,

discernment, which clearly has got more challenging over the years, but I could still, I was still kind of transported and feeling into even in the most, even in those age old settings, there were still these energetics playing out to some extent, just nowhere near to the extent of what they are now.

Lian (08:06)

Hmm, yes, that makes sense. And what I will answer your question in a moment in terms of what it evokes for me, but what's just come up for me as we're journeying into this is of course, true community.

is one of all kinds of beings. It's certainly, you know, with other humans, but it's also going to be with all kinds of other beings, elements, spirits, whatever you want to name them. And I think probably I'd love to.

Check in with you if you agree. I think primarily in this episode, we're going to focus on those human relationships within community, albeit recognizing this is happening in that wider context of a community of like many kinds of beings. Would you agree?

So coming back to your question, what did that evoke for me? The part that really actually is only as I go back to it, it's like moving me to tears. You know, those questions that he gives as an example, you know, what is deja vu for? They are the questions that...

questions like those, maybe not that exact one, but probably that exact one, that I feel like a, you know, when we were talking in an episode or go about those kind of like tells of an old soul, those for me, like that kind of conversation, those kinds of questions that we're journeying with that feel so important, so important, those for me are,

things that I spent my life journeying with largely alone. And for me that that is like that thing that really has been so enlivening, powerful, connecting and serving on my journey to find a community of people who are asking those kind of questions.

who are interested in those conversations. That's what really, and as I was, because he obviously brings it so to life, this idea that you're kind of like at your work, you know, there's even that notion of the word cubicle. We don't really use that so much as far as I have known in the UK, but we know what it means. And I'm transported back to my old life, my old work in a corporate setting, where it would be like the word he uses is forbidden, completely forbidden to go to a co -worker like what's deja vu for? And yet that's the juxtaposition, isn't it? Like, you know, this idea of community in our modern culture is like people who just happen to live in the same town or just happen to be the people who you work with.

And I think when we recognise the kinds of conversations, the kind of questions, the kinds of endeavours, the kinds of quests that we're on, and the people that we can be in those things with, that is the community we're talking about. That's what he means when he says, find the others, is the people that we can connect with there.

Jonathan Wilkinson (11:36)

Yeah, the people where we can what I can really feel when you're saying that is where we can find the depth of what our soul is deeply aching and longing for because the picture that's really presented there is that shallow and hollow and very much surface layer superficial existence, really that kinking and contorting oneself into whatever the shape or form.

that we feel we need to be in. And then there's just that in those pockets of time and also being in the corporate world and feeling that, that ache and that just sheer resistance in my body, in my mind to where I find myself and that just deep longing for to feel, to feel something that's true, to feel something that's deep, to feel something that helps me remember who I am and why I'm here. It's those real evoking energies that, are those deep calls that I can really, really feel in that and in what you were sharing. And again, I'm sure anyone listening who works in the corporate world, I mean, hey, businesses are different, but the majority, I think, will somewhat painfully be intimately familiar with that.

Lian (12:56)

Absolutely. There's so much. I feel like I could dive in there, but I want to take it somewhere else. Just the notion of depth versus those kind of club -cut passwords. I think particularly being an autistic person and as you know, my life's work Jinky is all about depth.

It's sometimes called the well, wisdom well, depth. This is the idea of like this bottomless well. And so that juxtaposition between depth versus like me, that real struggle to know the club passwords, to say the club passwords in the way that they're meant to be said, that elicit the right response for that password. There's just so much I could probably spend a whole episode in that. But I'm going to pull myself out because one of the things that I find particularly interesting for those of us that are on that conscious path of what we might call it, individuation, union.

You know, coming home to our own selves and to God, those of us that are on that path, the form, our relationships and our community are going to take what we need, what we're going to, what's going to be aligned for us absolutely shifts and change and perhaps has a different purpose as we go deeper on that path.

And I think given, you know, that's the work we do. That's really the broader context of even while we're having this conversation. I think it'd be really interesting to talk specifically about the role of community, but also the role of community at different stages, perhaps along that path. And I'm appreciating it's not like we've had a pre -agreed, you know, it's not like we've defined these, this is very much in the moment, just everyone listening. We haven't agreed before these stages are. But I'd love to hear your, your sense on that.

Jonathan Wilkinson (15:09)

Yeah, what I, and just to say, yeah, that's very much our intention to just kind of show up in this space and see what wants to come through and also help with the consistency. And yeah, what I felt was what I got a vision of was almost like a hockey stick moment in terms of growth, you know, that where having been someone who's spent many decades deeply in this journey, it was when I really found my kin.

It's when I really found my people and was able to integrate myself into this, the alchemy, the absolute potency of the magic, the life force energy that comes in that unification that things took off. And it's not like there wasn't huge growth in many areas that was doing on my own before, but it was only when I experienced that, that things really shifted. And that is something that we see time and time again in everyone we work with and just so many people we bump into and meet that when they, they really find their kin, they find their soul family, they find their community, both in terms of to receive from, but also to give from in service, that beautiful symbiotic relationship, their whole being embodied just comes alive and comes home.

And it's a journey. It's not like that's an instant thing. You know, of course, coming into community then provides all the wonderful material for liberation that triggers their hell out of their shadows. And, but that's it. It's like, you are just suddenly in that crucible in that melting pot that only really can come from such an energetic coming together. And yeah, it really does.

Lian (16:47)

Hehehehehe

Jonathan Wilkinson (17:06)

Yeah, it is kind of just strap up. I'm feeling like in that rocket for many, not all, I must say, everyone has their own journey, but it gets intense in a lot of beautiful ways and challenging ways, but really it's what we're here for. It is that perfection. And yeah, I can really, really feel that in what you were sharing.

Lian (17:24)

Mmm.

Yeah, you use the word alchemy and there's something so...

I keep going to say a word and thinking that that's not it, that's not it, because it's kind of all of those words. I'm just going to use the word powerful for the moment. There is something so powerful in that conscious understanding of how we can be in community and in these relationships with all these different types of people where we're going to be projecting aspects of ourselves on them and so that we can be in that conscious, like reclaiming them, loving them back. And that's something that, again, we, I think, quite a long time ago started to really see, like, if we are going to be doing this work, our own work, but this work with other people, the most powerful way we can do that is by creating these intentional communities, these groups of people, these circles, so that can be that can provide that, you know, the very word we use, crucible, is very intentional, it is a crucible for alchemy, that is, you know, in anyone listening, if you're not aware, you know, going back to the kind of more literal meaning of alchemy, i .e. that dissolving of different materials and then bringing them back into another material, i.e. Lead to Gold, the place it happens, the container it happens in, is a crucible. So our intent, our choosing of that word crucible was to indicate, you know, that's what's happening, that very alchemy. And there is, it's not to say there is like, that is the only way, but I would say certainly what we've seen, for those of us in this modern world who are on this path.

It's almost like, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you choose? What we've seen is like one of the most accessible, powerful, beautiful, enlivening ways to allow that alchemy, which ultimately is internal. But it is again, so powerfully done in community when we get the opportunity to see really clearly like, that's that part of me that I'm projecting out. There's that part of me being projected out.

Jonathan Wilkinson (19:55)

you

Lian (19:57)

Is there something like, again, using you use the analogy of kind of like this, like rocket is like there is like that provides the rocket fuel for that, doesn't it?

Jonathan Wilkinson (20:06)

It really does. And that part you were speaking to there is one of the fundamental things of this, because sometimes you can just bring a load of people together and it could just be one hell of a mess without those real core pillars and tenants that we speak to a lot, which is honoring the sacred. You know, when you honor the sacred, you will approach it with reverence. You will hopefully approach it with sovereignty, with discernment, because that, like you were just bringing alive that energy.

Lian (20:17)

Mmm.

Mmm.

Jonathan Wilkinson (20:36)

Like without elevation, without sovereignty, because the great challenge of course we face or just about everyone faces in this modern world at least is the fact that we haven't had healthy, synergistic, symbiotic communities modeled to us. And so sometimes when people come together without the right, let's say elevation or energetics to it, invited, baked into it, should I say, it can, I mean.

It's going to get messy anyway, but without that, it's, it's going to be very challenging. So I just, yeah, I think you really kind of opened up the, the energetics there, but also, that really allows us to bring in, well, what actually allows someone to work with that material for liberation in a way that is serving for the greater good for themself, for the community, for that real classic win -win. And that, yeah, it's almost like you can have that. And then the work starts and then all of the other things come to the fore, which is, yeah, obviously is, you know, a big one.

Lian (21:41)

So I think this leads nicely to this question of…

Who is our community? Is there just one community? Do we have different communities that serve different purposes? I think that would be really helpful because again, if we, you know, for most of human history, to a large extent, our community was our community. It was kind of like we might well have different relationships, different energetics, different dynamics within a community, but to a large extent, our community was our community. Whereas here we are in this modern world.

And firstly, there very much is a much more of a requirement for us to consciously choose to create and be in community is not going to mean yes, there is going to be that kind of, to some extent, a kind of unconscious, just like here is your community that you can decide to be in or not as in again, your geographical community or the community of people you work with. But for those of us, and I guess there's a point where we do need to kind of specify, like what we're talking about here really only applies to people who do see themselves as being on the path in the great work. Otherwise, we're just going to keep coming to make those distinctions. If you are one of those people, likely you are going to need to be in that conscious choosing of the communities that you create, join, be part of and how you interact with them and it likely will be more than one. Love to hear your sense on that.

Jonathan Wilkinson (23:24)

Yeah, that's, yeah, it's just challenge after challenge really. But the next challenge, as you spoke to, is with this modern world, it's like there are, we can have many types of connections, of communities, of coming together, of souls in many shapes and forms. And that is part of the challenge that continues to dilute our awareness, dilutes our attention and creates these, continues to create these shallow and hollow experiences. And so this is where having that level of discernment over where am I actually being called to place my energy? Where am I actually prioritising? Am I actually prioritising spending more time on my phone, on social media, than actually being of service to a community? Or receiving what is aligned for me from a community? And I say that because for so many of us in this modern world, we are so swept up in these cycles of consumption and output that we're so innocently, it's so rare that we actually get to kind of pause and reflect and think, hang on, what have I just prioritised in my day?

And if we can really stand back for a moment and fully appreciate how fundamental the energy of the community is to us to let's face it, the world to earth itself and how we prioritise our actions each day in service of that. It would make a massive difference. It wouldn't make it easy because then we have to bump up against our addictions. The things that when we are living in a sped up world, the things that actually seem to soothe us. Although they do kind of continue to perpetuate the motion itself.

And so it's a real challenge because we are, and I think this is something we do come back to quite a bit, which is really important. We're not advocating going back in time and trying to completely recreate what was. We are of this time for a good reason. We chose...

Lian (25:15)

Mmm.

Jonathan Wilkinson (25:39)

I believe chose to come into this body and this world at this time to meet these challenges. And in some shape or form that is going to be embracing technology. That is going to be having a community that is potentially online as well as offline and being able to find that harmony with them. But boy, is that a, is that a challenge for us? And it is such a deeply personal journey, but just, again for me just starting there and just really seeing, okay, how have I spent my time this week? What have I prioritised? What is my intention? What is the North Star that my soul is calling me into and how have I aligned my actions with them? We'll start to help illuminate that, but yeah, it's a tricky one. It's one you and I are constantly juggling and feeling into and being humbled by consistently, aren't we?

Lian (26:37)

Absolutely. What was just coming to mind for me was the way that you very much talked about the challenges that we are in in this modern world. And this absolutely isn't to deny and dismiss those challenges or to make wrong the ways that, as you're saying, there is a place for understanding there's going to sometimes be this kind of like numbing and soothing types of behaviour that show up, you know, ultimately, we're all likely to need to work with these wounded inner children within us that, you know, whilst we're not consciously engaged in that sometimes we'll be in these kind of like soothing numbing behaviours. And that is just the nature of things.

And, again, there are kind of like different types of communities and different types of roles will play in these communities that does seem to be for most of us vital as we're on this path. And what came to mind was last night, my husband Chris and I, we were in the hot tub actually, we're just like, there's a really great place where we just like, you know, everything's off the table, you haven't got any technology, anything really around you apart from the garden. And then we sit and have these like really kind of like deep conversations that perhaps otherwise we wouldn't have. And so last night, as you know, he's starting a new job on Monday, and we were in this conversation about, you know, for him, that's another community. And so he was talking about his intentions about kind of how he's going to approach that what he wants to create. And really, again, that word, intention I think is such an important one when we are again in this, in the work, in the great work, our intention, what we're intending to create, what we intended to bring, what we intended to heal, what we intended to see, so important. Anyway, so he was in that contemplation of as he steps into this new role, into this new community, what he intends to bring to it.

And then it, It made me think of back now years ago when I was about to begin my shamanic initiation stroke training. I was stepping into a new community there. And I remember, and I'm pretty sure you and I spoke about this, having this very clear intention. This for me is me stepping into a community in a different role to one I've inhabited for a long time where I'm not going to be there as a leader or teacher and they're very much as a kind of student and peer and you know fellow journeyer with these people. And I very clearly set that intention and I remember I'd forgotten about it you know because now this is years ago and as we were in that conversation last night I was like yes I can really remember that was an intention a role that I brought to that community that allowed me to experience things that had I had a different intention or indeed no intention, likely I wouldn't have had the experiences that I had that I now look back and see, my goodness, they were so aligned, so medicinal, so just, you know, catalyzing all the things.

And they came from it being a particular kind of community, one where I was stepping in as a student and as a peer with that intention that I would journey with that community in that way. And there's of course different communities and different roles. And of course those of us as who are here as old souls to be our medicine, that is going to be something that like all the time we're going to be kind of like shape shifting, being different in different communities, different kinds of communities, like we're gonna call for different aspects of ourselves.

Jonathan Wilkinson (30:23)

Hmm.

Lian (30:48)

Anyway, I'm going to hand over to you, because I'd love to know what that evokes in you?

Jonathan Wilkinson (30:53)

Quite a lot. There's roles came up in that. But I remember that time very vividly, very well. As you know, like you said, it was a real, a real calling in for you to open and receive to and to keep as you know, that wasn't just a choice at the beginning. That was a continuation throughout that three to four year experience of, yeah, really, really opening and vulnerably revealing and receiving and that alchemy and that role or the many roles that was coming from that. I was just really appreciating the complexity in that and the challenge again, because people listening who come into communities, it can be really challenging to vulnerably show up and open and reveal ourselves to the community to be able to ask from an open -hearted way for what we deeply long for, what we need. And because what happens so much in this modern world, because those spaces and those energies aren't there, that tends to come out in a projection, in a pedestalizing of others, in a trigger and...

Lian (31:58)

Mmm.

Jonathan Wilkinson (32:16)

where the more we can just be with the truth of what we feel in our body and be able to cleanly express that and have that be received. That's, you know, pretty much some of the deepest healing there is. And yeah, there again lies, it lies a real, a real challenge of being able to keep coming back, feeling dropped, feeling what comes up for you. And that process, that cycle, eventually evolves into that material deliberation to create a set and setting that really supports all that is a true symbiotic relationship. I mean, that's ultimately that's at the heart. And when a big challenge that we face is the amount of variables we have to deal with each day. And when we come into community where those, those amount of actions get spread,

Lian (32:59)

Mmm.

Jonathan Wilkinson (33:14)

Well, what happens at the moment is we live in these, like I said, lots of, well, I'll say this is the family pocket. There's some people may live on their own. There'll be all these different, I was thinking of Chris, of how many jobs he's had and how many communities he's gone into. And then it's almost like this, this wake, like the ship at the back of him of all these kinds of other communities that are there. Like that's, unless she was a wanderer in the past.

Lian (33:32)

Hmm.

Jonathan Wilkinson (33:41)

most people would not have experienced that. And so it's almost like, yes, we're trying to approach this to create the community that we deeply long for, but we're also being with these sort of fragmented communities that are kind of still there. It's a really interesting thing to journey with, but ultimately it's calling us into what needs to die. So what is being calling to be birthed can kind of come into fruition and doesn't mean therefore everything needs to die, but it's just, that's part of…

Lian (33:52)

Hmm.

Jonathan Wilkinson (34:11)

what we've chosen to come here with. It's like, you can't maintain all those communities, even for a manifesting generator like you, Leanne, I don't think that's even possible. Certainly isn't for a projector like me. And yeah, just again, really deeply appreciating of what that's calling for us. What's that's calling out of us, how that's going to deeply serve us. And yeah, as we said, this is a topic that we're going to be coming back to to speak to, because there's lots of, really, layers to just to go deeper and much more into the how -to's, but that is, again, just what really opened up for me with the complexity of there and what we're really being called into be with and to manage in this modern world. And bless all of us for that.

Lian (34:55)

Yes, my goodness, we are unbelievably already starting to journey towards the end of this episode. And there's just so many other places we can go. So certainly, as you say, this is going to be an ongoing conversation and certainly something that we'll also be questing more deeply into in UNIO, which we'll talk a bit more about that in a moment.

But there's a couple of things that really struck me as you were talking. One is, again, coming back to likelihood is many of the people listening to this show are in some way kind of change workers, healers, coaches themselves. And so one of their roles is to be their medicine, to serve their medicine to others.

And I think the reason this is especially helpful to look at through this lens of community is that this disconnected modern way of being has us, you know, really, it's a really odd thing where we're kind of like trained to be very individualistic and yet completely unaware of individuation. We're simultaneously like, so unconsciously codependent and like interwired with everyone around us, whilst not really having any notion of like interdependence and kind of like what that entails is. So it's a really interesting kind of mixed bag that we're in. And then for those of us that are here as those change workers, because again, we've been trained into this very like individual way of being, we're thinking, okay, so I need to be this.

you know, person who creates an audience and it's kind of like all me just kind of like pushing my message onto people. And, you know, how do I market? How do I attract people? And I think there's something, and again, not at all, like demonizing that, not making it wrong, not to say even that, you know, some aspects that aren't helpful. And yet I think there's something really medicinal in itself.

To start to look at this back again, we're like, what's true for us as humans and has been true for us as humans as far back as humans go, it is that we belong together in community. And that doesn't suddenly vanish and change when it comes to us serving our medicine, us being change workers. For that to be something that is deeply serving, deeply true, deeply nourishing, that would suggest that also needs to happen within a community, not this idea of a performer and an audience. And so, you know, of course, we've got the archetype of say, for example, the shaman or the medicine man or woman that happens that that that serving of that person's medicine happens to their community with their community in this like mutually beneficial exchange of energy, of gifts, of blessings, of needs. And I think that's something really helpful for us to like recognise. If we keep looking at everything through this lens of which of course social media is like, compounding this idea of my followers, my fans. but if we can kind of like just go, hang on, this is ultimately about me and my community of fellow souls, what does that evoke? What does that elicit? What does that call for? Including, of course, again, going back to what you're saying, it doesn't mean, say, for example, that, you know, if we're in a, you know, a conscious community that we've chosen into, in which we are going back to my example of being, when I did my shamanic training, my role in that community was as a peer, as a student.

I wasn't there to serve my medicine, although of course, you know, there's a part of being our medicine where we're always our medicine. But in terms of my, the archetypal role I was playing, it wasn't for me to serve my medicine. It requires me and obviously in conjunction with you to create a different community for me to serve my medicine too. But knowing that is really helpful.

Knowing that's what's being called for, it would be completely inappropriate for me to be, for example, in my shamanic circle, trying to stuff my medicine down their throat. What's called for is to me to recognise, there is a community of people who my medicine is a match for. Who are they? What's going on for them? What's being called for between me and them in terms of that community that we are going to go create?

Jonathan Wilkinson (40:03)

Yes, there's a real pattern of people who naturally have a lot of influence. So those medicinal ones, those old souls who have a lot of influence, it's very easy for them to create connections, to create community. But what tends to happen is quite often, they rarely find themselves in a community where they are peers, where there are people that can really, really help them come alive because take nothing away from those people. And again, this is deeply personal. I'm not saying this is the case for all, but what can happen for those influential people is they have, they can be clear about what they need to serve and they can create this community and they can meet them. But it's like they're really still missing that element that you were speaking to there of having something of a peer. Now, ideally we would have one community and that one community would serve all. But in this set of fragmented communities that we find ourselves, it can be really helpful to be aware of where am I receiving here?

Because if there isn't any receiving for you in a community, chances are there's something off there. And that isn't the, that therefore means it's not a line for you to create a community in which you serve. It's just to be really important to be aware of where am I receiving from community? Where am I being met? Where's the mirror for me? Where is someone maybe calling out or inviting me? Where is someone letting me know what they sense and feel that I can't at the moment?

Lian (41:13)

Mmm.

Mmm.

Mm.

Mmm.

Jonathan Wilkinson (41:41)

Because of the speed, the rate that I am churning at, the speed that I am serving at. And, you know, I really felt that deeply within you, which is a challenge. It is a challenge for highly influential people to find a community and a space of which they don't feel like everyone's looking to them. Where actually they feel they can look to other people and be held by other people. It's a really, again, it's a...

Lian (42:02)

Mmm.

Jonathan Wilkinson (42:08)

a real challenge in this modern day and one that is really essential. And yeah, I felt that deeply in what you were sharing then with regards to that shamanic training.

Lian (42:20)

So as we move towards a close for now, what would you say about what we are kind of like in that, again, for us, it's very much this ongoing contemplation conversation between us and our community in terms of UNIO specifically.

Do you want to share some of like what's going on for us, what we're creating, what we're offering, how we're serving specifically from this lens of everything we've been talking about.

Jonathan Wilkinson (42:59)

Hmm, sure. Well, take, take this month's quest alone, which is about slowing down. And that is at the heart of everything that most people face in this modern world. Most there are clearly exceptions to that. And there are ways in which we can journey on our own. We can have these quests to slow down, but when we come together in community, there is a, a, a potentiating energy and amplifying,

energy that comes together. And we know we just didn't in three, four quests we've done already. What happens when there's a collective group going together in such a way with a shared, at least exactly, you know, I think both of us can say that we have been initiated and humbled in as powerful ways as we've ever had through creating this alchemy.

Lian (43:42)

Even for us personally!

Mmm.

Jonathan Wilkinson (43:58)

with this shared vision. Exactly.

Lian (43:58)

It's been so surprising, hasn't it? Sorry to take your track, but I think I can't emphasise enough. It's been mind blowing for us personally, embarking on the very quest we're inviting students into.

what we've ended up discovering, experiencing ourselves has been so beyond what we were anticipating. It's just been like, as you say, this year has been a roller coaster and so clearly we could kind of map the roller coaster to the quests in Junio, couldn't we? It's just been like, what on earth? I mean, that would take some time to go into examples, but even like last month, which was all around death and...

Jonathan Wilkinson (44:33)

was so camp. It's just

Lian (44:43)

and life, my goodness, like the way death very literally was showing up for both of us. And we didn't know that going in. I'm like, my goodness. Anyway, back to you. But I just wanted to say that because we're not sitting here just saying, yes, it's been, you know, a journey for us to love. Has it been a journey?

Jonathan Wilkinson (44:56)

No, not yet.

And there's that beautiful coming together of excitement and terror or fear. Like that is usually a good marker and really shows, can show that you're in the deep work. And that has certainly been the case. And the slowing down one, the quest we're in at the moment is really one of...

Lian (45:12)

You

Jonathan Wilkinson (45:32)

One of the most challenging things we all face in this modern world. And to do that on our own is just so much more challenging than to do that in community. Because if we're going to slow down again, we need to somehow let go of some things. We need to experience boredom so we can pierce that threshold to our creativity, to all these things that we don't get. And as someone, just speaking personally who has, you know, I can be very much a hermit and do lots of journeys on my own and they can be incredibly powerful, but they do not come close to what happens when we come together in community with that shared intention, that vision, and we journey together openly and vulnerably revealing with honour, with reverence, with just deep appreciation.

for what we have chosen for ourselves and how we meet each other, it changes everything. Again, that doesn't take away the being with yourself, but knowing that you have the community to bring, to come back to from your journey from that sitting out ceremony with your tree, from that vision quest, from that whatever else it may be that you've experienced, from just the excruciating pain of turning your phone off or not going on social media, whatever it is, when we can feel that collectiveness because, well, really I can just, I'll just briefly touch on this, like appreciating that as children.

We're all not narcissists. We all like experienced that it's us. And when we've not grown up in a community, we carry this forward into life. And it's so until we come into community that that can actually be realised that, shit, I've been carrying all this. I've been taking responsibility for this myself. I've been holding this burden. I've been clenched up and closed and it's in that liberation.

It's in that allowing that evidence to inform our confidence, those parts of ourselves, that safety officer, those parts that's really protected us over the years are able to suddenly start to experience something different that informs an illumination that takes us away from what was like that alchemy is just what comes up time and time again in UNIO when we journey and

There is very few, if any, alternatives that I'm aware of of that. And so, yeah, we could touch much more, but that's just for me, what comes up just thinking about our current journey with slowing down. But yeah, I'd love to know if we have a little bit of time left, what comes up for you.

Lian (48:28)

Hmm. It was, what came up was going back to the way that each of us will bring different things to a community, like different roles, different archetypes, different unique, soul paths, different medicine. and how, how we just.

is something incredible, like as well as what I was talking about earlier in terms of the way that we kind of project these parts of ourselves, these hidden parts of ourselves on people, either consciously or unconsciously, what I was also seeing, and this brings us really nicely back to where we began with the, that Timothy Leary quote, I'm just going to read that last part because this is what really just stood out to me.

It's a bit like here's what I prepared earlier, isn't it? This wasn't, I didn't plan to come back to it in this way, but it is what is arising. I'm struggling to find the window, bear with me.

So it's this part that really, really stands out to me. Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance in a conversation with a stranger. Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. No one comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others. And just a one tiny example. This month, one of the members of UNIO sent me something that just suddenly illuminated this whole part of my path that just hadn't I hadn't seen in this way before and it's given me this like gift of like these symbols are like now just like glistening illuminated in a way that if she hadn't sent me that thing I wouldn't have come across.

And then me seeing that thing has now allowed me to illuminate that for other people, which has then kind of like shown up in a different way for them. But it all came from this idea that each part, each one of us brought this other part of the puzzle. And these, I wrote a post earlier talking about how, you know, different, you know, different traditions, systems provide these like portals and lenses and mirrors, ultimately to allow us to see those symbols that are those breadcrumbs that we can find and follow on that path home to ourselves and to God and that is something that I don't think words can even express come close to the genius interweaving of each of our souls and our destiny and these like just beautiful little pieces of treasure that we can offer each other when we come together in community.

Jonathan Wilkinson (51:38)

Yes.

Lian (51:43)

So anything you would like to say in closing, of course, like absolutely anyone listening, do come join us in the UNIO to benefit from all of the things that we've been talking about here. And the link for that is bemythical .com slash UNIO. We've got a ceremony just coming up. It may even be tomorrow, depending on when this goes out, but it will be very, very soon after this comes out. And my goodness, you'd be so welcome to join us in.

community and the particular piece of puzzle that you bring. Anything you would like to say in closing as well Jonathan?

Jonathan Wilkinson (52:29)

I think it first starts with really being honest with oneself as to what it is that's missing in terms of what we're not receiving, what maybe we're not giving in service from love and to really call and guidance and spirit from your tree, from whatever that is, to for you to really open up to those moments. When you was rereading the last bit of the Timothy Leary quote then, I was struck by a talk about things that make you cry. I often go and find things deliberately that make me cry and open my heart. And yesterday was no, no difference. I,

I watched a Thai commercial and in Thailand they have just the most incredible commercials that just end up just bursting you open. And this one particular one was this young man and it showed him going about his daily life deeply, openly immersed and connected to all. Like it helped this lady with her street food car up the curb. He would give his food to the dog and you'd see these people watching him do it and they'd shake their head, you know, because they was kind of caught up in that matrix of, we're wasting their time. And it really, and he would give some money to someone who was on the streets, this mother and daughter, and it said for education and he would keep giving money and then eventually it tied it all together so beautifully where it showed what is possible from really opening to what's in front of you.

And even though right now, a lot of you may feel there is no community in front of you, there are people all around you. When you walk in the street, they're there. And just like it said, I think it said, nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts, do the unexpected, find the others. Instead of that, I'm, I, for such a, such a reason, I can't find that community or do that thing. Just meet whatever is in front of your life with as much openness and as love and as deep service as possible and that will return. And of course, there is wonderful communities like UNIO should it feel aligned to come and join us. But I just want to kind of finish on that real simple humanness, that humility, that thing that we're so sped up in this modern world that we feel so disconnected from those little moments in life are really everything when it comes to us coming home to what really matters to ourself, to love, to service, to receiving, to all of that. So yeah, a little bit more than what I was intending to say, but that's what wanted to be spoken in closing.

Lian (55:35)

Wonderful. Well, as ever, it has been a pleasure, Jonathan, to co -create with you and thank you to listeners for listening. We'll be back again, you know, hopefully in the next month or so with whatever we are going to explore together next. But for now, I think that's us complete.

Jonathan Wilkinson (55:56)

Feels complete for now. Thank you. Honour and a pleasure as always.

Lian (56:00)

I very much hope you enjoyed watching that and if you did and you're not already subscribed then do hit that bell thingy and subscribe to automatically get each fresh new episode as it's released each week. If you'd like to find out more about the work we do at Be Mythical to guide and support old souls in this new world to live their own unique myth...

Do hop along to bemythical.com and you'll find out all the ways you can join us and go deeper with us on your own mythical journey.

Lots of love for now.

See you again next week.

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